69

Ranger Commander Harry was discontented with James Cronos, but the former could not disobey the latter’s order since he was Duke Cronos’ son. If Duke Cronos got angry, Count Perkins, Harry’s lord, could not handle it. James Cronos informed mage Aldebaran, the leader of the reinforcements, of his coordinates on the map and the expected route of Id’s party through magic communication. Harry’s Rangers were back on track to follow the trail of Id’s party. It was not that difficult for the Rangers to track Id’s party since the latter did not pay much attention to their traces, but the distance between the two groups increased as Id’s party began to travel faster.

*********************

Five days had passed since Id’s party left Tristan’s house. Set in a small cave, Id’s friends were immersed in manna circulation after dinner. With noticeable progress since creating a manna hall, Sasha, Spica and Lara were more eager for manna circulation than ever before. After meeting Tristan, Selena also found some clues to modify her method of manna circulation. She devoted much more time to manna training than before. Id alone was thinking about something with a large map spread out on a rock. Lara, who first finished her manna circulation, asked Id, sitting down next to him.

“Id, what’s wrong with you? Why do you look so serious?”

After creating a manna hall, Lara became visibly brighter than before. Feeling better thanks to Lara, Id responded, smiling at her.

“No, nothing’s wrong. I was just thinking about our schedule. From the map, it seems we’re in the territory of the Tartaria Kingdom.”

“Do you mean we were in the wrong direction?”

“We’ve continued traveling southward as we had originally planned. We just entered the territory of Tartaria since its southwestern part sticks out westward.”

“Then, we can just turn southwest and go back into Icarus’ territory, right? I don’t understand why you’re worried. It’s not like there’s a border in the mountains.”

“If we turn southwest here, we’ll go down the mountains. I don’t think Cronos’ pursuits have given up on us yet. We’ll bump into their trackers or reinforcements soon, and I think it’s better to fight them deep in the mountains. If we fight their reinforcements on the fields, we’ll be overexposed to Duke Cronos. It would be better not let Duke Cronos know that we will join the Count Henderson’s army.”

Id paused and pointed his finger at a spot on the map.

“This is Kurban, a large city in the Tartaria Kingdom near the borders with the Icarus Empire and the Mudria Kingdom. As it is a city where the borders of the three countries meet, there must be a considerable floating population in Kurban. According to the map, Kurban City and Free City Blackfield are connected with a highway. I’m thinking of disguising ourselves as a merchant group at Kurban and riding a carriage to Blackfield along the highway.”

Id, who had paused for a while, continued, looking at Spica, who had finished her manna circulation and joined Id and Lara.

“I think we’ll need quite a lot of money to disguise as a merchant group, but I’m wondering if I can use the gold coins in Vega’s Subspace Pouch at my disposal.”

Spica stared at Id blankly as if his question was incomprehensible to her.

“Since your mother Vega died, I think her property should belong to you.”

Only then did Spica understand Id’s words.

“Dragons don’t give or inherit their property to their descendants. As Vega has handed over the possession of her Subspace Pouch to you, all that is in it is yours. I asked you for Vega’s magic armor and magic sword since I’m too weak now, but I’m not interested in any other items or treasure in your Subspace Pouch. If I awaken as a genuine dragon, I will collect my treasure on my own, and if I don’t, the treasure won’t mean anything to me. So, from now on, when you spend Vega’s money, don’t ask my opinion.”

There was an implicit symbiotic relationship between dragons and dwarves from time immemorial. Dwarves provided jewels and gold to dragons who liked shiny things, and the latter protected the former, who were relatively less combatant, from their enemies; monsters, orcs and humans.

Nodding to Spica, Id said, smiling.

“All right, but if you need anything from the Subspace Pouch, feel free to tell me any time. I’ll give you whatever you want.”

Lara asked Id.

“What kind of disguise plan do you have in mind, which made you have this serious conversation with Spica?”

“I think If we pretend to be wealthy merchants from a country further east than Tartaria, it’ll be easier to pass the check at the border. In order to succeed in my plan, we must erase our traces and completely escape from Cronos’ pursuit. Tomorrow, I plan to move twice as much as before since we must first distance ourselves from the chase.”

Having finished their manna circulation, Sasha and Selena were listening to Id, too. Lara, a former thieves’ guild member, came up with an idea for Id’s identity disguise plan.

“I think we can commission the Kurban Thieves’ Guild to forge our identification cards. When we get to the city, I’ll find out the guild’s headquarters.”

Spica told Lara.

“You don’t have to ask thieves to forge our identification cards. With a sample, I can magically create things like identification cards as many as we need. Just ask them for a sample.”

Id’s party, who had been talking about the identity disguise plan and the city of Kurban for a while, decided to sleep early to leave early the next morning.

The following day, Id and his friends, who started earlier than usual, traveled more than fifty kilometers before noon. They arrived at a large vacant lot in the middle of a dense forest at noon. The vacant lot they stopped at for lunch was about seventy meters long and fifty meters wide, surrounded by dense oak forests. There were piles of logs on one side. Id spread out a map on a stump in the middle of the vacant lot and checked their current location. The vacant lot they stopped at was such a large logging ground that it was marked on the map. There were several villages along a fairly wide road to the southeast. They must have been the villages of loggers and hunters. If you followed the narrow mountain path to the southwest, you could enter the Icarus’ territory again. Id decided to go straight south through the woods as before. Sasha said to his companions.

“Let’s have lunch here. Make bonfires while I hunt.”

Sasha headed for the oak forest across the logging ground.

*********************

While Duke Cronos’ Reinforcement Unit was having breakfast with jerky at the logging ground, the six-circle-master mage Aldebaran was on magic communication with James Cronos. They talked through communication crystals several times a day to check each other’s location. It was ten o’clock in the morning.

“Aldebaran, we found a cave where they supposedly stayed last night. It’s about fifty kilometers north of the logging ground where you are now. If you come north from there, you will see them in a few hours. As the Rangers will chase them, we will be able to encircle them back and forth.”

Aldebaran, who had been looking at the map for a while, said to James.

“If the direction of their movement you are estimating is correct, it would be better to encounter them here than to fight them in the dense forest even without roads. We’ll wait for them in ambush near this logging ground. If you find any traces of them changing their direction, contact me immediately.”

Aldebaran knew that they had entered the Tartarian territory the day before, but he didn’t care much about it. Having checked his map once again, Aldebaran asked Knight Commander Gabriel of the Pegasus Order.

“According to their expected route informed by James, they’ll pass through this logging ground within the next hours. I believe it would be advantageous for us to fight in this vacant lot rather than in the woods. If we ambush that forest, we’ll find them before they find us.”

Gabriel agreed with Aldebaran.

“That’s a good idea. Are you going to place a separate attacking order, or shall we attack them as soon as they approach our ambush?”

“I’ll launch attacking magic first. As soon as I cast a spell, attack them, please.”

Having nodded, Gabriel led the Pegasus Order to the south of the vacant lot. Following them, Aldebaran talked to the Aura Beam Owner Chris.

“As you know, the success of our mission depends on you. While we deal with the others, you just have to concentrate on the Aura Beam Owner. The Dragon Heart must be in the gold dragon’s Subspace Pouch if they did not dismantle it. The gold dragon has handed over the ownership of its Subspace Pouch to the Aura Beam Owner Id. Therefore, the contents of the Subspace Pouch will be revealed to the outside if you kill him.”

Chris replied to Aldebaran with a mischievous look.

“I’ve spent thirty years in hell trying to acquire Aura Beam. Don’t worry. I won’t lose to such a stripling.”