From the inn's front-desk manager, Nanoda learned what she needed to know.
Some adventurers from out of town had discovered, deep in the forests to the far west, a crumbling old church that had stood since the Mythical Era — believed to have once been a Goddess's Order outpost. The moment they stepped inside, they came face to face with an Imperial Prison Dragon lurking within, and a stone monument.
"And get this — when those adventurers came bolting out of there, a whole swarm of Imperial Prison Dragons came pouring out of the church after them. By all accounts, it looked like hell itself," the middle-aged manager said.
The intelligence was adventurer hearsay, but the source was reliable enough.
"The far west, you said?"
Only then did Nanoda realize she had been traveling aimlessly in the direction of the sunrise all this time — the location in the report was the exact opposite direction.
"That's right." At that, the middle-aged manager glanced down at the Imperial coins nestled in his palm and rubbed his temple with a slight grimace. "Miss, by the look of you, I'd say you're about to set off immediately? Before you do, at least let this establishment treat you to a meal. To be honest, taking this much money for one small piece of information doesn't sit right with me."
Fifteen Imperial coins. He had his greedy side, but he also held to the principles of fair trade.
Nanoda was about to decline — when Sode's voice rose in her mind: "This one has never tried human food before."
"Fine. Can I order whatever I like?"
"Of course you can."
She found herself a seat and picked up the menu propped at the corner of the table.
To her surprise, a single Imperial coin was more than enough to order a full set meal with both meat and vegetables. Having handed the choosing over to the Great Demon sharing her body, Nanoda turned her thoughts to the road ahead.
With funds to spare at the moment, she was perfectly positioned to buy a horse-drawn carriage for the journey. As for the swarm of Imperial Prison Dragons at the church — that might have given her some trouble on her own, but after witnessing Paradox Magic in action, it no longer seemed like any obstacle at all.
Nanoda found herself genuinely curious: just how far could that one's paradoxes reach?
While she was still turning the question over in her mind, the table had already filled up with food.
"Hey — how much did you order?"
"Not much at all, this one only ordered seven or eight dishes. Oh! These look wonderful — barely enough to clear a tooth gap."
As Sode tore into the food like a starving ghost, heads turned from every direction. Even the manager at the front desk couldn't suppress a twitch at the corner of his mouth.
There was none of the cool detachment from conversation — the eating was shamelessly vigorous.
As Sode savored each dish, impressions fed back to Nanoda through their shared body.
To Nanoda's perception, the cuisine of a thousand years past had a character all its own compared to the present day — meats simply roasted and finished with a sprinkle of salt, or drizzled with honey; vegetables served mostly raw as salads. Simple and plain, yet preserving the honest flavor of each ingredient.
Nanoda herself actually preferred something with a bit of spice — but Sode, by all appearances, was thoroughly delighted.
Plates and bowls stacked up in a towering heap across the table. With an air of deep satisfaction, Sode pushed back the chair, rose slowly, and stretched with a long, lazy ease.
Nanoda said her goodbyes to the innkeeper, asked after a market where she might purchase a carriage, and took her leave.
Time passed quickly. One week later.
Clop, clop, clop, clop.
A small black horse ambled along at an unhurried pace, pulling a simple four-wheeled carriage down the road.
Nanoda held the reins in one hand and reached up with the other to brush aside the long hair falling across her face. Sunlight filtered through her fingers and settled warmly on her skin.
The back of the carriage was loaded with bags of dried meat and produce — provisions Sode had picked up whenever they passed through a town.
Over this stretch of time together, Nanoda had come to understand Sode's stubbornness and arrogance more and more clearly. There were moments when Sode was as free and unruly as a child — and then, without warning, would let slip a depth of knowledge and the cool, rational detachment peculiar to the Demon Race.
All things considered, the arrangement wasn't bad. Nanoda had gradually grown accustomed to the two-souls-in-one-body state she now lived in.
Between stretches of driving, she also ran through the formulas of Paradox Magic in her mind.
Just as Sode had explained — the formula for Paradox Magic was only the foundation. What kind of paradox it triggered still required her to compose, supplement, and imagine the process herself.
That gave Nanoda, who had never had much talent for magic to begin with, a considerable headache.
The abstraction of paradoxes felt nothing like the sensation and process of imagining Severance Magic.
Severance Magic required only that she compress her Mana and construct a strike capable of cutting through anything.
Paradox Magic was something else entirely — like forging a sword that could cut through anything yet could never be drawn, and then making that undrawn blade, still sheathed, achieve the sharpness it would only have when unsheathed.
For now, the only paradox she had any foothold in was the paradox of stillness and motion. The others — inverting the world around her, or paradoxes of self-existence — remained completely beyond her.
The little black horse suddenly let out a sharp whinny, yanking Nanoda's thoughts back to the present.
By the side of the uneven road, two skeletons had pushed up out of the earth without warning — one large, one small — ancient, nameless vines coiling around their bases. Clearly, they had been there for a very long time.
Small as the horse was, it had a creature's sensitivity.
The little black horse snorted at the remains, its four legs hesitating, visibly uncertain.
For reasons she couldn't quite name, the sight of the two skeletons brought to mind the trio she had encountered earlier — the pairing of large and small reminded her of that swordsman and his monk companion.
"Nothing to be afraid of. Just some human remains from a few decades back."
Sode reached out a hand and stroked along the little black horse's flank to calm it.
"You can even tell how old they are?"
"Naturally. This one has lived through countless ages."
Once the horse had settled, Nanoda was ready to crack the reins and move on — but she hesitated, then jumped down from the carriage.
"What are you doing?"
"Since we've come across them, we might as well bury them properly."
"Ah, I see. This one understands — to bury the dead. A distinctly human custom. This one has always wanted to try it. A pity that when demons die, they simply dissolve into Mana particles. Nothing is left behind."
Nanoda's approach was straightforward: she used magic to dig a pit in the earth, used magic to lay the remains inside it, then covered everything over with soil and drew a little patch of grass across the top.
Looking down at the simple grave mound, Nanoda felt something stir in her otherwise still heart — a rare ripple across the surface.
The boundary between life and death was nothing more than this thin layer of earth. In her past life, she had walked that boundary. Now, all she wanted was to live somewhere peaceful and free.
But this world was not the kind place of fairy tales. Since crossing over, conflict had been everywhere she turned.
The war between humans and the Demon Race, the infighting among human nations, the rampages of magical beasts — on and on it went.
A peaceful life felt hazy, still out of reach.
Nanoda had always believed, deep down, that she was quite clumsy at this sort of thing.
But she wanted to go back.
She didn't want Gaderia to vanish into the river of time as well — buried like these dry bones.
She wanted to see it with her own eyes: the day that place grew and flourished until it could truly be called a home — somewhere free, somewhere safe, somewhere still.
For that, she could try being a little less scrupulous about her methods.
"You and this one — we really do have quite a few things in common."
Sode's words broke the silence.
"Let's keep moving."
Nanoda turned, leapt back onto the carriage, flicked the reins, and pressed on westward.
____
👻🔥Walnut-chan🔥👻
🔥 New history: Danmachi: Summoning Ruri Gokou, And other Chuunibyou Brats
🎯 100 Powerstones = +1 Bonus Chapter for everyone