Chapter 62 – Walking to the End of the World (3)
“Why is your face like that?”
“Uh… Huh? How’s my expression?”
“Of course I don’t know. I just meant it as a joke.”
“…”
In the morning that came back, Haru threw a silly joke as always. If it was normal, I would have just replied and hit it, but maybe because of last night’s incident, I couldn’t. And Haru wasn’t the kind of person who would just pass by such a change.
“What? The reaction is strange. Did something happen last night?”
“Eat some bread.”
“I tried it yesterday, but it was tasteless. Anyway, why can’t you answer me? Saya-sister, what happened?”
“…”
“Hmm. Did something really happen? You make me have a bad imagination.”
When neither of us could give a proper answer, Haru put on a sly expression. Then she put the sword in and out of the scabbard repeatedly with subtle hand movements. The clatter was very irritating, but she couldn’t help but turn her eyes to Mr. Rebecca.
“Rather than that, where are we now? Do you still have the map, Rebecca?”
“I have it. By the way, Lope. Do you know the Dokdo method?”
“To what extent. So we’ve been running for about a day… Since this is the only city with a mountain near the capital…Are we here?”
“It’s a little above that.”
Rebecca pointed her finger higher than I had pointed. It was quite far from the port where we first arrived, but it felt like we were still far from our final destination. Of course, I wasn’t already in the stage of being disappointed, so I stared at the map.
“It doesn’t deviate much from the route we originally designed. We’ll keep looking for a means of transportation…Or, as Rebecca said, checking the railroad side would be fine.”
“I was going to say that anyway. Even if it’s a very low chance, if the train is running, it’s worth checking out. So, why don’t you change the route slightly and head towards the capital. There are cities nearby that haven’t been destroyed yet. “
“The capital…Isn’t it a little dangerous. It’s the place where the dragon’s fire swept. Maybe there are more hetzlings there.”
“Maybe. But maybe not. Right now, the place where I encountered Hetzling yesterday was quite far from the center of the explosion. Maybe Hetzling is already spread all over the continent. Then we need to head towards the capital even more.”
“Why is that?”
“Because we’ll have to prepare equipment to fight them. As we saw yesterday, an ordinary crossbow won’t even pierce Hetzling’s skin.”
“…Can I get such equipment?”
“This isn’t the first time mankind has encountered Hetzling, Lope. Besides, in the military these days, there are more cases of using anti-monster weapons than anti-personnel weapons. There are many military facilities around here, so you should be able to get some good stuff.”
Rebecca pointed out a city below the capital. Then, out of the blue, Erica responded.
“There…”
“A place you know, Erica?”
“That… Is where my house is. If it hasn’t burned yet…”
Erica looked up at Ms. Rebecca, trailing off her words. A look of excitement was evident on her face as she stared at her. He seems to think that she deliberately cared for him.
“Are you going here?”
“It will. As I said before, there is a possibility of securing equipment, and we will be able to check whether the train is operating or not. It would be great if we could meet Miss Erica’s parents there.”
“That’s right. Then my parents could definitely help you guys. You two have a lot of ties to the railroad people. If…If they’re alive…”
“I’m sure he’ll be alive.”
Rebecca gave a thin smile and Erica bowed her head as if to express her gratitude. If she hadn’t known the circumstances behind it, she could have mistaken it for a mere heartwarming sight.
But to me it just felt like Rebecca’s struggle to quickly shake off her Erica.
As if to disprove such an idea, her smile quickly faded. It is because her heart, which she could not replace with a machine, felt remorse. Rebecca sighed inaudibly and then lifted her head as if nothing had happened.
“Then let’s move slowly. The sooner the better.”
“I hope you find a wagon on the way.”
“It’s highly unlikely, though.”
In the midst of the miserable reality, we slowly rose from our seats. Fatigue and wounds that could not be washed away screamed here and there, but there was no time to wait. That’s how we set foot once again into a dying world.
As Rebecca said, no matter how much I walked around the city, I couldn’t find anything like a carriage. If I could afford it, I would have rode away, and if I couldn’t afford it, it would have been a long time since I ate it. All I could use right now were my two legs.
Naturally, the speed was slower than when riding in a wagon, and the surrounding scenery began to come into view. It was only then that we were able to see the reality of this world with our own eyes.
And it was never a pleasant scenery.
“Ha…”
A meaningless sigh soared upward toward the lofty sky. If you look up after him, you can see the branches of trees that have become bony in the winter and the corpses hanging from them like fruits. The obsession of life that could not be abandoned flowed out in slime from the body that could not overcome despair and hanged itself.
If you look down slightly from there, this time the stretched flesh on the side of the road fills up your vision. If I had come a little later, I might have seen the streets full of white bones, but unfortunately they haven’t rotted enough yet. Even so, none of them had a perfect shape, so it was impossible to tell whether they were human or beast.
Human nature is corroded in that way. I realized the philosophy that was not taught at the academy on the street. Whether it was a human or an animal, when they died, they gave off a rotten smell.
That’s why you’re still wearing a gas mask. I glanced over at Saya. And then, by chance, I met her eyes with the girl who was staring at her side.
“…?”
“…!”
When she showed a questioning expression, Saya quickly withdrew her gaze and looked straight ahead at her. Still, I couldn’t help but keep my eyes on this one. Saya’s eyes, which clung like magnets, felt a bit burdensome, so I turned her head slightly without realizing it.
Then, like a ghost, the voice of Haru followed.
“I’ve never wanted my eyesight back as much as I did this time. What were you two doing?”
“Haru. Be quiet. They have sensitive hearing.”
“But if I keep walking like this, I’m going to die of boredom. From a blind position, if the people around me don’t say anything, I think I’ll really go crazy.”
“How did you survive at the academy?”
“Well, should I say that there was no time to be bored when I mixed with my body? Wait a minute. If I hit you, I’ll scream. Let’s all die here together.”
“You really…”
“Shh. Hold on. There’s something over there.”
Rebecca’s voice made us all nervous and lowered our posture. However, the appearance of the huge Hetzling was nowhere to be seen.
Instead, a huge lump of charcoal caught my eye in a field far away. It was quite a distance, and it was hard to guess what its original form was because it was literally charred. However, Saya came to a conclusion just by looking at it for a moment and opened her mouth in a low voice.
“It’s wings.”
“Wing?”
“Yes. Hetzling’s wings.”
“That talk…”
I looked around again just in case. There was still nothing to notice except the lump of charcoal. It seemed that only his wings were left here. Erica opened her mouth in a hopeful voice, as if she had come to the same conclusion.
“That means…Someone cut it. Maybe there’s an army around here? They defeated a henchling and burned the remains just in case. That must be it, right?”
“It could be so. Or it could have been because the same species were fighting each other. Because no creature can avoid a fight between the same kind.”
“That… It could be…”
“Both are possible, Student President. Either way, it’s not too bad news for us.”
“Why don’t you go check it out? Maybe there’s something…”
“That’s not a good idea.”
Rebecca suddenly opened her mouth in a serious voice. She then looked back at us all and said,
“As I said beforehand, if you come across a Hetzling’s corpse, never approach it. Never.”
“Is there any particular reason?”
“Isn’t it obvious that the blood of the calf will make the mother angry?”
Suddenly, I remembered a story she had told me before. A story about an elf swordsman who was said to have been slaughtered by a dragon. The ending that I couldn’t finish then came to me with curiosity.
“Has there ever been a precedent?”
“I was just talking about common sense. A mother will never forgive someone who smells of her calf’s blood. Encountering a dragon would be the worst, but worse could happen. So, just in case, If something happens to hurt Hetzling…”
“…”
“I must do that.”
Rebecca finished her words heavily. It contained the ritual of atonement from the island. However, before the weight could be conveyed, she opened her mouth in a casual tone.
“Anyway, they say they do everything on their own. It’s okay, carry me on your back. My legs hurt.”
“…Then I guess.”
“I told you not to do that, Haru.”
“No, no. How hard would it be to walk blindly?”
It was literally a group of children, but Rebecca carried her day with a slightly happy expression. Perhaps because she was the only one pampering her, she didn’t complain a day that she smelled like iron.
A girl who cannot see her eyes and a woman who has lost her whole body. Since they were two people with something missing in her one by one, the figure looked particularly vague. Instead of saying anything, I cast my gaze toward the horizon. Unlike the horizon seen from the island, the boundary between the sky and the land seemed too far away. As I looked into the air, Saya’s body heat wrapped around my palm.
Two patterns were still burning in my hand.
…
Coincidence or necessity, at that moment I met Rebecca’s eyes. She looked at me nonchalantly and then gave her a sneak peek and nodded her head. It must have been a trivial action, but it was complicatedly entangled in my head.
Nonetheless, he nodded his head at the same time. The unread thoughts of each other did not collide and scattered in the air.
