East Road Quest

Chapter 61: Roses and Tribulations

Ruby, with a cloth bag filled with bread and cheese slung over her shoulder, stepped out once again towards the chapel.

Jade, accompanied by Sapph, followed him and asked, “Just to be sure, are the people currently surrounding our village and approaching us really coming to kill us?”

“It might not be the case. They could be the so-called Aquilia Patrol led by Deolon as a guide, or just travelers who happened to meet Deolon and are coming along without any particular intent,” Ruby replied, walking leisurely across the chapel towards the main gate.

“Though they seem to be armed, not everyone who carries a sword is a murderer, and not everyone who sneaks through the broken parts of the wall, avoiding the castle guards’ eyes, is necessarily an assassin. After all, the gate security here is practically non-existent.”

Ruby finished his thought as he opened the church door and stepped out into the village first.

“However, it’s better to act on the assumption that they are coming for us rather than the hope that they might not be.”

The village was almost silent.

In cities like Rome or Pompeii, people would be bustling even at midnight, but most villages succumbed to darkness and silence once the sun set.

“You’re too relaxed for someone who’s moving on the assumption that they’re coming for us,” Jade remarked.

Like a storm in the desert, Ruby flung the chain from his wrist to Jade.

Jade grasped the chain, and Sapph took Jade’s hand as they walked.

“I’m actually quite relaxed. Why is that?” Ruby inquired.

“I had about twenty questions prepared, but you’ve answered them all already,” Jade said, recalling the moments of fear when he looked back at unseen pursuers from Rome and the worries and fears he had faced before the red desert.

Even though there was no need for such worries now, they had become inevitable.

As they walked through the darkness, Ruby asked, “Speaking of Deolon’s Holy Grail, if we go to the Eastern Kingdom, do you think you can find it?”

“To be honest, I don’t know. When we started this journey, I thought Father Daniel would take care of everything,” Jade admitted, looking back at Sapph, who nodded in agreement.

“So, even if the Holy Grail were right in front of you, you might not recognize it?” Ruby prodded.

“It’s better not to use that word so carelessly, even if there’s no one around to hear,” Jade warned.

Ruby suggested, “Alright. From now on, let’s refer to it as ‘the rose.’”

“Why a rose of all things?” Jade questioned.

“Would you prefer a chrysanthemum?” Ruby countered.

“I was asking why it has to be a flower,” Jade clarified.

“How about a mushroom then? A pine mushroom.”

“No, a rose is fine. So, if we’re going to express it in terms of a rose, would it go something like this?” Jade pondered, recalling what the monks at Zerba Monastery had said.

“A woman in the Eastern Kingdom found a rose by a well. She didn’t recognize it as a rose and kept it for a while. Then one day, she poured water on the rose, and when it overflowed, she was so amazed that she presented it to the kingdom. The royal court debated for a long time whether it was a real rose or not… Hmm, this story has turned out a bit strange.”

“I understood all of it. In the end, the rose looked so ordinary that even if you saw it, you wouldn’t know it was a rose,” Ruby said with a know-it-all tone.

“So how do you plan to find it? Are you going to the royal family of the Eastern Kingdom to ask what a rose looks like and then pour water on every rose? It might take longer than finding the land of angels.”

Jade was at a loss for words and remained silent, but then Sapph suddenly said, “Clerics don’t bask in warmth during winter nor strip off clothes in summer heat.”

As Ruby turned to look, Sapph quickly added, “And having plenty of food doesn’t mean indulging in lavish meals.”

“That’s why you’re so thin. You hardly weigh anything when lifted,” Ruby quipped.

Sapph shook his head and explained, “What is obtained without tribulation isn’t genuine. The human soul is frail; it weakens when it becomes idle. You might say it’s different for angels.”

Surprisingly, Ruby agreed, “True. Elves, orcs, humans, and even mages create tribulations for themselves if none exist. Just look at Jade’s mess.”

“Why are you aiming the arrow at me?” Jade asked, his voice low in the darkness, as if someone might be listening. But even if someone were, it seemed unlikely they would understand their conversation.

“Jade, you’ve hardly struggled in life. That’s why your light magic is weak.”

“Not knowing what you mean by a mage’s tribulation, I can’t say I’ve suffered much until now,” Jade replied.

“You wouldn’t understand the magnitude of that tribulation even if I told you,” Ruby said dismissively.

Sapph spoke again.

“I wonder why, if the Divine wanted to bestow roses upon us, they didn’t place them in the heart of the Vatican gardens but rather let them descend into a well in a small rural village in the eastern kingdom,” she pondered.

“Then it must be a gift to the eastern kingdom. The holy scripture we read earlier didn’t specifically state ‘I shall grant roses to the west,’ so there’s no bias.”

“That’s not it. The roses did appear to the people of the east, but in the end, they lost them.”

“People lose things all the time. It doesn’t mean it was divine providence deciding to give the roses to the west.”

“That’s exactly my point. The Divine has given us a trial.”

“A trial with overflowing roses? How sacred indeed.”

Jade intervened to prevent another argument between the two.

“Enough. For now, we should only focus on traveling to the eastern kingdom. We can discuss the roses once we arrive there.”

“What happened to the rose expedition that went long before? The what was it… the Round Table Knights?”

Ruby asked.

Jade immediately responded.

“…and the Holy Knights. As far as I know, both have been missing for a while.”

“Was the search for the roses prohibited after that?”

As they conversed, they had unknowingly reached the northern gate of Fairbank Village.

“There were also repercussions from the Holy Land Restoration War, making it a sensitive issue.”

“If it’s such a sensitive matter, a single decree could close all ports leaving the Mediterranean. Then our path through the Dark Forest to the Elven port would be the right one.”

Ruby concluded, and Jade agreed.

“If you hadn’t been here, even knowing this, I would have gone to the ports of Saint Paul or Pisa, worrying endlessly about assassins and trackers. I would have bribed customs or used the illegal ports frequented by pirates.”

“You’d use a pirate ship with a young girl like Sapph?”

Ha. Ha. Ha. “The seafarers would pamper us, trimming our nails while comfortably transporting us to the eastern port.”

“I don’t like the sound of that.”

Sapph retorted.

“Then you heard right. It was sarcasm. A pretty girl like you should stay hidden while traveling! Cover your face more!”

Ruby gestured to lower the priestly hat Sapph was wearing.

Jade was surprised by an unexpected detail.

“Ruby, even you think Sapph is pretty?”

“What’s so strange about that?”

“I thought your standards of beauty would be different.”

“Even by those standards, Sapph is pretty. The same will be said in the eastern kingdom. Even the elves will think so. I’m not sure about the orcs. Their aesthetic perspective is completely different from ours. They keep telling me how cute I am. Does that make sense? Stupid orcs!”

Jade had the urge to tell Ruby that the orcs might be right.

Ruby lifted the heavy bolt on the northern gate and opened the door, saying,

“My point is, because Sapph has ‘such an appearance,’ it’s going to cause trouble. In the eastern countries, women wear clothes that cover their faces, and I’d like to dress Sapph in them too.”

Ruby was holding the wooden bolt, which usually required three strong men to lift, with just three fingers.

Ruby opened the gate just enough for one person to pass through and instructed,

“You two, go ahead.”

After Jade and Sapph left, Ruby closed the gate. For a moment, Jade and Sapph were left alone.

The sound of the bolt being secured from the inside was heard.

“What are you doing, Ruby?”

Jade asked.

“I’m trying to leave without drawing attention. The guards at the gate aren’t very diligent. They’re not even watching us right now. If I bolt the gate like this, they won’t know we’ve left. Considering we might be pursued later, it’s better if they don’t know which gate we used.”

Jade felt uneasy just holding Ruby’s chain. It was like a frightened puppy whose leash had been dropped by its owner, even though Ruby was the one shackled!

Outside the gate was a vast plain that stretched out immediately. There were almost no hills or mountains in sight, just grassland, as desolate as the red desert.

‘So this is the beginning of the Kuman plains.’ Indeed, the landscape was different when seen on a map compared to in person. The desert had its own charm, and the plains had their own overwhelming aspects.

Sapph looked up at the ramparts and asked,

“Isn’t Ruby coming down from there?”

Jade looked up belatedly and saw Ruby standing atop the ramparts, three times the height of an adult.

“Ruby?”

Jade called out.

In that instant, Ruby disappeared into the darkness.

“Huh?”

As Jade uttered a single word, Ruby’s calm voice was heard.

“Both of you, stay right where you are.”

The next moment, a sharp metallic sound sliced through the wind. Something heavy fell behind the two.

Then Ruby landed with a light movement.

Jade stood motionless, heeding Ruby’s warning, only managing to slightly turn her head to glance behind.

At Ruby’s feet lay a figure clad in black, fallen. Ruby’s iron chain was bound around the assailant’s ankle.

“Who are you?” Ruby demanded, her voice raised.

As if by magic, a dagger appeared in the bare hands of the assailant. He swung the dagger, aiming for Ruby’s face.

Ruby deftly stepped back, and in that moment, the assailant freed himself from the chain and fled.

“Where do you think you’re going!” Ruby shouted, lashing out with her chain.

The assailant sprinted towards the wall of the fortress, and the chain followed, flying through the air in pursuit. Then, in an instant, the assailant vanished into the wall as if melting into it.

The chain struck the empty fortress wall, shattering only stone fragments.

“Huh?” Ruby murmured in surprise, then leapt atop the ramparts. She scanned the opposite side and then cried out again.

“Huh? Where did he go?”

“What, what happened?” Sapphire asked, startled by the sudden turn of events.

Ruby descended from the wall and replied, “They surrounded us quicker than I thought. Was I too slow?”

She looked up at the wall with a lingering gaze.

“Was it one of those trackers?” Jade inquired.

“It seems so. To think he was so close and I didn’t notice. If I had known he was that strong, I wouldn’t have been so lenient when I pulled him in,” Ruby said, clicking her tongue in frustration.

“If he’s alive, he’ll bring his own, won’t he?” Jade asked.

“Of course. It’s going to be tough to fight those strange magic users while protecting you two. Let’s hurry,” Ruby urged, leading the way.

This time, her pace was not the considerate slow walk they were used to. Jade and Sapphire had to nearly run to keep up.