The little demon had been right. After Annie and her pet macaque, Tibbers, passed through the cave, they hadn't gone far before they came to a relatively wide official road, almost broad enough for two carts to travel side by side.
Only, this road had been abandoned for some time.
Weeds, rubble, and fallen leaves nearly covered the already narrow road. Human skeletons lay scattered along the roadside, rotted and almost buried beneath the dust, along with the remains of various animals and monsters.
It was clear how badly the monsters on Black Wind Mountain had preyed on the nearby villagers and merchants in the past. They'd driven everyone off a perfectly good road.
Of course!
Perhaps the man-eating Wolf Demon and the wolf monsters from the Lion Camel Kingdom weren't entirely to blame?
After all, it had been more than five hundred years since the Pilgrim returned from Western Heaven. The Tang Dynasty had long since fallen, and China should now be in the Song Dynasty—perhaps in the chaotic years between the Northern and Southern Song?
Black Wind Mountain lay along the Silk Road, which had gradually fallen into disuse toward the end of the Tang Dynasty. With the trade routes cut off, the dynasties changing, and monsters running amok, it was inevitable that Black Wind Mountain had fallen into such a desolate state.
But none of that mattered!
Annie wouldn't waste time thinking about such boring things. She simply sat on the shoulders of her very own Little Bear-brand "macaque" mount, letting it carry her leisurely down the dark official road. She hoped that a striped tiger with glaring eyes and a white forehead, or some fearsome monster, might suddenly leap out ahead to whet her appetite or relieve her boredom.
However...
"Hmm?"
|˙˙)
"That's..."
("ヘ)"
To her