The Barzian Camp
Airen, who had no idea how much it was gnawing at her, simply grinned and gave a bright thumbs-up.
“Of course! I even managed to lure one of Winter Bell’s priests into Varzian! Hah, isn’t that incredible luck?”
“I’m not sure whether to call this insane luck or horrible misfortune…”
“Huh? What was that?”
“Nothing, Commander. I’m going to rest in the carriage for a bit.”
While Airen’s reply trailed off into a distracted, “Oh, sure…,” Jin’s face had gone completely worn out as she turned the reins and peeled away from the procession.
Airen scratched her cheek awkwardly, then turned to look at the white donkey following a little behind them with a steady clop of hooves.
“Sorry about that, priest. Jin was a little too stiff, wasn’t she? She’s always on guard.”
“It’s fine.”
Riding the white donkey, Seherbian smiled kindly as though he knew nothing at all.
“That makes sense. A dragon priest suddenly abandoning the temple and saying he wants to join a knight order? I’d have been suspicious too.”
“Haha! I was the one who made the recruitment offer, though.”
“It’s not as if I can suspect the Commander.”
That was true enough. After a short chuckle, Airen answered with an expression that held both apology and a trace of bitterness.
“Jin’s the sort who starts by doubting everything, maybe because of what she went through when she was young. But we wouldn’t have grown this far without her.”
In truth, both Seherbian and Mimir had agreed before that without Jin Veronica’s vigilance, the organization known as Varzian would never have survived.
“She can be a little excessive, so there are people who’ve felt uncomfortable with her, but I’ve always been grateful to Lady Jin. And I’d like to extend the same thanks to you for understanding her, Priest.”
“I see.”
The white donkey gave a small snort and turned its head away.
Seherbian stroked the donkey’s neck gently as he listened to the conversation.
“We should be arriving soon.”
At some point, sheep had begun appearing in clusters across the endless fields, grazing peacefully. On other hills, calves with bells around their necks, their mothers, and even horses resting in the shade all seemed to mingle together in quiet harmony.
Across the land, now visibly more fertile than it had been before they crossed the mountains, green sprouts were pushing up everywhere, rippling in soft waves like a tranquil sea.
And then, a little later—
Chiiiik!
With a raucous sound, a massive wheel rolled forward. Seherbian, seeing the great vehicle for the first time at the far end of the long plain, stared at it blankly.
“This is…?”
Sensing at once that its master required an explanation, the white donkey jingled the bell around its neck and answered his question.
It is a magically powered mechanical device.
“A machine?”
“Ah, Priest, is this your first time on a train?”
Before Mimir could continue, Airen cut in between them and introduced the unfamiliar marvel before their eyes.
“The Alferios royal family imported this train from the Machine Kingdom. It runs on mana as fuel, and unlike a carriage, it can only travel along a fixed route.”
Just as she said, the train’s wheels rolled only along the tracks. Airen shrugged again as Seherbian gazed wordlessly at the rails stretching far into the distance.
“It does have the drawback of not being able to change course midway, but for moving a lot of people quickly and comfortably to their destination, nothing beats it.”
“So this is a means of transportation.”
“Heh, after experiencing it myself, I can say there’s no better way to travel.”
Airen praised the train with complete sincerity.
The nations protected by dragons were, for the most part, on friendly terms with one another. The Machine Kingdom, which studied the world’s mana laws and scientific principles to invent its machines, was also one of the countries that had established ties with Alferios, home of Winter Bell.
The Kingdom of Alferios never hesitated to adopt any useful foreign innovation it encountered through exchange with other countries. Its open policies extended even to race, which was why so many different peoples now lived within its borders.
Guided by Airen’s friendly explanation, Seherbian boarded the train without protest.
Unlike the others heading toward the livestock car, he held Mimir in his arms after the staff had transformed into a cane.
* * *
The train swallowed up the whole party and began to glide along the rails.
Seherbian sat in a four-person seat beside Airen, Jin, and Casio, scanning the interior with curious eyes.
Not bad.
The swaying was far less severe than in a carriage, and because the train ran on mana rather than beasts, no living creature had to be overworked. The railroad had already been laid out ahead of time, so there were no obstacles blocking the way, and the speed was tremendous.
Seherbian was thoroughly pleased with this magical invention made by humans. The sturdy walls of the train even blocked the heat, keeping the carriage pleasantly cool. When he rested his head against the window, the endless plains spread out beyond it.
It was the right choice to come out.
In the snowbound wasteland of Blanconia, with its every direction hemmed in by ice, he had never even imagined a mode of travel this comfortable. Of course, Door existed, but this wasn’t simply a matter of efficiency.
Unlike passing through space itself, a train that raced along while fresh scenery flashed by outside was far better at making the traveler feel as though they were truly on a journey.
Ever since leaving the temple, everything he saw and heard had been fascinating. Even the ordinary rhythm of life, which had always felt dull, now seemed a little special.
…….
Mimir watched Seherbian quietly from within his arms as he blankly admired the view outside. The white staff’s bell gave a tiny shake when it noticed the smile that had risen to its master’s lips.
Jingle…
As a branch of the World Tree and a guardian of Winter Bell, Mimir also had the duty to support him so that he would not stray from the proper path.
Seherbian, who had abandoned the prayers of the people, left the temple, and thrown away the duties of Winter Bell, was already far removed from his proper place.
And yet—
…….
The expression on Winter Bell Seherbian’s face now looked more relaxed than it had at any point in the dozens of years Mimir had known him.
The faint light circling the bell slowly faded.
If the master was satisfied, then perhaps it would not be so bad to indulge in this deviation together.
* * *
The train ran without rest through day and night until it finally stopped at a port city.
The harbor, spread beneath a low hill, consisted of a steep road, a handful of low buildings, and a single castle built from white bricks. Though the area itself was rather busy, the path the train followed remained neatly and carefully maintained.
As Seherbian stepped off the train behind Airen, he looked around at the stone road stretching on and on. What held his gaze the longest was the castle in the distance.
It wasn’t especially luxurious, but it was clean, and the care put into it was obvious. The round leaves climbing along the walls gave the place a feeling of vitality, every bit as lively as the emerald roof.
“Now then, welcome.”
Casio came over and gave a simple introduction.
“To our refuge, Barzian Camp.”
Just then, a large sign planted near the train station came into view.
Barzian Camp (Barzian Camp).
A modest placard decorated with a sword and a snowflake beside an arrow made the name of their organization stand out clearly.
Come to think of it, there hadn’t been many people who got off at this station. Airen’s group led Seherbian along with practiced steps as they strode down the slope.
It didn’t take long before small buildings began appearing. The houses, built by carving sturdy little bricks into place, were more numerous than they had first seemed.
Do ordinary residents live here too?
Having imagined a stiff, severe fortress-like landscape for a knight order’s base, Seherbian found himself a little puzzled.
By then, the group had reached the castle with the emerald roof.
The guards stationed before the iron gate spotted them first and reacted immediately.
“...Commander?”
They recognized Airen, who stood at the front, at once.
“Commander Airen!”
“The Commander is back!”
The news spread through the entire forest like wildfire. Hearing that their leader had returned, people dropped whatever they were doing and came flooding out of their homes.
From young men rolling up their sleeves to elderly people tending livestock with wrinkled hands, every one of them was a member of Barzian Camp.
“Commander, this is… uh, the soup we made today.”
Children were mixed in with the welcoming crowd as well.
For some reason, though, most of them looked painfully thin and wilted.
An epidemic?
Seherbian studied the children closely. They didn’t look much different from the patients he had seen in Hartney Territory, so his first thought was an epidemic, but he soon shook his head.
No. They’re not weak because they’re sick.
Their bodies were exceptionally thin, and they kept glancing nervously at the adults without pause.
The cracked nails and the short-cropped hair, cut down regardless of whether they were boys or girls, bore the unmistakable marks of hardship endured simply to survive.
Those are…
Jingle!
The residents of Barzian Camp are seventy percent commoners. As for the children, many of them only arrived recently; some were still living as outcasts as little as five days ago.
Outcasts.
People cast aside by society.
In the class-stratified Kingdom of Alferios, there was a rank so low it was said to be beneath even trash, and that was the class known as the outcasts.
Outcasts have no family.
Though they were undeniably human, they were treated like rats or flies that had simply arisen on their own.
They were not given the identity cards even commoners possessed, and because their status was not recognized, they were forced into slavery or drawn into criminal organizations to handle dirty work.
Those miserable, pitiful lives—ignored even as they were cut down in street fights or crushed under horses in the road—were the outcasts.
The thin soup, diluted by pouring water into old milk and boiling it, had already gone cold, but Airen drank it down in one gulp and then patted the child who had brought it on the head.
“Thanks, Dylan. I feel a lot more full because of you.”
“Hehe.”
The child blushed at the praise and smiled shyly. The people who came up after that all asked after Airen or helped him with whatever they could.
Within Barzian Camp, the leader Airen was everyone’s anchor, the sun that shone on the path toward their new lives. There was no one who had not fallen for the leader who always charged ahead into danger and reached out without hesitation to those sunk in despair.
The group that had come with Airen received the same warm welcome.
Then one of the guards pointed at Seherbian.
“Hold on. There’s a face I don’t recognize.”
“Who?”
“That hooded person over there. He looks red-haired at a glance, and his clothes are all draped and flowing.”
“Huh? Now that you mention it. Was there someone like that among the members?”
As people began eyeing Seherbian suspiciously, Casio stepped forward to clear up the misunderstanding.
“Ahem, no need to be so wary. Priest Seherbian is a priest.”
“A priest?”
“By chance, he ended up traveling with the boss. After an unexpected meeting, the boss personally offered him a place, and Priest Seherbian accepted!”