And Yet, I Won't Stop (6)

Upon entering the Small States, I'll part ways with the elf caravan and board a boat bound eastward, upstream, for Lake Tsia.

It's been a long time since I've been aboard a boat.

The last time was when I was heading to Jampemon with Win, whom I'd only just met, so it was over forty years ago.

Win was very small back then, and he used to sit on my lap.

The boat's human-powered progress upstream is slow.

Even so, it's much faster than traveling on foot.

Once I reach Lake Tsia, I'll spend several nights in Fokka, the town on its shore, and recover from the fatigue of my journey.

Well, I'm only sitting on a boat, so I won't actually be tired, but staying aboard for a long time leaves me unable to move and makes my body stiff. And despite being surrounded by water, I can't even bathe.

Now, if I follow the river southwest from Lake Tsia, I can reach Jampemon, but this time I'm taking a different route.

I was tempted to check how Kaushman, Nonna, and my other acquaintances in the Small States were doing, but I was also a little afraid.

Especially in Kaushman's case, since he was a little older than Kaeha, the chances that I would never see him again were higher.

At least for now, I didn't want to add any more farewells to the pile.

Things would have been different if Win were by my side... but he's in a distant land far to the west now.

Someday, we'll fulfill our promise to return to Jampemon together, surely only after everyone there has forgotten about Win and me, when I feel like revisiting those memories.

That's why I wrote letters to Kaushman and Nonna and entrusted them to the elf caravan.

Even if they replied, I wouldn't read their letters until after I'd finished my journey to the far east.

The boat carried me east with the river's current.

Once it passed several eastern city-states, including Plahia and Toronen, the boat would leave the Small States and arrive at the two countries called Badas and Orotenan.

The river's current continued all the way to the great wetlands, the Man-Eating Great Swamp, but apparently it wouldn't carry me that far.

Badas and Orotenan faced each other across the river, and the two countries worked together to hunt the monsters emerging from the Man-Eating Great Swamp and reduce their numbers.

In other words, they served as a gateway to a dangerous region, so despite not belonging to the Small States, the two countries received supplies, including food.

I decided to stay temporarily in Badas, the country on the river's northern side, to replenish my food supplies and gather information.

I walked through town looking for a place to stay for the night, and there seemed to be quite a lot of armed people who looked like adventurers.

I also frequently saw taverns, cheap inns, brothels, smithies, and shops that seemed to buy monster materials, all of them presumably catering to those adventurers.

There were also guards patrolling the town here and there, probably as a deterrent.

It had a rather unique atmosphere.

The countries' armies hunted monsters as well, but adventurers also gathered for the bounties and materials.

Then merchants who catered to those adventurers came along, and I suppose that's how the town developed.

There were many significant differences, but the atmosphere reminded me of Vistcourt.

Adventurers who risked their lives to earn money were often rough, and the grim air they gave off made them easy to recognize.

Yet perhaps because they were that sort of people, they spent their hard-earned money lavishly and indulged in pleasure until it was time for their next job.

If they didn't release the tension of battle through entertainment like taverns and brothels, they couldn't switch gears, would wear themselves down, and eventually break down mentally.

In a town like this, I needed to choose my lodging carefully.

If I chose some shoddy cheap inn, there was no telling what kind of trouble I might get caught up in.

That didn't mean an inexpensive room was automatically a dangerous place to sleep, but paying more did make it easier to obtain a measure of safety.

Now I understood why Airena had kept insisting that I stay at an expensive inn in Vistcourt.

Elves stood out in town, so they were especially likely to attract unwanted attention.

Normally, being surrounded by plenty of people would make it harder to get involved in a crime, but every now and then, someone would target them just to test their nerve.

As I passed by, I knocked aside the hand of a pickpocket reaching out from a blind spot with a knife-hand strike, without even turning around.

This was an application of a technique Kaeha had taught me... or rather, I had simply done the same thing with my bare hand.

Gah?!

The young pickpocket crouched down with a cry, drawing the attention of everyone around him, but I kept walking without stopping.

He wasn't very skilled, just a beginner at most.

I guessed that after succeeding two or three times, he'd gotten cocky and deliberately targeted a conspicuous mark.

He wasn't worth the trouble of capturing and handing over to the guards.

Even if I let him go, he'd probably repeat the same kind of mistake anyway.

He might have his arm slashed after failing to steal from an adventurer, or he might be caught by the guards, imprisoned, and forced to hunt monsters as hard labor.

If so, whatever fate awaited that pickpocket, I didn't think there was any reason for me to get involved.

Even so, it really had been a long time since I'd been targeted by a pickpocket.

From noon until evening, I walked around and looked over the town, then settled on one of the inns near the river used by merchants who brought their cargo in by boat.

The room cost two silver coins, which was somewhat expensive, but it was certainly the right choice in terms of safety.

Besides, I had saved up money from working as a smith, so there was no point in being stingy over a little extra spending.

Carrying nothing but coins would be inconvenient on a long journey, so I'd converted most of my money into gems that were easier to carry, but I still had plenty of large gold coins, regular gold coins, and silver coins.

I skipped dinner at the inn and headed to a tavern instead.

The inn's meals consisted of imported grain and ordinary river fish, but apparently taverns catering to adventurers served meat from monsters they'd hunted.

Since I was going to enter the Man-Eating Great Swamp, I wanted to know which monsters tasted good and which parts of them were edible.

Water spirits and the like sometimes warned me about things that were obviously poisonous and inedible, but they had absolutely no understanding of flavor.

No matter how bad something tasted or how unsuitable it was as food, if it wasn't harmful to eat, they judged it acceptable.

Of course, spirits didn't eat, after all, so perhaps it was only natural that they had no idea what anything tasted like.

I did try to eat any prey I hunted whenever possible, even if it was somewhat unpalatable, but the place I was heading was a wetland.

In other words, a region of lakes and marshes.

The creatures living there probably had a strong muddy taste.

That's precisely why I needed to know which fish and monsters among them were delicious, and which parts were suitable for eating.

All so I can have a satisfying journey.