Beyond the broad, green leaves of the dense deciduous canopy, sunlight shattered and rained down.
Kallen raised a hand to shield his forehead.
"It's hot."
The influence of the Silvern River had fostered an enormous forest within the Eilwin Gorge, which in turn meant a staggering amount of humidity from transpiration.
Even I found the leather armor sticking to my sweat-soaked body grating, so that said it all.
To think it could bring even the Undying to his knees.
Should I praise the greatness of nature, or blame Eladin for her half-hearted blessing?
I swept the nutritionally worthless idle thought from my mind.
"Let's dismount and walk. This path isn't suited for Formel."
Formel's massive frame was holding up our march.
At this rate we'd be slower than going on foot, so I instructed Formel to follow us slowly.
"Can't even hear the river."
Not a single sound reached us beyond the countless leaves rustling in the wind.
At least the breeze offered some hope of cooling off, but even the wind blowing through was warm.
Kallen wasn't openly showing it, but he couldn't hide his unsteady gait, as if he might collapse at any moment.
'At this rate, Kallen's going to end up half-dried.'
I approached a nearby boulder and felt its surface.
I repeated that two or three more times across a wider area, then pointed northeast.
"The river's that way."
"How can you tell?"
"The moss grows in that direction."
Compared to the southwest, the northeastern rocks were relatively rich in moss.
That moss grew more abundantly closer to a riverbank was common knowledge.
With no other landmarks to go by, Kallen followed behind me without a word.
As we pushed through the dense undergrowth, Kallen asked out of the blue:
"Will, uh, Formel be able to follow us all right? How would he know where we are......."
"No need to worry about that."
Where Formel was and what he was doing came to me unbidden.
It was an intuitive thing and hard to explain to Kallen, but Formel could likely sense me in a similar way.
Perhaps because of the downpour a few days earlier, the scent of earth was uncommonly strong.
I'd lost track of how long we'd walked along the waterlogged path.
In an instant, the curtain of broad-leaved trees blocking our view parted and fell away.
"Blinding."
Kallen emerged behind me, squinting and muttering.
True to his word, the tributary of the Silvern River sparkled with such intense silver light that the "Silver" in its name felt more than earned.
"Let's rest here a while before we go."
As the largest city in Slonhar, Pirberg had many roads connecting it to nearby cities.
The route along the Silvern River was one of them.
Originally, having Formel meant I'd planned to avoid the main roads, but circumstances had changed, hadn't they?
If only for the sake of Kallen, who was in poor shape, I intended to reach the riverside road as quickly as possible.
"Aren't you going to wash up, sir knight?"
Kallen had already stripped off his tunic and coat, neatly folded them to one side, and lowered himself into the water.
I watched for a moment, then shook my head.
"No need."
"Who says you need a reason to wash? Come on in, sir knight."
The Silvern River, symbol of abundance and prosperity.
It was only a tributary, but just looking at the water steeped in sunlight made my body feel cooler.
It wasn't that I didn't want to wash.
I sweated, too.
"No."
"Aw, come on."
I stood with my arms crossed, lightly scratching the stiff leather between the iron plates with my gauntleted hand.
There was no particular reason; it was just my way of showing I was in a bind.
"Is it because of the helm?"
He'd hit the mark.
My fixation on the helm was so pathological that even Kallen, who hadn't known me long, could tell.
But there was a rational reason behind it.
"Hah...... Fine. But turn around. And don't look back until I say so."
After briefly weighing the value of keeping the helm against the value of bathing, I had no choice but to get in the water.
"......Wow, are all knights' bodies like...... that?"
"Not another word. Turn around."
The cold water against my skin cleared my head.
I scrubbed myself in the waist-deep water, then slowly removed the helmet I'd been wearing.
My face was faintly reflected in the rippling surface.
It had been so long since I'd faced it that it felt awkward all over again, and I moved my scrubbing hands all the more busily.
'Roan. I am sorry. From now on, you will have to go about in a helm.'
'Is that really what matters right now?'
'What a waste. To think something this handsome must be hidden for a lifetime.'
No matter how fast I moved my hands.
No matter how many ripples I sent across the water's surface.
I couldn't stop the voice clawing at my ears.
It was a memory I didn't want to recall, and one I shouldn't have recalled in the first place.
I hated remembering her voice.
Because it brought back that moment. Because the happiness of those days, days I could never live again, might come flooding back.
Because the void she left behind would cut all the deeper for it.
That was why I never removed my helm.
Because seeing my own face reminded me of Eladin as she lay dying.
That was why I jammed the helm back on in haste.
'Roan, remember me.'
"All done?"
"Yeah."
Kallen climbed out of the stream with a reluctant look, as though he'd wanted to stay longer.
"If you put the helm on without drying off, it'll get moldy."
"If you wanted to see that badly, you should've snuck a peek."
Kallen smiled bitterly.
"I'm not so careless with my life."
He'd been tagging along so nonchalantly that even I'd briefly forgotten, but our first meeting had begun with me slaughtering his fellow soldiers.
He knew what kind of man I was, so he had no desire to risk his life over something as trivial as seeing my face.
And in truth, if he had turned around, I would have done something about it.
Well, I wouldn't have killed him, though.
"I'm hungry."
It was only when Kallen brought it up that I realized we hadn't eaten since yesterday evening.
"Don't you have food you brought along?"
"There are a few preserved rations, but...... oh."
Everything aside from what he carried on his person was strapped to Formel.
I'd never given it a second thought since I'd had no belongings to begin with, and Kallen seemed to have simply forgotten.
"Well, this is a problem......."
Wait here for Formel even if it takes a while, or find a merchant road and seek their help.
It wasn't the kind of decision to agonize over alone.
"If you're worried about me, I'm fine. We can't exactly abandon the luggage, so let's wait here for Formel."
He might be a soldier, but soldiers were only city farmers dragged off and handed a spear.
Expecting any kind of professional training was a stretch.
The whole reason we'd come to the stream in the first place was that Kallen was in poor shape.
He needed proper rest.
"If you feel like you're coming down with something, tell me. I can always buy medicine from a passing merchant."
I've said it before: in my heart, money occupies a fairly important place.
Earn it when you can, spend it decisively when you must.
Kallen was essential for finding Findel, so to avoid the absurd misfortune of losing him to illness, I was prepared to invest a certain amount.
By the time our soaked bodies had fully dried and the sun had begun to set, there was still no sign of Formel arriving.
'What on earth is he doing out there?'
Formel was, bizarrely, tracing a wide arc from the west of the point where we'd parted, heading back our way.
The reason: he appeared to be catching and eating various animals and beasts along the way.
I considered calling him straight to us, but in the end let him do as he pleased.
If not now, when else would Formel get to feast to his heart's content?
'Damn that lord, if you're going to keep a beast, at least feed it properly.'
Being connected as we were, Formel's hunger transmitted itself to me as well.
Thankfully, he didn't seem to be lacking for food out there, so I intended to leave him be.
Kallen, by contrast, was not doing well.
"Hey. Can you stay conscious?"
"Ugh......."
Kallen's body was burning up.
He seemed to have caught a fever; he couldn't even sit up properly, let alone walk.
The worst-case scenario I'd feared had arrived.
Food was no longer the problem.
'I need to get medicine. Any road wagons travel won't be close enough to reach quickly.'
No matter how much I deliberated now, there was only one answer.
'I'll carry him on my back. For now, I'll have to pray we make it through tonight.'
It had been a very long time since I'd traveled with a companion, and the result was a complete failure to account for a normal person's stamina.
I'd forced an ordinary soldier to keep pace with the Undying's marching speed, so it was no surprise he'd collapsed.
Kallen drifted between life and death on my back, waking and sleeping in turns.
I wanted to at least forage for edible plants and boil them before nightfall, but even our simple cooking tools were strapped to Formel, so there was nothing I could do.
'A clear mistake.'
I'd grown too accustomed to walking without caring for my body.
Failing to anticipate a situation like this was an undeniable blunder.
There was no need to build a campfire or set up camp.
I walked on in silence with Kallen on my back.
The sun set, and dawn began to break again.
Only then did I stop walking.
Because I'd spotted figures far off at the foot of the hill.
'Two wagons, twenty people. With mercenary escorts, they must be merchants.'
Not all twenty were merchants.
They ranged from children to the elderly, varied in both age and dress.
'The merchants are charging money to escort groups crossing between cities?'
When merchants traveled between cities, it was standard practice to hire mercenaries to guard their wagons.
The safest place on a major road was usually beside a merchant, and it wasn't uncommon for people to pay them for protection.
The bear does the tricks while its master pockets the coin, but merchants were like that to begin with.
'Four mercenaries. Approaching them shouldn't be a problem.'
With only that many, even if things went badly, I could at least get away with Kallen on my back.
I descended the hill with one hand raised.
To show I had no hostile intent.
One of the mercenaries who spotted me called out.
"Halt!"
I stopped without fuss.
The mercenary who stepped forward drew his sword.
"State your identity!"
"I'm a free knight. This is my squire. I'd like to do business with your merchant."
Knight.
At the word, the mercenary stiffened.
Originally, only nobles could become knights, so even a landless free knight was not someone a common mercenary could talk back to.
I wasn't actually a proper knight, of course.
Thanks to my armor, bought only recently and still presentable, the mercenary seemed half-convinced.
All I could do was hope he'd mistake me for a down-on-his-luck, penniless noble.
After a moment's deliberation, the mercenary spoke.