The four-wheeled carriage raced forward, its furious wind smashing through the Flesh Monsters in its path and raising waves of crimson as it hurtled into the distance.
Ging sat at the front of the carriage, but he still couldn't fully relax. The presence inside the carriage was growing increasingly unfamiliar to him, and harder to get along with.
Especially in his current position, with his vulnerable back exposed to the other man. He trusted Gelman, but the instinctive response stirred by that oppressive presence wasn't easy to overcome.
Still, Ging was certain that Gelman hadn't actually fallen asleep. The fact that the carriage was still racing onward without ever veering off course was proof enough that Gelman was still conscious.
Even without Gelman remotely controlling it, the carriage was still following the route they had set out on from the beginning.
Gelman had merely fallen into a state of chaos, one Ging couldn't understand—one that only Gelman himself could understand.
Suddenly, that chaotic state vanished, and with it went the prickling sensation Ging had felt at his back.
Ging breathed a sigh of relief, then turned around in surprise.
"Sorry." As Gelman pulled back the curtain and climbed out of the carriage, his first words were an apology. "I got too deeply absorbed just now."
Even without deliberately sensing Ging's thoughts, Gelman was so close that the jumble of them still reached his mind.
Ging understood at once that his thoughts had all been exposed. A little embarrassed, but also curious, he asked, "What did you get absorbed in?"
"A strange state," Gelman explained. "It was as if my soul had left my body and was traveling around the world."
"Traveling around the world?"
"Yeah... If I said my soul had wandered through the places where I'd once planted or