Chapter 519: To the North

Rather than returning to the royal capital via Dimensional Corridor, Tauro and the rest of Black-Golden Wings decided—for the first time—to leave the Dragon people village on foot and travel around the northern regions.

Needless to say, the Dragon people village lay deep within the largely uncharted Antas Mountain Range. For ordinary humans, traversing the mountains and reaching it on foot was exceedingly rare.

On very rare occasions, lost adventurers might be taken in by nearby Dragon people and temporarily guided to the village, but Tauro and his friends are the only ones who have visited more than once.

That was how difficult it was to reach the Dragon people village directly from human-inhabited lands.

Knowing this full well, Tauro and his friends still decide to embark on an adventure across the Antas Mountains and explore the north.

At first glance, it seemed nothing short of reckless, but Chief Ryuga and the other Dragon people did not stop them, believing that Tauro and the others would be fine in their current state.

“As for directions, Ragune is with you, so you should be all right. You went down the mountain once with the senior dragons before right—do you remember the route?”

Chief Ryuga asked Ragune just to be sure.

“Of course! I worked so hard to remember the way back then, so it’s fine!”

Ragune thumped her chest and answered with full confidence.

And so, seeing them off, the Dragon people watched as Tauro and the others began their descent.

“…Ragune. It’s been about two weeks since we started walking through the Antas Mountains, are you sure it’s this path here?”

Tauro was starting to think it might be better to return to the Dragon people village via Dimensional Corridor and start over. It had been a grueling two weeks.

During that time, they had encountered and defeated powerful monsters unlike any they had faced before, and as a result, they had accumulated quite a few drop items.

“I-it’s fine!—Ah! Look, that huge rock that resembles a wolf over there is a landmark that indicates that we are entering a human-inhabited territory!”

Sure enough, in the direction Ragune pointed, there stood a boulder that looked like a wolf. The landmark she had been repeatedly saying they would come across along the way, made by the dragon people.

However, the direction of that rock bothered Tauro.

“Isn’t it strange that the landmark rock is to the north of us?”

Aeris seemed to think the same thing, as she nodded at Tauro’s words.

“Yeah, that’s true. The mountain weather made it hard to confirm the sun’s position, but it’s definitely strange for it to be north. It should be to the west. If it’s north, that would mean we were already in human territory.”

Ankh also confirmed their position by pointing at the sun, which had finally peeked out from behind thick clouds for the first time in days.

“…Ragune, did you get us lost?”

Zion pointed it out bluntly.

“…Uh… b-but look! We made it safely to human lands, so isn’t that what matters…!?”

Ragune was clearly trying her hardest to bluff her way through. Tauro and the others exchanged glances and smiled wryly.

“Then let’s just say we successfully crossed the mountains.”

With that, Tauro brought the matter to a close and continued walking towards the wolf-like boulder.

Passing the base of the wolf-shaped rock and descending along pathless slopes for several hours, the party encountered some powerful monsters along the way they struggled to defeat. Eventually, they arrived near a small, fenced-in village.

“Don’t tell me you folks came all the way from the Antas Mountains?!”

The first villager they encountered—a man chopping wood outside the village—noticed Tauro’s group and called out in surprise.

“We seem to have gotten lost and taken a strange route. What village is this? If possible, could you also tell us roughly where we are?”

Tauro didn’t really answer the man’s question and instead asked to confirm their location.

He felt that admitting they had crossed the Antas Mountains might pose a problem in itself.

“What, you’re lost? …Yeah, figures. There’s no way normal people could just cross the Antas Mountains!—This is the village of Nor. It’s located at the western foothills of the Antas Mountains, right along the border between the Kingdom of Sart side and the Empire side. You get that much, right? Hahaha!”

At the villager’s explanation, everyone turned their gaze toward Ragune.

Sure enough, she had gotten them lost and they were gradually headed north without realizing it.

If things had gone badly, they might have followed the mountain range straight across the border into the Empire.

“Ragune, care to explain this?”

Tauro asked with a gentle smile.

“I-I’m sorry!”

Ragune realized what a major blunder this was and bowed deeply in apology.

“But hey, we didn’t make the mistake of crossing the border, so that’s good, right? And we’re not in a hurry anyway.”

Aeris spoke in Ragune’s defense as she bowed repeatedly.

“Yeah. We made it back to civilization safely, and we got to confirm everyone’s growth along the way. All things considered, it wasn’t bad.”

Ank backed her up as well.

“Let’s think of it as a good journey!”

Zion chimed in with the others.

“…All right, then let’s go with that. Um, excuse me—does this village have an inn?”

Seeing that everyone was In agreement , Tauro chose not to press Ragune further and instead asked the villager about lodging.

“An inn? Nah, nothing that fancy. Visitors usually stay in an empty house or at the village chief’s place. You adventurers?”

“Yes.”

“In that case, the chief’s been saying he could use more hands, so this might be perfect. I’ll take you to him—follow me.”

With that, the villager led Tauro and the others toward the village entrance.