Ch.95The Crossroads Mountain Range. Crucis (3)

“Haaah…”

As I slowly opened my eyes, I kneaded Raisha’s body that was covering my chest.

“Mmmmh…”

A lewd sound escaped her lips as I warmed my hands, cold from sleep, with her body heat while gazing at the pendulum clock that filled the wall.

Eventually, I pushed away Raisha’s chest that had become one with me and got up, causing her body to collapse and spill onto the bed.

Looking at the clock, it was around 8 PM now.

“Since I ate lunch around 5 PM…”

I had slept deeply for about three hours.

The sun would set at around 30 hours, so there were still 10 hours left until evening.

It varies from person to person, but I typically wake up at 7, eat breakfast immediately, have lunch around 18 hours, and when the sun sets at 30 hours, I eat dinner, wash up, and then go to bed.

I thought about waking Raisha, but instead decided to go outside for a light walk after getting dressed.

Clunk! Clunk!

As I descended with the sound of wood colliding, I found more adventurers had gathered there. Some were charcoal-rank adventurers like me, while others could use aura.

It’s truly fascinating… how one can recognize those who can use aura at a glance, even if you can’t use it yourself.

“Hey, Captain. You’re up?”

“Have you been drinking this whole time?”

“As if. We were just talking about old times.”

“Ah… I see.”

With Lucia, Cassia, and even Simon gathered together, just talking about old times could easily pass several days.

Given the combination of a sage and elves, it would be stranger if their conversation ever stopped.

“Where’s Raisha?”

“Still sleeping.”

After saying that, I walked toward the inn’s door.

“Where are you going?”

“Just getting some fresh air.”

With those words, I opened the inn’s door and went outside, facing the mountain chill that bordered between refreshing and cold.

Actually, isn’t the dwarves’ obsession with beards all about not losing body heat?

With such amusing thoughts, I approached the sheer cliff and looked down while holding onto the railing where dwarves had posted a sign with their short legs saying ‘Danger! Beware of Falls!’

Whooosh!

The fierce and sharp mountain and valley winds, like blades, met the chill to create a biting cold. If one were to fall down there, even using aura wouldn’t ensure survival.

As I walked along the railing, I discovered a small pavilion at the vertex between railings and noticed people resting there.

In the center of the pavilion was a small stove burning coal, and thin vinyl sheets were hung to adequately block the cold wind.

Swoosh.

As I entered the pavilion, adventurers wearing armor and weapons like me looked at me. I gave them a slight nod before sitting in an empty spot.

They showed no reaction to me, and neither did I to them.

“Haaah…”

When I exhaled, white breath fogged the vinyl barrier before quickly disappearing.

The warmth from the center made the pavilion as comfortable as a sauna, but having just woken up, I wasn’t sleepy and simply stared blankly at the scenery below the mountain.

“Beautiful…”

If the view from this small pavilion was already so magnificent, what would it feel like to stand atop the mountain on a great tower with the continent beneath your feet?

I took out a teapot, created water with Crewors, and placed it on the coal stove to wait for it to boil.

Once the water began to boil, I added premium tea leaves to make high-quality tea, then took out spare cups from my spatial storage and distributed tea to everyone in the pavilion.

The adventurers didn’t refuse my gesture, and I wasn’t stingy either.

“A pilgrim?”

A man with a large scar on his face—one that seemed like all the scars on my face combined into one—asked me.

“Yes. I’ve made pilgrimages to the ancient imperial charter at the Adventurer’s Guild in Faerus Vale, the potion city of Shahelm, and Fernheim, Karyl’s birthplace. Once I climb to the summit of Mount Crusis, I’ll leave this continent of Faerun.”

“Alone?”

“I have a party. I’m the party leader. The Iron Walker Party.”

“I see…”

“You look quite young. How old are you?”

“Sixteen. My birthday has already passed.”

“Sixteen!”

The battler with one eye replaced by a red mechanical prosthetic chuckled while stroking his chin.

Judging by the deep wrinkles on his face, he appeared to be at least in his mid-forties.

“My son would be that age too. If he were alive…”

“…”

I said nothing.

The saying that there’s an order to being born but no order to dying exists for a reason.

Only the living can mourn the dead, so how could I fathom the feelings of a parent who has lost a child?

I’ve killed young children and parents all at once before, but that’s different from this.

“…”

He tilted his teacup as he spoke, and I silently moistened my lips with tea.

While the deaths of nobles were boisterous spectacles, the deaths of the poor were tragedies where even burial sites went unrecognized, and cremation fees had to be scraped together by selling belongings. As a survivor of such tragedy, I couldn’t find a way out of this silence.

“People die so easily. Humans, elves, dwarves—all the same.”

He said this and looked at me.

“May your pilgrimage remain a beautiful memory.”

With those words, he placed his teacup where he had been sitting and disappeared.

Soon, the others, unable to bear the heavy atmosphere, thanked me for the tea, put down their cups, and left the pavilion. I too left after taking one last look at the snowstorm raging below the mountain.

*

“I see.”

Crunch, crunch…

Lucia responded nonchalantly when I told her what had just happened.

Chewing on a biscuit as she replied, Lucia was twice my age, so her indifferent expression wasn’t particularly strange.

“Those who have lost children are difficult to comfort and be comforted. I once attended a mass funeral for parents who lost two children in a flood… I found myself unable to speak.”

“Why care so much about dead kids? Half of them die from hitting their heads while running around or from disease anyway.”

Lucia snorted as she spoke, and Cassia blinked and nodded.

“We’re going to kill them anyway, so why make such a fuss… In the end, it’s about whether you can empathize or not, isn’t it? People here don’t grieve when someone dies far away.”

“Indeed. I suppose that’s it.”

In the ancient empire era, murder was illegal.

The police then existed to punish murderers and handle various civilian matters.

Quite different from today’s police, who are the personal guards of market lords or nobles. More like modern detectives.

Of course, murder isn’t a crime now.

Even if people die, we can just bring children from the baby factories, so there’s no worry about population shortages.

Karyl is the god of murderers and avengers, and Medina affirms pleasure through killing.

And since the sun and moon burn themselves to witness everything happening on earth, won’t we all face the gods’ judgment after death?

“Sigh. My head is complicated.”

“The ancient empire pondered such philosophical problems for hundreds of thousands of years. And ultimately failed. Fear and violence trampled reason and rationality.”

“Was the imperial era good for the poor?”

“Hahaha. What a strange question. The Nariaki Empire is synonymous with humanity’s peak. Whether poor or elite, they enjoyed benefits incomparable to modern times.”

“Humanity’s peak…”

Personally, I disagree with his interpretation.

The empire’s golden tower was ultimately built by patrons—the sun and moon—and the imperial family were merely its caretakers.

And after 300,000 years, people finally rose up, deciding that rather than living for one golden tower, they would live for towers built of blood, love, knowledge, and prosperity. This gave birth to the Age of Solar Eclipse and eventually the Era of Death.

“Philosophy…”

Would my contemplations be considered philosophy?

Only Logos would know.

“I’ll head up now.”

“Alright.”

“Rest well.”

With my party members seeing me off, I returned to my room and fell back asleep, tightly embracing Raisha who was squirming on the bed.

Though I should have had enough sleep, strangely, drowsiness washed over me, and I didn’t resist it.

After a nap, all the complex thoughts in my head would surely be sorted out.