164: Everyone screws up now and then, right?

In the end, our envoy party became a group of twelve.

Yeah, that’s normal for an envoy, I guess. Given we’re trekking through places with no roads, it might even be too small.

Let me list the members again.

Twelve of us: me, Kyle, Maina, Persia, Leifan, Ryuuko, Raidock, Solal, Eva, Camille, Marilyn, Jitarou.

And eight of us have high-grade colored sigils. That’s not exactly a joke.

We might as well be as strong as the Royal Capital’s Holy Knights.

…Thinking too hard about that’s just asking to lose.

I’m sitting in the carriage right now, with Kyle, Maina, and Eva. Eva’s here to rest and guard.

Maina’s still on my lap, even though there’s an empty seat.

Shaking hard, clinging to me like she’s afraid the motion’ll split her in two.

I’m half-dreaming about brewing anti-nausea alchemy when Maina lifts her face.

“Craft… how much longer ‘til we get there?”

“The final destination’s said to be the Mizoho Shrine Nation, way up north. Still a long way to go.”

Distance, sure—but the real reason we’re crawling is there’s barely a road left.

Thanks to Jitarou’s sharp instincts, we’re heading straight north, mostly. But the route’s brutal.

“Still, I heard there were little kingdoms scattered around the Mizoho Shrine Nation. Haven’t seen a single one.”

“Huh?”

Eva looks up, puzzled at my muttering.

“Isn’t this supposed to be the shortest way to the Mizoho Shrine Nation?”

“Huh?”

Now it’s my turn to be shocked.

"No, actually, I’d rather stop by a few places to check the state of these little nations… Kyle, that’s right, isn’t it?"

"Yes. That’s what I think would be best."

Eva paused, considering.

"Then shouldn’t we be choosing routes that are at least passable for people, rather than barreling through terrain so harsh no one could live there?"

"“Ah.”"

Kyle and I exchanged glances, then both cracked up.

"My bad. I messed up."

"Didn’t see it myself. Sorry."

Rare for Kyle to slip up—but it’s our fault for not catching it, me and Leifan.

I leaned out the carriage window and shouted using the “Hear” spell.

"Stop! Stop right now!"

That got everyone to gather up. We’d recheck the route.

When I told Jitarou about Eva’s comment, he thumped his chest.

“Leave it to me! There was a place that looked promising on the opposite side of the mountain!”

“Then say so!”

“But this route gets us north faster, right?”

“As I just explained, prioritize terrain that looks like it’s been inhabited from now on!”

“Got it!”

I was the one who hadn’t given the order, but Jitarou should’ve at least reported it!

“Just a gut feeling, you know?”

“That… is true.”

Couldn’t exactly report “It just feels like people live over there,” could I?

“Tell me next time.”

“Got it!”

Jitarou—can I rely on him or not? Still as unclear as ever.

After that, following Jitarou’s gut, we turned at a right angle from our previous route, crossed a mountain, and there it was—perfectly visible, a settlement-like structure.

“All that effort up until now…”

“Don’t think about it!”

You saying that? Feels like a punch in the gut.

Anyway, we looked down on the town from the mountain peak. Used the "Scrying" spell. The town looked… ruined.

Exactly like a town wiped out in war.

Our breath caught in our throats.

“Raidock, can you send out scouts?”

“Yeah. Jitarou, you got Camille.”

“Leave it to me!”

“…Got it.”

A tag team of a mountain monk and a kunoichi. Should be fine, right?

They were back in a few hours.

Camille muttered the report.

“Nobody’s there.”

“Figured as much.”

I’d expected it from the scrying, but not completely empty.

“Don’t think it’s been gone that long.”

“Huh?”

That was unexpected. I’d assumed it’d been abandoned ages ago.

“Probably just two or three months.”

Jitarou nodded in agreement. If those two say so, then it’s settled.

"The cause was probably an attack by monsters. It's been pretty well ravaged—lots of human and monster corpses."

"And there are still quite a few monsters lingering in the ruins. Probably drawn to the corpses."

Two people good at sneaking around—no wonder they got through undetected.

"Kyle, what now?"

He glanced at Maina.

"Let's avoid this town."

I want to investigate, sure—but I definitely don’t want to drag Maina into something like that.

Then Maina tugged at Kyle’s sleeve.

"I’m… fine."

Oh. In the past few days, Maina’s been standing up for herself more.

Kyle looked at me this time.

"Fine by me. If it looks bad, we just pull back."

"Yeah... uh-huh. Understood. Then, Raidock. I'd like to ask you to clear out the monsters lingering in the ruins. Can you manage that?"

Raidock's lips curled into a smirk when the request came his way.

"Piece of cake."

And so, by evening, every last monster remaining in the ruins had been eradicated.

...Yeah. Too damn fast.

◆

"Looks like it was once a walled city, huh."

Kyle stood before the collapsed city wall. Probably attacked by some large monster. Or maybe taken down by a magic-wielding one.

"Could've been a stampede," Kyle said.

Leifan furrowed his brow slightly at that. Might've been thinking of his homeland.

Either way, good thing or whatever, the corpses—both monster and human—seemed mostly swallowed up by the surviving beasts' stomachs. No piles of bodies to be seen anywhere.

Good thing, or whatever—Maina didn’t have to see anything too gruesome.

Jitarou was examining the bones left behind.

“Hmm. Somethin’ off here.”

“Anything you’re worried about, just say it.”

“Usually, stampedes are all one kind of monster goin’ wild at once. But these bones… looked like all kinds mixed in.”

That’s strange. No, wait—nothing like that rings a bell from the cockatrice incident.

Eva paused, thinking.

“Maybe they all came from around here, drawn by the dead. Then got picked off by others?”

“Huh. Makes sense.”

“Mmm.”

Seemed logical, but Jitarou still didn’t look convinced.

“Waste of time thinkin’ about things we can’t confirm. Let’s just gather what we can.”

“Agreed.”

“Got it!”

We decided to camp at the royal palace ruins—relatively intact, all things considered.

We called it a royal palace because the documents left behind confirmed it had once been a city-state.

And from those same records, we learned something else: all the nations around here had been city-states too.

So, country = walled city.

Even better, we found a valuable map.

We’d already sent adventurers ahead to scout the area, but their map was crude—useful only for checking directions. Now, though, we can actually travel to other city-states.

Funny thing is, those adventurers had already been here before Van gave the order. Back when Kyle was just a steward, not a lord.

So all they’d been told was a rough, basic survey. It was just a precautionary check—just to make sure the other side of the river was clear.

If it’d been Raidock’s crew doing the survey, they might’ve picked up on the details. But for regular adventurers, this area was too dangerous—just a basic report, nothing more.

I’d known most of these little nations were city-states, but I only just learned the specifics.

And thinking about the time frame of the adventurers’ survey, it’s possible this city fell just around the time they passed through.

“Alright, our plan’s set. We’ll head toward the Mizoho Shrine Nation, stopping at every small country we can along the way.”

“Understood.”

The conversation wrapped up. I glanced briefly at Maina.

She was a short distance away, learning manners from Ryuuko.

The threat of being sent back immediately if she failed her duties seemed to be working—she was putting real effort into her studies, into her noble training.

Kyle smirked faintly.

Fufu. Good opportunity. Let’s boost Maina’s skills and manners all at once during this trip.

Black!

More black than I thought Kyle was!

Kyle… scary kid!

And so the night passed over the ruins.

Fixed a few typos in Chapter Six.

No change in content, so no need to reread.

This might be the first time I’ve actually used the typo reporting feature. (Laugh)