Chapter 29:
The Odyssey's Dawn
I wanted better food.
The quote "Beggars can't be choosers" has always stuck with me. But I'm not a beggar, and surely savory food isn't such a big ask. Or at least I thought it wasn't.
Ares and Alek couldn't cook at all. I didn't expect them to be able to–I wasn't stupid. I had never stopped assuming that Ares was a noble, and nobles usually don't cook for themselves. Thanks to using context clues for some conversations Paul and I used to have, I could figure out that nobles were more or less just stuck-up rich people for the most part.
On the other hand, Alek was a world-renowned, world-traveling trailblazer. It wouldn't have surprised me if he knew how to cook, but the same could be said for the opposite. He probably would eat just about anything and be fine with it, even if he swallowed a vat of poison. From what I'd seen, nothing could faze the man.
In the face of scalding flame, not even his leather gauntlets would burn. Well, he'd probably smell like smoke afterward, but that was beside the point. The man didn't have any real need for culinary skills.
And so, I was left to fend for myself with allies that had zero interest in good food.
They'll change their minds once they try some, I know they will. Ah, but how do I go about doing that? We're still on the road, and I know for a fact that nothing here tastes good.
I knew how to cook–my high school years weren't wasted on me. I was a normal JK once, I swear it! I had internalized "The key to someone's heart is good food", so I taught myself how to cook.
There weren't any modern kitchen appliances here, but maybe I could do something with my experience. We had some bare-bones ingredients on hand: Raw meat to be cooked over a campfire, peeled vegetables that looked suspiciously like a potato, and bread.
Using my magic, I whipped up a shallow stone pan. I wiped off any excess earth from the flat surface. I raised a bit of earth and cast some fire magic over it. I placed a bit of tastier meat on the pan and held it over the fire.
Cooking something by itself usually didn't do any favors for flavor, so usually you'd cook with vegetable oil. For obvious reasons, I had to substitute with some water. So, I poured some of my cold water onto the heated pan. And before I knew it, the pan had shattered into pieces.
I yelped in surprise. "...There goes that idea!" I muttered. I'd forgotten that stone gets brittle like that after being heated. Maybe I should use clay instead?
Alek looked over at me, sighed, and walked over.
"Are you going to eat that?" He said, pointing at the meat lying on the stone I had created.
"Of course not, that's disgusting," I replied. Why would he eat something off of the ground? And it was half-cooked, too.
"Disgusting? The earth that you make from magic is clean, right?" He asked, puzzled.
"Where'd you get that from?" I asked. Earth magic didn't magically clean it off–it was still earth, which was dirt and stone weaved together. The only thing that was clean that earth magic could make was clay.
"I just assumed. But if it isn't clean, why were you cooking with it?" Alek asked flippantly.
"Ah, well…" I couldn't explain this easily. He wasn't my student or anything, I couldn't just give him a crash course in sanitization. Also… Alek's a bit dense.
Heat made the harmful effects of eating raw meat go away, something that people did know in medieval times. But they didn't know about the other things heat could do to prevent sickness caused by eating food, like pasteurization.
It was best just to brush this off and start over.
Alek shrugged it off, seemingly uninterested. "Well, if you keep making a racket, Ares will wake up," he said.
Ah, waking that guy up in the middle of his sleep is not a good idea, speaking from experience here.
"Right," I said.
There were better ways to go about doing something like this. Maybe I gave myself too much credit–it had been over thirty years since I cooked something for myself.
After brainstorming for a bit, I decided on a pressure cooker. It would have to be a makeshift version, though. I could substitute the rubber ring by just sealing it airtight and then breaking it open with magic once it was done. The valve would be a bit more difficult.
I couldn't let air out willy-nilly or the food wouldn't cook at all. But I also couldn't just let the pressure build inside of the pan for too long, otherwise, it'd blow up in my face like the pan did.
Maybe this could work… I'd make a dedicated airhole to let out pressure when it got too high, and then seal it before it all could escape.
I hummed to myself as I worked on the pot, placing it on the stone pedestal and then heating it. I poured in some water and dropped in some more pieces of meat.
Sealing it was the easy part, now came the moment of truth. I created a small hole and then sealed it with a removable piece of clay. I let the pressure rise for half a minute, and then popped out the clay "valve". Immediately afterward, I placed it back.
I repeated that process for about five minutes and then unsealed the pot to check whether or not my experiment had worked.
"Yes!" I exclaimed to myself. The meat had managed to cook well and was emitting a rather nice smell. I didn't have access to any spices though, but competent cooking always made food better regardless.
And so, I 'invented' the pressure cooker.
"Ares, Alek. Do you two mind discussing a little?" I blurted out.
I'd been mulling over having this conversation for quite a bit now. It'd been three days since we had left Rikarisu, and three days since I had been nearly trampled to death by a Black Drake. I wanted to smooth a few things over, or else this whole journey would fall into disarray.
"Sure," Alek replied.
"About what?" Ares said, without so much as glancing away from his (pressure-cooked) food.
"A few things. We're juggling a few things at a time right now, so I wanted to make sure we're all clear and on the same page," I declared, my hands on my hips.
They both perked up with a nearly identical confused look on their faces.
I pointed at Alek. "Let's start this off with Alek. I wanted to know if you're still holding up well with everything," I said.
"Hmm? Why wouldn't I be?" He asked, raising an eyebrow. I should've known he'd be fine.
"Well, you're teaching me a bit of the Demon God tongue, and you're also training Ares under the sword, and that's all on top of guiding us back to the Central Continent in the first place. It's a lot for just one person, at least I think so," I explained.
He chuckled. "Don't worry about that, Lumina. This is nothing compared to some of the things I've had to do," He said.
I don't even want to imagine. I nodded grimly.
"Ahem. Until now, we've been a bit disorganized with the whole tutoring and training thing. So I wanted to suggest a bit of a schedule," I began, trying to pull off my best impression of a high-strung lady wearing triangular glasses and hair tied into a bun.
"Do we really need a schedule for this?" Ares asked. There was a bit of an uninterested look on his face. Maybe he wasn't one for the details? I'd get that, but I feel it'd be a bit counter-productive to leave him out of his.
"That's right. We're going to be on the move most of the time, so I think this is at least necessary," I said.
Ares pursed his lips and nodded.
"I think it'd be better for me to learn Demon God in the night before we head to sleep. As for you two with the training situation, I'm open to suggestions," I said.
Ares looked over to Alek who seemed to be giving it some thought. Alek wasn't usually this considerate–he was more of a "go with the flow" type of guy. Regardless, it was nice to see.
"Due to the sheer size of the continent, we're most likely going to be outside of cities and towns more often than not. I think at those times, whenever we settle down, would be best for training sessions," Alek said after a long pause.
"Are you sure that's a good idea? I mean, Rikarisu didn't have any particularly open space for something like that," I said.
"If that's the case, we could simply go out of the city and I could train him there," He reasoned. I guess that fixes it.
We weren't going to be doing jobs 24/7, after all. Downtime was arguably the most important thing for a speedy journey, even if it sounded counterproductive. I wasn't so sure about Alek, but I knew that Ares and I would become winded quickly if we didn't get a chance to rest. Tasks for the Adventurers' Guild would be our main source of spending money, sure, but we could just take one B-rank job and be fine if we took a few days off.
"Ares, that's fine with you?" I asked.
"As long as I get more of this food, sure. What did you put in this, anyway?" He asked, chomping off a bit of his food. I knew he saw how I cooked it, but maybe the effects of preparing it in a pressure cooker were just that substantial.
I gave him a grin. "I just cooked it," I said. He furrowed his eyebrow and muttered to himself, "Must be magic..."
"I think that should be it…" I said, racking my brain.
"Ah, I remember! This journey in general, how do we want it to pan out? How do we want to reach the Fittoa Region?" I asked.
I had a vague idea, of course. I had already thought about it prior, but maybe Alek had other plans. I knew that we couldn't just voyage across the Ringus Sea, the sea that separated the Central Continent and the Demon Continent for a variety of reasons. The biggest of which being the Seafolk race that inhabited almost all of it–the places where they didn't inhabit were either on the opposite ends of the path that we wanted to go or were ruled by pirates.
Ares shook his head. "I haven't looked at a map in ages," he said. I pursed my lips. Can't say I wasn't expecting that.
Alek grabbed his backpack and shoved it in front of him. He dug through it for a few moments and then brought out a rolled-up piece of parchment. He spread it out on the flat ground and showed it to us. It was a map, one I'd seen a lot back home. But this version seemed a bit banged up around the edges, and the linework had faded a bit. It was more than readable, though.
(MAP ON Ao3 VERSION)
"Right now, we're here," Alek said, placing his finger directly south of Rikarisu by a hair's breadth. It was on the Northern edge of the continent.
"It'll take us a while, but eventually we'll make it to the city of Wind Port at the southernmost part of the continent," He said, pointing to a marking on the map. "Wind Port is the city that controls most of what enters or leaves the Central Continent," He explained.
"Once we take a boat to the Milis Continent, we'll make it to Zant Port. Unlike the Demon Continent, the Milis Continent has a clearly defined path spanning the whole continent," Alek said. On the map, it was labeled as "Holy Sword Highway." I didn't see what was particularly holy about it, but I supposed this world's main religion, the Milis religion, was quite fond of their country. Enough to call even their pathways holy, I guess.
"We'll travel from town to town along the highway until we reach here," He said, his finger on a large city indicator. It was right in the middle of the continent and happened to be one of the biggest in the entire world–the Holy City of Milishion, capital of the Holy Country of Milis.
"I believe that if there is more information about this teleportation incident, we could find it here," Alek said, now looking at me directly. I desperately wanted to clear up what had happened regarding the teleportation, so if they did have information, it would be immensely helpful.
Maybe I can find information about my family there too…
"After we spend a few weeks in Milishion, we'll make our way westward to the city of West Port. From there, we'll take a boat across the sea to arrive at East Port, the border city of the Dragon King Kingdom," Alek explained. The Dragon King Kingdom was going to be our first step back on the Central Continent, but the journey would still be far from over. The distance from the Dragon King Kingdom and the Fittoa Region was as large as the entire Milis Continent.
Well, that's what the map says. I'm not sure if people here know about map distortion and the curvature of the… not Earth. Actually, what's up with that anyway? It says here that Rikarisu is nearly at the northern edge of the Demon Continent, but it feels like 100-degree weather! Maybe it was just the desert climate? I wasn't a climatologist or anything, so I couldn't piece anything together that made sense to me.
I refocused my attention on the topic at hand.
"After that, we'll traverse northwest through the three vassal states of the Dragon King Realm, the Sanakia, Kikka, and Shirone Kingdoms," He stated. The Dragon King Realm was a country made up of kingdoms, as you'd say. It was made up of primarily the Dragon King Kingdom as its overlord nation, and then the three vassal states. It wasn't as large as the Asura Kingdom, but it was sizable, to say the least.
"To enter the Asura Kingdom, we have to take a bit of a detour south to get past the Red Wyrm mountain range," Alek said.
"Why can't we just go over the mountains? That'd save more time, wouldn't it?" Ares said.
Ares, did you even go to school? Ah, wait, I didn't either. Haha.
"Unless you want to be eaten alive by a horde of dragons, going the long way around would be the wisest choice," Alek explained, to Ares's dismay.
"Couldn't you just take them all down, Alek? You're the North God, after all," Ares said.
Alek shook his head. "I could handle a few with no issues, but if it were a swarm, even I might be taken down," Alek said. Ares promptly deflated and peered back at the map.
"Assuming nothing goes wrong, we could make it from the edge of the Asura Kingdom to the Fittoa Region in around half a year," Alek said. I scratched the back of my head and thought about it a little more.
This whole journey would take about two years if we really stepped on it. I furrowed my eyebrows when I came to that conclusion. Even though I was prepared to spend years on the move, actually having it confirmed was another thing. I sighed mentally as Alek continued.
"That's where our time together ends, Lumina. Before I go on my way, I'll stay around a bit to see if you can find your family," Alek said. I nodded. Hopefully, my family will be in Fittoa. If not, at least some clues about their whereabouts. I'd take that.
"Er, Alek," Ares butted in.
"Yes?"
"I forgot to tell you this, but I never lived in the Fittoa Region. I was planning to head northward to the Sword Sanctuary once we managed to get to the Asura Kingdom. It's the only clue I have that could lead me to my master," Ares explained.
"Sword Sanctuary, you say? I'll escort you there if you'd like," Alek offered.
Ares perked up. "You would? That'd be a huge help!"
"Of course. All the more likely for me to catch wind of something that could earn me the title of hero," Alek said, smirking.
I wiped some sweat off of my forehead. It was reassuring to hear that Alek already had a plan for our journey, and even more so that we had a map. The one that Alek had was much more detailed than the one I had back at home, upon examination. It'd make life a lot easier going forward.
I figured we'd have small discussions like these now and again, so I wasn't too pressured to keep asking questions. We'd almost certainly find ourselves in much stickier situations later on, so it was probably a good idea to do something like this.
"All right. Looking forward to working with you!" I bowed my head deeply, bringing the discussion to a neat ending.
Even after everything, that was when I'd say our journey truly began.
Journal Entry #1 - Two Weeks after departing from Rikarisu.
We've made it to the next city without much trouble. The worst thing that happened to us on the way was being ambushed by a pack of Acid Wolves, but even that wasn't even a problem. Alek struck them down almost instantly, without giving Ares a chance to even unsheathe his sword.
Ah, speaking of. I caught him sniffing my underwear when it was his turn to do the laundry. Needless to say, he got a stone bullet to the head. What's so enticing about used underwear? Wouldn't it just smell terrible? Well, not like I'd know.
Anyway, we had another party meeting, and I kicked things off by banning Ares from laundry duty. I already knew how to do laundry thanks to helping out my mom occasionally, so it became my responsibility.
We took on a few tasks, but none nearly as interesting as slaying a dragon—disappointing Ares. I for one am perfectly fine with the less stressful tasks. Either Ares is a battle junkie or he's a bit out of his mind. Maybe both, come to think of it.
Journal Entry #4 - Six weeks after departing from Rikarisu.
Disaster struck while we were on the road. It was something so terrible not even Alek could swoop in and vanquish it.
It was that time of month again. It seemed to be a bit irregular—back in my old world, it was consistent, almost like clockwork. I think it just has something to do with me being as young as I am. This one was a lot worse than the last one for several reasons, but mostly because we were days away from the nearest town or city.
And so, I had to drag on in agony until it was over. This world didn't have any proper toiletries at all, so it made the whole experience ten times worse. I'm going to lose my mind, seriously.
A bit unrelated, but I noticed a strange feeling in my lower abdomen a few times. Strange, but not unfamiliar. It was something I hadn't experienced in more than a decade now. You could call it a few things to dance around the topic but to get to the point, it was arousal. Not that anything around me was particularly arousing, but I did occasionally have daydreams. I could've just done the normal thing and waited until I went back to normal, but I knew more than a couple of techniques to speed that process up.
Anyway, Ares and I managed to rank up to C-rank. I've started talking to Ares a lot more in general, mostly about menial things. Our most recent topic was about the massive domesticated cats that we could see strolling about with their owners. Seriously, those things looked like pumas or mountain lions, but they were cuddling up with the person who led them forward. I don't think I'll get used to the vast majority of the lifestyle around these parts.
Journal Entry #11 - Three Months after departing from Rikarisu.
I've learned the basics of the Demon God language now. I was nowhere near proficiency—that would take me quite a while to get to. I can write and read a bit now, which helps me find out the prices of stuff when we're out shopping.
Let me write what I know down. Hello, my name is Rumina Greyrat. I've got to work on my handwriting, though. When I showed him my progress, Ares asked me why I was so interested in learning the language even though we were going to be getting off of the continent eventually. My main reason for that was to make the most of my kid's brain while I still had it, but I didn't tell him that. I told him that there was always a chance that we'd come back, and it wouldn't hurt to know it either way. He seemed satisfied with that, so I dropped the subject.
While Alek was teaching me the Demon God language, he was also training Ares. He was a harsh teacher, from what I could see. Sometimes, after a day of training, Ares would come back to our inn, flop down on the bed, and refuse to get up until the next day. But all of that wasn't for nothing, naturally. From what Alek said, he was improving amazingly for someone who learned so many different techniques in that amount of time. That was great news at first, but it turned out that Ares could now dodge my stone bullets. I was stumped for all of two seconds before I realized that he probably couldn't avoid being knocked down by wind magic. Seriously, teenage boys.
Journal Entry #19 - Five Months after departing from Rikarisu.
The days feel like they're coming and going too fast for me to keep up. After spending so much time watching Ares improve and polish his swordsmanship, I couldn't help but wonder what it would be like to spar with him. It'd been nearly half a year since I could spar with a swordsman, after all. Sylphie never used swords in our sparring matches, but she did start learning. Although, she never mentioned it when we talked. It was almost as if she was hiding it from me.
That aside, I asked Ares to have a match with me. I've started to enjoy his company a lot more as of late, so why try this out? Alek was the pseudo-referee, and I was just going to be using magic for obvious reasons. Ares confidently declared, "This is going to be a breeze!" with a smug look on his face.
He lost.
I was still strong enough to knock him out, but he did put up a good fight. He swung his sword with an inhuman dexterity–like that of a ninja's. He skillfully deflected several of my attacks, befuddling me mid-fight. Eventually, I came up with an idea: Paralysis. My curse magic spells were steadily increasing in power, letting me completely petrify or waste away any monster below C-rank. The one thing I hadn't tried yet was a human target, which speaks for itself. I toned down the mana usage and fired off a spell at the unsuspecting Ares.
He said that it "wasn't fair" and that I "was cheating." Hmm. Maybe he has a point? I'll play fair next time.
Journal Entry #28 - Seven Months after departing from Rikarisu.
Today, we met someone on the road who prostrated himself in front of Alek. Ares and I were thoroughly puzzled. My first thought was, "Ah, as you should." No! That's not normal! So I just waited for the guy to get up and speak.
"I am Rodriguez! The third student of Auber the Peacock Blade!" He announced. Alek seemed a bit irked at the mention of Auber, but Ares had told enough stories about Auber to Alek by then. He didn't hate the man, at the very least.
Anyway, he explained that he was a human swordsman who'd come to the Demon Continent to train himself and had caught wind of the North God traveling the land in an adventurer's party. After hearing that, he set out on a journey to find us. Using clues he gathered from looking through city after city, he tracked us down. It was creepy, but at least he wasn't a bounty hunter or anything.
The man went a step further and asked Alek for a one-on-one duel. I had to stop myself from blurting out, "Do you have a death wish?!" when I heard that. Alek obliged him immediately, but I had to drag him back and tell him not to kill the poor guy. He scoffed as if that was an inconvenience, but he followed through nonetheless.
The spar lasted less than two seconds. In the blink of an eye, Rodrigez's sword was sent flying and he was knocked to the ground with Alek's daggers right up to his neck. Alek was a good sport about it and helped the man up. I guess he just wanted the thrill of the 'fight'. Afterward, he came over to me.
"Miss Sorceress, would you listen to a request of mine?" He asked me. When I asked where he got that name from, he just told me that it was my nickname that was coined by the adventurers who had heard and seen us around. When I heard that, I couldn't help but grin. It was a good name, alright?
That aside, the man wanted one of my figurines. I had been regularly making and selling them for most of the journey, mostly to make more money for us. And it had paid off in that department and the quality of the figures themselves. I gave the man a Roxas figurine, and then he went on his way. A weird guy overall.
Following that duel, a bunch of other people decided to spend some time probing us, and a few even dared to ask for a fight. I even heard a few rumors of ourselves a few times. Doesn't feel real, I tell you.
Journal Entry #37 - Nine Months after departing from Rikarisu.
It's been nine months now? I can't believe it. Most of the days started blurring together after a while. It wasn't like anything too important happened, going off of my memories and what I'd written down.
Ares has changed a lot since I first saw him, he's sort of less prone to have random outbursts of anger. Although, I still do tease him now and again. I even got him a slave collar in secret, which was arguably not my finest moment. Alek seriously had to restrain him to prevent him from unsheathing his sword right then and there.
I'm now able to more or less hold a short conversation in the Demon God tongue, which was quite useful for a variety of reasons. One, I could now easily pick out a quest. Two, I could stop any altercations that occurred. Ares was constantly getting into problems, but the people upset at him were almost always women. When I asked him what that was all about, he clammed up. He would regularly leave alone in the afternoon and come back with a funny expression painted on his face, so maybe it had something to do with that.
Nothing too stressful popped up, but one time when Ares and I were out shopping alone, we were jumped by a dozen or so adventurers. However, when Alek came out of a shop and saw them, they all fled for their lives. I guess they hadn't heard the rumors about who we were. I'm starting to get the hang of looking dangerous things in the eye.
If there's anything I do wish would change, it'd be that Ares would tell me about his past–the one thing he had yet to open up about, even after how much time we had spent together.
It's been one year almost on the dot since we departed from Rikarisu. We had spent the last year traversing through so many lands unparalleled to anything I'd seen before. Through sprawling forests with screeching wolves. Through awe-inspiring waterfalls and blinding windstorms. Through cities with all sorts of shops and food. Ares and I were now both A-rank adventurers, thanks to all of our efforts.
The journey so far was something I could have never imagined happening back when I had been kicked out of my house all that time ago. That shut-in was still me, of course. But through this life and everything it has given me so far, I feel like I've managed to fit in this role that fate has given me.
And at long last, we'd reached our last destination, located on the very southernmost tip of the Demon Continent. The city of Wind Port.
End of Volume Three.
Author's Note:
Thank you all for reading this far! It means a lot to me that you took the time to read all of this, so I appreciate you.
As Volume 3 draws to a conclusion, I'd like to say my extended thanks to several people who've helped me along while writing this fanfiction: Paul (Known as Miiphlet here), Monsoon ( Monsoonu_ on Twitter), Collin, Isomery, and last but not least, One Inch Of Ash (Known as Yuujiki here)
Again, I'd like to advocate for the AO3 version of Lumina Greyrat, as whenever the story calls for it, I will only be able to write the more adult content there since FFN has a policy against it here, and I'd like not to take any chances with it here and risk the entire series being deleted here.
I will be releasing one Extra Chapter for Volume 3 that should be out within the week (Before October 24th), the title being:
Extra Chapter: The Princess of Asura and the Mage Knight
