– Adventurer Life Day 57 (Mon) – Morning – Main Road
Yesterday, despite there being light rain, it didn"t affect the trip too much, and the caravan trip went on rather quickly.
We were able to reach the village of Marda, which was one village ahead of the village we had originally planned to stay in.
And right now, we have just left Marda and are continuing on down the main road.
The village of Marda is the closest to the ‘Garha Forest", which acts as a border between the territories of Comnes and the southern countries.
Crossing through this forest makes things a little different for our trip, as it would take several hours to cross it, and there would be a more frequent appearances of strong monsters here…
It"s because of that, the entrance through the forest would sometimes be called, ‘Jaw of Garha".
Needless to say, there have been frequent deaths here.
To put more context into it, in this world, the area with the highest development would be the southern countries, while the northern have a lower level of population density, agricultural productivity, cultural level, and trading environment. The main road only acts as it"s only connection between Comnes and the southern countries.
As such, once entering the territory from the south, the trip becomes completely safe, and the escorts could finally relax… it"s quite an odd contrast from the beginning of the trip.
However, that is only because the majority of the monsters have been pushed out, and have been acc.u.mulating within the outer borders. Making pa.s.sing through this forest, the most dangerous of this trip.
It was the reason why it was preferable to stay the night at Marda, as it would help us cross the forest earlier than it would"ve.
(Hm? What"s Centurion doing over there?)
We had just left the village… and Centurion was in front of us, looking inside a hooded caravan suspiciously…
“Teii-!!”
“ouch!?”
What the heck is he doing!?
I hurried there in a fl.u.s.ter, and behind the caravan was a lady sitting in tears. Just as I was about to ask Centurion what he was doing, the lady spoke up to me first.
“Ah… I"m sorry. I asked this person here to hit me if I were to fall asleep…”
“It"s alright MASTER. I did NOT hit for REAL. Only LIGHT enough to WAKE her up.”
“…… If you get weird requests like that from other people, I"d prefer if you tell me first…”
Centurion really is doing whatever he likes as usual…
However, this person isn"t the only one having a problem staying awake.
There strangely haven"t been any problems when going along the highway. Though this is supposed to be a good thing, it makes the trip straight forward and boring. Because of that, it gets a number of inexperienced escorts tired and lose focus.
Though, most likely they had worn themselves out from focusing on the surroundings for so long.
“… The main highway… has traces from the ancient G.o.ds and… scars of battles dating since the mythology period… though I don"t know the details…”
(… I"m hearing a tour guide like explanation… but who?)
“Uwaa – !?”
The one mumbling just now, was Cesar walking unsteadily right behind me, but…
(Is he sleeping with his eyes open!?)
No wait, he"s even walking too and keeping in formation… because of that, I didn"t notice it at all…
If I have to be blunt, it"s a little creepy… and before I noticed it, Centurion had loomed right behind him.
“Teii-!!”
“Geh-!”
“H – hey… ?”
Cesar looked back after getting hit on the head by Centurion.
“Ah… Ow-ouch… ah, you woke me up. Thanks for that.”
You too!?
“In other words you see… I have no idea what the person had in mind when making this road…”
“Ha… How far does this road even go?”
“Yeah, about that, hear this! It seems like the road still continues even after reaching the sea!”
“Hmm… Does it cross like a bridge or something?”
It seems like Benedetta and Cesar are chatting about something along the highway, though it seems to me that they are only chatting to keep themselves awake.
“Mhm. Once we enter the ‘white road", we should be done with this place.”
“Oh, Phillips?”
Phillips, who had been keeping vigilance and had not entered a conversation this whole time, spoke to me.
When chatting, I feel like he"s trying to adjust his way of speaking to fit in this timeline, so I try to follow up as best I can.
“Right now, you don"t really have to keep such a high vigilance here…”
“That does seem to be the case.”
The surroundings from where we are now is only slightly rugged, and the short gra.s.s makes it easy to see.
I highly doubt we"d ever get a surprise attack at this place.
“Speaking of which, is the ‘White Road", you mentioned, the main highway from your time?”
“That is correct… and by around here, the road would end once it reached another city.”
It"s kind of vague from the way Phillips described it… well, he had been inside as a spirit for who knows how many hundreds of years, and he was trapped inside that cave the whole time… even when staying in Comnes and listening to his stories from the past, I could tell there"s quite a lot he doesn"t remember.
However, when seeing those carvings from the walls a while ago, he seemed to be reminded from the old times, and for as long as he was able to on Sundays, he had been visiting the city walls quite frequently… he seemed to have been rid of majority of his emotions like desire and anger, but the feeling of nostalgia still seems to be strong in him.
– Adventurer Life Day 57 (Sat) – Before Noon – Main Road
We on continued along the road without problems.
The conversation between me and the sleepy Cesar started up again.
Somehow, it"s regarding the name of my party.
“The name ‘Legion" is exactly as it is… a vast number of an army… Though, admittedly, it is only a congesture.”
“Oh? Did you know the meaning of that word?”
The name of our party ‘Legion" was a reference from the Roman army in the other world… though it should have been an old french word from what I remembered.
… Could this word also be understood here?
“… Hm?… Didn"t you get that from an old Pardian language?”
“Pardian? What"s that?”
“Erm… we you see…”
From what Cesar says, he talks about a super nation that unified the entire southern countries in the past called Pardia. Supposedly, some of their armies had been called Legions at the time.
“You"re quite knowledgeable huh.”
“Nah, this isn"t really that impressive. I really only know up to this much.”
Even so, I never heard of such a history before.
However, as we continued to talk, I"ve been having a nagging feeling about it.
(So this world uses even something foreign like ‘Legion"? Why is that…)
My world from before… would a coincidence with the same word and meaning really happen like this despite being in different worlds?
I probably would never reach an answer for this, but this might still nag on my mind for a long time…
When asked why I named our party Legion, I simply gave him a random answer from the top of my head…
“Nemo, that there would be ‘Garha"s Jaw"… Can you see it?”
Cesar, who had suddenly tightened his expression, pointed towards a hill the road will be going up at.
That"s about 200m high… There"s a couple of areas that seemed like the top portion had been cut off. Seems like it would be dangerous to go there.
But then, the way the road pa.s.ses through seemed to go past a broken part of a mountain, so it"s not like we won"t be having trouble either.
… Atop the mountain, I can see a large bird I don"t know of, flying over in the distance.
Is that a monster?
The dense forest continues on until the foot of the mountain, and the road seems to be much less maintained than before.
“Well, there"s not much to worry about here, but do be careful. Because the road pa.s.ses straight through the forest here, there"s a good chance we"ll be attacked.”
From those words, I feel that the atmosphere of the whole group changed to a much more serious one.
The same goes for me as well.
… However, different from how I expected, not even a single monster showed to attack us since entering Garha.
Though, I can"t really relax just because of that…
We haven"t left the forest, and yet not a single noise from a beast could be heard. Not even the sound of a bird… it"s far too quiet…
I look to Cesar to my side, and he has an even more serious expression than before.
I ask him in a low voice.
"Cesar. Could you actually tell me what you"re expecting?"
"Nemo… Do you happen to know about those "Elite" guys?"
"… Yeah. More or less."
"I see, I see… The truth is, we"ve been attacked by one on our way to Comnes… We manage to repel it somehow, but a number of our people got injured and had to be swapped over when arriving at town… What do you think. Were we just unlucky there?"
"I"m not sure… What do you mean?"
Seems like Cesar was thinking whether the silence around is caused by an "Elite" monster nearby…
Well if that"s the case, will it come from the right, or the left side?
I"m a little hesitant on disturbing Centurion and Phillips as they are carefully observing our surroundings.
Benedetta was next to me, so there was no problem in telling her.
Getting ready for an attack at any moment… Suddenly I start to feel a little claustrophobic, from how little s.p.a.ce this road cuts through the forest.
"Uwaaa – !!"
Snap! Snap!
(… … It"s coming from the front?)
Right at that thought, something big pa.s.ses by us
"Nemo! The sky!"
Right from where Cesar was pointing, was a number of strange birds, all with beaks but with a face of an ugly woman.
And also, there"s a large shadow within that flock looming over.
"Harpy "Elite"… !?"
A large and fast flying enemy has appeared!
—- Summoning Memo —-
Centurion Team:
Members: Centurion, Skeleton 1, 2, 3
Equipment: Hatchet, Shield, Armor and helmet
Phillips Team:
Members: Phillips, Skeletons 4, 5, 6
Equipment: Spear, Shield, Armor and helmet
Other Skeletons:
7 – 37: Club, Round shield, Armor and helmet
Metal Golem ‘Talos": 1
Wooden Horse: 1
#Golems can be divided to a maximum of three bodies.