About a three-day walk from the capital of Filsand and the Stalwart Castle stood a sudden and steep plateau. This was the Hidal Plateau, a barren land that looked like it was made by stacking weathered rocks. There were about three thousand members of the Schultz clan living behind the Hidal Plateau…ever since being driven out of Filsand. They called their hidden village the Holy Precincts, but the name didn’t make the land any more fruitful. The people there lived off of plants that could grow in dry climates and livestock that could be raised in rocky lands.
Farther south along the plateau was the Twisted Wood, where beasts and monsters prowled, so the duke of Filsand had never really been interested in invading. Although it wasn’t only lack of motive that kept the Filsand armed forces away. The Schultz clan had built a fortress at the entrance to the Hidal Plateau. This fortress blocked the only valley providing access to the plateau, and the brave warriors who guarded its walls had fought off countless attacks.
However, over the past few years, instead of working as a shield for the Holy Precincts, it had worked as a base for staging attacks on villages and caravans in Filsand territory. The duke had sent his daughter to Axeholm to procure siege weapons because he had grown impatient with the situation.
There was, however, a shortcut to the Holy Precincts that avoided the fortress by traveling through caves on the outskirts of the plateau.
“Ugh… Agh… I thought I wouldn’t make it…”
“Hff… Hff…”
“I-I think my body is going to fall apart right here.”
Naturally, only the Schultz warriors knew about this shortcut. That’s right: It was Warmaster Diane and her subordinates, newly returned to the Holy Precincts by means of Geo’s Forced March magic. However, when they got to the exit of the shortcut, everyone collapsed from extreme fatigue.
Only the phantom horse was breathing normally. It gave a snort.
“Hah, ugh…that jerk said ‘severe exhaustion.’ This is ten times worse than ‘severe’…” Lade, warchief of the warrior clan, sat down on the ground, not bothering to remove his strange-looking armor. He struggled to control his breathing. They were all suffering from the side effects of the Forced March spell, which had allowed them to move at multiple times their normal speed.
“Huff…hoo…it hurts… Oh, lord…”
Just one person, the dark elf, was acting as if the effects were no big deal. She seemed almost to be in a trance, but since no one even had the energy to look in her direction, it didn’t cause any problems.
The hellish pain lasted for half a day (give or take), and soon, night fell.
“I’m going inside to take the lay of the land,” said Reyha. “You all wait here and behave yourselves.”
There was silence.
“Got it, Miss Reyha.”
The shortcut was in a corner of the rocky mountains that surrounded the narrow plains hosting the Holy Precincts. From there, they could see a village lined with impoverished houses, proving that the Holy Precincts didn’t quite live up to their name. The stone temple in the center of the village stood out strongest. The Holy Precincts had first been established when the Schultz clan was driven to the Hidal Plateau and had discovered the remains of this ancient temple. There, they’d decided to found their settlement.
Reyha soon blended in with the darkness of night.
✦ ✦ ✦
The Stalwart Castle was the residence of the duke of Filsand. We had to disembark the riverboat at the Filsand port and hoof it from there.
I had only passed through so far, but Filsand certainly did appear to be incredibly lively and prosperous. Elisabel had mentioned that the population was approximately twenty thousand people. It was similar in size to Relis City, but Filsand was far more cosmopolitan in terms of the diversity of species and cultures. That was clearly thanks to the exchanges it conducted with so many other countries through maritime trade. I saw many people from the east and south of different species, wearing clothes completely different from those found around Ryuse.
“Did you get a load of that girl dancing in the square?”
“I won’t betray Keena! She’s definitely waiting for me back at the village…”
Ted and the young recruits were excited. I mean, I guess it was sort of—ah, who am I kidding? This was totally a vacation for them.
“Well, this place…it’s better than I imagined. I saw spices being sold at terrifyingly low prices back there.” Even Ild was excited.
“There really is a lot going on in this town. It’s not exactly elegant…but there is a sense of artistry to it all.”
It reminds me of Shinjuku or Akihabara…
In a way, it felt a bit like a holiday for all of us.
Outside of the large city gate around Filsand were even more refugees, living in tents just like they had outside of Bruno. They didn’t seem so poor that people were dying of starvation, but it was clear that the country was far from universally prosperous.
Regardless of whether or not he was evil, the ability to build and maintain such a flourishing capital did prove that the duke of Filsand was a competent ruler. Of course, there were the issues of the growing population of refugees and the war with the Schultz clan, but I was well aware that there wasn’t a single kingdom in the world, let alone Sedia, without its own problems.