kscans

Chapter 271 - A New Journey's Beginning and a New Companion

Leaving Miglutt behind, we headed east, following a path that wound through fields of harvested wheat. The stalks, cut at their base, were still green, and pastured cows grazed on them. We were heading towards the fortress that guarded the aqueduct, the one I had visited with Marmi. We had traveled by horse then, but this time we were on foot. The different color of the wheat fields and the change in perspective made it feel like I was walking down a completely different road. Beyond the fortress, the land was undeveloped, the path narrowing into a mountain trail difficult for carriages. Famu's village was still a long way off.

"This isn't wheat," Famu said, pointing to the short-cut stalks.

"It's not? Isn't it the same as what was grown in the village we went to with Aidan?"

"That was wheat. This is oats." She picked up an ear that had fallen on the path, took a single grain, and placed it in her palm. The small grain was a rounded oval shape and a pale greenish-yellow.

"It's bigger than wheat. The husk is thicker too, right?" Famu asked, but I couldn't remember what wheat looked or felt like. Now that she mentioned it, the grain did seem large. According to her, autumn-sown crops like wheat were harvested in early summer, while the harvest for spring-sown crops was ending around now. Wheat was a prime example of an autumn-sown crop, and oats were a prime example of a spring-sown one, she explained.

"So, what's being harvested at this time of year is oats." She puffed out her chest, raised her index finger, and sniffed proudly.

"In our village, we ate it as porridge or bread, but in Miglutt, they must be using it as horse feed." Hearing her words, I glanced at Marmi. Her footsteps, unlike Famu's, were heavy. I and Famu were in the lead, with Mizuki and Myra behind us, and she was walking behind them.

"Is that right?"

"...What?" Marmi looked up. A single red dragonfly was dancing around her. It landed on the tip of her long ear. At that moment, her ear twitched, and the dragonfly flew up into the sky. The blue of the clear sky felt distant.

"You've been quiet for a while. Did something happen?" She usually had such good posture, but her center of gravity seemed low, and her shoulders were rounded.

"...The road is," Marmi began to mutter. Just then, Mizuki and Myra stopped, their lips tightening as they looked ahead. Famu had stopped walking too. A moment later, Marmi and I turned our heads in the same direction.

"A monster?"

"No, it looks like a person..." Myra answered my question. In the direction she was looking, a single tree stood. It was about three times my height. The branches at body level had been cleared away, creating a space to rest in the shade. Someone was standing there, hidden in the shadow of the trunk. As if sensing our awareness, the person slowly moved away from the tree trunk and revealed themselves. They were wrapped in a long robe and held a staff taller than they were. Two distinctive horns grew from their head. However, the contrast between the sun and shade made it impossible to see their face clearly. The figure continued to walk at a leisurely pace away from the tree and towards the center of the road, turning to face us. Sunlight poured down on her. It was a woman about the same age as Myra. Red eyes. Wavy red hair that reached below her shoulders. From above her ears, silver horns grew upwards. Her soft smile showed no signs of hostility. However, in stark contrast, the gazes of the Levante members were sharp and filled with killing intent.

"You're..." I stared at her for a while, but her name wouldn't come to mind. I lightly nudged Mizuki with my elbow to check, but Mizuki just nudged me back.

"What was her name again?"

"How should I know?" While Mizuki and I were whispering, Famu took a step forward, her hand on her kunai.

"You're from the Messiah..." The demon woman nodded at her words.

"It's Nephi." Her eyes, with their slightly upturned corners, were cool, like the wind that slipped between us. She smiled, raising the corners of her red lips. At first glance, she seemed to have a gentle demeanor, but there was a strength about her, perhaps due to her finely shaped eyebrows.

"Do you have some business with us, Miss Nephi?" Myra wasn't in a fighting stance, but she drew her mace closer to her chest.

"I didn't come here to fight. I was waiting."

"Waiting? For days here?"

"Of course not. I know you've been visiting the Mateo Trading Company. I got the information from someone there."

"You were inside Miglutt?! But who gave you information about us?" Leaving the city was the condition for letting her go. Nephi shrugged at Myra's accusatory question.

"I don't know who it was, but they told me when I said I was one of Mash's women." All the members of Levante turned to glare at me.

"So, why are you here? What happened to the man?" I would have to protest to Claire about the Mateo Trading Company's lax information management, but to avoid getting caught in the crossfire, I urged Nephi to continue speaking.

"He said he was heading to the Imperial Capital, so we parted ways. I heard you were heading to the Demon Kingdom, so I waited."

"Why didn't you go with him?"

"The Messiah was a group Clovis recruited from those who had drifted to this city. It would be a lie to say there were no feelings, but there's no need to stick together after he's gone. The Imperial Capital, completely controlled by humans, is a difficult place for someone like me to live. Since I can't live in Miglutt, I decided to return to the Demon Kingdom." Nephi spread her hands as if to say she was free.

"And?"

"Levante is a party of five, right? I was thinking you could let me join." We all looked at each other at the sudden proposal.

"It'd be better to have a guide from the Demon Kingdom, wouldn't it? Just until the royal capital. ...No, I'll even show you around the capital and introduce you to some influential nobles. That's it. You can think of it as a quest from me." Her words came in a torrent.

"You... no, we, Levante, crossed swords and fought with the Messiah. We exiled you from the city, killed one of you, imprisoned one, and enslaved two. Do you have no objections to that?"

"It's not that I don't. But it was Clovis who started the civil war in the city. And it was that man who put me in this position. So, I thought it might be alright to entrust myself to this man as well." Nephi's answer clouded Myra's expression.

"You... don't resent us?"

"I'd like to ask you the same thing. Does Levante not resent me? If you don't, then you should be able to let me join, shouldn't you?"

"Please don't change the subject. I'm the one asking the questions."

"I've been finding and killing transmigrators with Clovis and the others. I think it's natural to be resented. But transmigrators are human, not demons. The same goes for my comrades. You should be able to understand that feeling, right?" Nephi shifted her gaze to Marmi, but she remained silent, her face impassive. Myra, watching this, sighed.

"So you're saying you have no resentment, and cooperating with us is just a means to get to the Demon Kingdom, and you have no particular feelings about it?"

"I do have feelings. I'm interested in that man."

Ignoring her presence, we huddled in a circle, and Myra twisted her head.

"What should we do? It's true that it's difficult for demons to live in the imperial side of the world, outside of cities like Heilon, the river basin we followed, and Miglutt. However, the path we're trying to take is not well known to anyone but the dog-eared race. She also hinted at connections with the nobility of the Demon Kingdom. She might be useful to us. But when I think about the city and the transmigrators she killed..." Myra's eyes clouded as she looked at me. Was she thinking that I might have been one of them? However, the hostility she had been directing at Nephi seemed to have faded.

"I don't feel like taking a complete stranger to the village..." Famu replied.

"Are you afraid of being attacked by another bunch of weirdos? This might sound harsh, but that's a mistake. The problem wasn't that you couldn't hide, it was that you believed you were hidden when you weren't. Well, the attackers are the ones in the wrong, and there's no need to bring along someone you don't know."

"I... I know that." I placed a hand on her waist as she nodded, and Famu leaned against me.

"...It's better not to have a demon as a companion," Marmi muttered. Her voice lacked its usual strength.

"Is that your own opinion? Or are you speaking as an elf?" When I pressed her, she fell silent. In this world, there is a clear division between humans and other races. Elves also try to maintain a distance from other races, such as by protecting their bloodline, but perhaps due to their small numbers, their influence is weak. And the demons, who are said to have been born from the interbreeding of monsters and humans, seemed to be considered the enemy of all races. However, this was an ideological view within the Empire, and this way of thinking would likely change once we moved to the Demon Kingdom. Was she saying this in reaction to Nephi's earlier comment that seemed to look down on other races?

"She can't connect with the other Messiah members anymore, so I think we should ask her about them," Mizuki said.

"If you want information, we have Shirasu, don't we?"

"Shirasu was only brought out for battles. She's kind of spacey and doesn't know anything, right? In fact, we didn't even know Nephi's name until now!"

"That's because we didn't check, right?" I retorted to Mizuki, but Myra shook her head.

"No, she said she didn't know. She didn't even seem to know Sameim's name..."

"..." I wanted to say something in Shirasu's defense, but nothing came to mind. As I struggled, Mizuki cleared her throat.

"We're going to Famu's village now, so it's probably better not to bring any extra people."

"Yeah, you're right. I'm not keen on it either. We could ask Kalpana, but Hyakka and the others are with her, so it's even more impossible than if they were with us. Let's have her try to get to the Demon Kingdom on her own."

""""Huh?!"""" At my words, everyone cried out in surprise.

"She's a beautiful person, so I just assumed you were a 'never refuse a woman' type."

"So you do have some self-control..."

"But Master, you're attracted to that woman."

"...Maybe he's learned the limits of his stamina?" The four of them voiced their own assumptions. I'll teach Marmi about the limits of my stamina later.

"Well, I guess you could say I've come to understand the struggles of a popular man," I said with a smirk.

"Are you an idiot?" I poked Mizuki in the chest as she looked at me with exasperation, and she let out a small shriek and jumped back. Taking that as our cue, we all looked up. Just as I was about to give Nephi our answer, she approached us with a smile.

"Nephi, we're-" Before I could finish my rejection, she reached out and wrapped her arms around my neck.

"I know the conditions for joining. A pleasure to be with you." She closed her eyes and pressed her lips against mine.

Famu and the others stared at me with icy glares, now unable to refuse.

"We might not make it to the fortress by nightfall. Let's go..." Myra started to walk, inviting Mizuki along, but Nephi stopped her. She walked over to Marmi and knelt down in front of her.

"Show me your feet." Marmi stood frozen, not moving. Then, as if to avoid Nephi, she ran over to me and started walking with Famu. Seeing this, Nephi sighed and stood up. It seemed like it would be difficult for her to fit in with Levante. However, Mizuki naturally fell into step beside Nephi and started walking. And in the blink of an eye, they had started a friendly conversation.

"So, what do you think about Senpai... about Yuki-senpai?"

"I don't think anything about him."

"Were there any romantic relationships within the group?"

"Nope..." Nephi muttered in response to Mizuki's words, looking up at the sky.

"Weren't you screwing around with Clovis?" I asked, intending to tease, but Nephi tilted her head with a serious expression. Beside her, Mizuki glared at me disapprovingly.

"No. There wasn't. Wasn't he only interested in his own kind?"

"Don't ask me, but what about Yuki?"

"He's the same. In his case, it seems he had a woman he was devoted to." At Nephi's words, Mizuki blushed and clenched her hands tightly. What happened to the Mizuki who said she would be with me during the battle in Miglutt?

"What were you guys? A group of monks?" I said sarcastically, and Nephi gave a wry smile.

"If you put it that way, that's not it. It was more like we avoided excessive interference within the team. I didn't really understand Clovis, but the other two were buying prostitutes in Crystal Square."

This time, I gave Mizuki a triumphant look. Mizuki puffed out her cheeks and turned away.

"What about you, Nephi? Was there anyone you liked?" At those words, her eyes swam as she thought, and then she looked up at the sky and smiled.

"I left the Demon Kingdom to escape from that sort of thing... But to think I would end up returning like this."

Her eyes narrowed slightly, and the smile on her lips turned bewitching.

"I didn't say that with the intention of refusing. I understand what it means to join Levante, and I'm prepared for it."

I noticed that Marmi, who should have been at the front, was now walking at the very back, lagging behind. I found a rock she could sit on and had her sit down. Then I took off her shoes and socks. The marks from the shoelaces were bruised, and her toes looked red and swollen. When I looked at the bottom of her feet, I saw several blisters.

"Are these new shoes?" Marmi shook her head at my words.

"...The road is hard to walk on." I gently squeezed her toes, and she grimaced. Her gear wasn't store-bought; it was custom-made for her. Her shoes must have been rubbing, and she probably tightened them.

She usually walked on flat, well-maintained surfaces. We had long since left such paved roads behind. There were loose stones, and the tips of rocks buried in the ground were exposed. There were also ruts, making the path uneven. The mountain road to Famu's village would be even more rugged. We had decided to walk to the fortress to break in her feet, but she must have been enduring it for much longer. I worried about whether the others had blisters and glanced at them, but Famu and Mizuki seemed fine. Famu was a country girl, and I remembered Mizuki saying she went mountain hiking with her father. Myra seemed fine too. Had Aidan trained her? Nephi was an adventurer, so she was probably well-trained. Come to think of it, she was the first one to notice that the cause of Marmi's trouble was her feet.

"Myra..." I called out to her to ask for healing magic. But she put her hand to her chin and tilted her head.

"If we heal it with the power of miracles, the act of breaking them in will be wasted."

"Can't you just heal it just right? She can't walk properly like this, and she might get a black toenail."

"Don't ask for the impossible," Myra said with a troubled expression, and Marmi picked up the socks she had taken off.

"Mo, what's wrong? Does the smell of your socks bother you?"

"...No. I'll endure it and walk to the fortress."

"Wait. The destination isn't the fortress. It's Famu's village, far beyond that." At my words, Marmi's face paled for a moment with a look of despair, but she quickly composed herself and returned to her usual expression.

"...I'm fine."

"You're not fine!" I pressed on one of her blisters, and her face twisted into an indescribable expression.

"Let's heal the bruising on your ankle and the swelling on your toes. We'll drain the blisters and see how it goes."

While Marmi was receiving healing magic, I had Famu walk.

"Just lumber along like that."

"Hmph! I feel like I'm being made fun of." She said, and then stopped walking.

"I'm not making fun of you. Famu, you didn't get any blisters during Aidan's quest, even when you were a complete beginner. Your walking form is good. Your way of walking will be a good reference for Mo, who has a similar body type. Please walk a little more."

"I feel like something extra was added to that." Famu puffed out her cheeks and stomped as she walked. Thanks to that, the characteristics of her walking style became more pronounced.

"Mo is used to walking indoors or on stone pavement, so it might be a little hard to imagine, but try to imagine your upper body moving forward, and instead of kicking the ground, just step on it."

Marmi nodded at my words. After Myra's treatment was finished, I had her put on her socks and adjusted her shoes so they were snug but not tight. Marmi stood up and started stomping.

"I-I don't walk like that! Like this!" Famu hurriedly chased after Marmi, showing her how to walk as they went along. As I watched them for a while, Nephi came and stood next to me.

"A bunch of amateurs..."

"Except for Myra, everyone has only been an adventurer for about three months. And you lost to people like that, didn't you?" Nephi chuckled at my words.

"Indeed. I may have made the wrong choice. It seems it would have been easier to aim for the Demon Kingdom alone." I continued to watch her profile as she laughed, her shoulders shaking, but she seemed relaxed and calm.