VI. The Enemy Draws Nearer (9)
VI. The Enemy Draws Nearer (9)
After setting out at daybreak and walking steadily, Keldric finally reached the foot of the mountains leading to Spitzenberg.
The sun was nearly overhead. They had done nothing but walk from early morning until noon.
"We'll rest here a while."
"Understood."
Keldric gave the Iron Claw Mercenary Company time to eat and rest.
Walking for an hour or two without stopping would have been hard enough, and the mercenaries had weighed themselves down with weapons and the bandits’ spoils, draining their stamina even faster.
"Ah, hell. Did I take too much?"
"You idiot. I told you to ditch some of it."
Keldric tore into a strip of dried meat as he watched the mercenaries redistribute the loot. The salted meat had been dried until it was as tough as tree bark.
Whether a journey was long or short, most travel provisions were dried or divided into small portions. Carrying fresh meat was simply too inefficient by weight.
As he absently chewed the meat and tilted his head back, he saw a vast wall of mountains cutting across the land, with one conspicuously lower pass carved through the peaks.
It was only low compared with the surrounding peaks. To Keldric and his party, it still looked impossibly high.
"We have to pass through there?"
At what was nearly a question to himself, Alisa stopped nibbling her bread and followed his gaze.
"Yes. That road leads into the mountains, and from there we can take the route to Spitzenberg."
"It looks... more rugged than I expected."
"Because it's a mountain range."
The road was rugged because it ran through a mountain range. Could there have been a simpler or more definitive answer?
As Alisa said, mountain ranges were famous for their ruggedness, and they were not places a mere adventurer or wandering mercenary could cross at whim.
Crossing the mountains required preparation. Keldric, however, did not intend to cross them.
His destination lay partway in: the City of Rock, rumored like a legend to stand deep among those towering, rugged peaks.
It certainly stirred Keldric's curiosity.
Keldric had spent his entire life in Carlton Village, and even the widely learned Alisa had never visited Spitzenberg. That only deepened their curiosity.
A chill wind blew over Keldric, every bit as cold as the air at the entrance to the northern lands. Wind circulated through the mountains, growing stronger and colder.
By the time they had eaten their fill and prepared to move again, the sun stood directly overhead.
"Sir Keldric."
Radomar, also ready to depart, approached Keldric then.
"There is a person over there."
"A person?"
"Yes. Probably a passing traveler... Shall I go check?"
Keldric peered in the direction Radomar indicated. Sure enough, a lone figure was walking toward them from the road into the mountains.
"A merchant?"
The mountain roads were so rough that pulling a cart was difficult.
A merchant with several sure-footed donkeys could make the crossing, but only a trading company of some size could assemble such a train.
Smaller independent peddlers usually led one or two donkeys when crossing the mountains.
"I don’t think it’s a merchant. There’s no donkey."
"Hm."
The traveler ahead had no donkey or any other mount in sight. He was probably just an ordinary traveler.
Keldric clicked his tongue as though disappointed.
A peddler would have known the latest rumors, and Keldric had hoped to ask about news from beyond the mountains or the situation in Spitzenberg.
"Let’s move out."
"Yes. Let's go! We're moving out!"
The mercenaries quickly gathered their gear and rose. Keldric collected his weapons and mounted Boreas.
"You must have rested well, Boreas."
Whenever they stopped, Helga took charge of resting the horses. They certainly seemed more comfortable with her than they had been traveling with Keldric alone, given his lack of knowledge.
Keldric scratched Boreas's mane vigorously. Boreas, too, shook his head in good spirits.
The Iron Claw Mercenary Company led the way in single file while Keldric rode Boreas at the rear as usual.
The traveler they had glimpsed ahead was resting on a roadside stone. As they drew closer, Keldric took in the figure at a glance.
The wide-brimmed hat stood out first, followed by practical travel clothes, a cloaklike robe, and a staff propped against the stone.
"It's a pilgrim."
"Oh..."
A wide-brimmed hat and a staff for driving off wild dogs—those were certainly a pilgrim's trappings.
Keldric had never seen a pilgrim before, and he murmured in fascination as they approached.
Pilgrimages were common in this era, especially among clergy, prospective clergy, and devout believers.
Some departed in groups organized by a church, but those who traveled alone often did so to commune with God in solitude.
As Keldric rode closer, the pilgrim slowly rose and bowed in greeting.
"May God’s blessing be with you, noble knight."
"And with you, faithful pilgrim. May your journey be peaceful."
Keldric returned the formal greeting. He had no reason to be hostile toward a pilgrim. The man was merely undertaking the long journey to a holy site or the Holy See.
"Do you need anything?"
"If it isn’t too much trouble, could you spare a little drinking water?"
"That’s no trouble."
Keldric took an immediate liking to the pilgrim’s courteous manner.
People willing to speak politely were rare in this shitty world. Hadn’t the bandits he’d cut down that morning fired arrows before even attempting to talk?
Devout believers like this man, by contrast, were easy to deal with. Keldric gladly handed him a waterskin.
"Thank you. God will repay you for this kindness."
"If I can help, I should."
"I am Berno, traveling to Antica so that I may hear God’s word more closely. If you permit it, may I ask your name, Sir Knight?"
"God be with you. I am Keldric of House Bellaf."
"Sir Keldric of the honorable House Bellaf. I see."
Pilgrims came from every social class.
Yet their devotion and resolve to reach holy ground on foot meant that knights could not treat them lightly.
Few knights would have wanted to. Even brutish men who relied only on strength still desired God’s love.
Even bandits often left pilgrims alone.
Pilgrims carried neither money nor valuables. Robbing one would hardly repay the effort.
There was also a superstition that robbing someone on the sacred journey of pilgrimage would bring God’s curse.
Religious conviction was the greatest protection pilgrims possessed.
But when the realm fell into chaos, being a pilgrim offered no protection. Plenty of bandits would kill one and strip even the clothes from the corpse.
"We’ve just been attacked by bandits on the road before dawn. You should be careful as well."
"Ah! Thank you. These are troubled times, so I must be cautious."
Berno repeatedly thanked him with a smile warm enough to lift even Keldric’s spirits.
He did more than offer thanks. From a small pouch at his waist, he took out a palm frond and a cross, then recited a short prayer of blessing for Keldric.
"Oh...! I’ve got a blessing too..."
"Maybe I’ll visit a church once we reach Spitzenberg..."
"Would they forgive us for killing people?"
"Bandit bastards aren’t people."
The mercenaries’ spirits rose. Religious devotion touched people of every station.
Keldric closed his eyes and made the sign of the cross. He might have dismissed it as a blessing in words alone, but in a world where magic existed, blessings might be real as well.
"Meeting the honorable Sir Keldric has been a great blessing. It feels like a gift from God."
"Indeed."
"I do not know whether this repays your warning, but I would like to share what little news I have of the road ahead."
Berno also warned them that wolves had been appearing frequently along the mountain pass.
With that, the pilgrim Berno departed. Keldric watched him walk away for a long while, relying on nothing but his staff.
"Sir Keldric?"
"...Ah, right. Let's move out."
Even in a chaotic world, many people still yearned for order and peace.
Keldric prayed for Berno’s safe pilgrimage.
☩ ☩ ☩ ☩ ☩ ☩ ☩
Anyone crossing the entire range would have needed to dismount, but Keldric had taken a fork along a relatively level road and did not need to.
However deeply it was tucked into the mountains, Spitzenberg still qualified as a city.
That such a place would not keep its roads in repair was absurd.
"We should be almost at Spitzenberg."
Radomar had visited Spitzenberg several times and clearly knew the road fairly well.
Thanks to him, the journey had been far easier than Keldric expected. The road was reasonably well maintained, and the mountain weather remained mild enough for easy travel.
They had departed in the blue light of dawn after disposing of the bandits’ bodies. By the time they neared Spitzenberg, evening had arrived and the sky was turning yellow.
The sun was already sinking behind the ridges.
It might still have looked like early evening outside the mountains, but here the peaks hid the sun much sooner.
Keldric considered making camp, but when Radomar said they were almost there, he kept Aveline moving.
Boreas, who had carried him all the previous day and half of this one, followed slowly at the rear.
That was the advantage of having two horses: he could manage their stamina properly.
"The sky is very clear here. The stars are bright."
"Oh..."
Keldric looked up at the sky Alisa indicated in wonder.
The sunset faded like dying embers, staining one side of the sky orange, while countless stars glittered between the approaching darkness and the moonlight.
The air midway up the mountains was clear and the surroundings dark, making the stars easier to see. Alisa drew something from her clothes.
"What is that?"
"A Fragment of Truth returning to the starry sky."
It was a tiny square of parchment. Alisa carefully kissed it, then released it into the air.
Keldric stared as it glittered like starlight, fluttered through the air, and vanished.
The parchment floated upward without warning and dissolved into the night sky as though igniting on its own. The sight was fantastical.
"A Fragment of Truth?"
"It is a prayer for the power of the rising constellation. Aries is ascendant now, so I released something made from a sheep."
"What happens when you do that?"
"They say it helps one progress in magic more quickly, though supposedly it is only a rumor..."
But judging by the way something had clearly happened, it did not seem entirely baseless.
The curious sight put Keldric in a better mood.
Alisa drew a deep breath of the cool, refreshing air and traced the stars with her eyes.
By the time the last orange glow had almost vanished, the road between the mountains widened and opened onto a broad view.
"That place..."
"That is Spitzenberg."
Keldric marveled at the fantastical sight that appeared before him.
Amid peaks and ridges that thrust upward like spears, a natural fortress stood surrounded by deep valleys and mountains.
A small fortress-city glittered beneath the night sky, cradled by the landscape below. Spitzenberg stood there.