“What are you going to do now?” I asked. “If you like—”
“We can tag along if you want,” Menel chimed in. “You can pay us back later.” His eyes were very loudly saying, You leave the negotiating to me! so I was forced to keep my mouth shut.
“Hmm. And how would you like us to do that?”
“I’m looking to buy some draft animals from Whitesails. I’ve been helping this guy out with some ruin-hunting, and we made out pretty well from it, so I want to use the money to take the strain off the people back at the village.”
“Ah, I see! Yes, I wouldn’t mind helping you with that, of course. I have connections with a merchant I can introduce you to.”
“That’s a big help. Sorry for butting in. This guy can be a bit... His world knowledge has a few holes.”
“Oh, so I was right with the noble birth thing? He does kinda give you that feeling, doesn’t he?! Sheltered maybe, or like, naïve...”
“L-Look, there’s no point saying where I came from, you probably wouldn’t believe me, and anyway, it’s not something I can go spreading around...”
“So you’re an adventurer from a noble house who’s gotta keep his past a secret ’cause of noble business?! I get it! And not only that, a priest to a forgotten god! Wahaaa! How magical! My poet’s brain is loving this!”
Wait... what? It seemed like no matter what we said, it only deepened her misunderstanding...
What followed that was several more days of walking along the trail through the unchanging late-winter scenery of Beast Woods.
Robina and Antonio quickly became Bee and Tonio. Tonio was gentle-mannered and skilled at closing the distance between himself and others; as for Bee, she held nothing back, to the point where I found it doubtful whether the concept of closeness with other people existed in her head to begin with.
Every time we got to a village, she would whoop out something like, “Woohoo! Here I am, baby!” with a rowdy and cheerful laugh, and make sure everyone there had a wild time. After she’d sung, danced, livened up the place, and had plenty of tips thrown at her, Tonio would then open up shop. By then, everyone would be in a good mood, and their purse strings nice and loose.
They were a pretty effective combination. Even Menel was impressed by the way they did business. According to him, there were good hawkers and bad hawkers, just like everything else. They weren’t all like Tonio; there were also a lot of aggressive sellers and others that were not much different from petty thieves. Which probably meant it was true that Tonio had originally come from a reputable company.
Tonio now had me with him, and he was putting this new element to fantastic use as well. Bee gathered people together, then I asked whether there were any sick or injured among them, gave them treatment, and we transitioned from a celebration of their recovery into a party. Apparently, the parties were getting into full swing even faster now because of this new approach.
“Okay,” I said. “Show me your affliction.”
I cast the miracles of Cure Illness and Close Wounds on everyone I could.
Just as the essence of magic was creation from chaos using the Words, the essence of benediction was rewriting reality using the influence and benevolence of the gods, the higher beings of this world. It really was faintly terrifying how people were healed as if nothing had ever happened to them in the first place, almost like erasing a part of a pencil drawing and effortlessly redrawing it. The greatness of the gods could never be matched by human magic.
Benediction was inflexible—you had to become the servant of a specific deity, each of which had a specific focus—so it was not a superset of magic, and there was some separation between the two fields, but every time I re-examined benediction, I was reminded of what an incredible power it was.
This power was one I was borrowing from Gracefeel. I had to be careful not to fall into the trap of thinking it was my own power. If I ever did, I was sure that nothing good would come of it.
“E-Excuse me,” said the housewife I’d treated for burn scars on her arms, “how much should I give you in return for this...?”
“Oh, that’s not necessary. I’m only in training at the moment, and your thanks should go to the god of the flame, not to me. If you still feel like you owe something, please buy an item from Tonio.” The woman bowed to me several times, then went over to where Tonio had laid out his wares. Menel was giving me a reproachful look for describing myself as “in training.”
I wasn’t pulling a fast one on her... I really was in training...
And like that, we walked from village to village treating people, playing songs, and selling things and buying them as we headed north over ten days.
I couldn’t say just how far we’d traveled; the forest paths were constantly twisting, and we’d taken quite a lot of detours to stop by villages that Tonio knew. My senses told me we’d walked quite far, but it wasn’t easy for a person on the ground to convert that into a straight-line distance.
In any case, today was another day in the gloomy forest.
After an age spent doing nothing but walking, there was a huge, sudden cheer at the head of our group from Bee. As I ran up to her to see what was up, my surroundings got brighter and brighter, and then my view cleared.
There were no trees to the left or right, and there was no gloom or darkness.
When I looked up, light was pouring down from the sun which had started to tilt into the western sky. A clear blue sky of an imminent spring was spread out overhead. I lowered my eyes; the road gently meandered towards the horizon, and on both sides was a series of partitioned fields, creating a patchwork of beautiful, natural colors. A gust of wind blew, and the young, green wheat swayed.
Even though it wasn’t cold, I got goosebumps.
“WHEAT ROAD!! YAHHOOOO!!”
Bee danced around, then grabbed Tonio by both hands and spun around in circles.
Menel gazed at the wheat swaying in the wind, deep in thought.
The sheer expansiveness of the plain left me speechless for a while as well—then Bee grabbed my hands, and I too was dancing in circles. I laughed in spite of myself, and started goofing off with her.
However, because we spent so much time fooling around, the sun started to set well before we could make it to the nearest village. Visiting late at night and getting mistaken for robbers would just be stupid, and we happened to have come across a little shrine, so we decided to set up camp there.
“Heheh, I’m in a good mood today!” Bee said. “Why don’t I perform for you all? Free of charge!” She took out a small three-stringed instrument shaped a bit like a pear (it was apparently called a rebec), and placed a bow against the strings with an overdramatic flourish.
“Ooh!” Menel said. “Generous of you.”
She laughed proudly. “Oh right, have to pick something. Of the recent songs... Reystov the Penetrator is overplayed right now, but then the Berkeley Tale of Valor is such old hat...” She hummed in thought for a moment. “Right, I know! I can do one of the epics of the Three Heroes from the famous Killing of the High King. The Wandering Sage, the War Ogre, and the Beloved Daughter! Sound good?”
I thought my heart was going to stop.
“Oh, that’s a good idea,” Tonio said.
“Seems a fair choice,” said Menel.
“Come to think of it I haven’t played for a li’l while. Um, ’sup Will?”
“U-Uh, nothing, it’s nothing! Please, go on! I’d love to hear it!”
“Oho! Nice, nice, that’s just what I like to hear! Okay, let’s get started!”
The bowstrings started to sing. It was a sad tone that made the air tremble, bringing back memories of distant homelands. My heart was pounding.