Modesty Learned Through Hearsay
"Don't go deciding all on your own after asking."
"……Pardon?"
At my words, Gawol froze solid.
Well, his expression did, anyway.
Geez, what on earth was I thinking?
"I mean, this. I'm telling you I'll let you touch it."
Swish, swish.
"I told you, it's soft."
Even without any special grooming, this fluffy, warm tail was one of my proudest features. Back when my body was smaller, I used to hug it like a pillow when I slept. He ought to consider this an honor.
"What, is this your first time touching a Rangin's tail?"
Gawol replied with a stiff, guarded look. "Personal experience aside… is a person's tail something another person is just allowed to touch?"
Ah… So that's what he was worried about.
"Huh? Why wouldn't it be?"
I nudged him to get on with it. It was leagues fluffier than any measly hound's tail.
"A dog's tail can be as soft as it wants, but it won't hold a candle to a Rangin's."
This was a matter of pride. In past-life terms, you could call it the pride of having completed full-term infantry service in the army. In any case, my honor was on the line.
Grabbing my tail in both hands, I gave it a light wave. "Hurry up, before it falls off."
"Haa… Forgive me for saying this, but…"
"What?"
"Did you learn your lessons on modesty exclusively through roadside rumors?"
"………Hey."
After a beat of heavy silence, I let go of my tail.
"A person goes out of their way to offer you a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and what do you do? Ramble on and on! If someone hands you an opportunity like this, you ought to bow your head and say, 'Thank you kindly!' Kids these days have no manners whatsoever."
Youngsters nowadays…
"I rather think touching it would be the impolite thing to do, but…"
"Shut it. Mood's ruined."
What did he know, anyway? Turning on my heel, I marched straight into the room.
"…I'm going to sleep."
"All of a sudden?"
Pulling the quilt right over my head, I let all the tension drain from my limbs.
"Huu…"
"Wait, what is this all of a—"
"Hnnnngh— Phew-whistle—"
Ah, I sure am sleepy.
"You're awake, aren't you?"
"Mmmnaah…"
"Haa… Do whatever you like."
Looking thoroughly defeated, Gawol blew out the lamp near where I lay and retreated to his side of the room. The occasional rustle of turning pages drifted through the quiet; he clearly intended to read a bit more before turning in.
Phew…
Mission: successfully go to sleep without taking a bath.
Complete.
The next morning, we set out early on the road.
"Ugh, it's so itchy…"
Especially my head.
"You didn't leave anything behind, did you? Like your wits, for instance."
"Nope."
I decided to blithely ignore that last remark.
"You've been scratching nonstop. Are you breeding fleas in there?"
"No, I'm not!"
Dammit, does skipping just one bath really make it this itchy?
"…Just don't pass them to me. Whether it's lice or fleas."
"I told you, it's nothing like that!"
Seriously, this guy… He really did view me as something barely a step removed from a beast.
"If you say so."
"Ugh, seriously… So, where are we heading now?"
"Hmm."
Gawol retrieved that map of his again, tapping and sliding his finger across its surface.
"To begin with, we're roughly in the central part of the far northeast. From here, we can either follow the river down through the mountains to the west, or swing out toward the eastern edge and follow the coastline."
"Really? Where's our next destination, then?"
"There isn't an immediate destination per se," he said, shifting his finger down along a diagonal to the left, "but descending toward Hoan, crossing into Howon, and reaching its northernmost boundary is the primary goal of this leg of the journey."
"Hmph…"
Watching his finger trace the parchment, something didn't seem right to me. No matter how I looked at it…
"Wait a second. Wouldn't it have been way faster to just cut straight from Jungno into Churyeong from the start?"
In terms of raw distance, that looked at least twice as short.
Gawol gave me a look that practically screamed: Do I really have to explain something this basic?
What? Did I say something weird?
"Do you… happen to not know why Churyeong is called Churyeong?"
"Yeah. Isn't 'Chu' just autumn?"
It was colored brown on the map, after all.
He didn't even bother to feign a smile this time, simply letting out a weary sigh before launching into an explanation. "Haa… It's Chu as in spine, and Ryeong as in mountain pass. Rocky peaks and sheer cliffs jut out across the entire landscape like jagged vertebrae."
"Aha…?"
I had no clue. Until a year ago, after all, I'd never had any reason to set foot outside Geumwon.
"Still, it's not like there are zero roads, right?"
People lived there too, so there had to be paths.
At that, Gawol nodded faintly in agreement. "It's not that there are none. There are paths."
"Then that's that. We can just take the paths that exist."
"………"
Another long, suffering sigh escaped him.
"Hey, what's with the sigh?"
I was asking because I genuinely didn't know. No need to get moody.
"Just because a route 'isn't impossible' doesn't mean it's fit to travel."
"Ugh, well, that's true, but still…"
Doubling our travel distance seemed a bit extreme.
"To add to that," he continued, "pushing through those mountain passes takes twice as long as circling around to the south."
"Oh, is that how it is?"
Why didn't he just say so in the first place?
"Are you done talking?"
"Yeah."
Well, nothing for it, then. Down south we go.
"All right, good. Then let me ask again: following the coastline or seeking out the river—which do you think is better?"
"That would be…"
Come to think of it, I had never once seen the ocean in this life. I was genuinely curious. What kind of fish lived there? Would the seawater be clear? Or would there be giant coastal eels lurking in the shallows waiting to chew off a person's arm?
"Hmm, how about the sea?"
"Sounds great. River it is." Gawol flashed a bright, cheerful grin and even snapped his fingers.
Did this bastard just—?
"Why did you even bother asking if you were going to do that?!"
"Pardon? Well, I asked because I was curious."
Hey!
"Usually when someone asks a question like that, it means they're giving the other person a choice!"
"Come now… If the wagon and its cargo are exposed to sea winds, the salt air will rot them through in no time. A brief detour is one thing, but hugging the coastline for days on end is out of the question."
"Ah… ha."
The answer had already been decided from the very beginning.
"Tch."
Well, fine. Rivers had fish, too.
Looking up at Gawol as his eyes subtly drifted away, I grumbled, "Just hurry up and let's get going already…"
Come to think of it, where was Daeseong? She wasn't still sleeping, was she?
Gawol loaded the last of the gear into the wagon, then hopped down.
"Ah, hold on a moment. There's something I need to go fetch. Wait here for just a bit."
"Huh? What are you—"
Before I could even finish my sentence, he was already vanishing into the distance, leaving only a cloud of kicked-up dust in his wake.
"Wow… Guess I don't ever need to worry about him being too slow to run away."
Right then and there, I resolved that if we ever ran into bandits again, I would save Daeseong before Gawol.
"Phew… Let's get moving."
Returning in record time, Gawol had something cradled against his chest.
"Hm? What's that?"
Slide—
"Just something. Nothing important."
"Hooh…"
Suspicious.
Gawol pulled the item from his robes and stowed it deep in the corner of the wagon, right inside the crate holding the cooking supplies.
"We'll be using it later when we need it, so ignore it for now."
"I don't know what it is, but is it expensive?"
It had glinted in the light. Or maybe he'd bought some delicious treat and was planning to sneak it out at night to eat alone?
"I told you, it's nothing like that."
"Hrmm."
"What is with that 'hrmm'…?"
"All right, all right. I won't pry."
"Right…"
He brought Daeseong out from the stable where she was hitched and harnessed her to the wagon.
"Come on, let's depart."
"Yaaay…"
And so, the morning of my fourth day as a debtor began.
While rolling across a long stretch of flat terrain, a sudden thought struck me, and I broke the silence.
"Hey, by the way."
"Yes?"
"We have blankets in our wagon, and insect repellent, too, right?"
"Technically, it's my wagon, but yes… I make sure to pack those things carefully."
Yeah, I know. Even after only knowing you for a few days, I can tell you're meticulous like that.
"Then why bother spending money to stay at an inn?"
I was genuinely curious. On the second night, we'd literally camped out under the stars, after all.
"Hmm…"
His answer was slow in coming. He was probably turning something over in his mind.
After a moment, Gawol spoke up with an unusually solemn look on his face. "You make a good point. Guess we shouldn't stay at inns anymore."
An answer I hadn't seen coming in the slightest.
"Huh? Wait, why is that the conclusion you come to?!"
"Well… because there's no real reason to pay for an inn, is there?"
"Urk…"
Wait, is he really going to do that? Out of nowhere?
"Still… lying down under a proper quilt is way better than rolling around in the back of a wagon, isn't it?"
Less fatigue, easier on the back.
"And besides, sleeping inside lets you relax your guard a bit. You can wash up, too."
Not that I'd actually washed, of course.
At that, Gawol spoke as though he had just baited out the exact answer he was looking for. "See? Exactly."
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"No, well… you already know, don't you? The reason why we bother staying at an inn."
"A reason? What reason?"
"Think back to what you just said."
What did I just say? At most, that it was less exhausting, or that it let you relax… Ah.
I got it.
"Oh, that's it?"
It was a far simpler reason than I'd imagined.
"Yes. It's so that the journey is less exhausting."
Is that so…?
Still, if that was the only reason…
"We can just sleep comfortably in the wagon, then. It's plenty better than the bare dirt."
"………"
What? What was he staring at? I'd literally shared bed space with a rat before.
'Whoa, free breakfast,' I'd thought at the time.
Glancing at Gawol's face, I saw that his expression had crossed the border from skepticism straight into sheer bewilderment.
"I have no intention of criticizing you, but… may I ask a question?"
"Suddenly…? Well, sure. Go ahead."
Shoot.
"Where on earth did you grow up?"
"Hey now."
That was a bit of an odd question…
"You lack common sense in the strangest places, and while your skin is fair and delicate, your speech and habits are identical to a seasoned hunter or an old miner. I can't get a read on what kind of life you've lived at all."
"…Is it really that bad?"
"Yes."
He was brutally firm.
Faced with his unnervingly definitive assessment, I found myself completely at a loss for words.
"Well, uh…"
Not that he'd believe me anyway.
"Tsk, well, you know."
"What, did you grow up in the wild with wolves or something?"
"No! Nothing like that!"
"Then…?"
Haa…
"………Never mind."
Yeah. If I told him here and now that I used to be a modern human man, it would only add pity to that gaze of his, like he was looking at someone suffering from severe mental illness.
"Pardon? No, dropping it all on your own like that after bringing it up—"
"It's fine. Not like it's anything important."
Payback for earlier.
"Hrmm…"
Gawol continued to eye me, the skepticism refusing to fade from his face.
Ahem, ahem.
"Really, it's no big deal. More importantly, when's the river going to show up? You said we'd eat once we hit the river."
"Are you going to keep changing the subject?"
Yep. Just let it slide, buddy.
"Hey, how long have we even known each other? It's too early to be digging into stuff like that. I'll tell you later, later. Let's just be friends first."
"If you want to be friends, start by telling me your age."
"That's… Tch, who cares about age between friends? Ten years older or younger, you're still friends… Tsk, well, maybe five… no, three years apart is still friends!"
"……I don't think I even need to ask your age anymore."
"Hey. What is that supposed to mean?"
"……"
"Hey!"
Did he pout?
"Daeseong. Let's walk a little further before we rest."
"Are you really pouting?"
"I don't know what gave you that impression, but no."
"Then answer me."
"………"
Silent again.
In the end, neither of us said another word for quite a long time.