“Huu……. If you cross His Majesty’s temper, you die without a peep. He even screens tribute pickily. How often do we carry it all the way back, untouched? Even though we prepared everything top-grade!”
Spit flew on his face from the impassioned oration. Da-on subtly leaned his upper body back.
“Well, offering even tribute he won’t accept is so we don’t leave any opening.”
“Ah…….”
Da-on made a sour face and broke another small piece of jerky. He had to eat in such tiny amounts to enjoy the taste longer.
He rolled a piece of jerky on his tongue. Salty savor spread through his mouth.
So a tyrant straight out of a folktale lives here. And this journey is toward that guy’s stronghold? Is this really okay? Suddenly he worried about his own safety.
‘……Dunno. What does it matter to me?’
Da-on just had to stay quiet and unnoticed, then return to the Aruna Principality with the delegation. The delegation members’ kindness played a part in deciding where he’d settle.
He’d accepted surprisingly easily that this world wasn’t the world he’d lived in. Not that a sound mind would. But after being baked under the sun, steamed in sand, and dehydrated enough to have to drink his own urine, he wasn’t in a state of mind to believe or disbelieve.
He could have believed it if told he’d actually been asleep for hundreds of millions of years and that Earth had perished and every civilization was being rebuilt from scratch.
What did it matter that it was another world, when he could be grateful simply to be alive?
He just wanted to stay with these kind people of the Aruna Principality so that his rekindled will to live wouldn’t gutter out.
“Um. Once the tribute to His Majesty is done, you go back to the Aruna Principality, right?”
“Yes? That’s right.”
“Then me too……. Hehe.”
Da-on smiled broadly and pointed at himself with a finger. He’d done his best in his own way within the group so he wouldn’t feel like mere baggage. He’d taken on all sorts of odd jobs — surely they’d accept him as a comrade?
The member, who he’d expected to say “sure” readily, looked troubled.
“Hmm. Let’s think about it once we arrive in Quantara.”
“Huh? Can’t I?”
“There’s plenty of time. Oh, would you like some more jerky?”
“Oh. Thank you!”
Just as Da-on was about to say more, the jerky before his eyes stole his attention. He couldn’t help it, having starved while walking all this way.
***
One day, Tashishi called Da-on aside.
“You called for me, Captain?”
“There’s something I’d like to ask you.”
“Ask me anything.”
Da-on politely clasped his hands and waited for Tashishi’s question to follow.
Tashishi stroked his mustache and looked squarely at Da-on.
“Are you of noble birth?”
“Yes?”
“You seem to have been raised quite delicately.” Da-on understood at once why Tashishi said that.
He hadn’t been raised all that delicately, but compared to the delegation members who’d been exposed to rough work all their lives, Da-on’s skin was like white porcelain. Ropes the members handled easily left all kinds of scratches and blisters on Da-on’s hands alone.
But that was only because the comparison group was the delegation. Weren’t his hands actually rough from years of exam study? Da-on scratched his head, having never once heard such an appraisal in modern times.
“Well…… where I lived, there was no such thing as status.”
“No status?”
“Yes. It was a world with no nobles and no slaves.”
“……I see. The questions are over; go back.” The conversation was short. That’s all? Da-on blinked in bewilderment.
Just personal curiosity? Well, it was remarkable enough that he’d looked after a stranger met in the wilderness this much without asking his background. It was about time he started digging.
Tired from the desert’s scorching sun, Da-on didn’t drag the conversation out and hurried away. Without knowing what calculation Tashishi was making as he watched Da-on slip into the makeshift tent.
***
The delegation walked for more than a month, slowly drawing closer to Quantara.
Quantara, the empire said to be more precious and beautiful than an oasis. The place where the sunlight fell best. Quantara, which he actually set foot in, was truly the height of beauty.
People grinning ear to ear, unending laughter, gold plastered everywhere. In Da-on’s life, he’d never seen such a luxurious place. How could gold be lying around on the street?
Along the road stood houses of packed earth, stacked neatly. Each house had windows, but they were small — as if for ventilation only.
Many children were on the streets. At the sight of kids darting through the alleys or laughing unabashedly as they kicked a ball, Da-on found himself twitching his lips into a smile without knowing it.
Perhaps because he’d long held the eldest-brother position at the orphanage. Da-on had a soft spot for the weak and young. His eyes went to the bright-faced children more than the splendid jewels. If he’d had something like candy, he’d have emptied his pockets to give it to them.
‘They said the emperor was a tyrant…….?’
He’d expected a people groaning in suffering, but this was an empire overflowing with happiness, beyond peaceful.
Entering the capital, the delegation first secured an inn. Da-on, absorbed in people-watching, asked belatedly.
“Aren’t we going straight to the palace?”
At that question, Tashishi burst into hearty laughter.
“With everyone looking like wrecks from the hard journey, shouldn’t we tidy our appearances first?”
“Ah….”
Da-on nodded as if he knew. Well, with the emperor as rumored, it wouldn’t be strange if he threw the delegation out for being dirty.
Thanks to that, Da-on got to bathe for the first time in a month. In Quantara, water that had been so scarce crossing the desert poured endlessly.
Scrubbing his body hard, Da-on glanced at his feet and was horrified.
“Aagh…….”
Greasy grime streamed off. Disgusted with himself, Da-on shuddered and redoubled his bath.
After a long time in the bath, Da-on appeared in the dining hall looking fresh and fluffy. The members who spotted him beckoned with their hands, making room at the table.
“Already done washing?”
Da-on naturally sat down and asked. A quick wash wouldn’t fix this. Don’t these people produce body oil?
The delegation members looked at Da-on admiringly instead.
“You were washing all this time?”
“See, he really is a noble. What commoner washes that long.” Da-on pursed his lips into an O at the members gossiping about him. Washing for the first time in a month, and being treated as some fussily clean person. What are their hygiene standards.
While they chatted about this and that, dishes began arriving one by one on the table.
Quantara’s food was extremely splendid, and the taste intense. The stimulating meal, heavy with spices, naturally called for liquor.
With good food and a glass of beer beside it, the day was already dark before he knew it.
“Rest well today, and let’s head to the palace tomorrow!”
The youngest member clapped his hands and cleared the table. Da-on, unable to resist the nagging that they mustn’t enter the palace exhausted, rose from his seat too.
Everyone filed into rooms in pairs of three or four — but Da-on alone got a private room. Puzzled, Da-on broke into a bright smile in an instant. It must be consideration for the outsider.
Back in his room, Da-on roughly threw off his clothes and wriggled into bed.
“Ha….”
To be able to lie in a bed. Even such small everyday things moved him deeply.
Da-on smiled contentedly and pulled the blanket up to his chin. It’ll really get busy from tomorrow, won’t it? He closed his eyes to sleep early. Ten minutes passed like that, twenty minutes…….
“…….”
Da-on’s tightly shut eyelids trembled.
He just couldn’t fall asleep.
Maybe because he’d endured every hardship imaginable for a month. This peacefulness wouldn’t settle.
Frowning, Da-on put his hand on his chest. Thump-thump. His fiercely beating heart transmitted itself to his palm.
“Shit. Why am I nervous about this?”
It was just a mission to go to the palace, hand over gifts, and come out. Nothing to be nervous about. Da-on sighed heavily and tossed.
Maybe because he’d heard too many horror stories about the emperor from the delegation members. No — it wasn’t that he was nervous because the emperor was frightening.
A far vaguer, more formless unease was pounding at Da-on’s chest.
His thumping heartbeat was so unpleasant it annoyed him. Hoo, haa. Da-on breathed deeply in and out.
While he kept breathing deep and slow, some noise came through the small open window.
—Caw, caw!
“Aaah!”
Da-on screamed, startled by the crow’s caw out of nowhere.
Wh-what! He turned his head toward the sound, but the window was too small to see anything. Only the flutter of wings told him the crow was gone.
‘Just what I need when I can’t sleep…’
Da-on irritably fixed his blanket, but that wouldn’t bring back the sleep that had fled. After tossing and turning a few more times, he nervously smacked the bed.
In the end, Da-on had to stay up all night with wide-open eyes.
***
Quantara’s palace gleamed white, like a beach that had soaked up the sunlight. Columns and walls carved from white granite and limestone, tall spires reaching toward the sky. No matter where you looked inside the palace, you could see splendid carvings.
Da-on, entering the palace, stared with his mouth hanging open, not even realizing his jaw would drop. There was so much to see he didn’t know where to rest his eyes. Da-on craned his neck and swiveled his head like a meerkat.
Tashishi gave Da-on’s waist a light pinch.
“Watch that kind of rude behavior in the palace.”
Da-on sheepishly rubbed his neck and lowered his head slightly. His posture matched the other delegation members’, but he couldn’t resist sneaking peeks at the palace past his hanging hair.
Bright sunlight poured over a colonnade of bare pillars, like a temple.
The desert sun, always so scorching, felt fresh and gentle now that he was in the palace. Whatever the principle was, the heat had died down a lot the moment he entered Quantara. Truly, a blessed city.
Da-on, walking silently along with the delegation, suddenly tilted his head. Decorations reminiscent of crows were carved all over the palace. Some carvings had whole crows embedded in them; others had just a round head, feathers, or a wing carved out.
He was wondering if the crow was the country’s symbol when one delegation member, noticing Da-on’s gaze, whispered to him.
“In Quantara, the crow is a sacred spirit beast. You saw the crows all over the streets, right? Be careful never to threaten one, even by accident. You could be accused of blasphemy.”
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