The carriage ran nonstop. The barren land of the North had more places untouched than touched by human hands. The road was barely wide enough for a wagon to pass, and it seemed that even a slight change in direction would cause the wheels to fall off the unruly vines or bushes. As a result, we were moving slowly, but the ground was so uneven that when the wheels got caught in an angular place, my buttocks were literally heaving.
"...Woo woo."
Crazy, motion sickness. Even when I lived as Bae Su-hyun, I never felt so sick. I didn't know if it was physically compatible with a horse, but I felt sick to my stomach every time I moved on a horse. I leaned against the wall with a pale face. I rolled my eyes and looked at the man sitting across from me. In the midst of this chaos with the ceiling and floor shaking, Kyle was steadfastly handling his paperwork. It was as if they existed in a different space.
So I'm the only one on the road like a turtle's carapace, and Kyle is on the flats? Is that so?
"...Aren't you getting motion sickness?" I couldn't resist my curiosity and asked. He looked up at me after looking through the paperwork for a while.
"Not at all. Is it very hard?"
"...I'm going to die."
"Sleep with a sigh."
"..."
Of course, I wanted to sleep. I'd rather faint and ask them to wake me up when I get to the Imperial City. But I couldn't. Damn, the time of 'fetching' isn't that long. It would take three days to get to the Imperial Castle from here, but with only two hours, I would go back to being a hamster in less than half a day. I was still eating the cookies I bought at the store, so I was still holding on.
I rolled my eyes and stared at the system window next to me. It would take only about three and a half hours for 'load' to be lifted.
"Nope... It's okay."
"There are not many villages left. I'll wake you up when you arrive, so keep your eyes on me for now."
"Ugh..."
Even if I wanted to be more stubborn, I didn't have the stamina to do so. I crossed my arms over the hamster house and leaned on my cheeks. Then I quietly called the system. "Hey, come out."
[_:(´ཀ」∠):_ ]`
"..."
...Are you seasick? Could that be?
I stared at the emoji for a moment, puzzled, and then closed my eyes as the carriage rattled once more.
'Hey... System... Alarm me in two hours, let's do...'
If I continued like this, I'd die of motion sickness before I could do anything. Then, with a nodding emoji, a two-hour timer appeared in the air. After the time that was being deducted, I put the [Emergency Light Toffee Nut Candy] that I had taken out of my inventory in advance. In the meantime, this was a temporary measure. Kyle shouldn't be looking into the hamster's house while I'm asleep.
The hard, sweet candy melted softly in my mouth. I felt the sweetness of caramel syrup and went to sleep to live. I felt the wind blowing through my hair through my faint consciousness. When I wake up, I hope it's a village...
Tititititi.
A familiar mechanical sound rang in my head. The regular small noise turned into a different variation when I started ignoring it. After a grand introduction, you could hear the faint sound of "Good morning."
'Let's sleep for 10 more minutes... No, just 5 minutes...'
I frowned and turned my head. Then I tossed and turned to find a more comfortable position. Yes. Just a little more like this...
At that moment, an unexpected chill swept through my whole body. I looked up in amazement. I opened my eyes wide and looked straight ahead, and Kyle was almost within reach of my nose.
"What... What, what?" The words came out like a broken answering machine. I reflexively bit myself and grabbed the hamster house tighter. Kyle looked at me like that, and then spoke in a nonchalant voice.
"I tried to get him off, uncomfortably." His gaze touched the hamster house I was holding.
Wrong, man. It's not the hamster house that is uncomfortable, but the carriage.
"You say it's okay. Rather... Did you stop?"
I didn't feel the rattling movement anymore. I glanced at the quiet floor and looked out the window. I saw the people who should be in the carriage gathered together and chatted among themselves.
"I thought it would be good to take a break, so I paused for a while. There are some other people who get motion sickness."
"It's more amazing that I don't get motion sickness..."
"...When you wake up, get off for a while."
I sighed and nodded. I hugged the hamster's house and pushed my buttocks toward it, and Kyle reached out again.
"No!"
"..."
I quickly got out of the carriage before he could add anything else. Still, the wind blew a little farther away from the castle, and I felt a strange spring energy. Of course, when I looked around, most of them were pure white snow.
'By the way...'
The chill I just felt seemed to be the effect of toffee nut candy. Even if there was a ghost behind me, I wouldn't have felt that way. I was surprised to the point of being uncomfortable. Somehow, they gave me 5 miracle values of 0.5... The remaining four were sealed forever.
"I'm about to make the next move."
I couldn't keep eating cookies and hugging the hamster's house. In this way, not only would I run out of miracle numbers, but I might also turn into a hamster in the carriage. Then, the trust I'd built up so far would collapse in an instant...
"I'm sure you're a wizard."
And they would think that I lied. From Kyle's point of view, of course, it made sense to feel that way. A person suddenly turns into a hamster, but what can be explained if it is not magic? No, I don't know if magic can do this. Above all, since he had come into contact with him in the form of Cashew and Shu, he couldn't avoid the misunderstanding that he approached him to take advantage of him. Even if they said no, who would believe it when there was clear evidence?
I shook my head and shook off my thoughts. To avoid that, I had to find a way out from now on.
"It's a little further from here, isn't it?"
"That's right. It used to be half-destroyed by a demon beast, but recently it has regained some vitality."
"It's all thanks to His Highness Kyle's hard work."
"That's right. You're amazing."
I listened intently to their stories. Village. After all, this was because the village was once destroyed by the demons, right? At that moment, a brilliant idea came to my mind. I sneaked into their group and talked about the topic.
"Fortunately, it seems to have been rebuilt a lot. I haven't been able to visit since I lost my whole family."
"Family? Was that your hometown?"
"Yes, it's been a while since I left."
"You mean you lost your whole family..."
"It's a long time ago. It was an unfortunate accident... It's still empty, but I miss my hometown. I want to say hello to my parents. It would be nice if I could stay for a while."
"That's the story..."
"If you tell Your Highness, you will definitely be happy to help!"
"Of course! What kind of person is His Highness!"
The impressed users said that they would help, and their eyes lit up. I pretended to wipe the corner of my eye with my index finger and glanced in Kyle's direction. While talking to one of the drivers, he didn't seem to pay attention to it.
I chewed the treats that the servants had put in my mouth, put them in my pockets, and put them on top of the hamster's house, and I got back into the carriage. Meanwhile, Kyle had just finished talking with the driver and had just boarded the carriage.
"What is it all about?"
"Snacks. Would you like to have it?"
He sat across from me and chuckled without answering. This was often the case these days. Kyle looked at me and smiled for no reason, and when I turned my head to find him, it wasn't hard to make eye contact.
'...It's embarrassing.'
I rolled my eyes and unwrapped the biscuits. Then I held him a piece. Kyle looked at me for a moment, then leaned over and took a bite of the biscuit in my hand. No, man. Take it with your hands, with your hands.
"Do you taste better with my hands?"
"Not quite."
"Pamper me a lot, a lot."
While I was grumbling, the carriage started to run down the road again. Perhaps because the horses were well rested, the carriage continued to move forward even though the road was still rough. Thanks to you, I tasted like death again.
Kyle couldn't watch my complexion gradually turn pale, and he put me on his lap, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to tell if this was the place or the other by the time I got to the village.
How long did I run? The carriage, which seemed to never stop, slowly slowed down.
"Ugh..."
I made a sound similar to a zombie and stepped out of the carriage. Unlike the previous settlement, which was more like a forest, a small village spread out in front of me.
'It's busier than I thought.'
It was almost destroyed by the attack of the Demon Beast, and except for a few buildings, it was no different from Blake's estate. It's just a small scale, but the market seemed to be standing.
Kyle got off after him and saw that all the drivers and users were gathered, and after a 10-minute break, he said that he would leave immediately. It was still a long time before the Imperial City, so it seemed a little rushed.
As Kyle finished speaking, I raised my hand. Everyone's eyes were focused on me.
"I'm going to stay here for a while and then I'm leaving."
"What are you talking about?"
"Because this is my hometown. Since I came here in a short time, I thought I'd take a look around."
"Leaving is unacceptable for any reason."
"Don't worry... I'll pick it up right away."
"It's your hometown, Your Highness!" With a booming voice, one of the servants raised his voice.
"Yes. It seems that he lost his family and flowed all the way to Blake's estate, and he suffered so much all the way to the territory with such a thin body."
"That's right. He didn't talk about me at all, so he brought up his hometown first."
They started helping me here and there. There were arguments that it was pitiful and that a horse and a map would come by itself. Although it was impossible in principle, it seemed that non-combat personnel would be tolerated at least a little bit of stopping by their hometown.
Kyle stared at me with a hint of reluctance, and finally nodded with a sigh.
"Shu." He held out a heavy-looking pouch in front of me. I was wondering what to do with it because I didn't have any hands, but he ended up taking the hamster house from my arms.
"With this money, you can ride the best carriage in town. You can use all of them."
"...Thank you."
"Really... Would you mind if I went alone?"
I heard a voice of concern overhead. I was silent for a moment, then muttered to myself, avoiding his gaze.
"I'm not even a kid. It's been a long time since I've been here, so I want to see you together. Family."