Chapter 12: Journey to the West

After deciding which horse to take with me, I set off westward right away. I thought something like this might happen, which was exactly why I had the Item Box. I’d packed all sorts of supplies in case I needed to make an impromptu escape, including food, water, tents, blankets, cookware, weapons, armor, fodder, water buckets—you name it.

Roland, Francette, and four of the royal guards had frantically chased after me, though.

I wonder what they’re planning to do about food and stuff... Maybe that’s why they left the other three guards behind?

After going through and interviewing all the horses, I’d decided on a six-year-old stallion with a white coat. He had black eyes, and was probably between twenty-two and twenty-nine years old in human years. I wasn’t too sure about the conversion between horse and human years though. I wanted to avoid horses that were too young to have much experience or those too old and weak to take on the journey, which was why I decided on him.

He was deeply loyal to me since I’d saved him from a near-fatal sword wound back at the battle in the village. He was cheerful and energetic as well, so bonus points for all that. Having a white mane would make it easier to be spotted by the enemy, but that worked out fine since I had a feeling I’d end up needing to stand out this time.

There were mares among the eighteen horses from before that I would’ve offered to buy any stallion they had their eye on, but it just so happened that a stallion fit exactly what I was looking for.

I had Francette take care of setting up the reigns and the saddle, since I didn’t want to fall off the horse along the way. I never had any experience handling horses or riding gear. The saddle was there so I wouldn’t be taking any spills or sliding off the horse or anything. I’d be giving him instructions on how to move myself, so we were fine there.

I didn’t have the kids or any sort of luggage to worry about, so as long as I ignored the fact that Roland and the others were following me, all I had to do was ride as fast as I could. That’s why the most important issue here was making it so a beginner like me wouldn’t fall off during the journey.

It’s not like I needed to be able to move however I wanted, so I would’ve been fine without a saddle or anything. The only problem with that, though, was I could only imagine how rough that would be on my poor body, and I’m kinda afraid what other people would think about me doing that. That’s why I ended up going with the more traditional approach to horseback riding.

Instead of heading south from Nicosia toward the capital, I took a separate route to the southwest that led to the main road that stretched out to the west of Grua. Following right behind me was the group from the royal palace who were determined to protect me.

The group following behind me and Ed, the horse I was riding, was having a bit of trouble keeping up as we galloped along at full speed. That’s why I imagined they were pretty grateful for the multiple breaks I had to take with how sore my butt and hips were getting.

Even though I was a complete beginner to riding, my horse and I were completely in sync. They’d never be able to follow me if they loaded their horses with all their gear or had a wagon packed full of all the supplies they needed. There weren’t really any major problems with me spending the night in a town or village or something, but camping outside would drain Roland’s supplies like crazy. Would they go around restocking as they followed me?

While I can’t say I wasn’t worried about that, I was flying completely solo this time, and Roland had already made clear he wasn’t happy about it. Even if they were following close behind me, I didn’t have any sort of obligation to split my stockpile with them. I’d be fine with it if they were friends or helping me out, but I’m the type of person who gives the cold shoulder to people who try to get in my way.

I don’t have to do jack squat for them!

...The group in question Kaoru had directed those thoughts toward didn’t know about Kaoru’s Item Box, so they hadn’t expected her to camp out in the wilderness. She didn’t have any sort of luggage with her whatsoever, so they’d been sure she was going to spend the night at an inn, or at worst, ask to stay in someone’s house.

There were only a few hours left before the despair began settling in among the group.

“It appears Miss Kaoru isn’t planning on stopping in town, Sir Roland... There won’t be any other villages or towns for quite some time either,” one of the royal guards said as he reported to Roland.

“Hmm... Maybe she just isn’t familiar with the terrain to know that?”

“No,” Francette cut in, “Kaoru definitely has a map of the area, and it certainly seemed like she knew how to read it.”

There was only around an hour left before it would get dark. That was only going to make it harder on everyone, but there was no way around it.

They had to keep following after Kaoru.

“How about we get ready to call it a day, Ed?”

“You got it, little missy,” Ed replied, slowing down to a more relaxed gait.

“That spot over there. Let’s go a little deeper into those trees so no one can see us from the road. Then we’ll make ourselves a place to turn in for the night.”

Ed and Kaoru headed off the main road, pushing through the dense clumps of trees.

“S-Sir Roland...”

“Yes, it looks like they’re making camp.”

“Wh-What shall we do?”

“Not much to say to that, I’m afraid...”

In the end, four of the royal guards headed back to the town they’d passed to acquire the necessities to keep them all going. Horses need plenty of water to work, and while they’d made sure theirs drank plenty back in town, it still put great stress on the horses to carry all their supplies to their campsite. They were lucky enough to have a town close by this time, but things could get hairy if they were out roughing it in the wild with no settlements around.

More than that, Kaoru had no supplies with her, so how was she even getting by in the first place? That was the question on Roland’s mind, but there was no way he could just go over and sneak a peek at her while she was sleeping or anything. All he could do was wait and brood over it by himself.

Around that same time, Kaoru and Ed were enjoying dinner together. Kaoru had stocked up on plenty of hot food she’d made in the kitchen back at the workshop. After Ed had finished the feed Kaoru gave him, he was absolutely over the moon as she pulled out one treat after another from her Item Box: corn, carrots, apples, and even sugar cubes. She’d made the sugar cubes with her potion-making abilities, specifying it as a sort of medicine to replenish one’s sugar intake that looked, tasted, and was made with the same ingredients as a regular sugar cube.

“This is amazin’, it’s just like you said! I’m gonna give it all I got again tomorrow, too!”

“Please and thank you. Oh, and drink this, too. It will greatly refresh you.”

“Well, thank you kindly.”

After sprinkling monster- and bug-repellant potion everywhere, Kaoru pulled out the bed she’d nabbed from the baron’s mansion and had herself a good night’s rest.

It was the first time in forever she’d pulled out that bed...

The next morning, Kaoru and Ed woke up feeling refreshed and rejuvenated. After enjoying a bit of breakfast and taking care of their business, they set off, as happy as could be.

Roland’s group, on the other hand, wasn’t as lucky...

They had stayed up all night in case any monsters or wild beasts tried getting the jump on them, and had ended up getting eaten alive by mosquitoes and aching all over after getting through the night with only a single blanket. Carrying blankets just meant more things for them to lug around, so one was their limit. It would have been a different story if they could just leave the old ones behind and buy more at the towns they encountered along the way, but they didn’t have that particular luxury.

They had cold meat skewers they’d bought from a food stall for dinner last night, and breakfast was hardtack.

Seeing that Kaoru had taken off, they hurried to follow after her.

“Do they seem like they’re getting faster, Sir Roland?”

Just as Francette said, they were certainly faster than yesterday.

“...Is she getting better?”

That was exactly what was happening. She was using potions, not only to fix the pain in her joints, but to strengthen them, as well. To top it all off, she was getting personal lessons from the very horse she was riding.

“Raise your waist a little bit more. Yup, just like that. Try and get a feel for the way my body moves while running. Clamp your knees a bit tighter against me, too... Yeah, that’s the way.”

He was there to teach her the riding techniques that the soldiers used and to give her advice on how to make riding easier for her, so of course she was getting better. Ed was one of the elite, a horse selected for the vanguard and given extra water even when the rest of the empire’s troops were suffering. On top of all that, Kaoru herself was light—lighter than Roland or any of the others following along with him. Compared to full-grown guys in armor carrying swords, it was like she weighed nothing at all.

Every time they took a break, Ed and Kaoru would down a healing potion together. Roland’s group, on the other hand, was weighed down with camping gear, food, and water, making it steadily more difficult to keep up with Ed.

“This isn’t good, Sir Roland! At this rate, she’s just going to keep putting more distance between us!”

“Even if we force the horses to run faster to keep up, they’re going to be exhausted in no time at all! We haven’t been giving them enough water as it is!”

“There’s no point if she gets away from us now!”

Though they’d somehow managed to keep up with her yesterday, she was moving at a much faster pace today. Things could get entirely out of hand by tomorrow.

It was then that Francette came in and offered a suggestion of her own:

“Let’s split up into two groups. One group will make camp near Kaoru and keep up with her until around noon, while the other will travel about half a day ahead. While they won’t get to sleep any later than usual, they’ll be able to rest easy until the next morning. Come afternoon, they’ll take over following Kaoru from the other morning team, who will be able to take their time as they continue along until they reach the campsite. When they do, the night team will set out again. Then we repeat this pattern from there.”

“Nice thinking! That’s not a bad plan at all. How should we split ourselves up then?”

“I believe you and I are best suited to handle the nighttime shift. If anything were to happen, there’s a much higher chance of it being at night, after all. I imagine it would be much easier that way, since I serve directly under you, and having a girl with you should make it easier to approach Kaoru. In terms of fighting prowess, having the two of us in one group and four royal guards in the other should also be a fairly even way of splitting up our fighting power, as well.”

With that said, however, in her heart of hearts, Francette was fidgeting around sheepishly. She didn’t know if it was an angel or the Goddess who had put such a wonderful idea in her head, but whoever it was, she couldn’t thank them enough.

As I continued along my journey and chatted with Ed, there was one thing that was bothering me...

He’s way too smart... How is a horse able to talk normally with me? Were horses always this smart, and we just never knew, since they couldn’t talk with us?

No, that was totally out of the question. So could it be that Ed was actually only as smart as a baby, but my auto-translating ability was making it easier for me to understand? Or was my ability to understand all languages forcibly putting him on a level where he could talk normally with me?

No, that can’t be it, either...

Even if we assumed horses had roughly the same knowledge as a three-year-old, they still wouldn’t be as smart as dogs. That was the response most jockeys in Japan gave when asked in a questionnaire. If that were the case, then the comparison just wouldn’t make sense.

And if we were going that far, did horses even have anything you could call a “language” in the first place? Same goes for that squirrel-thing I got directions from after I first got here...

I had a feeling I wasn’t ever going to find the answer, no matter how much I thought it over, so I just gave up on that particular train of thought. So long as we could understand each other, that was good enough for me. It was way better than not being able to understand him at all.

While Kaoru and Ed were having a pleasant time on their trip, Roland and his group certainly couldn’t say the same for themselves. Up till now, they’d always been able to restock their food and water from whatever town or village they’d happened to pass through last before “roughing” it outside, in the loosest sense of the word.

Though Roland may have been royalty, he’d also received military training, and had as much experience camping out in the wilderness as everyone else. His experience with camping, however, was with a proper campsite being set up, being able to eat hot meals, and sleeping in a simple bed with plenty of blankets. He hadn’t ever slept on a straw mat like the lower-class soldiers or anything.

For normal soldiers, it would take around seven or eight days of marching to reach the front. Since Kaoru was traveling by herself and moving faster all the time, however, it would take her about three or four days to get there. That was what Roland and the others had told themselves, in order to get through the harsh job of tailing Kaoru, but it looked like the battlefield was actually further to the west than they’d first thought. By the time they reached anywhere near the fighting, six whole days had passed since they’d first set off...

“Looks like we made it. Let’s try heading over there; that’s where they set up camp.”

“You got it, missy.”

Kaoru and Ed set off toward what looked to be a command post set up in the back end of the battlefield. Just as she was expecting, they were immediately stopped by soldiers when they got close.

“Who are you supposed to be?!” A group of soldiers surrounded Kaoru as they challenged her to identify herself.

“Me? My name’s Kaoru. Would you happen to need healing potions, by chance?”

“Huh?”

There wasn’t anyone among the soldiers here who had seen Kaoru up close and personal like this before, so they had no idea who she was, since she’d used her own name instead of introducing herself as an “angel” or “a friend of the Goddess.”

They had, however, heard the rumors about the healing potions. They weren’t exactly the most expensive thing in the world, but they were just pricey enough that they hadn’t had a chance to use one themselves. They’d heard testimonials from people who had, though. Having those with them would be an absolute boon out on the battlefield.

But the girl in front of them was empty-handed, and they weren’t quite sure what to do with her.

While the soldiers were struggling with how to handle the situation, Roland and his group came rushing over to them at that exact moment. The other four royal guards had turned back and set up camp after finding the Balmore troops, and had already regrouped with Roland and Francette that morning.

“My name is Roland. I want you to take me to the general.”

There wasn’t a single soldier who didn’t know of the king’s brother. After hastily saluting him, they did as he asked and led him to the general’s tent.

“Sir Roland! What the heck would bring you all the way out here?!” General Menes, the commander in charge of the troops, reacted in shock as he met with Roland’s group.

“I’m sorry for coming out of the blue like this. Let’s just say I had my own...‘reasons’ for coming. How’s the situation over here?” Roland asked.

“Yes, sir...” A grimace clouded the general’s face in response to Roland’s question. “With the second wave of about 20,000 soldiers having made it over the mountains, the enemy forces number roughly 40,000 after joining their comrades. Our forces have managed to stop their advance, with mostly small skirmishes here and there between us so far. We’re moving as fast as we can to return to the capital and provide reinforcements, but the enemy advances if we pull back, and pulls back if we try to advance on them. It’s an obvious bid for time on their part. If we tried to go on the offensive and make an aggressive push, on the other hand, it would only lead to more losses on our part. Not only that, but if things go bad, there’s the risk we won’t be able to return to support the troops at the capital.”

The general held the same despondent look on his face as he recounted his troops’ struggles. That was when Roland gave him the good news.

“Not to worry. We’ve already captured the 20,000 enemy troops who arrived from Rueda, and our own troops are unharmed. We have 15,000 troops protecting the capital right now. There’s no need to worry about Grua, so focus all your efforts on taking care of the enemy in front of you.”

“YEEEEEEAAAHHH!!!”

The sound of cheers filled the commander’s tent.

“I-Is that really true?!”

“Do I have any reason to lie?”

“Then that means we can fight more freely, and we won’t have to push our soldiers any more than we need to!” General Menes was practically shaking with joy.

“So...” Kaoru butted in after staying silent all this time. “What would happen if the enemy realized their other forces that had gone through Rueda were already done for?”

Menes turned to Roland, a doubtful look on his face. “And who would this young girl be, Sir Roland?”

Roland gave a forced smile. “This here is Kaoru...but maybe it’d be easier for you to recognize her if I called her ‘a friend of the Goddess.’”

“Oh... Oh my...” The general’s eyes went wide.

“So, about my question...” Kaoru sulkily continued.

Seeing how Kaoru wasn’t in the best of moods, the general hurried to answer her.

“If they were to find out, then there’d be no need for them to try and stall for time any longer. Their only options would be to pull back or break through our ranks by force. There’s almost no chance they’d retreat, though...”

“Why’s that?”

“Even if they retreated, there’s nothing left for the empire. The only way for Aligot to continue growing is to invade other countries. If they were to lose this many soldiers in their invasion and then retreat, then it would take decades for them to make another attempt. The other countries around them would be on much higher alert, building up their own militaries to reduce Aligot’s power. That we know about their backroom deal with Rueda and their ambush through the mountains means they won’t be nearly as effective if they try to use the same methods again. If they managed to wipe out our forces here, they’d probably imagine that taking down the troops stationed at the capital shouldn’t be much more difficult. It seems they aren’t aware of the infusion of soldiers from the east that came as reinforcements to protect Grua. That’s why they appear to be underestimating the amount of soldiers we have protecting the royal capital.”

Assuming the instigators needed three times as many soldiers, if the defending side had 10,000 troops, the attackers would need 30,000 to take them on. If Aligot thought there were fewer than that guarding the capital, then 30,000 would be plenty. If that was the case, then they’d just have to keep their own casualties to 10,000 or less. Losing roughly a third of your troops in battle was devastating, but losing half of them meant your side had been annihilated.

Most of the time, a battle would be decided right then and there. If Aligot had 30,000 soldiers to spare after beating the enemy here, then the empire should have a good chance of winning this war. Once Aligot laid siege to the capital, it was merely a matter of time before the capital surrendered after running out of food and water. They’d take what they needed from the nearby town and request supplies from Rueda if they needed them.

It wouldn’t be strange for them to think their victory was assured, if they could just surround the capital, especially for soldiers of a country who took pride in their own military strength.

“It’s still going to take some time for the troops here to realize that their comrades to the north were defeated. Who knows how many days it will take for a messenger to travel back through Rueda to deliver the news to Aligot, then go through the mountain path to inform the troops here...”

“Then how about we just tell them ourselves?” Kaoru asked back.

“I doubt they’d believe something the enemy told them so easily...” the general said with a bitter smile.

After thinking it over, a sinister smile crossed Kaoru’s face.

“Then let’s give them some bait they won’t be able to ignore!”

Oh boy, here we go again... Roland thought to himself as he caught a glimpse of Kaoru’s face.

The next morning, a message rang through the air to the Balmore soldiers fighting on the front line.

“Listen up, and listen good! His Highness, Sir Roland has arrived from the royal capital, and he’s brought news that the enemy forces entering through Rueda have been crushed, as well as plenty of healing potions for everyone! None should worry about their injuries! For those already injured or sick, be sure you get yours as soon as you can!”

The words rang out far and wide in all directions, reaching not only the enemy soldiers, but their superior officers as well.