Chapter 110

The carriage’s interior was more ramshackle than I’d expected.

Perhaps I’d grown too accustomed to the finest carriages, those custom-made for dignitaries at the Imperial Palace, setting my standards unreasonably high.

The ceiling was far too low, and the seats, crafted from wood, were uncomfortably hard.

“Escorts… you really think we’ll be alright without them?”

Lierre asked, pulling the hat threatening to collide with the carriage’s ceiling closer to her chest.

“Lierre, didn’t you study anything about the Golden Sea? What do you think would happen if a bunch of soldiers barged into the ‘Golden Sea’? Do you think the criminals inside would simply let them waltz into their territory? It’d be a siege war instantly. If you don’t want to get tangled up in something tiresome, it’s best for the three of us to move quietly.”

“…Nothing dangerous will happen, right?”

“Dangerous?”

Sion echoed, a playful smirk gracing her lips.

“Don’t you remember we have a general sitting in this carriage? A war hero who brought an end to Maltiel.”

She leaned against the carriage wall, pointing a finger at me as I blankly stared through the grimy window.

“And there’s also the most dangerous assassin on the continent.”

Slowly, I raised a finger and pointed toward the red-eyed girl seated across from me, and began to speak.

Lierre’s worries were almost entirely unfounded.

Sion and I had formed an escort contract through the ‘Devil’s Contract.’ And in that contract, it was written that if I suffered harm from an enemy attack, Sion would pay the price with her life.

The most skilled assassin on the continent would protect me more dearly than her own life.

Danger?

Could there be a creature on this continent more dangerous than *that* woman right now? The demonkin huddled in the north, and the Sword Saint, along with the other generals, were preoccupied tightening the noose around their desperately dwindling forces.

No, the greatest peril on this continent was none other than “Sion.”

And that peril, I had bought with coin.

“By the way, how old are you, Lir?”

“Well, um, that is…”

“Twenty-one, right? Is that for real? I’ve never seen an elf with a two-digit age before!”

“……”

“Are twenty-one year olds treated like newborns among elves? Or maybe pre-schoolers? What’s the deal?”

“Adult…”

“Ah, so you’re considered an adult! Then I’ll just call you *unnie!*”

“…Yes. Whatever you like.”

The conversation between Lir and Sion surprisingly continued at length without pause.

Sion, who would chatter like a sparrow no matter who she met or what situation approached, and Lir, who struggled to socialize with strangers, had somehow struck a curious balance.

In the midst of their exchange, Lir would raise her gaze, which had been directed downwards, and try to make eye contact with Sion. However, each time their eyes met, Lir’s face would flush crimson, and she’d invariably dart her gaze elsewhere – a cycle that repeated itself more than ten times during this short conversation.

‘It seems she’s grown as a person?’

When I first met her, the idea of Lir making eye contact with a stranger was unimaginable.

But now, she was awkwardly attempting it, and the volume of her voice was incomparably louder than before.

When she first spoke to me, her voice was so soft that it took me more than three days to get used to it.

Could there be a more apt moment for the expression “a giant leap forward?”

“Uh… Yes, please do.”

“Call me Sion! Please? *Unni.* Say ‘My Sion~’ all sweet and nice, okay?”

“Well… that’s a little… awkward for me.”

Her face was flushed crimson, and she was trying so hard to keep the conversation going. It was kind of cute, actually.

“Huh?! Why? Can’t you just say it once for me, *Unni*?”

…Probably Sion’s just messing with Rire, that’s all.

I had a feeling that Sion and I might actually click, in a weird way.

* * *

I spent a solid three days in that uncomfortable carriage.

We stopped occasionally to camp and feed the horses their oats, but otherwise the carriage raced relentlessly towards the west of the continent. The driver barely slept, whipping the horses onwards.

Thanks to that, we arrived at the Golden Sea half a day earlier than planned.

“This is the Golden Sea. Horses can’t move properly in the desert, and the carriage wheels sink in no time. You’re better off walking.”

The exhausted driver said, climbing down from his perch and opening the door of the old carriage. I rubbed the sleep from my eyes, stepping out of the uncomfortable carriage and stretching my back.

Dawn stars embroidered the sky. The Milky Way washed across the heavens like a shimmering wave, while the slightly tilted moon looked down on the stars with a fond smile.

A pitch-black backdrop. A wind that could almost be described as cold. Stars that shone without being dazzling.

Before me lay a truly endless wilderness, and the desert made of gold dust transformed the pure white starlight into shades of gold.

For the first time, I wished I had a camera.

This scene, which couldn’t be adequately described as merely ‘picture-perfect,’ I wanted to keep it, exactly as it was…

“Alright! The continent’s most beautiful and most wretched sea! We have arrived at the entrance to the Golden Sea!”

“……”

Ugh, that guy needs to shut his trap, seriously.

Before me unfolded a scene so beautiful, it would sear itself into my memory forever, and she wouldn’t even let me savor it.

“Let’s all shout together! We’ve~ Arrived~ at the Golden Sea-aaa!”

“……”

“……”

“……”

Me, Lir, and even the coachman she’d paid to bring us this far,

could only stare at her, a tableau of icy expressions as she urged us to cheer.

Judging roughly by the height of the stars and the moon’s glow, it was well past midnight.

Probably one or two in the morning.

…Is that the right energy for one or two AM?

Are we not allowed to be tired? The audience is watching at six PM, is that it?

“Alright, let’s go! The night is the easiest time to cross the Golden Sea! And compared to other deserts, the night winds aren’t too harsh!”

With light steps, Sion raised a finger high and took the lead. Lir and I exchanged a brief glance, then reluctantly followed after her.

“Orphan Trio, launching forth!”

Sion, noticing our belated start across the desert, turned back to us and shouted loudly toward the heavens.

“…Excuse me?”

This one is sprouting nonsense again.

Ease up on the throttle, will you? Every time you open your mouth, a pile of rubbish tumbles out.

“I’m an orphan! Lir Unni is an orphan! General Bin is an orphan too!”

“……”

“Orphan Trio of the Heavens! It fits, doesn’t it!”

Lirr and I, with vacant stares, merely watched Zion, who was chirping about us being orphans, with a bright grin.

Right, if a normal word escaped your lips, *that* would be the oddity.

“Call us what you will…”

I relinquished any hope, letting out a light sigh as I followed in her wake, silently.

She prattled on incessantly, treading on the stardust-gleaming gold dust.

Tales of finding treasure in the desert, rescuing wizards kidnapped by demons, torching the homes of hoodlums who irked her, rummaging through the corpse of an adventurer swallowed by a mimic…

Most of her stories were useless drivel, but one in particular was especially revolting.

“Ah! Once, there was a wizard who asked me to retrieve the leader of a dragon!”

“Pardon?”

“The leader! The poop makin’…”

“No. I know what ‘leader’ means. But why the hell…”

“Don’t you know? Apparently, he needed it for a new plague magic he was developing. So, after capturing a sea dragon off the southern coast, I extracted that long leader… ooh boy~ the contents inside it were…”

“Woah, woah, woah! Stop. Stop!”

You little shit, I can picture it!

I don’t want to hear that kind of story.

Ninety-nine percent of your stories are ones I’d rather avoid, but that one is particularly unwanted.

“Ah… really? This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, though? You couldn’t buy a yarn like this for money!”

“No, no, no.”

I vehemently waved my hands, declining Zion’s kindness. Lirr, equally in agreement, shook her head vigorously up and down.

“Please, enough with the nonsense and just walk…”

“That story does pique my interest.”

…?

Just when I’d finally silenced Zion, this sudden drivel echoed around us.

“Tell me more. What was it, precisely, that the Sea Dragon found so delectable?”

The voice held an arrogance, as if all the world rested in its palm.

A faint light leaked from my right hand. Emerging from it, a bolt of lightning solidified into the form of a massive stag, planting itself between us.

…The little punk was silent all this time, but the moment the Dragon Captain is mentioned, he crawls out.

Fitting for someone holding the title of Transcendental Being, your tastes are certainly refined.

“…Oh.”

Zion breathed out a soft exclamation at the appearance of the Lightning Spirit before her. Among all the bizarre things she’d witnessed living as a back-alley assassin, nothing was quite as alien as a Lightning Spirit.

“The humble mortal Zion offers greetings to the esteemed Lightning Spirit, Dajin.”

The moment Zion saw Dajin, she shifted as if she had never spoken frivolously a day in her life. With pious and meticulous diction, she bowed her head in greeting.

It was an impeccable bow. Knees bent to just shy of touching the ground, right hand placed between her chest and collarbone. For a fleeting moment, I wondered if her soul had been replaced by that of a servant who’d attended the Emperor in the Imperial Court for eighty years.

“…Psycho.”

Lier, unable to contain her shock at Zion’s refined greeting, sputtered out an admiration that bordered on an insult.

“Haha! There’s no need for such excessive formality. I don’t place much importance on empty gestures, you see.”

Contrary to his words, Dajin extended a tendril of lightning, gently stroking Zion’s dark hair.

…Doesn’t place much importance, my ass. It’s plain as day he’s ecstatic.

“Now then, do tell. What exactly was inside the Dragon Captain?”

“…Before that! My sincerest apologies, but could you perhaps diminish Dajin’s glorious form just a tad? Dajin’s radiance is so dazzling that I find myself unable to see.”

Which was to say, please refrain from emitting light willy-nilly at night, especially in the middle of this vast, unforgiving desert.

“Ha ha! You certainly know how to sweeten the words, it’s a request so trivial, I shall grant it!”

Dajin, swayed by Sion’s honeyed tongue, promptly began to shrink its colossal form. The lightning that comprised the stag’s body compressed into a small package, until finally, a miniature stag, small enough to fit in a pocket, stood upon the gold dust.

…Seeing Dajin shrunk so small like this, makes me want to stomp it once.

“So, what did that Sea Dragon devour?!”

“Ah, well, you see…”

Ah.

I truly want to die.