The Missing Lake
If I had to name a few defining characteristics of the island nation of Heidricke, the first would be that there is an absurd amount of water no matter where you go.
Lakes, ponds, and rivers are so numerous they defy counting, and the entire country is surrounded by ocean on all four sides to begin with.
Another notable feature is that all the place names sound nearly identical, probably thanks to their unique naming conventions.
Hirilyke.
Helicke.
Hakrake.
Hasifuke.
That was exactly why staring at the map made my expression twist with disgust.
Where the hell am I? Who am I?
“Are you sure we came to the right place?”
I asked, my voice thick with irritation.
I had crossed the damn sea to get here. While I hadn’t scoured the entire continent like the rest of the party, by my standards this counted as quite diligent and sincere effort.
So even if there was no treasure, there should at least be the lake we were aiming for. There’s a limit to how much pointless suffering one should endure!
“Lox? Answer me. According to that cursed map, there’s supposed to be a large lake right here, isn’t there?”
“That’s… correct?”
“Then why am I standing in the middle of a desolate wasteland surrounded by nothing but ruins? And under this blistering sun, no less?”
My foul temper always shone brightest in the heat. Ash was diligently fanning me from the side, but it wasn’t nearly enough to calm me down.
I grabbed Lox by the collar and shook him violently.
“Answer me! What happened to that smug mouth that’s always lecturing everyone? Huh? I’m asking you what the hell is going on!”
“Um… let’s, let’s exercise some patience.”
“Hah?”
“This sort of thing happens all the time. Maps being wrong is practically an everyday occurrence, isn’t it? And searching for treasure on top of that is a battle of patience and perseverance…”
“Patience? Perseverance? Those two fought each other to death and I’m what’s left. Want to know what remains instead?”
“…Madness?”
This guy actually dared to speak the truth! He’s got guts.
Even as I roughly shook him by the collar, Lox had grown so used to it that he simply let himself be rattled like a rag doll, as if he had given up.
Had the shocking realization that there was no lake caused his liver to leap out of his body? He was saying things he normally wouldn’t out of fear for his life.
“I’m warning you—if you made me go through all this suffering for nothing, I’ll kill you with my own hands! So find that lake, and fast!”
“Who asked you to follow us…?”
“What did you just say?”
“I don’t recall ever begging you to come with us?”
“…You insolent little—! If it weren’t for me, you’d still be wandering around that canyon!”
“Well, in that case I would’ve only learned there was no lake here a week later, so I would’ve been happy for at least a week. Ha. Ha. Ha.”
Had the futility of it all made him lose his mind?
Lox let out a bizarre laugh, then stared blankly into the air and began muttering incomprehensible words.
I dropped his collar as if I had touched something I shouldn’t have and quickly let go.
The moment I released him, Lox crumpled to the ground, crouched down, and started scratching something into the dirt.
Has he finally gone insane?
“What’s wrong with him…? Ash, look at this guy!”
“Please understand. His expectations for this trip were exceptionally high. He was certain we would find it, so… the shock must be quite severe.”
When I turned around, the rest of the party looked just as disheartened.
Enk, who had ridden east, returned just then with the most depressed expression I had ever seen on him.
“Nothing over here either.”
“I figured as much.”
“Now what?”
We had safely arrived in Hirilyke. What was making us wander wasn’t anything else—it was the lake itself.
According to the map, there should have been a lake right where we stood, yet not even its shadow could be seen.
The house foundations remained perfectly intact, making it hard to believe the lake had once existed and then vanished. There had never been a lake here to begin with.
There was no need to think too hard about it. The map itself was simply wrong.
“I didn’t completely trust the map, but still… damn it. If it hasn’t disappeared, it should definitely be somewhere nearby.”
“Should we head southwest this time?”
“How about going farther west?”
“We already checked there.”
“Maybe if we go a little farther we’ll find the lake? The southwest is all mountains. The chances of a lake being behind them are low. Look, on the map the sea and the lake look really close.”
“The problem is that ‘really close’ could still mean several hours away.”
“It’s supposed to be a fairly recent map… but the scale is completely messed up.”
We were utterly lost. We had reached our destination, only to find that the destination itself didn’t exist.
The party began to wander. They rode south and west, desperately trying to find even the slightest trace of water.
But repeating such hopeless tasks under this scorching heat was truly exhausting.
The wide-open space in every direction somehow made it even harder to figure out which way to go.
I wish we had something like a navigation system.
I liked this world. But it certainly had its fatal inconveniences.
Because magic existed, scientific development was almost nonexistent. Machines were practically impossible to find.
The closest thing to one might be the pulley at a well.
Everything was outdated.
A map was nothing more than a rough sketch drawn on paper.
In heavily populated cities the maps might be relatively detailed, but places like this wasteland were marked so crudely it was almost embarrassing.
Just think about it. The entire continent was crammed onto a sheet of paper that didn’t even reach 120 centimeters across when fully unfolded. How accurate could it possibly be?
It only roughly imitated terrain based on mountain ranges and barely marked city locations. Remote areas like this were either omitted entirely or lumped together.
Continental maps existed solely to help people find cities. The smallest unit they marked was a city, after all.
Large cities sometimes had separate maps, but Hirilyke was not a place that warranted one. It was abandoned land that only retained its name.
This was exactly why treasure hunting was so difficult even with a map. There was even a saying that what explorers needed more than courage was perseverance.
I turned to Ash.
“What about the marker? No reaction?”
“None.”
“Did you try infusing it with mana?”
“Of course I did.”
Instead of relying on an untrustworthy map, the marker’s job was to pinpoint the exact location. These devices would react in some way when you got close to the target.
They might ignore gravity and tilt toward the correct direction, make loud noises the closer you got, or even emit light. But whether we were still too far from the destination or the marker simply lacked that function, it showed no reaction at all.
If we couldn’t find the lake, we would have no further clues.
The treasure hunt had hit another wall. One by one, the men sighed and sank down in whatever shade they could find.
The sun was directly overhead, so there was no escaping the sweltering heat no matter what we did.
I had a cloak that regulated body temperature, but it didn’t do anything for my face.
Damn it. This world really had nothing. There wasn’t even sunscreen.
My beautiful golden hair needed this fair skin to shine! I liked my face, thank you very much!
I was scowling fiercely at the stinging sunlight when a shadow suddenly fell over my head.
When I looked up, Ash had lifted his cloak high to create shade for me. He must have heard me complaining about the heat earlier.
“Would you like something to drink?”
“…”
“Jeanie, if you’re struggling, just tell me anytime. If we move into the forest there will be shade, so it should be a bit better.”
It was true that Ash often made me hold back my temper.
When he looked at me with those puppy-like eyes and tried so hard to please me, it stirred the tiniest bit of human affection in me.
“Hey! Worry about us too!”
“It’s so sickening I can’t even watch.”
“…Ah, everyone, cheer up. Let’s rest for a bit and search again. It has to be nearby.”
Heidricke was also a hot country. The unfamiliar sweltering heat had even the physically strong men collapsing. It might simply be from lost motivation.
“Haaa… do you think we’ll find it today?”
“If the god of luck isn’t too busy, maybe they’ll look our way.”
“If that god is busy, we’ll be stuck combing this area for days on end.”
“You’re telling me. Scouting really isn’t my thing.”
True to their close friendship, Enk and Gail sat together in the shade, while Lox was still digging at the ground.
Chad had disappeared even though he wasn’t supposed to be searching. Then I saw him slipping out of one of the abandoned houses.
“Why are you rummaging through the ruins?”
“I’ve marked a few usable spots. Figured we could use them as shelter once the sun goes down.”
“Hmm.”
The fact that he was already scouting sleeping quarters suggested he had given up on finding the lake today.
But the truth was, I could find the lake. Or more precisely, my spirits could find it.
And they could do it far faster and more accurately than people wandering around on foot with no guarantee of success.
[Rai, can you look for a lake nearby?]
The only problem was that I wanted to watch the adventure, not participate in it. Tasks like this felt incredibly bothersome.
That made sense. Although I hadn’t wanted to, I had already cleared the final boss—the dragon.
These trivial little problems just didn’t spark any motivation in me.
“Rai?”
Why wasn’t this guy answering?
I looked down at my feet, raising my voice at the end. Rai was sitting with his back to me, staring in the opposite direction. His entire body was loudly protesting just how upset he was.
“Oh? Are you pretending you can’t hear me?”
[…]
He only twitched his ears slightly.
“You’ve gone so far as to disobey me now?”
“Jeanie?”
“Ash, you saw that, right? This guy is currently…”
“Please apologize to Rai.”
In all my years, I had never heard anything so absurd.
Ash, who had been watching our little war of nerves, suddenly said something I could never have imagined.
I didn’t even try to hide my dumbfounded expression.
“Hah? Why should I?”
“You keep losing him, and earlier you left him behind beyond the canyon… He’s a very smart dog. I think he’s feeling hurt. If you apologize sincerely, he’ll understand.”
“Ash? I’m the owner, and he is my… subordinate. It’s his job to listen to me. The owner does not apologize.”
“…Do you really need to flaunt your noble status here of all places?”
“That has nothing to do with it.”
“The ability to apologize when you’re wrong is the mark of a true superior. Come on, say you’re sorry. Rai is an incredibly loyal and intelligent animal… who likes you very much. You tend to treat him too harshly.”
[Ash, you’re the best!]
These damn things. I let them get too comfortable and now they’re ganging up on me.
Rai glanced at me from the corner of his eye, then hid behind Ash. He even put on a pitiful expression, as if this was his chance.
By now everyone must have realized it. That was definitely not an ordinary dog!
What kind of dog had such varied facial expressions?!
Oh, right. He was a wolf.
“Jeanie?”
“What! Even if you call me that, what can’t be done can’t be done!”
“You know… I’m aware of what people say about you. That you’re cold, arrogant, and dangerous. They tell me to stay away from you, but…”
“Was it Lox? Or Chad?”
“…My thoughts are different. I know you have a warm heart and care about others. I know you’re someone who can bleed for another person. Just like how you protected me before.”
His last words were quieter than the sound of the wind. A careful, secret whisper meant only for me.