This Love is Futile

Chapter 082 – There’s an Escort

I had dinner, then I went back to my room and focused all my efforts on drawing the summoning circle. 

I somehow managed to memorize the pattern with my hands and succeeded in making it glow about half of the time. But my MP was almost depleted, so I decided to log out to have a real-life meal. 

I laid down on my bed and then logged myself out. 

It was already midnight in the real world. My parents were in bed and asleep, as they had work tomorrow. 

I quietly went to the kitchen downstairs, scooped some rice out of the rice cooker, poured some curry from the pot, and ate it all in one go. It was so delicious. After that, I washed the dishes, took a shower, and went back to my room. 

My head felt heavy, as if I had concentrated too much and studied too hard. Well, I did spend a lot of time studying in the game. 

I wondered if Yuuta was still on his escort quest.

I stretched out and bent over a bit. Before I put on my gear, I decided to sit down in front of the computer. 

I opened the information bulletin board and searched for ‘Sei Castle Town’.

I’d never been inside the walls of the aristocratic district, but it seemed like players could pass through the gates if they had a registration card from the adventurers’ guild and a commission letter from the aristocrats. The rest was about how, if players became friendly with them, they would be invited, and, in some cases, they were able to get into the royal palace after signing up for a knight order recruitment quest, just for fun. However, if the players didn’t have any of said things, they would be denied access at the entrance by the gatekeepers. There was also information on stores frequented by the aristocrats, but there was nothing in particular that caught my attention. Okay, I guess I should pass on the aristocratic district. Besides, I should probably be fine. Even if I went there, they wouldn’t let me in, even by mistake.

It’s not a long trip from the desert city to Sei’s castle town, but I had to walk alone, so it might take me a whole day to get there, considering potential monster encounters. So I decided to drop that idea. I guess I would stick with the carriage. It really was the most convenient way to travel. 

Okay, I would practice hard on the summoning circle until dawn and then let myself fall asleep in the carriage.

After deciding what to do next, I logged in again. 

I woke up on the bed in the inn and found that my MP had already recovered.

First of all, I hammered all those character patterns and their layout into my head. 

Practice, practice, then practice again.

This one was important.

“Sound resonance, space-time distortion, magic concentration, frequency resonance, memory interference, disrupting coordinate, leap coordinate…” 

While drawing this repeatedly, I started to get the idea that this might be some kind of spatial movement or transition circle. 

By the time most of the letters had begun to glow, the sky was already becoming brighter. But there was still one section of the characters that didn’t glow for some reason. They were characters that referred to a location, a destination, or something. Maybe it was a place I had never been to, or a place from Crash’s memory, or somewhere else entirely. He told me not to get a single character wrong but, if this was the only place that didn’t glow, then something must be different. Interference with memory… Did this mean that if the place wasn’t in my memory then the summoning magic wouldn’t activate, or something like that? This was just a guess but, anyway, I left that spot empty for now. After that, I was able to draw them freely in the air without looking at the paper and it was a success! Every character glowed. The interesting thing was that it didn’t light up at all when it was written on paper. I guessed that was why Crash drew them for me on paper. I had wondered about that. Practicing drawing in the air was quite difficult, you know. But the correct characters glowed, so I guess this could still be in an easy mode. 

I took a look at my skill list, and there it was. Somehow. 

“Wowwww!” I couldn’t help but shout out in a loud voice, due to how surprised I was. 

Look at this, there was [ Summoning Magic Circle Lv.1 ] in my skill list.

But I was only just able to memorize it now and couldn’t properly activate the magic yet. It was quite concerning, whether I could level up this skill in the future or not. 

I stored the paper in my inventory and prepared all my equipment before going out. 

I wondered if Vidello-san was still in Sei. I just hoped we wouldn’t miss each other on the way. 

I looked at the feather and left the room thinking about him. 

I missed you, Vidello-san. I wondered how long it had been since I last saw him. Maybe around a week. But to be in this miserable state, after only a week, I’m so…

I let out a sigh and headed towards the gates where the carriage would be leaving from. 

As I expected, the carriage moving from the desert city to Sei had an escort. 

Anyway, it had been a long time, Mr. Escort.  

“Oh, Shortie. You’re heading to Sei this time? You move around quite a bit, don’t you?”

“You seem to move a lot as well. Are you going to be our escort to Sei this time?”

“Yep. Even though I look like this, I was directly hired by the man who manages this carriage. This escort job is my livelihood, so relax and enjoy the ride.”

“Okay. Ah, also, I looked around the desert city this time. The farm was really fun.”

“I see, I see. The stalls were amazing, right? Okay, get in. Today’s guests are a group of four and you, Shortie.”

When I got into the large carriage, there was a group of four already on board. I bowed my head saying excuse me and sat down in an empty seat. Soon after that, the escort also got into the carriage and sat down next to me. 

“I’m a little sleep deprived, so I might fall asleep on the way.”

“It’s fine, you can sleep now,” he responded with a wink. 

I don’t know how I should put this, but it was kind of frustrating to know that a tall man with a beard and armor looked this cool winking. Even if I tried that, I was pretty sure I would just look like something got in my eyes.

I gladly accepted his offer, put my weight on the seat rest so that I wouldn’t lean sideways, and closed my eyes. 

Practicing summoning magic had consumed a lot of my MP, so I made sure to take a high MP potion before we left. 

In the meantime, the carriage began to move. Maybe because there were so many people and the carriage was big, but this time there were two horses. 

I was used to riding in a lively carriage but this time almost everyone was silent and the situation seemed kinda tense, so I kept my eyes closed. The carriage would occasionally stop and the escort would get out, but he would come back immediately after. I guessed he quickly took care of the monsters and then came right back. Just how strong was this guy? I also couldn’t practice magic in a situation like this. I guess it wasn’t that bad to go on a nice and peaceful journey like this once in a while. But this peace lasted only during the journey through the desert. 

After we had passed through the desert, I felt so bored. Even if I had wanted to check outside, beside me was a giant man with thick muscles, and on the other side was a metal wall. In front of me was no better, all of them just sitting with uninterested faces, so it was hard to enjoy the scenery. 

While I was thinking about helping the escort the next time some monsters came out, the carriage suddenly came to a stop. 

We had already passed through the desert and were almost at the crossroads for Sei and Sette. 

I remembered that a little further down this road, Crash and I were…

“What happened?” The escort got out of the carriage. I also looked outside and there I saw a rather magnificent-looking carriage had drifted off the road and was stuck—its wheels caught on a large stone. 

The coachman and the escort both headed toward the carriage. But wouldn’t it be difficult to lift such a large carriage with only a few people? It looked like it was made with some kind of stone, not a wooden carriage like the one I was riding.

As I was watching the situation, as I had expected, the coachman came to us and asked us to lend him a hand. 

“Careful not to get your foot caught. Then, we’re gonna lift this up. One, two…”

At his signal, the carriage was lifted and the wheels were dislodged from the stone. Then we moved the carriage to the road, and the rescued carriage was able to start moving again. The horses that had been stuck tied to that heavy, unmovable carriage were quite agitated. It seemed like the carriage had drifted off the road and got stuck on the stone due to the morning mist, as the horses couldn’t clearly see the road ahead. The man who explained to us was the coachman of that magnificent carriage. He was also dressed in very fine clothes. I hoped he wouldn’t say something like this was an aristocrat’s carriage that was on its way to Sei. 

The person who was in the carriage twisted his leg when the carriage drifted off, so he couldn’t move. 

So, the carriage was put back on the road with a person still inside. The carriage was already heavy enough but, with an extra person, the weight was nothing to laugh about. If only the person inside could come out for a bit, we would have a much easier time moving the carriage. Honestly, it was so heavy…

Despite their displeasure, the group of four helped us out. Seeing how they were shaking their arms when they returned back, I could see that the carriage really was heavy. 

Still, I wondered if the person inside was okay with his leg. 

I could hear his pained moan every time the carriage moved. 

“Excuse me, the leg injury might heal with this, so please use it.”

I took out a bottle of high potion from my inventory and gave it to the coachman. I hoped this could heal the person inside. 

“Are you guys hungry? Would you like some water?” I slowly approached the irritated horses, so as not to scare them, and took out a bottle of spring water I had stored yesterday. I wished there was a large container for them to drink from and, as I was looking around, the escort noticed my struggles, so he took off his helmet and offered it to me. 

“Pour the water in here. The horses want a drink.”

“But isn’t this your important helmet?”

“It might smell sweaty, so pardon. Here, hurry up and give them some water.”

“Thank you.”

I took the helmet and filled it with water. The helmet was a good container for water. The moment I held it out for them, the horses drank it all in one go. They must have been quite thirsty. Poor things. 

I stroked the horse’s nose as it licked up the last drop of water with satisfaction. After that, I handed the helmet back to the escort. He had short black hair, and he accepted his helmet with a friendly smile. 

On the way back to the carriage, the escort, who was still holding his helmet, put his hand on my head and ruffled my hair. 

“What the?! It’ll be a mess.”

“Hey, what’s your name? Weren’t you quite manly just now? I like it!”

“Mac,” I said to the grinning escort.

“So you’re Mac. It’s a great name.” Then he started ruffling my hair again.

Ah, please, my hair was a mess already, but I didn’t dislike it. 

After that, our journey to Sei was peaceful, and he started properly calling me ‘Mac’ and not ‘Shortie’.

“Mac, I hope to see you again. Sei, Sette, and the desert city, if you plan to travel between them, definitely ride in our carriage. I’ll always let you sleep the whole journey. You can count on me.”

“I already know you’re strong. I also want to ride the carriage you’re escorting if I have to travel between cities. Thank you for the ride.”

“Have a safe trip,” he said. After saying goodbye, I got off near the outer gate of Sei. 

I wondered if Vidello-san would be at the gate.

I suppressed my excitement and quickened my pace as I headed for the gate.