90 Various Later
I got lost in thought while walking at quite a fast pace.
(The fauna in this world resembles earth? But there's also some that are completely alien. Fantasy... is not enough to explain it away.)
This world is my reality now. It's no fantasy. And yet I just can't seem to adapt. Kinda making me worry it's gonna be an impetus for a blunder in the future.
Zas, zas, zas, zas, zas....
As I was thinking that, something approached us from behind at high speed. This something appears to be running by furiously kicking the ground.
Since the road had narrowed before I realized, I stopped moving and moved to the roadside to see what this thing was.
The elves followed after me and raised their guard up.
What showed up after waiting a bit was a dinosaur. It paid us no heed and kept running ahead at high speed.
I got so excited, my true self leaked out.
"Whoa! That's so cool!? What is that thing? For real... it's awesome!"
That thing had a person riding on it. They were controlling it with a bridle.
Its appearance is that of a Tyrannosaurus but the size of a horse.
I kept staring at it in amazement until it disappeared in the horizon.
Next to me, Serena gave an explanation.
"That's a steed beast known as Grudos. They are chiefly used by the empire's military. They seem to be in a hurry..."
I interrupted her before she could finish.
"Man, the world sure is vast."
This Grudos made me reminisce a certain hunting game.
This trivial reminiscence ended up interrupting Serena which made her never finish and became a source of my regret later. I could have prepared better had I known about it here.
<TLN: Catch the latest updates and edits at Sousetsuka .com >
Naturally I had no way of knowing at this point of time.
I was in a good mood after seeing the cool steed beast and resumed walking toward the empire.
Forgetting the uneasiness I had just before.
The elves' walking speed has been raised even further. It's pretty much running now. And yet still walking.
Is it some sort of magic? I kept up with the elves so effortlessly I could afford random thought like that. Of course I'm not using 'Acceleration'.
Normally it's not possible for human to keep up with this speed without losing a breath. The elves all around me have been glancing at me for a while for some reason now.
But to me who is not normal in the first place, this just feels like a good training. Yes, I almost forgot but I was called 'Blessless' or 'Manaless' in my village. Which was three days ago.
Contrary to me who could even afford humming if I wanted to, the elves were focusing hard on their breathing.
This fact served as another reminder of me being something out of this world.
We came across a fork while that thought crossed my mind. There's a split path to the left of the straight road we're on.
As there was a wheel track to the left, that carriage earlier must have gone there. I threw a question without stopping.
"Where does the left path lead to? Heading straight here gets us to the empire right?"
"Yes. According to the map, the left path goes to the kingdom. With several villages and towns along the way. The empire should be straight ahead."
Hearing that begged a question in my mind.
(Are they never going to war with each other? There should have been several checkpoints with the roads connected out in the open like this.)
I should have realized such an important point quicker, but as it's something that's not affecting me right now, I choose to forget about it.
We kept moving straight ahead without slowing down and then as the sun started going down, the elf leading the way stopped and pointed at the forest direction.
Another mess? I was getting fed up, but that wasn't it.
She was pointing at a circle shaped open space. About as large as two school yards.
There are traces of camps. Fire pits, and marks of stakes used for tents.
The spot must have been cleared for travelers' use.
"Hee, I see. I guess it is a one week long road. Of course it's gonna be lengthy. It's nice to have spots like this around."
"What would you like to do milord? Should we camp out here tonight. Or should we keep going until it's dark?"
"Let's just take a rest here today. No guarantee we'll find another place like this even if we press ahead after all. Let's start preparing our camp."
The elves began preparations to set up camp all at once.
Posts
