As Shade took out food and handed it around, he curiously asked the young witch whether she had arrived here by getting lost as well, or whether she had come with some purpose of her own. The witch accepted the apple, tossed it once between her hands, and answered in a somewhat low voice:
"I have a very important friend who became lost on the road of travel. Clara and I had originally been searching for her. While camping at night, we saw the firelight over here and came closer. I knew about this place and made some preparations in advance, but I didn't expect that, no matter what, I at least want to know the answer."
As for the knight and the bard, the former listened to this information in surprise but accepted it quickly. The bard, meanwhile, blinked in confusion, his mind temporarily unable to process the fact that this adventure was even more thrilling than he had imagined.
"So that's how it is... then, are we supposed to call upon that god?"
Shade asked again. Though there was a grammatical error in his words, the witch did not correct him. She bit into the apple, feeling its sweetness awaken every part of her body.
"We lost Travelers can only wait for the god to turn Their gaze upon us. Before you appeared, we had already been waiting."
She looked towards her maid. The latter actually took a pocket-watch-shaped relic from the pocket of her black long dress, opened its cover, and glanced at it.
"Between one week and three years."
Though the interval it gave was rather vague, it was astonishing enough that the relic could still provide a time estimate in a place where time was so muddled. Shade could sense the dense traces of elements