The next morning, Yuusuke did a final check on his luggage which he had finished packing for the trip last night. A change of clothes, different types of fabric, which he uses as material for customization in preparations for wear and tear, and different types of food.
The mission to Nossentes will only officially begin after a briefing on the details in the palace.
Due to the small uproar yesterday, the servants of the house began to treat Sun with equal respect as Yuusuke. They also began to put their professionalism to work in serving the residents of the mansion. Yuusuke who noticed this, nodded as he said, ”Now I can leave for Nossentes with peace of mind.”
“Sun, I have something I would like you to do in my absence.”(Yuusuke)
“Yes? What is it?”(Sun)
Yuusuke entrusted Sun a “Ring of Wind Arts”, which he then told her to give to the vice-captain of the Wind Art Corps 4 days later. Although he could have asked Violet to do it, but knowing her temperament, some troublesome situations might occur.
In order to avoid an unnecessary uproar, Yuusuke decided to entrust it to Sun as she was already known within the palace.
“Well then, I’ll be back as soon as possible.”(Yuusuke)
“See you later, Yuusuke-san.”(Sun)
Sun gently released her hands from Yuusuke’s arm. It had already become a usual move for Sun to do this gesture as a sort of good luck charm whenever he went out, ‘Will Yuusuke have any reaction to it?’ As she was thinking about it, Yuusuke gently stroked her white hair.
Sun who was surprised by the moment was blinking intensively, as her cheeks became flushed in red, and she sent a fluffy smile to Yuusuke.
Yuusuke began descending from the foyer to the centre hall, his butler and 2 other servants stood in front of the door as they delivered their farewells to send off their master.
“Take care of Sun in my absence.”(Yuusuke)
“Affirmative* By your will. Understood.”(Butler)(TL notes: super respected way 「畏まりまして御座います」)
Yuusuke boarded onto his personal carriage which was parked alongside the entrance, and gave his final instructions to his butler who then returned to the mansion.
“Now, here’s the overview of the mission.”
In the upper floors of Volance Palace, the Darkness G.o.d Corps were officially bestowed with a personal handwritten letter. That was to be delivered to Nossentes’s Capital, Patrucia Nost, with the amba.s.sadors of Fonclanc. They will then stay there for several days before returning home.
Officially, the Darkness G.o.d Corps was to carry King Es...o...b..s’s personal letter, but in truth they were there to be the bodyguards of the amba.s.sadors.
“Normally, a convoy consisting of different palace knights were to be organized and formed, these people would be carefully selected to form the group for a diplomatic mission, but….”
Currently, Nossentes and Gazzetta are in a cold war, and it is only at this period of time that they had to prioritize this and made a quick decision, as Krielov explained the situation regarding the overview of the mission. Before embarking on the main journey, they will go towards a small town south of Sanc Adiet, where they will spend the night.
On the first day of the journey (Day +1), they will head towards a port city in the vicinity of the Moon Mirror Lake which the journey should take an entire day, and after that they will reside there for a night. The following day (Day +2), they will be boarding a boat to cross the lake and land on the peninsula of Trent Rietta, and then they will be on foot from there to the middle of the peninsula, where they will set up camp.
On the third day (Day +3), they will continue to advance through the other half of the peninsula until they reach the south vicinity of the border, there they will join up with a convoy that is scheduled to be dispatched from Nossentes. On the last day (Day +4), they will board the coach which will bring them to their final destination, Patrucia Nost.
If everything went according to plan, they will enter the capital of Nossentes in the early afternoon of the 4th day.
“Note that, in the peninsula of Trent Rietta there might be attacks from magical beasts, so please take the necessary precautions.”(Krielov)
“I haven’t experienced any encounter with a magical beast before, is there any plans to deal with them?”(Yuusuke)
“They are just the basic dangerous wild animals which shouldn’t cause a huge problem.”(Vermeer)
These magical beasts appeared to have evolved from carnivorous animals which had eaten divine arts users. They inherit the divine arts ability from the victims, causing these creatures to mutate. As they evolve, they attune to the same type of divine arts as their victims had. After which, they have a tendency to target humans with the same type of divine arts as them.
If anyone amongst them is a target of an attack, they would have an easy time to judge and repel the attack without anyone getting injured.
Amongst the magical beast chain, there are those that evolve into carnivorous type and the others which for some reason had adopted to become a herbivore, a plant type magical beast. Herbivorous beasts rarely attacks humans, thus they are normally left alone as they don’t seem to be dangerous.
“The plant type magical beast are generally weak against fire, thus they hardly leave the forest. So when we are camping, as long as we keep the fire up around the forest outskirts we should be fine.”(Vermeer)
“I see.”(Yuusuke)
It seems that Vermeer and the others had experience with handling these magical beasts. Although, along the way, we have to pay attention to any kind of dangerous attacks that could be made by armed groups such as bandits.
“Now then, may the fortunes of war bless you on the success of the mission.”(Krielov)
“Don’t do anything unreasonable. Everyone must come back safely.”(Violet)
Violet prayed for the safety of everyone as the Darkness G.o.d Corps began their journey from Sanc Adiet to the capital of Nossentes.
The darkness G.o.d corps and the amba.s.sadors had arrived at their first destination, the small town in the south, around the evening. By using today’s short trip they have conditioned themselves for tomorrow’s long journey.
In order for the 3 amba.s.sadors to handle the long trip, 2 to 3 plans were created before the final confirmation. After which, they headed back to the inn to rest their body in preparation for the next day’s journey.
“Isotta”(Yuusuke)
“Ah, Captain….”(Isotta)
“Sending today’s report?”(Yuusuke)
“Yes”(Isotta)
Isotta was currently concentrating on a s.p.a.cious road while facing towards the direction of Sanc Adiet, using her transmission wind arts to report that nothing major had happened for the day. For those who are on a mission which requires constant moving, (e.g. scouting) regular contact through wind art transmissions played a crucial role.
“I, always….wanted to go on a mission like this, this is my first time.”
“Me too.”
“Ah...so, we’re the same…”
The members of the Darkness G.o.d Corps knew that Yuusuke did not come from some artless village in some distant land that Zeshald declared when he brought him along to Fonclanc. They knew that Yuusuke was a being summoned from another world to become the evil G.o.d.
That said, “What is an evil G.o.d in the first place?”, even the person himself doesn’t have a clue.
“Captain…..is neither wicked nor evil.”(Isotta)
“Awawawa, the evil G.o.d is most probably a kind of nickname/tag, I don’t think that’s a reason to become really evil you know?”(Yuusuke)
Yuusuke did not believe himself to be the “Evil G.o.d of Calamity” that is being rumored on the streets. By joining up the pieces of information he gained from the conversation he had with Shinha, he came to a conclusion that, ‘There wasn’t such a key to start the revolution as the evil G.o.d.’
“Well, I wonder if it would have been better to go to Shinha’s place to see if there is truth in Shinha’s statments.”(Yuusuke)
“...Captain, erm….someday, you will eventually go to Gazzetta?”(Isotta)
“Eventually I will head there. Even if I go, I might not stay there you know?”(Yuusuke)
As Yuusuke stated that he wanted to find his purpose in this present world, Isotta began to turn away with an uneasy look on her face.
“But, Captain... would you become an ally of Gazzetta? You are irreplaceable to us….you know?”(Isotta)
“I will consider my options when the time comes.”(Yuusuke)
“Please answer it seriously.”(Isotta)
Hearing Yuusuke’s answer without any hesitation, Isotta feared that it would become a hostile relationship in the future, thus she tried to question and hound Yuusuke for his true thoughts. Seeing how Isotta reacted to it, Yuusuke declared to her in a soothing voice.
“As long as I am myself, I would never become your enemies. So have peace of mind.”(Yuusuke)
“....okay.”(Isotta)
Isotta replied as she made a small nod.
The next morning, the Darkness G.o.d Corps whom had started the day early were proceeding smoothly on the highway that cut through the woods. They then arrived at a fork in the road in the vicinity of Blue garden’s territory where they had their lunch break. The distance from here to the port city was roughly about a round trip from Sanc Adiet to Rufk.
“If we continue moving at this speed, we should arrive at the destination in the evening.”(Vermeer)
“Understood, thanks for the hard work. Everyone take some rest before we start moving again.”(Yuusuke)
“U~issu”(Fonke)
“Captain, the food is ready.”(Aisha?)
The horse drawn carriage was parked along the side of the road, the amba.s.sador joined in with them and huddled in a circle as they began to stuff their face full with simple food. If one were to peek and look into the forest for just a bit, they could find natural growing rara fruits. With an abundance like that, it is unlikely that one could starve to death along the desolate lands of Kalticio.
“Will magical beasts appear in this location?”
“The carnivorous magical beasts around Fonclanc have been hunted almost into extinction, but if one were to enter deep in the forest there should still be remnants of plant type beasts.”
It is generally safe around the areas of the highway. Due to the sealing of the border the other time, in order to ensure the safety of the merchants who were traveling on the detour highway route, the subduing of magical beast around the highway was implemented. As a result these magical beasts had disappeared from the area.
In replacement of the beasts, bandits have started to infest the area.
“These armed groups are definitely more dangerous than the magical beast.”
“Ain’t that ironic.”
After the extermination of these magical beasts, it led to the current dangerous scenario. And in some sense, Fonclanc had learnt a valuable lesson, it’s not good to overdo things.
Since the ancient times, the artless have expressed an understanding, to preserve and balance the eco-system, but as eras changed to a more flexible att.i.tude, those who know about these relationships might no longer exist.
After the break, they began to set off towards the port city. The sun began to set as they came out of the forest. On the right side of the horse-drawn carriage was the Moon Mirror Lake, they rode on for another 3 hours, and as they began to get closer to the port city, they could see its reflection shimmering on the surface of the lake from a distance.
Alighting in front of a large inn which overlooked the pier, people unloading their catch of the day could be seen. They each began splitting the workload of unloading their own luggage from the carriage. As they will be crossing the lake by boat tomorrow, even though it’s just a short pleasure walk from the inn, they still had to make sure that everyone is responsible for their own luggage.
“Tonight we will be spending the night here, tomorrow we will finally be entering the neighbouring country.”
Yuusuke muttered to himself as he looked at the reflection of Kaltcio’s moon on the dark surface of the lake, while standing beside Isotta who was making her daily report using transmission wind arts.