Chapter 134 — The Story Hidden From You (5)
"You place tremendous trust in Diobe."
The words came from Aina, riding beside Roan on her ker.
Roan, who had been staring blankly ahead, turned to her.
"...Ah. You mean the conversation with the duchess earlier."
They were now en route to the ruins, following the guides and knights the Lord of the East Yellow Territory had selected in advance.
From Raju, the great city of the East Yellow Territory, the ruins were roughly an hour away on foot, twenty minutes by demon beast. Roan could have covered the distance in about thirty minutes if he ran.
Yet even though they had not traveled far, the landscape was already parched. The moment they left the riverside that cradled Raju, a gritty wind could be felt.
"Where is this sand blowing from?"
"From beyond the eastern desert."
Roan looked toward where the knight pointed and murmured.
"Corrupted Land."
In an instant, the knight's eyes flew wide.
But he swiftly bowed his scar-ravaged face, hiding his expression.
Unlike the knights of Basel or Zeno, the knights of these drylands had neither steel plate armor nor helms.
Without a helm, his shock had been exposed. After a brief silence, the knight spoke heavily.
"...Yes, Your Majesty."
Aina frowned.
That single curt reply revealed all the revulsion he felt toward the land beyond.
Sensing that, Roan did not press the knight further and instead answered Aina.
"Trust... I know the full extent of her abilities. So yes, I suppose it is trust."
"Hmph. A little envious, I admit."
Aina was looking elsewhere, her lips pushed out.
Roan gave a faint smile.
"...A greedy forest elf who seems to gobble up everything she wants — are there still things left to covet?"
"Urk...!!"
Aina sucked in a breath like an involuntary scream.
Up ahead, the knights guiding them glanced back at the sound.
Her face flushed, she protested in a small voice.
"Th-those kinds of words...!"
"The sight of you feeling jealous is rather novel. It's cute."
Roan smiled gently as he watched the blush spread all the way to the tips of her ears, then composed his expression.
His calm features produced a low, alluring voice that deepened the flush Aina had been trying to subdue.
"Aina, you are strong. So you should understand. Diobe's strength as well."
Still somewhat flustered, Aina nodded.
"Diobe is, of course, composed and knows how to keep her thoughts well in hand. She has sufficient administrative ability and the good looks to win favor. But above all, she is strong."
Roan smiled.
"A strong swordsman does not lose her strength just because she lacks a sword. Why do you think Diobe has managed to endure so well, living among demons all this time?"
"Ah... No, well... But Diobe doesn't seem that way..."
Aina managed an awkward smile.
Roan smiled back.
"That means she hides it well enough that it never shows. Among demons, the absolute hierarchy is not determined by political power or wealth. It's power."
Mm.
Diobe was competent (physically).
Even when mingling among the maidservants,
even while leading groups of humans and handling administrative work alongside demons.
That was the strength that had only ever appeared in the game's story.
Someone who, like Grünent or Aina, could only see one side of Diobe — someone to whom Diobe did not wish to show a martial side — might never learn the truth.
"Your Majesty. What you can see over there... that is it."
"Mm."
The demon beasts carrying the party came to a halt.
In the distance, something resembling an enormous basin was visible.
The shallowly excavated earth was cracked.
And beyond it,
visible through gaps in the dead, withered tree stumps, was the monolith.
"What is that spot?"
"Long ago, there was a small lake there. It dried up a few years ago and no longer yields water."
Roan's heart grew heavy.
This could not be blamed solely on the local climate's lack of rainfall.
The East Yellow Territory itself, once grassland, was turning into desert. Did the power of the Corrupted Land dry up everything?
Aina looked at the sunken earth that had once been a pool, her expression regretful.
Roan glanced toward the monolith and issued a command to the knights.
"I will go over there briefly. The rest of you are to stand by."
The knights bowed their heads in acknowledgment. Once Roan and Aina had moved away, they began to erect simple tents — following prior instructions not to observe the emperor's actions.
Aina glanced back several times, checking the tents they had raised.
The dried-up lake was small, so they soon reached the monolith.
— So that those who face wickedness to guard this land may never thirst.
May this small lake quench them, moisten the earth, and watch over its warriors.
Where deep traces of life remain, the Goddess left her footprints.
The inscription on the monolith had been worn by the sand-laden wind, but the deeply carved letters remained legible.
Roan ran his hand over the monolith, quietly activated Shield, and cast Light.
Under the late-morning sunlight, the stone ruins revealed themselves. The circular shape was unmistakable: a waypoint, seen many times before.
"...No matter how many times I see it, it's still wondrous..."
Aina stroked the inscription and let out an admiring breath.
Before Roan's eyes, the minimap updated, marking the newly registered Raju waypoint.
"Shall we go, then?"
"Ugh..."
Aina, who suffered bitterly from motion sickness, turned grim, but there was no avoiding it. A moment later, a warm force enveloped her entire body, and their arrival point was—
"Urrrghh..."
"...Oh dear."
Roan patted Aina's back.
Thankfully, she did not vomit up the contents of her stomach, but after several dry heaves, Aina looked around with markedly haggard eyes.
"...Ah, is this it...?"
Her gaze stopped on the small bundle placed before the monolith.
As arranged beforehand through the magic orb, Grünent had obtained the crystal powder from the Count and left it in front of the Basel Waypoint.
Everyone else believed the crystal powder had been shipped overland. The only ones who knew the truth were Grünent and a handful of knights who had signed secrecy contracts during the first waypoint exploration.
Because the powder absorbed mana,
the magic-bird courier service could not be used — the sole magic bird they had summoned for a test had recoiled and vanished the instant it neared the crystals.
The count had produced enough crystal powder to cultivate the entire imperial garden—or so she claimed.
"...Is this really going to be enough?"
Aina's eyes were full of doubt.
The bundle Roan picked up, wrapped in magic-blocking material, was far too small in her estimation.
"Didn't you prepare seeds and trees and all sorts of things?"
"This will be enough."
What Roan held in both hands was the size of a household pancake-mix bag. Aina had heard that the count had manufactured the crystal powder and grown crops with it, but she did not know the specifics.
Her puzzlement was only natural.
Roan himself had doubted his ears the first time he heard it.
"The fuel efficiency is excellent."
"...What's fuel efficiency?"
Roan caressed the cheek of the tilting, perplexed Aina, then stepped back into the center of the waypoint. Her complexion immediately went white again.
Though they could not see them, the knights were guarding this withered forest, ensuring no one else could enter.
They would have been cautioned not to peer inside, but it was still better that no eyes fell on them at all.
"Let's return."
"Urgh..."
After back-to-back waypoint round trips, Aina collapsed to the ground the moment they returned to Raju.
"...Oh dear."
Roan quietly cast Vitality Recovery divine magic on her.
As the light seeped in, Aina barely lifted her head and repeated deep breaths. By the time her breathing steadied, her complexion had returned to normal.
They mounted their kers and returned to the knights.
The knights looked surprised when they saw Aina carrying a bundle that had not been there before.
Roan had previously described Aina to them as a great forest-elf wizard. Wizards could not be judged by appearance, which only deepened their curiosity and astonishment.
"Go on ahead, then."
"Mm, I will. Your Majesty."
Two knights and Aina headed back to Raju first.
Roan watched Aina's retreating figure, then wheeled his ker around.
"Now then. Shall we go?"
And the knights' faces grew darker still.
**
"No wind today. Is it normally like this?"
After roughly thirty minutes of silence, it was Roan who finally spoke first.
No matter how uncomfortable the silence, no knight would dare open his mouth before the emperor.
Only then did the one who seemed to be the lead knight speak, as if finally able to draw breath.
"Yes. It grows this still just before spring arrives."
It was the knight whose face was thick with scars. Wearing a faint smile on his blunt features, he drew closer to Roan to make his voice carry.
The temperature had climbed as the sun rose, but it was not the scorching heat one might stereotypically expect of a desert.
Roan surveyed the earthen road stretching into the distance and the sparse shrubs scattered about, and spoke.
"A good season for travel, then."
At that, the knight's smile turned a little bitter.
"Yes. Once, it was."
Roan read the regret between his lines and asked.
"Are there none who travel now?"
The knight paused briefly — long enough to remain civil — before answering.
"Now, few can afford such leisure. The men have gone to war, so it is too dangerous for the remaining women, children, and elderly to venture outside the cities."
The knight's expression flickered with an oh-no realization, and he added after gauging Roan's face,
"But the soldiers should be returning home soon."
"Mm. I see."
Roan nodded. In his original world,
he had never seen a wasteland or desert stretching so wide. It was because he had lived his entire life in South Korea,
where horizons were hard to come by,
confined to a crowded metropolis where everyone jostled together.
Here, too, he had spent most of his time in the capital, Basel — and, at that, in the imperial palace, the pinnacle of culture.
The emotion stirred by this open, unobstructed vista, which he had not seen in so long, was a strange one.
A sense of liberation washed over him.
But when he considered how this land had fallen into desolation, he could not simply enjoy it.
"I heard the East Yellow Territory gets its rainy season in winter."
At Roan's words, the knight's eyes widened slightly in surprise, and he confirmed it.
"Yes, that is correct, Your Majesty."
His expression seemed to ask how a person of such high station could know so minor a detail.
"Then why was that lake earlier completely dry?"
"Ah..."
The knight hesitated for a moment, then carefully spoke. He must have been uncomfortable giving only negative answers to Roan's questions.
"The rainfall... is gradually decreasing."
Roan's eyes narrowed.
"That Kato Lake you saw today was a place of plentiful water ten years ago. It was one of the spots where the people of Raju enjoyed fishing and boating. You would have seen the remnants of the forest that filled its surroundings."
The knight's expression was wistful.
Had he, too, cherished that lake?
So as not to disturb him while he seemed to be reminiscing about a beautiful past, Roan nodded silently.
The traces of forest Roan had seen
had been a bleak sight: only the stumps and husks of trunks now, with no leaves left.
He could not bring himself to say that.
"But a few years ago, the rainfall around Raju began to lessen. Fortunately, the flow of the Raju River remains much as it was, but ultimately, Kato Lake dried up. Even last year, enough water still pooled at the bottom... but this year..."
The knight ultimately trailed off.
Roan did not rebuke him.
Whatever words would have followed could only have been a lament.
So they both closed their mouths.
The ker's pace gradually quickened.
The emperor and the knights began to run.
About an hour later, someone finally raised their voice and called out.
"The kers need rest! We will pause briefly!"
The moment those words registered, the knights began slowing their mounts in unison.
As the group decelerated, the demon beast Roan was riding naturally slowed as well. The harsh breathing of the ker, which had run dozens of kilometers without pause, made Roan's body rise and fall with it.
Far to the east, in the distance,
an enormous city wall began to come into view.
"Your Majesty. I will tend to the kers for a moment."
When Roan dismounted, one of the knights brushed the beast's back and gave it water.
The knight noticed where Roan's gaze had landed and spoke.
"Yes. That is Birektum."
The easternmost city on the Moira Continent.
"Then beyond that city lies..."
At those words, the knight quickly averted his eyes from Roan, as if even holding the answer on his tongue would be a sacrilege.
All the knights looked at Roan with unease.
A place no one spoke aloud, yet everyone in the East Yellow Territory knew the answer.
Beyond that city
lay the land stolen by the Demon.