Ingram’s Lantern - Chapter 5

Asha, who barely slept, trudged down the stairs with her shabby luggage in hand. The employee she met yesterday greeted her warmly. She was served warm soup and bread for her breakfast.

Asha tore off a corner of the bread and looked around for Kiltz, but she couldn’t find him. According to the words of the employee that she asked, he seemed to have gone to get the things they needed for the trip.

While the waiter busily wiped the table and carried the dishes, Asha finished the meal that was just enough for her.

The employee, who finished her work well, sat with her arms folded next to Asha as if she was taking a rest. She smiled at Asha and started talking to her.

“You know, child. The sir who’s with you, is he married?”

“What?”

“He’s so cool and handsome, women must always cling to him.”

Asha couldn’t answer, so she just rolled her eyes. She didn’t know anything about Kiltz. Now that she thought of it, he looked cool… but he also seemed rather chilly to her.

The waiter poked Asha in the side in a playful motion.

“I’m just asking out of curiosity.”

“I-I don’t know.”

“Oh, why? Is it because you don’t feel good seeing someone interested in your Dad?”

“Oh, he’s not my Dad!”

Asha screamed in fright. The woman burst into laughter as if she had expected her reaction.

“I know. I just made fun of you because you’re cute. How could he be your dad when he’s so young?”

When Asha was lost for words, and was left opening and closing her mouth, Kiltz opened the door of the inn and came in.

He was dressed in a black coat with a black robe just like yesterday. However, the clothes were neat as if they had just been washed recently.

Kiltz, who spotted Asha, came straight up to her and skipped his morning greeting.

“Are you all done? Then let’s go.”

Asha got on the wagon feeling like a cow being dragged off to the slaughterhouse. The waitress who followed her to the door handed her a basket with a large portion rations.

“This is smoked ham. The other one is dried fruit and biscuits. There’s a lunch box in that package, so eat it for lunch.”

At that time, Kiltz, who finished paying, opened the door of the inn and went out. The employee received confirmation from Kiltz about the contents of the package and finally waved at Asha in a friendly manner.

“Goodbye, young lady who acts like an old lady. Travel safely!”

Asha waved her hand and said her goodbyes, but she smiled bitterly inside. ‘Safe travels’ were the worst words in the world for her right now.

Kiltz, who stood next to Asha, said;

“Let’s go. To the grave of the wind.”

Moving out of the village of Riez, the horse-drawn carriage soon made its way into the prairie. There were no milestones or boundaries.

Nevertheless, I could understand intuitively. In a moment, just like all the obstacles on the waist have disappeared, only the open landscape unfolds.

How could the world be this empty? The roughly fragmented clouds could be seen moving quickly through the vast sky, as though they were running. Along the way, the grass swayed to and fro in unison as if every blade was singing in a chorus. It was a double duet between the dark green waves and wind.

Asha unconsciously stretched her neck and looked around. Golden cilantro scattered in the meadow, leaving a shadow. That being said, she couldn’t keep her mouth closed at the breath-taking sight she saw for the first time.

The man asked her, “how do you feel about witnessing the prairies yourself?”

Witnessing? Does it mean to see? Asha looked around and answered in an ant-sized voice.

“It’s amazing. It’s very spacious, and it’s quiet because there’s nothing but the sound of the wind…?”

“Quiet, la. “

The man laughed bitterly. He began to explain, and swept his long black hair like crow’s feathers.

“There are still many places where mystery remains on the continent, but Nermaz’s savannas probably have three instances within it alone. Here, the tracks of the Madi Engineering Train and long-distance scrolls are useless. In other words, you can’t cast any kind of magic here.”

Mado Engineering Train? Long-distance travel scroll? I could somehow understand the part that magic didn’t work in the list of words I’ve never heard before.

“Because it doesn’t allow intrusions from the outside, I can’t say that it’s not very advantageous geographically. However, it’s still not a pleasant thing for Nermaz. To go through the mainland, you must enter these lands, in other words, you are isolated from the continent.”

He mumbled to himself as if he had fallen into thought at his words.

“As the tracks of the Mado Engineering train began to be laid across the continent, they also felt they were starting to fall behind. That’s why he’s trying to make a secret agreement to avoid Caldrogen’s eyes. Of course, isolation is sometimes a blessing, but from the national level, can we call it the right choice in this situation?”

Asha gave up listening in the middle because she couldn’t understand a word from the man.

By the way, the meadow was really wide. I couldn’t see the end when I looked forward or back. If we reach the end, what will come next?

She didn’t know why, but suddenly she felt thrilled, so Asha spoke out without realizing it.

“The world … is this big?”

At her talking to herself, Kiltz reached out to the bag he had thrown behind him and pulled out the rolled parchment. Then he held the reins with one hand and unfolded it.

“This is a map of the world, and this is the prairie we’re passing through right now.”

Forgetting about the terrifying monsters, Asha’s eyes lit up. Once the map unfolded to a large piece of paper, the area of ​​the prairie, pointed at by his finger, was only a small fraction of the whole…

Does that mean that all of these places are areas where people can travel? I couldn’t even imagine the size even though I was looking at it with my eyes.

While Asha stared spellbound at the map, Kiltz looked at her with a vague expression on his face.

He suddenly said something out of the blue.

“Didn’t you say you wanted to come here?”

“What?”

Of course, Asha has never said such a thing. I even heard the name Prairie yesterday for the first time through Kiltz.

She looked up at the man with her head tilted wistfully. But he turned a blind eye to Asha.

“Forget what I’m saying now.”

Contrary to what I was worried about, there was only a peaceful landscape that did not show any signs of monsters lurking for a while.

When I thought the sun, shining like a round gold coin, had become unbearably hot, a small reprieve of shade appeared. When I looked up, I found a hat with a wide brim over my head.

After putting the hat on Asha, Kiltz pressed himself deeply into the hood of his robe. Somehow, ‘necessary preparations’ seemed to mean these things.

By the time the sun reached the top of their head, the two had pulled the wagon over for lunch. While Kiltz was giving water to the horse, Asha opened the basket she had been handed in the morning. Inside, there was a sandwich filled with stuffing.

She felt a little bit better looking at the delicious food. She decided to think about her situation later, and the girl first stuffed her cheeks with the sandwich. There was a mark on the end of the white bread that looked like a squirrel’s bite.

After finishing half of the sandwich, Asha tried to reach out to the basket again and suddenly noticed Kiltz’s countenance. He was staring at Asha with a peculiar look of observation, just as he did yesterday.

Maybe he doesn’t like it because she has eaten a lot. Or did she have something on her mouth again? Then, suddenly, he pulled out a sandwich and handed it toward Asha, who was covering her mouth.

“T-Thank you.”

In contrast to Asha, who was embarrassed, Kiltz looked quite serious.

“You’re too skinny. Too small to be ten years old… You need to gain more weight.”

Asha’s face turned pale again at his casual tone. I will look delicious if my arms and legs became plump. If I became like that I would surely look delicious to the monsters’ eyes. The idea that passed through her mind in an instant was enough for her to lose her appetite.

Asha looked down at the sandwich in her hand and fell into despair. It’s so delicious that I will turn delicious too if I eat it……

Not knowing anything of her thoughts, Kiltz relaxedly opened his book holding a piece of sandwich in his hand.

At the end of the rather awkward lunch.

Something like a flickering dot across the distant horizon caught their attention. Kiltz, who was staring out the other side with one hand, frowned.

“Are they travelers? It’s about eight — they’re all on horses… They’re not armed, they’re heading straight in this direction, so we will eventually meet them.”

Asha tried using her hand as shade, copying him to look out, but she could only see a dot smaller than an ant in her eyes. How come this man can speak in such a confident tone.

As if he had no intention of avoiding the strangers, Kiltz left the wagon on its original route.

After a few more hours, Asha’s eyes could finally see their impressions.

As Kiltz said, they were all men on horseback. The pack of them were running at a furious speed, generating dust.

The potential opponents also gradually began to slow down, as if they had just found a carriage here. They spoke slowly when everyone was close enough to talk to each other.

The man, who seemed to be the leader, asked without getting off the horse.

“Are you from Riez, too?”

“Yes. “

Responding nonchalantly, Kiltz pulled Asha’s body and hid it behind him. But there was something that caught Asha’s eye faster than his hand.

At the end of the procession, a large bundle was seen wrapped in a cloth and laid down. Strangely, she got goosebumps. As she lowered her eyes, she could see the bare feet of the person sticking out at the end.

Asha inhaled silently. His face was not visible, but she could smell death because of his dark, swollen flesh.