R 04

Chapter 4

Carriages were waiting at the entrance of the secluded village.

Most of them were four-seater carriages, each pulled by two Roadloaders instead of horses.

Roadloaders, which looked similar to ostriches, were the primary means of transportation in the Kingdom of Mandarin. They were divided into ground types, which were good at running, and aerial types, which were good at flying.

There were also Roadloaders that could both run and fly, but I heard they were quite rare.

I followed Lus without giving it much thought, but when we reached about the middle of the line, I realized that the carriage in the center was very different from the others.

It was a two-seater, four-wheeled carriage without a coachman, and its roof was completely open.

“Wow! It’s pretty!”

It was such an elegant carriage that I couldn’t help exclaiming in admiration. Moreover, a Roadloader that was incomparably larger and more handsome than the others was harnessed to the front of it.

At my admiration, Lus gave a faint, almost indifferent smile.

“Get in this one.”

He helped me into the two-seater carriage. Then he took hold of the Roadloader’s reins himself.

“Wow, the seat is really soft and comfortable.”

Lus nodded once.

“Good. I’m glad you like it.”

I immediately examined the Roadloader harnessed in front of the carriage. I looked over its long legs and short wings from every angle, but eventually I couldn’t contain my curiosity and asked Lus.

“The Roadloader here is obviously a ground type, but… can it fly, too? I heard there are Roadloaders that can both run and fly.”

“The one in front of us only runs.”

“Oh, I see. How can you tell the difference between ground and aerial types? Can you tell just by looking at them?”

“At first, you have to test them to find out. After that, it’s marked on the reins.”

“I heard Roadloaders are heavily influenced by their bloodlines. Is that really true?”

The corners of Lus’s mouth lifted slightly.

“That’s right. The ones here have relatively good bloodlines. I take it you’re quite interested in Roadloaders?”

“Yes. I saw Roadloaders pulling carts before. Since the secluded village is in the countryside, they’re only used for things like that. So this is the first time I’ve seen Roadloaders pulling a carriage for people. And Roadloaders this pretty, too.”

I chattered on for quite a while. I knew I was being talkative, but I couldn’t help it. My curiosity about Roadloaders had burst out all at once.

But Lus, who listened to me, showed no sign of being annoyed or finding me noisy.

He simply smiled gently and nodded.

As I excitedly talked while looking over the line of carriages and the Roadloaders harnessed to each one, I soon began to feel strange.

It happened immediately after I saw my friends climbing into the carriage at the very back. It was shaped like a rectangular wooden box and seemed designed to transport a large amount of cargo.

“Why are my friends getting into that carriage?”

“Hmm… Because it’s a special transport carriage?”

“There aren’t any windows.”

“…There are a few openings in the ceiling. They can breathe, so don’t worry.”

“……”

I stared straight at Lus.

As though he had heard the voice in my heart saying, ‘That looks just like a prison, though.’ Lus spoke.

“It can’t be helped. We weren’t originally planning to take them with us.”

“Then couldn’t you just leave them here? They’ll all live quietly in this place.”

“That won’t do.”

His tone made it clear that the matter wasn’t even worth reconsidering.

“Why?”

“It’s difficult to explain. Anyway, it can’t be done. Originally, they were all supposed to be killed, but because of you, we’re taking them with us instead.”

“Then what would happen to them if I weren’t here?”

I asked despite thinking that surely it couldn’t be what I feared.

But Lus answered without hesitating for even a second.

“Obviously, immediate execution. So don’t even think about trying to escape. I know exactly the sort of thing you’d do.”

His words left me bewildered.

‘He knows my patterns? What does that even mean?’

It was strange, too. Lus spoke as though he knew me extremely well.

I was about to ask him again when Sir Scone, riding his Roadloader, approached the carriage and bowed his head.

“Everything is ready.”

“We’re returning.”

Sir Scone bowed respectfully once more, then backed his Roadloader away.

Then he shouted loudly toward the others.

“We’re returning!”

The Roadloaders began moving along the line.

The wheels of the carriage carrying Lus and me also began rolling with a loud rumble.

Rattle, rattle.

The carriage shook quite badly as it traveled along the country road, but I was too fascinated to care and looked around me.

Then I thought of someone.

“Um…”

“Hmm?”

“What happened to Reddan?”

“Reddan? Who’s that?”

“The one from the barn earlier…”

Lus frowned deeply, looking extremely displeased.

“I cut him down, didn’t I?”

“Was he… badly hurt?”

“Hurt?”

“Yes? He looked like he was hurt.”

“He attempted to commit a shameless crime, and he was caught in the act. That means immediate execution.”

“……”

“That’s the law, isn’t it?”

“Oh… So that’s why everything suddenly became quiet…”

So that was why.

I fell silent for a moment.

I had just heard something extremely shocking, yet I felt strangely unmoved.

I even had a peculiar sense of déjà vu.

Was it because one thing after another had happened that should have been enough to make me fight for my life? Or was I simply too mentally exhausted to have the emotional room to empathize with someone else’s feelings?

Or perhaps there was something wrong with my mind.

Or was it simply that when too many terrible things happened all at once, they somehow felt different?

Earlier, I had fought with everything I had to prevent my friends from being killed.

Yet I didn’t feel any grief for the friends who had already died.

It was strange.

I wasn’t sad at all.

If anything, I wondered when I had ever even known them.

No—rather, they felt like illusions.

On the other hand, what had happened in the barn felt so vivid that it made me want to vomit.

As Lus had said, the Kingdom of Mandarin had strict laws regarding sexual crimes.

Even though the execution had already been carried out, I went over the circumstances again and again, trying to find some mitigating factor for someone who had once been my friend.

But all I felt was disgust.

In other words, I had reached the conclusion that Reddan was someone who deserved to die.

Lus, who seemed to possess the authority to punish him, had simply dealt with the criminal according to the law.

So I had no lingering sense of injustice.

Still, knowing that someone who had been laughing and talking with me only a short while ago had died left a bitter taste in my mouth.

And besides, Rea, Reddan’s family, still probably didn’t know that he was dead.

I had seen Rea getting into the special transport carriage earlier. She must have been arrested immediately after being at the assembly hall, so she wouldn’t have had any chance to hear what happened to Reddan.

She’ll be sad when she finds out.

And if she also learned what her twin brother had been trying to do, the shock would surely be even greater.

“Ahem. Well… what was it…”

At that moment, Lus spoke awkwardly from beside me.

The atmosphere suggested that whatever he was about to say was rather serious, so I looked at him.

“The living beings of the southern Debus System are destined to go to the underworld when they die and then be reincarnated. So you don’t have to take it too hard.”

I remained silent for a moment.

As Lus said, the Divine who governed the southern Debus System was said to control fire.

Its true form was supposedly a Firebird that endlessly repeated the cycle of death and birth.

In short, a Divine was essentially a ‘god.’

The Debus Systems in the east, west, south, and north, as well as the Dark Debus System—a world that existed on the other side like a mirror—were greatly influenced by the attributes of the Divine governing them.

That was why it was generally accepted that the Firebird’s trait of infinite reincarnation had been applied to the southern Debus System.

Of course, I already knew what Lus had told me.

I had heard it ever since I was little.

But most people couldn’t know whether it was actually true.

After all, unless someone was recognized as being special in this world, they had no memories of their past lives.

Someone recognized as special.

A nearby example would be King Lucleros, who was called a fragment of the Divine.

The moment I thought of Lucleros, my mood worsened considerably.

“But that doesn’t mean it’s okay to kill someone or be killed, does it? Our species lives for four hundred years. Dying at barely twenty is far too young.”

A troubled expression appeared on Lus’s face.

“Well… I think so, too, but once you’re born with the Black Firebird emblem, it can’t be helped.”

“Why? Why do they have to die just because of that emblem?”

Perhaps he sensed the sharpness in my voice, because Lus remained silent for a moment before letting out a small breath.

“…It’s difficult to explain right now, but you’ll gradually come to understand.”

He ended the conversation by looking away from me.

Seeing him like that, I wondered if I had spoken too aggressively.

It was a rather outrageous thing to say, but I also understood Lus’s intention.

He had only told me not to take it to heart.

But then the root of all this—the source of this entire situation, Lucleros—came to mind, and my mood worsened even further.

I stared at Lus for a moment.

I thought that if our eyes happened to meet, I might apologize and tell him that I had been too harsh.

But he didn’t look at me.

The silence only grew longer.

Eventually, I gave up on talking to him and turned my eyes elsewhere.

As we continued traveling, my unpleasant mood gradually improved.

For one thing, the weather was beautiful.

Sunlight filtering through the thick foliage sparkled like diamonds, and as the carriage picked up speed, the breeze brushing against my face felt refreshingly cool.

Before long, the carriage emerged from the forest.

Once we reached a barren wasteland with no shade whatsoever, the sunlight felt considerably hotter and more painful against my skin.

“It’s so bright.”

I muttered to myself and raised a hand to block the sunlight.

That was the best shade I could make for myself.

Lus then operated a lever on one side of the carriage.

A pretty, pale-green canopy rose from the back of the carriage.

Lus adjusted the angle of the canopy, creating shade over our heads.

“Oh! The carriage transforms? Wow.”

It was really fascinating.

As I examined every part of the canopy, Lus couldn’t hold back a quiet chuckle and muttered,

“This Ellie really isn’t adapting at all.”