Chapter 0696 Beyond the Easter Countries

Translator: Jay_Forestieri

Editor: Tseirp

Two travelers, two beloved horses, five ice <Dollies>... all extremely large ones.

From any angle, it was fair to say this was a very unusual traveling party.

“Abel may be a splendid king, and perhaps a very capable swordsman.”

“Hm?”

“But out here in this remote land, such privileged status or position means nothing. Everyone is equal.”

“R-really?”

“You have been glancing back at the <Dollies> ever since a while ago, but I know exactly what you are plotting!”

“Plotting?”

At Ryo’s accusatory words, Abel tilted his head.

All he had been doing was occasionally looking back because he was still bothered by the gigantic group of <Dollies> following behind them, so it was only natural that he would tilt his head at the accusation.

“You think you can outmaneuver me and monopolize the contents, don’t you? I see through everything!”

“I had absolutely no such intention.”

“A lie! There is a saying: the net of heaven is vast, and though its meshes are coarse, nothing slips through. Evil deeds never go well.”

“I do not know about this heaven net something or whatever, but... well, it is true that bad deeds do not tend to go well.”

“Exactly, exactly.”

For some reason, Ryo nodded with a very self-important look.

“And the luggage inside that huge ice...”

“All of these are supplies for Andalusia.”

“Ah... at least make it ‘for Andalusia and co’.”

“Well, fine. They are supplies for Andalusia, including Feiwan.”

When Ryo said that, Andalusia and Feiwan whinnied happily.

Hearing that, Ryo nodded again in his exaggerated, self-important way.

“You have it rough too, Ryo.”

“Huh? Why am I the one having it rough?”

“If the supplies are for the horses, then your own meals will not come from there, right?” 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

“W-well, maybe not.”

“It is easy to hunt as long as we are in forested areas, but I heard that around the ‘Corridor’ there are also wastelands and deserts, weren’t there?”

Abel brought up information he had heard before departing from the Imperial Capital.

Ryo’s eyes went wide.

“I-If we starve, then it’ll be a problem for Andalusia and co too, so as an emergency measure, our own food should also come from here...”

“So you are going to steal Andalusia and Feiwan’s meals?”

“Grrr...”

Ryo was left speechless.

It was not as if Abel was saying this just to bully Ryo.

He was simply, purely asking what he planned to do about food supplies going forward.

But it seemed Ryo had not thought that far ahead at all...

“It cannot be helped. For today and tomorrow, I will have you give it your best.”

“...Huh?”

Two days later, the gigantic ice <Dollies> following behind the two travelers and two horses had increased to twenty.

The two of them had hunted, gathered fruit... in short, the result of obtaining food however they could.

“It increased...”

“It is so that we are prepared for anything. Besides, the <Dollies> follow along on their own, so it should not matter how many there are, right?”

Ryo shrugged at Abel’s honest impression.

“That may be true as long as we travel over land... but what do we do when we are on a boat, like when we traveled up the South River? Since they cannot ride on a boat, do we stay on land the whole time?”

“If it comes to that, only we and Andalusia and co will board it, right?”

“What about these supplies?”

“They’ll be in the river.”

“Huh?”

Abel was at a loss for words.

In his mind, images of twenty ice <Dollies> traveling along the riverbed were playing.

“These are ice. Abel, do you know what happens to ice when it goes into water?”

“Uh... ah, it floats.”

“That’s right. These <Dollies> will also float on the water’s surface and follow along... hm?”

“What is it?”

Because Ryo’s words suddenly cut off, Abel asked in return.

“On land, the wheels turn and move them forward, but on water or underwater, even if the wheels turn, they won’t move forward...”

Ryo said that, then covered his eyes with his palm.

If one had to put it into words, perhaps it was “Damn it...”.

“I will have to think of a different method.”

After a while, he lifted his head and declared that.

“No, it does not necessarily mean we will be riding a boat, does it? Besides, there may not even be a great river like the South River anymore.”

“That may be true, or it may not be. I do not want to get to that moment and say, ‘I never thought about it’.”

“T-That’s true.”

Pressed by Ryo’s determination, Abel nodded.

It was not a bad thing to make assumptions in advance...

The party continued onward while Ryo muttered this and that.

Because he was swaying along on Andalusia’s back, whom he trusted completely, it was possible.

Watching that from the side, Abel shrugged a little and rode along on Feiwan’s back.

Night.

The two travelers and two horses camped outdoors.

For the past few days, they had not passed through any towns or villages where the party could stay overnight.

The two horses aside, having only two people made taking turns on watch rather troublesome.

After all, they could only sleep half the time.

But with Ryo there, such things did not matter.

In a safe place enclosed by ice walls, both Ryo and Abel, and of course Andalusia and Feiwan as well, could sleep peacefully.

“I think Ryo’s magic is convenient in that respect.”

“It is, isn’t it?”

As always, Ryo nodded in a very self-important way.

Abel shrugged and looked at the map.

“Plans say tomorrow, right?”

“Yes. It’s the place where the invisible wall that had been blocking the ‘Corridor’ between the Central Countries and the Eastern Countries used to be. Marie-san... probably opened it some months ago, but I wonder what it’s like now.”

“Marie... that phantomkin, huh.”

Ryo said it with a lively, excited tone, and Abel remembered the female phantomkin who had once tormented Ryo with her astonishing swordsmanship.

“Since the wall that separated the Central Countries and the Eastern Countries for so long is gone, I think there will have been various changes.”

“Probably. There is also the possibility that we will not be able to proceed.”

“You mean like the ground collapsing or something...?”

“Yeah. Of course, that is only a possibility.”

“Abel said something ominous again.”

Ryo frowned and shook his head slightly.

The next day, the party reached the place in question.

“Here... is it?”

“This area... should be it.”

Both Ryo and Abel rode forward on the backs of their beloved horses.

Yes, they could proceed without any issue.

“There is nothing strange here, right?”

“No. Well, we don’t even know exactly what that phantomkin did in the first place.”

“Good thing Abel’s weird prophecy did not come true.”

“My prophecy...”

“If some incredible catastrophe had occurred, the ground split apart, magma erupted, and all living things died out... I would hate it if the world had become something like that.”

“That is less my prophecy and more your delusion being strongly reflected in reality.”

Abel shook his head slightly.

The party continued, after all, without anything happening.

“So the invisible wall and all that are already behind us, right?”

“Yeah. In the end, nothing happened.”

Abel let out a relieved sigh.

“So that means we’ve passed through the Eastern Countries, right?”

“That would be the case.”

“In other words, that means we’ve entered the Central Countries, right?”

Ryo asked happily.

But Abel tilted his head.

“Is that really so?”

“Huh?”

“We indeed passed through the Eastern Countries... but this is still the so-called ‘Corridor’, right? I have never heard of this ‘Corridor’. In other words, to say this is part of the Central Countries when even a king of the Central Countries doesn’t know this place...”

“...So because Abel is poorly informed, this place is not being recognized as part of the Central Countries?”

Ryo looked at him with a suspicious, dubious expression.

“I did not say that. This area is a place that belongs to neither the Eastern Countries nor the Central Countries.”

“I guess it can’t be helped. I will respect Abel’s dignity and leave it at that.”

“Hey...”

Abel was about to snap at Ryo’s words.

But Abel, who had also learned patience as a king, would not lose his temper over this much.

“Even if this is not the Central Countries, if we keep going west, we’ll reach it, right?”

“Yeah, probably.”

“Which country in the Central Countries will we reach?”

“Most likely... the Union, or one of the small countries around it.”

“By small countries around it, do you mean the Ju Kingdom, for example?”

Ryo asked.

The Ju Kingdom was the homeland of Prince Willy, Ryo’s disciple.

Before Ryo departed for the Western Countries, Willy had remained in the Ju Kingdom, but what about now?

“Yeah, the Ju Kingdom is what you would call a small kingdom, but... among the countries around the Union, it is on the larger side.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. There should be quite a few countries much smaller than the Ju Kingdom. In the first place, the Union’s official name is the Handal Union. As the name states, it is a federated state formed from many small countries.”

“So there are plenty of small nations that are not part of that Union to the east of it... beyond this ‘Corridor’?”

“That is right.”

Abel nodded.

Abel was the king of the Kingdom of Knightley, one of the major powers of the Central Countries.

Before becoming king, he had been an adventurer, but from the time he was born until he turned eighteen, he had properly received a royal education.

That included information about the Central Countries as a whole.

No matter what Ryo said, he was a serious and capable king.

The two travelers, two horses, and twenty Dollies moved farther west.

Actually, at one point, they had eaten through one cart’s worth of supplies.

However, they were attacked soon after by a wyvern that came from nowhere.

As usual, Ryo pinned the wyvern to the ground, and Abel finished it off, so nothing came of it.

As a bonus, they obtained a magic stone and wyvern meat.

Since the meat filled one cart... they were back to twenty Dollies again.

“Wyverns really are everywhere, aren’t they?”

“And this one was an adult, too. Normally, adventurers face juveniles when wyvern hunting.”

“I can see mountain ranges both to the north and to the south. I wonder if it came from around there.”

“Maybe. It is called the ‘Corridor’, after all, so it is getting fairly narrow. Still, that mountain is pretty tall, isn’t it?”

“The Demon Mountain north of Rondo Forest, was it? It might be the same height as that, or even taller.”

“That’s true. Calling this place, sandwiched between two mountain ranges, the ‘Corridor’ is quite apt.”

Ryo and Abel chatted leisurely while swaying on their beloved horses’ backs.

Both Andalusia and Feiwan were smart, so there was nothing for the two of them to do.

All they could do was enjoy the scenery and exchange trivial conversation.

Even so, Ryo did keep <Passive Sonar> on.

For example, if they were suddenly attacked by an invisible monster, that would be a problem.

However...

“Hm?”

“What is it?”

Abel reacted to Ryo’s murmur.

“About one kilometer ahead... there seems to be people... no, something like a village or settlement.”

“Ohh.”

“What is that reaction? Is King Abel going to suddenly give orders to attack a village without even issuing a surrender warning?”

“Yes, I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. Why would I attack a village?”

“In my hometown, there is a saying: preemptive strike wins. Personally, I feel bad about attacking a village that has done nothing wrong, but if Abel orders it as king, I have no choice but to obey.”

Ryo said this while somehow making a gesture of wiping tears from his eyes.

Of course, they were fake tears.

In the first place, Abel had not given such an order. Nor would he ever.

“Do not attack the village. Do not issue a surrender warning either. I want to build a peaceful relationship. Is that fine?”

“What if they launch a preemptive strike? What if the villagers say, ‘Nice horse you’ve got there, leave all your baggage and horses here’?”

“Ordinary people would not say that.”

“What if they do? Abel is a king, after all. Anticipating the worst and hoping for the best... that is exactly what a statesman should be.”

“I see, in that case, if it comes to that, Ryo, protect us. With your usual ice wall.”

“Defense, is it. Well, I suppose why not? Let's pray the enemy’s attack power is low.”

“No human being could possibly pierce Ryo’s ice.”

Abel’s final mutter was not heard by Ryo.

After traveling a while longer—

“Stop! Dismount!”

Five men who had hurried out from the village shouted while brandishing spear-like weapons.

“See? It’s the leave-your-horses-and-belongings-here pattern!”

“Really?”

Ryo asserted confidently, and Abel expressed doubt.

The things the five men were holding were long like spears... but there was no metal on the tips.

They were simply carved wood.

Could people like that really do something akin to banditry?

Abel could not quite imagine it.

“Well, I guess we can dismount.”

“We won’t be able to make a speedy getaway.”

“It is not like we were planning to do that in the first place. I cannot see it, but you must have us surrounded with your ice wall, right?”

“You figured it out quickly. As expected of a former A-rank swordsman.”

Ryo praised him with an air of self-importance.

Abel shook his head slightly in silence.

The two dismounted.

Ryo handed Andalusia’s reins to Abel and stepped forward.

“Hello. We are not suspicious people. We are just traveling adventurers.”

Ryo greeted them cheerfully with a smile.

A greeting with a smile certainly did not look suspicious.

It was the same “people-charmer” smile Abel often talked about.

“T-This is Bondrin Village! What do you want here!”

The man in the center among the five asked.

He was apparently the leader among the five.

Up until now, only this man had been speaking.

The other four held their spear-like things ready...

But Abel noticed something.

All of them were trembling slightly.

“We are on our way west toward the Central Countries. If you do not want us to enter the village, we will not.”

When Ryo said that with a cheerful smile still on his face, the five men looked at one another.

Then, a voice called out from behind them.

“Cease that!”

The clear, carrying voice belonged to an old man coming from the village.

Seeing that he had many people following behind him, he was likely the one in power in the village.

“V-Village chief...”

The man in the center of the five squeezed out those words.

“Guests, I am sorry if we startled you. Earlier, I heard the word adventurers. Long ago, I heard of such people. People who are paid to solve problems for those in trouble.”

“Yes, well, that is about right.”

At the village chief’s words, Ryo nodded.

At the very least, it was not wrong.

The two of them were led into the village.

On the way to the village, Ryo noticed something unusual.

“An emerald-green pond?”

For an instant, that was how it looked to him.

But he immediately understood otherwise.

“Ocean-green glass? No way, is that trinitite?”

Trinitite, the artificial mineral created by the world’s first nuclear test.

Sand was thrown up, melted at once into liquid, and then cooled and hardened again to form trinitite.

The presence of that meant that something at an extremely high temperature had been there.

Thinking such things, the party was ushered into the village.

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