The final day of the Archer Experience Event passed quietly, without any particular commotion.
We took the injured Nadan back to the village and spent the day at Nadan’s house.
Luna personally cooked the remaining deer meat and served Nadan various dishes.
True to the Alhen Region, where ranches were common, more than half of the dishes Luna made contained cheese or cream.
By the time we had our final meal, I missed gochujang.
We did not separately tell the villagers the news of Luna’s return.
Regarding whether or not to announce Luna’s return, Nadan offered his opinion.
“Other than me, the village chief, and the guild manager, no one knows that Luna became a monster. Everyone has probably forgotten by now, so I wonder if there is any point in mentioning it when she has not even returned to being human yet.”
Luna and I were people who would soon leave, and whether the people of Cypher Village knew about Luna’s return or not, nothing would change.
So whether to tell them or not was something for Nadan, the person who would remain in the village and continue living there, to decide.
Since Nadan said he would not tell them, I did not go out of my way to add my personal opinion.
And so another day passed, and the Archer Experience Event officially ended.
The next day, Luna and I parted from Nadan and set out on the journey toward another region.
Walking along a single road stretching between the countless hills rising on both sides, I spoke.
“Mr. Nadan sent us off more calmly than I expected. I thought he would feel a little more regretful.”
Take care, my dimension traveler friend.
Luna, do not be a burden to the dimension traveler.
That was all he had said to Luna and me, one plain sentence each.
Luna repeatedly tied and untied the black hair grown down to her back as she answered indifferently.
“That is what family is like.”
That is what family is like.
I repeated Luna’s words inwardly.
She was right.
Come to think of it, with my siblings too, every year someone had circumstances come up and could not attend during the holidays.
Sometimes we went as little as one year, sometimes more than three years, without seeing each other even once.
Even so, when we met after a long time, I remembered that we greeted each other normally without awkwardness and parted normally too.
Race, nationality, and even dimension.
Wherever one went, family was all the same.
This time, Luna folded the hair she had tied behind her once, pinned it up, and spoke.
“If you were traveling with someone else, he might have worried a little. I think he saw us off with peace of mind because you are with me, Master.”
I slowed my pace and walked behind Luna.
Looking at her closely from behind, I realized all over again that Luna was strikingly impressive.
She was in the early 170-centimeter range.
Her black hunter’s outfit had been personally modified into an outer garment, shirt, and pants, and from the outside, it gave off a strong semi-casual feel that would not be out of place at a formal occasion.
For someone who had lived as a hunter for a long time, her skin was pale.
Her legs were long, the small of her back curved inward as if proving her core was firmly trained, and her shoulders were level with no imbalance, giving the sense that her back muscles were quite well developed.
On top of that, she had outstanding hunting skill with a bow.
If the moon goddess from Greek mythology were born as a human, I wondered if she would look like Luna.
Come to think of it, the name Luna itself meant the moon, so it was not entirely wrong. Though there was no way the word Luna in this other world had the same etymology as Luna in our world, so it was only a coincidence.
Watching Luna tie and untie her hair, I asked.
“Why have you been touching your hair since earlier?”
“Because I do not know which style is to Master’s taste.”
“The one where you tie it into one strand and let it hang down. That is fine.”
“So you like a mature look.”
“I’m thirty-seven. I just like what fits my age.”
“This is the first time I have learned that you are in your thirties. I thought you were in your twenties.”
She was in no position to say that about others.
Luna’s age was thirty-one, if I recalled correctly.
In appearance, she looked to be in her mid-twenties.
Here we were, two people in our thirties, sitting around shaving years off each other’s ages by saying we looked like we were in our twenties.
A hollow laugh slipped out.
Luna tied her hair into one strand, let it hang long, and clapped her hands clean.
“At thirty-seven, you must already be married.”
“You too?”
“Are you not?”
“I have never once crossed the threshold in that direction.”
“With that face?”
Everyone said the same thing.
Even generously, this face could not escape the category of ordinary.
The conversation between Luna and me cut off, and after that, we did not exchange a single word for over an hour.
From the ranches located atop each hill, the occasional sound of cattle drifted over and soothed my bored ears.
The one to break the long silence first was Luna.
“It will not be fun traveling with someone like me.”
“Why do you think that?”
“Because I am extremely poor with words.”
“That is not necessarily true.”
Even if one walked without speaking, walking alone and walking with two or more people were as different as heaven and earth.
The overlapping sound of footsteps, the freely mismatched sound of breaths being exhaled, the sense that someone was beside you.
The sense of psychological stability alone was different.
Besides, Luna seemed to think she was a dull person and would be no fun, but to my eyes, she was not dull at all.
I stopped walking and crouched down as I spoke.
“If you really do not believe me, try transforming into a black cat.”
“With Cat Copy’s basic specification?”
“So that was a basic specification. I thought you had hunted a black cat somewhere.”
Luna shook her head and firmly denied it, then transformed into the form of a black cat as I had instructed.
“Meow!”
I firmly supported Luna, who had transformed into a black cat, and lifted her into my arms. Then I rubbed my face against her silky black fur and fully enjoyed her cat power.
“See? You are incredibly cute. Your very existence is a lump of fun.”
Was my behavior, which had become far too familiar, unpleasant to her?
While I was repeating that she was cute, Luna suddenly narrowed her eyes and began smacking my forehead wildly with her forepaws.
THWAP! THWAP! THWAP!
They were kitty-paw punches, and the feel of her paw pads was exquisite.
***
We walked for three full days.
When we found an inn along the way, we stopped by to sleep, and after buying simple food to tide ourselves over, whenever a place with good scenery appeared while we walked, we sat down appropriately to rest our legs and fill our stomachs.
While traveling, we talked from time to time, and most of the topics were about how each of us had lived until now.
Whenever I told her about the civilization of our world, Luna listened while pretending to be indifferent, yet her eyes sparkled, so it felt worthwhile to tell her.
And in payment for telling those stories, I teased Luna once in a while.
“I suddenly got curious. Nadan told me before, right? Back in the old days, during the war against demons, you went alone to the lord’s castle and cried your eyes out to stop your older brother from going to the battlefield. Is that true?”
“Yes, it is true.”
“If I used my authority as your Master and ordered you to reenact it, would you reenact it?”
“Master enjoys teasing others.”
“To be precise, I enjoy teasing people I like.”
“I understand very well what kind of personality Master has.”
“What do you think? Does it seem worth traveling together from now on?”
Luna stretched out her long legs and strode ahead.
Even though it was a steep hill, her gait was refreshing, as if she were walking across level ground with no slope.
Soon, when she had reached the top of the hill one step ahead by herself, Luna turned slightly and looked back at me as she spoke.
“I expect I will have no time to be bored.”
Not long afterward, I too arrived at the top of the hill.
The moment I reached the summit, a mechanical voice sounded.
[Departed Alhen Region. Entered Omoreo Region.]
[Exploration point list updated.]
-Exploration Rate: Current location: Omoreo Region / Remaining exploration points: 5 / Current Exploration Rate: 0 percent.
-Eastern Volter Mountain Hot Spring (Unexplored)
-Western Volter Mountain Hot Spring (Unexplored)
-Southern Volter Mountain Hot Spring (Unexplored)
-Northern Volter Mountain Hot Spring (Unexplored)
-??? (Unexplored)
Four regular exploration points and one hidden exploration point.
Judging from my experience in the previous Alhen Region, I would probably receive a traveler perk this time too if I visited all the regular exploration points.
Let’s visit the regular exploration points first.
By the way, it was impressive that all the regular exploration points were hot springs.
I slowly looked over the scenery of the Omoreo Region spread beyond the hill and spoke.
“Luna, is this region famous for hot springs, by any chance?”
Luna nodded.
“Do you see the volcano standing tall in the middle of that plain?”
A broad plain stretched out, and in the center of the plain stood a mountain that looked to be about 3,500 meters above sea level.
I fixed my gaze on the mountain Luna pointed to and opened my mouth.
“Yeah, I see it. Hot springs formed thanks to that volcano... Is that the story?”
“That is actually not a mountain, but a monster.”
Because Luna said it so calmly, I understood a beat late and let out an exclamation with a delay.
According to Luna’s explanation, during the war against demons that occurred several hundred years ago, the demons summoned a turtle monster so enormous that its shell reached the sky.
The group of dimension travelers who had crossed over at the time to save this other world fought a desperate battle against the giant beast for three days and nights, and after a bloody fight, they succeeded in defeating the giant beast.
What formed when the giant beast fell was Volter Mountain, the famous attraction of this Omoreo Region.
Volters, the foundation of Volter Mountain, was a monster called a moving volcano, and because it had been a monster overflowing with energy, even now, several hundred years after its death, it still gave off heat.
The second travel destination on the Ravos Continent was a hot spring area.
Hot springs were good.
Even in my original world, I had bought bundles of bathing tickets and stopped by a bathhouse once a week.
As I descended the hill, I told Luna our plans for this region.
“You already heard and know that visiting famous places in each region is the role given to me as a dimension traveler, right?”
“Yes. I think it is a splendid mission.”
“When you say it, even empty words sound sincere. Anyway, in Omoreo, I am supposed to stop by hot springs. We have to stop by four of them, so we will probably stay at least four days.”
“It is not as if I have to enter the hot springs too, correct?”
“It should be fine if I am the only one who enters.”
The moment we descended the hill and stepped onto the plain.
Another justification to soak in hot springs was added.
-Traveler Package activated.
-From now on, ‘Hot Spring Experience Event’ is always applied with no time limit.
-During the event period, once per hot spring, level increases by 2 when bathing for at least 10 minutes.
-This event will disappear once you leave the Omoreo Region, and even if you revisit the Omoreo Region later, the event will not recur.
Level up just by enjoying hot springs.
And the Travel Reward Fund on top of that.
The corners of my mouth rose at the absurdly generous perk.
The nearest hot spring from here was the Southern Volter Mountain Hot Spring.
The distance was about one kilometer.
It was close enough to trip and land on it.
Did I really just need to soak in the hot spring?
In the Alhen Region, every time I stopped by an exploration point, an incident had occurred, whether big or small.
Hot springs were icons of leisure.
I did not think an incident or accident would occur, but since I never knew, I decided to keep the possibility of trouble within my calculations.
As I walked, lost in thought by myself, what Luna had said earlier suddenly crossed my mind.
‘It is not as if I have to enter the hot springs too, correct?’
Thinking surely not, I asked Luna casually.
“You do not hate water, do you?”
The woman who had answered indifferently no matter what I asked suddenly avoided my gaze and held her tongue.
They did say cats hated baths.
It was the moment Luna was confirmed not to be a water-attribute cat.