Chapter 81

Chapter 81. The Old Woman in the Tower (6)

A full day had passed since we left home.

This place was a forest in the north where not even a shadow of a person could be found, the point where the Forsaken Forest came to an end.

Because of that, when I looked ahead, I saw a wasteland plain filled with piles of stone.

Even though another half day or so of travel would bring us to another forest, Rene and Luna strongly insisted that we spend the night inside the woods.

In any case, half of our party were elves.

While I was thinking that, a wooden stick slowly approached from in front of me and tapped the hand I was using to stir the pot with a ladle.

“What are you thinking about?”

“Nothing. I was just thinking it has been a long time since we slept outdoors like this.”

At my words, Rene pursed her lips and smiled with her eyes, then stirred the campfire with the stick in her hand and slowly opened her mouth.

“Hehe~ I see. It was about six years ago, was it not? The last time we camped outdoors.”

I gave a small laugh at her words.

“Ahh, you mean the day monsters attacked while we were making dinner, so we had to cook dinner all over again?”

“Yes. But it is late autumn now, and I already took care of this area in advance, so we should not have the same worries as we did then.”

I took the ladle out of the pot, blew on the steaming soup, brought it to my lips, and tasted it.

Hmm, it seems my old skills have not rusted yet.

I filled a cup with hot Han Reed Kalmarion-style vegetable soup, generously enough to match my love, and handed it to Rene, who was sitting in front of me.

And she immediately gifted me a pleasant smile.

“Hmm~ This is good. It is delicious. I have been curious for a while, but where did you learn to make things like this?”

I filled another cup with an appropriate amount of soup and opened my mouth with a smile.

“Before I met you, I traveled quite a lot. And every time, I watched, listened to, and learned from friends or people I ended up traveling with.”

“I am happy right now, dear. Because you are my mate.”

At her words, I smiled gently with my eyes.

“I am happy too.”

“I do not particularly want to break that strange happiness of yours, but if you are going to give me that, could you hurry up? I am hungry too.”

That was Luna.

So I quickly held out the cup and packed lunch I was holding to her.

Luna accepted the cup and packed lunch I offered her, then brought the soup to her lips with an expressionless face.

I smiled bitterly and began filling another cup with soup.

“What about tomorrow? Are we stopping by the village?”

At that, Rene said,

“Yes. We should stop by the village, shop at the market, and leave right away. As you know, we are travelers with a purpose.”

“And after that?”

Rene looked at me with a piece of bread in her mouth.

I raised a finger and pointed at Luna beside us, who was skewering ham on a branch and roasting it over the campfire.

After seeing that, Rene smiled gently and opened her mouth a little later.

“Mm, after that, we will continue north. During that process, we will pass through about two villages, but if there is no problem, we will only do a little shopping and leave right away.

After going north like that, we will arrive at a place called Sonata’s Valley. Once we finish our business there, we will change direction southwest and enter the capital. We will probably spend about three days on this part.”

“Three days? It should be quite far from here to the capital.”

Luna pulled back the ham she had been roasting on a branch over the fire, placed it between a piece of bread split in half, took a bite, chewed, and looked at Rene.

Rene smiled gently and said,

“We will be taking a shortcut, so three days will be enough.”

At her words, Luna and I slowly nodded.

Mm, by shortcut, she meant a forest path.

Certainly, if we went that way, it would be faster, and we would not have to meet many people.

Some time later, after we finished dinner, we had a little free time before going to sleep, and each person’s hobbies showed themselves there.

I broke off a suitable piece of wood and began carving it with a knife,

Rene took out a book,

And Luna watched my work(?) with indifferent eyes.

While doing so, she sat with her legs drawn up and a blanket wrapped around her body, then opened her mouth.

“What are you carving?”

“What does it look like I am carving?”

“Your wife.”

“You know well.”

With my head lowered, I grinned and kept moving the knife, and Luna continued speaking with a pathetic look on her face.

“Do you like your wife that much?”

At her words, I raised my head and looked at Luna.

Her face did not look particularly curious. She simply looked bored.

When I turned my head, Rene had taken her eyes off her book and was looking at me.

I gave her a faint smile, then looked at Luna again and answered her question sincerely.

“Yes.”

“Forget it. I am the fool for asking.”

Luna said that and pulled the blanket draped over her shoulders up over her head. Seeing that, I tilted my head.

“Are you cold?”

“Then would I be hot? For a girl my age to leave a perfectly fine house and sleep outside in late autumn like this is not exactly desirable.”

As she said that, she picked up a block of wood stacked beside her and threw it into the campfire burning in front of her.

Seeing that, Rene lowered her book, looked a little sympathetic, and opened her mouth.

“You are still young, after all. Luna, would you come here?”

Luna and I turned our heads and looked for a moment at the place Rene was pointing to.

It could certainly be called a place that looked warm.

And as expected of an elf, Luna did not hesitate after receiving her suggestion.

She slowly rose from her seat, wrapped her blanket around her body, went to the place Rene had indicated, and sat down.

Because of that, I was able to see a rather amusing sight.

“What are you grinning about like that?”

“Mm? Nothing much.”

I said that and began cutting into the piece of wood again.

The place Rene had pointed to was right between her legs, a place where a child about Luna’s size could sit without any trouble.

On top of that, Rene was also in a position where she was hugging Luna from behind, so the two of them looked as though they could spend the night warmly while feeling each other’s body heat.

If there was a problem, it was me.

Because for a moment, I had thought Luna had stolen my wife from me.

Mm, could this be morbid jealousy?

Ugh! As if that could be true.

The next morning, I got up, threw a little more firewood into the campfire we had kept burning through the night, and began preparing breakfast.

When I turned my head absentmindedly, as expected, Luna was asleep in Rene’s arms with her mouth slightly open.

Rene was also sound asleep in the posture of a mother holding a child.

I gave them a small smile, then hurried with the breakfast preparations.

So Luna and Rene ended up eating the breakfast I had prepared while still not fully awake.

This is what elves are like.

“Will you be all right? Should we leave after you wake up a little more?”

“Mm, no. We will eat and then… haaam!”

Rene covered her mouth with one hand and yawned.

But Luna, who was sitting in front of her, showed a reaction that contrasted with hers.

She finished breakfast looking almost half-asleep, then got up, found her canteen, washed her face with a damp towel, folded her blanket, tied it tightly with a leather strap, sat on top of it, and began tidying her hair, which had become disheveled while she slept.

Of course, while Luna was doing all that, Rene still looked like someone who had not fully woken up, tearing off bread and forcing it toward her mouth.

As I said before, elves become terribly lazy when they travel with someone they trust.

With no other choice, I sat down behind her and used a comb to tidy Rene’s hair.

She watched me comb her hair with dazed eyes for a moment, then turned her head again, brought the soup to her lips, and slowly began drinking.

Good grief.

“You really are a henpecked husband.”

“I told you, I am a devoted husband.”

Luna sat on top of the blanket, holding a comb in her hand, and said that with a grin.

I took out two hair ties I carried in my pocket, tossed one of them to Luna, and refuted her words.

A little while later, Rene finally woke up, seemed to stretch a little, then turned her head and came toward me before beginning to unbutton the front of my shirt.

I silently watched her actions.

When she undid my shirt, the large paper attached to my chest was immediately revealed.

Rene peeled it off, then took out the new paper she had brought and attached it again while softly reciting an incantation.

At that, it once again glowed bluish and calmed my pounding chest.

“Phew! Thank you, dear.”

“It is nothing. More importantly, if everything is ready, let us set off.”

Rene said that with a small smile in her eyes.

I wanted to kiss her as thanks, but Luna was sitting there with her arms crossed, looking at us, so I postponed it for later.

Mm, not doing something I usually did felt strange in its own way.

We lost a little time changing what was attached to my chest, but in the end, we were able to set off.

When passing through the forest, unless there was urgent business, we moved slowly.

But when crossing land like this, we somehow picked up speed.

The reason? Well, perhaps it was because desolate places made one feel like getting out of them quickly.

On top of that, after living in the forest, coming out onto a plain where the horizon could be seen made one feel strange.

Perhaps because of that, Rene urged Race, whom she and Luna were riding together, and made him run straight ahead.

I pressed Reymo so I would not fall behind her.

As we rode across the wasteland on horseback, a tremendous cloud of dust rose behind me.

People commonly called this place a wasteland, but I wanted to call it ruins.

Across the wide plain, even if one washed one’s eyes and searched, there were no trees or grass to be found.
The only things present were pieces of wood, stones, and those strangely shaped pillars that appeared from time to time.

They seemed to be the remnants of some building.

Given that I remembered seeing the same things several times when I passed through this place before, there must have been something like a village here a very long time ago.

When I turned my head to the side, Rene and Luna had turned their heads and seemed to be talking about the pillar passing before their eyes.

But because there was some distance between the horses we were riding, I could not tell what they were saying.

In any case, after running like that for about two hours, something bluish began to rise from the distant horizon.

Soon, it reached us in the form of the word “forest.”

As soon as we arrived at the forest, Luna got off the horse. Then she put both hands behind her, furrowed her brow, and opened her mouth.

“My butt hurts.”

Watching her, Rene smiled gently and turned her head toward me.

“It should be fine soon. By the way, what was the name of this village again?”

“Mm… If I remember correctly, I think it was called Poni.”

Since I had spent more than ten years wandering here and there, I at least knew the names of villages I had stopped by.

Rene got off the horse and began looking around.

I got down with the reins in my hand and watched Rene’s actions. A little while later, Rene raised a finger, pointed in one direction, and opened her mouth.

“This way.”

“Is there a path?”

“There are some traces of people passing through. If we follow them, a road will probably appear.”

Luna and I stared carefully at the area Rene was pointing to, then roughly nodded and followed her into the forest.

After all, we could not ride horses through a forest with no path.

While we were walking, Luna, who was walking beside me, looked around and spoke to Rene’s back.

“How do you find traces of people passing by?”

Rene’s head turned back slightly, and a small smile was on her face.

Turning her head forward again, Rene walked ahead and slowly opened her mouth.

“Look carefully here and there, at the places where fallen leaves cover the ground and at the small branches where the trees stand. Over there, the small branches grow all the way down to the base of the trees, do they not?

On the other hand, the trees along the path we are walking now have had their branches broken cleanly up to a certain height.

That is because people cut wood to use as firewood, then carried it on their backs or shoulders, and the branches broke when they struck them.

A single passage would not leave such marks, but if they carry wood several times, traces like this remain.

And if you look carefully at the ground, sometimes you will find stones buried in the soil exposed above the surface. Only humans do this. Animals move carefully, even if only for the sake of hunting.

And the decisive point is that if you look around nearby, there are few animals. That means people frequently enter and leave this place. This is the most basic method, so memorize it exactly as it is.

Also, once you leave the house, you must never lower your guard against anything. That includes the appearance and every action of passersby who speak to you. You know the reason for that as well.”

Luna nodded, and I gave a somewhat bitter smile.

Rene carefully looked at a certain thicket, then turned in that direction and entered it. So we followed behind her too.

A little while later, Luna and I saw Rene’s face looking at us from a well-kept mountain path.

She was giving us a small smile as we pushed aside branches and walked out.

“If you pay even a little attention, you can see things that do not appear visible. This time, I noticed it because I caught a glimpse of sunlight seeping through beyond the thicket. Our pathfinding techniques have many similarities with the tracking techniques of human rangers, but I will teach you that later.”

As she said that, Rene took out two hoods engraved with pretty patterns from the backpack hanging from the horse’s saddle, then held one and approached Luna.

She intended to cover her ears.

“Come here.”

“Do I have to cover them?”

At her question, Rene gave a bitter smile.

“Yes.”

And so the two of them covered their ears, and I watched them for a moment before simply turning my head away.

A little while later, Rene and Luna mounted the horse with hoods wrapped around their heads.

Lowering my head, I looked down at the girl wearing a brown hood close to the color of her skin.

With a somewhat bitter smile, I held her by the waist and lifted her behind Rene.

“Now, let us go.”

“Ahh.”

After that, I mounted Reymo and followed behind Rene, who was slowly riding ahead.

After riding slowly for about thirty minutes, we were able to find a small, quiet village.

This place, Poni, was a remote village in the north. There were few monsters nearby, so it was a quiet and pleasant village to live in.

The only flaw was that too much snow fell once winter came.

Since it was a small village, there were few guards, and the inspection was merely a formality.

After all, this was a village maintained by the money that came out of travelers’ pockets.