We bid farewell to the inn that took care of us for three nights. Passing through the town’s gate, we left Helenna.
When I returned our visiting permit to the gatekeeper, I was handed a single wooden tag. The next time we visited Helenna, the toll would be reduced to ten gold if I showed this pass. I doubted we would ever return.
Now that we were getting back on the road, we needed to head north. We had come to Helenna through its north gate when we’d first entered the town, explaining that we had gone there on an errand from our mountain home. With that being the story, we naturally needed to head back in the direction of the mountains. With that in mind, we would travel north along the road for a while, and once we’d gained some distance from town, we would curve back around and go south.
We had decided to avoid entering the war zone on our travels.
“Wal, show me your hand—your non-dominant one. Er, your left.”
Wal, who was walking by my side, looked at me curiously as he raised his hand aloft.
I stepped to the side of the road and wrapped a delicate silver chain around his slender wrist. The chain wasn’t very long, and an argentine orb dangled from it. I adjusted the length of the chain so he could comfortably grasp the orb in his hand.
“What’s this?” he asked.
“A light orb,” I replied. “But it’s empty right now.”
Slightly smaller in scale than a ping-pong ball, the orb was perfectly spherical and had been crafted from metal. Intricate patterns adorned its outer casing. A round window had been cut in the center of the casing, allowing the beholder a peek at the small, colorless crystal that had been embedded within it.
“This is a real light orb,” I told him. “The ones we made back at Tachyrinn were low-quality copies that only had one-tenth the capacity of the real thing. So, starting today, you’ll be training with this to expand your own MP capacity. While we travel, hold the orb in your hand and concentrate on filling it with MP.”
“So... I should fill this up every day?”
“Huh? Oh no, that’s not quite possible yet. We’ll have you keep an MP potion on your belt next to your waterskin. Here.” I gave him a small bottle to hook on his belt. “That MP potion will be your daily quota—drink it to refill your MP as you fill the orb. You’ll be done for the day once the bottle’s empty.”
Leaving eastward along the road that curved from the north, we made a beeline for the rolling hills that continued into the wilderness.
This had been the route we had taken to get here. I doubted anyone would trace us back this far, but I figured we ought to head back the same way we had come.
Prince Wald followed behind me, squeezing the light orb tightly in his hand.
“I suppose that...by continuously emptying my own MP over and over again, my maximum capacity for it will increase?”
“Yeah, you got it. The more MP you use, the more will become available for you to use in the future. The plan is to have you use up your MP while supplementing it with the potion, and as long as you don’t get potion sickness, you can repeat that cycle several times a day. I made that potion to be particularly concentrated, so be careful to drink it one sip at a time. It’s probably a little too much for you right now.”
All right, now we begin chapter two of boot camp!
“Oh!” All of a sudden, the prince turned to look at something that caught his eye.
Following his line of sight, I spotted a mermerl lamb munching on grass, all by itself, over in the sprawling grassland.
“Did it get separated from the herd?”
“Probably...” I murmured, only half listening.
Wald eyed my not-so-furtive movements. “Kariya, could you spare that lamb?”
Tempted by my greed and the golden fleece before me, I had drawn my bow and nocked an arrow. Wald’s plea made me lower my bow.
Well, it’s not like I’m hurting for resources or anything right now. I restocked plenty while we were in Helenna.
As Wald stopped to watch the mermerl lamb, the corners of his lips tugged up into a gentle smile. I joined him, thinking he must’ve really taken a shine to the creatures. When I did, the mermerl noticed our gazes.
The little golden lamb raised its head and quietly stared back at us.
“That mermerl doesn’t seem scared of humans,” Wald remarked.
Full of curiosity and drawn to the prince who had clearly enjoyed watching it from afar, the mermerl lamb trotted toward us. It was cute, but it was still a monster...but then again, a single mermerl was only an E-rank beast.
It’d be fine even if it comes closer. Should it attack, I could take care of it—
Suddenly, the little mermerl’s oblong eyes flew wide open.
It’s the little ooone!
“Huh?” Wald gasped.
“What?” I echoed.
A thunderous rumble echoed from far across the grassy hills.
A cloud of dust rose into the sky from the northwest, on the other side of the hill behind the baby mermerl. I had the distinct impression a sonorous refrain was returning the little lamb’s full-blast shout of Sympathy.
Without another word, I wrapped my arms around the prince and fled the scene. We did a series of Jumps toward the eastern front, right where war had broken out.
Had I gone south instead and back in the direction we’d come from, I was certain that Helenna would have met its end awash in a sea of gold.