Ch.57How to Cross the Desert (4)

“Well… that concludes the treatment.”

The old man had received treatment first.

Lezia was carefully wrapping bandages around his injured arm.

Perhaps the pain had subsided considerably, as the old man held a gentle smile on his lips.

His aged lips conveyed gratitude.

“Thank you for helping me in so many ways. I don’t know how to repay this kindness…”

“Kindness? It’s nothing special…”

“Your skills are better than the village doctors. You have excellent handiwork.”

“Th-thank you.”

The girl averted her eyes as if embarrassed.

I was observing from the side and casually added a few words.

“That was impressive, Miss Lezia.”

“Pardon?”

“You handled the injury skillfully, and you have various medicines prepared—it felt quite professional.”

“Please don’t say such things, young master…”

“I’m only stating facts.”

Indeed, the treatment had been flawless.

Perhaps due to the experience she gained while traveling the continent alone, she seemed quite adept at handling minor injuries.

I shrugged my shoulders at the modest girl’s reaction.

“Miss Lezia really is weak to compliments.”

“Ugh.”

Her pale cheeks were already flushed pink.

Lezia was particularly lacking in resistance to praise, so she often blushed at even these small compliments.

Judging by her reaction, she seemed genuinely uncomfortable.

“…It’s not really something to be proud of.”

Perhaps it was due to her low self-esteem.

After mumbling for a moment, the protagonist awkwardly smiled and turned her head.

Her expression was somewhat bitter.

“These skills aren’t very useful anyway.”

Her transparent green eyes blinked.

For a brief moment, darkness passed across their surface. She seemed to be recalling unpleasant memories.

Before I could respond, the girl changed the subject.

“Um, by the way… sir?”

“Hmm?”

“Do you perhaps know where this place is?”

“I’ve been thinking something was strange… Don’t tell me you don’t know where you are?”

“Actually…”

Lezia briefly explained our situation.

The old man learned of our circumstances. He was surprised for a moment, then clicked his tongue and muttered.

“A teleportation accident… what terrible luck.”

“So when we regained consciousness, we found ourselves right here.”

“My goodness.”

I quietly listened to their conversation.

I didn’t want to interrupt the flow unnecessarily.

The old man looked at us with sympathetic eyes.

Saying he wanted to return the help we had given him, he began sharing what information he knew.

Of course, it wasn’t very helpful.

‘This isn’t the world we knew.’

This place was another dimension.

It was the setting from the book “How to Cross the Desert” that had swallowed us.

Whether we had actually entered the book itself,

Or simply moved to a dimension that had been the motif for the book, we couldn’t tell.

But at least one thing was clear—this wasn’t the world we knew.

Therefore, the information the old man provided was useless.

“I-I’ve never heard of these country names…”

That was the response we got.

Lezia looked confused.

There was no way she could know about cities, countries, and continents from a novel she had never read.

Confused by the unfamiliar place names that kept coming up, she soon concluded that this must be the outskirts of a continent far from the Empire.

It was a reasonable guess.

That explanation was more plausible than assuming we had entered a book.

I nodded at Lezia’s opinion and spoke as if looking for a solution.

“I suppose our priority is to get out of this desert first.”

“O-once we reach a nearby city… we can contact others or ask for h-help.”

“Exactly.”

As we were conversing, the old man, who had risen from his seat, casually joined in.

As if he could offer help.

“As it happens, I’m crossing the desert myself.”

“Are you p-perhaps heading to a city…?”

“There’s a city if you keep going straight from here. I’m heading there, and if you don’t mind, why not join me?”

“Well, well… that’s welcome news.”

“If you’ll help us, th-thank you…!”

We readily accepted his offer.

I slightly curled up the corners of my mouth.

The old man was a key figure in this field, a crucial character.

To successfully complete the episode, we needed to safely cross the desert teeming with monsters.

Before we took our first steps.

“But… why are you trying to cross the desert, sir?”

Lezia quietly asked.

Without a moment’s hesitation, the old man answered with a gentle smile.

“Because someone is waiting for me.”

His blue eyes shone with unmistakable clarity.

***

The original work contained about 60 hidden episodes.

Most of them were like Easter eggs, providing minor items when discovered.

But some were different.

They presented fields of considerable difficulty.

Users had to analyze the stages meticulously and piece together strategies to play through them.

Each episode offered only one chance.

Unless you restarted the game from the beginning, a second entry was impossible.

Naturally, there was no reward for failure.

In other words, it was content for hardcore players.

Among these hidden episodes, one stood out as the most representative…

[EP???. How to Cross the Desert]

-A door opening in the sky, a boy counting stars-

How to Cross the Desert.

The stage progressed simply. Just safely escort the designated NPC to the destination to fulfill the condition.

Of course, that didn’t mean the difficulty was moderate.

It had a notorious reputation among users.

[Category: Free Board]

[Title: Desert Law is Real]

Is it always this difficult?

I don’t know how many times I’ve had to restart because of this

[The pattern is especially nasty]

-> Damn how many scorpions are going to pop out

-> There’d be fewer if you gathered all the scorpions in the Sahara

[You have to memorize all the patterns]

-> It’s much faster to clear it while referring to the guide video

-> Damn another guide I must begin worship

-> The guide is really badass

-> Whoa whoa no panic allowed

[I really can’t handle the last wave]

-> I keep failing there too…

Repeated monster attacks.

Players had to withstand recurring waves while making their way toward the destination.

A hellish march indeed.

Unfortunately.

That remained true even now that the game had become reality.

The path to our destination was incredibly treacherous.

Hordes of scorpions pouring in.

We cleared the surroundings methodically as we advanced.

Perhaps because we were still in the early stages, we hadn’t encountered any major crises yet.

“Hup…!”

I swung my sword with a short breath.

A jet-black line traced through the air.

The sword strike cut through a moment in time.

Immediately after.

Crack-!

The head of a scorpion charging toward us split in half.

It tumbled down, losing balance.

I caught my breath as blood splattered at my feet.

“Phew…”

This was already our fifth battle.

My stamina was reaching its limit.

Without using my [Liar] ability, overall efficiency definitely dropped.

The one fortunate thing was.

‘Maybe because it’s the early wave… everyone’s keeping up well.’

We seemed to be holding out comfortably at this stage.

Although Lezia showed clear signs of fatigue, she was determined to face the scorpions.

She showed the will not to be helplessly overwhelmed.

Of course, in the end, she just bought time until I finished things off…

“You can fall back now, Miss Lezia.”

“…Thank you.”

Each time, Lezia wore a complicated expression.

As if feeling a strange sense of deprivation.

The girl bit her lip tightly.

She seemed frustrated that she couldn’t be of much help.

“…”

I silently turned my head.

In my line of sight stood the old man, standing on the corpses of scorpions.

He held a crossbow in his hand.

“Hmm… seems we’ve cleared the surroundings for now.”

His old lips muttered.

Surprisingly, the old man demonstrated expert marksmanship.

He would snipe from a distance or create openings for attack by coordinating at close range.

He was quite a decent ranged fighter.

“You seem to be in good shape, sir.”

“Of course. How else could I venture into such a desert?”

“That’s true.”

The sky was already turning red.

The day was ending.

The maximum number of monster waves on the first day of the episode was five.

Including the battle we just had, we wouldn’t have to worry about any more incidents today.

We prepared to camp.

“We need to fill our stomachs… but all that’s around are these scorpions.”

The old man sighed briefly.

He cut off the tail part from a scorpion’s corpse and offered us each a piece.

It was raw meat with blood dripping.

“This is the most edible part of a scorpion. It tastes like rotten chicken… but you’ll get used to it.”

The old man opened his mouth as if to demonstrate first.

But such an attempt was quickly stopped.

Thanks to Lezia’s desperate intervention.

“W-why are you trying to eat that raw…?!”

“There’s not much choice.”

“I’ll cook it for you! I know how to start a fire without m-magic!”

“Hmm? Well, if that’s the case…”

The girl successfully dissuaded him.

She took out crude tools from her bag and skillfully began to make a fire.

Then Lezia thoroughly cooked the scorpion tails.

Thanks to her, we avoided the disaster of eating raw meat.

“Cooked like this… it’s somewhat edible.”

“It’s certainly not a terrible taste. Perhaps because it’s warm, the strange texture is also somewhat mitigated.”

“Th-that’s a relief…”

The girl breathed a sigh of relief.

Her hands, watching our reactions, handled the fire with practiced skill.

I observed the scene for a moment.

When our eyes met, an awkward smile returned.

“Hehe… I learned these things while traveling the continent alone.”

“Thanks to you, we avoided a terrible meal.”

“I should help in whatever way I can.”

Lezia’s complexion wasn’t good.

She looked particularly gloomy.

Perhaps it was because of her powerless abilities, or because she felt like a coward.

The girl muttered in a barely audible voice.

“…I wasn’t of any help today either.”

It was a faint sentence, but she definitely said something like that.

A voice that seemed about to break.

“It’s about time to sleep.”

“…”

“W-we need to decide on watch shifts, as you mentioned. Let’s go ask the old man first.”

Lezia got up, brushing off her seat.

And then she smiled brightly as if nothing had happened.

A smile worn like a mask.

I stared at it for a while.

***

Even the red sunset eventually falls beyond the horizon.

Darkness remains in the background where the sun has disappeared, followed by sacred starlight gently illuminating the sky.

The scenery turns serene.

Night had come to the desert.

It was time to close our eyelids briefly, to live through the intense day ahead.

“…”

We each agreed to take watch shifts.

The order was decided fairly by rock-paper-scissors.

I took the first shift, Lezia the second, and finally the old man would take the third.

While the other two slept.

I quietly kept watch.

“It’s chilly.”

I rubbed my cold hands.

In front of me, a softly lit magic lamp rolled around.

Though it was a meager light compared to the darkness that had fallen on this desert, with the stars twinkling together in the sky, visibility wasn’t poor.

I absentmindedly felt the cool air.

While I was lost in thought, I heard movement beside me.

Shuffle shuffle-

The sound of footsteps on sand.

Turning my head slightly, I saw a girl with pink hair standing there.

It was Lezia, looking somewhat withdrawn.

“Miss Lezia.”

“Young master…?”

“It’s quite late… seeing you awake, I assume you can’t sleep.”

“…Yes.”

I gave a gentle smile.

Then I lightly patted the spot next to me and said.

Tap tap-

“Why don’t you sit beside me for a while?”

“…”

Her green eyes blinked weakly.

With a steady smile, I extended my hand toward the hesitant girl.