Evil, At Last (3)

It had been quite some time since they left the church territory, and now it was the time when darkness was settling in.

Since dried straw was really easy to find now that it was winter, Yona scraped together a pile of straw with her feet, piled it up, and sat down in front of it.

Meanwhile, Alec and Kairoc flattened the surrounding area by scraping it with their feet, gathered well-dried branches, and some they broke into firewood using their weapons.

“Hoo, hoo— hooo—”

After flicking the portable flint a few times, sparks caught the straw and smoke began to rise.

Yona held out a handful of straw to let the fire spread, while continuously blowing breath to grow the embers, lest the fire go out.

“Ah, it’s done.”

Flames rose from the bundle of straw.

Because it was winter and it hadn’t rained for a long time, thanks to the well-dried branches, as soon as the burning straw was pushed in, smoke rose and flames began to soar.

The orange flames had already started to devour the branches bit by bit and burn.

It burned so well that as soon as the branches serving as firewood were pushed in, it began to blaze vigorously.

“This should be about enough now.”

Kairoc appeared with his arms full of firewood.

The two axes attached to his back gleamed in the moonlight, revealing a fierce light.

“This should be enough, right? Shame that the axes’ first use is for chopping firewood, huh?”

Yona said to Kairoc, half-teasingly, with a grin.

There weren’t any other two-handed weapons in the cathedral armory.

Because the basic armament of cathedral knights is a shield and mace, or morning star, there were no two-handed weapons that couldn’t be used while holding a shield in the armory.

However, since there were axes, Kairoc received two one-handed axes instead of a two-handed axe or hammer.

“Well, this is the original purpose of axes, isn’t it? What’s there to be disappointed about?”

Kairoc, as if it didn’t matter at all, poured out the firewood he had been carrying and stacked it to a suitable height.

Then he sat down on it and started warming himself by the campfire.

“There doesn’t seem to be anywhere nearby to fetch water.”

Alec, who had just returned from looking around, appeared from beyond the grass.

They needed to have dinner, so he had gone around looking for water, but no matter how much he looked, he couldn’t see even a pond, let alone a river.

“Hey, just eat moderately. We have canteens, so drinking water is solved, right?”

At Yona’s words, Alec also scratched his head and approached the campfire, looking around at the group.

Now that James was gone, it had become a somewhat ambiguous group of three people, with Yona already sitting in front of the campfire.

Yona, who had taken a fallen log that was originally at this campsite as a seat, had lit the campfire right in front of her, and Kairoc was also sitting on some firewood he had laid out.

Only Alec just sat down on the bare ground.

“Ah, this… um…”

Yona took out a bundle from the backpack she had been carrying and unfolded it.

She had bought what was supposed to be field rations from the shop in the headquarters before departing this morning… but when she opened it, there were only a few hardened pieces of bread, jerky, and a few dried fruits that seemed to have been put in as dessert.

“Hmm…”

“Hmm.”

Alec and Kairoc, who looked into the bundle, also closed their mouths, unable to say much.

“…Isn’t this what we used to eat well usually? But why does it look so unappetizing now?”

Yona’s voice was clearly full of distaste, and Kairoc and Alec felt the same way.

It’s not uncommon to eat such field rations during adventurer life.

Moreover, the field rations that came out of this bundle now, especially the bread, judging by its light chestnut color, must have been carefully made bread without a doubt.

In addition, the jerky is well-dried and seems to have used good sauce as it doesn’t smell bad.

“Well, at least the jerky… seems much better than that crappy jerky we used to buy in Evian.”

As Alec said, this is certainly better than the field rations we ate in Evian, but somehow it’s really unappetizing.

“It’s probably because we’ve been eating too well lately. Our palates must have become quite refined.”

Kairoc’s words were exactly right.

In Evian, what we usually ate was things like Eternal Stew, so there wasn’t much difference between that and field rations, so we ate them well.

But after eating all sorts of delicacies from Capatia Port to the cathedral, it’s natural that our tastes have become more picky.

“…Let’s just eat roughly, roughly. As long as we fill our stomachs.”

That’s how the meal began.

It wasn’t bad to roughly soak the bread with water from the canteen, tear it off and eat it, and chew on jerky in between, which had a moderately salty taste.

Gnawing on dried fruit with the front teeth, the sugar content was quite good, and it was a meal that was somewhat edible.

*

“How far do we have to go?”

“Hmm, let’s see.”

Kairoc took out a map from his backpack.

It was the very map that Kairoc had when they left Evian.

This morning, when leaving the cathedral, he had received it from James.

“Anyway, since we’re crossing the Medial Plain, we just need to go straight. There won’t be any monsters on the way.”

“There are no monsters?”

Yona chimed in at Kairoc’s words.

It was a world overflowing with monsters everywhere. How many monsters did they encounter on the way from Evian to Capatia Port?

So when Kairoc confidently said there would be no monsters, Yona was curious.

“The Medial Plain is a granary region that surpasses even the Emporus Prairie in this northern continent. It’s because of this place that the Empire of the Capatia Millions exists. How could they allow monsters to roam in such a place? Even wild orcs would be hard to find. As soon as they appear, not only adventurers but also the nearby imperial army would mobilize and sweep them all away.”

“Uh… really?…”

It’s hard to understand just by hearing about it.

Yona had never left Evian before, so there was more she didn’t know than what she knew.

“You should take this opportunity to broaden your horizons, Yona. How can an adventurer only know about Evian in this world?”

Kairoc teased Yona with a laugh.

His words weren’t particularly wrong, so Yona couldn’t refute Kairoc’s words.

After all, it’s only been 3 years since she came to this world, and it’s about to be 4 years soon.

During that time, she managed to adapt in Evian and survive without dying.

It seems good enough as it is, but still, Kairoc’s words aren’t wrong either.

“…I’m broadening them now, so that’s enough…”

Yona quickly became dejected and dispirited.

Alec was quietly watching Yona like this.

She’s really a lady with diverse expressions.

She doesn’t hide her emotions well, and is more used to expressing them.

In fact, although it started with being attracted to her appearance and following her, now he likes Yona’s personality more than her appearance.

Of course, he doesn’t believe her talk about being a man, but what does it matter?

If he goes along with her and stays close, someday Yona will accept Alec too.

So, he didn’t want to see her looking so dispirited.

“So how long do we have to go?”

“If there’s nothing unnecessary, and if we go fast, it should take about ten days. Looking at the distance, it’s a straight line, and there shouldn’t be much happening in between.”

“That’s something we don’t know. What was it, Anankaya? That priest also said she was worried because there are many monsters attacking villages these days.”

“Well, human affairs are unpredictable. I’m not a fortune-teller, so I can’t say anything about that.”

Kairoc shrugged his shoulders.

While Yona was busy running around in the cathedral, Kairoc and Alec weren’t just sitting idle either.

They tried hard to talk to the priests and roughly understand how things were going on the continent these days.

They said monsters were rampant.

The fact that Semec had been overturned had already become public knowledge, and voices full of anxiety were heard here and there, saying whether the Celestial God had abandoned us again, or whether the age without echoes was coming again.

Moreover, among these, there were voices wondering if there was some ulterior motive in the sudden permission of Celestial Church proselytizing by the Ain race nations that were hostile to the Empire, but there was no evidence of anything.

The only certain thing was that monsters were rampaging more than they thought.

*

Yona crawled into her sleeping bag and suddenly felt that the sleeping bag was too wide.

The sleeping bag where she always hugged Rubina to sleep, without Rubina, left that much more emptiness.

It should be a sleeping bag that needs to be pulled up to cover her face, but now Yona was just sticking her face out and looking up at the night sky.

Is Rubina sleeping now?

It’s only the second day of orphanage life, so she might not have adapted enough to sleep properly yet.

Yona suddenly turned over.

Despite that, the emptiness didn’t disappear.

Yona thought that this emptiness would probably last for a long time.

“Lizard.”

“What is it?”

Alec’s voice was heard from nearby, where he was lying covered in a sleeping bag.

Kairoc’s indifferent voice, who was taking the first watch, was also heard.

“Is the campfire okay?”

“No problem at all.”

“That’s strange, it seems like there’s a weird smell coming from somewhere.”

Come to think of it, it did seem like there was a smell.

A strangely burning, acrid smell.

A smell like sulfur.