To a Distant Land (1)
“Is this really the right call?”
“You agreed to it yesterday, didn’t you?”
“Well, yeah. But it looks like the knight-lord is not exactly thrilled about it.”
“…Th-that’s…”
No. It’s fine. I already knew she was going to join the party. I already knew this was fate.
“Looking forward to working with you! Uwahaha!”
Even if my ears were about to become permanently unsafe from this point on…
Kidding. Disliking her is just the concept. I myself am fine with it, so don’t get the wrong idea.
You could ask, “Weren’t you praying this whole time not to get involved with her?” And yeah, fair. But I don’t actually hate Berserk herself.
It’s more like an introvert who suddenly made an extrovert friend. Or the feeling of a dog owner who unexpectedly ends up with a beagle. Something in that ballpark.
A little exhausting, sure, but not unpleasant—you know that subtle feeling. People without friends probably wouldn’t get it.
Anyway, for those reasons, I don’t hate Berserk.
Honestly, the only reason I’m going “eek” is because I’m the one stuck dealing with her. Her personality type shows up all the time in shonen manga, so on some level I’m actually used to it.
Berserk is too long, so I’ve got enough goodwill to give her a nickname like Dev’s—Berserker. For real.
So I quietly leaned back in my chair while Berserker laughed her wahaha laugh.
I wondered why the Weapon Master wasn’t around, but figured she was handling things on her own just fine.
What actually interested me was where we were headed next. With a new party member on board, I was hoping the next stretch would be a little lighter.
We’d already taken plenty of rest during travel, and after resolving the last incident we’d rested plenty more… Still, I wanted something easy for once.
We spent two more days in the city. It was to monitor the aftermath, and in the end there was no further invasion.
Considering how many demons had been spent in the battle, it was somewhat understandable. Of course, without knowing the full power of a Great Demon, we couldn’t exactly relax either.
“I think it would be best if we departed now.”
Even so, we couldn’t stay here forever. From that angle, the Archmage’s words were welcome news to me.
“Already?”
“Hmm. That’s a shame. I wanted a proper fight with the Demon Knight!”
The spare sealing orbs had arrived by express delivery that morning, and over the past two days Berserker had been bored out of her mind, requesting duels whenever she found a spare second.
Right after the battle ended she hadn’t even mentioned the word “duel,” so I’d let myself relax. Of course that hadn’t lasted.
“Don’t you ever get tired?”
Separately, Dev—who had discovered over those two days that Berserker was surprisingly easy to deal with—was running his mouth beside her. Berserker’s eyes went round for a second, then she burst into another hearty laugh.
“Nothing in this world can tire Berserk!”
No, please get tired. I’m the one who’s exhausted.
“Please do not cause the Demon Knight too much trouble.”
“Hm? Have I been causing him trouble?”
“You have been being unreasonable.”
“Berserk? Unreasonable??”
Still, it was a relief that the Inquisitor and Dev were both reining Berserker in together.
Maybe it was because Berserker was so completely unhinged that the Inquisitor suddenly looked like a master of social graces. That was a little disorienting, frankly.
“Everyone seems to have gotten quite close.”
The Archmage, surprisingly, didn’t seem stressed at all about keeping Berserker in check.
Well, the problem was that conversation about fighting never got through to her—it wasn’t as if ordinary conversation was impossible. Factoring that in, the Archmage had it easy. I was the one soaking up all of Berserker’s aggro…
If you also counted the intensified “Are you sure you’re alright?” and “Is the sealing orb truly fine?” rushes, I was pretty sure I was suffering the most. Truly, neither side had any mercy.
“Now, now, but we shouldn’t delay too long. Would you all listen to what I have to say?”
“Has a rescue request come from another city? Seeing you speak so urgently, I wondered if there was some problem…”
“Ah, nothing of that sort. It’s just that I discovered a request whose destination and route match the place I was about to propose.”
The Archmage set the talk of the request aside for later and first brought up the destination.
“For now, I intended to propose Hudelen as our next destination.”
“Hudelen, you say.”
“Yes. It is a city one almost inevitably must pass through in order to cross into the east.”
He took out a map and pointed to where we currently were. Then his finger moved east across the map. A nearly vertical mountain range ran there.
“The places where one can cross the Karyl Mountains are limited. Of course, for a party like ours the ruggedness of the Karyl Mountains would be no issue at all, but there is no need to deliberately choose a difficult path.”
Next the Archmage lowered his finger slightly south. The city sitting roughly in the middle of the range—Hudelen—disappeared under his fingertip.
“Hence Hudelen. It sits at the point where the mountain range is thinnest, and has long been famous as a city linking east and west.”
If someone wanted to claim he had decided everything on his own and was half-forcing us into it, the reasoning was far too sound to argue with.
Forget everything else—climbing a brutal mountain range to reach the east versus just going the long way around? Easy choice.
“I understand the reason the destination is Hudelen. But this ‘request’ you mentioned…”
“An escort mission.”
“Ah.”
And there just happened to be a convoy quest heading exactly that way? Hard to pass up. It was a little unsettling, but the job here seemed finished, and if we could earn some money on the side, what reason was there to refuse?
“It seems the Gridana Merchant Guild intends to move to another city. They have largely set aside worries of further attacks, but from a merchant guild’s perspective it is a different matter.”
Since the guild had approached them first, accepting or refusing made no real difference either way, and he handed over the choice.
In theory it was transferring initiative. In practice it was a question aimed at the Inquisitor.
Berserker and I only cared if there were demons or a fight, and Dev showed zero interest in the destination or the method of travel.
“I do wonder whether it is already alright to leave, but…”
The Inquisitor still looked uneasy. Fair enough—the battle was over, yet the possibility of another invasion remained. With the walls and the city’s reconstruction incomplete, there was no telling when the Great Demon might try something again.
It was a completely different context from leaving the remaining cleanup of corruption to the locals.
“Mm.”
The Archmage seemed to understand that feeling; his expression hardened a little.
“Inquisitor, the truth is that the reason I wish to leave now is not because of the request. With the Magic Tower and the temple supporting us, we are hardly in desperate need of money. I only recommended it for the sake of varied experience.”
“Yes, I am aware of that.”
“The reason I wish to leave now is because of unease.”
He said so while looking at me. Was it because of the word “unease”? The cracked sealing orb came to mind. Was it that, and the Great Demon?
“Because a Great Demon appeared?”
“But in the end my lord won, didn’t he?”
“A Great Demon appeared??”
At their respective reactions the Archmage gave a small shake of his head.
“I did take the Great Demon into account, but it is slightly different. What I focused on most was how the Great Demon knew to come here.”
“Wouldn’t that simply be prediction?”
“It is possible. Looking at our route of progress, the intent is fairly obvious. But the fact that the date matched so precisely is strange.”
Saying so, the Archmage listed cities one after another. Cities at nearly the same longitude as Far Enoch.
“One can anticipate that we would head east. But among all these cities, precisely predicting the one we would go to is a little odd, is it not? Especially when we do not even inform the temple or the Magic Tower of our destination before we move.”
“Certainly…”
Dev, who was every bit as sharp as the Archmage when it came to information, nodded.
“But we should take into account that even if they didn’t pin down the destination clearly, they could still have collected related rumors. The Magic Tower, the temple, the Adventurer’s Guild… and lastly, we should keep in mind that they might have moles in the information guilds.”
“You are correct. But what matters right now is the fact that the demons learned we had come to this place.”
“…So you’re worried about a follow-up assault?”
“What I am worried about is not something so trivial as a follow-up assault. It is something beyond that.”
The Archmage said nothing more. So I had to guess for myself what could turn a follow-up assault into “something so trivial”… Running through elimination of what the Archmage would fear, the answer came quickly.
I was meta-certain the final boss wouldn’t step in, but for the Archmage who lacked that certainty, Satan himself was something he had to keep in mind.
“Um, I… I do not quite understand the Archmage’s words. What does the moles passing on our information have to do with us needing to leave the city?”
“…It could be a sort of trap. If they knew we would come here and prepared this assault, do you really think they would not prepare for the possibility of failure?”
“Then should we not remain here all the more? If they launch further attacks aimed at me…”
“That will not do.”
The reason he had not spoken that fear aloud was precisely this.
Satan coming here would mean a high probability of this city’s destruction—and once the Inquisitor knew that, there was no way she would withdraw.
“Inquisitor, this time as well you collapsed after overusing your holy power, did you not? If the enemy seizes on that point and divides their forces to attack repeatedly, it is dangerous.”
“Th-that may be, but I improved compared to last time. This time I did not remain unconscious the entire day. I even woke after sleeping less than the time I spent on Montata Island.”
“I know. But could you still manage that if Great Demons came in continuous succession?”
“That is…”
“The more time we give the enemy, the more dangerous it becomes. How do we know the demons on the northern front are not already moving south?”
The Archmage stroked his staff and gently coaxed the dejected Inquisitor.
“Conversely, if the Hero leaves early, they will not move either. With their objective gone, there is no reason to force a move.”
Though that raised the question of why we hadn’t left two days ago. Recovery of stamina, maybe? Fair enough—if we had left the city in that condition and run into an ambush, it would have been hell.
“Uh, um. Berserk does not really understand what everyone is talking about…”
In the meantime Berserker had been completely sunk and was draped over the desk. It was identical to the look I used to have in school when I gave up on math and sprawled out.
Well, it wasn’t as if I couldn’t understand Berserker’s position. She’d only just joined, so of course she didn’t know our circumstances well. I had a feeling she would have gotten a headache even if she’d joined earlier, though.
“The original purpose for which we came to this city has been achieved, so leaving is the correct choice. On top of that, do we not still need to find a method of defeating the Great Demon of Sloth? This time we managed to stop it through a stack of coincidences, but we still do not know how to inflict damage on that Great Demon.”
The Archmage did not give up and gently continued persuading the Inquisitor. Even those excuses were surely only the tip of the iceberg, but in the end the one who yielded was the Inquisitor.
“If that is the situation… then I am in no position to oppose. I understand. I… will follow the Archmage’s judgment. What about the rest of you?”
“Berserk hates complicated things. If we’re going, go. If we’re not, don’t.”
“I don’t care either way.”
“Then we shall depart tomorrow morning. Everyone, take note.”
If the Inquisitor had been just a little more experienced, she might have pointed out the possibility the Archmage had deliberately left unsaid… but for now it seemed too difficult.
And it wasn’t as if I could say it for her. Even if I had been in a position to speak, I would have covered it up.
“Demon Knight, come with me. We need to visit the guild, do we not?”
So I rose at the Archmage’s call.
Unlike the Archmage and Inquisitor, who were registered as a party, I was registered individually with the guild and had to form contracts separately.
Having to stop by the guild every time like this was a bit of a hassle, but putting my name on the party roster would be out of character, so I just put up with it. Since the contracts were separate, the pay was calculated separately too, so it wasn’t pure loss—and being able to step away from the group at times like this was pretty handy.
“Wait!”
Someone arrived then. We had just thrown open the inn door, so everyone was aware of the visitor’s presence.
“I came because I had something to say. Do you have a moment…?”
It was Kankan, one arm now empty.
“What is it.”
“First, sorry for coming so late at night. I, uh, I wasn’t trying to eavesdrop! I just saw you talking with the merchant guild about a request earlier… so I figured you might leave tomorrow and wanted to say goodbye before that.”
He scratched at his mane-like hair with an awkward look.
“Thank you, all of you. Especially you… I’m really grateful to you. Because of you, I was able to stop my friend.”
And finally he bowed his head. Saying thank you didn’t seem to come naturally to him—he looked about my age, so I roughly understood the feeling. Get older and even one “thank you” gets that hard. Once you push through it, it becomes easy—but the ears visible between his bowed head were red.
“Well… I didn’t really do anything.”
“No. Without you I never could have stopped that bastard. This arm alone is proof, right? Proof that I couldn’t beat him. Whereas you… you cut his throat in style.”
But if it was Kankan’s friend, that would be Muwang. Kankan and Dev had killed Muwang together? Berserk hadn’t helped?
Nobody said anything about that!
“It was only possible because you drew his attention.”
“Uwahaha, young hunters sure are full of embarrassment. Be confident, young hunter! That bastard may have abandoned being a warrior, but that didn’t make him weak. You pierced his senses and landed the attack!”
“Berserk is right. Landing a second ambush on a being you already stabbed once is never an easy feat.”
I felt betrayed. You… you… You said Berserk did everything. What is this! There’s a limit to playing coy—how can you downplay something like this!
“Anyway, thank you. Not just that friend—all of you.”
Anyway, the Inquisitor who blessed the entire wall and then acted modest about “just doing what needed to be done,” and Dev who I hadn’t expected much from in pure combat power yet took down a guy I’d pegged as a mid-boss or full boss…
Our dumplings had done their assigned jobs so well it was moving. Thinking about their ages even made my eyes a little wet. Sob.
“This is a token of thanks.”
In the meantime Kankan held out something like a bone-fragment bracelet.
Strictly speaking it hadn’t even been a request from him, and it had merely been the elimination of a traitor that occurred mid-war… but it seemed he wanted to repay the emotional debt.
“It’s nothing special, but in my hometown there’s a custom of giving something like this to a benefactor. So this is a kind of…”
“A token. Proof that a Norda warrior has acknowledged you. With Berserk accompanying us there was never much chance of Norda warriors treating us as enemies, but with this even that chance is gone!”
“Berserk is right.”
Berserker giggled and poked Dev to make him take it. Of course Kankan had brought enough for all of us, so it wasn’t as if only Dev received one.
Dev just received the most.
“Wh-why is there so much?”
“A lot of guys survived Muwang thanks to you. They’ve been itching to repay the debt, but you never showed your face… so I said I’d deliver them for them.”
“E-even so, this is way too much.”
“Just take it.”
Just as I had received a gift bundle back in Tatara, Dev likewise received a gift bundle.
Even while accepting it he kept murmuring “Should I really be taking this?” and “Other people worked harder…” gently passing the credit around—he really did not look used to situations like this.
Anyone who had earned that much merit should of course receive it, so no one stopped him.
“Here, Demon Knight. You take one too.”
“I have no need.”
“I’d especially like you to accept… so that Norda warriors don’t end up dying after stupidly treating you as an enemy.”
“……”
Well, it wasn’t as if I was going to escape it either.
At least it was a single bracelet rather than a whole gift bundle, which was something of a relief—or not really a relief at all. It wasn’t as if I was collecting medals.
I’d have preferred an honorary title; when they give items it just piles up as dead inventory.
“Then may excellent warriors find excellent struggles ahead.”
Still, I accepted it. I’d already taken everything else; adding one more at this point was nothing.
“Ugh, it’s so hot…”
We’d already said something like farewell to Kankan, and there was nothing left to do in the city.
Conversely, there were plenty of reasons to leave. So we left the city without lingering, taking the escort mission with us.
“Haha, the heat around here is rather murderous, yes.”
Even so, for an escort mission there was little actual cargo we needed to protect. The desert was the sort of land that simply had neither demons nor beasts, which made that possible.
Of course there were still gentlemen who practiced banditry even in the desert, but we didn’t run into them often, so we set that aside.
The biggest enemy here was still nature itself. For example, the sunlight and heat that hammered the skin, and the occasional sandstorm.
“Would you like some water?”
“Ah, thank you.”
Well, I didn’t suffer from the heat much, so I could manage. The problem was Dev, who suffered from it severely.
If the Archmage made ice it would help a little, but we had already enjoyed that benefit ten minutes ago.
He had to conserve mana against possible emergencies, so asking again felt wrong. As I’d said before, making ice in the desert was a fairly mana-intensive task.
“Uuuugh.”
As a result Dev had to endure the situation collapsed on top of a camel, surviving on the water that was occasionally doled out. I would have liked to take some of the heat for him, but that wasn’t possible.
“How weak.”
“You’re only holding up because of your armor…”
“Ah—no!”
Hm, ah. Speaking of armor reminded me—didn’t I still have one item left that the Sea Dragon had given me?
If that orb still had the power of water… But the kid was pretty wrecked right now, so I didn’t know if it would even work. More importantly, even if it did, handing that over too would feel like breaking character. And giving it out after we’d already finished the desert region was a little ridiculous.
Sorry, Dev. Tough it out with pure grit. You chose this path.
“Haha… Still, once we reach the Karyl Mountains in just two more days, the heat will ease a bit. Hang on a little longer.”
“Yeees.”
Fortunately the number of days we would spend in the desert was fewer than when we had come from Canaves to Far Enoch. Hearing that, Dev’s face brightened a little.
“Hwaaam. Boring. The desert is far too desolate a place.”
Meanwhile Berserker had gone limp for a different reason. She suffered from the heat at about the same level as Dev, but what was really tormenting her seemed to be the boredom.
“There’s nothing to hunt.”
If something to hunt showed up, Berserker would be delighted—but the merchant guild people would scream.
I couldn’t quite bring myself to agree, and simply watched the people laughing awkwardly. They sure had it rough.
“Is there anything interesting in Hudelen?”
“Nothing I’ve heard of. Do you know anything?”
“Not really…”
Dev weakly shook his head and pointed at the merchant guild people. The implication seemed to be that those gentlemen would be well-informed, so we should ask them.
But no particular information came from them either. Of course they were heading that way precisely because nothing special was going on.
Naturally—those people weren’t hunters. What reason would they have to go to a city full of incidents? It would only raise the odds of losing their goods, just like this time.
“Hm?”
Just then Berserker lifted her head a fraction. Her previously limp body straightened at the waist, and her eye level rose as high as the Archmage’s.
Her amber eyes began to scrutinize the path ahead in fine detail.
“…I smell a fight.”
I too stared hard at the road ahead. Just as I spotted a dust cloud near the horizon, Berserker suddenly made that declaration. The face that had been soaked in boredom gradually took on life.
“Wait, you…”
“Bandit pack ahead! They’re coming this way!”
The moment Berserker’s body stirred, the person holding the telescope shouted. The Archmage, who had been about to stop Berserker, quickly withdrew the hand he had extended.
A mage’s eyes held an expression along the lines of “How did she know that?” I agreed. It didn’t seem like her eyesight was especially good—her instincts were genuinely on the level of a beast.
“Uwahahaha! A struggle!”
“…I’m counting on you.”
Separately, no quest ever just passed us by, anyway.
The camel carrying Berserker and me broke from the group and began racing forward.