CH.
85 — THE WAY BACK

“Shall we take a rest there?”

Shamir said that he had found an oasis that had been exposed to the bottom.
As soon as Elisha nodded, Taro got off his horse, picked a place for them to sit, and cleaned up the surroundings while Dahil took out something to eat.
Elisha thought she should tell them they didn’t have to work so hard because of her.

Shamir was having fun harassing the two and kept arguing with them.
But even someone like Shamir had a natural enemy.
As Shamir walked by, Spot’s head moved after him bef0re snapping its teeth.

Shamir’s golden hair curled up in Spot’s mouth that was munching.

“Whoa, seriously? Your Ladyship, please tell Spot that I didn’t leave him behind.
I told him to play by himself and that I’d find him after finishing my business.
He was so upset because I told him that our consort rode another horse on the way to his place.
If he had been in the basin, he might have already died.
If you think about it, am I not his benefactor?”

“I don’t think you’re saying this because you dislike Spot.”

“Then?”

“I guess you pay more attention to him because you like him.
Just like you do to those two.”

At Elisha’s careless words, Shamir opened his mouth blankly.
The more he looked at the consort, the more he thought she was well-spoken.
She was the type who could overturn people drastically without even meaning to.

That’s why he wondered whether Aran had gone more mad than usual when dealing with her.

“What is it?”

Shamir replied as he looked at Elisha, who had asked the question.

“You said you’d let me go home.”

“That’s the reason you’re here, isn’t it?”

“But I don’t want to go back.
Can I stay with you?”

“Sir Rohan and the 1st Knights will try to kill you.”

“Is there no such thing as extenuating circumstances in the empire? I truly didn’t want to do those things, but Aran forced me to, so I had to do it.
I only found out that being with our consort was much more fun after we met.
I even aided your escape, didn’t I? Hmm?”

“Don’t you have anything to do?”

“I’ll just do what you tell me to do.”

As Elisha frowned, Shamir added.

“If you won’t take me, I’ll just stick with these two until you summon me.
Don’t you feel sorry for them?”

“Hiiiy!”

Taro gasped, and when everyone glanced at him, he lowered his head and pretended to be absorbed in tearing the jerky.

“Consort, I will play well with the prince.”

“I need to find a wider place in the West if it is not only Dahil and Taro.”

“Ah, seriously! Your Ladyship, you’re so cruel! You won’t let me go near the prince, is that it?”

Elisha stared at Shamir, who mumbled.
Shamir’s performance was so obvious that there was no space for confusion.
The land of sand was reflected in the golden eyes facing Elisha.

“Don’t go near me, either.”

“I got it! Huh? Are you serious? I can stay with you if I don’t go near you?”

“Change your way of speaking.
You won’t be able to say a thing if you are punished for blasphemy of the imperial family if you keep behaving like yourself in the imperial palace.”

“It is said that the punishment for blasphemy of the imperial family would be getting one’s head cut off, so of course I won’t be able to say a thing.
I’ll do my best when I get there.
I’m very good at everything, especially shutting up.” Shamir replied excitedly.

Apart from trying to escape, Dahil and Taro seemed to feel burdened by the fact that all the tribes of their hometown were dead and the blood veins of the desert might be cut off.

However, unlike the ordinary warrior and desert woman, Shamir, who had planned a big project with the chief of the tribe at the top position, seemed to have given no thought to that.

He didn’t look back; he only went forward.

Well, there must be people like that.

“Have a meal, 2nd Consort!”

When Dahil called, Elisha approached them and sat down.

“Is the food not enough?”

“We still have another week to go, so it’s a little lacking, but I can just eat sparingly!”

That generosity meant that Taro himself would starve.

“We can just look for more, so eat as you like.”

“I beg your pardon? I mean, yes!” Taro answered.

“Well, I’m sure there won’t be more foolish people hiding around like last time, but we might run into guilds or organizations as we get closer.”

When they had just come out of the basin and gone to the stone mountain that Elisha had pointed out, Shamir realized what the saying ‘people will show their true self when they are cornered’ meant.
The person they had been facing was just the kind of person who’d saved himself in the face of danger and became cowardly in the face of death.

Upon their meeting, the chief of the Baheum tribe said that he had been in charge of stalking and chasing to eliminate Shamir.

He said that after Laoman, accompanied by his tribe warriors and mercenaries, had attacked the basin, and Hib and Daren tribes of the pro-Kran Kingdom faction had surrounded the basin and carried out merciless killings…

Also, when the desert people had been discussing the plan of making the 2nd Consort the incarnation of Sionil, he was the one who had opposed the words of the other chieftains who had tried to stop the plan based on the crime of impersonating the goddess.

He hadn’t moved a single step from this stone mountain, even though Aran, the person he had sworn allegiance to, was still alive at that time.

He said he had been waiting to catch Shamir, but it didn’t make sense that he hadn’t reacted when there had been so many disturbances around.

Baheum, the most radical among the anti-Kran Kingdom faction and one that matched Aran well, was merely a mouse, as the consort said it.
Shamir then seized the horses and food from Baheum’s party and killed them all.

“Guilds travel all the way here?”

“It’s a long way off, but some desert people also deal with outsiders, and there are some people who want to cross over from Kran Kingdom to Atien Empire, although not many.
If there is no problem with your status and we have enough time to spare, it is much better to go through Santiano Empire.”

“Santiano Empire?”

“Have you ever been to the Santiano Empire? The weather in the Santiano Empire changes depending on the date.
The desert has always been hot, so when I first went to the Santiano Empire, I didn’t want to go back to the desert.
Doing nothing there was so much fun.”

“Really?”

“Yes, there’s not much of a difference in the Atien Empire from season to season, is there?”

“I never paid attention.”

“You mean you never paid attention to the change of season?”

Elisha nodded.
There were dry and rainy seasons in Atien.
It rained a lot during the rainy season, but that’s all.

“But the empire is wide, so there are regions with clear changes like Santiano Empire.”

“Let’s go play with the 3rd Prince later.”

“If my child likes you.”

“All children love me.
I’ve never seen a child who hates me.”

“You can say that again after you see the other two.”

“The other two?”

“The crown prince and a genius mage.”

“Mhm.”

“They’re my child’s older brother and older sister.”

“Ah, our prince has a scary older brother and older sister.”

“There is another thing that scares you the most, isn’t it?”

At Elisha’s words, Shamir burst into laughter.

The consort is really entertaining.

“That’s right.
There’s another thing that scares me the most.
I’ll never forget it.”

After that, the conversation was cut off, and the party finished eating, so they crossed the desert again.

The desert was barren and endlessly silent.

“Just a little further, and we’ll reach Syuphl territory.”

As Elisha spoke, Dahil licked her lips.
She looked excited but also afraid.
It was only natural as her place of life would change.

Elisha was indifferent to Taro and Shamir, but she was still a little tolerant of Dahil.

“I’ll prepare everything you need.
I’ll put you where you want, so just look around.
If you miss the desert, I’ll give you a position at Syuphl territory.
Otherwise, you can come with me to Barossa.”

“Thank you, Your Ladyship.”

Elisha, who had been slowing down to keep Dahil’s horse’s and her horse’s head side by side, suddenly wanted to rush forward.

“What is going on?”

When Taro, who was sitting in front of Dahil, asked, Elisha pointed to the front with her chin.

“Someone’s  waiting for us.”

Shamir, who was running in the lead, also turned his horse’s head and came to the back.

“What shall we do?”

On their way here, they met some group of people and ran into some bandits.
A party of two young women and two young warriors might have seemed ridiculous to outsiders, but the results of those meetings were all bad.
Of course not bad for the party, but the opponents.

Thanks to this, it was very convenient to change their supplies as they saw fit (except for Spot) without having to go out of their way to find something to eat or give the tired horses a break.

Shamir had always welcomed those unwanted guests as good samaritans, but he seemed to have noticed that the one before them now differed from past encounters.

It was impossible for monsters to be this close to the Syuphl territory, and there was no reason for some groups or organizations to wait for them.

What seemed to bother him was that the number of opponents was quite low.

“We will run into them anyway.
If there’s business, they will surely talk to us.”

Their disposition will depend on what they are.

Elisha took the lead with Spot.
The horse became excited, perhaps because he liked going first.
Elisha patted Spot.
The horse used to be a quiet guy, but now he was getting more interesting and cuter.

As Elisha brushed Spot’s mane, he got even more excited and bounced in his steps.
It wasn’t long before they met those waiting for them—or to be precise—Elisha.

Vincent looked at the woman approaching on horseback and became stiff.

“Are you the 2nd Consort?”

The main character who had overturned not just the empire, but the entire continent, upside down, was before him.
When the marquis had first asked him to find her whereabouts secretly, he followed because it was an order.
But truthfully, he was at a loss.

His feelings turned into confusion when he came to the Western region and this Syuphl territory.

This person had come to the West and asked if she was the 2nd Consort.
That meant he had been looking for her, so Elisha asked, “Did you come from the imperial palace?”

Some people had stopped Vincent near the border of Syuphl territory.
When they saw that he looked like a knight and had been asking about the 2nd Consort, those people asked him to save the 2nd Consort.

They had recently received information that the situation in the desert had gotten strange.
Not too long ago, someone had picked up a man who was dying.
That man had been a member of a notorious band of bandits that operated in the desert.

It was said that that man had stopped breathing after repeating that a woman with sky blue eyes had appeared and killed most of their members before taking their belongings.

Vincent had gone to the informant to get detailed information: where he met the bandit, where the bandits met the woman, and whether that woman was heading to the border between Miyon Desert and the western region of the empire.

It was valuable information that could’ve only been given by those who had lived here for a long time or knew the area very well.
And as the informant spoke, Vincent felt strange because everything was working out so well.
He had even wondered if it was a trap.

How could people born and raised in the West not thank him for looking for the consort? The 2nd Consort had watered and reached out her hand when the landlords hadn’t spared them even a glance.

She had protected those in the lowest places and saved them.
Those who survived in the village were currently living in the mansion of Baron Syuphl and were waiting for the consort.

It was said that Sir Rohan had made this arrangement, before the Barossa party left, for those with nowhere to go.
The informant had spoken sincerely the whole time, and Vincent was finally able to accept the favor.

However, although it didn’t seem like a lie that the woman the bandit had met had sky blue eyes, the possibility of the woman being the noble consort was slim, so the informant had regrettably advised Vincent not to expect too much.

When Vincent asked why he thought so, the informant said, “You know how cruel the bandits are.
A member of such cruel bandits only talked about that woman incoherently and even shat himself.” Instead of begging for his life, the bandit only muttered hoping the woman wouldn’t come after him anymore.
So the informant laughed, “How could such a frightening woman be our 2nd Consort?”

Vincent had responded roughly before leaving.
He had known that the 2nd Consort was not an ordinary lady, but the woman he had just heard about was simply a demon.
But Vincent wouldn’t blame the bandit for his action because there weren’t many entities who could instill so much fear.

Vincent had felt the information was vague, but in the end, he’d moved in the direction that had been told by the informant because he hadn’t had any other option and had been waiting for information from his people who’d gone to the Santiano Empire.

“Who are you?”

At that cool voice, Vincent quickly made a gesture to show his respect.