On the Road
Journey spoke in a very serious tone.
“Even if it’s orc meat, if you think about it, it’s no different from pork. It’s not like it eats bugs, and it’s not like it tastes bad, so there’s really no reason not to eat it, right?”
“I-I mean, I didn’t do it in the end...! That should be enough, shouldn’t it? Why are you holding that over my head?”
If you logged out somewhere outside a safe zone, your character would simply remain there.
Whether that was Demonins’s idea of courtesy or not, there were plenty of safe zones even in the field outside cities, and if necessary, players could create one themselves.
So even if players spent several days out in the wilderness, away from the city, they didn’t particularly feel inconvenienced.
At least, not as long as there were no NPCs around.
There were no NPCs in safe zones outside cities, and you could only create one when there were only players present.
Players talked endlessly about why Demonins had chosen such a cumbersome system.
Of all the explanations, the one that won the most support was that it had been designed to preserve realism.
Since it was still a game, they couldn’t completely throw convenience out the window, but if they allowed people to log out anywhere, it would break immersion.
So the compromise was meant to preserve both convenience and realism, while keeping players from feeling alienated from the NPCs...
The real answer is probably something only Demonins knows.
Even if you asked Demonins, the company that had built the system, they stayed stubbornly silent, so no matter how widely supported that theory was online, it still remained nothing more than speculation.
Because of the time-scaling system and all the complications tangled up with it, it was only natural that escort requests had picked up the meme labels of “the province of the unemployed” or “the privilege of the unemployed.”
In other words, Journey hadn’t avoided the orc meat by logging out and running away last night—she had simply been unable to run.
Streamers are supposed to be a little shameless.
Gotta play it smooth, huh?
The Journey who had once answered everything honestly when she first started streaming had, after enough experience, learned to handle situations like this too.
But the viewers had also matured while watching her, so...
“...Anyway, even if I switch to a light-sleep mode whenever I can and stay on watch duty, I guess being tired is still unavoidable.”
Journey, struck right where it hurt, quickly changed the subject.
“Oh, right. I used a really, really expensive capsule once before, and I immediately understood why people buy them. It wasn’t just the features—the comfort was on a whole different level.”
“I thought so too, but I guess this is what they call reverse sensory adaptation? Once you’ve experienced it, the bad parts jump right out at you. Seriously, I barely managed to stop myself from buying one on the spot.”
“Of course I can’t pay in one lump sum. Wouldn’t forty-eight months of installments work? Ice cream? Hey, buy that with your own money...!”
Yeah, it was nice.
Journey smacked her lips.
Just because something was expensive didn’t mean it was worth the price, but the capsule she had tried was definitely good enough to justify its cost.
Back then, Silia Online hadn’t existed yet, so she’d been able to crush the purchase demon that had descended upon her and ride out the impulse.
Maybe now it wouldn’t be so bad...
Now that Silia Online had been released, she spent much more time inside the capsule than she had back then.
Journey let herself sway with the rocking of the wagon, searching for reasons to buy one rather than reasons to endure.
And then, all of a sudden, a question occurred to her.
“Does Kana even sleep?”
Last night, out of consideration from the caravan, Journey had slept in the same tent as Kana, just the two of them.
It probably hadn’t been pure kindness. More like they were trying to make a good impression on both of them.
Even if it wasn’t sincere, the result was that the two of them had been able to share a large tent in comfort, so from Journey’s point of view it wasn’t a bad deal.
Which meant she had been able to see Kana sleeping...
...Except she hadn’t.
People said children slept a lot, but Kana seemed determined to prove that wrong, because she had been awake, sitting there with her knees pulled close to her chest, all the way until Journey logged out.
And when she logged back in after sleeping in her capsule in light-watch mode, Kana was already up and moving.
And she didn’t even nap in the wagon.
Being an NPC didn’t mean you didn’t sleep, so she must sleep sometime—but because Journey had never seen it for herself, the question kept nagging at her.
“You’d grow taller if you slept well, you know.”
“...”
“...Sorry.”
She had said it in Arkish, so Kana probably hadn’t understood, but she seemed to catch the gist of it anyway and shot a sharp look in Journey’s direction. Feeling oddly guilty for some reason, Journey apologized on the spot.
“Shut u—”
Journey bared her teeth at the viewers, issuing a warning through gritted teeth to the people spamming initial consonants.
Of course, it did absolutely nothing.
* * *
I watched Journey ramble to herself in silence.
The more I looked at her, the more I realized she really did talk to herself a lot.
She would laugh alone, then suddenly get angry, and when she finally seemed calm again, she would start laughing once more.
Watching her like that made me wonder if something was wrong with her.
It was the sort of thing that would have seemed odd enough to question, but the woman sharing the wagon with us—the one who had introduced herself as Katherine—didn’t react at all to Journey’s behavior.
Maybe she was used to it.
...
Or maybe...
“Kana, what are you thinking about?”
“Nothing.”
“Hmm?”
A finger carrying distinctly impure intentions.
I dodged the finger trying to poke my cheek and answered.
Come to think of it, why was she always so desperate to touch me?
Up until now, I’d let it slide because it was annoying to deal with, but I was starting to think I’d need to restore some discipline soon.
Meanwhile, the wagon we were riding in rolled smoothly toward its next destination.
Since we hadn’t run into any monsters after meeting the orc pack yesterday, the caravan had been moving at a fairly good pace.
On a map, the fastest route would have been to cross straight through the Empire, but roads weren’t always laid out so conveniently.
Mountains blocked the way, rivers cut across the land, or dense forests stood in the path...
For that reason, the caravan I was riding with was said to skirt along the northern edge of the Ro Arca Empire’s territory.
The Empire’s defense wasn’t like Korea, where borders were sealed tight; instead, they built fortresses and cities, then entrusted those areas to local lords.
It felt as though each city’s territory stitched together the border itself.
Was that what they called feudalism? I felt like that was roughly the word.
Anyway, that was why it wasn’t a problem for the caravan to cross a bit of imperial territory.
We did have to pay tolls, though.
Maybe old Europe had been like this too?
The reason I was thinking about it all of a sudden was because the caravan’s next destination was a small village in a barony of the Empire.
It had originally belonged to Grasis, but when Grasis fell, the village had supposedly been absorbed into the barony, or something like that.
I had no way of knowing something like that, since I’d spent all my time holed up in the mountains, so I’d only heard about it from someone else.
Who did I hear it from?
Who else but the Apostle whining beside me?
“There’s a flower field near that village, and people go out of their way to visit it because it’s so pretty.”
“...”
“Let’s go see it together, okay? Kana, you like flowers, don’t you? I’m sure you’ll love it.”
“...”
The premise was wrong from the start, because I didn’t like flowers.
And if the premise was wrong, then the conclusion that I would love it was naturally wrong too.
Even if the premise were wrong, it might still happen to hit the mark by chance—but unfortunately for her, this was a miss.
Since I remained lukewarm, Journey looked like she was getting anxious.
“I’ll give you something tasty if you come with me!”
“...I’m not a child.”
“...R-right. I know that. Our Kana isn’t a child. What kind of bad person called Kana a child, hmm?”
“And I’m not your Kana either.”
...That phrasing was already doomed from the beginning.
The syrupy voice trying to placate a sulking child, and the laugh hiding in the edges of her tone—how was I supposed to do anything about that?
Her warm gaze resting on me made me frown, and then I sighed.
Did she really want to see flowers that badly?
Come to think of it, almost every noble young lady I’d seen during my time with the knights had loved flowers too.
Maybe it was some instinct women had.
Whether it was because I had once been a man, or because I’d lived such a barren life that even my sense of beauty had withered, I couldn’t feel anything special about them.
To be precise, I did think they were pretty, but if I saw them on the road I’d just think, pretty, and move on. I didn’t care enough to go out of my way to see them or sit there admiring them.
Then, all at once, the image of Garid sitting in front of a flower shop, staring at the blossoms, floated into my mind.
I had never seen it, but it was easy enough to picture.
That hulking, muscular build; the long diagonal scar across his right cheek; a face that was light-years away from handsome; his short brown hair.
Garid crouching there, eyes sparkling as he gazed at the flowers, and the flower shop owner standing in front of him, looking completely at a loss.
“Pffft...”
At the thought of that scene, laughter slipped out of me before I could stop it.
Was it truly innocent laughter? Hard to say. It might have been closer to a snort.
“Huh?! Kana, you laughed? You did laugh, didn’t you?”
“...”
Journey couldn’t help herself and immediately burst into a fuss.
“I didn’t laugh.”
“Come on, you did. You’re allowed to laugh, you know—why lie?”
That was my line, honestly.
You’re allowed to laugh, so why are you making such a scene?
I looked at Journey, who was squealing while holding Katherine’s hand, with utter contempt.
After watching the two of them act like that for a while, I sighed and said, “Fine. Let’s go.”
“Huh, really?!”
Journey’s voice shot up in surprise.
She was the one who had asked, so why was she acting so shocked?
“I thought you’d keep refusing... So Kana really does like flowers, huh? Were you acting indifferent because you were embarrassed? And the whole ‘I’m not a child’ thing earlier too... Aren’t you just adorable? ...You’re going to kill me? Why?!”
“If you don’t want to go, then don’t.”
“I do want to go! Ah, I was in such a hurry I blurted that out without thinking... Ahem. No, I love it! Then it’s a promise—you’re coming to see them with me, okay?”
“Mm.”
If they looked good, I’d buy some seedlings or seeds on the way back and show them to Garid.
Garid would definitely like that.
“Ah, I think we’re almost there.”
The mood inside the caravan shifted.
Since there was no sense of urgency like yesterday, it didn’t seem like monsters had attacked this time.
Journey seemed to notice it too, because she pulled back the curtain and poked her head outside.
“Ohhh... I can see it!”
Her voice was full of excitement.
After stretching her neck to look out, Journey must have heard Katherine stifling a laugh, because she sat back down in her seat with an embarrassed face.
“You seem really excited,” Katherine said.
“Ahaha... I just really like traveling... Sorry, I got a little too worked up, didn’t I?”
“No need to apologize. It’s honestly kind of nice to watch.”
I got ready to get off the wagon.
“Getting ready” mostly meant pulling my cape down and checking my things, but still.
The wagon gradually slowed, and the rough clatter of its wheels faded away, replaced by the noisy yet peaceful atmosphere unique to a small town.
When I parted the curtain and looked out, I saw the picture-perfect shape of an ideal village.
A boy happened to meet my eyes, and his were full of curiosity and anticipation.
Sure enough, a caravan’s arrival must be a special event for a child living in a village like this.
It wasn’t the first time I’d visited a village like this, though not this one specifically, but it was the first time I’d ever seen an expression like that.
I had always traveled with the knight order, never alone, and when the knights visited a village, it meant something had happened that the local guard or the lord’s soldiers couldn’t handle.
So the faces waiting for us back then were never bright with excitement or curiosity like that boy’s—they were filled with anxiety, fear, and despair instead.
I nodded back at the child, who was waving with a broad smile, and thought to myself.
Sorry, Garid, but...
...Well, this isn’t so bad.
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