Chapter 13
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 13
Chapter Title: Towards the City
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Tae-jin and Richer woke from their sleep. It wasn't the romantic image of travel that one might typically picture.
The first thing the two felt upon waking wasn't the refreshing haze of morning sunlight creeping in, but the harsh, blazing midday rays beating down directly on them. And their faces weren't those of some fresh-faced manga protagonist, but rather an average East Asian guy and a middle-aged white dude.
Even more miserable was the fact that they hadn't even unpacked a blanket and had slept right on the bare ground. Laying one out or covering themselves would have flattened even more of the grass, increasing the chances of getting spotted.
Of course, their clothes were caked with dirt in spots here and there.
The mind tends to be a bit foggy right after waking. After some time passed and Richer came to his senses first, he spoke to Tae-jin.
"Whew, you look even more pathetic all grimy like that, ugly."
"Old man, even if I ignore everything else, that doesn't sound like something you should be saying. Seriously, I'm way better looking than you."
"That's probably why you haven't even dated yet, huh? Unlike me."
Richer proudly flashed the silver wedding band on his finger.
Tae-jin had always had a hard time believing that Richer had actually been married. The doubt bubbled up anew. Wasn't that just a friendship ring or something?
But he didn't seem like the type to lie about something like that.
"Damn, you act all high and mighty just because you got married once."
"There's a world of difference between someone who's experienced love at least once and a pure blank slate like you. Bigger than heaven and earth."
Richer had lost his wife years ago, and the way Tae-jin had learned about it was much like this very moment.
Back when he was studying magic intensely, Richer had started poking fun at Tae-jin for never having dated.
Tae-jin had shot back with something like, 'Yeah, well, you're just a lonely widower yourself, old man.' And upon hearing that, Richer had gotten a distant look in his eyes and spilled the story about his late wife.
Tae-jin had been shocked and bowed apologetically, but it had all been Richer's scheme. The old man had laid a classic 'Tallulah hook,' and Tae-jin had bitten hard.
For Richer, so much time had passed since her death that his wife was now just a beautiful memory, not a painful one.
After all, given enough time, the happiness lingers longer than the pain.
Tae-jin knew the whole story, but he still wasn't bold enough to joke about the old man's late wife.
Richer and Tae-jin chanted spells to gather the moisture around them into floating orbs in the air.
Having two mages made things convenient like this. No need to pack drinking water, so their load was light, and no hassle of casting spells on each other.
The two drank a bit from the hovering droplets and used the rest to wash their faces.
The dirty, ugly pair of men had become merely ugly men.
Finally, Tae-jin blew wind from his hand, gradually narrowing the range of the gust. It was trickier to pull off than it seemed. He had to maintain the output while shrinking the area.
A fine human air compressor, indeed. Tae-jin chuckled a bit as he dusted the dirt off himself and Richer's clothes.
And then came the time for deliberation. Yesterday, they'd been too focused on just fleeing to think ahead, but now they needed a plan for moving forward.
"Old man. What do we do?"
"How should I know? We'll have to figure it out from here. Things have gone way off the original plan. We were supposed to take it easy in a carriage."
The two hunkered down amid the bushes and began pondering. Or rather, it was hard to call it their pondering.
Tae-jin didn't have much knowledge about this world to contribute to such a serious discussion.
Tae-jin ended up blankly watching grass bugs crawl over blades of grass, while all the worrying fell to Richer.
Richer sank into silent thought before suddenly dumping out the contents of his bag.
What spilled out was just some meager rations and a few odds and ends.
Richer divided up the food roughly and spoke.
"Forget everything else—this food shortage is the real problem."
Even by eye, it didn't look promising.
"How many days will this last?"
"If we ration it carefully, about two days."
"If we ration it really carefully?"
"Then maybe four days."
"Rationing doubles the time? How tiny are you planning to eat? We're not hunkering down—we have to keep walking nonstop."
"I'll eat normal, and you starve. That'll double it exactly."
As Tae-jin glared at Richer, the old man's expression grew even more brazen.
"What? Got a problem?"
"You're saying you'll eat alone in this situation? After we suffered together last night?"
"If you're jealous, pack your own food next time. I get shaky if I skip a single day. Wait till you get old."
Tae-jin spat on the ground.
"Let's just eat normally for two days."
"Oh, a manly decision."
"If we don't solve this in two days, I'll sell you to some human traffickers and travel alone with the money."
The two bickered for a bit, but they reached one key conclusion.
Whether they ate generously or skimped, walking like this would leave them starving to death before crossing the Great Plains. The plains were vast, and two days or four made little difference.
Various ideas flitted through his mind and vanished.
Run with acceleration magic? But it wasn't a spell sustainable for long. Better for sprints than marathons.
Flying? Out of the question. Not fast enough, drained stamina several times over, and too visible.
"Old man, can't we hunt for food along the way?"
"If we were heading east or north from the Gate, maybe. But southwest like us? No wild game. We haven't seen a single beastkin tribe these past couple days, right?"
"True. Why's that?"
"Nothing left to hunt—they ate it all. At least human villages survive on farming or trade."
As they pondered, the endless sea of tall grass caught his eye first.
"Can't we just eat these thickly grown grasses?"
Richer grinned.
"Wanna close your eyes for a sec?"
Of course, no reason to comply.
"Nah. I can tell you're up to something shady, old man."
"No more, no less—just try one leaf."
Richer bent down and plucked a long, orchid-like blade from the grass, holding it out.
"No thanks, don't wanna. Let's just go."
"Come on, now that it's come up, let's have a new experience. Mages must always seek fresh knowledge."
"Back when I studied, I learned the hard way how vital review is, old man. How about a refresher?"
They bickered again, but Richer's strength wasn't enough to force the grass into Tae-jin's mouth against his will.
Still, curiosity won out after tussling. What could it be? At least it wouldn't kill him if Richer recommended it.
Tae-jin nibbled a bit, chewed once, and spat it out like lightning.
"Ptooey! Blech!"
Richer laughed uproariously beside him, pointing gleefully, but Tae-jin had to spit furiously until every last shred and drop of sap was gone.
"Wow, old man, this is something."
"Right? Amazing, huh?"
"The taste and smell are perfectly, flawlessly dogshit. No off odors in the juice?"
"Dunno why, but mix it with saliva and that's the smell you get. So, now you know why people don't eat grass?"
"Yeah, no way. Better starve."
Not being able to eat grass wasn't welcome news. Anxiety bubbled up. They really might starve. Had they set out too unprepared?
"We can't even enter a village, right? We'll die before the border? Or request rescue and head back?"
Richer shook his head and proposed.
"Small villages are out. But a decent-sized city? We could sneak in somehow."
No other options anyway. It was sneak into a city or get caught and dragged back.
"A city... where? You know the location?"
"Yeah. I came this way. Can estimate from the carriage trip time."
Sounded plausible, but something nagged.
"Old man. You passed through here by carriage around this time last year, right?"
"Yep. Stayed in Gate City after."
Five Earth years ago. Trust a memory that old?
No choice. Tae-jin emptied his mind and decided to trust boldly.
"Fine... How long?"
"Day and a half to two days, tops. Remigio City's got two or three thousand people—big enough to hide in."
"You know the way?"
"Just follow that carriage road there. That's how I came."
"You're not leading us astray, right? If you go 'oops' after a day or two, I swear I'll do something crazy."
"No worries. Dead certain."
"Then that's the plan. No point agonizing—we got no choices."
"Let's head out. Sooner the better."
Tae-jin and Richer started walking alongside the road. The grass grew thick, but the stems were soft enough not to hinder seriously.
Whenever a carriage passed, they'd flatten themselves or use invisibility magic to hide, but traffic was light, so no big issues.
Only one hitch to the plan. It took just over three days to reach Remigio City.