Lead-gray clouds churned and swelled across the sky, yet they had not gathered into any terrifying thunder. They merely left the air beneath them faintly damp.
Whoosh—
It was a tiny sound, almost too faint to notice.
Refracting watery light, rounded and crystal-clear after being polished by invisible currents and the Gale, a gleaming drop was caught by gravity and fell from the gray clouds.
It had no color of its own. Its interior was too pure and clear, so it only reflected the scenery around it.
From the dark gray-black gloom of the horizon to the lush green of the tree crowns, it swept past dead branches and spiderwebs, flashed over tender leaves and moss, and finally turned into a broken splash of water in the thin mist, scattering and vanishing into the air.
"Is it raining?"
Volga the Half-Orc rubbed his slightly damp, bald head and instinctively looked up.
What entered his sight, however, was only a dense, flourishing canopy of green, and the dim gray cloud ceiling faintly seeping through the gaps between the branches and leaves.
"Hey, idiot!"
"We're almost at the destination. Pay attention!"
At the rear of the party, the tall blond Elf looked at the Half-Orc who had stopped in his tracks over a bit of rain and called out a reminder.
"Volga not stupid!"
As if some sensitive spot had been touched, the green-skinned Half-Orc, who had never argued or gotten angry with his teammates, suddenly turned around and said to the Elf, word by word, "Chief said Volga smart!"
He pointed at his own head, his expression incomparably serious.
He knew that if he kept entangling himself with the matter, the other party would probably start using Common Tongue that was less fluent than a country child's, half-baked and mixed with