Chapter 57
"Well... the treatment is finished now."
The old man received treatment first.
Regia carefully wrapped bandages around the injured arm.
Perhaps because the pain had eased considerably, the old man held a gentle smile on his lips.
His aged lips conveyed gratitude.
"Thank you for helping me in many ways. I don't know how to repay this kindness......"
"Kindness... It's nothing."
"Your skills are better than the neighborhood doctors. You have excellent handiwork."
"Th-Thank you."
The girl averted her eyes as if embarrassed.
I, who had been peeking from the side, casually added a few words.
"That was impressive, Miss Regia."
"Huh?"
"Your response to injuries was skillful, and you had various medicines prepared. It felt quite professional, I'd say."
"It's troublesome if even you say such things......"
"I only spoke the truth."
The treatment was indeed flawless.
Perhaps due to experience gained during her time traveling the continent alone, she handled minor injuries quite well.
I shrugged my shoulders at the modest girl's reaction.
"As expected, Miss Regia is weak to praise."
"Uugh."
A blush had bloomed on her snow-white cheeks before I knew it.
Regia was particularly lacking in resistance to praise, so she often blushed even at such small compliments.
Judging by her reaction, it seemed genuinely burdensome.
"...It's not really something to boast about."
Perhaps it was due to her low self-esteem after all.
The protagonist who had been mumbling for a moment soon turned her head with an awkward smile.
Her expression was somewhat bitter.
"They're just useless things."
Green eyes blinking transparently.
For a moment, darkness brushed their surface. It seemed she was recalling unpleasant memories.
Before I could give any reaction, the girl changed the subject.
"A-Anyway... Elder?"
"Hmm?"
"Do you perhaps know where this place is?"
"I've been thinking it was strange... Don't tell me you don't even know where this is?"
"Actually......"
Regia briefly explained the situation.
The old man learning of our circumstances. He was surprised for a moment but soon let out a sigh and muttered.
"A teleportation accident... You really had bad luck."
"So when we came to our senses, we were right here."
"Oh my."
I was quietly listening to their conversation.
It was to avoid unnecessarily interrupting the flow.
The old man staring at us with pitying eyes.
Saying he would return the help he received from us, he unraveled the information he knew one by one.
Of course, it wasn't very helpful.
'This isn't the world we knew.'
This was another dimension.
It was the setting background of the book [How to Cross the Desert] that had swallowed us.
Whether we had actually entered the book.
Or simply moved to the dimension that had been the book's motif was unknown.
At least the fact that this wasn't the world we knew was clear.
Therefore, the information the old man gave was useless.
"Th-These are country names I've never heard before...?"
Such reactions kept coming back.
Regia with a bewildered face.
There was no way she could know the cities, countries, continents, etc. of a novel she hadn't even read.
She who had been confused by the unfamiliar place names that kept popping up soon concluded that this was the outskirts of a continent far from the empire.
It was a fairly rational guess.
This was more plausible than the assumption of entering a book.
I nodded at Regia's opinion and spoke as if looking for a solution.
"For now, getting out of the desert should be our priority."
"If we reach a nearby city... We can contact other people or ask for help."
"That's exactly it."
As we were having such a conversation, the old man who had risen from his seat suddenly cut in.
As if he could help.
"As it happens, I'm in the middle of crossing the desert."
"Are you perhaps going to a city...?"
"There's a city that comes out if you keep going straight from here. I'm heading there, so if you don't mind, how about accompanying me?"
"Well, well... That's welcome news."
"If you'll help us, we'd be gr-grateful...!"
We readily accepted that proposal.
I slightly raised the corners of my mouth.
The old man was the key figure and key existence of this field.
To successfully complete the episode, we had to safely cross the desert crawling with monsters.
Before taking steps like that.
"B-But... Why are you trying to cross the desert, Elder?"
Regia throwing out a quiet question.
The old man answered without even a trace of hesitation, smiling gently.
"Because there's someone waiting."
It was blue eyes shining more transparently than ever.
***
In the original work, there were about 60 hidden episodes.
Most of them were a system that provided small items just for discovering them, as a kind of Easter egg.
But some of the rest were different.
A field of considerable difficulty unfolded.
Users had to play by meticulously analyzing the stage and assembling strategies.
There was one chance for each episode.
Unless restarting the game from the beginning, a second entry was set to be impossible.
Of course, there was no reward given in case of failure.
In other words, it was content for hardcore players.
Among such hidden episodes, there was one that was considered the most representative...
[EP???. How to Cross the Desert]
-A Door Opening in the Sky, A Boy Spending the Night with Stars-
It was How to Cross the Desert.
This stage progressed simply. The condition was met just by safely escorting the designated NPC to the destination.
Of course, that didn't mean the difficulty was average at all.
It was notorious even among users.
[Category: Free Board]
[Title: The Desert Law is Real]
Is it difficult every time you do it
I don't know how many times I've restarted because of this
[The pattern is especially dirty]
-> No seriously how many scorpions pop out
-> There'd be fewer even if you gathered all the scorpions in the Sahara
[You have to memorize all the patterns ㅇㅇ]
-> It's much faster to clear it while referring to the walkthrough guy's video
-> Damn it's the walkthrough again I need to start worshipping
-> The walkthrough is really awesome
-> Uh oh don't have a panic attack
[I really can't endure the last wave]
-> I keep failing there too...
Repeated monster attacks.
Players had to endure repeated waves while moving towards the destination.
It was truly a march through hell.
Unfortunately.
That was the same now that the game had become reality.
The path to the destination was extremely rough.
Hordes of scorpions pouring out.
We steadily cleared the surroundings and advanced.
Perhaps because it was still the early stages, we hadn't encountered any major crises yet.
"Hup...!"
I swung my sword with a single breath.
A pitch-black line drawn in the air.
The sword strike cut through an instant.
Right after.
Slash-!
The head of the scorpion rushing towards us was split in half.
Crash, it collapsed losing balance.
I caught my breath behind the blood splashing at my feet.
"Phew..."
It was already the fifth battle.
My physical strength was gradually reaching its limit.
The overall efficiency really drops when not using the [Liar] ability.
The fortunate point was.
'Perhaps because it's the early waves... Everyone's following along well.'
It seemed to be a stage we could endure easily for now.
Though Regia showed clear signs of fatigue, she tried to face the scorpions somehow.
It seemed to be will to not be helplessly overwhelmed.
Of course, in the end it flowed with her just buying time and me finishing things...
"You can fall back now, Miss Regia."
"...Thank you."
Each time, Regia made a complicated face.
As if feeling a strange sense of deprivation.
The girl bit her lip tightly.
She seemed frustrated at not being of much help.
"......"
I silently turned my head.
Where my gaze was directed, the old man was standing on the corpses of scorpions.
A crossbow was held in his hand.
"Ahem... It seems the surroundings are roughly cleared now."
Old lips muttering.
Surprisingly, the old man showed expert-level shooting skills.
He sniped from far away or opened gaps for attack by matching timing at short range.
He was quite a good ranged attacker.
"You still seem healthy, Elder."
"Of course. Otherwise how could I set foot in such a desert?"
"That's true."
The sky was already dyed red before we knew it.
The day was ending.
The maximum number of monster waves occurring on day 1 of the episode was five.
Calculating including the battle just before, we didn't have to worry about any more accidents happening today.
We prepared to camp.
"We need to fill our stomachs... but all that's lying around are these scorpions."
The old man sighing for a moment.
He cut off the tail part from a scorpion corpse and offered a piece to us.
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 if you eat it."
The old man opened his mouth as if to demonstrate first.
But such an attempt was soon stopped.
It was thanks to Regia desperately dissuading him.
"Wh-Why are you trying to eat that raw...?!"
"There's no particular method."
"I'll cook it for you! I kn-know how to start a fire even without magic!"
"Hmm? If that's the case......"
The girl who finally succeeded in stopping him.
She took out crude tools from her bag and soon skillfully started a fire.
Right after, Regia thoroughly cooked the scorpion tail and prepared it.
Thanks to that, the disaster of eating raw meat for a meal was avoided.
"Since it's cooked... it's somewhat edible."
"It's certainly not a terrible taste. Perhaps because it's warm, the strange texture is also alleviated."
"Th-That's a relief..."
The girl let out a sigh of relief.
Her hand that had been watching us handled the fire again with practiced skill.
I watched such a scene for a moment.
When our eyes met, an awkward smile returned.
"Hehe... These are things I learned when traveling the continent alone."
"Thanks to you, we avoided a terrible meal."
"I should be of help even like this."
Regia's complexion was not good.
It was particularly dark.
It may have been due to her powerless abilities, or her cowardly self.
The girl muttered in a barely audible voice.
"...I wasn't of any help today either."
Though it was a vaguely flowing sentence, she seemed to have clearly said that.
A voice that seemed like it would break at any moment.
"It's about time to sleep."
"......"
"W-We need to decide the night watch order too, sh-should we go to the Elder first?"
Regia stood up dusting herself off.
Then she smiled brightly as if nothing had happened.
A smile pressed down like a mask.
I watched that for a while.
***
Even the red sunset eventually falls beyond the horizon.
Darkness remains in the background where the sun has disappeared, followed by holy starlight faintly illuminating the sky.
Scenery dyeing quietly.
Night came to the desert too.
It was time to close our eyelids for a moment to live through the fierce tomorrow.
"......"
We decided to each take night watch.
The order was fairly decided by rock-paper-scissors.
I took the first shift, Regia the second, and finally the old man took the third shift.
While the other two were getting some sleep.
I was quietly keeping watch.
"It's chilly."
I rubbed my coldly chilled hands.
In front of me, a faintly lit magic lamp was rolling around.
Though it was a meager light compared to the darkness that had fallen on this desert, the stars twinkling together in the sky meant the view wasn't dark.
I absentmindedly felt the cool air.
As I was in a daze like that, a presence was heard from beside me.
Rustle rustle-.
The sound of stepping on sand.
I slightly turned my head to that, and a girl with pink hair was standing there.
It was Regia looking somewhat withdrawn.
"Miss Regia."
"Young Master...?"
"It's quite late at night... Seeing you awake, it seems you can't sleep."
"...Yes."
I held a faint smile.
Then I lightly patted the seat beside me and said.
Pat pat-.
"How about sitting beside me for a moment?"
"......"
Green eyes blinking weakly.
I extended my hand towards the girl with hesitant gestures while smiling gently.