Nameless Desert - 1

The desert crossing begins.

We four set out early in the morning, as people were still asleep, and entered the desert.

The weather is clear, but the desert remains surprisingly cold, even though the sun hasn't risen yet.

According to locals, it's supposedly summer now—quite the opposite of the empire. That must mean we've crossed the equator somewhere.

The desert sand is golden and loose, so unstable that it sinks slightly with every step a person takes.

According to Gram and the others, sandworms are active around the clock, though more of them seem to be active during the day. I thought it might be safer to move at night, but apparently, fighting in the dark at night is more dangerous—fleeing blindly in the darkness is riskier than being caught in daylight.

So, having entered the desert early in the morning, I immediately cast a detection spell toward the ground. I drove the staff—its tip combining a light-based magic stone for sending signals and a magical lamp for receiving them—deep into the sand.

There was no reaction at all.

"It's fine. No sandworms here. Since information on sandworms is scarce, I want to proceed cautiously at first to gather data gradually."

"Understood. Let's move slowly at first."

Gram responded honestly, but...

"Are you really sure this will work?"

Coil remained skeptical. It wasn't surprising—he couldn't easily grasp such an intuitive magic. Having joined the journey in a village before the desert, Coil had never actually seen its effects in action.

"Don't worry about that. Just go with the flow—like you're aboard a great ship."

Coil, though eyeing the situation with suspicion, obediently climbed onto the cargo platform of the magic tricycle. The magic tricycle had me and Gram on the main body, and Elin and Coil on the rear cargo platform, with luggage packed tightly into every available space.

I'll drive while Gram gives directions. Coil keeps butting in, guiding us to avoid the thieves.

The magic three-wheeled vehicle's tires were too narrow and would sink into the sand, making normal movement impossible. To solve this, we replaced the rear tires with wooden planks attached evenly around them, distributing the weight.

I once read an article about an unmanned robot exploring the moon that used tires like this to move across the moon's loose, powdery surface—this design is a direct imitation of that.

The tires now resembled a waterwheel. This way, they could push through the sand as we moved forward.

We decided to attach ski boards to the front wheels and the rear cargo platform to allow them to glide. Since any object with a gliding function would be relatively easy to make, we prepared several and brought them along.

It's drastically slower than when using tires, but it's better than not moving at all, and it's convenient because it's easy to get going.

Originally, I wanted to make it like a tank with endless tracks—also known as caterpillar tracks—but it turned out to be unexpectedly difficult, and I couldn't get it to work properly.

The wooden planks scraped against the sand with a gritty, crunching sound, moving forward steadily. Though slow, it showed no sign of fatigue, moving faster than a human and at the same pace as a horse.

Despite its complaints, it had covered a considerable distance.

Occasionally, it used a探测 magic toward the ground sand. The reaction was faint, but the magic lamp glowed.

It had detected the presence of a large creature.

"Everyone, there's a biological reaction. Probably a sandworm. Prepare for battle."

Upon my words, we dismounted the magic tri-wheel and each took up our weapons. Takagane siblings in front, me in the center, Coil behind.

After a moment, about fifty meters or so... sand began to erupt to our right, just off to the side of our line of sight. Indeed, the creature buried in the sand is hard to pinpoint precisely, despite its detectable reaction.

Moreover, it feels like the effective range has dropped to half. I think we’d better conduct frequent surveillance spells.

As the sand settled over time, a sandworm emerged. Its head, with only a mouth, swiveled around curiously. It might be searching for food. Up close, its body appears reddish-brown and wrinkled, like a worm.

"What should we do? Fight it?"

"No, no, Taro's husband, do you even know how many of those things there are? If we fight every single one, we'll never get anywhere."

Coil replied, dramatically spreading his arms.

"We'd be better off avoiding them if we can."

Coil and Gura answered in unison.

I'm not good at fighting either. Let's just pass by quietly.

Hide behind the naturally formed sand dune and wait until the sandworms disappear. After a while, the sandworms retreated back into the sand.

It grew dark. Even after that, we encountered sandworms multiple times, yet managed to move without engaging in battle even once.

The night watch has recently increased in number, changing the rotation. When I got up for a bathroom break, Gura was on watch.

"Taro, sorry to bother you, but could you bring my sister back with you while you're going to the bathroom? She's over there by the dunes, lying down in the twilight. It's getting too risky to leave her alone like that..."

In the direction Gura pointed, Elin sat cross-legged in the desert, gazing up at the sky. She periodically rested her face against her knees, as if watching the stars.

"Frankly, I completely understand how she feels—but seeing her like this all the time just makes me anxious. Isn't there any way to fix this?"

"Maybe try picking up a different hobby?"

"A hobby... huh..."

Kuratsu fell into thought.

After finishing his errands, he approached Erinn.

But what should he even say? He'd lived his whole life focused on hobbies, so he had no idea how to approach someone in this situation.

Incidentally, he'd never been in a relationship with a woman before, so he couldn't come up with anything clever to say.

As I walked, lost in thought, my gaze dropped, and I only realized too late that I was right next to Erinn. I suddenly startled when Erinn appeared in my line of sight.

"Erinn, shouldn't we head back to the tent soon? It gets cold at night."

"Taro... yeah, you're right. I'll go back shortly... Hey, you asked Gram about me, didn't you?"

"No, well... sorry. I just couldn't help but wonder..."

"It's no problem. I think it's only natural you'd be curious, and I wasn't hiding anything."

"Uh... sorry. I just don't know what to say in moments like this."

"Everyone feels that way. That's why we all strive to get stronger, to avoid such feelings... but we can't stay down forever. It'll affect the group's morale, you know..."

"That's right! Maybe you should try liking someone else?"

I blurted that out on impulse.

"Taro, I'm not that cold-hearted woman, you know."

I immediately regretted saying it. What was I thinking? Me?

Without a word, she walked past me and headed toward the tent.

I couldn't say anything, just watched her go. My gaze remained lowered as I returned to the tent behind her.

We moved again the next day, starting from early morning. Erin acted as if nothing had happened, just going about her usual routine. I decided it was pointless to dwell on it, so I focused on the movement. A lingering unease still remained in my heart.

Looking up at the sky, the light was so intense it felt painful to open my eyes. It was especially hot that morning. The heat was so extreme that exposing any part of my skin risked a kind of cold burn.

The steam engine mounted on the magic tricycle began emitting a strange, irregular sound unlike usual. Its speed dropped drastically, and eventually it came to a complete halt.

"Malfunction?"

Coil peered inside, but there was no obvious damage. Instead, the intense heat radiating from it was palpable. It was probably overheating.

I was stuck in the middle of the desert, unable to move.