“Ohhh… Ah! Hot! Ouch!”
“Yumi, you have to be careful. Come here, let me take a look.”
“Nn…”
“Doesn’t seem like you got burnt.”

That would have been really embarrassing, so I was thankful I hadn’t. Yes, bread that was fresh out of the oven tended to be hot. Quite hot, in fact. And in my greed, I had forgotten about that for just a moment too long…

“Does it still hurt?”
“No, it doesn’t. I was mostly just surprised.”
“That’s good. Really, you’re too careless sometimes.”
“Nn, I’m sorry.”

I was reflecting. Really. But it had been simply a reflex. Nothing conscious. But a mistake all the same.

“Hahaha, someone sure is eager to see the fruits of their labour.”

Mrs Korwen, meanwhile, was laughing heartily, watching me messing up like this. She was amused to no end by this… as was Lily, who was similarly grinning right behind her.

“Really, Yumi, that’s such an amateurish mistake to make.”
“Ugh, shut up, you.”
“That’s why you do it like this.”

Lily presented a pair of gloves to me. Or rather, those were basically oven mittens.

“I see you’re fully prepared.”
“Of course I am.”

With glee, Lily donned her mittens and picked up the Cucus Bread that was still baking—or more like roasting—over the fire.

“Look!”
“Yes, yes, I can see it. You’re doing great.”
“What an incredible amount of emotion and sincerity behind that voice.”

There wasn’t much emotion nor sincerity to be had for someone looking so smug about a pair of oven mittens.

“So, how’s the taste?”
“Mm? Ah, wait a moment.”

Lily fetched a knife and cautiously cut the bread into slices. Steam wafted up from it, a telltale sign of the heat it was still retaining.

“Oh, this looks good. Then, here I go.”
“Huh? Wait, Li—”
“Hot?!”
“...”

Things happened so fast, that there was no way for me to react to them at all. Lily had picked up a slice of the Cucus Bread and bit right into it. Into the steaming hot bread…

“... Ha.”
“Uuii! Oon aaf!”
“I have no idea what you are trying to say.”

Not with her fanning her tongue as she tried to cool it down.

“Lily, dear, that’s why they say that small sins are punished at once. Rina, fetch me some water, would you?”
“Yes, Mrs Korwen!”

Shortly after running off, Rina returned, holding a mug with water and offered it to Lily. The latter promptly took up the mug to cool her tongue. And for some reason, her ears were twitching like crazy.

“Ahhh! Better… Why is it so hot?”
“It’s fresh, what did you expect?”
“Bread usually isn’t this hot!”

It wasn’t? Somehow, I doubted that…

“Well, either way, we should probably wait for them to cool down and watch the others.”

After all, these were only the first batch. Sure, each bread was quite sizeable, but we needed food for several days, lest we’d have to fall back on the rations… Something we all wanted to avoid.

“I guess so… Haaa…”
“Lily, are you okay?”
“Yes, I’m fine, Rina. Only burnt my tongue a little.”
“Do you need some more water?”
“No, I’m good. Thanks.”

Something cold like ice cubes would probably be nice just about now. They were great for moments like this. Unfortunately, we didn’t have any so that was a vain thought.

“Nn… Hey, Sis. I know that we’re leaving pretty late but how late? Are we really going to be fine if we’re going to finish all of this?”
“I wonder…”

Making our travelling rations had become a rather time-consuming process. It took far longer than I had anticipated, to be honest. Even though Karen had kneaded the dough for me in the later batches…

“Can’t make it bake faster so it’s not like we can change it now…”
“Nn, you’re right.”

We could only hope we’d make it in time. It was already noon now so it shouldn’t be too long anymore.

“Speaking of which, having all this bread is great and all but how do we store it? Mrs Korwen, is it fine not to cool it down?”
“It is, don’t worry. It keeps longer in cold storage but even without it, it’ll be fine for a few days. Ah, but the ones with meat should be eaten tomorrow at the latest.”
“Got it.”

We had split the fillings rather evenly between meat, vegetables and fruits so that wasn’t a big issue for us.

“Yumi, Karen!”
“Nn? Lily?”
“Come here if you want to try a slice too.”

With a grin, Lily was offering us some of the Cucus Bread she had cut earlier. I was quite curious so this was a pretty welcome offer.

“Nn, thanks.”
“Thank you, Lily.”

We received a slice each. It was still pretty hot, much to my surprise.

“Then here we go.”
“Nn.”

I blew on the slice a little to cool it down, then bit right into it.

“Nn? This is…”
“Oh?”
“Mm…”

How to say it…

“It’s a little bland.”
“Yumi…”

Hey, those were my honest thoughts… It’s not like it was bad and it was most assuredly better than those rations but it was still a little… how to say it. The meat gave it some taste but the bread itself? It was surprisingly bland.

“Yumi’s right, though. This isn’t really like bread… Though it is better than the rations. By a lot.”
“That’s not hard.”
“That’s true.”

Poor rations. Bullied by these two.

“I think this would go well with a simple sauce or stew, though.”
“But that’s going to be difficult on the road.”
“Right…”

Dipping this bread into a stew did sound quite tempting… Maybe we should try that some other time.

“Hey, Lily. Bis Sis, Lil’ Sis.”
”Yes, Rina?”
“Nn?”
“Mh?”
“Can’t we get some food at the town?”
“...”

Now that she mentioned it… That certainly would have been possible? We’d still need food for a day to the town but other than that…

“That’d be difficult, Rina,” answered Lily.
“Because of money.”
“But we have some money, don’t we?”
“We do. But it’s a different currency.”

Oh. Ohh… I had completely forgotten that issue. Now that she mentioned it, Korwen and the others sometimes mentioned a name with silver and gold coins.

“I think they were called Famiu?”
“That’s right, Yumi. Famiu coins are the most common currency around here. The empire, Lafria and even Krohmea use it. When you go further east down to Bruven or the independent cities, there are a few others in circulation. And then you have Aldreigh. They use this stuff.”

Lily picked up a small pouch and took out a small coin.

“Huh? What’s this? Is this… silver? No… Ehh? Lily, what is that?”
“Ha, surprised, aren’t you?”

Of course, I was. The coin was shimmering in a slight blue to red but otherwise looked like a regular iron coin.

“They call them magic coins. They’re made of some weird magic metal that gives them this unique glow. Nobody quite knows what it is, though. Makes it safe from counterfeiting. Well, other than that it’s really just like a lump of iron.”
“Huh…”

A mysterious metal turned into coins.

“That’s pretty cool. But if they’re safe from counterfeiting, why haven’t we seen this coin before?”

You’d think a currency that couldn’t be forged would be tempting. For merchants and many others.

“Aldreigh strictly regulates the circulation and the number of coins in total. If I had to guess, they simply don’t have the capacity to manufacture enough for widespread circulation.”
“Ah, that makes sense.”

This wasn’t money you could simply print…

“To add to that—and what is our actual problem—foreign currencies are generally not accepted in Aldreigh. They mainly deal with these coins. You can exchange your money if you ask the right merchant but you can expect to lose a lot of money that way.”
“Why would they do that?” asked Karen.
“Beats me. Most of this is what I heard from Papa and… someone else, anyway.”

For a second, I thought there was a conflicted expression coming over Lily, but she immediately lit up again. It might have been just my imagination.

“Either way, with the limited circulation, the Black Guards always had to preserve their stock of magic coins. I assume it’s similar for the Dragon Knights.”
“I see… Then it would be hard to buy something, huh…”
“Yes. I’m sure Papa will take some money with him and I got a few of these myself. But I’d rather not spend them if I can help it, too.”

That was reasonable. If it was hard to get your hands on them…

“By the way, how much would one of these be worth?”
“Worth? Well, that’s hard to say…”

Lily furrowed her brows as she thought about it.

“I’d say one of these would be around three Famiu silver if you actually bought something in Aldreigh with it? If you exchanged them directly for money, it could be easily four or five times that. Assuming you do so outside Aldreigh.”
“Woah, that’s… quite a difference.”

Five times as much in worth?! That was… simply incredible.

“Lily, couldn’t you make money in Aldreigh and then exchange it in Lafria and buy things here then?” asked Rina
“No. Aldreigh has outlawed that. Err, I think it’s because the money they want to keep in the country would flow out of it. Ugh, you’re asking me things I barely know anything about either…”
“Ahaha…”

I could only laugh dryly as I watched Lily troubled by the questions. This clearly wasn’t her area of expertise.

“Sorry…”
“No, it’s fine. Anyway, it’s outlawed. It’s fine if you keep your money or if it’s just a small amount a single time. But anything bigger, I guess, would become a problem.”
“Too bad.”
“Can’t change it.”

It would have been a pretty efficient way to make money. Actually…

“Wouldn’t some people try to do that anyway? Criminals and the like.”
“Now, that’s something I really have no clue about, Yumi.”
“Thought so.”

Would have been surprised if she did. Or maybe worried. After all, Lily was an upstanding citizen… Or not. Did we even count as citizens? Did we pay taxes and stuff like that? Or what—

“Yumi?”
“Mna?!”

Suddenly, something poked my forehead, dragging me back out of my thoughts.

“Oh, that was cute.”
“Sis? What is it?”
“You were already starting to think about something, weren’t you?”
“... Can’t say I do.”
“Don’t lie to me. You suck at it.”
“...”

Well, that was something I probably should keep in mind for the future. But did I sink into thoughts so often that Karen had to poke me?

“Sorry, I was just wondering about a few things.”
“About criminals?”
“Nn? Criminals? Oh, err, in a way.”

Karen regarded me with suspicion. She had just told me I sucked at lying so it was probably no wonder she had read me like a book again. However, she didn’t hound me over it. She really was the best.

“Yumi, don’t get involved with any shady characters. That can’t turn out well.”
“I never intended to, Lily. Believe me, that’s the last thing I’d ever want to get involved with.”

That was something I’d only ever consider if I was at the end of my rope.

“That makes me relieved to hear.”
“Me too.”

I really never planned on becoming a criminal if I could help it, though…  Also, strictly speaking, Karen was the last one who should say that. This little Miss Pickpocket.

“More importantly, how is the bread looking?”
“The bread?”

Everyone turned around to the fire. We had been rather absorbed in our small talk, so they must have forgotten to check on it as well. Fortunately, there were two others with the presence of mind to watch over it.

“The bread is nearly done.”
“Look, Lily, Big Sis, Lil Sis! It’s a lot of bread!”

Yes, it was. Mrs Korwen and Rina had already picked up the bread that was done, leaving only the last batch to roast over the fire.

“You’re right, Rina, that’s a lot.”

A small mountain of Cucus Bread.

“By the way, we still haven’t decided where to store these.”
“Well, where else but your wagon?”
“...”

Yeah, I thought so. Where else…

“I guess that’s the price we have to pay for decent food.”

Or, at least, food that was better than those rations.

“Should we start carrying them to the wagon already? By the end, the remainder should be done, too,” asked Karen.
“That’s a good idea.”
“Nn.”

Unless we wanted Greyward to tell us to get a move on because we were wasting time, of course. Which we definitely didn’t want.

---

Karen, Lily and I carried our new rations into our wagon while Mrs Korwen and Rina watched the remainder. Once those were baked, or roasted, and carried into our wagon, we were finished with everything we needed to prepare for the trip.

And we were just in time, as shortly after someone from the Black Guards delivered a message to get ready to move out. We harnessed a warox to the wagon and Lily steered it towards the meeting point.

“Oh, that’s quite a big group.”
“Most of them seem to be from the Black Guards. But I think a few of them are from the Dragon Knights as well.”
“Nn, I recognise a few faces.”

Sitting on the driver’s bench, we watched the large group of mercenaries, all ready to move out. Greyward was giving a few last instructions before we could leave.

“Including ours, that’s six wagons. Are those really enough?”

There were well over two dozen mercenaries in this group. That left only five of them to sleep in and use for supplies.

“Yumi, one of them is my wagon.”
“... Right. That’s not making it better, Lily.”

It only meant that there were only four of them ready to use for them…

“You have to remember, a good dozen can sleep in one wagon. More if you squeeze a little. Two dozen if you are really desperate.”
“I guess so…”

Maybe my view had become a little skewed since Karen and I had our own wagon now. Didn’t make it better that Lily had her own one as well. Which she now shared with Rina.

“By the way, who is going to steer your wagon, Lily?”
“Mh? Papa, of course.”
“Greyward is?!”
“Yes?”

Well, that was a little surprising…

“Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been able to come along, you know? He doesn’t want to order someone to do it just so we can have it more comfortable, after all.”
“Nn… I see, that does make sense.”
“That’s also why I want Karen to learn how to drive a wagon.”

Yeah, that was a good point. We already had our extra comfort, after all. The least we could do was to take care of it ourselves.

“Don’t worry, it’s not particularly hard.”
“... I’ll do my best.”

Seeing Karen stiffen up like that, Lily couldn’t help but chuckle.

“Everyone, listen up!”
“Oh, it’s starting.”

Right then, Greyward shouted out loud, drawing all of our attention to him.

“We’ll now be moving out to the town of Melfin. Do the last check now. I don’t want to hear anyone crying later they forgot to take their favourite pillow along and can’t sleep, you hear that?”

Laughter and chuckles arose from within the surrounding mercenaries.

“Good. Everyone who has nothing to do, get in the wagons. Don’t stand in the way if you can’t make yourself useful. I’ll take the lead. Remember which wagon is in front of you. That’s all. Prepare to move out!”
“””Ohhh!”””

The mercenaries cheered and began with their final checks.

“We have everything, don’t we?”
“Nn, I think so.”
“Yumi, Rina, do you two want to stay up here on the driver’s bench?”
“As long as we’re not in the way.”

I didn’t mind being alone with Rina but if possible, I wanted to stay with Karen.

“Mmm… Well, as long as you don’t bother Karen while I’m teaching her.”
“I’ll try not to.”
“Okay. I’ll hold you onto that.”

Wasn’t that scary.

“Oh, they’re moving out.”

The first wagon, probably Lily’s, was now moving, taking point. Another wagon followed up right behind it, followed by yet another.

“Okay, here we go.”

Lily spurned the waroxen and we took our place in the caravan.

A little sad how we didn’t even do a proper farewell…

I glance back to the camp. We had simply left without making a big ruckus out of it. In fact, I hadn’t even had the chance to say bye to Fenna, Ria or the others.

“Nn? Sis, look!”
“What is it?”

At that moment, I spotted a few familiar faces in the camp, waving in our direction.

“Look, it’s Emily, Maya and Sele.”
“... You’re right.”

And behind them stood Korwen, smiling wryly as he watched over the three girls. Emily was waving with both arms, jumping up and down. Maya was lifting her arm and waving normally, while Sele was only giving us a meek wave, her arm barely at chest height. Just seeing them like that I could already imagine hearing Emily and Maya shout our names while Sele would barely whisper them.

“Sis, let’s wave back.”
“Sure.”

We waved to the girls and Korwen. Lily and Rina joined in as well. Seeing that we had noticed them, the three girls only grew more energetic.

We kept waving until they were barely as large a dot. For a good while, I glanced towards the distance where the town and the camp were, watching them grow smaller and smaller.

“There we go, huh…”
“We are.”

We had left for the trip to Melfin. All we could do now was hope we’d make it back soon enough.

“Haaa… I already feel like I’m missing them.”
“Hehe, I can understand.”

Those three had grown on me. A lot. They were really good girls.

“Let’s wrap this up as fast as we can and get back to them.”
“Yes.”

That would be the best.

“Maybe we should look for a souvenir for them.”
“We don’t have any money, though.”
“Ugh, you’re right.”

Without money, that’d be indeed hard. Since Aldreigh had its own currency, we didn’t bother the treasurer to give us some money. There wasn’t much of a point to bring currency we couldn’t use.

“Sorry to interrupt you two, but please don’t forget us and delve into your own world. And in the first place, I wanted to teach Karen now.”
“Ahh…”
“Sorry, Lily. I’m ready.”

Karen smiled wryly at me before turning to Lily and picking her up on the offer to be taught about driving.

I listened for a few seconds to them as Lily explained the reins, how to steer the waroxen and what to be careful of.

I better not interrupt them. Lily and Sis would both get mad at me…

Instead, I opted to watch the scenery as it slowly passed us. The town of Auria had grown small now. The lake behind it, however, was growing larger the further we got from it. It was a pretty blue, covering the horizon.

The Grand Spirit Lake, huh… and the Sleeping Forest right next to it.

Only now, that I saw the giant lake together with the forest next to it, did I wonder about it. There was a spirit corpse beneath the forest. Right next to a lake that was named after the spirits. That... couldn’t be a coincidence, could it?

Were there other spirit corpses near the lake? Or rather, why was it called the Grand Spirit Lake? Maybe its story would shed some light on the spirit corpse?

But Lily seems a little busy, right now…

What, with teaching Karen and all that.

“Yes, that’s good, Karen. Now hold onto them and make sure the waroxen don’t steer from the path.”
“O— Okay…”
“Don’t worry, it’s not hard. They’re smart ones.”

Then again, it seemed that Lily had handed the reins to Karen, only watching her from now on. Maybe I could ask her now?

“Hey, Lily, I have a question. Is now good?”
“Mm? Sure, shoot. What is it?”
“Why is the lake called the Grand Spirit Lake?”
“Err… I think that’s because that place used to be a major battlefield during the Great Spirit War. It’s said that hundreds—if not thousands—of spirits died here, their blood gathering in the crater created by the Witch’s magic until it became the lake we now know.”

A crater? And a pool of blood? Seriously, that story was far more messed up than I had been expecting. Just how many spirits died there to create a lake of this size? Also…

“... Does a spirit’s blood turn into water?”
“You’re asking the wrong person.”
“Figured.”

Spirits were something I knew little about but even then I couldn’t imagine their blood turning into water… Well, it was likely the story had been embellished, so it was probably not much use to think about that.

But if there’s even a small bit of truth in that story, then that corpse might really have a relation to the lake…

Or rather, I would be surprised if it was pure coincidence.

“Well, I don’t know how much is true about it but I remember Mama saying that she did fight some spirits there.”
“... The crater isn’t actually her work, is it?”
“Ahahahaha… I asked that as well but she didn’t answer me.”

Okay, that was a little disturbing. Then again, I already knew how outrageous Yumias was anyway. This wouldn’t change much… right?

No, no matter how I think about it creating a giant lake-sized crater is absolutely horrifying.

Assuming it was true… while I couldn’t outright say it wasn’t—knowing what she was capable of, even if it was only a fraction of it—it was still something I simply couldn’t imagine.

“Not like we could confirm it anyway.”
“... Nn, that’s true.”
“A historian might know about it, though. But why the sudden interest?”
“Well, I just saw the lake and the Sleeping Forest right next to it… and, you know… I wondered if there was a connection.”

I hadn’t really thought about it too much before. Only now after I saw the two right next to each, did I wonder if there was more to it.

“Because of what they found beneath the fort?”
“Nn.”
“... I see. There might be a connection. But I can’t tell you for sure.”
“Nn, that’s fine. Didn’t expect you to, anyway.”
“Well now, that hurts me!”

Right, as if.

“Ah, Karen, steer them a little to the left or they’ll drift off. You don’t want to get too close to the edge or you’ll run in danger of getting a wheel stuck.”
“Okay! Like this?”
“Good, that’s exactly it.”

Karen corrected the course a little, her expression still tense.

“Err, where were we… The lake and the forest, right…”
“Nn.”
“I don’t know… Maybe we should ask Papa about it. Or Wendl. He tends to know some weird stuff.”

Not like we had many other options anyway.

“But I certainly can see where you are coming from… It might really be something that was left there during the Great Spirit War.”
“Nn. Which also makes me wonder if it is the only one.”
“... I know that others like it have been found before. But I couldn’t tell you where.”
“I see.”

Guess even Lily wouldn’t know. She might have a good memory but there was no point to it nobody had ever told her about it.

“You definitely should talk with Wendl about it, though. And Ria. And Papa. I mean, it’s part of the reason why we’re going on this trip so it’s better he knows.”
“That’s a good point. I’ll do that.”

Probably should do that when we take a break then.

“By the way, Yumi.”
“Yes?”
“... What do you do in this situation?”
“Huh?”

I was confused by that statement. What situation? Turning around to face Lily, I saw quite a scene. Rina was leaning against Lily. Or rather, she was already halfway into Lily’s lap, dozing. Maybe she was already sleeping even. I couldn’t be sure, but it did seem like she was asleep.

In that case, there was only one proper response.

“Tough it out.”
“Thanks for nothing, Yumi.”

---

And the sky turned crimson, devoured by a fiery blaze.
The ground wailed like a dying spirit, ripped apart at its very seams.
Our very stars rained upon us, bringing the eternal night with them.

And among it all, there was the shade of a person, nay, a child.
A single child, young enough to lay in her mother’s arms.
Her hands raised to the heavens, to our Great Protectors.
Grasping the final hope.

And our Great Protectors fell from heaven.
Their grace, their dignity, their life, robbed.
And the child, the child is laughing.
An innocent giggle, so sickly sweet.
Laughing at the world, at us.

For she knew.

She was the Terminus.
The End of All.

Beyond her

was nothing.