Chapter 36: Smoke to the South

Even after wolf-like magical beasts appeared on the southern road, people didn’t stop traveling altogether.

They avoided walking alone and left with anyone headed the same way. Rue’s villagers postponed trips that weren’t urgent.

The chief didn’t forbid travel south, and he didn’t tell me to hunt down the wolves that had escaped.

That was right.

Through Racial Trait (Magical Beast Empathy), I had felt their fear as they fled into the forest. There was no reason to chase beasts that hadn’t followed us back to the village.

Something else interested me more.

The southern road.

Heinz and the merchants and travelers who visited Rue had always used it. So had the people who brought baskets and wooden vessels from farther south.

To them it was ordinary, but I had never seen where the road led with my own eyes.

I was getting used to flying in my Adult Dragon body. Flights near the village no longer made me hesitate over takeoff or turns.

But I still hadn’t flown a long distance continuously.

Since I didn’t know my limit, it was better to extend my range little by little while leaving enough strength to return.

I looked south from outside the fence and called Dario.

“Dario.”

“Hm?”

I indicated the road with a forefoot.

“…Look beyond road.”

“You’re flying south?”

“…Yes.”

He considered it.

“Just to see the road, not to chase the wolves?”

I nodded.

“Then it should be fine. Keep enough strength for the flight back.”

“…Understood.”

When I told the chief, he looked toward the southern sky rather than at me.

“Planning to go as far as the highway?”

The highway?

My tilted head made him realize I didn’t know it.

“Right. You’ve never seen it. There’s a wider road down south. The path to Rue branches from it and enters the mountains.”

I hadn’t known.

I knew Heinz and the others came from the south, but no one had explained the geography beyond.

“There are towns farther along that road too.”

“…Towns?”

“Yes, places merchants travel through. Don’t try to reach one today.”

He knew I didn’t yet know how far I could fly.

“Seeing the highway is enough. If you run out of strength on the return journey, we can’t exactly come fetch you.”

True.

“…Will return.”

“Then go.”

I walked to open ground outside the village and spread my wings.

Pushing off the earth, I circulated magic through my body.

My great wings caught the air and lifted my massive body.

◇

The southern road was easy to follow from above.

A narrow line wound through the forest toward the lower mountains. Trees hid it in places, but the path used by people and packhorses remained visible.

Near Rue, I could see sections we had improved before. We had only cleared branches and shaved down rock where it narrowed, so the width didn’t look much different even from the sky.

A packhorse could pass.

A cart probably couldn’t.

After a while, I saw three people walking together. My shadow fell across them, and all three stopped to look up. Nothing seemed wrong, so I didn’t land.

I continued south.

As I entered territory I had never examined from above, the land slowly changed.

The slopes didn’t press in as closely as they did around Rue. Gaps in the trees became more frequent, and here and there I saw land humans appeared to have worked.

Eventually, a cluster of roofs came into view.

The people who had brought baskets and wooden containers to Rue had said they lived together in a small group of houses to the south.

This was probably their settlement.

I knew neither its exact population nor its name.

Avoiding the space directly above the houses, I flew past at some distance. Several people looked up. A few stopped work and moved closer to the buildings.

Not everyone there would have seen me before. It was natural to be wary when a huge dragon suddenly flew overhead.

Without changing altitude, I passed by.

The road continued.

My wings still didn’t feel heavy, and I had ample magic inside me.

I could feel ambient magic faintly entering my body even during flight, but not enough to replace everything I used. The longer I flew, the more it steadily decreased.

If I didn’t overdo it, I could go a little farther.

The narrow road descended a gentle slope and vanished beyond a low ridge.

I climbed slightly.

When I crossed the ridge, the view opened.

I recognized it immediately.

The highway the chief had described.

It was far wider than the road to Rue.

Many people walked along its long horizontal stretch. There were packhorses too.

And among them was something I had never seen in this world.

A horse pulled a platform on wheels.

A cart.

I circled once overhead.

The narrow road to Rue joined the highway here.

A cart could reach this point, but the road into the mountains was too narrow beyond it.

From above, I understood clearly why Heinz and the others used packhorses.

I looked past the highway.

Smoke rose in the distance.

Not one plume, but many thin columns from separate places.

Straining my eyes, I saw roofs beneath them.

Far more than Rue had.

That must be the town the chief had mentioned.

I didn’t know its name or how many people lived there. From this distance, I couldn’t see how the houses were arranged.

If I went closer, I would learn.

I started to turn south.

Then I felt heaviness at the roots of my wings.

It wasn’t pain. I still had magic inside me.

But I unquestionably had less than when I began.

If I flew to the town, the return trip would be even longer.

I turned my body back.

Today, only the highway.

That had been the decision from the beginning.

Just because I could see something didn’t mean I had to fly as far as I possibly could.

I made a broad circle over the highway and pointed my wings toward Rue.

◇

On the return journey, I kept lower than before.

Where I could ride the wind, I spread my wings and avoided wasting effort on unnecessary beats.

The houses I had seen on the way out appeared again. This time, several people on the ground pointed toward me.

I had no reason to land, so I flew on.

By the time I returned to the narrow road, the heaviness at my wing roots was clear.

I could still fly.

But if someone ordered me to continue for the same distance again, I would refuse.

Familiar mountains came into view.

Beyond them stood Rue’s fence.

The sight reassured me more than I expected.

I returned to my usual landing place and descended. My wings slowed me, and my forefeet touched first, followed by the rear.

The earth sank slightly.

As I folded my wings, my body’s full weight seemed to return at once.

“Val!”

Lina ran toward me.

“Welcome back!”

“…I’m back.”

The words came more naturally than before.

She looked up at my face, then at my wings.

“Are you tired?”

“…A little.”

Dario arrived behind her.

“How far did you go?”

“…Highway.”

“You made it to the highway?”

His surprise wasn’t that it existed. It was that I had flown that far.

“Did you see carts?”

“…Saw.”

“I see.”

The chief approached from the fence.

“You didn’t go all the way to the town, did you?”

“…Didn’t.”

“Good.”

Lina immediately seized on that.

“You saw the town?”

“…Saw.”

“What was it like?”

I thought.

“…Many houses. Much smoke.”

“So it really is big.”

I couldn’t judge that.

“…Don’t know.”

“It’s far bigger than Rue,” the chief answered for me. “There are more people and goods than you can compare to this place.”

I looked at him.

To the humans, it had always been there.

I was the only one who had never known it.

“Does Heinz go there?”

“He probably does sometimes. I don’t know every stop on his route.”

That made sense.

The highway and town I had seen weren’t new discoveries to humans.

But they were new to me.

For the first time, I had seen the shape of the route by which people and goods flowed into Rue.

“Will you go again tomorrow?” Lina asked.

I shook my head at once.

“…Won’t.”

“Because you’re tired?”

“…Yes.”

That was part of it.

Flying the distance once didn’t mean I needed to extend it every day. First I should learn how tired this flight made me and how fully I recovered after rest.

“That’s wiser,” Dario said. “The town isn’t going anywhere.”

True.

I lowered myself to the ground.

Ambient magic flowed faintly into me, but that alone wasn’t enough.

I was hungry too.

Lina noticed.

“Should I bring food?”

“…Will eat.”

“Okay.”

She ran into the village.

I rested my jaw on my forefeet and looked south.

The mountains hid both the highway and the town’s smoke from here.

Even so, I now knew what lay at the end of that narrow road.

And the next time I flew south, I would have more landmarks.

For now, that was enough.