A Journey and My Usual Whim (3)

In the end, I reached a post town along the highway that day, turned the bandits over to the guards, and it was well into the night before I could finally get a room at an inn.

The town covered the cost of my lodging as an apology for the questioning taking so long, and I received a decent sum as a reward, so I think they treated me sincerely.

Dinner, which had become terribly late, consisted of black bread served with an apology that it was all they had left, vegetable soup, and a slice of grilled bacon.

The circumstances that made me late had nothing to do with the people at the inn, and they had let me stay after hearing the guards' explanation, so I had nothing but gratitude for the inn.

I scooped up some soup with a spoon and brought it to my mouth.

The soup, made by thoroughly stewing vegetables and seasoning them with salt, was delicious even after being reheated.

Above all, it went wonderfully with the hard, sour black bread.

If I dipped the hard bread in the soup and then chewed it slowly and thoroughly, its flavor gradually spread through my mouth, making it a pleasure to eat.

Of course, the bacon was delicious too.

The saltiness made me want some alcohol, but ah, yes, I couldn't exactly demand such a luxury.

Hard bread, soup, and bacon—this sort of warm, painstakingly prepared meal made by human hands was a feast I hadn't been able to enjoy in the Pulha Great Forest or the deep forest.

After polishing everything off, I was finally given a basin filled with hot water and went upstairs to the room I had been assigned.

Though I may not look it, I have a hearty appetite, so that amount didn't even fill me to eighty percent.

Still, I had recovered my spirits for the time being, and because it was my first meal in human lands in so long, that modest serving had been just right rather than something extravagant.

If I suddenly indulged, both my tongue and my heart would be in for a shock.

Ah, come to think of it, when I visited the Vilestrika Republic before, I went because I wanted to eat seafood.

Looking back on it, even I have to admit that I headed for that country for a truly gluttonous reason.

But back then, yes, I had a wonderful time.

I wonder if I can have that much fun again this time.

Just as Giathica had changed greatly, surely the Vilestrika Republic couldn't possibly be as it had been before.

But I had changed as well. Since then, I had been on ships many times, and caught and eaten large fish.

I couldn't experience the same joy as when I first ate seafood in this life, even if I did the same thing again.

That was only natural.

Even so, I was looking forward to it.

I wondered whether the Vilestrika Republic might have something fresh and new for me to discover, even now.

The bed was so comfortable after such a long time without one that I ended up oversleeping, but I had no intention of staying long in this post town.

After polishing off a breakfast that had also ended up being quite late, I thanked the innkeeper and set out walking again.

South, toward the Vilestrika Republic, or perhaps toward the sea, I simply pressed onward.

Even traveling on foot, I would cross the border between Giathica and the Vilestrika Republic in about a week.

A border didn't mean that a line had been drawn across the land.

I often cut across fields and forests instead of using the roads, so on rare occasions I would realize that I had crossed a border without noticing.

In fact, there were actually quite a few cases in which the border itself was vague.

Take a frontier village, for example: which country it belonged to might change from one occasion to the next, or both countries might even regard it as a village belonging to the other. That's how vague national borders could be.

If civilization advanced to a high level—not necessarily as far as in the world I lived in during my previous life—the borders between countries would become clear, and crossing them would require numerous procedures.

But civilization in this world had not advanced that far.

...Or perhaps, even if such a civilization had once been built, a True Dragon had burned the world away.

When I entrusted Scarlet, the immortal bird, to Salix,

"Ah, to think I would really get to see an immortal bird with my own eyes while I was still a high elf... Eysar, this is incredible. You see, when the world is burned by a dragon's flames, the immortal bird is the one that carries us high elves up into the sky to save us."

he had said, astonishment in his voice.

According to him, after a dragon burned the world, the immortal bird brought the high elves down to the earth, laid an egg, and returned what remained of its body to the ash-covered earth.

Then life such as trees and beasts would sprout from there, and the high elves would nurture it, eventually creating a vast forest.

In other words, I didn't know whether it had happened thousands or tens of thousands of years ago, but there must have been at least one occasion when the immortal bird had to turn into an egg.

The world had probably been burned by dragonfire at least once.

And now, with the immortal bird having hatched, perhaps this world was once again nearing the point of being burned.

I found myself thinking about such a frightening possibility.

Well, even I thought that was taking things a bit too far.

But if, by some slim chance, the world was being prepared to burn because I had acted, then I would stake everything I had to prevent it.

Even if by then I had already become a spirit.

...To return to the subject, even in this world, when relations between countries were poor, forts or military garrisons were sometimes built along the border, making the border line clear.

Alternatively, if someone was traveling along a highway, there might be a checkpoint at the border where suspicious people and prohibited goods were inspected, and customs duties collected.

The relationship between Giathica and the Vilestrika Republic was that of a vassal state and its suzerain, so it was probably quite good at present.

There was a checkpoint, but I was able to cross the border with only a few simple procedures.

After crossing the border and setting foot on Vilestrikan soil, I continued on for a while, and the scent of the sea began to mingle with the wind.

It was so faint that even I had to sharpen my senses to pick it out, but it was the scent carried by wind blowing in from the sea.

The town of Saurote, one of the Vilestrika Republic's port towns, wasn't much farther.