In the end, was spending a rainy night outside without a campfire or some kind of tarp to protect you really only possible in dreams?
I woke up in the middle of the night, not because of the chill I felt on my skin, but the cold that seemed to creep out from deeper within me.
“…So this really won’t work.”
Seriously. It had also rained on our way from Ednium to Camborough, and I’d endured it quite well back then, so I’d thought it would work out this time, too… but I guess that wasn’t possible.
I’d been told the mountain range was rather precarious in a number of ways, but I didn’t think it would make this much of a difference.
…No, but I’d still held out for quite some time.
I looked through my Inventory. Since I’d organized the things inside it while alone, the items were now neatly sorted by type. That way, it was really easy to find what I was looking for immediately.
「Heated Stone │ A stone heated in a furnace. Retains heat. If you’re not careful, you might get burned.」
These were my preparations for surviving on my own. It used a trick that took advantage of the Inventory’s feature where things stored within it would retain whatever state they were in. Since the stones were rather heavy and large, I couldn’t prepare many.
So I took out a few stones and placed them near a few parts of my body. Of course, I made sure they didn't touch my bare skin. I didn't want to end up with burns, after all.“…”
Hmm. Even when I did that, this cold didn’t disappear right away. Well, it seemed like a single piece of cloth could make a surprisingly big difference.
I quietly opened my coat. I had a blanket in my Inventory, ignoring that those guys didn’t know I was there.
If the cold still didn't go away even after I covered myself with this blanket, I’d have to start calling this chill by a different name.
Plop. plop, plop.
And after the long wintery night passed, the rain finally stopped as well.
“Oh my God!!”
My body was completely soaked from the rain, but thanks to my Arcane Power and the heated stones, I wasn’t in that bad a shape this morning. But what was with that scream? Ṙ𝘼ℕɵ₿ĚS̩
“Wh-What? What’s wrong?”
“S-S-S-S-S-S-Someone’s there!”
Just as the sky gradually brightened, I got up to hear the scream of one of the peddlers, who had apparently also just awoken. It seemed they’d only now realized I was there.
“A g-g-g-g-ghost?”
“…”
Did I really look that scary…? When Bers quietly got up for her early morning training, no one said a word…
I felt a little depressed.
“He’s a person.”
“I-I see…”
Looking back on my actions, though, I’d suddenly risen from the tree after not making a sound all night. Even my appearance was dark and gloomy.
Thinking about it, I realized I couldn’t say anything, even if I did get mistaken for a ghost.
Letting go of my melancholy, I reflected on myself. This was entirely my fault, haha.
Neeeigh.
On another note, Frederick sure was like clockwork.
As soon as dawn broke, I fed him some grain as the stable hand had instructed. I also followed their advice about brushing the horse while he ate, as he was pretty temperamental.
Thanks to the waterproof tarp, his coat hadn’t gotten completely drenched, but it was still slightly damp from the moisture in the air, so I evenly brushed it down.
“Didn’t you hear the horse?”
“No, erm… I just assumed one of your horses was making noise. Or maybe the wind.”
“Ah…”
Alright, since it was still dark, I should just leave it at that and get some breakfast. I could give him another brush after lunch.
After moderately brushing him, I sat beside Frederick and took out my meal from my Inventory.
Not having a fire to cook with didn’t cause even the slightest issue for me. After all, this Inventory was my most powerful, ultimate cheat code!
Clatter.
I opened the lunchbox that held my food, my provisions, my lifeline. It was a special lunchbox I’d ordered from the place where the bookstore owner’s sister worked.
Just like the heated stones, the food was preserved in the same condition as when I’d stored it. It was as warm as if it had been freshly made.
On a side note, I had thirty of these lunchboxes. Assuming I had three meals a day, five meals would be gone in two days—considering the amount Bers and the Inquisitor ate, it might last them just one—but now, I had enough to last me ten whole days.
Seriously, taking care of only myself without needing to consider anyone else was just too easy. I had so much less to bring with me.
I slowly ate the contents of the lunchbox, feeling a bit more comfortable and a lot more uneasy for feeling that way.
Bean soup, smoked fish, boiled eggs, and bread that served as a temporary bowl. It was quite a luxurious meal for something eaten while camping outside.
“Erm, mister, about breakfast… Ah. You’ve already eaten…”
But something was strange. The food was hot enough to nearly burn my mouth, but why did it feel so cold once it reached my stomach?
I clenched my fists as I saw the person approaching me retreat again. He, along with the rest of the group, were now staring at their slowly simmering soup.
That was the difference between me, who only had to eat, and them, who had to start cooking right after waking up. And since I wasn’t a slow eater, the gap between us seemed to widen even further.
“Let’s go.”
Neigh.
So I might as well make use of that time.
To somehow mask these strange feelings inside me, I took Frederick by the reins to get him some water. With everyone staying right where they were because they ate, I decided I’d take the time to wash up a little.
“Ah, Demon Knight. You’re not going ahead on your own, right…?”
I wasn’t planning to. Had I distanced myself so much that they didn’t even trust me on this? I quickly brushed it off, though.
This wasn’t something I could explain adequately. This was a problem only time could resolve until some unspoken rules or norms were formed.
“I’m only taking my horse to drink. No need to worry.”
Besides, the Archmage already knew.
“Ah, erm, you’re with this group, right?”
“…We’re traveling together.”
“Right, Sir Adventurer! There should be a closer stream that way! I almost tripped and fell into it yesterday, so I’m very sure of it!”
Oh, really? If it was closer, I should definitely go there. I changed direction to where the peddler was pointing.
Frederick slowly followed me as I held his reins in my hand.
We soon came across the little stream the peddler had mentioned, slightly off the road.
“This… won’t work.”
But there was just one problem: last night’s rain had deepened the stream, which was good and all, but it had churned up the muddy ground in the process, dirtying the water.
Should I have just gone to the other one?
No, even if I had, I wouldn’t have come across clean water.
I quickly washed my face a little before pulling on Frederick’s reins.
Maybe the water was cleaner upstream? With that in mind, I held on to some hope.
Snort.
Stop that already. You wouldn’t want to drink that water either, right? Although, you could say this was my fault for not thinking to collect some rainwater last night.
“…?”
Just then, I caught sight of a small hut at the end of the stream. It was covered in moss and weeds, showing it had been abandoned for quite some time.
“I guess that’s the hut the peddlers were talking about.”
As I approached the hut, the water in the stream started to look much cleaner.
I let Frederick drink as much water as he wanted and took a few steps closer to the hut.
“…It doesn’t seem like this hut’s owner just died.”
There were some subtle traces that couldn’t simply be dismissed as caused by the passage of time. Even though I wasn’t an expert in this field, I still noticed.
For instance, some marks made it look like something had cut into the building, and a wall on one side appeared to have had a hole blown into it.
“It doesn’t seem like it’s been abandoned for decades, either.”
Sure, the wall could have naturally collapsed after some time. However, aside from the signs of destruction, the building was still in pretty good shape. The amount of weeds and dust inside the building was relatively minimal as well.
To my untrained eyes, this place looked to have been abandoned for a few years at most, not ten or twenty.
Creak.
After checking on Frederick a little, I entered the building through the broken wall. The floor creaked under my feet but didn’t seem unstable enough that it might collapse beneath my weight.
My gaze wandered in a different direction. The first thing I saw was some broken furniture. This messy scene somehow resembled something straight out of a crime drama.
“Did a fight actually happen here?”
Mimicking the pose of the detective in one of those shows, I traced the remnants of the fight. Thud. Then something hit my foot.
It was a skeleton wrapped in old clothes.
“May your soul rest in peace.”
Who could this be? The owner, perhaps?
After politely praying for the deceased’s soul’s peaceful rest, I couldn’t help but stare at the skeleton out of curiosity… and then noticed it was clutching a dagger. The initials “P.B.” were elegantly engraved on it.
‘Hah.’
Suddenly, a sharp laugh rang out in my mind. It was my laughter, or was it? No… I never laughed, so it couldn’t have been me…
‘The sins carved upon this land have come back to me through the ages.’
My…?
“—!!”
A searing pain suddenly spread up my arm. Crunch. Something was very wrong.
“Argh…!”
I clutched my right arm and bent over. The intensity of the pain was similar to when I was hit with Divine Power, but there was a difference.
Divine Power would hit me all over, so the pain was dispersed, but now, the pain was concentrated in one place: my right arm.
In short, if Divine Power hit me in ten different places with a strength of five, this pain was striking at just a single spot with a strength of ten.
While the total damage inflicted by Divine Power might be worse, this pain was far more excruciating.
It hurt so very much.
“Argh…”
Would it be better if I just cut off the arm?
I crouched down, still clutching my right arm. This pain wasn’t something I could shake off with my lowered pain level, nor was I currently in a battle where I could easily forget the pain due to adrenaline and fear, so this was so much harder for me to endure.
‘Ah, how dull.’
“…!”
Fortunately, the pain faded just as suddenly as it had started. It was then that I finally managed to grip the dagger.
“Huff, huff.”
I slowly got up, gasping for breath, having been unable to breathe properly before due to the pain.
My head throbbed, and all my strength left my body. Thud. I tried to get up, but my legs gave out and I fell back down.
It seemed it would take me some time to get back on my feet again.
* * *
“What are you doing, knight?”
But then, a shadow loomed over me. It was Bers.
“Do you need help?”
She didn’t even need to ask this question to know the answer, but… ever since I’d declared that I would be keeping my distance, Bers had been the one who respected my decision the most. It would have been strange for her not to ask.
“…No.”
If it were the Inquisitor or Deb, they would have been much more persistent even if I answered them like that, thinking there was at least some hope, but I knew Bers wouldn’t do that.
I quietly answered her, trusting my instinct. I then closed my eyes, listening for the sound of her footsteps fading away.
Thump.
“…?!”
But what was this?
I felt some pressure around my waist and froze in surprise. Meanwhile, she lifted my body with the arm wrapped around my waist.
“You…!”
I’d given her an answer, confident she wouldn’t do anything. I truly believed that!
So why, out of everyone, even you, Bers…?!
Creak, creak.
With me slung over her shoulder, Bers left the building. I tried to struggle out of her grasp, but my body, tense from all that pain, still refused to listen to me.
Bang.
The only good thing was that Bers put me down before the stream. She didn't take me back to the campsite.
“Come back after washing up.”
Thanks to that, I had a chance to clean myself up properly.
I glared at Bers, who’d walked away without a second thought. I then dipped my hands into the stream, pondering the meaning behind her actions. The only one who’d know what was going through her mind was, of course, Bers herself.
“…This is so annoying.”
Here I was, crouched at a shallow stream, about to wash my face. Just what was wrong with me? This was so unsightly.
Still, I had no other option. I sighed, wiped my face, and when my legs regained their strength, I removed my coat and splashed water all over my body. I figured just letting myself dry off like this would be better than being covered in sweat.
Snort.
“…Just wait a moment.”
I washed my face one last time, placating Frederick, who was looking at me as if to ask what we were doing next. Now that the pain had almost gone, my mind started to run haywire with all the questions rushing through it.
Why did that pain appear? What triggered it? Would it happen again? And if it would, was there a way to prevent it?
But I couldn’t get an answer to any of these questions. At best, I could guess that this place was somehow responsible for this.
And then there was that laugh…
I faintly felt the burning sensation from earlier return in my right arm, so I instinctively clutched it again.
It was probably just phantom pain, but… even that was enough to make me furrow my brows.
“…Things are just getting more and more complicated, seriously.”
I didn’t have a clue. With much difficulty, I managed to get up, holding the eyepatch I’d removed to wash my face. At least my legs seemed steady now.
Neigh.
“Don’t make a fuss.”
I threw Frederick an apple before heading back into that building. I was slightly worried that pain would hit me again, but there was something more important I needed to handle.
The dagger the skeleton had been clutching since before it died was now in my hand. This might reveal the deceased’s identity and, if possible, the Demon Knight’s past.
Honestly, whatever had happened earlier couldn’t have occurred for no reason.
“…I’ll borrow this for a while.”
Instead, I dug a hole in the ground with my Zweihänder to bury this person.
This was the best I could offer for this dagger.
The stream water I’d poured all over myself was trickling down my body like sweat.
Thud, thud, thud.
“Phew.”
Ah, digging with this Zweihänder was so damn hard.
After struggling for about five minutes, I managed to dig a hole big enough to fit all these bones inside.
It was indeed fortunate that no flesh or muscles were left on the bones. Otherwise, this would have been a lot harder.
Thud.
But looking at it now, this wasn't too shabby. I carved a simple wooden cross, put it on the grave, and piled some rocks on top of it.
This makeshift grave was the closest to what I knew. Well, I’d done my best. It didn’t seem like the graves in this world were much different.
“Ah, over here, mister!”
“See, I told you he didn’t leave!”
“You were actually worried about that as well, though.”
“Th-That’s only because you kept scaring me…!”
“But where did Mister actually go anyway?”
“Hmm… Ah, I think he’s over there.”
“Mister? What are you doing in there?”
Still, it would be quite a shame just to leave it at that.
I covered my mouth, which was pulling itself into a faint smile, with my hand when I heard their chatter outside while wondering what could be missing. I thought back on those scenes from K-dramas and foreign movies of people visiting someone’s grave.
Flowers, I was missing flowers.
“Oh, a grave…?”
“…Did you make it by yourself?”
But I didn’t have any flowers with me now. It also felt a bit strange to go out and gather some, considering my character setting.
So what could I do? I had no choice but to resort to some Korean-style ancestral rites.
Thud.
I took out the apples, bananas, blueberries, and pears I’d brought as snacks for Frederick and laid them before the grave.
If I had some alcohol with me, I would have sprinkled some on it, but I unfortunately didn’t have any. Maybe I could steal some… I kind of wished those guys had come a little later, but since they were here, I definitely couldn’t do that.
So, I simply poured water over it as a substitute and left the place. The two who’d been watching followed me.
“It would have been nice if you’d taken us along…”
It certainly would have been easier on me… but they would’ve definitely questioned why I’d taken the dagger. And if they had seen me writhing in pain like that, they would have probably kicked up a fuss again.
In any case, it was good that I did this alone.
Ignoring their words, I grabbed Frederick’s reins and headed back to the campsite.
There was still a long way to go until we reached Bemurchen.
* * *
“The Hero is coming here.”
“Oh, is it finally time to end the war with the mermen?”
“I don’t know. But considering how well the Hero does, I think we can look forward to it.”
The Great Sage of the Bemurchen Magic Tower, the master of Essence Magic, known as Surging Azure Lake, answered the lord’s question with some indifference evident in their voice.
The lord, pouting their lips, threw the bottle of alcohol they were holding.
Crash.
“Your Lordship, I told you to stop throwing bottles in my chambers.”
Azure Lake broke the bottle with Arcane Power without looking back even once. The lord pouted their lips even more.
“As if it matters.”
“Someone has to clean up after you. If you’re not going to do it, stop doing this.”
With a rustle, Azure Lake folded the letter he was reading. The chains attached to the glasses on his nose swung slightly.
Clink, clink.
Meanwhile, at Azure Lake’s gesture, the glass shards scattered across the floor began to melt with a clear sound. Then, they gathered together and solidified into a single mass. It was a small sculpture depicting the lord killing a merman.
“How cold-hearted.”
“Your Lordship, you’re being inefficient.”
Azure Lake handed the glass sculpture to the Lord.
“If you wanted me to make you a sculpture, you could have just asked. I’m not so pressed for time to refuse even this small request.”
“What? Is that supposed to be touching?”
“If there’s nothing more important to discuss, you should go back now. I have two rather difficult requests to fulfill.”
“…Right, that’s it, huh?”
“What did you expect?”
Azure Lake could only express his incomprehension at the lord’s strange remark.
Seeing that the lord wouldn’t be going back so easily today, he started bringing up his own workload. “Anyway, this woman sure has a certain knack for bringing in interesting and complicated research topics.” He threw some small non-complaints into the mix as well.
“What’s that?”
“Material for a sword.”
“A sword?”
After reading the enclosed letter again, Azure Lake cast a spell to analyze the material more closely. As it examined the properties of the huge bone, precise information emerged.
“No matter how I look at it, this looks like a bone… but whose is it? It’s far too large to be from a regular animal.”
“Hmm.”
He was already used to the lord’s senseless chattering next to him. Instead of answering, Azure Lake rang a bell using Arcane Power. Soon, the attendant in charge rushed in.
“Did you call for me?”
“Bring my grandson. I need him to make a sword and some accessories. He’ll understand when you tell him his dexterity is greatly needed.”
“Yes.”
The attendant was ordered around as soon as they came in and had to leave just as quickly.
“Are you ignoring me? And do you really have to involve that kid?”
“My lordship. I’m under no obligation to explain to you about the items sent to me for a personal commission.”
“Don’t be so petty.”
“Speak properly. You’re the one being unreasonable here.”
“Werner!”
“If you two are going to keep fighting, can I just leave again?”
“Hmm?”
“Huh.”
Azure Lake turned his head at the voice interrupting his argument with the lord. The face he saw by the door had arrived much earlier than he’d expected.
“You came early.”
“I just met Sage Carl right outside, after all.”
“Good. Come and help me with my work.”
“The payment?”
“I heard you’re after some materials from Grindana.”
“You’ll buy them for me?”
“Yes.”
“Alright.”
Knowing his grandson well, Azure Lake didn’t drag out the conversation. His grandson was of the same mind.
Instead of uselessly haggling, they quickly reached an agreement.
“…Hey, am I invisible to you?”
“It’s become a bit tiring to greet someone who comes by every day without a proper reason.”
“…You’re practically screaming with your whole body that you’re Werner’s grandson.”
“Thank you. So, what do I need to cut?”
“I’ll need to reevaluate the estimate for the accessory-type items, so let’s put that off for now. What we’ll do now is this.”
Azure Lake pointed at the massive bone on the workbench.
“You’ve probably heard the news about a Primordial Beast of the East being slain, right? This is one of its bones.”
At the unexpected identity of the bone, the lord’s eyes widened, and Azure Lake’s grandson furrowed his brows.
“This sounds fun.”
The eyes of the genius, who’d earned the title of Master Craftsman at the tender age of 20, sparkled with interest.
____
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