Vol 1 Chapter 50 (1/2)
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Chapter 50
In the Avian Village (Part 1)
‘Hey, wait a minute, wa-wait a minute! Are we seriously flying right now? This is dangerous!!’
Wynn, Leti, and Paul flew through the moonlit sky.
‘W-we’re not gonna fall right? I could die. I will definitely die if we fall.’
The three of them were surrounded by a thin, translucent membrane resembling a giant soap bubble.
Beneath their feet, the river stretched across the plains like a black sash.
“Ahaha! Isn’t this cool, Onii-chan?”
“It’s really cool, Leti!”
Unlike Paul, who was flailing around helplessly, the two children laughed mirthfully.
“We have to chase after them without them noticing. Can you do that, Leti?
“Okay.”
Leti nodded, and the bubble rose higher into the sky.
“N-no way…”
Paul let out a cry of disbelief.
He didn’t know much about magic.
However, he did know that this defied common sense.
Some adventurers could use magic.
Many of them were either former n.o.bles or knights whose lords had fallen in battle.
Commoners didn’t have the opportunity to read magic books, but most adventurers could pay a moderate sum of money to learn how to cast simple spells, like lighting a fire.
That was why Paul had seen magic being used.
Paul had only seen rudimentary spells being used, but he doubted that magic could be cast as simply as Leti made it seem.
“D-did Leti do this? Leti can use magic!?”
“Now that I think about it, how long have you been able to fly like this, Leti?”
“Ummm… Just now?”
Leti tilted her head.
“I was like: ‘I wonder if I could fly,’ and I did.”
“Leti really does have a talent for magic!”
“Eh? But, Leti wants to be a knight, like Onii-chan!”
“I-is this really fine? We’re not going to fall, right? Right?!”
“It’s fine, it’s fine!”
Wynn put both of his hands against the bubble and looked down at the ground.
‘He must also be a big shot, huh?’
Cold sweat poured down Paul’s back like a waterfall, making his s.h.i.+rt uncomfortably wet.
He kneaded his temples and forced himself to smile.
He could do nothing but smile.
He slowly regained his calm.
The uncomfortable floating feeling didn’t go away, but it was silly for him to be the only one panicking.
“…First of all, take care not to be seen.”
There was no point in flailing around.
After all, he couldn’t do anything about it; also, when would be the next time he could fly in the sky like this?
That was why he decided to just enjoy it.
After calming down, he looked around.
He was closer to the moon and the clouds than ever before.
He could see bright lights in the distance. That was probably Simurgh.
The river that flowed through Simurgh was glistening in the moonlight. The main road looked like a thick, white line that extended from the gate, through the plains and forests, and off into the distance.
He looked down to see that the ground below them had turned from a gra.s.sy plain into a black ma.s.s of trees.
‘Dang. I’m not gonna stop adventuring if I can experience stuff like this!’
Paul was still an adventurer at heart.
He thirsted for the unknown, and enjoyed the thrill of discovery.
Somewhere in the forest, there was a small spring in a clearing.
There were several wooden structures that appeared to be houses. However, most of them seemed to have burnt down, leaving only charred pillars in their place.
Forest weeds had started to grow in the ruined fi
elds.
It was the very definition of a ghost town.
Strangely, there wasn’t a single road leading out of the village.
Only a small stream of water from the fountain flowed away from the village.
A small avian girl slipped through a gap between the pillars, into one of the crumbling houses that had survived the fire. She was careful to avoid catching her wings on the pillars.
It was barely wide enough to be considered a room.
Only a sliver of moonlight slipped through the cracks of the crumbling wall to illuminate the room.
She had been living there for a few days, so her hair and wings were grey from the ashes.
The girl crouched in a corner of the room and bit into the precious cabbage.
She had stolen it from one of the nearby human settlements.
It had been several months since she had ended up alone. At first, she had eaten the food that remained in the fields, but that had quickly run out.
Then she had wandered the forest in search of food.
Nuts, plants, mushrooms, anything.
Due to the longevity of avians, it would be hard to judge her actual age, but she was as young as she looked.
In her limited knowledge, there were few things she could safely eat.
She had heard from the adults that there was a human settlement downstream.
The village might have been remote, but it wasn’t isolated.
The adults of her village often flew to the human villages and hid their wings to buy various goods.
That was why she knew that there was food there, where humans lived.
One day, after being unable to find food for several days, she had spread her wings and left the forest.
She had seen a large field, and also a house with chickens, pigs and sheep.
It was food.
She couldn’t take the larger animals, but chickens were small enough to carry.
So were the vegetables and eggs.
She knew that she was doing something bad.
She had stealthily crept towards the chicken coop and timidly stuffed two eggs into her pockets.
On her way back, she had seen ripened melons, so she had quickly plucked one.
She ate the eggs raw and smashed the melon into the ground so that she could greedily devour its contents.
The melon’s sweetness had filled her mouth, causing tears to flow from her eyes.
From that day, the girl, unable to hold back her appet.i.te, increased the number of trips to that house.
She felt guilty, so she sometimes left behind nuts and mushrooms that she had found in the forest.
Even though she was young, she knew not to be seen when doing something bad.
That was why—
“Foound them!”intentional elongation
When she saw a human boy’s smiling face peek out from behind the pillar, the cabbage she was nibbling on fell from her mouth, and she broke into tears.
“How terrible.”
They had chased the Avian girl to the hidden village of the Avians.
It had clearly been attacked.