At dawn the next day, at Merchant City's eastern gate.
The sun had not fully risen yet, and a sturdy-looking four-wheeled carriage stood amid the bluish dawn mist.
It was a top-quality carriage prepared by Rufus. Its wheels and frame had been reinforced to withstand rugged terrain, and its magically expanded interior held supplies for a long journey.
Two Iron Horses pulled the carriage, Evomon with exceptional endurance and even resistance to deadly poison. They would be able to cross the notorious poisoned lands of the former Kingdom of Belkain without difficulty.
“You truly won't regret this?”
Yuto asked as he pushed back the hood covering his head. Levian, who was checking the supplies inside the carriage, snorted at the question.
“Of course not.”
Levian wore a robe over flexible leather armor and a belt laden with various potions around her waist. With a magic staff and even a small shield, she had shed every trace of a noble young lady and looked like a proper adventurer.
“I've packed plenty of antidotes, healing potions, and first-aid tools. With this much preparation, couldn't we go even farther than the former Kingdom of Belkain?”
Levian shrugged and looked back at Yuto.
“And I can drive a carriage too. What do you think? Don't you already feel how useful I am?”
“I'll drive.”
Yuto chuckled and headed for the driver's seat. When he climbed aboard, Levian sat down beside him instead of going inside the carriage.
“What?”
“I thought I'd keep you company. There's plenty of room, isn't there?”
As Levian had said, the driver's bench was wide. Even with Yuto in the center, Flokiro on his left, and Levian on his right, it did not feel cramped.
“Surely you aren't uncomfortable with me sitting beside you?”
Levian asked with a provocative smile. The sight of her made Yuto feel something new. The Levian he remembered from before his regression—had carried an illness of the heart. She had not been unkind, but a shadow had always hung over her face.
But none of the darkness Yuto remembered existed on her face now. Her smile was exceedingly bright, and her manner was bold and full of confidence.
“Not at all.”
In the two years since his regression, Yuto had rarely smiled in front of anyone but Flokiro. Yet now, a smile formed so naturally that even he found it strange. Seeing Levian changed for the better from his previous life gave Yuto hope for the ‘future.’
“......”
But Yuto could not keep smiling for long. Levian Marigold's fate had undeniably changed for the better. He had returned to the past, so he could improve the future.
But.
Some things could never be changed. The Kingdom of Belkain was one of them. Before his regression, Yuto's homeland had fallen to Shiro Listal's betrayal and Balistera's invasion—but in this world, it had already been destroyed.
Whenever he thought of that, Yuto felt unbearable rage and hatred. No matter how desperately he struggled after returning to the past, Belkain's destruction could not be changed.
Now Yuto had to face that wretched end.
“Yuto? Are...... you all right?”
Levian flinched and called his name when his expression abruptly twisted. Her voice pulled Yuto back from those dreadful emotions, and he lightly shook his head.
“I'm fine. It's nothing.”
“Mm, um, if so...... that's a relief.”
Levian knew little about this mysterious boy. His name was Yuto. He was fourteen years old. He possessed a strange and powerful ability whose nature she could not identify. And he had a contract with an Evomon named Flokiro.
She knew nothing about precisely how Yuto had learned that her father was poisoned, or how he had obtained an antidote for a new poison called Black Serpent Venom that had been created solely for assassination.
Nor had she gone out of her way to ask. Even if she did, she doubted she would receive an honest answer—and whatever his circumstances, Yuto had saved her father and House Marigold.
‘Why does he want to enroll at Maria Academy? Why...... does he want to enter the fallen territory of the Kingdom of Belkain?’
Perhaps on this journey, she might learn about the many secrets the mysterious boy carried. Anticipating that, Levian looked away from Yuto's face.
“We're leaving.”
When Yuto flicked the reins, the Iron Horses snorted and stepped forward powerfully. With the rattle of the carriage wheels, Merchant City's walls receded behind them.
East.
Their journey toward the fallen kingdom of Belkain had begun.
*
Belkain had fallen five years ago.
According to the testimony of its few survivors, the night Belkain fell had been as bright as day despite the hour. The sky had been clear, without a single cloud, and countless stars had illuminated the night.
After midnight, in the deepest hours before dawn.
They said a tremendous noise had sounded as though the world were collapsing. When they rushed outside in alarm, a massive bolt of lightning had fallen from the sky and destroyed the royal castle. Then came a great earthquake that collapsed buildings, columns of water erupted from wells as though the underground waterways had been disturbed, and crimson flames spread from somewhere.
Every kind of natural disaster had converged, destroying the Kingdom of Belkain in a single night. So many calamities had struck in such rapid succession that few people had escaped alive.
Many people say the same thing.
Belkain had been ‘judged’ by the Constellations. No one knew the precise reason, but so many impossible natural disasters occurring at once could only have been the wrath of the Constellations.
What sin had Belkain committed to be judged by the Constellations? No one knew, but the people of Callisto regarded the Constellations who looked down upon the earth from the high heavens as gods and as beings who were absolutely righteous.
If those Constellations had been enraged, Belkain must have committed an atrocity too horrific to speak aloud. All the humans who died on the night of the Great Cataclysm must have committed unforgivable sins, and the royal family of Belkain must undoubtedly have led them into that guilt.
Even after the night of the Great Cataclysm, fog steeped in lethal poison drifted across Belkain's territory. The sky seen from within those lands was a starless, pitch-black darkness. The souls of the sinners who had failed to survive were denied even passage to the afterlife and roamed the darkness as ghosts.
The land teemed with Evomon that had grown as savage as Beasts, races hostile to humans had made their nests there, and criminals and grave robbers who could not live in cities wandered its ruins.
Because the land was so perilous, roads into Belkain were controlled by soldiers and guilds from the nearby cities and kingdoms. That was one reason Yuto had been unable to approach Belkain until now.
But Levian's presence allowed Yuto to pass the inspection without trouble.
“Stop! The area ahead is restricted......”
The soldiers controlling the road behind a wall crossed their spears to block the carriage, but they soon noticed its crest and faltered.
A golden flower. The emblem of House Marigold.
“M-Marigold? What business does Merchant City's great trading house have in such a dangerous place?”
Levian, who had been sitting in the driver's seat, approached the soldiers. She presented them with a pass bearing Marigold's seal and her Maria Academy student identification.
“We're conducting research for an academy assignment. We're on our way to study the ecology of the fallen lands.”
The soldiers stiffened before Levian's confident manner and indisputable identification. The continent's foremost merchant family and finest academy—mere soldiers could not raise an objection before such authority.
“Ah...... understood. But my lady, it truly is dangerous ahead.”
“We know the danger and have made thorough preparations, so you needn't worry.”
Levian smiled brightly.
“Would you please open the way?”
Her manner was firm despite her gentle smile. Soon, the soldiers withdrew their spears with helpless expressions and opened the tightly sealed iron gate.
“You lie without even wetting your lips. Are you always so skilled at it?”
“I did it for you. Shouldn't you thank me first?”
Levian returned to the carriage and puffed out her cheeks in a sulk. She dropped into the seat beside Yuto, who chuckled at her and spoke.
“Thank you. You certainly are useful.”
“Won't you find me even more useful beyond this point?”
The carriage passed through the wide-open gate. After they had traveled for quite some time, the air gradually began to change.
A metallic smell, the stench of sulfur, and the reek of something rotting rode upon the acrid wind.
“Ugh......”
Levian frowned and covered her nose.
“The air...... is worse than I expected? There's poison mixed into it.”
Levian took an herb pouch from inside her robe and handed several dried leaves from it to Yuto and Flokiro.
“Chew these leaves slowly, then swallow them. They'll strengthen your resistance to the poison.”
“This much won't affect me.”
Yuto shook his head. He possessed the power of the Void. The body strengthened by his Status Window's stats would not succumb to poison of this degree.
“Oh, honestly! Stop being stubborn and take it.”
Levian forced the herb toward Yuto's lips. In the end, he sighed in annoyance, accepted it, and placed it in his mouth. A bitter flavor spread across his tongue, and his mind seemed to clear.
“Blech, it's too bitter......”
Flokiro complained miserably while chewing the herb. When it discreetly tried to spit it out, Levian wore a stern expression and pressed a finger to Flokiro's nose.
“No! Chew it properly and swallow!”
“But it's too bitter......”
This was the third day since they left Merchant City. Levian had become quite close to Flokiro. She pressed firmly on its nose as she spoke.
“If you finish the herb, I'll make you some sweet treats when we return to the mansion. How does that sound?”
“Ugh......”
Flokiro's eyes wavered at the mention of treats. It had always been helpless before sweets. Before Yuto's regression, while they lived at Belkain Castle, Flokiro had even had a dedicated pastry chef. In the end, it squeezed its eyes shut and began chewing the herb.
Yuto watched them with a faint smile. For two years, he and Flokiro had traveled alone. Yuto always made sure it had treats, but he possessed no talent for making sweets as Levian did.
‘She certainly is useful.’
Her presence had gotten them through the inspection without needless conflict. She possessed extensive knowledge of poisons and could brighten an otherwise bleak atmosphere.
“The scenery is beginning to change in earnest.”
Levian took out a notebook and recorded the changing landscape around them, observing and analyzing the local vegetation.
‘She isn't merely a sheltered noblewoman.’
From what Yuto had seen, Levian possessed fortitude and a powerful thirst for knowledge. Her claim that this journey would offer her an opportunity to grow did not appear to have been empty words.
The carriage entered the wasteland. The Rasia Plains, once fertile, had become a blood-red wasteland after Belkain's Great Cataclysm.
“This is...... the Rasia Plains......”
Flokiro murmured in shock. The landscape was utterly different from what it had seen before the regression. When harvest season came, golden barley had once stretched out like a sea. Now, the sight resembled a fragment of hell.
Red dust scattered on the wind, while skeletal dead trees stretched their branches toward the sky like fingers. Water collected in pools throughout the land had turned murky and blood-red, and violet poisonous mist crept around their edges.
SKREE—
Far away, grotesque Evomon larger than crows circled with unpleasant cries. Their pitch-black eyes seemed to be waiting for those who entered the wasteland to become corpses fit for eating.
“How grotesque. All the plants are...... twisted.”
Levian pointed to a vine in the distance. Leaves that should have been green had discolored to a blackish violet, and protrusions like a beast's teeth grew along its stem instead of thorns.
“They seem to have mutated after prolonged exposure to the poison...... but for the landscape to change this much in only five years......”
Listening to Levian murmur, Yuto looked at the wall beyond the red wasteland. It was Belkain's wall. Once an unyielding bulwark that had permitted no foreign invasion, it was now a prison wall sealing off a cursed land.
The sun began to sink toward the horizon. Night would soon arrive. As long shadows fell across the red earth, Belkain's wall took on an even more grotesque and sinister air. It seemed as though those shadows might come alive and engulf this place.
“We'll stop here for today.”
Yuto halted the carriage.
“It's best not to travel at night. The nights here...... will be far more dangerous than the days.”
They had not yet passed through the wall, but many dangers lurked in the wasteland. Once true darkness descended, ferocious Evomon would begin to move. Yuto climbed down from the driver's seat first and removed supplies from inside the carriage.
Soon, the crackling light of a campfire illuminated the area. The three sat beside it and ate a simple meal of dried jerky, hard bread, and warm soup prepared by Levian.
As she drank her soup, Levian stole glances at Yuto's profile while he stared into the flames. The light flickering in his eyes resembled a silent scream.
“Yuto.”
Levian spoke cautiously.
“You seem...... to know Belkain quite well. Even on the way here, you drove the carriage without ever consulting a map.”
Yuto's hand flinched to a stop.
“I only read about it in books.”
“That's a lie.”
Levian spoke firmly.
“Do you know what your eyes look like right now? They're the sorrowful eyes of someone who lost his homeland.”
She had struck the heart of it. Instead of answering, Yuto tossed a piece of dry firewood into the flames. Sparks flared and scattered through the air.
“And it isn't only today. The entire journey here, as we drew closer to Belkain...... your presence made it genuinely difficult for me to breathe beside you. It was as sharp as a blade...... and jagged as the teeth of a saw.”
“Because I'm angry.”
Yuto murmured quietly.
“Angry......? Why?”
“At the injustice suffered by people who lost their lives overnight for no reason. And at my helplessness because I failed to protect them.”
Yuto's gaze shifted to Levian. She caught her breath before his abyssal eyes.
“You wouldn't understand.”
The words were cold, but Levian sensed the terrible loneliness within them. Without a word, she broke her bread in half and held a piece out to Yuto.
“I may not understand, but I can listen.”
Levian spoke calmly.
“And...... I can be angry with you. I hate seeing things taken unjustly too.”
Yuto stared blankly at the bread Levian offered him. Then a quiet, incredulous laugh escaped him. Strangely, he did not dislike her audacity or her clumsy attempt to comfort him.
“Eat, then get some sleep. Tomorrow, you'll see far worse.”
“I'll stand watch tonight too.”
Levian spoke stubbornly.
“I don't want to hold you back. Nor do I want to be protected at every turn. And how long are you going to make me hold this bread?”
At that, Yuto accepted it and took a bite. The bread was coarse and hard, yet it somehow felt warm.
“Suit yourself, my lady.”
Levian smiled brightly at his answer.