Chapter 134 – Chapter 134 ― The Story Hidden From You (5)
Episode 134 ― The story hidden from you (5)
“Your trust in Diobe is great.”
These were the words of Aina, who was riding Kerr by Roan’s side.
Roan, who had been staring blankly in front of her, turned to her.
“… Ah. That’s what I was talking about with the duke earlier.”
Now, he was on the road to the ruins following the knights and guides selected by the Lord of the Eastern Hwangju in advance.
From Laju, a large city in the Eastern Emperor’s Land, you can reach the ruins in about an hour walking by a human, or about 20 minutes by walking a demon. If Roan runs, 30 minutes is enough distance.
However, even after walking for a short distance, the scenery is dry. As soon as I left the riverside holding Laju, I felt a sandstorm.
“Where is the sand blowing?”
“It’s over the desert in the east.”
Roan muttered as he looked at the place the knight was pointing at.
“Is it a fallen land?”
In an instant, the knight’s eyes widened.
But he quickly lowered his scarred face to hide his expression.
Unlike the Knights of Basel or Xeno, the Knights of the Dry Land do not have iron armor or helmets.
As there was no helmet, the knight who was eventually caught in shock was silent for a while before speaking heavily.
“… Yes. Your majesty.”
Aina frowned.
That brief reply fully revealed his aversion to the land beyond.
Sensing this, Roan answered Aina’s words without asking the knight any further.
“Trust… She knows how far she can go. Okay. Is it trust?”
“Heh, that’s a little envious.”
Aina was looking away with her lips sticking out.
Roan smiled faintly.
“… The ravenous forest elf seems to get everything she wants, but is there anything more to be greedy for?”
“Ughhh… !!”
Aina swallows her breath like a scream without even realizing it.
When the knights guiding the way in front of me were startled by the sound, they glanced back,
She protested at Roan in a low voice, her face blushing.
“Such, such a word… !”
“The appearance of envy is also different. Cute.”
Roan smiled and watched Aina’s face turn red all the way to the tips of her ears, and laughed.
The charming low voice that flowed from the calm expression made Aina’s blush, which had subsided a little, deepen again.
“Aina is strong. So you know Diobe’s strength too.”
In a slightly excited state, Aina nodded her head.
“Diove, of course, is calm and knows how to capture her feelings well. She has enough administrative skills and also has a good looks to be liked. But above all, she is strong.”
Roan laughed.
“A strong swordsman doesn’t lose her strength just because she doesn’t have a sword. Why do you think Diobe has endured so well while living among the demons?”
“Ah… No way, uhm, but Diobe doesn’t look like that…”
Aina smiled awkwardly.
Roan smiled.
“It must be that he hides it well enough not to be revealed. The absolute rank among demons is neither political power nor money. It’s strength.”
Hmm.
Diobe was competent (physical).
Even when interposed among her handmaidens,
Even while she was doing management work by leading a group of humans and mixing with demons.
It’s her power that can only be seen in the game story.
Someone who can only see one side of Diove, like Grunent or Aina — who doesn’t want Diove to show her helpless side — may never know.
“Your majesty. Seen over there… That is it.”
“Hmm.”
The Witchbeast riding the party stopped walking.
I see something like a huge basin in the distance.
The shallowly dug land is cracked.
And beyond,
It is a tombstone that can be seen among the stumps of dead trees.
“What is that seat?”
“Once upon a time there was a small lake. It dried up a few years ago and no more water comes out.”
Roan’s heart felt heavy.
You can’t just blame the climate in this area where it doesn’t rain.
Donghwangryeong, which was originally a grassland, is becoming a desert. Does the power of the fallen land make everything dry?
With a sad expression on her face, Aina looks at the hollowed-out land that used to be a puddle.
Roan glanced at the place where the tombstone was and gave an order to the knights.
“I’m going over there for a while. Let you wait.”
The knights bowed their heads to express their blessings and started pitching a simple tent as Roan and Aina walked away. It is to follow the instructions given in advance not to see the emperor’s actions.
Aina looked back several times to check the tent they had built.
Since the dried lake was not large, they quickly reached the tombstone.
— Lest those who defend this land in the face of wickedness not thirst.
They quench their thirst and moisten the earth, and this small lake will protect the warriors.
Where the traces of deep life remained, the goddess left her footprints.
The inscription on the tombstone was rubbed away by the sandstorm, but the deeply carved letters can be read.
After stroking the tombstone, Roan quietly turned on the ‘shield’ and wrote ‘light’.
Stone ruins exposed under the morning sun. The round shape is a waypoint that I have already seen many times.
“… It’s amazing to look at…”
Aina exclaimed admiration as she stroked the epitaph.
In front of Roan’s eyes, along with the mini-map, the location of Laju’s waypoint was displayed.
“Then, shall we go?”
“Ugh…”
Lauca, suffering from severe motion sickness, looked straight, but there was no way to avoid it. The place you arrive after being wrapped in warm power for a while…
“Uwueeeee .”
“… This.”
Roan patted Aina on the back.
Fortunately, she didn’t regurgitate what was in her stomach, but after gagging several times, I looked around her with her haggard eyes.
“… Oh, maybe this… ?”
Aina’s gaze stopped at a small package placed in front of the tombstone.
As I said earlier with the magic ball, Grunent brought the crystal powder he received from the Count in front of the waypoint in Basel.
Everyone knows that this crystalline powder was shipped overland. The only ones who know the truth are a few knights who signed a confidentiality agreement with Grunent while exploring the first waypoint last time.
Crystal powder that absorbs mana. The magic bird courier was not available.
The magic bird, once summoned as a test, became fed up and disappeared as soon as it came near the crystal.
It was said that while Roan was moving to Laju, the count made enough crystal powder to grow the garden of the imperial castle.
“… Are these really enough?”
Aina’s gaze is full of doubt.
Because the size of the package wrapped in magic blocking material Roan picked up was too small for Aina to think.
“Didn’t you bring seeds, trees, and other things?”
“This is enough.”
What Roan was holding in his hands was the size of a bag of household pancake powder. I heard that the Count made crystal powder and grew crops with it, but Aina did not know the specifics.
It would be natural to be curious.
Even Roan, who heard it at first, doubted his ears.
“The gas mileage was good.”
“… What is the fuel economy?”
Roan, who stroked Aina’s cheek with a puzzled look on her face, stood in the middle of her waypoint again, and Aina’s face turned white again.
Although invisible, knights guard this barren forest and keep others out.
You’ve been warned not to look inside, but it’s still better not to open it to anyone’s eyes.
“Go back.”
“Ugh…”
Aina, who took her waypoint back and forth in her sequence, eventually collapsed as soon as she returned to Laju.
“… This.”
Roan silently casts a holy magic upon her to restore her vitality.
As her light seeps in, she barely holds her head up and Aina repeats her deep breath. After a few breaths, her complexion returned to normal.
Let her climb aboard the ker and return to her knights.
They were surprised to see Aina holding a package they hadn’t seen before.
Aina told them that she was a great forest fairy sorceress. Since a wizard cannot be judged by appearance, their curiosity and surprise only deepened.
“Then, go back first.”
“Um, I’ll go. Your majesty.”
The two knights and Aina go back to Laju first.
Seeing Aina’s back, Roan turned Kerr’s body upside down.
“Then, shall we go too?”
And the faces of the knights grew even darker.
**
“There is no wind today. Is it like this?”
After 30 minutes of silence, it was Roan who finally spoke first.
No matter how uncomfortable the silence is, no knight dares to speak first in front of the emperor.
Only then did the one who seemed to be the leader of the knights open his mouth as if he was breathing.
“Yes. Just before spring comes, it becomes quiet like this.”
It was the knight whose face was full of deep scars. With a faint smile on his sullen face, he came to Roan’s side to deliver his voice.
The temperature rose as the sun began to rise, but it wasn’t hot enough to burn like the common preconception about deserts.
Roan said, looking around at the far-reaching dirt road and the sparse shrubbery.
“It must be a good time to move.”
Then his smile turned a bit bitter.
“Yes. It used to be like that.”
Roan read the regret between his lines and asked.
“Are there no such people now?”
However, the knight thought for a moment without being rude before replying.
“A lot of people can’t afford it right now. Since the men went to war, it is dangerous for the remaining women, children and the elderly to leave the city.”
The knight put on a worried expression for a while, looked at Roan’s expression, and then added.
“But soon the soldiers will return home.”
“Hmm. Right.”
Roan nodded his head.
In his original world, he had never seen such a wide expanse of wasteland or desert.
Korea, where it is difficult to see the horizon,
It is because he has spent his entire life in a big city where everyone is in trouble.
I spent most of my time here, too, in Basel, the capital city. Hwangseong is also the pinnacle of culture.
The feeling evoked by the open view after a long time was strange.
I felt a sense of liberation.
But when I thought of how the land had been devastated, I couldn’t enjoy it.
“I heard that Eastern Huangling welcomes the rainy season in winter.”
At Roan’s words, the knight affirmed with a slightly surprised look.
“Yes, that’s right. Your majesty.”
It was as if a high-ranking person knew such a trivial thing.
“But why is that lake dry?”
“Ah…”
After hesitating for a moment, the knight cautiously opened his mouth. It must have been awkward to keep repeating only negative answers to Roan’s questions.
“Gradually, the precipitation is decreasing.”
Roan’s eyes narrowed.
“The Kato Lake you saw today was a place with abundant water 10 years ago. It was one of the places where the people of Laju enjoyed fishing and boating. You must have seen the traces of the forest full of the area.”
The expression on the knight’s face was vague.
Did he also cherish the lake?
In order not to disturb him as if he was looking back at the beautiful past, Roan silently nodded his head.
The traces of the forest that Roan saw,
Now it was a dreary sight, with only traces of tree trunks and trunks left without leaves.
I couldn’t bear to say that.
“But since several years, the amount of precipitation near this Laju has been decreasing. Fortunately, the flow of the Laju River is the same as before, but in the end Lake Kato has dried up. Still, last year there was enough water on the floor, but this year…”
The knight eventually evaded his words.
But Roan didn’t blame him.
The words that follow will only contain a sigh.
So they shut up.
Kerr’s speed began to increase.
The emperor and the knights started running.
About an hour later, someone finally raised their voice and shouted.
“Ker needs a rest! I’ll take a break!”
The moment those words began to be heard, the knights began to reduce the speed of the demons all at once.
As the group’s speed decreased, the magic beast that Roan was riding naturally also reduced its speed. Roan’s body climbed up and down along with the rough breath of the beast that ran down dozens of kilometers.
Far to the east,
A huge wall began to appear.
“Your majesty. I’ll take a look at Kerr for a while.”
When Roan got off the Beast, a knight brushed the Beast’s back and gave it water.
The knight, noticing where Roan’s gaze had landed, spoke.
“Yes. It is Virectum.”
The easternmost city on the Moira continent.
“Then beyond that city.”
Then the knight quickly averted his gaze from Roan, as if putting an answer in his mouth was disrespectful.
All the knights looked at Roan anxiously.
A place where no one has spoken, but everyone in the East Emperor knows the answer.
Beyond the city,
It is a land stolen by the devil.
