Chapter 78 : Chapter 78

Chapter 78. Two People and One Mouse on the Road

Eli noticed the faint smile that had flashed across the corners of Irene’s lips.

He forcibly suppressed his irritation at having his hair thrown into disarray by Gulu, but inwardly, he felt nothing but excitement.

With this unfathomable elf princess agreeing to join them, the chances of success on this journey to Bardel’s tomb would increase by far more than just a little.

“It is my honor that Princess Irene is willing to accompany me.”

Eli grabbed Gulu, who was still trying to yank his hair, stuffed it into his pocket, and said,

“Since time is pressing, I will go make arrangements for manpower and prepare supplies. By early tomorrow morning, we can—”

“No need.”

Irene directly cut off his plans.

She tilted her head slightly, her calm gaze passing over the shifting figures outside the window.

“I do not like crowds or noise. For this journey, the three of us will be enough.”

“Three people?!” Eli’s brows drew tightly together, and he repeated the words instinctively.

He opened his mouth, wanting to argue his case. At the very least, they should bring Buck and a few members of the Black Crow Knights, or perhaps Wolfgang would do as well.

But the moment the words reached his lips, he met Irene’s calm and placid eyes, and everything he wanted to say was forcibly choked back down.

Then again, with someone like her covering for them, there really was no need to worry.

“...As you command, Princess Irene.”

Eli could only lower his head helplessly. “As for any items that might be inside the tomb...”

Remembering the key issue, Eli probed tentatively.

“If we gain anything, how should it be handled?”

Surely they could not make the trip for nothing.

That was the legacy of “Iron Hand” Bardel, after all.

Irene seemed to find his question somewhat unnecessary. Her delicate brow shifted faintly.

“Do you not know even a simple spatial storage spell?”

Eli: “...”

He felt as though an arrow had pierced straight through his chest.

Spatial magic? Was that not the stuff of legends?

As for him, he did not know the first thing about spatial magic!

In the end, he could only squeeze out two dry words. “...I do not.”

Irene seemed to realize that she may have overestimated the upper limit of this human’s abilities.

After a brief silence, she said nothing more, but the look in her eyes seemed to say quite clearly: How useless.

...

Early the next morning, the sky had only just begun to brighten.

After bidding farewell to Aila and entrusting the affairs of the territory to Old John and Estor,

Eli brought only a simple pack and led two sturdy packhorses he had prepared to the mouth of the valley.

Irene was already waiting there.

Gulu was sprawled over her shoulder, its little head nodding sleepily as it dozed.

“My lord, you are really going with only the three of you?”

Old John could not help asking one last time. His wrinkled face was full of worry.

A place like the Forgotten Rift sounded dangerous beyond measure no matter how one thought about it.

“That is right, Young Master. At least let Captain Buck or Lord Wolfgang bring a few men to accompany you,” Estor added anxiously.

Eli waved his hand helplessly, signaling with his eyes that they need not say anything more.

“Do as I instructed last night and watch the territory. If any emergency arises, use the ravens to contact Brandon in Lucerne City.”

Then he swung himself up onto his horse and looked toward Irene. “Your Highness, please.”

Irene gave a slight nod and leaped lightly onto the horse’s back.

The jolting woke Gulu, which grumbled in dissatisfaction a couple of times before curling back up on Irene’s shoulder in a more comfortable position.

...

The three of them, mounted on three horses, set out beneath the rising dawn on the road leading to the Forgotten Rift at the border of the Western Frontier.

The horses’ hooves struck the dirt road across the wasteland, kicking up faint clouds of dust.

The journey was long and monotonous.

The closer they drew to the border, the clearer the marks of war became.

The barren fields were overgrown with weeds, yet great blackened scars of burning could still be seen everywhere.

Although time had passed, and nature stubbornly tried to heal the wounds,

with grass pushing up through the scorched earth and vines climbing over collapsed stone walls, the traces of war remained shocking to behold.

Irene’s gaze slowly swept across this land that had been ravaged again and again.

Within those eyes, there was a clear expression of confusion and a faint, indescribable sorrow.

Her ethereal voice rang out across the silent wilderness, carrying incomprehension.

“Why are humans... always so obsessed with brutal and greedy strife?

They clearly... could live upon this land in harmony and flourish together.”

Gulu, perched on her shoulder, immediately raised its little head and shrilled in agreement.

“Exactly! Humans are the worst! All they ever bring is destruction and death!

Our homeland was cut down by their greedy axes!

They felled the ancient trees and drove away the forest’s inhabitants, all just to build those ugly, cold stone houses! They are absolutely hateful!”

Riding on horseback, Eli listened to this one person and one mouse condemn the nature of humankind, and a complicated feeling welled up in his heart.

He opened his mouth, wanting to explain that war had its roots, that greed came from the pressure of survival...

But when he looked upon the ruins before him, utterly destroyed by the flames of war, every word seemed pale and powerless.

In the end, he merely let out a deep sigh, turned his gaze toward the horizon where the wasteland met the sky, and spoke in a low, helpless voice.

“Perhaps... even amid darkness and chaos, there is always... still truth and hope.”

That sounded more like he was trying to convince himself.

After this brief period of traveling together, he had already come to understand

that although this elf princess possessed unfathomable strength and a long life,

her inner world was as pure and idealized as crystal untouched by the dust of the mortal world.

She could not understand the bloody conflicts humans unleashed for the sake of profit, survival, and hatred.

That nearly childlike kindness and innocence

was perhaps one of the reasons the elves, though powerful, had ultimately been betrayed and driven out by humankind, forced to hide deep within the forests.

Irene did not answer.

Within her starry eyes, that sorrow and confusion did not fade. Instead, they seemed to deepen further.

The sun gradually rose higher, and by around noon,

a clear and winding stream appeared in the distance ahead.

The water murmured as it flowed, glittering in the sunlight, bringing a trace of coolness and life to the heavy journey.

“Whoa—” Eli pulled back on the reins and dismounted.

“Your Highness, we have been traveling for half the day. Let us rest here for a while.

The stream is clear, so we can refill our water, and the horses can also rest their legs.”

Irene glanced at the clear stream and gave a slight nod. “All right.”

“Fish! Fish! There are fish!”

Gulu instantly sprang up from Irene’s shoulder.

Its black bead-like eyes shone brightly as it stared at the silver flashes occasionally flickering through the water, and it was practically drooling.

“Your Highness! There are fish! We get to eat fish! We do not have to gnaw on dried rations!”

Eli tied the horses near a patch of shrubs by the stream so they could graze.

“Your Highness, please rest here a while. I will see whether I can catch a few fish.”

Irene nodded and walked over to sit beside a flat boulder at the stream’s edge.

As for Gulu, like an eager little tagalong, it scampered excitedly at Eli’s feet all the way to a calm backwater pool.

The stream was so clear that the smooth pebbles on the bottom and the swaying water plants could be seen perfectly.

Perhaps because human visitors were rare, the fish here were not particularly afraid of people, and swam about in leisurely ease.

Eli pulled off his boots, rolled up his trousers, and stepped briskly into the cool stream.

Holding his breath and focusing his mind, he locked onto a large trout that was lazily drifting past.

The instant the fish flicked its tail, Eli’s hand shot into the water like lightning.

Splash!

Water flew everywhere.

A trout the length of a forearm, struggling desperately, was seized firmly in Eli’s grasp.

“Wow! It is huge!” Gulu bounced excitedly on the bank.

Eli smiled and tossed the fish onto the soft grass at the edge of the shore.

Gulu immediately pounced on it, pinning down the still-flopping fish with its little paws while chattering excitedly.

Eli repeated the same method and soon caught four more equally plump trout.

Gulu also tried floundering into the shallows, and somehow actually managed to smack a palm-sized little fish senseless with one of its paws.

Clenching the fish in its mouth, it ran over to the flat boulder where Irene sat as though presenting a treasure.

Then, hopping with delight, it placed the little fish by Irene’s feet and looked up at her with bright, shining black eyes.

Irene lowered her head and looked at the little fish at her feet, whose gills were still faintly opening and closing.

Then she looked again at the five large fish still struggling on the grass beside the stream.

“We... cannot eat this much. Why not release them back into the water?”

Eli had just begun skillfully scraping the scales off with a small knife, but at those words, his hands paused.

Once again, he let out a helpless sigh inwardly.

He looked at the four large fish on the ground, then at the poor little fish by Irene’s feet...

“All right,” he conceded.

What Irene did reminded him somewhat of Daoism from his previous life.

He picked up the two smaller trout and put them back into the clear stream.

The moment they regained their freedom, the two fish flicked their tails and vanished swiftly into deeper water.

As for the small fish Gulu had caught...

Eli hesitated for a moment, but in the end, he left it alone.

It was too small. Even if he released it, it probably would not survive, so he might as well count it as a little sense of achievement for the great Lord Gulu.

Eli quickly cleaned the remaining two fish and skewered them on sharpened branches.

Then he gathered some dry deadwood from the bank and skillfully built a small fire.

The flames crackled and soon caught the twigs.

He set the skewered fish over the fire and carefully turned them as they roasted.

Fat dripped down onto the coals with a sizzling sound, and an enticing, smoky fragrance quickly spread with the rising blue smoke.

Gulu had long since given up on its little fish and now squatted by the fire.

Its black bead-like eyes stared fixedly at the three fish as they slowly turned golden and crisp under the flames.

Drool poured from its mouth like a little stream, gathering into a damp patch in the grass beneath its feet.

“It smells so good... so good... Lord Gulu is starving to death...”

It kept swallowing mouthful after mouthful of saliva.

Eli pulled out a small leather pouch from his belt, which held coarse salt and a mixture of dried crushed herbs.

He sprinkled them evenly across the fish, which hissed and sizzled with oil over the fire.

The first fish was done, its skin golden and crisp.

Eli took it down and first handed it to Irene, who sat upon the flat boulder. “Princess Irene, would you like to try it?”

Irene looked at the sharpened branch holding the fragrant roasted fish before her and hesitated for a moment.

Seeing this, Eli immediately added, “Shall I remove the fish from the skewer for you?”

He assumed Irene simply did not know how to eat it.

“There is no need.” Irene gently shook her head and took the branch, which was still hot to the touch.

Using her fingertips, she carefully tore off a small piece of golden fish belly meat.

The flesh was snow-white and tender, steaming with heat.

At the same time, Eli handed the second roasted fish to Gulu, which had been waiting with desperate longing in its eyes.

It let out an excited shriek, grabbed the branch with its little paws, and bit down hard at once.

“Ah! Hot, hot, hot! So good! It is so good!”

Gulu was scalded so badly that it began huffing air, but it still could not bear to spit it out.

It hopped in place while madly devouring the delicious fish, juice smearing everywhere.

Irene watched Gulu’s exaggerated way of eating, then lowered her head and looked at the small piece of white fish meat between her fingers.

She placed it into her mouth.

First came the sensation of heat, and then, beneath the crisp skin, a tenderness of flesh unlike anything she had ever tasted before.

It was a flavor she had never experienced in her life—raw and vivid.

Completely different from the light foods of the elves that she remembered, foods full of the fragrance of nature.

At the instant the fish entered her mouth, Irene’s calm eyes suddenly lit up.

Almost unconsciously, she tore off a much larger piece of fish and put it into her mouth.

..... (Five ants crawled past—five ants.)

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