We set off as Garban's escort, heading for Laplace.
The party consisted of:
The merchant Garban.
Baribadom, the escort captain, known as "Hawk's Eye."
Carmelita, a guard known as "Bone Breaker."
Tonto, a guard known as "Great Sword."
Along with those four, there was me — Rudeus, the "Mud Swamp" — and Elinalise, the "Dragon Path," bringing the total to six.
Six camels as well.
I'd considered giving the camels names, but apparently in the desert, when food runs short, you eat the camel. So I decided against it.
I want to enjoy my first camel meat without any guilt.
We held a briefing beforehand and settled on a formation.
Basically, Garban was at the center.
Baribadom took the vanguard.
Carmelita and Tonto flanked the left and right wings.
Elinalise and I covered the rear.
Five people forming a shell around Garban and the camels.
No matter which direction an attack came from, another position would move to cover Garban before he took damage.
An imperial cross, in other words.
I'd thought Carmelita or Tonto would be better for the rear guard, but considering I was a mage, they decided to pair me with Elinalise, who was already accustomed to coordinating with me.
"All right, let's move out."
First we left the bazaar and headed east.
From there, we'd pick up the route to the highway.
I couldn't remember the regional names well, but if my memory served, this was the route where bandits were said to appear.
I decided to advise Baribadom, the head of security, just in case.
"The route through the desert — I don't know the way. Besides, that's what we're being guarded for. And honestly, even if we do get caught, we might be able to just pay a toll and be on our way."
A toll. So that sort of thing existed too.
When in trouble, throw money at it.
Simple and straightforward.
Right — bandits were people too, with lives to live. Hand them what they want, and they won't ask for more.
Paying money to some deadbeat who doesn't work wasn't exactly thrilling, even for me.
But this time it wasn't coming out of my pocket, so no problem.
Of course, bandits were human. They might want something other than money or goods.
For example, they might want to take Elinalise because she was attractive.
That would be a real problem.
Garban and I didn't have much of a bond. He might have saved our lives, but he wouldn't trade his own for ours.
There was a real chance we'd be cut down.
It would probably come down to just Elinalise and me fighting.
"Rudeus, you look worried, but with a mage of your caliber on our side, bandits aren't so scary."
"You think so?"
"If it comes to it, I'll use my womanly charms to handle things."
"And then you'd get dragged off to the bandit lair, chained up, and passed around one after another…"
"They're actually surprisingly gentle about it."
"You speak from experience?"
"A youthful indiscretion, you might say."
Elinalise seemed pretty relaxed about it.
That said, the past was the past and the present was the present. If something happened to her, I'd never be able to face Cliff again.
Well, against a group of ten or so, I figured we could manage.
---
We trekked eastward across the wasteland.
We were attacked by monsters frequently.
Herds of Begaritt Buffaloes charging in a stampede.
Great Tarantulas scuttling across the ground with rasping legs.
Aero Force Eagles striking from the sky with wind magic.
Gyro Raptors and Cactus Treants whose names we'd already learned.
And more besides.
But thanks to Baribadom detecting them early, none of the encounters escalated into major battles.
Baribadom was a warrior with a magical eye.
That was why he was called "Hawk's Eye."
A man nearly two meters tall, with a powerfully muscled build.
He was probably somewhere past forty.
Crow's feet were beginning to show at the corners of his eyes, and his expressions carried a hint of shrewdness.
His hairstyle was distinctive — shaved at the temples and the back of the head.
It reminded me of some high school basketball team captain.
The kind who'd scream, "Just tape it up and get back in there!"
His magical eye was the same type as Ghislaine's — a Mana Eye.
An eye that could see the flow of mana.
He mainly used it for scouting.
"Monsters. All hands, prepare for combat."
He could predict monster attacks and weather changes with pinpoint accuracy.
Just like Ruijerd.
His accuracy wasn't quite on Ruijerd's level, but perhaps through experience and intuition, his enemy detection speed was remarkably fast.
"This is nostalgic. Ghislaine used to spot enemies with her eyes and nose just like that," Elinalise said with narrowed eyes.
Having an ally who could scout really did make an enormous difference to our safety.
Once the enemy was spotted, I'd snipe from long range.
At first I'd been using stone cannons, but aiming them was tedious, so I switched to using wind magic to lift the rocks up and then slamming them down.
This method was much easier.
"You're tossing off high-level magic like it's nothing — are you sure you have enough mana?"
Maybe I'd been picking off enemies too casually, because Baribadom asked me that.
"A day or so is no problem."
"I see. So you're a Grand Mage."
"A Grand Mage? What's that?"
"A mage who has mastered the Grand Path."
"I'm really not that impressive."
"Either way, a mage who doesn't hold back is a rare thing."
Among mages, some set a strict rule of using no more than half their mana in a day.
In the northern Central Continent, there were many such mages.
For mages with low physical ability, mana was what they relied on when it mattered. Of course they'd be cautious.
That said, I'd never even come close to using half.
Saving a reserve was common sense for a mage.
But to desert warriors who didn't know much about mages, it probably just looked like laziness.
Baribadom, whether due to his age or something else, seemed to understand why a mage would conserve mana.
He didn't seem particularly impressed by my spellless casting, though, so he probably wasn't that knowledgeable about magic itself.
"I'm fine with you not holding back, but think about conserving some mana for when things get serious. There are five of us here. Let's keep the long-range strikes to designated targets only. Got it?"
"Understood."
There was no real need to hide the fact that my total mana reserves were enormous…
But I didn't need to advertise it.
I wasn't entirely sure of my own limits, either.
I didn't want to get cocky and brag about how much I could use, only to embarrass myself.
---
At night, five people took turns standing watch.
Garban set up a tent and rested inside.
Alone.
All the guards stayed outside.
Well, he was the employer and we were the employees. That was only natural.
I'd offered to build a shelter and suggested he sleep there, but Baribadom and the others refused, saying it would dull their sense for night raids.
There was apparently a real reason for sleeping outside.
Having that said to me, I found it hard to sleep in a shelter myself.
But Elinalise said:
"There's no need to worry about it. We are who we are. Resting properly is what matters."
Her words had merit.
I decided to sleep in the shelter after all.
It was better for recovery.
The watch was two people at a time.
I'd thought one would be enough, but apparently with five people, two at a time was safer.
The rotation changed from day to day.
On the first night, my watch partner was Carmelita.
"Please take care of me."
"Yeah. Don't fall asleep."
"Of course not."
Even on watch, sitting in empty space with nothing to do was awfully boring.
So I ended up making casual conversation with Carmelita.
"The other day — you saved us."
"Don't mention it. We were even."
"You're strong. That woman is strong too."
Carmelita was a female warrior.
She was turning twenty this year.
Carmelita, known as "Bone Breaker."
True to her name, she favored a brute-force fighting style using a broadsword over a meter long.
The warriors around here preferred broadswords.
Baribadom and Tonto both carried similar thick, long swords at their waists.
There were probably a lot of large, tough-skinned monsters out here, so durable weapons had evolved to match.
Even with great skill, a weapon that snapped from a small mishap would be devastating.
Their fighting style seemed to be unique to the region as well.
"Your woman's sword is too thin. She couldn't take down anything with that."
"Not true at all. That's a mana-imbued weapon. She tore through Griffons and everything. Besides, she's not my woman. We don't have that kind of relationship."
"But if a Succubus shows up, you'll bed her, right?"
"No, I can cast detoxification magic, so…"
"When a Succubus comes, the men get riled up, and the women bed them. That's the law of this desert."
"Oh really."
Carmelita spoke with great pride about the relationship between Succubi and female warriors on the Begaritt Continent, and the ecology of desert warriors.
The Begaritt Continent was home to Succubi.
Succubi had originally been a minor species of monster from the southwestern Demon Continent.
But four hundred years ago, during the war, Laplace had mass-produced them.
They were sent out to destroy the Begaritt warriors who continued to put up fierce resistance.
Succubi were overwhelmingly powerful against men.
Their pheromones could disarm any man.
Honestly, if one appeared right in front of me out of nowhere — or two at once — I wasn't sure I could win.
Men who were poisoned by the pheromones became the Succubus's servants.
The servants' primary purpose was to be consumed by the Succubus, but a Succubus couldn't carry dozens of people back to her lair at once, so she'd take a few and leave the rest behind.
The abandoned men would then begin killing each other on the spot.
The pheromones made every nearby man appear as an enemy.
It was literally a "Status Ailment: Charm."
The only cures were mid-level or higher detoxification magic, or sleeping with a woman.
And four hundred years ago on the Begaritt Continent, there was almost no one who could use detoxification magic.
As a result, a huge number of virgin warriors perished at the hands of Succubi.
They had no one to bed. It couldn't be helped.
It was a harsh world.
They probably ended up thinking that, in the end, even if it meant being with a Succubus, at least it would be something.
I understood. I really understood that feeling.
Four hundred years passed.
Had the Begaritt warriors been wiped out? Not at all.
As a countermeasure against Succubi, warriors began always bringing several women along with them.
These women could be slaves, captive demon race members, or all sorts of others.
But for warriors, anyone who couldn't fight was a liability.
They had to be protected, and they consumed limited resources.
The warriors thought hard.
Well, as hard as their limited brains could manage.
And they came up with an idea.
Just turn the women into warriors.
Typical brute-force thinking.
And so, the institution of "female warriors" was established in Begaritt.
In the current guard parties, there was always a certain number of female warriors present.
When a Succubus appeared, they fought, and after the fight, they bedded the men.
Sometimes the women outnumbered the men.
That was actually safer, in case Succubi showed up.
On the Begaritt Continent, women were creatures who fought.
Carmelita was one such female warrior.
When a Succubus appeared, she would take care of the male companions.
Naturally, this meant she'd get pregnant quickly.
But female warriors wore this as a badge of honor, apparently returning to their homeland while pregnant.
After giving birth, the child was left in the care of the village, and she'd set out again as a warrior to roam the continent.
Carmelita had apparently already borne one child.
The child was raised collectively by the entire village.
It didn't matter who had given birth or who the father was.
Some children were apparently mixed with other races, but there was no discrimination.
Without exception, they were trained as warriors — boys at first ejaculation, girls at first menstruation — given a coming-of-age ceremony, and sent out into the world.
They traveled as warriors outside the village, and after about thirty years, when their bodies began to decline, they earned the right to return to the village and focus on raising children.
Though some, like Baribadom, never returned and remained warriors until they died.
There was, of course, no institution of marriage.
They probably didn't develop special romantic feelings for any particular person, either.
It was quite a culture shock.
I'd heard that similar tribes existed even in my previous world.
But seeing it with my own eyes was something else entirely — it went beyond just being titillating; I was genuinely moved.
As I was thinking this, she told me:
"I'm grateful to you, but I hate mages. If a Succubus shows up, leave it to the white woman."
Well, she wasn't wrong that she wouldn't need my help — I could cast detoxification, after all.
---
Tonto, the "Great Sword," was a taciturn man.
Tonto was a man of about thirty with a mustache beneath his nose.
Beneath his swarthy skin lay a robust physique.
He was shorter than Baribadom, but his facial features were quite similar.
If his style of growing facial hair hadn't been different from Baribadom's, it might have been hard to tell them apart.
You really couldn't tell different ethnic groups apart easily.
I'd chatted briefly with him during watch duty, but he wasn't the type to start conversations on his own.
Quite the opposite of Carmelita, who'd talk even if you didn't ask.
I didn't really have anything to say myself, so that was fine.
But we did end up in a casual conversation.
"The name 'Great Sword' — that's pretty cool."
"Baba gave it to me."
"Oh, so you didn't earn it naturally?"
"Desert warriors — all names are given by Baba."
The epithets of these desert warriors were given by the clan chief when they set out.
Those with exceptional strength, like Carmelita, got names like "Iron Fist" or "Bone Breaker."
Those with keen eyes, like Baribadom, got "Hawk's Eye" or "Eagle's Eye."
And so on — their specialties were evident from the name.
However, this naming system apparently led to a surprising number of duplicates.
Strength-based names were overrepresented, apparently.
Tonto's was "Great Sword," but he didn't actually use an especially large sword.
Another strength-type name.
There was probably someone out there called "No Need for Two Swords" or something similar.
"In my case, it just happened naturally during combat. I was always using Mud Swamp."
"Mud Swamp — I still haven't seen it even once."
"It doesn't work well against the monsters around here."
Mud Swamp was devastating against ground-crawling opponents, but against creatures like Griffons or Succubi that could fly at low altitude, its effectiveness was halved.
Against hard-shelled, slow-moving insects, stopping their feet didn't offer much advantage either.
Lately, I hadn't even been using it for immobilization.
"Your magic is flashy and interesting. I'd like to see what you're good at."
"Mud Swamp isn't exactly flashy, but I'll show you if the chance comes up."
After that, Tonto fell silent.
It was as if he'd said everything he needed to.
---
Moving east, the landscape grew progressively greener.
Further east was a town called Kinkala, and beyond that lay a dense jungle zone.
A jungle right next to a desert — what a strange continent.
That said, Garban's caravan wasn't heading that way.
Partway through, they spotted a towering rock formation and used it as a landmark to change course northward.
Three days after changing direction, we hit the highway.
Calling it a highway was generous — it wasn't particularly maintained.
It was a road made simply by enough people walking over it.
Compared to the sandy ground we'd been traversing, it was packed hard and firm, a real sense of stability.
Solid ground really was better.
"Boss. Bandits appear from here on. I think it'll be fine, but if things go south…"
"I'm paying you to protect the cargo! Just protect the cargo!"
"…Sure thing."
Baribadom had probably been about to suggest abandoning the cargo and fleeing.
But for Garban, the cargo was apparently more important than life itself.
Everyone had their own values.
"Bro, you okay?" Carmelita asked.
"Kid, you don't need to worry about anything."
Carmelita was called "Kid" by Baribadom and Tonto.
Kid — from Bone-crush. Kid.
A perfectly straightforward nickname.
No, wait — was it an insult?
If I called her that, I'd probably get punched.
"Mud Swamp and Dragon Path — you two stick close to Garban and move with him. Tonto, you're on camel duty. Don't let a single one escape. Kid, that's you — you're rear guard. I'll scout ahead. If anything happens, I'll signal. Don't miss it."
"Right, bro."
"Right."
"Understood."
Each acknowledged with a signal, and we formed up and advanced cautiously.
Bandits were ambush-type fighters by nature, so if we spotted them first and took a detour, we could avoid them.
---
Baribadom's scouting confirmed the bandits' ambush position.
Apparently, human groups were hard to detect with a Mana Eye — proper scouting was necessary.
We took a wide detour around the ambush.
You didn't step over a pile of shit in the road. You walked around it to avoid accidentally stepping in it.
Common sense.
But then, what went wrong?
Maybe Baribadom, who'd gone out scouting, had been spotted and followed.
Or perhaps what he'd found was only the advance party, and the main force was waiting along our detour route.
We were attacked.
---
We'd taken the detour route and were just beginning to relax.
Whoosh!
I heard the sound of something cutting through the air.
The next instant, an arrow was embedded in Tonto's chest.
Tonto collapsed to his knees.
I didn't understand what had happened. I rushed over, ready to cast healing magic.
But the next moment, Elinalise grabbed me by the collar.
At the same time, a camel next to Tonto was struck by an arrow with a thud.
"Run! It's an ambush! They're coming from the west!"
Baribadom's shout.
That was when I understood.
Enemy ambush — I had to run.
Elinalise let go of me.
Garban and the camels were already running.
I followed suit, breaking into a run.
From the hill to the left, horsemen were charging toward us.
Horsemen.
That's right — horses.
Men wrapped in sand-colored turbans, riding on horseback.
"Boss! Dump the camels! If you dump the cargo, they might let us go!"
"No!"
"You want to die?!"
"Protecting the cargo is your damn job!"
"There's too many of them!"
Baribadom and Garban's shouts.
Right before my eyes, the camel that had taken the arrow stumbled.
Foam was spilling from its mouth.
After staggering a few steps sideways, it collapsed.
A chill ran through me.
The arrow had been poisoned.
"Shit — from behind too."
Horsemen were pursuing us from the rear as well.
The archers were on the hill.
They were nocking arrows.
Most weren't reaching us, but some were firing with unnaturally long range.
Arrows were landing here and there.
Horsemen and archers.
Even just what I could see was a staggering number.
A hundred — no, two hundred?
I'd been deceived by my preconceived notion of the word "bandit."
This was, for all intents and purposes, an army.
"…"
Listening to the hammering of my own heart, I assessed the situation.
The enemy had launched a surprise attack from the flank and rear.
At least there were no enemies in the direction we'd been traveling.
If we were going to run, that way was clear.
"Rudeus!"
"Yes. I'll use Mud Swamp and Dense Fog."
"…Understood. I'm counting on you!"
I looked back as I conjured a mud swamp behind us.
As large as possible.
Deep enough to trap a horse's legs was sufficient.
"Baribadom! I'll create a smokescreen! Keep running straight!"
"A smokescreen?! Got it!"
"Dense Fog!"
I generated water vapor in midair, creating a thick fog.
White mist billowed outward like smoke, blanketing the surroundings.
In the blink of an eye, everything around us turned white, and visibility dropped to zero.
Good — the archers shouldn't be able to target us now.
Thwip.
The next instant, an arrow landed right at my feet with a sharp sound.
"Whoa!"
"…!"
I nearly tripped in shock, and Elinalise caught me.
"It's all right! One skilled one was there, but he can't aim anymore!"
I replayed her words in my mind.
Had that first arrow — the one that hit Tonto and the camel — been the work of a single person?
But I'd already created the fog.
They couldn't see us anymore.
"Keep running!"
I ran.
After that, there was no targeting. I knew that much.
They wouldn't hit. They wouldn't hit. I was the god of war.
Ah, damn it — I should have asked Sylphie for some kind of charm!
No, I should have brought Sylphie's first-time thing from the shrine…
"This won't do — they're catching up!
Carmelita! Draw your sword!"
Baribadom's words sent a chill through me.
Listening carefully, I could hear horses galloping behind us.
Horsemen who'd gone around the mud swamp.
Even in the fog, as long as they ran straight, there was no problem.
The enemy had horses.
There was a saying about the disadvantage of being mounted, but there was another one about speed being the decisive factor in battle.
The charging horsemen, riding on momentum and velocity — there were quite a few.
At least a hundred, just at a glance.
How many had gotten through? Fifty? Sixty?
I did not want to fight this head-on.
"I'll hold them off! Keep running!"
"Earth Wall!"
I conjured a thick earth wall about two meters high behind us as I ran.
Even a horse couldn't stop on a dime.
In this fog, the wall should be a real obstacle.
Once they knew the wall was there, they'd have to slow down.
"Haa… haa…"
No more arrows were flying.
I ran for all I was worth.
I kept creating walls behind me as I went.
I suddenly thought of Tonto, the arrow in his chest.
Were we leaving him behind?
No — he probably couldn't be saved.
That arrow had been right in the heart.
And it was poisoned.
Even advanced healing magic might not save someone with a poisoned arrow through the heart.
Besides, there was nothing we could do about it now.
We kept running at full speed through the fog.
---
How long did we run?
It felt like over two hours.
Baribadom checked behind us and announced, "Seems like we've lost them," and everyone finally stopped.
"Haa… haa…"
I was exhausted.
Drenched in sweat.
But all that running training had paid its dividends.
I'd been told to run, and I could still run.
That said, the three warriors looked perfectly fine.
Was it because of their fighting spirit?
That was just unfair.
"Pant… pant… bleh…"
Garban was sitting on the ground, face deathly pale.
Travel-worn merchant or not, running would tire anyone out.
That made me feel a little better.
The damage was one camel and one guard.
Tonto.
If I'd pulled the arrow out right away and used healing and detoxification, he might have survived.
Maybe the shot had missed the vitals.
Actually, if Elinalise hadn't grabbed me by the collar, I would have tried.
But doing that might have delayed our escape.
Elinalise had more experience with this kind of thing than I did.
If I'd wasted time trying to heal him back there, things probably would have gone badly for me.
"…"
I glanced over and noticed Carmelita staring daggers at me.
What was that about? Had I done something wrong?
Carmelita had been responsible for rear guard — my position.
If she was injured, I should heal her.
She didn't appear to be hit by an arrow, though…
Carmelita marched right up to me.
She grabbed me by the front of my shirt.
"You! If you could throw around magic that big, you could've taken out the bandits!"
"Huh?"
Taken them out?
All of those?
Now that she mentioned it — she was right. Killing them had been an option.
"Cut it out, Kid!"
"You saw it too, bro! The horses sank into the swamp, they crashed into the walls, everything went white! If he'd done more—"
"Think harder! That's why you're a kid!"
"Shut up! If this guy had used his magic, we could've avenged Tonto!"
"There's no way he could've wiped out all of them! That was probably the Harimaaf bandit gang. They definitely had reinforcements!"
"But… ah!"
Elinalise wedged herself between us.
She shoved her buckler against Carmelita's chest, one hand on the estoc at her waist.
*'Do you have a problem with how we do things?'*
"What the heck…"
Elinalise exhaled sharply and glared at Carmelita.
*'Rudeus was making proper judgments the whole time. We didn't know how many there were — it was a large force, and they used poisoned arrows. He used Mud Swamp to slow them down, Dense Fog to block the archers' line of sight, and Earth Walls to obstruct their advance. And that's how we got away alive. One person was lost, and one camel, but the rest are safe. What are you unhappy about? Did you want to fight like idiots and lose the cargo, your life, and everything else?'*
Elinalise defended me like that.
Her words weren't understood, of course.
But Elinalise seemed to grasp what Carmelita was trying to say.
It was unlike Elinalise to be this provocative.
The enemy numbers had been significant.
A hundred? Two hundred?
As Baribadom said, there might have been reinforcements too.
Could I have defeated all of them?
I didn't know.
But I could use Holy-tier magic.
It would have been possible, in theory.
I had the mana. I probably wouldn't have run out.
I could have used the mud swamp to pin them down, then bombarded the distant archers with wide-area magic, knocked the horsemen from their mounts with a gust of wind, and burned them with fire magic.
All of that was theoretically achievable.
But in practice? Who knew.
A surviving archer might have hit me with a poisoned arrow.
I might not have stopped all the horsemen, and they could have overwhelmed us.
The enemy might have had countermeasures against mages.
And in a chaotic melee, I couldn't use area-of-effect spells without hitting my own allies.
Elinalise understood all of this.
That was why she was on my side.
*'Besides, aren't we mercenaries? We have no obligation to fight a force that size.'*
"…"
*'What's with that look? You want to go a round with me? What a feisty girl. I'll oblige.'*
Elinalise drew her estoc.
Seeing this, Carmelita hurriedly reached for the broadsword at her hip.
Then Baribadom cut in.
"Hey, Kid, cut it out. Elinalise, you too. And you, Mud Swamp.
Tonto's death is regrettable, but Mud Swamp's decision wasn't wrong.
Only an idiot like you would think we should have fought back there. That's why you're still a kid after all these years."
"…Fine."
Carmelita snorted hotly and withdrew.
Then she walked over to where the camels sat, sank down, and buried her face in her knees.
Watching this, Baribadom sighed.
"Sorry about that, you two."
"Not at all…"
"Carmelita — she'd had a kid with Tonto before."
"What?"
"So, you know. She's just lashing out."
She'd had a child with him.
That must have been why she was so angry.
I'd thought desert female warriors never held any special feelings for an individual man.
But maybe that wasn't entirely true.
Maybe the man you'd borne a child with really was special to you.
I was still processing this when Elinalise sheathed her estoc and walked over.
"Rudeus. There's no need to feel down."
"…Yeah."
"Even among adventurers, there were rare ones who couldn't bring themselves to kill. And you're going to be a father soon. It's understandable to hesitate over taking a life."
She'd said something a little off.
Because we hadn't been communicating.
Honestly, I hadn't even hesitated.
In that desperate situation, the word "kill" hadn't even come to mind as an option.
That said, in the thick fog, some bandits had probably crashed into the walls I'd made and died.
I didn't feel particularly guilty about that.
But using magic to directly kill someone… I couldn't help feeling a queasy twist in my stomach.
…I was being pathetic. A little pathetic.
"Thank you."
I bowed my head sincerely to Elinalise for comforting me.
Thinking back, during the escape she'd been running right beside me the whole time.
She'd steadied me when I nearly tripped, and she'd positioned herself as if ready to shield me from arrows.
She'd been supporting me the entire time.
Maybe she thought of herself as my personal guard.
"Oh, there's no need for thanks. Protecting my grandson is only natural."
Elinalise patted me on the shoulder.
Grandson…
When I returned, Sylphie's belly would surely be noticeably bigger.
My child — and Elinalise's great-grandchild.
She wouldn't want Sylphie to confront her with "Why didn't you protect Rudy!?" at the birth of her great-grandchild.
She wanted to be with me, with Sylphie.
To laugh together and celebrate the birth of new life.
"…Um, Elinalise?"
"What is it?"
"Thank you."
I said it again.
This time from the heart.
Elinalise patted my shoulder once more.
---
Still a bit awkward.
The journey continued.
A companion had died, yet Baribadom remained calm.
He reformed the formation as if nothing had happened.
He didn't say a word about Tonto.
He didn't mourn, and continued his guard duties with the same stoic efficiency as before.
Baribadom never once spoke Tonto's name.
Part of me thought that was cold.
But this was clearly that kind of place.
And they were that kind of people.
Death was always close, and if something went wrong, you died.
Thinking back, the Demon Continent had felt something like this too.
My values and instincts were just a little different from theirs.
A few days later, we arrived at an oasis that served as a waystation.
Just like the first bazaar we'd seen, a market ringed the lake.
I hadn't paid it any mind before, but among the groups dressed as warriors, there was indeed at least one woman in each.
They were all desert warriors, too.
Garban's group set up their tents in an open area.
While at the oasis, the guards apparently got to sleep inside tents as well.
"Baribadom — should we hire additional guards?"
"No, I don't think it's necessary. Those two are better than average warriors. We should make it to Laplace with this number and hire there. There shouldn't be any more bandits anyway."
"I see. Let's do that then. Still, losing a camel hurts."
"Can't be helped. Getting away with only one camel lost in that situation was a stroke of luck."
Baribadom and Garban's conversation was casual.
You wouldn't think they had an employer-employee relationship.
"What is it, Rudeus? Is there something on my face?"
Garban asked when he noticed me watching.
"No, I was just thinking you and Baribadom are on awfully good terms."
"I've known that man since I was just starting out. He's the only one I truly trust."
I see.
Perhaps, surprisingly, Baribadom felt a stronger bond with the merchant Garban than with Tonto, who shared his identity as a desert warrior.
For Baribadom, the escort captain, his subordinates were expendable…
Well, not quite that harsh, but he probably viewed them as replaceable — people who would come and go.
---
After restocking food and supplies at the bazaar, we continued north.
From that point on, Carmelita never confronted me again.
She'd been thrown off balance in that moment, too.
That said, we didn't go out of our way to be friendly.
From then on, our watch shifts passed without conversation.
We'd be parting ways once we reached Laplace anyway, so I didn't mind.
But when the father of your own child dies, it must still hurt.
I put myself in her shoes.
If Sylphie died.
Well, yeah. That would hurt.
Just knowing she was carrying my child had moved me so much.
If she died — of course it would hurt.
"…Regret."
I'd heard I was going to regret coming to the Begaritt Continent.
I'd assumed the regret was the same regardless of whether I'd come here after meeting Elinalise or stayed at the school and come after meeting Nanahoshi and learning about the teleportation circle.
The timeline wouldn't have been much different.
So I'd figured the regret would be the same.
If that was the case, then there shouldn't be anything wrong with the people I'd left behind at the school.
If I'd come to Begarrit before meeting Sylphie, I never would have met her, or any of the others.
I probably wouldn't have had any regrets at all.
But maybe — maybe it was a different kind of regret.
Not something happening where I went, but something happening to those I'd left behind.
For example, if Sylphie's pregnancy took a bad turn…
"Rudeus, is something the matter?"
"No…"
It was just worry.
Regrets were scattered everywhere.
Someone as careless as me was guaranteed to end up with at least one regret no matter what I did.
From here on.
I had no idea what would happen.
This was the first time I'd directly defied Hitogami's words.
Until now, just following his lead had always led to good outcomes in the end.
So this time, would everything I did turn out badly?
No.
That couldn't be right.
If I knew something bad was going to happen, I should be able to prevent it.
That said, something like what happened to Tonto could happen to someone close to me just as easily.
I couldn't let my guard down.
I'd keep that in mind.
And.
If the person trying to kill my family was human…
This time, I would…
…No, let's stop there.
It was all talk anyway.
I couldn't kill a person.
When the time came, I'd at least put my body on the line to protect my family.
That was what I'd do.
---
Two weeks later.
We arrived at the labyrinth city of Laplace.