This time, Erika entered the inn from the back door. Ronja was very particular about who was allowed there, so there was almost no chance that she’d run into Ian if she took that route. 

Her guess proved correct, and she managed to get inside without someone stopping her. “Ronja! Do you need help?” she called.

“Is that you, Erika? Oh, perfect, I was just looking for a hand!” Ronja patted a boar so big that Erika had to look twice to make sure that she wasn’t dreaming. It looked to be several dozen times her weight, at least. Just the tusks on the boar were thicker and longer than her arm. “One of the travelers brought in a monster boar. They’re much healthier and delicious, but they’re a pain to butcher.” 

“Couldn’t you take it to the butcher?” Erika asked.

“And buy back the good meat at twice the price?” Ronja scoffed. “Much cheaper to do it ourselves. Come, give me a hand.”

When Erika still looked incredulous about their ability to dismantle the giant pig, Ronja pressed a cleaver into her hand and dragged her over to help. They started strong, but eventually, they still had to call the butcher over because the bones were too solid for them to go through without a saw.

Despite her earlier words, Ronja happily handed over the coins, but not without exchanging complaints with the butcher, who thought he was being ripped off. They both felt that they were being ripped off, but that was just business.

“Ah, this is too expensive!” Ronja cried, throwing up her hands in exaggerated sorrow.

Clearly, she wanted someone to act with her, so Erika humored her. “Why don’t you just stop buying the monster meat then?”

“I don’t know when another traveler is going to bring another one in!”

“… Can’t you just hire them to hunt the monsters when you need the meat?”

A ladle was brought down on her head with a dull clunk. “Foolish! We are supposed to create a restful environment for our patrons, not create more work from them in the forest they just came out of! Also, it’s not like we’ll have travelers in the village every day!”

The latter was the real reason. Erika laughed and left Ronja to go store the meat in the cold cellar. The massive cellar under the inn was probably the most expensive structure in the entire village. It contained the only magitech tool the village had, a cooling device. The device ran on magic crystals that the whole village banded together to buy from travelers. 

Naturally, every family in the village kept something there, but Ronja and the inn took up the most space. The inn was the village’s mess hall, after all.

The smell of chunks of boar meat over open fires filled the kitchen.

Erika’s stomach rumbled from the smell, but she obediently took the plates of steaming meat glistening with fat over to the customers outside. Hungry villages had a huge appetite and meat was the perfect thing to fill their bellies with. 

As she served everyone, she spotted the new group of three travelers without much trouble. They were better dressed than the others in the inn, and they were rowdier too. She came close enough to eavesdrop on their conversations several times during her rounds of serving and refilling.

When she served them, Erika felt a rush of disappointment, although her suspicions had been confirmed. Compared to Marian, they seemed so different and… lesser.

Marian really was the exception.

Marian, this group was younger, more easygoing, and seemed less experienced. Erika would’ve thought that they lacked the competence to survive in the wilderness, but the abilities that Rovers possessed must have made up for it.

As the new travelers laughed amongst themselves, one of them seemed to notice her lingering attention and elbowed his companion. His companion leaned over and then stared at Erika. Specifically, her chest. Erika’s eyes grew cold, and she averted her gaze, walking away as fast as her feet could take her. They began to laugh again. At her.

With that, Erika decided to not talk to that group. Her gut feeling told her that they were inexperienced compared to Marian. Going out into the wilderness with them wasn’t safe for multiple reasons. One of them kept looking at her with lecherous eyes, so monsters probably weren’t even her biggest worry.

After the villagers began to clear out of the inn, a wave of exhaustion washed over her. The strain of staying up for a whole night finally caught up to her. 

“Ahh… so sleepy….” Just as she was about to go home, she remembered that her father was probably still home. She wanted to avoid him as best as she could, so home was no longer an option. After weighing a few more options in her mind, Erika decided to head toward the fields.

 

The forest behind the village was cleared out long ago to make room for a meadow. The magic of the fairy rings sped up the growth of plants within, so even though the village had a flock of sheep, the whole flock had enough fresh grass to graze.

At the same time, this field was the most spacious unused place in the entire village. 

When she became too suffocated by everything that was happening around her, the meadow was where she’d usually go to unwind. The sounds of the wind blowing through the grass and the occasional noise that the livestock made easily lulled her to sleep. 

Erika didn’t know when she had fallen asleep or how long she slept for, but she woke up when the sheep began to bleat in alarm at the smell of a stranger.

Her eyes flew open, and she stumbled to her feet. The newcomers were the three travelers that she had seen in the inn. She furrowed her brows in suspicion.

“Hello,” she said with a brief curtsey. “Is there anything I can help you with?”

The travelers looked at each other, then one of them stood forward. It was the lecherous one and the one that looked to be the youngest. There was still baby fat on his face, yet he was already so mature in all the wrong ways.

“Ahem. You’re Miss Erika, right?”

Erika nodded, still suspicious. She had no idea how they got her name.

“So it’s like this. Someone asked us to give this to you,” the young traveler said, holding up a bundle of leaves held together by string. 

Erika could tell at a glance that it was the leaves of the vorgras plant. It was great for minor injuries, but unfortunately, it didn’t play well with the magic of the fairy rings. In other words, vorgras plant was only obtainable in the forest— outside of the village.

Obtaining these plants should be easy for travelers, but this man claimed that someone asked them to give this to her.

Tabitha, Darton, and… Ian. It wasn’t Tabitha since Tabitha would’ve just waited for her to visit, and then Tabitha would personally apply it. Darton couldn’t be either because her father didn’t care about her unless it somehow affected his standing in the village.

 The more she thought about it, the more Erika was sure that it was Ian. Since she was avoiding him and no one else in the village was willing to face her for Ian’s sake, he was forced to turn to the clueless travelers as the middleman.

Well, as long as he learned his lesson, she’ll accept his apology.

“Thank you,” she said. “How much do I need to pay you for this?”

“Oh no, it’s free,” the traveler said. “He already said that he’ll pay us when we get back.”

Erika bit her lips, then placed a few coins into the traveler’s hands. “Is this more than he was going to pay you?” The traveler looked at the coins, hesitated, then nodded. “Then tell him the herbs are already paid for. Also, we can still be friends if he wishes, as long as he knows where his limits are.”

The traveler nodded, then departed with the others, but not before one last lingering look on her body. Soon, the whole group began laughing and horsing around in the distance like adolescent boys. 

Just as her image of them improved, they managed to drop her opinion of them back down to rock bottom. In a way, it was impressive. Erika rolled her eyes and stretched out her stiff limbs before continuing with her day.

 

That night, Erika went back to Marian’s room for her lesson. It was easy. Marian gave her vocabulary words, and she learned the spelling and the meaning. 

Knowledge poured into her mind like water filling an empty pitcher.

However, the more time she spent with Marian, the more apparent it became that Marian did not really want to teach her.

“I’ve seen people with your eyes. They all end up dead!”

Marian’s warning repeated in her mind. Erika couldn’t help but wonder if she was just one of many that tried to leave their village. Perhaps she’ll end up the exact same as the people Marian described.

It didn’t matter for her, though, since she was determined. She allowed herself no other choice. Marian seemed to have sensed her resolve because although Marian often praised Erika’s quick learning, that sad and weary smile never left her lips. 

It remained until they finished the lesson shortly after dawn.

The traveler stretched and yawned. “I delayed for two nights because of you, so a bit longer won’t matter. It’s probably suicide to go into the wilderness after a sleepless night too, so I’ll nap first and then leave after noon.” She lit her pipe and held it near her mouth. Erika had yet to see her take a draw from it. 

“Still, you’re like nothing I’ve ever seen, what with learning a written language in two nights. What kind of freak are you?” Marian asked.

Erika shook her head, unable to answer Marian’s question. According to Marian, her learning speed was abnormal. But since there’s no one else in the village that was literate, there was no one for her to compare herself to.

“So, now that you’ve learned how to read and write, what are you going to do?”

Erika shrugged. “I’m still going to try to find a way out here, but I don’t know how. I haven’t given up yet, no matter what you say!”

Marian looked out the window at the brightening sky, chewing on the pipe. She turned to Erika.

“Having a dream is good; I’ll give you that much. My friend always said that a person without a dream is no better than a person dead. In my opinion, however, no dream is worth dying for; a dead person does not dream. Sometimes, the hand dealt to you at your birth limits what dreams you are allowed to have.”

She took a deep breath, then extinguished the pipe. “You may leave.”

Erika curtseyed, then left the room.

She knew that Marian respected her thoughts. The traveler was only so harsh because she was concerned for Erika. Her experience taught her that she’d be just one of many to fail and die in pursuit of her dream.

However, Erika believed that she was different. None of the villagers were like her. They were content living out their lives in this village, looking forward to the stability of every new day.

Erika didn’t want stability, but she didn’t know what exactly it was that she wished for beyond a vague desire to be “free.” She didn’t know what the freedom she wanted was, but she did know that she would only ever be satisfied by leaving this village and exploring the great beyond.

Although Marian’s intent was probably to convince her to pursue a different dream, she failed.

“The hand dealt to you at your birth limits what dreams you are allowed to have.”

“You were born here, and you will die here.”

Erika wanted to be the exception to the rule Marian believed in. She wanted to leave the village at all costs, and If she could awaken the same ability that Marian and the other travelers had, then she too could grasp her fate in her own hands.

To grasp fate… a chill swept down her back.