That night, contrary to what he had said at first, Shan let Roden sleep inside the hut. There was only one bed, so Roden had to sleep on the wooden floor, but even that was luxurious compared with sleeping outdoors.

The problem was that Shan simply could not sleep with someone else lying in the same room. Even with a dagger hidden against his chest, he slept fitfully, plagued by nightmares of Roden springing up and strangling him.

The next morning, Roden rose full of energy and gave the haggard-looking Shan a puzzled look.

"What happened to your face? Was I snoring too much?"

"No..."

Uncomfortable or not, this was something he would have to get used to. If they were going all the way to Pendia together, they would be sharing quarters for a long time. He could hardly stay awake all night every time.

Blinking and yawning, Shan began packing in earnest for the long journey.

In truth, there was not much to take. Most of his spoils from the bandits had become useless junk through rough handling or neglect, and the food he had taken from Leaf Village was nearly gone. The only things worth bringing were the silver candlesticks and plates from Willow Village's church, along with the fused scraps of gold and silver.

When he bundled them in his cloak and shouldered the load, Roden gave a small sigh.

"Put everything in my bag for now. We'll have to find you a bag of your own, too. I can't keep carrying everything."

"Would it be all right if I asked the village for one—no, I mean, can we just ask them?"

"Absolutely not!"

Shan smacked his lips at the firm refusal. Roden had told him to speak freely with him and dispense with formalities, but after a lifetime of speaking deferentially to everyone, Shan found it very hard to get used to. Perhaps that, too, was something time would resolve.

With their preparations complete, the two set off east toward Scops Owl Village, the first place destroyed in the bandit attacks several months earlier. They were avoiding the northern route Roden had originally taken because of the notoriety the "green-eyed devil" had acquired. It would be awkward if they passed close to the lord's castle and ran into his troops.

However gifted a warrior Shan might be, there was no guarantee he could defeat an army of dozens of armed soldiers reinforced by knights. And even if he did win, that would create problems of its own. For now, he could at least make the excuse that he had merely accepted donations. After that, he would truly be branded a bandit.

Walking lightly in nothing more than cloth garments and a leather shirt, Shan looked at Roden's clanking metal boots.

"Aren't those heavy, sir... I mean, are they heavy?"

"They are. But taking them off to travel would be a nuisance in its own way."

Even in a mail shirt and leggings, plate gauntlets, and armored boots, Roden kept pace with Shan. His height and long stride certainly helped, but he also possessed prodigious strength to match his large frame. Hadn't he said last night that, while traveling alone, he had once killed a man-eating leopard with a single blow of that war flail?

If not for his fear of blades, he might have become quite a fine knight, just as he wished.

They chatted to pass the time as they walked, though most of it amounted to Roden teaching Shan basic facts about the world. A country boy who had lived like a slave without a proper guardian, Shan was desperately lacking in things everyone ought to know. If Selina had not occasionally chattered about the traveling merchants' stories, he might never even have known there was a world outside his village.

"The five western countries that grew out of the old Arman Empire are commonly called the Arman Alliance. There's Libert, where we are now, along with Pendia, Ajun, Luman, and Horace."

"I don't know what an alliance is."

"Well, friendly relations... It means they're friends. Though for friends, they've fought wars with one another and even captured and killed a king."

With a merchant for a father—a man whose livelihood depended on information—Roden knew a great deal about such matters. In just a few hours of conversation, Shan learned more about the world than he had heard from Selina over the past several years. He also corrected a few misconceptions, such as his belief that elephants were bigger than mountains.

What truly surprised him was the subject of mages, whom he had occasionally heard about before.

"In Pendia, there's a group of mages called the Magic Society."

"Mages have a group of their own?!"

Roden chuckled at Shan's look of incredulous horror.

"Put up a sign like that in an Old Faith country and you'd be sent straight to the stake. But Pendia has declared religious neutrality. Still, many of the western lords along the Libert border follow the Old Faith, so you mostly only see mages in the capital or the east."

According to his explanation, mages were nowhere near as impressive as people commonly imagined. Apparently, all they could do was produce a handful of special effects using various ingredients, lengthy incantations, and all manner of rituals. Roden was no mage himself and did not know the details, but it seemed magic had grown weaker since the old Alto Empire's heyday.

By comparison, the miracles performed by priests of the faith of the Goddess were far more useful and powerful. There was a reason Roden had thought he could simply frighten Shan away after hearing about him. Altoans were not inherently more gifted at magic, and mages powerful enough to incapacitate armed warriors were not merely rare—there were scarcely any at all.

The lessons that began with geography and general knowledge soon extended to simple practical skills. The bandit's bow Shan had favored for hunting had broken because he had failed to unstring it when it was not in use. After using metal tools, he needed to sharpen them with a whetstone and wipe them down with an oiled cloth to prevent rust...

"So that's why the bow stopped shooting properly."

"It's also a good idea to warm it gently by a fire after use to drive out the moisture."

Having ruined several precious weapons through improper care, Shan absorbed every word as though spellbound.

After they had talked like this for some time, Shan offered to teach Roden what he knew in return for all the useful information. It was his one specialty: using his body.

"Here, look. When you swing your arm like this, you start applying force with the small muscles beside your shoulder, then the big ones. Smoothly... No, that's too stiff. Move like this. Like this."

Unfortunately, Shan was not a particularly good teacher. Or, more precisely, the problem was that what he was trying to teach was far too advanced. After pointing out the muscles in Roden's forearm with his finger over and over, Shan sighed as he watched Roden swing his mace through the air.

"Your bones and joints and muscles are getting in one another's way. You just have to coordinate them so it all flows together..."

Smiling wryly at that thoroughly unhelpful explanation, Roden suddenly recalled an old conversation with the retired knight who had taught him.

["As you hone your skills, there will come a moment when your movements flow naturally and you can achieve great results with little effort. Applying that to more techniques, with greater consistency, is the ultimate level you should strive for."]

["Have you reached that level, Master?"]

["With just one technique—the secret technique I've practiced all my life. I doubt even Marquis Abel could bring every technique to that level."]

An ultimate level beyond even the Lord Protector, a relative of the king through marriage and renowned as the kingdom's greatest knight. Could this boy, who had never even received proper instruction, have reached it by sheer innate ability?

If so, what sort of monster would Shan become once he was fully grown and had gained experience...?

Feeling his heart pound with a strange mixture of unease and excitement, Roden shook his head as though he could take no more.

"Let's leave it there for now. This isn't something I'll learn in a day or two, and I'll wear myself out if I push too hard."

"All right."

"So, what do you want for lunch?"

"Smoked duck!"

For now, at any rate, Shan was simply a young child brimming with curiosity.

* * *

It was late afternoon when the two reached the former site of Scops Owl Village. Shan, whose eyesight was sharper, spotted the remains and let out a quiet cry.

"Oh..."

"What is it?"

"There aren't any bodies."

Like Mountainshade Village, it bore the remains of burned and collapsed buildings, but there were no skeletons strewn about. A large grave and a headstone stood in a clearing at one side of the village, but Shan could not read the inscription.

"It says, 'Scops Owl Village Communal Grave.'"

"I see..."

"Travelers passing through, or people from another village, must have come and gathered the bodies. So much time had passed since the attack that it would have been difficult to identify them individually."

Shan glanced back at what little remained. Selina had probably lived in this village, been murdered, and been buried there. Perhaps because he had not seen it for himself, unlike with Priest Ador, none of it felt real.

After quietly watching Shan's blank expression, Roden knelt before the grave first and clasped his hands.

"Let's pray that the dead may find rest in the Goddess's embrace."

"Yes."

For a moment, an unkind thought crossed Shan's mind: these villagers, too, would have despised him. But he soon knelt beside Roden and offered a prayer as well. At the very least, he believed Selina deserved the Goddess's embrace.

After finishing their prayers and discussing their route briefly, the two decided to keep heading east for now. Roden was a foreigner and did not know the local geography well either, but one thing was certain: if they continued east, they would eventually reach Pendia.

Beyond this point lay wilderness, nothing but forests and fields without even a proper road, so Roden brought out the secret weapon he had kept tucked away.

"What's that?"

"A compass. A treasure that tells you which way to go. It's expensive."

"Wow..."

Shan marveled at the clear glass and the black needle pointing in one direction beneath it. Astonishingly, even when he held it up and spun around or did a somersault, the needle always pointed the same way.

Chuckling at the sight of him behaving like a curious cat, Roden explained quietly.

"The needle always points north. That means east is over there."

"With this, you'll never get lost."

"Not quite. There are plenty of mountains, ravines, and rivers you can't cross. And you can't be certain where you are, either. In the end, asking people you pass is the surest way."

Listening to him, Shan became certain that he could never have managed a journey alone. Without Roden, he probably would have kept walking without any idea where he was going, hoping he might be lucky enough to stumble upon somewhere people lived.

They continued east but found no village before nightfall, and made camp in the middle of a plain. Since monsters might appear at any time, they decided to leave a torch burning and take turns keeping watch.

"Then what did you do when you traveled alone?"

"Hm? When I'm alone, I avoid sleeping out on the road whenever I can. If I really had to, I'd find a cave or something and block the entrance with a boulder."

"Oh, I see."

"I'll sleep first. Wake me when the moon-cast shadow passes this mark here. All right?"

"All right."

That night, after handing over the watch to Roden, Shan slept deeply without a single nightmare. He knew the intimidating giant was awake right beside him, yet he slept soundly—and not merely because he had walked all day and stayed awake half the night.

For the first time in his life, Shan felt that someone was protecting him.

Of course, saying so would have been far too awkward and embarrassing, so he conveyed his gratitude simply by greeting Roden and saying he had slept well.

After washing their faces and bodies in a nearby stream and eating breakfast, the two followed the compass east once more.

"When do you think we'll find somewhere people live?"

"Who knows? Probably sometime today, though. Libert is a prosperous country with a large population, so there isn't much uninhabited land. This northeastern region is a bit of a backwater, even so."

"Libert is prosperous?"

"The most prosperous country in the Arman Alliance."

Half the Kingdom of Ajun, in the north of the alliance, was ice. Horace in the west consisted mostly of dry plains, good for raising horses but unsuitable for farming. Luman to the south was an archipelago nation, most of its territory made up of islands. Only Pendia to the east came close to Libert's abundance.

"But east of Pendia lie the Demonlands. Because of the monsters pouring out of there, Pendia has very few small villages like these. Most people build stone strongholds as bases and live inside them."

"The Demonlands..."

Priest Ador had once called it a place cursed by the Goddess, the devil's womb where all the world's monsters had been conceived. It was also where the mighty magical empire founded by the Altoans had once stood.

"Well, that's also why skilled warriors are in such demand. You can't kill powerful monsters through numbers alone. Do you happen to know what a cockatrice is?"

"No."

"It's a monster that looks like a cross between a chicken and a lizard, with stone skin covering its whole body. Ordinary people can't put so much as a scratch on it, no matter how many spears they thrust or arrows they shoot. Only skilled knights can cut its head off."

"Wow..."

"If you ever cut the head off a dragon invading the kingdom, you could probably be made a duke."

"Could I really do that? Even chopping down a big tree with an axe or sword damages the edge or breaks the blade."

However he thought about it, Shan could not imagine cutting the head off a monster covered in stone. Even his most treasured possession, the bandit Captain's sword, would snap clean in two if he tried something like that.

Roden laughed heartily.

"Of course you can't do it with just any weapon. You need a weapon blessed by a priest or enchanted with magic, naturally, and you have to imbue it with enough spirit as well."

"Spirit?"

"Well, it's actually a rather difficult concept to explain."

Roden's eyes shifted as he considered how to explain it, then he began in a low voice. Warriors who had reached a certain level could influence reality to some degree through the power of a well-trained mind. By putting their determination to cut into a sword, they could slice through a boulder with an ordinary iron blade. By putting their determination to block into a shield, they could withstand a charge from a monster several times their weight without being sent flying.

"That doesn't mean a knight who can wield spirit is invincible, though. However firm your will, a blade will still pierce your bare flesh, and poison will still kill you if you drink it. Using that power also wears you out quickly."

"How do you get this spirit?"

"If you keep training and pushing yourself to your limits, you naturally learn to use it."

The important thing to remember was that being able to wield spirit did not necessarily make someone a stronger warrior. The ability to slice through iron as easily as cheese was useless if an opponent swiftly drove a spear through your throat. It was best to think of it as little more than having better weapons and armor.

Shan had been exclaiming in wonder at these mysterious things he had never heard of before, but then an out-of-place noise reached his ears.

"Wait."

"What is it?"

"There's a strange noise coming from over there."

"I can't hear anything... What kind of noise?"

"Screaming and shouting. Maybe someone's fighting?"

Roden's expression hardened. He took a deep breath before speaking.

"Let's go and see. Which way?"

"Over there."

With Shan leading, they cut through the forest at a much faster pace than before. Before long, the noise grew loud enough for Roden to hear clearly as well. When they reached the top of a hill, they found its source below them.

"Don't fall back! Hold formation!"

"Archers! Loose!"

"Aaaaaaah!"

The field, once green, had already drunk so much blood that it had turned a dark crimson. Soldiers clad mostly in cloth and leather, some with metal armor mixed in, leveled spears and swords at one another and fired arrows.

This was no petty scuffle. A true battle involving hundreds of warriors—perhaps over a thousand—was unfolding below them.

"Ugh..."

Roden went pale at the blades everywhere, but fortunately none were aimed directly at him, so he seemed able to endure it. Looking back and forth between the banners on each side, he identified the armies and nodded.

"Duke Morayen and Count Valik... I'd heard they were mustering troops along the borders of each other's domains, but I never thought I'd see them clash out here."

"You know who they are?"

"Only from rumors I heard on the way. They're the young king of Libert's paternal uncle and maternal grandfather, respectively. Apparently, Count Valik recently accused Duke Morayen of attacking villages in his territory."

Terms like paternal uncle and maternal grandfather were difficult to understand, but Shan understood what it meant to be responsible for the village attacks.

"Oh, you don't mean..."

"Yes. Those bandits you killed."

"This Morayen person hired the bandits?"

"That, I don't know. It might be true, or it might be a third party's scheme to provoke a conflict between them."

Only the people at the top would know that much. In any case, it explained why Leaf Village's lord had not sent troops to subdue Shan. While sending soldiers to his liege as a vassal, he would have had little attention to spare for a mere Altoan bandit.

While Roden pondered the tangled political situation, Shan was enthralled by the primal, bloody struggle below.

'What would it be like if I fought down there...?'

Most of the armed warriors moved far more powerfully and swiftly than ordinary farmers. They were still nowhere near Shan, of course, but as he watched groups move like walls with their large shields pressed together, he had no idea how to break through. Even if he leaped in and killed one or two, he would be cut to pieces if just a few of the others drew their swords and thrust at him.

How would he deal with the rain of arrows fired by dozens of archers at once? A few arrows might be manageable, but if there were more than ten, he would not be able to block them with a weapon in each hand. Perhaps he would need a shield.

As he stood lost in thought, Shan spotted horses and riders galloping in from one side. There were four in all.

'Oh, could those be...?'

Clad in plate armor from head to toe, each knight rode an enormous horse and carried a long lance and shield. The horses wore mail as well, which seemed to be why the arrows flying in from all around did them no harm.

Breaking through the rain of arrows, the knights headed for the heavy infantry's shield wall—the very one Shan had just thought impossible to breach. Looking down from above, Shan instinctively reached a conclusion.

'They can't break through.'

Fierce as their charge was, the knights lacked the weight and speed to break a shield wall of dozens of men standing shoulder to shoulder. One or two in front might fall, but the charge would surely stop after that.

Even as he thought it, the knights charging the shield wall thrust forward the lances in their right hands. A thunderous crash rang out all the way to the distant hilltop, and more than twenty soldiers toppled backward, opening a path.