Thinking that someone had called out to him, Allen spun around only to find there was nobody there.
“Huh? Am I imagining things? Maybe it’s just been too long since I was in such high spirits?” he wondered, tilting his head.
With a wry smile, he stopped and surveyed his surroundings. It had been little more than an hour since he had left Nox behind. Now he found himself surrounded by sprawling plains, with no sight of even the distant city, let alone another person. All that lay in his field of view was the predictable sight of the horizon.
Allen had spent the last hour or so running at a fairly brisk pace. Granted, this was simply because he was so excited by his newfound sense of freedom. As a young man of fifteen years with his whole life ahead of him, he felt as though the hour had passed in no time at all.
“Anyway...now that I’ve calmed down a little, I guess I’d better give serious thought to what I’m gonna do.”
Yet, Allen wasn’t one to worry too much about specifics. He had decided to head for the Frontier, but his plans extended no further than that. He had no idea where, exactly, he would head for once he got here, nor what he would do. Even the name “Frontier” was nothing more than a vernacular appellation. Although, as the name indicated, it was located on the outskirts of the kingdom, it referred specifically to a stretch of land in the eastern region of the Duchy of Westfeldt. To be even more specific, while the region was officially part of the Duchy’s territory, it was effectively ungoverned.
Since the Duchy of Westfeldt occupied the southern region of Adastera, the Westfeldt family served as margraves, responsible for protecting the nation’s border—a duty they were granted due to their possession of the most exceptional military force in the country. This explained why Allen had thus far not been the victim of any chance encounters with monsters during his travels.
Indeed, as in Allen’s past life, monsters existed in this world. But while, in his previous world, they could be found throughout the land in such great quantities that one could never hope to hunt them to extinction, it was no mere coincidence that Allen had never encountered any. In this world, however, it was accepted that monsters were simply living creatures, and so efforts were made to hunt them and reduce their numbers as much as possible.
The Duchy of Westfeldt was said to possess the greatest military force among the four great duchies of the kingdom, and this was no mere flattery. Wiping out all the monsters that could be found on the city’s outskirts, known as the training grounds, was an everyday pursuit. So effective were these efforts that Allen had even heard rumors that the Adventurer’s Guild had complained of a lack of adventurers coming to the city, since they couldn’t hope to make a living hunting monsters there.
Although it was the Duchy of Westfeldt’s military might that qualified them to rule over the southern, most dangerous region of the kingdom, even they could not exercise control over the entirety of their domain—the main reason being that the land was simply too large for the hand of governance to extend to its furthest reaches. Even if they had attempted to assign their more remote lands to another ruler, few noble families wished to accept land in the south, which was considered the kingdom’s most treacherous region. As a result, those lands were currently lawless.
There was also the simple matter of the Duchy’s warlike nature, which left it ill-equipped to deal with matters of local governance.
“I guess I should be thankful for that, considering it means there’s a region worth being called the Frontier...”
Indeed, there were people who gathered at the Frontier precisely because it was ungoverned territory. For Allen, too, this was just the kind of region he was looking for. But such regions were hardly in the habit of advertising their presence to the outside world. It was precisely because the people lived freely in such places that Allen would have no way of knowing where they were located. In short, he’d be roving around at random until he stumbled upon what he was looking for.
That surely wouldn’t be a problem, though. If he happened across monsters, so be it. He almost hoped they did show up to save him the trouble of finding food. And he had been cast out of his family. Few were likely to be too concerned with what he was doing.
“Oh...come to think of it, there were one or two oddballs who did care, weren’t there?” Allen mused, their faces suddenly drifting into his mind.
There had been some who had continued to associate with him even after he had become known as a good-for-nothing. One had even mentioned how strange they thought it was that others called Allen a good-for-nothing in the first place. Although the situation had never particularly bothered Allen, he had to admit that it had been something of a relief to hear those sentiments.
“I suppose it’s been a good five years since I last saw them. I wonder if they even care about me anymore?” He smirked, thinking how stupidly self-indulgent such thoughts would end up being if the worst were to happen. “All right, then,” he muttered as his thoughts turned to other matters. “I was planning on having a nice walk, but...it appears I’ve gone and seen something I’d rather not have.”
While there was no sign of anything in the immediate vicinity other than vast plains, Allen had spotted a horse-drawn cart being pursued by what looked like a monster. From his vantage point, he could not make head nor tail of what was going on, but it was clear that something was happening. And unfortunately for Allen, he wasn’t the sort to walk away from such a sight.
“Oh well. I guess it beats having a guilty conscience,” he muttered.
He was about to get a little sidetracked from the peaceful life he sought, but only a little. Taking care of a minor incident like this was no big deal.
Repeating his refrain of “All right, then,” Allen burst into a sprint.