To the Empire to Catch a Griffin
A place whose pleasant, temperate weather stood in a completely different dimension from the hot, humid climate of the Western Continent.
Two full weeks had already passed since we set out for the Central Continent—a land I had, for some strange reason, never particularly wanted to visit.
Oddly enough, the journey toward the Western Continent had been packed with every kind of incident imaginable, yet the return trip to the Central Continent had produced nothing worth calling an “event.”
That was only natural, of course, but the quiet left me a little bored and lonely all the same. Not that I was hoping for another serpent dragon or some mythical monster to show up, mind you.
With not even the tiniest mishap to break the monotony, the voyage was peaceful to the point of dullness.
I was standing on the deck, lost in those thoughts and listening to the cries of the black-tailed gulls, when the sound of footsteps clicking up the stairs announced Lumine’s arrival.
“Lady Lumine. It’s almost time to disembark.”
“Already?”
“‘Already’ is a bit of a stretch—we’ve been docked at the Central Continent for two hours now.”
The ship that had carried us here was little more than a freighter. Cargo came first; passengers were an afterthought, so disembarkation always ran late. From what I’d heard, the serpent dragon’s appearance had halted shipping for nearly a month, and the backlog of goods was keeping everyone frantically busy. If I hadn’t been aboard back then, they would have been even busier. At least the ship and its people had escaped unharmed, so things had ended at this level of chaos.
“Let’s hurry down. I’m curious what the Central Continent is like.”
“All right, all right.”
I gave a light stroke to the cheek of Lumine, who was tugging at my arm in her eagerness. Even though she was older than me, she still felt so very young—and that wasn’t only because she was a half-elf. It was the same excitement I myself had felt when I first arrived on the Western Continent. Lumine, too, was leaving the sweltering heat of the West behind and setting foot on the Central Continent for the first time; of course she would be like this.
Arm in arm with Lumine, I descended to the lower deck and, under the crew’s escort, disembarked with surprising speed. Normally there would have been all sorts of procedures, but who was I? I happened to be on friendly terms with the lord of the Western Continent’s port town—the very owner of this ship. On top of that, I was the benefactor of the mayor of Free Port City here on the Central Continent!
It felt a little embarrassing and awkward to say it myself, but the facts weren’t about to run away and hide. I had sent a letter ahead before we left the Labyrinth City on the Western Continent, and it seemed the mayor’s household had made every arrangement.
Sure enough, the moment we stepped off the ship, the first people who met my eyes were the very ones I had last seen before leaving this place: Hella, wife of the mayor of Free Port City, and Helena.
“Lady Esilly!”
Helena rushed straight at me and buried her face against my chest in a tight hug. Before we left she had been so troubled by the power struggles within her family, yet now she seemed completely at ease.
“It’s been a while, Helena. Have you grown a little taller?”
“One whole centimeter!”
“That’s a lot. Well done, well done.”
If she was going to become mayor someday, she would need to grow into a woman with real presence—and that meant she would have to get quite a bit taller. I was envious. Why couldn’t I grow any faster? In that respect humans were almost too enviable, shooting up so quickly.
“Lady Esilly. It has been far too long.”
“Hella, it’s good to see you again. You’ve been well, I hope?”
While I stroked Helena’s hair, Hella approached. Last time she had looked thoroughly exhausted from one ordeal after another; now she seemed refreshed and bright.
“Thanks to you, Lady Esilly, I’ve been sleeping soundly and waking without a single worry lately.”
“Is that so? I’m glad to hear it.”
Of course she was. After I left, the mayor had finally steeled himself and pruned the family tree of those treacherous relatives. How dare they try to murder the legal wife and the heir? They deserved whatever they got.
“Lady Esilly, we’ve arrived on the Central Continent, but where exactly do we go for the griffin?”
“The griffin habitat is…”
We would stay only one night in Free Port City. Tomorrow we would board a carriage again and head for the place where griffins nested. I didn’t particularly want to go… but Lumine wanted it so badly that I couldn’t refuse.
That place was none other than…
“The Empire.”
The nation that practically monopolized the griffins—and the same Empire whose entire legion I had once erased from existence.
After a comfortable night in Free Port City, we set out for the Empire. Helena had wanted to come with us, but she had heir training to attend, so she couldn’t join. I would have been fine with it—traveling with such a cute little sister would have been easy on the heart—but it couldn’t be helped.
When we prepared to leave, the mayor, busy as he was, still made time to see me off with genuine delight and arranged an excellent carriage for us. A three-horse carriage, no less—fast and stable. We were racing toward the Empire in it. Even so, the journey would take about four days. And obtaining a griffin’s eye might require another month after that.
“Can’t we just hunt a griffin?”
Lumine tilted her head, clearly puzzled by how long everything would take. Of course she wouldn’t know. Even people who lived on the Central Continent often didn’t understand the details; how could Lumine, who had spent her whole life on the Western Continent, be expected to?
“Even though the Empire is the griffin habitat, they’re treated almost like a protected species.”
“Protected? Then we can’t catch them at all?”
“It’s not that they’re truly protected. Rather than the griffins themselves, the entire region where they live is a protected zone.”
The forests where griffins nested were home to rare flora and fauna. Ordinary adventurers needed imperial permission and a hefty fee just to enter. On top of that, only those with special permits could capture a griffin. The reason for the permits wasn’t scarcity or conservation—it was simply that griffins were far too strong. You had to prove you were capable of taking one down before they would issue the license. The capture permit itself cost money as well. All told, it would run about twenty gold coins.
“Even if you get inside, there’s no guarantee you’ll manage to capture one and come back out.”
“Mmm… so we might not be able to catch one at all.”
“In that case we’d just have to buy a griffin’s eye instead.”
I had no idea how much one cost. I’d never bothered to look into it.
Gonna be busy~ ♬
Running around like this reminded me of the days when I had still been vice-captain of the knight order. A strange nostalgia washed over me. I was gazing out the window with a small smile when Lumine, sitting beside me, suddenly caught hold of my sleeve. Curious, I turned—and found her expression had become adorably troubled.
“Uuu… I’m sorry…”
“Hm? Why are you apologizing, Lumine?”
I tilted my head, genuinely confused. Had she done something that needed an apology? I couldn’t think of anything.
“Because I said I wanted a magic tool… and I’ve been making things troublesome for you…”
“What? You’re apologizing over something that small?”
“Th-that small…”
“Don’t worry. I’m not the sort of person who finds something like that a bother.”
If anything, traveling through the interior of the Central Continent with Lumine didn’t seem bad at all. I would have returned here someday anyway; this had simply arrived a little sooner than expected.
“Besides, you really need it, don’t you?”
“Lady Esilly…”
“If you still feel bad… then come sit on my lap.”
Lumine glanced quickly around the carriage, swallowed hard, then rose from her seat and carefully settled onto my knees. Facing me, she stared straight into my eyes; her own sparkled like stars—fitting for a name that meant “light.”
But when the sun rises, the stars must hide. Lumine slowly closed her eyes and, as though I were the sun itself, drifted closer in a gentle orbit until her lips met mine.
A kiss that was faintly sweet and quietly yearning. By now it had become pure habit; my hand moved of its own accord toward Lumine’s lower body.
Five days after arriving on the Northern Continent, meeting Aria, and beginning adventurer work, I had already earned enough to buy a ticket for a ship bound for the Western Continent—plus living expenses for a while once I got there. The rumor that you could make serious money in a short time on the Northern Continent if you had the skill turned out to be true.
“Captain, when you see Captain Esilly later, tell her to write us a letter, would you?”
“Got it.”
So Esilly was just as bad about writing to her subordinates. Well, that child had been busy handling postwar cleanup on the battlefield, after all.
At last I was heading to the Western Continent… At last I would be able to see Esilly. With Aria’s letter tucked carefully against my chest, I boarded the ship. The departure horn was already sounding.
“Take care, then. You should reach the Western Continent in about a week.”
“Thank you for everything these past five days. If it hadn’t been for you, Aria, I’d still be crying in some corner.”
“At first I was so startled I didn’t know what to think.”
“Just forget that part…”
I had shown such a shameful side of myself to someone who had once been my subordinate. Still… now it was only embarrassment. She gave a small snort of laughter and held out her hand. I smiled back and clasped it for one last handshake.
“Haha, just kidding, just kidding. Stay healthy, always!”
“You take care of yourself too.”
Bwoooooom!
The ship’s horn blared again. At the sound the vessel began to move slowly away from the pier, and Aria stepped back to wave. I waved in return. Without her I truly would have been stuck, unable to move, on the Northern Continent.
…Where on the Western Continent would Esilly be?
The moment I arrived I would have to start asking around.
And once I reached the Western Continent, after much inquiry I finally learned which direction Esilly had gone.
Labyrinth City — Labyrinth.