My runaway went smoothly. Duke’s search team had frequently passed by me but no one knew I was the Grand Prince and just ran towards the other place. Actually, that made sense. I was wearing shabby clothes and a clumsy reed hat that I made. So who would’ve thought I was the Grand Prince?
Actually, there was a knight at the checkpoint who stopped me. It was a pretty critical moment but I mimicked those behaviors which peasants would normally do. I completely knelt down, stuck my face onto the ground, and answered his question. So he saw me unsuspicious and just left.
“Wow. it feels great.”
Clouds were floating in the blue sky. And I was on a wagon driven by an old man from a rural area. On my lips was a floating foxtail which I used to drive flying bugs out of my face. Since I traveled towards the southeast for more than three days, I could definitely smell a feel of spring.
Accidently, I found a basket in my hand and sharply opened my eyes. Inside of the basket was well-cooked barley bread. Moreover, it’s quite plenty. The old man driving the wagon certainly could not finish them in one day.
‘Sure. Eating too much is not good for your health.’
I stealthily picked up two loaves of barley bread and had a bite. Soon, the sweet smell of vegetables spread throughout my mouth. It seemed like there were cooked vegetables inside of bread since it tasted a little salty.
I was in awe because it was such a rare delicacy. So, I straightened up my upper body and talked to the old guy.
“Old man, this barley bread tastes really good, doesn’t it?”
An old man put his hand on his ear and turned around.
“What did you say?”
“This bread tastes great. Your old woman can cook for sure, can’t she?”
“Yeah, my wife is old but still pretty.”
The old man smiled innocently, showing his gum and a missing tooth. Then, I rolled my eyes and laid down again. Soon after, we arrived at the crossroads. According to the road sign, the left road led to Lorai Village and the east road led to Hobpa Village. Although both roads were connected with the road to my destination, I got off the wagon as it turned towards the left direction.
On the road to Lorai Village, there’s a barrack where Viscount Granser’s troops are stationed. Probably, soldiers are already on patrol so it’d better not go in that direction.
“Old man, I am leaving now. Take care.”
It seemed he couldn’t hear it. He just continued to drive his wagon and soon he was far away. I took my wooden sack with me and headed towards Hobpa Village.
“Finally arrived.”
Hobpa Village, where I arrived, was well-known as a rural village at the foot of Dwin Mountains. Occasionally, demons had raided the village so it was known to be quite a dangerous area within the territory. Yet, it was full of people. And the reason was pretty clear. In Hobpa Village, there’s a byway to a smuggling route which leads to the Caligo Kingdom.
Currently, the Yosrahim Empire has established the state religion which beliefs in Lu, the God of Light whereas the Caligo Kingdom believes in Knox, the God of Darkness. Thus, these two countries have fierce conflicts with each other. Since the birth of human civilization, the power of Light and the power of Darkness have always been conflicting with each other so it’s not a strange thing at all. Anyways, these two countries shed a lot of blood in a war with each other until a while ago.
Therefore, these two countries had stopped trade with each other. Yet, just like any other human society, authorities in these two countries turn a blind eye and allow smuggling to trade regional products needed for each other.
Besides, even though the Yosrahim Empire is on the side of power of Light, it has been lenient when it comes to the power of Darkness. In fact, the Yosrahim Empire was in neutrality until around 200 years ago. Since the Yosrahim Empire lies in between these two powers, it had always suffered a side blow in their fight as an innocent bystander. And eventually, the Yosrahim Empire joined the side of the power of Light. However, its past tradition still remains. A typical example is in its imperial flag.
The coat of arms on the Yosrahim Empire’s flag has both Sun and Moon and it represents the neutral God of Yin and Yang. Therefore, many countries on the side of the power of Light had requested to change the Yosrahim Empire’s flag. However, the Yosrahim Empire unceasingly refused such a request because of the reason that Siegfried, the Great Emperor and the founder of the Yosrahim Empire, himself had used this flag. And after a while, neither party cares about this matter anymore.
‘Anyways, our Empire’s got some nerve for sure.’
Hobpa Village was one of the trade routes where smuggling had occurred and it was risky to climb through the rugged mountains. But thanks to its harsh surroundings, it’s also difficult for temples and the general public to get wind of smuggling occurring in this area. Indeed, there weren’t many smuggling routes like this one.
Yet, it’s only possible thanks to Yosrahim Empire’s power and glory. Other kingdoms in the Realm of Light already knew about this too but they are not outspokenly criticizing.
Light-heartedly, I entered Hobpa Village.
‘What the… is it a village? It’s a damn city.’
Not only entertainment venues but there were also mercenary soldiers’ guild and magic communication stations in the village. Its size was nearly as large as a city but the regular army was not stationed here. Even the Yosrahim Empire could not be so ignorant of other countries’ views by stationing a regular army at the center of smuggling routes. Therefore, the public order and security were responsible for home watch and mercenary soldiers only except for some special occasions.
Still, I couldn’t take off my reed hat yet. A guy like Count Myer with an eagle eye would already have sent print flyers with my face in this Hobpa Village where even a magic communication station was built. Moreover, many secret agents of the Yosrahim Empire are here as well to track down any intruding spies from the Caligo Kingdom.
“Hey you pretty man, don’t you wanna have some fun…”
As I was passing by the entertainment venues, a hooker was flirting with me. She looked pretty old and she wasn’t a woman with a beautiful face. And that’s why she was flirting with me. Right now, I looked exactly like a shabby lumberjack. But I just ignored her and went my own way.
‘I am penniless anyway.’
Finally, I arrived at the entrance of a byway to the smuggling route. And ten mercenary soldiers were guarding the entrance. As soon as they saw me, they made frowning faces because of my dirty appearance and stinking cow dung smell.
“Where are you going?”
“Going to cut down some trees.”
“Why are you heading this way?”
“My old fellow lumberjack told me that there are io tree beds up there so I am trying to check it out.”
The mercenary soldier nodded his head back and forth. Since io trees burn for long hours with strong firepower, it was perfect to use as firewood. And only wandering mercenary soldiers who camped out in the wild for a long time or professional lumberjacks knew about this fact.
“Alright. Let me see your identification card.”
To look as young as possible, I made an innocent face.
“I am still underage so I haven’t got my identification card yet. I will get it in two years later.”
“Really?”
“Yes sir.”
The mercenary soldier skimmed through my appearance and nodded his head. In fact, I barely became of legal age this year. I wouldn’t look weird at all even if I kept insisting that I was underage.
“Ok then. You can go through here. But don’t go too far. It’s dangerous out there.”
“Yes sir.”
As I was trying to enter inside of the entrance, another mercenary soldier right next to him sharply opened his eyes and called me.
“Hey, you.”
I clenched my fist.
“Yes sir?”
“Why don’t you take a shower sometimes? If you come here again with that shitty appearance, I would kick you out right away. Ugh, you smell like cow dung.”
“Sure. I will definitely do it, sir.”
Finally, I entered the entrance of a mountain road. And I looked around my back to see any suspicious secret agent chasing me. But nobody’s chasing me. It’s a perfect pass-through.
Besides, there was no identification card check which I was worried about the most. But even if I got caught here, it wouldn’t have mattered since I already came this far. Yet, it’s huge luck for me not having to force my breakthrough against those soldiers because now I can completely disappear without a trace.
Now, nobody can find me so easily. Next place I show myself up within the Empire will be Marquis Graf’s territory which is at the northern tip of Divinum Holy Land.
At once, I threw away my wooden sack down the cliff nearby and started running over the mountains.
“Yojo, wait for me. I am coming~”
The scenery of the surroundings in the mountains quickly passed by my eyes. Tree branches grazing my body were bustling and shaking. A group of rabbits hanging out on the mountain road was startled without even thinking about escape. The only thing those rabbits could do was to stare blankly at me passing by them.
I am faster than anybody. I just ran for a short time and I already climbed over a couple of mountain tops. And now, I am getting very close to another top of the mountain.
‘Phew~ tougher than I thought.’
However, climbing mountains was never so easy.
In fact, my current body is not as strong as the one in my past life. A mere amount of mana has been accumulated in my body which itself was not even trained sufficiently. Currently, I am not as fast as I was on my heyday for sure.
But fortunately, mana in my body has continuously been increasing thanks to its very own nature.
Mana is a glue bonding a human’s physical body with the soul which has no physical substance. However, the soul inside of my current body is not of a young man who just turned to legal age. Instead, it is of a master level swordsman who had owned a tremendous mental strength in the past life.
So right now, there exists an imbalance between a mere amount of mana in my body and much greater mental strength which was acquired in a very short period of time. Thus, mana which has its nature of pursuing balance has been increasing rapidly to stabilize this imbalance.
At the current pace, I will be able to recover all the mana I had in my past life within around ten days. And as the amount of mana in my body increases, I think I can train my body much faster for sure.
“Let me take a little break for now.”
As I entered deep in the mountains, I took a rest. I still had my stamina left but it would be risky if I lost too much stamina.
The Dwin Mountains are home to a lot of demons since these mountains are not easy at all to conquer due to their vastness and harsh environment.
Therefore, those who pass through the Dwin Mountains should always spare their stamina and be ready for attacks by these demons.
But the funny thing is that demons should not even exist in this world at first according to the Codex of Creation on which the history of Creation was written. The God of Creation and his vassal gods filled out all the cracks of dimension which were the entrance to this world for the power of chaos and emptiness.
So the fact that these demons still exist in this world means the wall of dimension became very weak. And because of it, the energies of chaos and emptiness are infiltrating into this world.
However, humanity was not aware of this fact at all. Even long before the birth of human civilization, when history started to be recorded, the demons have existed.
At least a few thousands of years or it could be tens of thousands of years.
Although this period is very short compared to the history of Creation made by god, it was a very long period of time for humanity as the Era of Destruction became a normal thing. Yes. The fall of humanity has been in process since a long time ago. And the Era of Destruction which will come in eight years later is just simply an event when gods in heaven would finish the last touch.