zChapter 54 - Interlude Targes and the Platinum Satchel, Part 2 (2/2)

I only found this out after I had come to this land, but mercenaries weren’t the only ones who wandered here in search of a job. Just like the mercenaries, there were people who came here to find an employer who would contract them to do farmwork.

Most of them were people who had been chased out from their homelands. There were people who had committed some sort of crime or sin, as well as people who carried deep wounds in their hearts after being abandoned by their homelands.

The people of Sout, who had flourished from commerce, were a people who weren’t hesitant at all to use other people.

They were the kind of people who didn’t bat an eyelid at using people from other races to fight out their war. They didn’t care at all about other people’s deaths, and they nonchalantly oppressed the people who worked on their farmlands.

The lands of Sout were incredibly beautiful, and the people of Sout were also beautiful, but their hearts were hideous and distorted.

I spent over ten years in this land as a mercenary. I tested the taste of the ocean, and I ate their peaches. The sea was salty, and the peaches were delicious.

Back in the capital of Rintz Kingdom, I had eaten some of the peaches imported from Sout, but the taste had been exceptionally different from the ones I ate here.

This was a taste I never would have experienced if I hadn’t set foot here on my own.

I ate enough peaches to last me a lifetime in Sout continent, then left for Sistica continent.

I had already been a mercenary for decades by now.

My intentions were to obtain the highest-quality armor and weapons when I went to the continent of Sistica.

Sistica continent was a land that the people of Schell continent races could absolutely never enter.

As I walked along the coast of the Sout continent, the land around me gradually changed. It went from a lush land of greenery to a land of solid, reddish-brown earth. The occasional tree only sprang up here and there, and there was no grass at all in sight.

Beasts attacked me without making any sort of sound as a warning, and they were of shapes and sizes that I had never seen before in my life. Countless times, I had prepared myself to accept my death.

But what made me unable to continue further was neither the beasts nor the natives of Sistica continent; it was the environment itself.

No matter how I tried, it was impossible for me to make it past the freezing cold of day and the blistering heat of night.

The difference in temperature only grew the further I went. If there were only one temperature to deal with, then I might have been able to overcome it, but I was assaulted by both each day.

It was utterly impossible for fragile beings like the Kleber to inhabit a place like this.

Once I had gotten what I came for, I quickly fled from Sistica continent.

The world is vast.

The people who live within it are varied, diverse, and fascinating.

That was what His Majesty had told me as he looked at a map, a child-like expression of joy on his face.

I mean, it was a given that the world was wide, right.

People might be diverse, sure, but there was nothing interesting about them.

The me who had thought that back then really was such an immature, close-minded youth who’d been stuck in such a small, narrow world.

After Sistica Continent, I decided that I wanted to see a country where the people of Hel lived.

As anticipated, I couldn’t go and visit their underground countries. I made my way to one of their countries on the surface.

I headed for the country of Ruby, which straddled the border between Grude Continent and Sout Continent.

The Helesians who lived in Ruby Country were called the Rubians.

Just like with the people of Sout, the Helesians of different countries mingled together, so there were no firm differences between the people who lived in each country. I was completely unable to differentiate which Helesian belonged to what country.

Yet, that said, this didn’t meant that the countries of Hel were all on good terms with each other.

The Helesians were mostly traders and craftsmen.

Their bodies were too small to go into battle, so they hired mercenaries to secure their borders and maintain order within their countries.

This protection was, however, only in regards to other races.

If their opponent was another Helesian, then they would pick up a weapon and fight. However, this mainly happened underground, so I myself had never seen it happen.

I spent over ten years in Ruby Country.

No matter which Helesian country you went to, all of them carried wealth. They had gold, jewels, iron – those kinds of valuable resources with high utility.

Since the Helesians were less than a meter tall, thieves considered them to be easy targets. Because of that, the Helesians employed many mercenaries.

The borders of a Hel country were so busy that the Rintz Kingdom’s borders couldn’t even compare.

The Helesians were misers. They hated settling their bills, and they absolutely never offered up any of the treasures they owned.

Even when their lives were about to end, they never let go of the money they possessed.

When a family member died, the first thing the bereaved family did was not mourn or to be in shock, but to try and find out where the deceased would have hidden his money.

In Helesian society, the people in higher positions would nonchalantly trample down on the people below them.

The people who lived in lower positions would easily kill each other, even if they were relatives, all for even the smallest amount of money.

From the perspective of a Kleber like me, their families were enormous, and they popped out children one after the other. A Helesian could easily become pregnant, and pregnancy lasted for only three months. Because of that, the connection they felt for blood relatives was extremely weak.

Unable to bear the harsh world of Hel’s society, I departed from Ruby Country.

I kept walking west of Ruby Country, and at some point, I entered the Grude continent.

Crossing the border here was even more incomprehensible than when I had crossed into Sistica from Sout continent.

It felt like the trees were growing bigger. It felt like the animals were growing larger.

I pondered over these things as I walked until finally, I noticed a clear change.

All I can say is that my body sure was heavy.

I glanced out of the corner of my eyes at the Grude races as they briskly walked by, while I, meanwhile, was literally crawled forward, flat on the ground.

Every now and then, I was carried by some kind-hearted Grudes and Dayers.

What was strange was that the moment my body was lifted from the ground, it became lighter. Whenever I asked to be let down because I was alright now, I once again fell flat to the ground.

The continent of Grude was a strange land, as well.

But the people of Grude were the most comfortable and easygoing people to be around.

They were lively, cheerful, and straightforward. They thought of things not in terms of society or of family, but as individuals.

Whether they joined a band of thieves or took part in a war between nations, the only standards they held to were in regards to the contents of their contracts and the amount of money they were paid.

They also cared little for morals and principles.

If I could take away the weight pressing over my body, I probably would have lived for as long as I wanted in that land which made me feel at home.

What changed my mind as I was thinking that was a rumor I overheard while at the Grude continent’s market.

It was something that Dunbertian merchant who had just returned from Schell continent had told me.

‘It seems like the crown prince of Rintz Kingdom is going to change,’ he said.

That couldn’t be true.

I laughed it off right on the spot. As a citizen of Rintz, I knew very well what the royal family of Rintz Kingdom was like.

A person who was born royalty would remain royalty until death, and until then, they spent their entire lives within the royal palace. No matter how much the King himself might wish for it, he would never be able to leave the royal palace.

I couldn’t believe what he had told me, but the merchant, who had lost one of his arms in battle, continued.

‘Apparently, the crown prince has an illness called Kleber’s disease, and that’s enough to make him stop being the crown prince,’ he said.

Kleber’s disease.

It was a disease that the Kleber living in Rintz Kingdom were deeply familiar with.

But that disease was ridiculed as something that only affected poor people, since they were the only ones who contracted it. It was an illness that even merchants who weren’t especially rich wouldn’t suffer.

Of all the people to have that disease, it was the crown prince?

With disbelief running through my head, I returned to my homeland, once again setting foot in this country that I hadn’t seen in sixty years.

[1] The name of this fief is possibly inspired by/referencing a purple orchid, since it shares the same name (コウトウ/koutou, written in katakana)