Just past noon on the day we left the orange grove and began our trek eastward, Prince Wald was no longer able to continue walking.
Well, it wasn’t really a surprise. The ground in this wasteland was beyond terrible. It was completely uneven and covered with mud. There were boulders of all sizes everywhere, and what dry grass remained tended to get caught on our boots.
On top of all this, we were attacked by monsters. For a blessing, they were all D-rank weaklings, so I managed to take care of them all myself.
We started setting up camp early that day.
Although he still seemed unsteady on his feet, the prince began to gather twigs and grass to use as kindling, just as I’d asked him before. I hadn’t even needed to suggest that he do it.
I had noticed that while we’d been walking, if he happened to trip somewhere and I gave him advice, he never made the same mistake a second time. I knew how diligent he was whenever he set about a task from his time masquerading as Catharine, so this was a good reminder of how astute and competent he was.
“There’s something about the way he’s trying so hard to be helpful that’s kind of impressive...” I mused to myself. I appreciated it, far more than if he’d been haughty or if he’d ordered me around. He hadn’t been taking me for granted.
After he finished his dinner, the prince rolled up in his blanket and fell asleep so quickly and soundly that I almost thought he’d passed out.
I slipped off my muddied boots and sat cross-legged in front of the open fire to make adjustments to them. Because boots qualified as equipment, they automatically adjusted to the correct size for your feet, but I figured the treads in the soles could be a bit deeper.
When I told Wald that I’d give him a walking stick on the morrow to help him traverse the rocky, muddy land better, he stared at me in wide-eyed shock. I was sure he was probably wondering why I hadn’t given him a walking stick from the start if I had one.
It’d been on purpose, of course.
Why had he tripped? What had caused him to stumble? If he hadn’t actually experienced falling in the first place, then he’d never learn how or why he might fail.
He had gazed off into the distance as he’d listened to me explain my reasoning. I think he must’ve realized my intentions.
Yeah, you’ll fall. Even if you use a walking stick. Drill these failures into your body. Learn from your mistakes and pain.
This was like my boot camp training course for greenhorns ages ago. I wasn’t going to let him take it easy. He’d have to push himself to the bone, eat the food I made for him, go to sleep, and do it all over again the next day.
Most importantly, the princeling who’d grown up in secluded halls needed to build some muscle. Jump didn’t only cost MP—it took a huge toll on the body too.
I had added a recovery potion to our dinner to ensure our exhaustion from the day didn’t carry over to the next. There was plenty of food for seconds as well... Though, to be honest, it was less that I’d made enough for seconds and more that I had a huge stash of food that I’d stockpiled over the past two years in my storage. So if the prince had wanted more, he could’ve eaten as much as he liked.
Once the prince fell asleep, I started on my own late-night crafting hours.
I added grips to our belts that could be easily grabbed for whenever we needed to Jump. Then, to alleviate the amount of weight that our hips had to support, I made the belts longer so they could be crossed over our shoulders and secured over our chests.
Considering how full our hip pouches were, I figured they’d get in the way as they were. I modified the belts at the seam to include a spot to hook potions.
✦ ✦ ✦
Though the travails of our daily treks should have worn him out practically to the point of unconsciousness, Wald would still toss and turn during the night. He must’ve still been plagued by nightmares.
Worried, I made sure to sit next to him and kept a careful eye out. Sometimes, if I stroked his head, he’d drift off into a deeper sleep.
Whenever he shot up into wakefulness, my presence must’ve offered him some measure of solace. I was his only ally now, after all.
At other times, he would reach for my hand—I gladly gave it to him. One time, as he clasped my hand with his, he murmured that it was warm. I found him a warmer blanket the next day.
Oh, but although I stayed up late, I did make sure to get enough sleep myself. I would set up a protective barrier around our campsite every night. Unfortunately, one barrier would only last six hours, so I’d have to wait until midnight to activate it. It would last until morning at that point, so that was when I’d power it up before snoozing myself.
When I woke in the morning, I’d often find that the prince had nestled up close to me at some point during the night, and parts of his body would be resting against mine. The sensation of having someone next to him must’ve made him feel safe.
After falling over and over again, his once-new clothes had become comfortably well-worn and dirtied. Oh, but I made sure to prepare new underwear for him reasonably often. We bathed too, even though it was just the open tub in the great outdoors.
To tell the truth, reliable ol’ Kariya of Gaelius...didn’t own a tent. Before getting conscripted, I had always used Jump and Return to get home every night whenever I’d gone on an excursion.
Man. Sleeping outdoors in the rain is brutal.
Next time we reach a town, I’ll buy materials to craft a tent. I do have the recipe, at least.
When the prince had gotten used to walking in the wilderness, I gave him some of our supplies to carry. Eventually, he was also able to hold a conversation as we traveled.
Though he’d once been singularly focused on watching where he walked, he could now cast his gaze up at the wide open skies with unbridled excitement.
A passing flight of wyverns was flying northward from the south. We watched as dozens of wyverns of all sizes flapped their mighty wings in the heavens as they flew on.
“Kariya, do you think that flight of dragons is heading for the Northern Ridges?” Wald asked.
I nodded. “Yeah. If you look north past the Gaelius Mountains from Tiuccia, which is just about in the middle of the Central Nations, you’ll find the largest lake in Golden Dawn—Terrestrial Sea. Wyverns spend their winters there, and once spring arrives, they fly back north.”
Since Tiuccia was south of the mountains, he must’ve never seen wyverns before. The look on his face was full of innocent wonderment, just the sort of expression I’d expect from a teen his age.
Wyverns didn’t eat during their migration, which was why we could simply enjoy watching them fly by as if we didn’t have a care in the world.
“Wouldn’t it be lovely if we could capture one and domesticate it? We could get back to Tiuccia in an instant if we rode one.”
“I don’t know if a grown dragon could learn to like humans. But if we raised a hatchling from the egg, we might be able to ride it one day,” I reasoned.
“Like a dragonrider? I hear of them often in legends, although I’ve been told that we no longer tame dragons. It must be really hard to get the eggs...”
I couldn’t help but chuckle, seeing how he’d gotten so rosy-eyed at the idea. Upon hearing me, the prince blushed furiously and cleared his throat to hide his embarrassment.
“I-I mean, I was only thinking it might be nice, were it possible.”
“You should give up on taming a dragon,” I said. “While stealing eggs from a nest is already hard enough, the bigger issue is feeding it.”
“Really?” The prince tilted his head in consternation.
“To put it in simple terms, you’d need money for its feed. A single wyvern can eat two cows in a single day.”
He stared at me in silence.
Sorry it wasn’t a wonderfully starry-eyed reason, Wald.
There had, in fact, been dragonriders in Golden Dawn. But while it was simple enough to buy feed with a click of the button, I bet gathering that many cows in real life would be a pain.
Not only that, but wyverns were kind of weak monsters on their own. I was pretty sure that if a nation were to seriously consider using them, they’d need at least ten. That’d cost them twenty cows a day, or six hundred in a month. So the real issue at hand was that they weren’t really good for the wallet...