Chapter 213
As I left Worfiel, the royal capital, and set out for Vistcourt, something along the way caught my interest.
It was near Vistcourt.
Several stone statues stood in a row along the highway.
Though they were statues, they were life-sized—not particularly large—and the stone used for them was probably nothing special either.
High-quality marble produced in Siglea, south of the Small Nations, was apparently sometimes treated as an export, but the stone used for these statues had probably been quarried nearby.
If I remember correctly, there was a small quarry near Vistcourt as well.
Stone was mainly used as a building material, but it was actually rather expensive for that purpose.
Even setting the aforementioned marble aside, ordinary people's homes were probably built mainly from wood and earth.
The reason was simple: whether it had to be quarried or transported, stone required a great deal of labor.
There were also bricks made from earth, but... since bricks had to be fired, the added labor and fuel costs meant they were fairly expensive as well.
As building materials, mortar and concrete made using a binding agent were also used to some extent.
For example, mortar was used to join stacked bricks together.
In fact, concrete was used in quite a few of the unusual buildings seen in large cities.
Concrete, which made it easy to create arches and domes, must have been an extremely useful building material for structures where appearance mattered.
But I digress. Placing statues modeled after gods along the highway to pray for travelers' safety was hardly unusual.
Yet these statues weren't modeled after gods. Judging by their forms, they appeared to be adventurers.
When I stopped to inspect them closely, I found three statues with names carved into them: the Sword Saint Creias, the Supporting Hand Martena, and the Child of the Spirits Airena.
Apparently, these were statues of adventurers who were famous even in Vistcourt.
But, well, at least the three I knew were not very good likenesses.
Presumably, the statues had been carved solely from images formed by the stories passed down about them.
After all, it had already been more than thirty-five years since Creias and Martena died.
No one who knew them in their active days could possibly still be alive.
Ah, but these would be remembered by future generations as Creias and Martena.
They looked nothing like the people I remembered...
Of course, simply having them remain at all was remarkable enough, no matter how different they looked.
For example, my friend Rodner, who had been closer to me in Vistcourt than Creias or Martena, would never have a statue made of him.
Still, something about it left me with an uneasy feeling.
If they were going to remain, I wanted them to remain in the forms I knew.
If I met the maker of these statues and told them what Creias and Martena had looked like—their faces and features—would they remake the statues?
No, that would unquestionably be terribly rude.
Though their forms differed from those in my memories, the statues were exquisitely carved.
The maker had surely done everything they could to complete them.
I mustn't casually dismiss that effort.
Then, if I wanted to preserve the Creias and Martena I knew—and, of course, include Airena too, who would still be alive for many years yet—I would have to carve them myself.
Until now, I had thought that it was enough for the people I had shared only a brief time with to be etched in my memory.
No, even now, I still thought that was enough.
But it was somehow frustrating that the people in my memories did not match the people everyone else remembered.
I fully understood that was nothing more than selfishness, though.
I have plans now.
In Vistcourt, I plan to meet Mizuha and see the dojo she built, then head into the deep forest in the depths of the Pulha Great Forest.
If I put that off, I might keep letting the opportunity slip away.
So I won't carve the statues right away, but... someday, I think I'll formally apprentice myself to a stonemason or sculptor and learn the craft.
Ah, then it wouldn't just be Creias and Martena.
I could carve statues of Rodner, Nonna, and Kaushman as well.
I could carve one for Kaeha and her family, too. They wouldn't need to be large; I could carve small statues and set them up together.
Juyal, Tseren, and Shuro, too.
Not only humans.
The dwarf Azvardo, the half-elf Win, and the elves.
The earthfolk Jizo, the immortals, and the Golden Dragon, too.
Giving all of them form and preserving them somewhere with care wouldn't be a bad idea.
It would surely become a place I could call home.
Of course, if I asked the earth spirit, it would be easy to create statues matching the images in my mind.
But then, nothing beyond what I imagined could ever come from it.
Smithing was the same: during the process, the image in my mind was refined, and sometimes the result turned out better than what I had envisioned at first.
Naturally, the opposite could happen as well.
Therefore, I would learn the craft myself.
For the first time in a while, the thought of studying an entirely new field made my heart leap.
I never imagined that I would find a new purpose in such a way.
Smiling at that thought, I bid farewell to the statues standing in a row.
Now then, Vistcourt was just ahead.