Episode 188 – To the North, and…

Early in the morning, we were receiving a send-off from High Priest-nim, Claudia-ssi, and Amania on the outskirts of the city.

Standing in front of the main gate, where faint light was shining as the sun began to rise, I spoke to Amania with a hint of doubt.

“Are you really going to be okay staying here?”

My obsession with Amania had disappeared as my love for my husband grew stronger, but the affection I originally had hadn’t completely vanished either, so I asked with a bit of concern.

In response to my question, Amania nodded with a bitter but firm resolve in his eyes.

“Yes, I’m okay. Thank you for… worrying about me.”

“Hmm… really…? Well, if you’ve decided, I don’t have anything else to say…”

“Hahaha, through this incident… I’ve realized just how weak I am, you know? I can’t… fall behind alone…”

Amania glanced briefly at Claudia-ssi, who had tears welling up in her eyes, and at her husband, who was talking with Cecil, before looking back at me and smiling brightly as he spoke.

“Someday, I want to become like Ian hyung…”

“…. Well, hahaha, I don’t know if it’ll be easy to become like Ian?”

“Hahaha, well, I think so too.”

Amania agreed with a laugh at my playful tone.

It was the first time I had seen him being self-deprecating, so I was slightly surprised, and Amania said with a bitter smile.

“You don’t have to look at me like that. I’ve just… realized something. That I can’t become someone like Ian-ssi… But… I’m going to try to become a great person like Ian-ssi. And… if I become such a great person… can I meet you anytime?”

“Hahaha, sure, come to my hometown later and I’ll feed you all the specialties of our race.”

“Hahaha, I’m looking forward to that.”

While we were talking, Sui suddenly jumped in and shouted.

“Little brother!! Have you forgotten about your big sister?!”

“Sui nuna… hahaha, how could I?”

I stepped aside so the two of them could talk, and soon I heard Claudia-ssi’s trembling voice speaking softly.

I turned to look at Claudia-ssi, and she had tears welling up in her eyes as she held her husband’s hand.

“Ian-ssi… can you make me one promise…?”

Hearing Claudia-ssi’s voice, which sounded so poignant as if she couldn’t accept the fact that she had to part with her husband, my husband replied in a somber voice like hers.

“Yes…”

“Someday… when we meet again…”

Claudia-ssi, who had been speaking in a quiet voice, suddenly put her lips to her husband’s ear and began to whisper.

Hearing her whisper, my husband’s eyes widened slightly, and he began to look at me.

What?

When I looked at him with a questioning expression, my husband hesitated for a moment before giving a small nod.

Claudia-ssi smiled faintly at my husband’s reaction and let go of his hand.

And Cecil, who had been watching the scene, was blankly staring before she startled and said to Claudia-ssi.

“M, Mom… no way…!”

“Huh? What’s wrong?”

Claudia-ssi replied with a nonchalant smile at Cecil’s trembling appearance.

“So that’s what it was!!”

“Oh my, oh my, look at this girl, she has a husband now, she should have some dignity…”

“What, what, when did that start?!”

“Hmm… let’s see… from when I carried you here while bleeding all over my lower half?”

“Ugh! Mom… you always told me off whenever I read romance books…!”

As I smiled at their sitcom-like conversation, the High Priest, who had approached me, said with a gentle smile as if whispering.

“Claudia… that child has finally realized what true love is. Hehehe.”

“Ah, High Priest-nim…”

As I bowed my head slightly, High Priest-nim also bowed his head respectfully in return.

“You are going north…”

At the High Priest-nim’s words, I glanced at Niel, who was standing there looking bored, and said.

“I’m just helping a friend.”

“Hmm, I see… The north is a place of vast plains and sudden blizzards. Will you accept my gift?”

“A gift…?”

When I asked with a puzzled look, High Priest-nim nodded with a satisfied smile.

“You can’t wander around the vast land relying on just your two legs. Claudia-ssi?”

And he called out to Claudia, who was talking with Cecil.

Claudia-ssi nodded at the High Priest-nim’s call and moved towards the back of the castle walls, and after a while, we couldn’t help but be surprised at what was following behind her.

Behind her were… six horses and luggage that looked incredibly heavy on the saddles of those horses.

As if satisfied with our surprised reactions, High Priest-nim smiled brightly and replied.

“Please accept it.”

“B, but…”

“Hehehe, you are the ones who saved our city, how can we send you away empty-handed? If you don’t accept, we will be treated as people who don’t know gratitude. I beg you.”

We couldn’t refuse the High Priest-nim, who even bowed his head at the end.

We got on the horses and looked back as we left the city.

As always, High Priest-nim, Claudia-ssi, and Amania were waving their hands to see us off in front of the city gate, which was now familiar.

It was a place overflowing with pleasure and love that easily evaporated… but I realized once again that there was no falsehood in that love, and I raised my hand and waved along with my companions.

Until they were out of sight…

* * *

The further north we went, the colder the air became.

Thanks to that, Cecil, who usually wore thin clothes, changed into thick clothes, and since I was wearing a magic robe, I didn’t particularly layer up.

The sparse forests gradually disappeared, and now a vast prairie stretched to the end of our vision, and we moved forward through the prairie.

The prairie was really… empty.

Except for passing a herd of deer… or rather, creatures with six legs that looked similar to deer from my past life, it was truly desolate.

Well, looking at the desolate prairie became endearing after a while… but there was one thing that was hard to bear.

That is…

Wiiiiiing…

“These fucking… goddamn mosquitoes!!”

It’s those goddamn mosquito bastards!!

Fuck!

In the middle of the dark prairie, I put a bunch of mosquito repellent grass into the bonfire to get rid of those fucking mosquito bastards.

Soon, acrid smoke spread in all directions, and I was able to escape the annoying sound of those fucking mosquito bastards, at least a little.

Our group was completely exhausted.

Niel, who had been confidently leading the way at first, had long since turned into a completely discouraged state after a month of wandering.

“It’s definitely around here… why isn’t it here…? It should definitely be there after passing the hill…”

The confidence in her eyes, as she muttered while looking at the map she had brought, had long since disappeared.

I frowned and snapped at her, looking at her muttering as if dissatisfied.

“Where the hell are those guys for interspecies cultural exchange? Mr. Interspecies Doctor?”

“….. Do you have to say it like that?”

Seriously, she was the one who led us all the way here saying it was definitely certain…

Niel frowned at my sarcasm, and I frowned back at her shameless behavior and said.

“Then how should I say it? You said it was definitely around here a week ago. The drinking water and food we brought are about to run out, so how should we think about this situation? Huh? All there is here is fucking weeds and fucking mosquitoes!”

To be honest, fucking mosquitoes occupy 99.9 percent of my fucking mind.

“……”

Niel didn’t say anything and just looked down at the map with her head down, as if she had nothing to say when I frowned and looked at her sharply.

The other members of the group were awkwardly looking at us, as if they somewhat agreed with my conversation with Niel.

As an awkward silence enveloped us, my husband looked at Niel and cautiously opened his mouth.

“Niel…?”

“…. What.”

It had been a long time since they had started talking to each other during the month-long journey, so Niel stubbornly looked at the map with a sullen expression and said.

“Grace is right… We’re running out of food and drinking water, and even if we keep wandering around like this, we’ll just die of thirst. I’m not saying give up, let’s go back to replenish our food and drinking water first, and then look for the interspecies village you mentioned. And above all, the cities around here might have information about the village you mentioned, right? Let’s gather information from those people too, how about it?”

Niel quietly looked at the map before turning her head and looking at her husband’s eyes at her husband’s gentle suggestion, as if she knew that she was being stubborn.

And Niel, who was slightly blushing as if she was ashamed of her stubbornness, pouted her lips and nodded her head slightly in agreement.

“Okay…”

Finally…

If it’s a city, there will be a comfortable bed and no fucking mosquitoes.

Whew…

Looking at her, who finally gave up her stubbornness, it seems that not everything has changed after all.

I thought that she had become more easygoing and gentle, but her firm belief in her own thoughts and decisions, and her ability to execute them, seemed to have become even more severe than when she was a knight, so I shook my head and took out the pot.

“Okay! Decision! Let’s look for a city starting tomorrow, whew… let’s eat first.”

I roughly put the pot on the fire and put water and dried, ground grain flour in it.

And since today is the day we decided to go back, hahaha, I should put some vegetables in it too.

I cut up a slightly mushy cabbage-like vegetable, perhaps because it had been aged for a month, and put it in the soup, then slowly stirred and started boiling it.

After confirming that bubbles were slowly rising above the surface of the soup, I took out some jerky that was incredibly hard but of excellent quality and cut it into bite-sized pieces with a sharp dagger.

Why am I making the food?

Because… I’m the only one here who can make something edible.

Ian, my lovely husband, when he tries to make a dish, he creates a soup that makes you wonder how he can make it taste so terrible, and Sui doesn’t even know how to use the ingredients, let alone cook.

Cecil, well… she only ate food made by the chef in the Holy Land, so she didn’t even touch the water.

That leaves me and Niel… Niel, as you know, is a knight. When she travels, she just chews on low-grade jerky to eat.

I’m the only one who’s ever made proper food… it was an obvious decision.

Well… I’m not good at cooking either…

But… I can at least get the seasoning right…

The smell rising from the bubbling soup… I can’t say it’s definitely delicious, but it’s better than nothing.

I carefully tasted it and found that the salty taste from the jerky and the slightly thick texture from adding the grain flour made it edible.

After roughly finishing the food, I started distributing it to the group, who wanted a hearty soup because they had only eaten jerky scraps for lunch.

I dipped the hardened bread in the soup to soften it and ate it, then prayed while looking at the Milky Way.

I hoped that tomorrow I would be able to eat proper food in the city and not hear the sound of mosquitoes, but…

Dududududu…!!

I couldn’t help but sigh when I saw Niel standing up abruptly after hearing a sound that made it seem like the earth was shaking in the darkness.