Chapter 61
I set Win and our baggage down, drew my bow, quickly strung it, and nocked an arrow.
When Win tilted his head, looking puzzled about what on earth was happening, I smiled and fired the arrow into the sky with a whoosh.
Then I placed the bow atop our baggage and held both hands out in front of me. A bird with an arrow through its long neck came falling into my hands.
Yes, it was the ingredient for tonight's dinner.
It would be dark soon, and the next town was still a long way off.
That meant we'd have to camp tonight, so I needed to secure food quickly.
There had been no trick or gimmick to that single shot, but perhaps it had looked like magic to Win.
He was gazing at me with shining eyes.
I was fairly good with a bow, so I was happy that Win had taken an interest in it, but... even if I were to teach him archery, that would have to wait until his body had grown a little bigger.
For now, though, Win had a more important job.
"Come on, Win. Shall we pluck this bird together? If you want a tasty dinner, we need to get it ready quickly."
After cutting off its long neck and hanging it upside down, I plucked the feathers from the blood-drained bird.
Only then did the bird's body become food.
Of course, Win was only about four years old by human standards and too weak to help, so it would have been much faster for me to pluck the feathers alone.
But if all he did was eat, be carried, walk a little, be carried again, then eat and sleep, he'd surely start to feel frustrated.
So I wanted Win to feel that, in whatever way—even in the smallest way—he was being useful.
With the bird between us, I plucked its feathers little by little alongside Win.
After finishing a dinner of bird meat simply sprinkled with salt and grilled, I held Win on my lap and watched a fire spirit twirling around inside the campfire.
Why was this fire spirit spinning like that?
Even among fire spirits of the same kind, this one seemed to be quite eccentric.
Spirits are greatly influenced by the environment in which they dwell, but each spirit also has its own slight differences and characteristics.
For example, among fire spirits dwelling in furnaces, some like enthusiastically cranking up the heat, while others are happiest when it rises slowly and steadily.
That may be due to the environment or the structure of the furnace, but sometimes it is simply a matter of personality: a fire spirit might be impatient or a laid-back sort.
Win's belly was full, and he seemed sleepy; his body felt warm.
Compared with the food we'd eaten in Jampemon, today's meal inevitably tasted worse.
We couldn't prepare anything elaborate outdoors, and I was neither particularly good nor particularly bad at cooking in the first place, so naturally there was no comparing it with a professional's work.
Even so, Win had eaten quite a lot for what it was.
Maybe the journey had tired him and left him hungry, or maybe he'd enjoyed plucking the bird's feathers.
Either way, eating well made him sleepy.
It was the natural order of things, and a good thing that would help him grow.
I took a cloak from our baggage and draped it over Win in my arms, covering him completely.
The nights had already grown quite cold with the change of season.
And that was when I suddenly realized something.
Ah, the fire spirit twirling in front of me was working hard to produce and deliver even a little heat, so that we could be even a little warmer.
The speed at which it spun increased whenever wind blew in.
Such a kind fire spirit.
Somehow, I felt as if the heat radiating from the campfire had grown warmer, so I tossed the extra deadwood I'd gathered into the fire.
The fire spirit stopped spinning, gave me a neat little bow, and... began spinning around and around again.
We were now west of Jampemon, having passed through the small states and set foot in the Duchy of Karkoym.
Actually, the quickest way to reach the Kingdom of Rudoria was to travel by boat along a river within the small states, passing through Zaints and Jideer.
Even upstream, boats were considerably faster than traveling on foot, and the route through Zaints and Jideer was also shorter.
So why had I deliberately chosen the route through the Duchy of Karkoym, even though it meant taking a detour? Because the route through Zaints and Jideer would mean entering the Kingdom of Rudoria from the east.
In short, the people of the east had directly experienced an earth tremor caused by an elf—or, more precisely, by me—and had come to fear elves. I might have been willing to pass through their midst alone, but I didn't want to bring Win, a child, along.
On the other hand, if I took the route through the Duchy of Karkoym, which had friendly relations with its neighboring countries and where people and goods flowed freely, there would be no shortage of travelers bound for the Kingdom of Rudoria.
Of course, I couldn't avoid standing out as an elf, but the likelihood of getting caught up in trouble would be considerably lower.
Still... deliberately taking a lengthy detour just to avoid trouble was a little unlike me, I thought.
But what mattered to me now was the warmth in my arms, so this was the right choice.
Relationships between people, and the ties they create, are restraints and weights.
They do indeed become a load that restricts one's freedom of movement, but that weight is by no means unpleasant.
When I am eventually freed from those ties, I know I will feel lonely when my arms grow light; yet with a heart far freer than before, I will be able to go anywhere.
I find that time frightening, yet I also look forward to it.
After all, mine is a life far too long... the life of a High Elf, that is, so even the time I spend crawling across the earth while protecting a heavy burden is dear to me.
Though I remained alert and wary of my surroundings, I eventually began to doze lightly, and before I knew it, the sky was beginning to lighten.
The campfire had already gone out.
I wonder if someday I will see that eccentric fire spirit in a campfire again.
I should wake Win and take him to the toilet before he has an accident.
After that, I'll let him sleep a little longer, then try to reach the next town by the end of today.