After leaving Janmalpi, Zich and his crew went off-trail like they always did.
“Um, are we really going this way?” Unlike everyone else, Elena was stunned since she hadn’t experienced the party’s—specifically, Zich’s straightforward approach to traveling.
Elena suffered a lot while experiencing many firsts such as traveling over rough terrains, meeting beasts that appeared from time to time, moving while slaughtering monsters in the daytime, and sleeping outdoors at night. Even though she had been warned how arduous the traveling would be in advance, experiencing it firsthand was a completely different matter. Furthermore, Elena was a daughter from an aristocratic family. She was different from the others: for example, even if Hans received preferential treatment for being the grandson of the countess’ nanny, he had still been a servant while Snoc used to be a miner. Even Lyla originally possessed strong stamina, unlike most mages. Thus, Elena had a harder time adjusting compared to the other party members.
Yet, there were also other factors that helped her: Zich’s past physical training seemed to have some effect, and Lyla always physically trained Elena while teaching her magic too. There was no need for a mage to train their physique or stamina, but those were necessary to travel with Zich. Furthermore, she also had a trusty helper.
“Kyah!” While walking the mountain road, Elena tripped on her own foot. Her legs had given away while walking up the elevated, rough mountain terrain and her foot slipped. She wouldn’t have died even if she fell and rolled down, but she would have received a critical injury. However, thanks to the object that supported her, she was able to avoid such an unfortunate situation.
Thud!
Instead of rolling on the dirt, she felt something soft and plushy support her. It was dirt. Smooth pieces of dirt raised Elena’s body up as if it had a mind of its own.
“Are you okay?”
Koo? Snoc and Nowem approached Elena’s side. She grabbed the dirt and rebalanced herself.
“Yeah, I’m all right. Thank you.”
These two were by far the closest to each other among the party members, and whenever Elena got into trouble, Snoc was the first one to step forward to help her. Thanks to Snoc, Elena was able to continue this difficult journey somehow. After traveling for an unknown amount of time…
“I see it.” Everyone’s faces brightened at Zich’s words. The magnificent wall hanging at the edge of the horizon was their destination: Shootuol.
* * *
After coming down the mountain and reaching the road, Zich and his companions enjoyed an easy walk after a long time. Elena was especially happy about this, and as they got closer to the castle walls which appeared so small from far away, they came to realize its true, enormous scale. As the giant from his dreams told him, Shootuol was a major city; and its city walls matched its reputation. However, that wasn’t the most noticeable point about the city.
Zich and his companions passed the walls and entered the city. Yet, instead of another wall that they expected to see in most cities that maximized security on all sides, Shootuol was different. What greeted them beyond the walls wasn’t a glistening white wall but a blue sky and equally blue ocean.
“Wow~!”
“Ohh~!
Hans and Snoc exclaimed in awe. Lyla and Elena did the same. The only one who didn’t express his admiration was Zich since he had already seen Shootuol before the regression. Zich guided his companions to the end. Even if they couldn’t see another wall, this city wasn’t easy to trespass by any means.
“How tall do you think this wall is?”
“I think a normal person would die for sure if they fell.”
Koo…
“Well, first of all, this place has an ocean, and it looks like it has quite of a depth, so if we fall right…”
Hans, Snoc, and Elena clung onto the ladder latched onto the cliff, and exchanged their opinions while looking down. Nowem stuffed himself into Snoc’s hair and grabbed tightly in fear that he might fall off. Zich and Lyla also stared down at the ladder while standing beside them.
“It really is glorious.”
“Well, Shootuol is famous for its unique topography.”
Majestic cliffs rose along the coast at perfect angles and blocked the ocean currents. Shootuol was a city that was built on top of these cliffs. However, if that was all, Shootuol would have simply been a city built on an interesting location; it also had other unique characteristics: there was a large road between the coastal cliffs as if somebody had artificially shaved the middle of the cliff. Yet, it had been naturally made and the road that formed, as a result, led to the bottom of the cliff and Shootuol. However, that wasn’t all. Below the cliffs, there was a considerably wide piece of land connected to the road. The people of Shootuol gathered their labor forces and expanded that piece of land to make a giant harbor. That area became their central trading hub where they amassed their wealth and helped make Shootuol become the giant, major city that they knew today.
After listening to Zich’s explanation, the party members stared at the harbor below the cliffs with fresh eyes. It looked like it was full of vitality as a great number of people and goods moved, and trading ships were anchored. Zich clapped his hands once to gather his companions’ attention.
“Okay, let’s find a place to stay first and tour afterward. We might have to wander around this city until we are sick of it anyways.” Zich dragged his companions and reserved spots for them in a lodging. Like usual, it was an expensive place, but thanks to the incident he resolved recently, Zich had more than enough funds.
All the party members were overjoyed to see a cozy lodging place after only staying in places where monsters or beasts roamed. That day, they each got a room and relieved the stress and fatigue they had from traveling. It was only after the next day that they began to search all over Shootuol. Yet, their day proved to be unfruitful. Not only was the city large, but Zich himself, also didn’t really know what they had to find. The only thing he had in mind was that he had to find something connected to Clowon. In the end, all they could do was find traces of the robed figures, but even that search had disappointing results. It was hard to tell if the robed figures didn’t do any activities in this place or escaped everyone’s eyes. There didn’t seem to be any eyewitnesses of their appearance.
“Do you think there really is something here?” After a few uneventful days, Zich complained to Lyla. He poured a glass of wine for her and poured one for himself too.
“I don’t know. Neither you nor I am sure about anything. We came here with the mindset that it would be good if something was here, but it can’t be helped if there’s nothing.”
“I know but…” Lyla drank her wine in one gulp. Zich filled up her glass again.
“Don’t stress out about this too much. It’s not like this place is our only hope.”
“You are talking about Violuwin, right? That place is too dangerous.”
“But it’s better than having no hope.”
That was true, and Lyla sipped her wine and nodded.
“Besides, it hasn’t even been that long since we began our search. It isn’t right for us to take things too slowly, but I don’t think there’s any need for us to be so anxious. We might miss the things we need to look out for if we move too anxiously anyways.”
“You are right.”
“Moreover, if the scene I saw in my dream is really a situation from before a regression that we can’t remember, then I think there’s a reason why I saw that specific scene.” Then, Zich shrugged his shoulders and added, “So, I can’t tell you to go slow, but let’s do the things we can do one by one.”
“All right, I get it.”
“Afterward, Zich and Lyla talked about trivial matters and continued their mini drinking party. While this went on—perhaps he was imagining it, but Windur seemed to stare at them intently from the corner of the room.
* * *
The next day, Zich and Lyla went down to the harbor together. The harbor was bustling with people: laborers moving goods and fishers coming back from the ocean poured out their catches for the day. They even spotted a few tourists among them. Lyla stared at the place where large merchant ships were anchored.
“It seems the edge of the harbor is off-limits to outsiders.”
“It’s because they are so busy. It would be bothersome for them if outsiders are wandering around, not to mention that they probably have a bunch of precious items.”
Besides those areas, the two could wander around anywhere they wanted. Zich and Lyla looked all around them. From time to time, they stopped people walking around and asked about suspicious guys wearing robes. Yet, they didn’t find anything significant.
“Let’s go back,” Zich said while staring at a yellowish tinting sky. Lyla agreed. While she felt disappointed that they hadn’t been able to find any clue today too, she followed behind Zich to go back up to Shootuol when—
Whoosh!
Lyla immediately turned her head around. Her eyes shot towards the ocean where the gold-colored waves flowed while reflecting the sunset.
“What is it?” Zich, who was in front of her, turned around.
“No, I just felt like someone was watching me.”
“Watching you?” Zich stared at the area Lyla was looking at. The only thing he could see was the wide, vast ocean and a couple of boats gliding across the waters.
“There’s nothing.”
“You can’t feel anything?”
“Yeah.”
“Maybe it wasn’t anything.” Lyla’s sensing skills were barely comparable to Zich’s. Thus, she thought there was a high possibility that she could have mistaken the gaze if Zich hadn’t felt anything. “Sorry, I must have imagined it.”
Afterward, Lyla passed Zich and began to walk the road heading to Shootuol again. Zich also followed behind her, but he searched the area Lyla had looked at sharply first. Yet, he couldn’t find anything suspicious again. After minimizing his suspicion, Zich took his eyes off the ocean without having found any evidence.
‘I should borrow a boat and try searching the area where Lyla felt something.’
Gurgle! Bubbles formed in the area Lyla had looked at and disappeared.
* * *
That night, Lyla fell into a deep sleep. The only thing that filled the room was the comforting darkness and peace, and it seemed like they would stay until it became morning before the sun arose.
Sssssssh.
Something began to seep under the tightly shut window that even had a lock on it. It was water. Like raindrops crawling down the walls, the water pooling on the floor began to form a bigger puddle. Water continued to flow. It was a truly strange happening since not even the sound of rain or wind could be heard outside. The puddle of water grew to a considerable size but strangely, it didn’t pass a certain range. Unlike normal water, it increased its volume upwards even though nothing was blocking it.
Drip!
Water coming from the outside stopped. The window and walls showed no trace of water flowing. They didn’t even appear damp and looked completely dry; if a person pressed their hand against them, they wouldn’t find a single water droplet on their palms.
Ssssssh!
Water began to spurt out of the puddle. It almost seemed like a living creature with its own will. The clump of water shot up to a person’s height and began to change shape. Limbs sprouted, a body formed, and features began to take form on a face until a figure of a lady remained.
Plop!
The clump of water walked towards Lyla’s bed. Lyla appeared oblivious to the situation around her as she was fast asleep.
Sssssh!
The clump of water hung its head. The two holes on its face which looked like eyes shot towards Lyla.