Oukoku e Tsuzuku Michi

A horse gallops with a steady clop clop.

「Hmmm……mmmm……」

Celia is circling me on her own horse, peeking at my face whenever she sees an opening.

Normally, it would take all her effort to keep up with me, but Schwartz is injured.

I chose another healthy horse, but no other horse compares with Schwartz in terms of speed.

I even left behind my armor and Dual Crater, yet because of the difference in weight, my horse can’t outrun Celia’s horse.

「Mumu, you’ve been grinning the whole four hours. I can’t tell where you’re going by checking the map, it’s creepy.」

With that said, Celia skillfully maneuvers her horse toward me and peeks at my crotch.

「It’s not erect……so I suppose there is no relation to a woman.」

Actually, it’s totally related to a woman.

However, it would be uncool to appear at our touching reunion with a boner, that’s why I’m suppressing it by force of will.

I can at least distinguish when it’s appropriate for that.

As I fend off the clinging Celia, I see a pile of logs on the road.

It’s hard to make a detour because of the swamps on either side.

「This is so annoying when you’re in a hurry.」

「According to the map, this is the territory of a baron of the traditional nobles. Nobody here thinks positively of Aegir-sama. Without escorts, we should avoid fighting.」

I pretty much ran in a straight line to get here, and have cut across various people’s domains in the process.

Schwartz can just jump over those logs or run through the swamp, but this horse would break its leg trying either. This means I will be arriving two days late.

Nearby, a few half-naked men who appear to be laborers are talking with a mounted knight.

「So good knight, are you saying that all the barriers on the road can be removed?」

「Umu, I received word from my lord, the baron. There won’t be a battle with the rebel Hardlett.」

They are talking about me it seems.

「Yes, the people over there were discussing a rumor. Hardlett……sama, they say he’s become the next king.」

「It’s not my concern as a low-ranking knight……but an usurper killing the king and becoming the new king spells the end of Goldonia. If I weren’t ordered to stand guard here, I would have struck him down with my spear!」

「Aah dear knight, don’t say something so careless. Rumor has it that King Hardlett is diabolically cruel, cold and heartless, and has an inhumanly large cock. If he gets wind of what you said, you won’t get off easy. Don’t say scary things and give me a kiss.」

A woman is flirting with a knight beside the laborers who are moving the logs.

From her appearance, she isn’t his wife, rather she is probably a beautiful woman he made his lover.

「Blocking my path and flirting, inexcusable. It’s a crime of disrespecting the lower body.」

「Don’t create dubious crimes after becoming king! And it was about a woman after all!?」

The barrier will be removed even if we don’t do anything, but I don’t have time to wait for the laborers to carry it inch by inch.

「Move it. The sun will set by the time you scrawny guys are done!」

I jump off my horse and walk up to the laborers.

Celia covers her face and stares up at the sky.

「Haah? And who the hell are you? Don’t bother us.」

「Damn impatient traveler, can’t you wait a few hours? Knight Newmond is……hm, I’ve seen your face somewhere.」

I can’t wait so I ignore the laborer and the knight and place both hands on the pile of logs.

「Nnnu……oooohh!!」

The mountain of logs wobble, and when I feel a shift underneath, they all roll into the swamp with a splash.

I’m more powerful than ever. This is also the power of love.

「Eh!?」

「There were at least 20 logs that weighed 200 kg each……」

I push my way through the laborers, have the awe-struck knight open the path, and carry the dumbfounded woman in my arm all the way to my mount.

「Good thing you stayed behind.」

I mutter one last remark to the knight and run off on my horse.

「I recall seeing this in Rafen when I was working there. That was――!」

「M-my lover……」

All that matters is that they’re stunned.

Timewise, I want to refrain from fighting here.

「You went and took a woman along with you like it was nothing!」

Oops. I can’t bring a woman with me.

I quickly steal her lips, fondle her breasts and stroke her crotch before releasing her.

「I-is that all? You won’t violate me? Uuu, how disappointing.」

She doesn’t seem angry, let’s pretend it didn’t happen.

After settling the extra trouble, the Erg forest comes into view.

「This is the forest where logging and hunting is forbidden because of dangerous monsters, right?」

「That was the pretense.」

There’s no need to keep up a front at this point.

I abandon the horse and advance straight into the forest.

Celia also hops off her horse and follows one step behind me.

「I haven’t passed through here since the Treia battle. I don’t have a complete map.」

「That’s unnecessary.」

Although it’s been a while since I have visited this place, the forest hasn’t changed one bit.

I jump over a tree root, grab the branch of a giant tree and continue forward.

「How are you moving so decisively when there are no landmarks?」

Celia’s nimbleness helps her keep up, albeit at a somewhat strained pace.

I could slow down, but my legs and heart are both itching to go faster.

At the very least, I pinch her cheeks in a spare moment to put her at ease.

「Uu, I’m being deceived.」

I check the contents of the bag slung over my shoulder.

「A silk dress of the highest quality and custom-made solid gold accessories……good, they’re not broken.」

I’ve never given such things as presents so I don’t know if they suit ‘her’ tastes, but they can’t be bad to have.

「Ah, those are the items Nonna was grinning at after finding them. She said they were either for her birthday or wedding anniversary.」

Unfortunately, they’re not.

Nonna, does she think all expensive items are presents for her?

「Next, the crown.」

Celia trips and bumps her head on a root.

「You brought the crown!? What are you doing!?」

She might not believe me if I don’t show this.

「And maybe I’ll go pick some fruit. She said she doesn’t like climbing trees because her clothes get dirty.」

Celia’s brow furrows as she contemplates my actions.

「Mumumu, I’m certain you are meeting a woman, but who could be in such a forbidden place like this forest……and Aegir-sama is so disgustingly excited, like this is the first meeting……haau!!」

I stretch Celia’s soft cheeks to heal the tinge of pain in my heart after she called me disgusting and keep walking.

I slip through the curtain of vines in between two trees and the area suddenly spreads out.

In the center of the small clearing in the forest stands a tiny house.

「A house in a place like this?」

「……」

I don’t reply to the surprised Celia.

I couldn’t move my mouth or legs in front of the house.

The sight is the same as that time.

My mind and my eyes are naturally drawn to the sight like I came to retrieve something I forgot ten minutes ago.

「Aaah.」

What eventually leaked from my mouth was a sigh.

「Haah.」

I sigh again.

It’s been nearly ten years since I left this place.

Various emotions swirl within my heart.

The next moment, it feels like almost a hundred years have passed.

Now then, is it ten minutes or a hundred years?

I take a step forward as I ponder the stupid question.

「……it stopped working.」

My leg won’t move.

I take a deep breath and somehow force my leg to step forward, but the stride is like a three-year old child’s.

「Aegir-sama? What’s wrong……」

Celia waves her hand in front of my face.

Honestly, I was debating whether or not I should bring Celia.

The cute Celia is a part of me yet at the same time I also thought of something as heartless as her being a foreign object in this place.

「Hauua……hgghagh……prrprr.」

I go from ruffling her hair to stretching her cheeks to scratching her chin, trying to clear my mind.

The cute Celia has grown into such a pretty girl.

It hasn’t been ten minutes or a hundred years.

My second step felt real.

This time I am able to take a proper step.

The glade is supposed to be the same size as when I left, but it feels much smaller.

The house appears bigger and bigger.

It remains small and unchanged as before yet tidy.

The roof near the entrance is the only part of the beautiful house that is crudely built.

That’s the part I broke and had to repair.

I was a kid who knew nothing back then.

The windows are tightly shut and the inside can’t be seen.

This is also the same as before.

In front of the house is an area bordered by stone resembling a vegetable garden, but half of it is empty.

I chuckle, figuring how she probably got bored with it. She’s a fairly lazy person after all.

I reached the door in half the time I imagined it would take.

Back then, my strides weren’t as large.

I also used to be able to run and jump through this door, but now I have to bend down to avoid hitting my head.

I knock on the door with a shaky hand.

This house doesn’t get visitors. I thought someone would answer right away, but nobody came.

「Maybe she’s still sleeping because it’s sunny.」

「Sleeping when the sun is out?」

I try peeking in the window as Celia questions dubiously, but of course I can’t see anything.

Knocking on the door once more yields the same result.

「Maybe the person is away? That’s if anybody lives here.」

It’s possible.

Lucy hates excursions during daytime but it’s not like she can’t go outside.

She simply detests sunshine, it’s not like she’ll turn into ash.

「Hahaha, she really won’t let things go as I thought.」

I circle around to the back just to double-check.

There’s a pond she bathes in.

Meeting her again while she’s bathing would be deplorable, but she’ll likely forgive me.

I’d even strip naked so she won’t feel alone.

However, she wasn’t in the pond.

「Mumu, we can only wait.」

When I return to the front door, Celia runs to me, having found something.

She found it near the boundary between the forest and the clearing.

「This is a……stone monument? No, it’s a grave.」

With nothing better to do, I head over.

There wasn’t a grave when I was young.

She must have brought someone here and drained him to death.

She was emotionally attached to that guy enough to make a grave for him, huh? That makes me burn with jealousy.

As I joke around internally, I can feel my heart beating faster.

「It’s fairly new……more precisely, it was just made. I can see the white traces of where the stone was shaved off.」

I stop moving toward the grave――rather, I don’t go any nearer and instead turn back and run toward the house.

I burst through the unlocked door without knocking.

I intended to stare at one point, but a neglected vegetable garden caught my eye――or actually, a partially-constructed vegetable garden.

The force from me opening the door blows up the dust in the room.

I open the window and let light in.

When I check the bed, the covers are neatly folded and a layer of dust has accumulated on top.

There is a piece of charcoal that has hardened into stone at the back of the fireplace.

Looking down at my feet, I see that only my footprints are left on the dusty floor.

「Aegir-sama, there’s something like a cloth attached.」

I suppress my pounding heart and run.

I run with the same intensity as I would when charging into the enemy as Celia points out the cloth.

「It was wrapped on the grave……wait, Aegir-sama you look so pale! And you’re sweating so much……what’s wrong?」

I grab the cloth……or rather, the shawl, and stumble over to the small stone.

It’s an amateurish and crude grave.

This shawl is something I can’t forget.

It’s hers――Lucy’s favorite.

She’s not home even though it’s daytime, there’s a newly-created grave, the room is covered in dust, and her shawl is on a grave I’ve never seen before.

Everything is connected to one thing.

I am speechless.

Before I knew it, I was kneeling before the grave.

As I dropped to my knees, the shawl sways and brushes the tip of my nose.

It smelled distinctly like Lucy.

「It’s a lie……there’s no way.」

I wrap my arms around the grave that is too small for me to even hug.

As I notice my eyes becoming warm, I see tears staining the ground.

Large teardrops pour down nonstop.

「Aegir-sama……is crying……w-why……what do I do……?」

I even feel like rejecting the words of the genuinely concerned Celia.

And then I hear a soft groan.

It’s my own crying voice that I’ve never heard before.

My sobbing becomes worse.

My hands claw the ground.

At first, I didn’t know what I was doing, but I soon realized that I was digging up the grave.

「Aegir-sama, you mustn’t do that! I don’t know your circumstances, but this is too much!」

When I brush away Celia’s hand, a speck of reason returns to me.

I don’t care about morality or honor. That’s not important.

If I continue digging and see Lucy’s face, I will surely go crazy.

I swing the hand that I used to brush Celia away down and slam the ground.

The impact sends a cloud of dust into the air and travels into the forest, scaring birds into the sky.

「I didn’t make it in time.」

It’s a shout of blame from me to myself.

「Of course I didn’t!!」

I was naive.

I took for granted that Lucy, who has lived over 500 years, would continue living for a mere ten more years.

It’s not a guarantee for a 50 year old human to live one more year.

「She’s a vampire so she won’t die? Don’t be stupid! How many vampires did you see die!!?」

They die from being exposed to sunlight, being stabbed in the heart, from silver, from being cut to pieces……

I’ve seen countless vampires die. They just don’t die as easily as humans.

I conveniently thought Lucy was eternal. I wanted to believe it was true.

「I wasted too much time. Ambition? Looking cool? Life’s purpose? I’m full of crap! I should have killed the king as soon as I met him and stolen the throne then and there!!」

The grave is new no matter how you look at it.

One year, one month……it could even have happened one week ago.

While I was relaxing, and keeping myself busy with friendship of men and company of women, I was too late.

「I couldn’t make it……I wanted to see you……」

I cling to the grave and weep.

It didn’t matter that my wailing or lamenting echoed in the quiet forest.

「A-Aegir-sama……please don’t cry……uu……wa……waaaah!!」

Celia can’t help crying as well.

I don’t have anything now.

Everything I’ve done to this point was for nothing.

I’ve lost my final goal.

「No, I have one.」

That is revenge.

I’ll have my vengeance on the person who stole Lucy from me.

I don’t know the culprit though.

I don’t even know what happened or when it happened.

No matter how much I investigate, I probably won’t determine anything.

「In that case, my enemy is this entire world. I’ll carry out my revenge on this world.」

With tears in my eyes, I spread my arms toward the sky.

It almost felt like a black stream of energy slowly rose from my feet.