"Thank you very much."
On the other side, though he had not received a definite answer, Ian did not mind. "Sorry to trouble you."
On the contrary, it was as though a huge stone had been lifted from his heart, and he felt much more at ease.
—Don't be in a hurry? Of course he was not in a hurry. Whether this suggestion worked or not, at least his safety in the time ahead was guaranteed!
The thing he was about to do was extremely dangerous in the Lake Forest at night... Having an old knight who looked far from weak and even radiated golden light protecting him was an unexpectedly wonderful stroke of luck.
At that moment, Ian turned around. He took out some rope and tied the forest leopard's and the native's corpses to his uncle, then tested the weight. Once he decided it was still within his limits, he set off, continuing to drag the bodies onward.
Whether it had been the forest leopard's attack or the native's, both were merely expected interludes. His destination remained the edge of the Lake Forest.
The old knight remained where he was. Rather than immediately following Ian, he closed his eyes and sank into thought.
"Ian."
Repeating Ian's name in his heart, the man pondered, "A White Folk from Harrison Port..."
East of Whale Song Cliff, south of the Blazing Flame Lands, around the narrow coastline of the Bison Mountains where countless giant redwoods grew, all lay within a tropical rainforest climate. More than a century ago, pioneers had claimed this land as Imperial territory. Decades ago, Imperial migrants had built several small port cities here, and Harrison Port was the largest among them.
Human footsteps had thus extended to the coastal waters at the southernmost end of the continent,