Vermillion

For the time being, Holland seemed to have decided to trust Kei’s words.

“Étranger of White Mist, huh… I have heard that there is a section in the library specifically dedicated to legends, magic, and sorcery. I hope you can find something in there.”

“…Hey, big bro.”

Suddenly, Edda tugged on his sleeve.

“I know that one, the story of Étranger of Mist.”

Kei looked down at the girl in his arms, surprised.

“Really?”

“Yes. In the eastern part of Northland, there’s a forest that’s always shrouded in mist, and people that appear from within that forest turn out to be people from faraway places who went astray in the mist…”

“This is the first time I’m hearing of it. Did Granny Marie tell you that?”

“Nope.”

She shook her head at Holland’s asking her curiously.

Immediately following, “Mr. Alexei told me,” left her cute lips.

That shocking truth made Kei and Aileen freeze up.

“…Alexei?”

“Yup. It was back when I asked what Northland was like…”

“For real…?”

Aileen felt a headache coming up. She had heard a lot of things from Alexei during their caravan escort when she tried to gather information, but all he spoke about back then were bragging tales of his ancestors and family and his own epic tales, things she had absolutely no use for.

I couldn’t get him to mention a single thing that actually mattered!!

To think such a vital clue had been nearby — I might as well have explained our circumstances in more detail then.

But now it was too late to regret it. Aileen felt stupid for having humored Alexei by listening to his boring, long-winded stories which were based on a completely different set of values.

“Did you hear anything else from him?!” Kei asked eagerly, ignoring Aileen who weakly slid down on her chair.

Edda was happy about his profound curiosity in what she was saying, and started to proudly recount what she had heard from Alexei.

She spoke about the forest of demons in Northlands’s east — also called, the Wiseman’s Hideout, the ominous, mist-shrouded land, said to drive people insane as soon as you’d tread as little as ten steps into it, the strange monsters lurking within, and what had happened to Alexei’s grandfather.

And finally, she also mentioned the legend of Outlanders said to have appeared from within the mist in the past.

This was more than enough to pique Kei and Aileen’s interest.

“Could you elaborate on those Outlanders?”

“Uhh… Sorry, he didn’t tell me much about them.”

Hearing Kei probing her for further details, her cheerful mood quickly plummeted.

No luck, huh, thought Kei, disappointment coloring his face. This caused Edda to apologize dejectedly.

“Ah, don’t worry about it. You still gave us a very important clue.”

“Umm…uhh…oh, right, he also sang a song that had been passed down by those Outlanders!”

“What kind of song?”

“Its name…what was it again? Granny might remember it. I still remember the melody, though.”

Closing her eyes, she started to quietly hum.

In all honesty, they had not expected much — however, hearing the sad and melancholic tune, they felt goosebumps all over their skin.

“”Greensleeves…!””

Edda’s eyes opened wide at the name that leaked from the two’s lips.

“Right, right, that’s the namet! You two know it as well?!” She asked, brimming with curiosity, but Kei and Aileen only looked at each other, too astonished to answer.

“Greensleeves” — on Earth it had been a song famous all over the globe.

Kei knew it well too. It was a song that had been played at his grade school to mark the end of lessons. And it was also the song he asked his English friend to teach him the lyrics of, back when he started learning English in the VR world. There was no way he could have forgotten it.

“Kei…”

Aileen looked at him with a pale face. He felt flabbergasted himself. The shock assailing them blew Alexei and everything else out of their minds. Even if languages like Russian and English were used normally in this world, it was unthinkable for someone to compose a completely identical song by pure coincidence.

Yes, this was an evident trace — a footprint left behind by an earthling.

Their hopes changed into conviction. Something was awaiting them in Northland — in the Forest of Mist.

“Judging by your behavior… is this something like a song of your homeland or some such?” Holland appeared to be deeply curious about their strange behavior.

Kei nodded vaguely, his mind being elsewhere right now, “It’s a song that’s widespread in the place we come from…”

“I see…”

Holland tried to imagine their homeland as he tilted his cup. Kei somewhat resembled Greenlanders whereas Aileen obviously originated from Snowlanders. Holland wondered what kind of place their “homeland” might be, seeing how people of different cultures and races apparently mingled with each other and shared their cultures.

“…Oh man. I feel like chasing after Alexei right away.”

“Hmm, yeah…”

Kei folded his arms, pondering about Aileen’s bitter remark.

“We parted three days ago…wouldn’t we be able to catch up with our horses quickly?”

“Well, he’s on foot. Plus there’s a month left until the tournament, either way, right? Then—”

“No, please wait a moment.” Just as they were about to settle on chasing Alexei, Holland stepped in. “If you allow me to be frank, it’s not realistic to give chase after so long.”

“Huh? But our horses are pretty fast, you know?”

“Even so, three days is a fairly big lead. There are five roads, bigger and smaller ones, all leading to Northland from Urvan. Do you have an idea which of them he took?”

“…Aileen, where is he from?”

Kei inquired, but Aileen averted her eyes.

“T-To the east…”

“……”

‘Yeah, this is hopeless,’ Kei and Holland’s eyes met, clearly sharing the same thought.

“Even if you summarize it as east, it still would make quite a big difference whether he’s gone northeast or southeast… Northland is vast, after all.”

“…Thinking rationally, we don’t even know for certain that he’s heading straight home either. Did he mention anything in that regard, Edda?”

“Hmm, nope, nothing.”

“I see…”

“Now I wish I’d questioned him about the details…”

Aileen prostrated on the desk while holding her head. But then, Kei had an idea.

“No, wait, it’s too early to give up. If we use 【Tracking】…!”

“Ohh, I see, you two certainly can rely on that method!”

Kei looked joyfully while Holland slapped his knee. However, Aileen slowly lifted her face, moving like a robot, and stared at Kei with narrowed eyes.

“Kei. Do you have any of Alexei’s possessions?”

“……”

After their duel, Alexei had offered him all his belongings, but it was none other than Kei who had refused it. As a result, he did not have a single copper, or a single hair that belonged to Alexei, let alone armor — an item needed as a catalyst for 【Tracking】.

He had nothing at all.

“Shit, I wish I had taken something from him, if this was gonna happen…!!”

Now it was Kei’s turn to hold his head.

†††

In the end, they canceled their plans to pursue Alexei for being unrealistic.

According to Holland, the summer solstice festival would start tomorrow, resulting in the pedestrian traffic around Urvan becoming quite congested. Which would further increase the difficulty of their search.

On top of that, Kei and Aileen felt it would be pretty idiotic and awkward to catch up with Alexei so soon after his gallant farewell. Besides, it did not have to be Alexei as they could simply ask any random Snowlander.

While playing with Edda who sat on his lap, Kei finished his conversation with Holland regarding the branch chief. In addition, he conveyed that he wanted to find a replacement for his sword which broke during the duel, and that they were searching for a handheld clock.

“…You want a pocket watch? You two really are bourgeois. I mean even someone like me is just using an hourglass,” Holland gave a strained laugh

But Kei and Aileen definitely had the means to pay, so he promised to procure it for them. In exchange for getting some discount on it, Kei would pay with his own cash this time instead of deducting the cost from the skin of the Grande Urs that had yet to be sold. If the price was around one gold coin, Kei would have no problem paying it on the spot.

At the end, Kei asked about a skilled blacksmith affiliated with the company, before heading back to HangedBug with Aileen.

“But man, things took a weird turn, don’t you think Kei.”

Looking slightly exhausted, Aileen flopped down on a chair, slovenly resting her elbows on the table located at the bar on the first floor,

It was around 11 a.m. right now. They had visited the company a little past 8 a.m., meaning their conversation had lasted for almost three hours.

Kei had felt slightly guilty over disturbing Holland while he was busy, but then realized that Holland was the right man to handle his requests about the longsword and the luxurious watch, as he trusted Kei to pay unlike some dubious customer.

“Yeah. To think Alexei — the Snowlanders held the key. In any case, this was a big gain for us.”

Kei adjusted his bow case and also sat down at the table to catch a breath. They had gained a new lead thanks to Edda, but their goal to investigate their transfer at the library remained unchanged. Holland said so too, but it would be too hasty for them to rush to Northland with nothing but their current information on hand.

It was a good idea to ask the Snowlanders living around Urvan about their folklore while also investigating it from the scientific perspective at the library. At the very least, it would be more a far more efficient way to gather information than vaguely investigating the transfer.

“……”

The two remained silent for a while.

Thereupon, their eyes were drawn towards a corner — at the young woman doing some kind of handicraft with miscellaneous items such as thin papers, wood, and a work knife strewn across the table located in the back. It was Jamie.

They were thirsty and wanted her to hurry up with taking their order, but she had not even noticed them entering the bar. She was cutting the paper, gluing the scraps on the wood, and binding it altogether with a string; her entire concentration devoted to the work in front of her.

The dwarf-faced shopkeeper was nowhere to be seen, so she was the only one who could take their order, but Kei hesitated to call out to her after seeing how earnestly she was absorbed in whatever she was doing there.

Aileen, who was resting her chin on her hands, glanced at Kei with a smirk. Unlike Kei who felt reservations about speaking up to her, Aileen found it rather amusing that she failed to notice them. Kei realized that it was bad manners, but still imitated Aileen, resting his chin on his hands.

Just like that, they continued staring at Jamie for a few minutes.

“Okay, it’s done!” Jaime held up her creation with a smug expression.

It was a simple rectangular board with paper glued to it. The thin paper had been cut into deformed animal shapes like papercut art. The design was a little unskillful, reminding Kei of the hanging paper lantern he had made during his grade school days.

She put the knife down and proudly inspected her work from various angles. But when she tried to look at it from diagonally below, she finally spotted Kei and Aileen staring at her.

“Wahh!” She yelped with a strange voice, almost falling off her chair.

And then, for some reason, she dashed towards them at full speed, still holding onto her creation.

“H-How long have you been here?!”

“…Hmm, about five minutes?”

“Sounds about right.”

The two nodded without changing postures, which made Jamie go “Nooo!”

She hid her face behind the lantern in her hand, with her cheeks that were slightly visible dyed deep crimson.

“I’m sorry I didn’t notice you… W-What would you like to order?!”

“A light snack… and I think I’ll go with diluted wine. What about you, Aileen?”

“Cider for me.”

“Okay, I’ll bring it in a sec~!”

She placed her lantern on a nearby table and ran off towards the kitchen as if fleeing.

She always acts confident, so getting a glimpse of her being so embarrassed was… pretty good.

Jamie had teased him about the noise at night the other day. Back then he thought that she was a fairly shameless girl, but it turned out that she did possess a certain degree of shyness. It was such a fresh experience because she was always so eloquent.

Kei suddenly remembered about the shopkeeper who had talked about bad folks getting involved with her.

I might’ve had it bad if I didn’t have Aileen.

Perhaps this is the so-called gap moe. At any rate, I was allowed to see something rare, Kei felt satisfied. Ignoring Kei, Aileen was more focused on the lantern Jamie left behind.

“Sorry for the wait~. Here’s your diluted wine, cider, and canapé.”

After a bit, Jamie returned with a tray that was loaded with cups and plates.

“Wow, that’s quite the luxurious lineup there.”

Kei raised a voice of admiration at the canapé she had placed down on the table. Hard bread had been cut into thin, bite-sized pieces, with multicolored ingredients such as cheese, vegetables, and ham put on top of the slices. He had already been wondering about their order taking so long, but seeing the outcome, he could accept it.

“Think of it as a freebie!”

She said with a smile, but traces of embarrassment still dyed her face. Since he had ordered alcohol, the bill was slightly expensive, but he retrieved a few small silver coins and paid it all, including a tip.

“Say, what’s that?” Aileen pointed at the lantern, asking what had been bugging her for a while now.

Jamie smiled wryly, accepting her fate, and answered, “Well… the summer solstice festival starts tomorrow, right? We’ve got a custom of letting lanterns float down the river the night before. We make small boats, place lanterns or candles into them, and set them adrift.”

“Ohh~”

Aileen responded in admiration while stuffing her mouth with canapé.

Sounds like a Spirit Boat Procession, thought Kei as he listened.

“But is it really fine to do that? I heard the Spirits get angry if you pollute the water.”

With ‘river’, she probably meant the Aria which flowed east of Urvan. Kei asked a simple question, remembering the legend about the Great Water Spirit of Lake Synapeia which lay downstream of the Aria.

“Oh, no, there’s no problem. Apparently, the residents of Yulia desperately pull them out off the river before they drift onto the lake…”

“I-I see.”

Kei nodded with a cramped smile at her carefree response. Personally, he considered it to be extremely irresponsible towards others, but he did not mention that.

“I’m planning to set this one adrift tonight. Wanna come along?”

“Oh, can we?”

“Of course. It’s super romantic.”

“Ohh, that’s nice! Thanks!”

The two girls were in high spirits. Kei’s participation was decided without him having a say in it, but he had no reason to refuse, so he decided to go along with it.