Vol 1 Chapter 3 (1/2)
There was a se, and within those trees was a small house
The house was roughly the size of two six-tatami rooned to allow the ht and wind into the house, due to the lack of glass in this world
Its walls were made of sun-dried bricks laid on top of each other, and was covered in ivy vines
The light that filtered through the arching canopy above theant feel to it
Soon in front of the house The bed was buckling under the weight of a sether with twine
After looking at the a beside the road, one ht ask if this was too much for one poor beast to draw
In front of this heap stood an obviously troubled person, clutching a bundle of books
She was a girl with silver hair, and looked to be around 14 or 15 years of age She earing a kantoi
(TL Note: A Kantoi is so/wiki/E8B2ABE9A0ADE8A1A3)
“Master, we can’t keep piling things onto the wagon”
Noelse onto the wagon The girl calmly related this fact to the person inside the house
“Lelei! Can’t you think of so?”
A snowy-bearded old man poked his head out from a nearby ith a “I can’t take this” expression on his wrinkled face
“It would make more sense to leave the Coam fruits and the Lochte pears behind”
The girl called Lelei reon one after the other She placed the book bundle she was holding into the space that was freed up
Coam fruits and Lochte Pears were herbal h fevers However, these fevers were rare, and so they were not particularly necessary in the short term And while they were rare, they were not unobtainable by any stretch, so the precious books she had just loaded up took priority over them
The white-haired old ed his shoulders
“The Flaon shouldn’t have woken up for another 50 years, why now…”
The news of the Flae had spread like wildfire
Nor and fled, but since they had warning in advance, there was still soe was filled with activity as everyone made their preparations to escape
The old ruon back into the small house There was a secret door under the bed wherehe planned to hiding them
In the uided the donkey over and hitched it to the wagon
“Master, you’d best mount up quickly”
“Ah? What are you saying? I’ sister would beand bouncy sister…”
“”
Lelei glared at the old man with the coldest look she could muster Then she proceeded to solidify the air into a lump and launched it at him The solidified air was still only about as hard as a rubber ball, but it still hurt when it hit someone
“Hey! Stop it! Magic is not a toy! Magic is not to be used for personal gain or enjoyment… Hey!”
“”
“Although there’s still some time, we can’t play around like this Let’s move out soon”
“I got it, I got it, no need to rush… you really can’t take a joke, can you?”
The old ripped his staff in one hand and settled into the seat next to Lelei Lelei, on the other hand, glared at the old man and spoke
“Jokes are meant for entertainment between friends, parents, lovers and other closely related people However, once they start taking on a sexual nature, onethe other party into consideration as well For instance, it would be co lewd jokes around a teenage girl This e the relationshi+p with thee for mature individuals, no?”
The old hed deeply as his disciple lectured him
“Huu… I’et old”
“Objectively speaking, that is incorrect I feel that Master is as hardy as a cockroach”
“Now that’s what I call rude Is that how a disciple should be speaking?”
“This is hoas raised from childhood, and I was raised by my Master”
After her unreserved words, Lelei lightly struck the donkey with her riding crop
The donkey obediently tried to on’s bed was overloaded
“”
“Like I said, we’re carrying too much”
“That was expected Also, you were the one who said we could keep piling things on, Master”
“”
Lelei quietly juon
She felt that it would be better to keep walking than sit still on an immobilized vehicle
“Oi, oi! Lelei, you need to be more patient! If you’re like that, nobody ant to marry you, and that would be a shame!”
As the old oad and struck the donkey The donkey tried its best, but as expected, the wagon refused to budge
Lelei noticed that one of the wheels was eround, about a third of the way in If it was stuck like that, it was only natural that the wagon could not move
“Master, I think you need to get off the wagon”
“Don’t, don’t worry After all, don’t we have this?”
The oldthe tone of her master, she replied:
“Magic is not a toy Magic is not to be used for personal gain or enjoyment…”
Sweat poured like a waterfall from the old man’s forehead, and he rushed to answer her
“We are icians, we do not walk like the rest of Humanity”
However, he could not defy Lelei’s glare, which was utterly devoid of warmth or compassion
The old an chanting the words he had not spoken for a long time
“”
His soles in his heart It would seem the old man’s next move would take some time After a while, he looked at Lelei with an uncomfortable expression on his face
“I… I’m sorry”
“That’s fine After all, I know that’s how Master is”
Lelei was a child who did not sugarcoat her words
After using e, the donkey could easily pull the wagon and its on and left the home they had occupied for many years
As they drove the wagon to the center of the village, Lelei noticed s, ons they used, but haywains and plow harnesses, and sos
Lelei looked closely at the other villagers, as if she were studying them
Her Master spoke
“You’re an intelligent child Everyone else must look foolish to your eyes”
“It’s only natural that Hu they could carry once they heard of the Flaon’s approach”
“You said it was natural for Humans… does that mean they’re foolish, then?”
“”
Lelei could not deny her Master’s words
If they really valued their own lives, they would i and run as far as they could Stopping to take on and secure luggage would only waste tie itself would slow theon came
To begin with, why did hule so hard to survive? Death was inevitable — it would happen sooner or later What was the point in slightly prolonging one’s life?
Lelei logically dissected the topic as she considered it, and the oldover how to speak with her
When they reached the center of the village, the way foras blocked by a line of wagons
“What’s happening up ahead?”
The coluons did not move, but Lelei’s Master received a reply from someone in front
“Ah, it’s Kato-sensei And Lelei too Ah, we’re in trouble now Soon and the axle broke, and now it’s stuck in thein, but it’ll be a while
They would be bogged down by the wagons behind them even if they wanted to turn around and take another route This hat soht call a Catch-22
As her Master was talking to the villager, Lelei’s attention was drawn by a group of e she had never heard before
“Disaster relief is part of our job too Start by towing away the affected wagon! Itain operations, and Tozu, you tell the people behind that there’s been an accident and to take another route! Language? Use body language! Kurokawa, go make sure nobody’s hurt up ahead”
At a glance, these reen and some other colors, like brown
No, it looked like there was also a wo helmets; were they soldiers from somewhere? However, they didn’t wear arroup that Lelei did not know of
Although she wasn’t quite sure what they were saying, the hly 45-year old man
Fros, he seemed to be their coanization, the kind that contained their violence with rules and regulations
She told her Master that she was going to “check things out”, and got off the wagon
The wagon that was the cause of this incident was roughly fifteen wagons ahead
One of its axles was snapped, and the wagon lay sprawled across the road She could see scattered luggage, a fallen man, as well as a mother with her child The horse was collapsed on the road, its led to get up, so the villagers anted to help it stand up were unable to approach
“You, very dangerous, faster get back”
It was one of the reen
His words were unclear, but judging by his gestures, he must have wanted her to keep back
However, Lelei realized the fallen mother and child were injured She brushed aside thehorse beside her
“Still alive”
The boy was a little younger than Lelei, about ten years old After giving her a quick once-over, she found that he had struck his head, and his face and li like a squeezed rag, and his body was rapidly cooling
The mother was unconscious, but her condition was stable The child was the one in danger
“Lelei! What are you doing? What happened?”
She turned back and saw that the village chief was shouting at her Beside hione to inform the chief about this
“Chief, I think the cause was overloading of the wagon and rot in the axle The child is in great danger but his parents should be fine The horse is beyond help”
“Is Kato-sensei nearby?”
“He’s worrying his head off in the wagons behind He let me come here to take a look”
As she spoke, the woe of the child Lelei had looked at Her technique suggested that she had been hly thirty years old, began signalling to his team
Suddenly a cry rang out
“Danger!”
“!”
The sound of an explosion followed shortly, and when Lelei looked back, the thrashi+ng horse lay round It had missed her by a hair’s breadth, but if it had coht of the horse — ten times that of a man — would have fallen on top of Lelei
All Lelei kneas that theto the frenzied horse, and that it had saved her
The allied arathered under the Eht
If this were in japan, it would have been the headline of every single newspaper or scrolling across electronic signs in the shopping districts But in this world, to the residents of the Special District, the movements of the army were unknown to thee one set of rulers for another, and it would not affect their daily lives much
The reason why this was the case was because this country was contested territory Sometimes one party would take it, and sometied so often, it was impossible for the people to feel any loyalty towards them
In this world, as long as one’s home was not a battlefield, and one’s faht on the battlefield, the co about their country