Chapter 61 – Scars.

After the picky dwarf finished the examination and went back.

“Hey, how long has it been since you’ve had lunch on the ground?”
“Come to think of it, it looks like you didn’t have a good lunch.”

Usher was sick with motion sickness and couldn’t even think of lunch. The motion sickness she suffered every time she rode the carriage was something she couldn’t get close to, no matter how weak she became thanks to Belka.

“I can’t eat lunch properly when I’m riding in a wagon. In the wilderness, I can’t even stop the wagon at lunchtime. Can you eat while getting sick?”
“I see.”

When he was sick, he felt dizzy no matter how good the scent was, but Usher’s complexion turned pale at the thought that he might vomit as soon as he ate.

“It’s midday, so it’s okay to be outside, right?”
“It’s because it’s near the Cloud Zone. It’s a hellish place right below.”

Just in time, a cool breeze blew and lifted and lifted Usher’s fine hair, tickling him. The scent of moist green meadows, different from the harsh wilderness, reaches his nose.

“But why don’t people live where they were before they came over?”

However, these grasslands existed even before crossing the cloud zone. If you think of the soft, downy little rabbits running around and the green meadows, people won’t be able to live there either.

“Just because living things can live doesn’t necessarily mean people can live, right?”
“That’s true.”

There are many creatures that aim for people and run at them wherever they go. Usher seemed tired of being told that if a lot of people didn’t come together, those creatures would attack all the time and they wouldn’t be able to survive. If the foundation is built deliberately, people will be able to live in it, but it is very difficult to create a place for people to live in that way. After all, joining an existing village or city can guarantee greater safety, so if people gather and repeat it, a country like Lantua will emerge.

A country like Lantua was created a long time ago and has been maintained until now, so there is no place to replace it.

“I’d rather have that gray dwarf take good care of it.”
“A gray dwarf? Aren’t all dwarfs the same?”

Usher asked, puzzled by his words. A dwarf is a dwarf, but what is gray? Rather, did the dwarf have gray hair? Donnar grunted when he showed his ignorance.

“There are so many things I don’t know about.”

He muttered an incomprehensible sound.

“Not all dwarfs are the same dwarves. If you said that in front of dwarves, they would have gone wild.”
“Why?”
“Why, why? Dwarves hate comparisons so much.”

Donnar explained that dwarfs are generally of two types: gray dwarfs and green dwarfs.

“Is there any standard?”
“First of all, gray dwarfs are no different from humans except for their short stature. The problem is the green dwarfs.”

Gray dwarfs are just shorter than humans, but green dwarfs are taller than gray dwarfs, but their backs are curved and their skin is green.

“Besides, he’s ugly.”
“You’re ugly.”
“I have a lot to say. I can only say that.”

The two dwarfs have many things that don’t match, from their looks to their personalities, so there are many things that they are reluctant to do with each other. Thanks to that, it seems that he hates comparing dwarves to each other.

“Anyway, you better be careful when you go in.”
“Yes.”

Lunch ended like that, and Usher and Belka were lightly walking between the carriages.

“It’s really dangerous and full of strange things out there in the woods.”

There were too many dangerous things if you weren’t careful. A deadly wasteland and dangerous creatures that eat people, under the cloud zone, they would not have dared to pass through without joining the people of the upper ranks.

“Belka, wouldn’t it be impossible for us to come here by ourselves?”

No matter how much I thought about it, I thought that it would have been impossible for them to come to a place like this by themselves on a horse that wasn’t Hildisbini, so I asked.

“Maybe.”

And Belka didn’t deny his words either.

“Then why did you have to come out the other way?”

Even though she knew that it was so dangerous outside, did the girl not want to go out on the prescribed path and came out in the opposite way? It was Usher who decided to leave the village first, but it was strange no matter how much he thought about it. At first, she didn’t understand Belka’s statement that the destination was unknown. So she got annoyed. She could understand why she didn’t tell me the destination, but as she was with the people at the top. Donnar and others didn’t try to teach him, but Usher noticed that this guild was strange.

It would have been okay to simply sell things and get money without having to go far. However, Donnar let us know that he has been at the top for over a year. That was really weird. Although Usher lived in the countryside, it was not undiscovered by lost travelers and wandering companies. According to them, the guild is usually made for trade between countries, but if the guild goes too far, it is to settle there by selling rare items or skills.

Deeply interested in the trip, he still remembered the story. I couldn’t know the details, but I knew at least that this guild had left their hometown due to unavoidable circumstances. So it was. The thing that made me understand Belka’s words about not knowing the destination. She did not want to leave the forest because she had a destination, but on the contrary, she left because she had to. And she said, as if he was right.

“Originally, it’s because it’s not a place for people to live.”
“But the villagers were living well.”
“Because I made it that way.”
“You made it.”

Suddenly, the story of the woodcutter that had been handed down in the village came to mind. I kinda thought it would be like that.

“I wonder if Belka…”

That was when he tried to ask if he was the monster in the story.

“You guys have gone too far! Come back quickly!”

They heard Donnar’s voice calling them. Thanks to him, as he walked, he realized that they were quite a distance from the train. I looked where his voice came from and saw Donnar running towards it. Soon after, he arrived by their side.

“The screening results are out.”
“Yes? Already?”
“I don’t know why either. The gray dwarf seems to have taken good care of it.”

Didn’t the dwarf say that it would take half a day and go back? He wondered if he had heard it wrong, but he knew it was true when the iron gates in the wall were opened to let them in. They were told that they might be leaving soon, so they went back to Truth’s wagon and found Logi.

“Wait! Why are you here!”
“He said he got hurt while playing.”

At Usher’s words, Rogi turned his head away with a puzzled face, and it was Truth who answered instead. As I listened to him, I saw that he had pulled up one of his trousers, exposing a scaly patch on his knee. He had applied the ointment, but the opaqueness of the wound and the skin near it was blurry. It didn’t seem to heal right away like the herbs the girl used. Then the carriage door opened and Shalby came in.

“Rogi, you’re here. Now, take this.”

Then, what he held out to Logi was a long, square-shaped piece of iron with a little thickness. Unlike the round iron coin, it was thicker and larger. A name was engraved on the flat side of the iron piece, and an orange string was tied at the end through a hole. Logi asked, Usher wondering what that rugged piece of iron was.

“What is this?”
“Come to think of it, you’re the first one to get it, right? It’s called a plaque. It’s issued by Lantua, so you shouldn’t lose it just in case.”

He handed the card to Truss as well, saying to be careful because if he made a mistake, someone might take the card and commit a crime and get caught instead. There was a green string hanging from Truss’ hand.

“By the way, the colors of the strings on the tiles are all different?”

Shalby has already hung her tile on her waist. The string attached to her hand was red. She watched in amazement as she realized that he was no longer handing out tiles. She asked in a strange mind.

“What about ours?”
“I think it will take a little longer for you guys to bet?
“If it’s a list.”
“Why? You wrote your names on the parchment that Danju held out then.”

When they decided to join the top. I remembered the old man’s name and the parchment full of what seemed to be his birthday. There were a lot of letters with lines drawn in the middle. I tried to ask what it meant, but Belka stopped me so I couldn’t.

“Then when are we leaving?”
“I don’t know. I’m still making it, so wouldn’t it take a while?”
“Are you making it now?”

Looking at the plaques, it was a simple thing to engrave a name or something, but considering that it was engraved and distributed one by one, it was certain that it would take more time. In the end, it was a story that they had to stay here until all the cards were made. Whether the cards were really made in the order of the roster, Usher and Belka received the cards after the wagon had already started.

“Ugh, why is this motion sickness so difficult to adapt to?”

He wept over the motion sickness that came back. She said that lying with her head on the girl’s lap made her a little weak, but that she suffered from motion sickness, she stressed him out. Belka stroked Usher’s head.

“It’s okay if you don’t have to force yourself to get used to this.”

Feeling the hair on her forehead slipping under her hand, Usher felt her drowsiness pour in with her drowsiness. It felt good to feel her soft thighs on the back of her head.

“Ahhh, Belka.”

Feeling the motion sickness go away, Usher fell down and buried her face in her thigh. He loved the girl’s scent, sweet and fragrant like a camellia flower.

“Okay, hold on a second.”

Belka blushed as he buried her face deep into her own thighs, but Usher didn’t notice that she was in a daze because of her motion sickness. Eventually, Belka couldn’t help but smile as she saw him fall asleep as if she couldn’t stand the motion sickness. And there was her gaze watching her like that. The owner of that gaze was Rogi, who was here because her leg was injured. He was envious of Usher, who flirted with the girl to his heart’s content.

Does he really know? That this is the only girl who shows such vivid emotions. After they joined this guild, there was no one who didn’t know that fact now that it’s been a few days. Occasionally, people who were lucky to see the girl’s bare face admired it, but most of them saw an inorganic appearance. That’s how big the difference between Belka when Usher wasn’t there and when he was around. The moment Usher stood in front of her, the girl who had been seen only as her doll because of the lack of life came back to life as if she had been given her life.

The golden light, which seemed not to hold anything, was sweetly like honey, and the love it contained shimmered like the delicate starlight. Rogi was devastated when he realized that such a vivid affection could not be his own. Yes, the fact that she had no choice but to watch her even now was painful to her heart. Still, Rogi held on to her little hope and spoke to her.

“…Excuse me.”

Looking at her Usher sleeping on her lap, the smiling girl looked at her Logi and then erased her smile. What remains is just an empty shell-like gaze. The golden light of the girl looking at him was terribly devoid of anything. It felt like Rogi’s heart sank.

“Tell me something…”

The girl only looked at him with an inorganic golden light, but she said nothing.

“Tell me what!!!”

Rogi stomped nervously on the wagon floor and approached Belka. She didn’t get in the same wagon as Shalby had business to do, and in the case of Truce, she dozed off tired and fell asleep, so there was nothing to stop Logi now. She approached the girl as if threatening, but her expression did not change. Seeing that, he gnashed his teeth in anger. Rogi pushed the girl to the ground as he cleared Usher’s way.

Then, a look of bewilderment appeared on the girl’s face, and she was only then a little satisfied, but it disappeared immediately after Belka’s words.

“Usher…”

She had that look on her face not because of Rogi, but because of Usher being pushed around. Usher fell from her Belka’s lap, frowning at her, but the girl looked relieved to see that she was all right on her bed anyway. He didn’t even care. Realizing that, Rogi felt his heart break. Tears covered my eyes.

“Why!? Why the hell? Why won’t you look after me? Why!”

The image of Belka, who had been pushed by him and left to lie down, became blurry and repeated her clearing. Tears streamed down the gap as he propped up the bed with his arms. His tears fell and landed on the girl’s face and flowed again, just as the girl shed her tears. Why does his heart hurt so much and the tears won’t stop? He tried to attack Belka, hoping that she would answer her own words, but the constant flow of tears prevented him from doing so. In the end, he even bent her arm, which was supporting his body, and hugged the helpless girl.

Even the breath of the close-knit girl was sweet, and that made her heart ache even more. Rogi murmured, burying his face in the arms of the unresisting girl.

“Sorry.”

I knew the truth. That it was her own fault. She said there was nothing wrong with the girl. Because it was he who crossed the river irrevocably, not even listening to her girlish pleas, simply because of her nasty jealousy and lust. Then her girl’s hand came to mind. She trembled slightly as if hesitating, then gently stroked his crying head. Even so, the voice was never heard. The touch made Logi wet her chest with tears. The first love of such an immature boy ended. Leaving only fragments of dirty innocence.