episode_0061

After the picky dwarf finished the screening and left.

“Wow, it’s been a while since I’ve had lunch on the ground.”

“Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve been eating lunch properly.”

Usher was too nauseous to even think about lunch. The motion sickness he experienced every time he rode in the carriage never faded, no matter how much Velka helped, and he could never get used to it.

“When you’re traveling by carriage, you can’t really have a proper lunch. You can’t stop the carriage in the wilderness during lunchtime. Can you eat while feeling motion sick?”

“I guess not.”

When he felt motion sick, even the best scent felt dizzying, and the thought that he might throw up if he ate anything made Usher’s complexion pale.

“It’s the middle of the day, but it’s okay to be outside?”

“That’s because it’s near the cloud zone. It’s like hell right below.”

Just then, a cool breeze blew, lifting and tickling Usher’s fine hair. The scent of a moist, green meadow, different from the rough wilderness, reached his nose.

“But why can’t people live in the place we were before crossing over?”

But this kind of meadow existed even before crossing the cloud zone. When he thought of the fluffy little rabbits playing and the blue meadow, he didn’t think people couldn’t live there.

“Just because a creature can live there doesn’t mean people can live there, right?”

“I guess so.”

There are many creatures that rush at people, no matter where you go. Usher felt like he was getting tired of hearing that unless many people gathered together, those creatures would rush at them all the time, making it impossible to endure. If they systematically built a foundation, people could live there anew, but creating a place for people to live is very difficult. In the end, joining existing villages or cities guarantees greater safety, so people gather, and when that is repeated, a country like Lantua is created.

It is said that countries like Lantua were created a long time ago and have been maintained until now, so there is no place to replace them.

“More than that, I hope that gray dwarf liked it.”

“Gray dwarf? Aren’t all dwarves the same?”

Usher asked, puzzled by his words. A dwarf is a dwarf, so what is gray? More than that, did that dwarf have gray on him? Donar made a groaning sound when he saw that he didn’t know.

“You don’t know more than I thought.”

He muttered something incomprehensible and then said.

“Not all dwarves are the same. If you said that in front of the dwarves, they would have gone wild.”

“Why?”

“Why do you ask why? Dwarves hate being compared to each other.”

Donar explained that dwarves are generally divided into two types: gray dwarves and green dwarves.

“Is there any standard?”

“Well, gray dwarves are no different from people except for their short height. The problem is the green dwarves.”

Gray dwarves are no different from people except for their height, but in the case of green dwarves, their height itself is greater than that of gray dwarves, but their backs are bent and their skin is close to green.

“Besides, they’re ugly.”

“Ugly.”

“There’s a lot to say, but I can’t say it any other way.”

The two dwarves have many incompatible parts, from their appearance to their personality, so they often avoid interacting with each other. Thanks to this, they seem to hate being compared to each other very much.

“Anyway, it’s better to be careful when you go in.”

“Yes.”

Lunch ended like that, and Usher was walking lightly between the carriages with Velka.

“The world outside the forest is really full of dangers and strange things.”

There were too many dangerous things if you weren’t careful. Without joining the merchants, they wouldn’t have dared to pass through the wilderness where they could die of thirst and the dangerous creatures that eat people under the cloud zone.

“Velka, wasn’t it too much for us to come this far on our own?”

No matter how he thought about it, he thought it would have been too much for them to come this far on their own, riding horses other than Hildisvini, so he asked.

“Maybe.”

And Velka didn’t deny his words either.

“Then why did you have to come out in the opposite direction?”

Knowing that the outside was so dangerous, why didn’t the girl want to go out on the set path and came out in the opposite direction? Usher was the first to leave the village, but no matter how he thought about it, it was strange. At first, he couldn’t understand Velka’s words that she didn’t know the destination. So he got annoyed. Why don’t you tell me the destination? But he was able to find out while being with the merchants. Donar and the others didn’t try to tell him, but Usher was aware that this merchant group was strange.

If you simply wanted to make money by selling goods, you didn’t have to go far. But Donar told him that he had been maintaining the merchant group for more than a year. That was really strange. Even though the place Usher lived was a rural area, it wasn’t that lost travelers or wandering merchants didn’t visit. According to them, merchant groups are usually created for trade between countries, but if a merchant group goes too far, it is to settle down by selling goods or technologies that are not well made or rare there.

He, who was deeply interested in traveling, still remembered the story. He couldn’t know the details, but he knew that this merchant group had left their hometown for unavoidable reasons. That’s why. He was able to understand Velka’s words that she didn’t know the destination. She didn’t want to leave the forest because there was a destination, but she had to leave the forest, so she left the forest. And as if his thoughts were correct, the girl said.

“Originally, that place can’t be a place for people to live.”

“But the villagers were living well.”

“Because I made it that way.”

“Made it.”

Suddenly, the story of the woodcutter passed down in the village came to his mind. He was roughly thinking that it would be like that.

“Maybe Velka is…”

He was about to ask if she was the monster in that story.

“You guys went too far! Come back quickly!”

Donar’s voice calling them was heard. Thanks to this, he realized that they were quite far from the line of carriages as they walked. When he looked at the place where his voice was heard, he saw Donar running towards them. Soon after, he arrived next to them.

“The screening results are out.”

“Yes? Already?”

“I don’t know the reason well. It seems that the gray dwarf liked it.”

Didn’t the dwarf say it would take about half a day and didn’t go back? He wondered if he had misheard, but when he saw the iron gate of the castle wall opened so that they could enter, he knew it was true. They went back to Truth’s carriage when they were told that they might be leaving soon and found Logi.

“Wait! Why are you here!”

“H-he got hurt while playing.”

At Usher’s words, Logi turned his head with a sullen face, and Truth answered instead. Listening to his words, he was rolling up one side of his pants and exposing his scraped knee. The wound and the skin around it looked vaguely opaque, as if ointment had been applied. It didn’t seem to heal him right away like the herbs the girl used. Then Shalvi opened the carriage door and came in.

“Logi, you were here. Here, take this.”

As he said that, what he handed Logi was a slightly thick, long, rectangular, flat piece of iron. Unlike the round iron coin, it was thicker and bigger. A name was engraved on the flat surface of the iron plate, and an orange string was tied to the end with a hole. Usher was wondering what the crude piece of iron was, and Logi asked.

“What is this?”

“Come to think of it, you received it for the first time, right? It’s called a badge. Lantua issues it, so you must never lose it.”

He told him to be careful because someone could commit a crime with the badge and be caught instead, and handed Truth a badge as well. A green string was attached to Truth’s badge.

“But the color of the string attached to the badge is all different?”

Shalvi had already attached the badge to his waist. The string attached to his badge was red. He watched the scene with interest until he realized that he was no longer handing out badges. He asked with a strange feeling.

“What about ours?”

“I think it will take a little longer for yours? It seems to come out in the order of the list you submitted.”

“List?”

“Why? The head of the group wrote your names on the parchment he gave me at that time.”

When they decided to join the merchant group. He remembered the parchment full of names and numbers that looked like birthdays that the old man had handed out. There were many letters with lines drawn in the middle. He was about to ask what it meant, but he didn’t ask because Velka stopped him.

“Then when do we leave?”

“I don’t know well. They keep making it now, so wouldn’t it take quite a while?”

“Making it now?”

Looking at the badges, it was a simple thing to engrave names, but considering that they engraved and distributed them one by one, it was certain that it would take longer. In the end, it meant that they had to stay here until all the badges were made. Whether the badges were really made in the order of the list, it was already after the carriage started to leave when Usher and Velka received the badges.

“Ugh, why can’t I get used to this motion sickness?”

He frowned again at the returning motion sickness. Even if he lay down with his head on the girl’s lap, it would weaken a little, but motion sickness was stressful enough for him just to experience it. Velka stroked Usher’s head.

“You don’t have to force yourself to get used to this.”

Feeling the hair on his forehead being swept away by her touch, Usher felt drowsy and sleepy. He felt good about the soft thighs of her head.

“Huuam, Velka.”

Usher felt like the motion sickness was going away, so he lay down and buried his face in her thighs. He loved the sweet and fragrant scent of the girl like a camellia so much.

“Ugh, wait a minute, Usher.”

Velka’s face turned red at his action of burying his face deeply in her thighs, but Usher didn’t notice because he was in a daze due to the motion sickness. Soon, unable to withstand the motion sickness, he fell asleep, and Velka smiled as if she couldn’t help it. And there was a gaze watching her. The owner of that gaze was Logi, who was here because he was injured in his leg. He envied Usher for acting spoiled to the girl as much as he wanted.

Would he know? That she was showing such clear emotions only to him. Now, after a few days since they joined this merchant group, there was no one who didn’t know that fact. Sometimes, people who were lucky enough to see the girl’s bare face admired her, but even then, they mostly saw a lifeless appearance. That’s how different Velka was when Usher was not there and when he was there. The girl, who looked like a doll without life when Usher was not in front of her, had life like she had gained life.

The gold, which seemed to not hold anything, sparkled like fine starlight with affection that was sweetly shimmering like honey. Logi was desperate when he realized that he could not have such clear affection. Yes, even now, the fact that he could only watch her like this was so painful. Still, Logi grabbed even a small hope and spoke to her.

“…Um.”

The girl, who was smiling while looking at Usher who was sleeping on her lap, looked at Logi and soon erased the smile she had on. All that remained was a gaze like an empty shell. The girl’s gold eyes that looked at him did not contain anything to the point of being terrible. Logi’s heart felt like it was sinking.

“Say something…”

The girl only looked at him with lifeless gold eyes and didn’t say anything.

“Say something!!!”

Logi stepped on the floor of the carriage nervously, making a thumping sound, and approached Velka. Shalvi was not in the same carriage because he had something to do, and Truth had fallen asleep, nodding off with a tired look, so there was nothing to stop Logi now. He approached the girl as if threatening her, but her expression did not change. At that sight, he felt resentful and gnashed his teeth. Logi moved away Usher, who was in the way, and pushed the girl down.

Then, a look of embarrassment appeared on the girl’s face, and he was finally a little satisfied, but it disappeared immediately at Velka’s words that followed.

“Usher…”

She had made that expression not because of Logi, but because of Usher, who had been pushed away. Usher was frowning from falling off Velka’s lap, but he saw the girl relieved that he was okay because he was on the bed anyway. He didn’t matter to her. Logi’s heart felt like it was tearing when he realized that. Tears blurred his vision.

“Why!? Why? Why don’t you look at me? Why!”

Velka’s appearance, who had been pushed down and was lying down, was repeated as it became blurry and clear. His tears flowed as he supported the bed with his arms, taking the distance that had opened up. Why does his heart hurt so much and his tears won’t stop? He wanted Velka to answer his words and tried to cover her, but the tears that kept flowing prevented him. In the end, he bent his arm that was supporting his body and hugged the girl who was lying down helplessly.

Even the breath of the girl who was close to him was sweet, which made his heart hurt even more. Logi buried his face in the girl’s arms, who was not resisting, and muttered.

“I’m sorry.”

Actually, he knew. That it was his fault. That there was no fault in the girl. It was just because of his dirty jealousy and desire that he didn’t even listen to the girl’s pleas and crossed the river of no return. Then, the girl’s hand came up. It trembled thinly as if hesitating and slowly stroked his head, which was crying. Even then, she never let him hear her voice. At that touch, Logi wet her chest with tears. That’s how the first love of a reckless boy ended. Leaving only the piece of tainted purity.