Outing
The high autumn sky and the foliage dyed in brilliant colors.
Even that would not last much longer.
Everything was turning to fallen leaves, becoming a blanket that would cover the ground.
It was late autumn.
Beautiful.
Looking up at a landscape she had only ever gazed down upon thousands of times felt fresh and new.
Perhaps that was why Baldrova could not bring herself to take another step.
The sensation of becoming part of that scenery felt far too precious.
An outing…
Not a sortie simply to thrash monsters, but an outing she was taking just for the sake of her own mood.
It was nothing special, yet she could not calm the pounding in her chest.
What if she made a mistake?
She must not make a mistake…
Repeating that to herself, she drew a deep breath, and at last she set her feet in motion.
What does the village Ferda built look like?
After centuries of seclusion, Baldrova was encountering a village for the first time.
It was none other than the village being raised at the foot of Baldrova Castle.
This… is a village?
In Baldrova’s last memories, houses had been built of stone, earth, and wood.
Yet what stood here now?
Nothing but tents.
People were gathered around the tents, hard at work.
How terribly things have declined in the meantime.
Baldrova could not help feeling pity.
From what she had heard from Ruri, they had surely been prospering…
Had Ruri lied so that she would not worry?
“Hey there, mister—who are you?”
While she stood staring blankly, someone approached.
Baldrova startled and whipped her head around.
It was a man in his thirties who looked as though he had tumbled around on rough ground quite a bit.
Baldrova found herself overwhelmed by the sight of him.
It was not simply because his face looked rough.
A human spoke to me.
It was purely a symptom of her social anxiety.
A human other than Ferda had casually walked up and asked who she was.
For a moment Baldrova felt as though time itself had stopped.
What should she answer? Should she run away?
“What’s this, why so quiet? Did you take a vow of silence or something, mister?”
A vow of silence?
She had no idea what that was, but Baldrova nodded anyway.
The man pressed no further and accepted it.
“Ahh, so that’s it. A knight who swore an oath to Alte, eh. You a wanderer hoping to receive a knighthood at Baldrova Castle?”
She shook her head vigorously.
“Is that so? Then you’re probably a fellow from a knightly house who switched over to adventuring… Looks like you came a bit too early, though. We’re right in the middle of building the village. We’ve got to get the houses up first, damn it…”
The man clucked his tongue.
Baldrova tilted her head and pointed a finger at the tents.
Weren’t the houses right there?
“Huh? What are you talking about? Those are just temporary shelters until the village is finished—they ain’t houses!”
Ah, so those were not houses.
Baldrova scratched her head awkwardly.
“Still wet behind the ears about the world, aren’t you. Well, it happens. Those are temporary lean-tos. What we need now are proper shared barracks—houses that can keep out the winter wind and let you warm your hands by a real fire. If we don’t get them up quick, we won’t make it through the winter warm.”
“……”
“They say they’re putting out notices in the Empire to bring in more people, but hell if anyone’s actually applied. Know why?”
She shook her head.
“Plenty of folks don’t want to get dragged off to the front lines, right? I’d feel the same. Life inside the Barrier is hard enough—what’s the world outside going to be like? Young people these days would rather shiver and die inside the Empire. No guts, no guts at all.”
“……”
“So, mister. You any good with your strength?”
Strength…
A woman who had nothing but strength to her name.
That was why she was a dragon called the Lord of Fire and Strength.
Baldrova nodded, though without much confidence.
“As it happens, we’ve got a few people like you already. I’m the work-site foreman for this construction. If you’re strong, how about lending us a hand? I won’t stop you if you’ve got somewhere else to go, but if you want to work out here in the far east, we need to finish as fast as we can, right?”
The man offered her a labor contract.
She looked like a knight-turned-adventurer, yet manpower was scarce enough that he did not hesitate.
Hearing the proposal, Baldrova glanced around once more.
People living in tents.
They wore quilted clothes, yet still hunched their shoulders against the cold wind.
They look very cold.
Sleeping inside those tents would be even colder.
Then what I can do for them is…
After a moment’s thought, Baldrova nodded.
“As expected of adventurers… Wait—you’ll do it?”
Nod, nod.
“Huh.”
The man stared at her with round eyes, as if she were some kind of freak.
In truth, the foreman had made the same offer to other adventurers any number of times, but this was the first time anyone had accepted.
Who would want to do hard manual labor like this?
“All right then. I’ll speak to the administrator. My name’s Hanson. Just call me Foreman… Ah, right, you took a vow of silence. When work needs doing I’ll give you a token later so you can send for me with that.”
Nod, nod.
“Before we get started, though… how about taking that armor off?”
“?”
The armor? This?
Baldrova pointed at her own helmet.
“Yeah, that armor.”
Clank!
Baldrova flinched hard and shook her head fiercely.
“How are you supposed to work wearing that?”
Shake, shake!
“We’re all men here—no need to stand on ceremony. Or is it that you can’t show your face?”
Nod, nod!
“Well now. Can’t show your face, took a vow of silence. You’re a mysterious fellow.”
Hanson tried a few more times to get her to remove it, then gave up.
What did the clothes matter?
As long as she could put her strength to use, that was enough.
Hanson put her straight to work.
He walked with Baldrova over to the pile of log materials.
“See these logs here? You’ve got to get every last one of them over to the fellow sawing on that side. Simple, right?”
Nod, nod.
“All right, head over to that far end. We’ll lift them together and load them onto the carts one by one. Ready—one, two, heave…?”
Something was wrong.
He put his back into it and stood, yet there was strangely no resistance at all.
The only way that would be possible was if the timber had been made by packing feathers together.
Hanson looked down at his hands on a hunch.
The log was floating in the air.
The knight standing opposite him had lifted it alone.
With one hand, no less.
As if it weighed nothing at all.
That helmet stared straight at the foreman.
Where should she put this?
“Uh, you can just set it over th…ere.”
The casual “mister” vanished and honorifics popped out instead.
Baldrova simply moved and began transferring the logs.
She gripped the end of a log and walked with it just like that.
Even someone who claimed to be strong could not hold a pillar by the tip and keep it steady.
“Is it… not heavy for you?”
Nod, nod.
When Baldrova showed no sign of strain at all, Hanson asked her on a further hunch.
“Could you lift two as well?”
Baldrova nodded and hoisted two with ease.
Again with one hand.
“How many more do you think you could manage…?”
“?”
Baldrova tilted her head.
She did not know either.
Well, she could find out starting now, couldn’t she?
In that fashion she lifted them one by one until she was holding a stack of ten logs.
She was already carrying a load that would fill two carts all by herself.
“……”
Hanson stared open-mouthed at the spectacle.
He was not the only one astonished by the display of strength.
“What the hell is that?”
“Is he really holding all of that alone?”
Naturally, the eyes of everyone working on the construction site were drawn to her.
A figure in full knight’s armor carrying ten logs at a time—plenty of people began to murmur.
Is this wrong?
The weight of all those stares made Baldrova flinch with sudden fear, and she set the logs down at once.
Her action snapped Hanson out of it; he shouted toward the onlookers.
“What are you staring at, you lot! Get back to your own work!”
After he growled and threatened them, the laborers returned to their places one by one.
Hanson approached Baldrova and soothed her.
“There now, Sir Knight. Don’t you worry. Anyone treating you like a sideshow will get their heads cracked open by this Hanson himself and set straight!”
Hanson chopped the air with the edge of his hand and made little whooshing sounds with his mouth.
To him, Baldrova was an A-rank talent more desperately needed than anyone.
After that careful coaxing, Baldrova resumed the work.
Even if he had not spoken so far, she had already intended to continue.
I have to build the houses quickly.
She wanted to help them sleep in warm houses before the northern chill came flowing down.
So that, at least while they slept, they could rest without worry.
That was the best a short-sighted person like her could do for them.
“We’ll stop here for today. You’ve worked hard, Sir Knight!”
Baldrova looked up at the sun along with the foreman.
It was tilting toward the west.
Thinking there was still time left, she started to move to keep working, but Hanson held her back.
“Ah, no need for that. The sun’s going down, isn’t it? When the sun sets we sleep and look forward to tomorrow. Everyone’s worn out, right?”
Ah, so that was it.
Baldrova nodded.
Hanson headed toward the place where people were gathering.
There they returned their tokens and collected the day’s wages.
Hanson submitted Baldrova’s share as well and received the money.
Coming back with the coin purse, Hanson grumbled.
“Damn bastards. You did in one day what four men would take a week to finish, and they won’t even give you fifteen shares—just ten. Aren’t they filthy?”
She did not really understand.
So she simply nodded.
“Anyway, the problem is the people up top. That regent fellow Ferda must have ordered it this way! A young punk pinching pennies like a miser… hup!”
Hanson hastily shut his mouth.
He could feel eyes glaring at him from the shadow of that helmet.
“Ah, I’m sorry. Even so, speaking ill of a noble in front of a knight was out of line, wasn’t it? Please understand. Just the grumbling of a middle-aged man who’s never achieved anything.”
“……”
“I’d love to empty my own purse for you if I could, but please accept this for now. In return I’ll serve as a connection that can be a great help to you later as an adventurer—how does that sound?”
Anyone with even a little ear for the adventuring trade would have known how empty those words were.
But Baldrova could not even begin to grasp what the man was saying right now.
So she simply nodded once more.
“Hahaha! Your generosity really is different! Here you are.”
Hanson held out a heavy pouch to Baldrova.
The clinking sound from inside the pouch was familiar to her ears.
It sounds like the gold coins piled in the vault.
Similar to the sound they made when she tapped them with a claw.
Baldrova accepted the pouch.
“Come to think of it, Sir Knight—this is your first time here. Do you have lodgings? If not, I could prepare a simple cot for you…”
Experiencing human life was enjoyable, but she could not stay here.
Baldrova nodded, then unthinkingly stretched a finger toward the Lonely Mountain.
Then, realizing her mistake, she pointed in the opposite direction instead.
“You’re planning to leave for good?”
Hanson’s face grew troubled as he spoke.
When Baldrova shook her head, his expression recovered.
“Ah, so you’ll just be lodging somewhere else. Understood. Whenever you want to help with the construction, please come. Having someone like you around is more reassuring than you know!”
Unable to answer with words, Baldrova simply nodded over and over.
I need to leave this place quickly.
With that thought she turned her steps away.
“Sir Knight?”
“?”
“You said you were going home. Where are you headed?”
Baldrova’s feet were pointed toward the Lonely Mountain.
Ah.
That wasn’t the way.
Looking sheepish, Baldrova turned around and walked in the direction she had indicated.
At the sight, Hanson burst into loud laughter.
“Take care getting back! Don’t run into any monsters!”
With that farewell she moved farther from the village.
Once the village was no longer visible to the naked eye, Baldrova made a wide circle and headed for her lair.
The time it took to return was three seconds—an instant.
Pushing open the great iron gates and coming back to her nest, Baldrova simply lay down.
Still wearing her armor, she looked up at the pitch-black ceiling.
What was that?
It had been a strange day.
Truly, the day had flown by like an arrow.
She had not been tired, yet she still did not understand what had happened.
She had simply moved over and over, and people had admired her.
Did I… help?
The dazed feeling that that alone had been enough.
Baldrova untied the bundle she had laid on her chest.
Ten copper coins per laborer.
Ten shares made one hundred in total.
She stacked them neatly and gazed down at them in silence.
Money given to her by humans.
Money they gave me with thanks.
They had been grateful.
They said they’d see me again tomorrow.
In Baldrova’s mind their faces rose vividly.
Not faces trembling with fear, but faces smiling brightly.
Humans want me.
She did not know how to express this swelling emotion.
She only wanted to share this joy that felt ready to burst her chest.
“Ruri…”
The first to come to mind was the girl who knew her well.
The kind-hearted child who had served her for so long.
“……I can’t tell her.”
Baldrova reflexively covered her mouth.
Loyal, yet scarier than anyone when angry.
She would certainly start lecturing about a dragon’s dignity and the like.
It would only increase the heartache they caused each other, so she would keep it secret.
She needed someone else to share it with besides Ruri.
“Then… Ferda?”
A kind man.
She always needed topics to talk about with him.
This was a good topic among topics.
Her heart tickled.
She found herself grinning foolishly for no reason, and her body moved restlessly on its own as if it did not know what to do.
She wanted Ferda to scratch this feeling for her.
No, still not yet.
Baldrova hugged the copper pouch tightly to her chest.
She wanted to tell Ferda, but not now.
This village was being built by Ferda’s will.
She wanted to gather the coins carefully and give them to him as a gift that would truly surprise him.
Someday, when this village prospered, she wanted to say that she had been the one who raised its main pillars.
That she had built it with her own hands.
That destruction was not the only thing she could do.
She wanted to see the expression he would make.
She wanted to hear what praise he would offer.
So she decided to hide it carefully away.
Even so, it felt too wasteful to keep this feeling only in her heart, and it slipped unbidden from her lips.
“Ferda…”
Baldrova spoke the name tenderly.
“I… I was able to help you, Ferda.”
That was the single step Baldrova had taken.
The beginning of a small change.