Chapter 34
The next morning, a convoy of nearly two hundred people rolled out through the gates of Megalith City.
At its head rode the knight squires of Viscount House Fris, led by Grand Knight Chalmers Fris.
Behind them, stretching toward the middle of the line, trudged commoners pushing handcarts.
Some of those commoners had hard, vicious faces. A few still wore shackles on their ankles.
The Church's carriage traveled at the center of the convoy. Elise rode inside with Lina, Wylan, and Lia, who had "volunteered to atone."
The Church's knights brought up the rear, trailed by a cluster of commoners whose faces held equal parts fear and longing.
Wylan's father, Tobin—the man who had stolen bread and had yet to finish serving his sentence—walked among them.
Open new territory, mobilize the commoners, exile the criminals... rulers really do run the same playbook everywhere.
Elise gazed out the carriage window at the slow crawl of the convoy toward the Pyreflame Woods, and her head began to ache.
She hadn't expected them to move this slowly.
At this pace, reaching the Crimsonwood camp would take three days.
Fortunately, the convoy carried more than Church Awakened. Grand Knight Chalmers Fris rode with his squires, and Lofnar, a Prime Second-tier Silver Dwarf, had joined as an escort.
Elise doubted anyone would be foolish enough to attack such a shabby-looking convoy. Most of its people were commoners and convicts.
With that thought, she gave Megalith City one last, lingering look, then shut the window.
Inside the carriage, Elise spread out the map and studied it again.
The Blythean Empire occupied the most livable lands in Aurelia's northern hemisphere.
Icefields to the north. Deserts, highlands, and broken hills to the west. The sea to the east. Vast rainforests sprawling south.
Three of the empire's six vassal kingdoms lay in the south—which said everything about how thankless expansion into the Pyreflame Woods had always been.
If the Convergence of Planes hadn't caught the Church of Light off guard this time, Elise suspected that vast, damp, sweltering land would have stayed monster territory for a long while yet.
"The southern expansion is the manageable one. The real danger lies in the sea, the icefields, the deserts, and the highlands."
Elise put the map away.
For a moment, she felt strangely grateful to have transmigrated to the southern edge of the Blythean Empire.
That gratitude evaporated the next day, once they entered the Pyreflame Woods.
Commoners were painfully fragile in the forest.
After leaving the carriages behind in Ignis, they had walked only a short stretch before Elise personally treated three injured civilians.
One had eaten something foul and wrecked his stomach.
One had taken a fall and couldn't walk.
The third, a hot-tempered fool, had gotten himself hurt in a fistfight.
Elise felt she had officially seen it all. Humanity's variety never ceased to amaze.
By the end of a full day, they had covered less than half the distance to the Crimsonwood camp.
Night fell.
Settling nearly two hundred people in a forest was an education all its own.
With insects droning in the dark, Elise stood outside the central tent and personally oversaw the convoy as it finished making camp.
Roar!
A monster's cry tore through the distance.
"Light above!"
"Gods, I regret signing up for the new city."
"Crimsonwood won't get attacked by monsters, will it?"
"I'm more worried about cultists in the night."
The commoners whispered nervously among themselves.
Elise was a Second-tier High Cleric. Her sharpened spirit caught every word as she scanned the perimeter, and a helpless look crossed her face.
Monsters attacking Crimsonwood?
Archbishop Norias was stationed there.
Cultists, out here?
What would they come for—the pots and pans?
Or had they somehow learned she wasn't carrying the spell scrolls the Church had issued?
Elise was confident she could keep the convoy safe.
Crack. Snap.
As she mused, the sound of branches breaking underfoot approached.
A dwarf barely four feet tall walked over.
Thick beard, large eyes, weathered skin, and a wild tangle of hair.
Lofnar. Prime Second-tier silver dwarf, one of the Awakened escorts.
In Elise's old impression, dwarves were honest, generous, and bold.
But this Lofnar...
She was not impressed.
"Honored High Cleric Elise, I require a little fine ale to help me sleep."
Lofnar's cheeks glowed red. He looked every inch the drunk.
"Mister Lofnar, we are inside the dangerous Pyreflame Woods," Elise said, nearly laughing from sheer exasperation.
The previous night, camped outside Ignis, Lofnar had taken two large jars of ale off her hands and drunk himself into a stupor.
Now they were deep in the forest, and he still wanted alcohol?
With "help me sleep" as his excuse?
Absolutely not.
"High Cleric Elise, my ale." Lofnar spread his hands, utterly shameless. "In fact, I'd like all my things back."
Elise's eye twitched.
At departure, Lofnar had acted like a perfectly normal dwarf and asked her to carry a few of his belongings in her spatial item.
Elise was an ordinary Second-tier Awakened whom the Church had appointed convoy leader. Naturally, she'd extended some courtesy to Lofnar, a Prime Second-tier.
Who could have guessed?
The man was a scoundrel.
Fine. She would handle this strictly by the book.
You want your things back?
Certainly.
Pay up.
"My spatial bracelet is good for a little over a thousand uses. Each opening runs two gold coins. Remind me—what is your ale worth?"
If Lofnar actually paid, that would be the true miracle.
His eyes rolled, and he cried out in theatrical anguish, "Earth Mother, what am I hearing? High Cleric Elise, I am your teammate!"
The shout drew attention.
Lina and Lia (Liliarthys), who had been resting in the tent, came out to look.
Elise very nearly drew her staff and introduced him to a [Holy Light Arrow].
In the end, after weighing it, she produced all of Lofnar's belongings and said gravely, "I will be reporting your conduct in full to Mister Rofhak."
"He'll commend me for it," Lofnar said with a sly grin.
The dwarves had come to help the Church of Light build its city, which made them guests.
So long as they did nothing truly outrageous and didn't botch their assigned duties, a bit of drinking would earn a scolding at worst.
Lofnar didn't fear a scolding from the Third-tier golden dwarf Rofhak.
He simply refused to acknowledge Elise's authority.
He was a Prime Second-tier silver dwarf, a guest sent by the Farpeak Clan to assist the Church—and the Church expected him to take orders from Elise, a freshly minted High Cleric.
It galled him.
So he'd decided to slack off.
Drink, boast, stir up trouble. Nothing serious was likely to happen anyway.
And if something did happen, Elise held command. Whatever price fell on Lofnar would be small.
"Honored High Cleric Elise, faithful servant of the God of Light—I, Chalmers, greet you. The camp arrangements are complete."
Sensing trouble the moment Lofnar squared off against Elise, Chalmers had hurried over and offered her full ceremony in front of everyone.
In that moment, Elise sincerely felt that nobles might rank above dwarves after all.
Look at Lofnar—playing the fool, stirring the pot on purpose.
Then look at Chalmers.
Elise dearly wanted to break the ale jar over the dwarf's head.
She drew a deep breath to steady herself and was about to smile and commend Chalmers—
"Roar!"
A monster's bellow erupted less than forty feet away.
"Ah!"
"A flying lion?!"
"Gods, a monster!"
"Knight! Save me!"
Terrified screams burst from the commoners.
A flying lion?
This was the edge of the Pyreflame Woods. What monster would strike a human camp here?
Shock flashed through Elise's mind—but her hand had already cast [Holy Light] on pure instinct.
Under the milky-white radiance, a griffin stood revealed before them all.
It had pinned an exiled criminal in ankle shackles, and now it rose, gathering itself to lunge at one of the Fris family squires.
"A flamewing griffin!" Chalmers blurted.
"Earth Mother, why is there a griffin here?" Even Lofnar was stunned.
"Monster."
"Can we eat it?"
"Tch."
Lina, Lia, and Tymis all spoke at nearly the same moment.
"Stop it!"
Elise read the monster's mana strength—and spotted the wound on its left wing.
In the same breath, she decided to make some extra money.
A high-level Second-tier griffin-type monster.
Bring it down, and the spoils would be worth hundreds of gold coins. Perhaps a thousand.
What she didn't expect was for Lofnar to make trouble yet again.
Just as Elise slipped into her casting state, the dwarf declared, with an air of perfect righteousness, "Our mission is to escort the convoy to Crimsonwood. Once this griffin finishes its hunt, it will move along."
Elise turned toward Lofnar.
This time, there was clear displeasure in her eyes.