Millis Continent

When the ship docked, I was the first to jump ashore.

It felt so good to have solid ground beneath my feet. After seven days aboard the ship, my legs had almost forgotten what it was like to stand on land. The stone pier was hard under my boots, a hundred times better than that rocking plank in the cabin.

The sea breeze grew weaker on land, replaced by a smell I couldn't quite place. Rudeus said it was the smell of incense and spices, completely different from the dry, dusty smell of the Demon Continent.

I looked up at the port.

White buildings stood everywhere. A stone statue more than three meters tall stood on the pier, depicting a man in robes with his arms spread and his face turned toward the sky. A line of writing was carved into the base. I couldn't make out much of it, but I recognized the words "Saint Millis."

Saint Millis. Rudeus told me on the ship that the Holy Country of Millis worships someone called Saint Millis, who's at the center of the whole country's faith. They practice monogamy and reject demons and beastfolk. I don't understand it; all I know is that they have a ridiculous number of rules.

Rudeus walked behind me, carrying our luggage and talking to an official at the pier. The official looked at our adventurer's tags, then at Rudeus's face, and asked a long string of questions. Rudeus answered each one politely, completely unlike the way he'd dealt with those rough demon merchants on the Demon Continent.

He's good at this. I'm not. I don't have much patience.

Once he'd finished the formalities, we headed into the city along a wide road. White flowers grew on both sides, their petals thin as paper, scattering everywhere whenever the wind blew. Every few dozen paces, there was a small stone statue or shrine, some with candles burning in front of them.

The road was crowded: priests in white robes, merchants carrying bags big and small, and farmers leading livestock. Most of the women wore long sleeves and long skirts, with scarves wrapped around their heads, leaving only their faces exposed. The men were dressed modestly too, buttoned up to their collars.

I looked down at myself. Leather armor, shorts, and bare arms and thighs. Dressing like this had been perfectly fine on the Demon Continent, as long as I could fight easily. But here, several women were staring at me with something in their eyes I couldn't quite describe, something like disgust.

People here are so strange, giving me those looks. Do they think I'm wearing too little?

As one middle-aged woman passed me, she pulled her daughter closer, as if I were carrying some kind of plague.

Noticing their behavior and the way they looked at me irritated me, and my hand instinctively closed around my sword hilt.

Rudeus looked at me with an awkward smile, then leaned close to my ear and lowered his voice.

"The Millis Faith practices monogamy, and it's very conservative. You... don't draw too much attention."

"What do you mean, draw attention?"

"I mean... don't draw your sword at every little thing."

I glanced at him. His expression was serious; he wasn't joking.

I fell silent for three seconds.

"...I'll try." I couldn't see my own face, but my expression must not have been pleasant.

Only then did he breathe a sigh of relief.

What does he mean, "I'll try"? It's not like I draw my sword for no reason. It's just that, during those three years on the Demon Continent, drawing my sword was the quickest way to deal with trouble, so I got used to it. Rujierd said that if you can settle something with a sword, don't use words. But Rujierd also said that different places have different rules.

We continued into the city.

Milishion was bigger than any city I'd seen on the Demon Continent. The streets were wide, paved with neatly laid stone. Most of the buildings on either side were white, with pale blue roof tiles. In the distance, I could see a huge lake sparkling in the sunlight. A palace stood in the middle of it, its white spires rising above the surface as if they'd grown out of the water.

But what caught my attention most were the guards.

They wore silver armor with a cross-shaped emblem engraved on the chest, and carried longswords at their waists. Patrols of two appeared at regular intervals, their expressions stern. When they passed, pedestrians stepped aside of their own accord, heads lowered.

It's completely different from the Demon Continent. Towns there have guards too, but no one's afraid of them. People here are afraid of their guards.

At a crossroads, I saw something that made me furious.

A cart stood beside the intersection, piled with furs and dried goods. A man with beast ears was arguing with two guards. His ears were gray and stood upright on his head, and his tail was tucked between his legs. He was a head shorter than the guards, speaking quickly and gesturing a lot, as if trying to explain something.

The two guards blocked him from either side, and one of them reached out and shoved him. The beast-eared man stumbled and nearly fell.

I stopped.

Rudeus saw it too and tugged at my arm.

"Let's go," he said.

"They're giving him a hard time."

"This isn't our territory."

"But that guard pushed him."

"Eris, calm down." Rudeus lowered his voice, speaking with a seriousness I rarely heard from him. "That's how the Holy Country of Millis treats beastfolk. They only established diplomatic relations fifty years ago, and things still haven't improved much. You can deal with this one incident, but can you deal with all of them? Besides, if we cause trouble with the guards, finding Paul will only get harder."

I bit my lip.

I know he's right. Rujierd said something similar too. In the Great Forest, the beastfolk didn't treat demons well either, and Rujierd told us to put up with it. "Not every injustice is worth drawing your sword over. Sometimes, you endure it for the sake of something more important."

But as I watched the two guards drag the beast-eared man away by his arms, my hand stayed on my sword hilt.

I didn't let go until we'd gone a long way.

We found an inn.

It was in the western part of the city, not far from the Adventurers' Guild. A wooden sign hung by the entrance, painted with a fish and a key. The innkeeper was a short, plump middle-aged man who came over to greet us with a smile.

Rudeus took out the letter of recommendation the captain had given us. The innkeeper took one look at it, and his smile grew wider.

"Ah, a letter of recommendation from my little brother! You're the guests he rescued? Then I'll give you twenty percent off the room."

He led us up to the second floor. The room was small, with two beds and a window facing the street. Across from the window was a church spire, topped by a stone statue like the one on the pier, only much smaller.

"Dinner's downstairs. But it's the fasting month now, so there's no meat, only fish and vegetables. Do you mind?"

"Not at all," Rudeus said.

After the innkeeper left, I threw my luggage onto a bed and went to look out the window.

The sun had already begun to sink in the west. There were fewer pedestrians on the street than during the day, but a long line had formed outside the church. People were waiting to go in for evening prayers. Bells sounded from a distant tower, deep and low, one peal after another.

No meat, huh? That's fine. I ate all sorts of strange things on the Demon Continent. Grilled fish is pretty good by comparison.

That evening, we went downstairs to eat.

Candles burned on the table, giving off a dim light. Grilled fish, boiled vegetables, and black bread sat on a long table. The fish tasted pretty good, crisp on the outside and tender within. The vegetables were a little overcooked, but they were much better than the rations on the Demon Continent that were hard as rocks.

Rudeus ate quietly, while I ate faster than he did.

After we finished, I asked him, "Hey, what do we do next?"

"Tomorrow we'll go to the Adventurers' Guild and ask about the search party. The captain said Paul was in Milishion, but we still don't know exactly where."

"Okay."

After dinner, we returned to our room, and I practiced a set of basic moves by the window. Sword out, horizontal slash, downward cut, thrust, withdraw. I repeated them fifty times. I didn't use my full strength, just went through the motions to keep my hand in.

Rudeus sat on the bed reading a book. It was an old one he'd dug out of the luggage, its cover too worn to make out the title. He turned a few pages, then put it down and leaned against the headboard, watching me practice.

Moonlight streamed through the window, shining on my blade and casting streaks of light and shadow across the wall.

When I finished, I sheathed my sword. A light sweat covered my body.

"You work hard every day, Eris," Rudeus said.

"Rujierd said that if you skip a day of practice, your skills get rusty. And if I get weaker, how am I supposed to protect you?"

He smiled. The corners of his mouth curved only slightly, but I'd never seen him make that expression before. He looked happy, but it was a little heartbreaking too.

"Thank you, Eris."

"Rudeus!" I raised my voice.

He jumped at the sudden rise in my voice. "What is it?"

"You're not allowed to thank me anymore. Say it again and I'll hit you."

He pretended to be scared, but the smile stayed on his face.

"...Got it, got it, milady."

I punched him on the head.

"Ow, ow! I said I got it, so why did you hit me anyway?"

I huffed and didn't answer.

After that little exchange, he looked out the window. The distant church spire had become a black silhouette in the moonlight, with only the stone statue at its tip shining pale.

"Once we find the search party tomorrow, I'll be able to see Father," he said.

His voice was calm, but I saw his hand clench the bedsheet.

He's nervous. After all, they haven't seen each other since the Teleportation Incident, three years ago. He doesn't know what Paul's like now, and of course I don't either.

I didn't say anything to comfort him. I wasn't good at that.

I went over and sat beside him, resting my shoulder against his.

He turned his head and glanced at me.

Then, without a word, he leaned a little closer to me.

We sat like that for a while. The bells sounded again outside the window, distant this time, as though they were coming from the other side of the city.

The next morning, we checked out and ran into the innkeeper wiping down a table as we came downstairs.

"Are you looking for the Fittoa Territory search party?" he asked.

Rudeus nodded.

"I've heard about them, but they probably aren't in the city now. They're near the refugee camp south of town." The innkeeper draped his rag over his shoulder. "But there's been some trouble in that area lately. Kidnappings. Traffickers have snatched several beastfolk children. The guards say it was a gang passing through, but they still haven't caught them. Be careful over there."

Rudeus glanced at me.

I glanced back at him.

Beastfolk children. Beastfolk again.

My hand tightened around my sword hilt again without my realizing it.

This time, Rudeus didn't stop me.