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Although the carriage was known for its comfortable ride due to its high price, no one would give the same assessment in the current situation.
Given that they were retracing their path at high speed, it was impossible to expect a comfortable ride. Owen, who was bracing himself against the wall to prevent falling over, suddenly felt a strange sensation.
It wasn’t just the shaking caused by the speeding carriage, but something else seemed to be mixed in. He realized it wasn’t just his imagination when a thunderous roar overtook them from behind.
Multiple noises blended together.
The sound of horses neighing in fright, the coachman’s scream, something being swept away, crashing sounds, collapsing sounds…
“This is…”
After the tremendous noise had subsided and the coachman, who had belatedly come to his senses, briefly stopped the carriage to check the wheels, Owen was finally able to assess the situation outside. Despite having traveled a long distance, hell seemed closer than expected.
Trees with exposed roots and large rocks had been swept down with mounds of earth, swallowing up the road. If they had continued forward as before, or if they had been late in turning the carriage around, they might have been buried under that soil.
One thing was certain: without those two, he would have been a dead man. As a typical administrative cleric, Owen wouldn’t have been able to respond to the faint sound before a landslide and turn the carriage around.
“Fortunately, there doesn’t seem to be any problem with the wheels. However…”
The coachman, who had been lightly inspecting the carriage, hesitated for a moment, perhaps worried about having driven at such a sudden high speed.
“While this is the fastest route to the Fides territory, it’s quite isolated from other roads. If we turn back, it will take considerably longer.”
“That’s fine. Can we delay our departure for a moment?”
“Yes, call me when you’re ready!”
It was a straightforward answer for someone who had just escaped death.
Rohan, who had postponed their departure briefly, gave Owen a quick glance. Of course, he was still firmly holding Arpel’s hand. Owen, nonchalantly overlooking the blatant preferential treatment, moved towards the collapsed mound of earth.
After casually touching the soil not far away, his brow immediately furrowed. He had thought it was strange, but touching it directly made it even stranger.
“The soil seems too dry for a typical landslide.”
Generally, landslides occur when there’s heavy rainfall. If it had rained heavily in this area, at least one or two people among those gathered for the festival would have mentioned it. He had briefly walked around the streets after the banquet, but such talk was unheard of.
Meanwhile, Arpel was feeling an intense sense of discomfort as he approached the trees, rocks, and soil debris that had been swept down to the road. A subtle scent kept stimulating his sense of smell.
“…It smells like wraiths.”
“Are there wraiths nearby?”
It was just a tiny voice, but Rohan, standing right next to him, immediately responded to that small sound. As Rohan’s face tensed, Arpel shook his head.
“The smell is coming from the soil.”
The amount of spilled soil was so vast that it covered the entire road, making the scene extensive. Moreover, the scent lingering in the air was so faint and subtle that he couldn’t be certain immediately. But as they got closer to the collapsed mound, suspicion turned into certainty.
Rohan and Owen’s faces became peculiar. While they believed Arpel’s words, given his extreme sensitivity to wraith power, it felt like ordinary soil to them since even he had to concentrate to sense it.
“It just looks like slightly darker soil…”
If there was any difference, it was that the color was a bit darker. Owen, brushing off his hands after touching the soil, only let out a wry laugh after looking at the tree roots a little distance away.
“In the end, it must be someone’s handiwork.”
The tree exposed among the soil was the source of the smell. The roots, stained black, were so saturated with wraith energy that even Rohan and Owen could sense it. The shriveled appearance from the tips resembled something rotten.
Rohan, who had been examining the tree roots along with Arpel, raised his head. At this point, who caused the landslide and how wasn’t important.
“We need to go as quickly as possible.”
The intention was clear. To block the path to the Fides territory, or to delay them. With the path already blocked, they needed to reach the Fides territory as fast as possible by any means necessary.
Rohan and Arpel’s gazes turned to each other. Without exchanging any words, they nodded immediately as their eyes met, as if their thoughts aligned.
And Owen felt an inexplicable unease at the actions of these two.
“Coachman.”
“Ah, are you ready to depart?”
“No, I have something I’d like to ask.”
Approaching the coachman with a smile, Rohan asked him various questions. How long it would take to reach the next village if they could use this route, how much longer it would take if they chose a different path…
Although the coachman looked confused as to why he was asking these questions when there was only one option available, he diligently answered.
“It takes longer than I thought.”
“Haha, that’s usually the case.”
The delay would be about a day and a half. The coachman explained that it wouldn’t normally take this long, but because they had to retrace their path, it would take longer.
“May I ask you for a favor? I’ll compensate you sufficiently.”
“A favor?”
“Yes. Could you return to the village we passed earlier and send a carrier pigeon? The content is…”
It was roughly about requesting an investigation into the sudden landslide that seemed to involve wraiths. Of course, since it was mixed with code, the coachman before them wouldn’t know the true content.
Despite the very kind explanation, the coachman didn’t seem to understand it in one go. Arpel, on behalf of Rohan, handed a piece of paper to the confused coachman. It was a paper with exactly what Rohan had just said written on it.
“Thank you…”
How could a face flushed with such a small consideration not look beautiful? A strange sense of satisfaction spread across Arpel’s face. However, it was only for a fleeting moment. He couldn’t keep his gaze steady while looking at the broadly smiling face.
Owen quietly observed all of this from behind. Arpel secretly rummaging through the shadows at the back of the carriage to retrieve paper and pen, his earlobes turning bright red as he averted his gaze, Rohan looking happy watching Arpel – all of it.
To be clear, he didn’t want to see it. He was getting a thorough lesson on when to use the expression ‘it’s an eyesore’.
“Then, coachman, I’ll leave it to you.”
“Yes.”
A brief silence followed. Their eyes, staring at each other, were filled with questions.
“…Aren’t you going?”
“…Aren’t you getting in?”
The questions overlapped. Rohan, blinking for a moment, let out a small laugh.
“You can go now.”
“Pardon? You’re not getting in?”
“That’s right.”
“What do you mean…”
The following question was Owen’s, but Rohan paid no heed. Perhaps due to his quite stubborn attitude, before Owen could stop him, the coachman was half-pushed to leave.
With their only means of transportation gone, it was natural that only two people and a sword in human form remained at the wide, blocked path caused by the landslide.
Among them, only Owen had a dumbfounded look. As if he was the only one not understanding the current situation, or perhaps too shocked to speak, his lips just trembled. Arpel spoke up first on his behalf.
“I’ll carry it.”
“No, you can’t. It’s heavy. Arpel, you should turn into a sword and I’ll-”
“I don’t want to.”
Boom. At the firm refusal, Rohan’s face was struck with shock as if lightning had struck.
Regardless, Owen couldn’t understand the content of the conversation going back and forth between the two. What were they talking about carrying, and what was heavy?
“Then let’s split it and carry it together.”
Fortunately, the argument that wasn’t quite an argument ended faster than expected. They seemed to have reached a satisfactory conclusion, as Rohan’s face, which had been filled with sadness, became more peaceful, and Arpel also looked quite satisfied.
Owen, who had been keeping silent with his mouth tightly shut like a borrowed sack of barley, let out a sigh of relief.
And now.
“…What is this?”
Owen found himself in a position where he was forced to understand their words.
“Excuse me for a moment.”
He sensed something was off when Rohan strode towards him. Even as the distance closed considerably, he didn’t reduce his stride, so Owen tried to step back, but unfortunately, that action ended in just an attempt.
“Ugh!”
Because Rohan lifted Owen as if uprooting something and then slung him over his shoulder. Arpel, watching Owen’s head naturally facing the ground and his face turning red from the blood rushing to it, quietly suggested an alternative.
“Wouldn’t it be better to give him a piggyback ride?”
“Ah, I’ll give you a piggyback ride.”
At Arpel’s single comment, Rohan’s body swiftly turned, and his posture was quickly adjusted.
“What, what are you doing…”
Thanks to this, blood didn’t rush to his head, but he was still disoriented. To Owen, who couldn’t speak properly due to the overwhelming situation, Rohan roughly explained their plan.
“We’re going to run to the next village.”
The problem was, it was too rough an explanation.
Owen was about to snap at him to say something that made sense, but he clamped his mouth shut as the two people started running simultaneously, as if on cue. He was afraid he might bite his tongue if he opened his mouth, with the rapidly passing scenery and the wind that was practically slapping his face.
That day, Owen realized for the first time that a person could run as fast as a carriage.
He never thought that living cooped up in the temple, only working, would come back to him like this. A small, wry laugh was buried in the sound of the fierce wind.
