It had been a while since the two of them met. They had more than enough to talk about.
"Because if Border Guard starts harboring other intentions, you can't respond, and unreasonable things could happen under the condition of 'lending force'?"
Was Enkrid's response to Leona.
"You really do get me. How about quitting as a knight captain and coming to the caravan as my vice-leader?"
"Then the current vice-leader would be really hurt, wouldn't they?"
"If they're hurt, what about it? The Mad Order of Knights' captain is coming for heaven's sake."
They met each other's eyes and laughed. The pshk— of air leaking out was friendly.
A few jokes are seasoning that fills the empty time. The two of them talked about this and that.
Leona wasn't the type to spare her body just because she was the caravan master. If it was necessary, she often led the caravan personally here and there. This time was like that too.
"Do you know what Paradise Water is?"
Enkrid searched his memory. The time he'd gone to the west felt like a very long time ago. This was the harm the curse brought.
Leona opened her left hand and, with the index and middle finger of her right, used her palm like ground and made a digging gesture.
"Ground squirrel fruit?"
When he barely managed to dig the memory up and said it, Leona nodded.
"They say they succeeded in breeding ground squirrels in the west this time."
She said it as she brushed her hands off with a pat—. Her eyes kept sparkling as she spoke. Like a child who'd found a precious thing and gotten excited, she opened her mouth again.
"Drinks made based on Paradise Water taste incredible. Supplying that to inns or cafeterias."
Good goods sell for a high price. That's the basis of trade. A miner is tempted by precious iron, and a cook is tempted by precious ingredients.
And a merchant is tempted by anything that becomes gold coins. Like Leona right now.
"So you're going to negotiate in person."
If the caravan master moved personally, it was proof she put considerable weight on this matter.
"And I'm loading some gifts too."
The caravan wasn't small. There were more than eight baggage wagons following behind.
And it wasn't only material things that counted as gifts.
The west is always short on grain. How to improve that land at its root, how to store grown grain, farming techniques, making waterwheels and windmills, even the know-how to dig waterways.
There was more than enough to pass on. Of course, all of that only mattered if grain properly grew in the west's soil.
"It won't happen overnight."
Something everyone knew. They said that thanks to the trade routes, people stopped starving to death, but that was only in the west's center.
The surrounding minority tribes were still living rough, coarse lives. What they needed wasn't grain right now, but a way to live for the future.
When Enkrid fell into thought, Leona shrugged and continued.
"And you, you've been going around killing everything under the sun? It's an unbelievable feat. If bards took your name out of their songs, half of them would have to go find another job right away."
Should it be said the whole continent was shouting for the Mad Order of Knights?
Thanks to that, letters from ladies, nobles included, had increased tenfold compared to before.
Leona treated him as a friend, then and now, and Enkrid liked that.
Enkrid told her, in moderation, about fighting the south, including Balrog. He put special effort into the story of Odd-Eye spreading its wings and taking flight.
"Incredible."
Leona couldn't hide her admiration. She didn't often get chances to speak as Leona the person, not Leona the caravan master.
She liked this time too. That was why she kept the line. She didn't see Odd-Eye as a beast. Questions like whether, if it had a foal, they'd all become Pegasus didn't come flying out.
He'd heard that in the capital, a few nobles were spouting nonsense about buying Odd-Eye, and Enkrid couldn't help wondering whether they'd say that even to his face.
At some stories she cackled with laughter, and at other parts she listened nodding.
They say you get rid of the boredom of travel with chatter.
Maybe this was that time. Like that, in the daytime they rode in the wagons, and after the sun set, it was preparing camp.
They could enter a city, but they were used to moving along the Stone Road and camping.
The Stone Road was built to go around cities, in a form that blocked the surrounding monsters, so it was hard to find a city.
Instead, since it touted itself as the Safe Road, guard posts could be seen here and there, and those guard posts had enough equipment and supplies needed to camp.
The caravan's workers, beyond being used to it, skillfully spread the tents, made field beds, and lit fires.
They did all of it in one go, quick and clean.
They looked like people honed by real practice no less than an army. There were more than a hundred people moving together, but there weren't many who were resting.
The field tent they set up for them was quite cozy.
"It's thanks to Kraiss."
Leona said as she closed the tent entrance. It was an answer to the words about it being cozy and warm.
"Kraiss?"
"The heating stones he distributed helped a lot with winter travel. It'd be nice if we could sell them as-is, but he says we still can't sell them."
According to Leona, that was how it was. He looked at what heating stones were, and it turned out they were an improved version of a new ore the salamander made. You put a burn proof net in the center of the tent, put five stones into it, and the heat spreads out.
What a trick—seeing how it hadn't even been long since it was discovered, yet he'd found places to use it and even refined it.
'And even shaping it like that.'
The burn proof net was made by braiding monster hide, too.
'Didn't he say he opened trade with the demon-lands-front village too?'
Kraiss had made it so that people and caravans went back and forth everywhere Enkrid had traveled.
He shared all the profit from that with everyone. If only one person's belly got full, it meant nothing.
They said salon culture only shines when everyone has some breathing room.
"Because it's a luxury good."
Kraiss had said that with conviction.
What an incredible bastard.
Enkrid loosened his body only to the point where he wouldn't sweat. There wasn't a well at the guard post, so washing was difficult. Even if they ran water and dug a well, it was so cold near Border Guard in midwinter that the well would freeze in no time.
On the first night of camping, Enkrid lay down and had a dream.
"Now, who should we kill?"
It was a voice brimming with delight. It was a nightmare that began with the ferryman's question.
***
You don't recognize the moment you fall asleep. That was why, if he had a dream where the ferryman appeared, he would feel like he'd been dragged onto a boat all at once.
He'd definitely closed his eyes in bed, but it felt like he opened them in a completely different place.
If it was a boat, he was so used to it now that there was nothing to be that flustered about.
'But it's not a boat.'
Enkrid checked where he was standing. A bridge. A shaking bridge—more precisely, a flimsy suspension bridge that wouldn't be strange if it snapped at any moment.
Under his feet were wooden planks, and thick ropes twisted and fixed in place supported the footing on a diagonal.
'Below is a cliff?'
It was a little strange to call it that. Because of the purple fog ahead and behind, he couldn't see anything.
All he could perceive was the bridge, and that black river water flowed below.
The ferryman was above Enkrid's head. Without any boat, holding only a lamp, it floated there and opened its mouth.
"Now, who will you kill?"
The ferryman asked. Its mouth split wide to the left and right, becoming an utterly unpleasant smile.
If you looked at the distance, it was only about five steps. Even if you couldn't reach with an outstretched hand, they were close enough. They could see each other's faces well.
"Why are you smiling like that?"
As always, Enkrid asked sincerely. If you were going to smile anyway, wasn't it better to smile nicely?
It wasn't like he'd be scared by a face like that.
"It's a mark of my joy. Turn around."
Enkrid obediently looked behind him. Beyond the fog, one lump could be seen. It twitched its fingers and trembled its body.
If you asked who it was, he'd have to answer that he didn't know.
He could tell it had a face and hands and feet, but he couldn't perceive its shape clearly. The fog cunningly covered the face and distinctive body parts. It felt like looking through cloth that barely let the form show through.
The blunt shape was crouched and lying facedown. Was it looking this way? It looked like it might be.
But one thing was certain.
'It's not someone I know.'
And he could tell it was someone close. Someone he didn't know, but someone close? It sounded like a contradiction, but that was what his intuition told him. The moment he perceived it, a sense of loss raised its head. Regardless of resolve, losing an acquaintance was painful. It was the beginning of the nightmare.
"Look to the other side."
Enkrid's gaze went forward. There was another lump there. Likewise crouched.
Enkrid knew that once he started moving from where he stood, he couldn't come back and cross to the other side.
This was the law and rule of decided fate.
"This is the law and rule of decided fate."
The words that surfaced in his head repeated out of the ferryman's mouth.
"One remains. Only one reaches your hand."
With its mouth split wide, the ferryman said again.
'I can't go back.'
One remains. Enkrid didn't walk. He stopped right there. The dream ended quickly.
When he woke up, it was around dawn. He opened his eyes out of habit. It was the time he woke up every day.
As soon as he rose, Enkrid reached out and grabbed his sword. He had left it right under the bed before sleeping.
"I named it Night. You can take it instead of today."
Aitri's words came back to him.
It was a sword with a blade darker than dawn, the same sword as before, the one that had broken. When he said he was leaving, it was something Aitri handed him.
The strange thing was that it felt as sharp and excellent as Dawn he'd held before, and that it was an engraved weapon.
'But still, a sword I'm only using for a while.'
Should it be said it proved how big Aitri's greed was?
When he gripped the sword's hilt, the sense of loss from the nightmare slowly scattered. With his eyes open, Enkrid passed the second day as if nothing was wrong.
In the daytime, light sparring and training, and from time to time, warriors belonging to the caravan came and asked for instruction.
Rem slept in the day and slept at night. He acted like someone recovering an injured body and preparing for a fight.
"Aren't you kind of bored?"
Dunbakel judged the leisurely travel like that.
Naurillia put its heart into cleaning up the monsters and beast-creatures wandering inside the continent.
That affected the Stone Road heading west too.
And the west had thrown itself into this matter as well.
You could say they were joining hands and going around eliminating every element that posed a threat.
It was a quiet, calm, boring road. An atmosphere that would've been unimaginable even a few years ago.
It wasn't that there was no tension at all, but compared to before, there was plenty of slack.
"Now, let's go with energy again today."
Leona shouted from the front. The road was peaceful. A travel road without bandits, monsters, or beast-creatures was originally this uneventful.
When night came again, Enkrid had the same dream.
"Now, who should we kill?"
The ferryman asked. The same question as yesterday. With the same smile. Behind that thoroughly unpleasant face, Enkrid recalled the ferryman from before.
More precisely, he remembered what the ferryman had said when it appeared in the form of a woman.
"If you have to choose one of the two, what will you do? It's time to solve the dilemma, mortal."
Back then, the female ferryman had called it a dilemma. This nightmare was an extension of that dream.
Except for the fog-covered areas, there was only five steps ahead and behind. Enkrid didn't take a step anywhere.
"So you're going to try to kill them both."
The ferryman cackled. Hearing that laughter, he woke from the dream.
"Good morning!"
"Hey, have a good dream?"
"Aren't you kind of bored?"
Leona started the day with a shining face for someone who'd slept in the field, Rem tossed the words out with half-sleepy eyes, and Dunbakel looked like she was itching to move.
"Yeah."
On the third night too, he had the nightmare. It was the same kind of dream. Enkrid didn't take a step this time either.
On the fourth night too, it was the same. He opened his eyes on the bridge at the start of the nightmare, but this time the dream didn't continue.
Instead of laughing, the ferryman narrowed its eyes and said,
"You're lucky. You look like you ought to dry up and die."
Before it even finished speaking, he opened his eyes in reality.
'Why?'
His head was heavy on one side, like he'd dozed and woken. The reason he'd opened his eyes immediately struck his ears.
KRRHOOOONG!
It was a roar twice as loud as an ordinary beast's howl. When he grabbed his sword, threw on his gear roughly, and went out, he saw a shadow on one side go pop— as its head burst and it collapsed.
Under dim moonlight. The thud— of the body falling and its shape made what the opponent was unmistakably clear.
'Giant.'
There were no collapsed tents or injured people. Even the giant that had just fallen had charged in and then its head burst.
There was no need to ask who had burst its head.
"Did you leave something here or what? Why do those giant bastards throw a fit here every time?"
A shout rang out. There wasn't a line that was officially drawn where it started being the west, but right after crossing a boundary you could roughly count as the west.
They'd resupplied on the Safe Road and walked quite a bit.
The one who took down the giant was a westerner with an axe, standing sulky after receiving a letter from his wife.
With a limp, Rem rested the axe on one shoulder, and with his left hand, he wound up the sling he'd been spinning and stuffed it into his chest.
"They're all dead."
Rem burst forward. You could say he charged the moment he grasped where the giant pack was.
The reason he acted like that was because he trusted the two left behind.
Even though it was an ambush, Leona didn't panic. She guided the workers and people to the center of the tents.
"This way!"
It was a smart move. Even if there were some workers and fighters, the main force here was himself, Rem, and Dunbakel.
Leona gathered everyone in one place so that the three of them could protect everyone here more easily.
Since, from the moment they set up camp, they'd put the supplies in the center and pitched the tents to surround the middle, using each wagon as a wall was also an excellent response.
"Dunbakel."
When Enkrid called the name, the beastwoman approached as if bursting out.
"What?"
"Hit the ones that come in within a certain distance centered on the tents—right now, over there."
As far as perception in the dark went, the beastwoman had sensory organs superior to Enkrid's.
And her sense of smell was superior even among beastpeople.
Before he even finished speaking, Dunbakel moved.
The giants had encircled the caravan and tightened in, and a few of them were striding inward.
Dunbakel charged one of them.
With a bang, pushing off the ground, Dunbakel's blade cut the back of the giant's knee, and then, like a squirrel climbing a tree, she climbed the giant's leg and cut its neck.
Thunk!
The sound of the neck being cut was like chopping at a giant tree with an axe.
With two swings, one giant fell to the ground. Thunk— its body sprawled on the ground. Under dim moonlight, dark red blood pooled, like it was about to make a pond on the ground.
"Where's the chief?"
After dealing with one, Dunbakel asked like she was shouting.
Enkrid realized he'd been unknowingly building up a lot over the past few days because of the nightmares.
Even if he didn't want to care, wasn't it a dream that kept getting under his skin?
Instead of answering, Enkrid sprang out toward the opposite side from where Rem had run.
"Ah, seriously, why is it always me—!"
Behind him, Dunbakel spat out a complaint, but he ignored it. Enkrid concentrated Will into his hearing.
Giants were a species opposite from fairies. It was hard for them to move without sound or hide their presence.
Finding where the giant pack had gathered wasn't difficult.
'Tactics?'
Their movement seemed like that. Even while encircling the caravan, they were gathered into two points. One was the side Rem hit, and the other was the opposite side.
'Hit from the front and steal their eyes, then hit again from behind.'
For a caravan like this, they could just crush it with sheer force, but by striking in succession from front and back, they made it hard for the other side to respond.
It was tactical movement. A trained group.