The Great Empire of a Distant Land (10)

I've traveled to quite a lot of different places by now.

I've crossed rugged mountains and shivered in the freezing cold of snow-laden winds.

I've ventured into and traversed places said to be dangerous, including volcanic regions and vast wetlands.

I've also made many long journeys without stopping at human settlements, hunting prey to eat and living off the bounty of the forests.

So I have a fair amount of confidence when it comes to traveling, but even so, I can't help thinking:

Black Snow Province is an extremely harsh place.

To my senses, the environment of Black Snow Province was similar to the desert north of the Great Prairie.

It was the scarcity of life I could feel around me that made me think so.

The sky was dim, too.

Jizo said the skies were apparently clear at the moment, but the sunlight seemed unable to reach us properly.

I wondered whether it would grow even darker if an eruption occurred and the wind carried volcanic ash our way.

The plants and trees of Black Snow Province were covered in ash and withered away, leaving the surroundings terribly bleak.

I could tell the direction from the wind, but... if Jizo hadn't been guiding me, I might have gotten lost.

Yet monsters appeared even in a place like this—or perhaps because it was a place like this.

"Jizo!"

I sensed its presence and called out a warning to Jizo, who was walking ahead of me.

There was no change in the scenery around us.

The monsters that appeared in Black Snow Province primarily moved through the accumulated volcanic ash, leaping out only when striking at prey.

I stamped my feet twice and called to the earth spirits, hardening the ground beneath Sire and me until it was as solid as metal.

After all, protecting Sire from a monster bursting out of the ground would be difficult.

If I hardened the ground beneath us like this, the monster would naturally target Jizo.

And he could easily sense it through the vibrations just as it burst from the ground, then leap to evade its attack at the same moment.

Still, he certainly jumped high.

I had seen Jizo walk across both land and water, so I knew he was far heavier than he looked.

Whether it was because his body had such a high density, because of the obsidian covering his body, or both...

Yet Jizo leaped high into the air with such lightness and agility that he gave no impression of being heavy at all.

The monster that burst out was a giant mole, and Jizo, in midair, brought his three-pronged, double-edged sword crashing down on its snout.

The destructive force produced by his extraordinary strength and weight split the giant mole in two, from the top of its head to its lower abdomen.

My turn?

Of course, I had no part to play.

A leap, followed by a single strike.

I would use the same tactic against that monster, but I probably couldn't unleash an attack with anywhere near that much power.

"It's a big one. We're lucky."

Jizo smiled happily as he stood before the monster's carcass.

Well, mole monsters had edible meat, and their hides could be harvested as well.

Calling it good luck wasn't entirely wrong.

"But since the one before this was that thing, it's fifty-fifty between a dud and a hit. Can you really call that lucky?"

Still, the monster we'd encountered the day before yesterday had been awful.

It was a snake monster whose body was covered in rock, and even its meat was mixed with gravel.

Even I, who had decided to make use of the materials and eat the meat of monsters I'd killed whenever possible, had been forced to give up.

However, Jizo shook his head and said,

"Of monsters you can eat properly, one in ten is the most you can hope for. Getting lucky twice in a row means you're unquestionably lucky, Eisa."

That's what he said.

That was a truly grim prospect.

I didn't want to think too poorly of someone else's homeland, but there was no way I could live in this land.

Of course, according to Jizo, quite a few monsters whose flesh couldn't be eaten still had useful materials.

In any case, that rock snake had left a terrible impression.

After that, monsters attacked us roughly once a day or once every two days, but as Jizo had said, not one of them was edible.

Despite the scarcity of food in Black Snow Province, the warriors apparently banded together and went monster hunting.

All in pursuit of the small number of monsters fit to eat.

Now that I'd actually come here, I understood exactly what people meant when they said only Earthfolk could live in Black Snow Province.

They really were strong, and Black Snow Province was unbearably harsh.

When I reached Black Carapace, the only Earthfolk town in Black Snow Province, I let out a long, deep sigh of relief without meaning to.

It had been a journey that had worn me down mentally, for the first time in a long while.

Black Carapace was an underground town carved out of the southern face of a large rocky mountain to avoid the falling volcanic ash.

Since volcanic ash was carried in from the north, the mountain served as both a wall and a roof, shielding the town.

The town's population was a little over three thousand, and perhaps another thousand Earthfolk were out earning money beyond Black Snow Province.

Those fewer than five thousand people made up the entire Earthfolk population.

The sight of this underground town reminded me of dwarves.

Dwarves and Earthfolk seemed to have quite a lot in common.

They had sturdy, powerful bodies and deliberately made their homes in harsh environments.

Some had left their homeland to live among humans, yet they remained very proud.

Well, Jizo was still my only acquaintance among the Earthfolk, but watching him made me feel that way.

The gatekeeper was startled to see an outsider like me. Jizo told him something, and we were allowed into the town.

With many of the working-age adults away earning money, children were the most noticeable people in town.

They stared at me and Sire with eyes full of surprise and curiosity.

...Ah, of course. In a place like this, it would probably be their first time seeing a horse.

If so, I'd have liked to let the children experience riding a horse, but unfortunately, Sire was still badly worn out from the journey.

First of all, I wanted to find somewhere to rest.

As we made our way down the town's main street under the gaze of many onlookers, Jizo led me toward the stone castle at its farthest end.

Apparently, the person Jizo wanted me to meet was in that castle.

What in the world was waiting for me there?