EP.147 The Path Flows with the Traveler - 3
Even without sensation, humans recognize unfamiliarity.
A relatively comfortable bed and a narrow but clean space. However, my sleep was not very deep. My body had failed to adapt to the unfamiliar place.
"Wake up."
The subtle height difference of the pillow. A slightly changed posture due to the softness of the mattress. The temperature was a bit higher than the Abyss, and there was more dust. On top of that, the noise coming from outside tickled my nerves bit by bit.
The smell of military soap and dried grass blades lingered at the tip of my nose. An unfamiliar scent. Not unpleasant, but grating—the smell of the Military Nation. The dry, refreshing sensation seeping through the gaps.
"Wake up... Wake-up request attempted three times. I judge any further attempts to be meaningless."
Even the noise ringing in my ears was something I'd never heard before. All these sensations were disrupting my sleep. A shallow sleep where I felt like I'd wake up if someone just spoke to me...
"Based on the countermeasure manual, I will activate the forced wake-up protocol."
Wait. A sense of déjà vu.
"Wheeeeeeeeee!"
"Aaaaaaaagh!"
Startled by the sudden noise, I rolled around on the bed. As I hurriedly stood up, the Captain, who had already dressed neatly in her uniform, was staring at me.
As if unaware of what she had just done, she looked at me calmly. I yelled at her.
"Why are you screaming like that?!"
"It is 10 minutes past wake-up time. Even after I turned off the alarm and finished preparing, you did not wake up, so I inevitably executed the forced wake-up protocol."
"Just tap my body! That's better!"
The Captain nodded her head.
"I must request as first priority, warn as second priority, and use force as third priority. The act of directly touching another person's body must be postponed."
"No, that warning is as intense as using force! It feels like punching my eardrums, so just touch my body and wake me up more gently!"
"Refused. If I approach close enough to touch your body directly, there is a risk of the golem being damaged due to your reflexive flailing."
"Captain Abby, you are in your original body right now?"
The Captain, blinking twice, shouted.
"Ah!"
Ugh, it's your real body.
Just how long has she lived as a golem that she still isn't adapted to her own original body?
"Besides, even if I flail my arms, it doesn't even hurt. Next time, just pat my shoulder to wake me up."
"...Inputted."
The Captain reluctantly agreed.
After attaching the clothing packet, I went down and ate the provided breakfast. Having filled our stomachs with canned bean soup and ration bread, we took our passes and headed straight for the Meta-Conveyor Belt terminus.
The supply officer saw the Captain, saluted, and quickly checked our passes.
"Amitengrad Terminus. Two personnel, estimated travel time is about three days. Please take sleeping bags for the night, a multi-purpose lamp, a canteen, and rations. Will you have the sleeping bag as a packet? We also have non-packet sleeping bags available for those who lack mana."
"I will take the packet. As for him..."
The Captain glanced at me stealthily. I scratched my head, pretending to be a bit embarrassed, and said.
"I'll take the non-packet. I'm a bit short on mana, unlike Bbi."
'Bbi?! Still?!'
Although I was only level 1, perhaps because I was the Captain's family, the supply officer replied politely.
"Understood. A non-packet sleeping bag for the older brother. There might be performance issues, so please make good use of the strings."
'I'm getting tired of denying it too. I just want to leave...'
Given that his expression didn't change in the middle of all this, it seems he's received some training. Or maybe he's just given up on everything.
"Estimated arrival time is noon, three days from now. Please disembark from the flow on time. Otherwise, you'll end up going around one more time in the never-stopping flow."
Even a simple listing of facts turning into a humorous expression must be the mystique of the Meta-Conveyor Belt. It's not for nothing that the engineering corps members who have been working since 25 years ago walk around shrugging their shoulders.
Seriously, if the Military Nation didn't have this, they would have ruined the country long ago.
The gate opened with the guard's salute. The Captain returned the salute to the guard, and I vaguely bowed my waist and slightly raised my hand like a clueless civilian awkwardly following along. The guard did not return my greeting.
'Must be nice having a Captain as a younger sister. Riding the Meta-Conveyor Belt for free too. Tch, why couldn't any of my younger brothers get into a military academy...'
Leaving behind the guard whose posture was correct but whose inner thoughts were completely foul, we stepped onto the flowing earth.
The moment I first stepped on, my body was pulled for a very brief moment. However, we quickly steadied our posture.
The speed at the terminus was 1/10th of the main flow. At this speed, it was impossible to even stagger. I watched the terminus slowly recede into the distance. Even the slowest autocarriage was faster than this, so the world looked as slow as a slow walk.
However.
Tributaries flowing out from other terminuses merged into one. And the speed of the Meta-Conveyor Belt began to gradually increase.
Containers passing through here went straight past the terminus. Right after that, at the point where the tributaries merged into one. The container that looked small from afar gradually approached until it filled our field of vision.
At the same time, the concept of speed started to feel real. At some point, the wind was whooshing past my ears.
It was a bizarre sight. I was clearly stepping on the same floor, and the ground was still solid. But the landscape brushing past outside gradually changed.
It felt as if the world was leaving us behind and running backward.
A nearby sign disappeared, leaving us behind. A distant tree leisurely walked backward. And yet, the world surrounding us remained the same.
The wind blows. What proves that this land is running is the stopped wind. The wind sometimes moves, but macroscopically it is stationary, so every time the Meta-Conveyor Belt moves forward, it crashes into us as a headwind.
The symbol of stillness and the symbol of fluidity were reversed, roaring at the mismatch.
"...Cold wind. It's quite fierce. A sensation I've never felt before..."
Wearing her instructor uniform, the Captain said, holding her hat tightly so it wouldn't blow away in the fierce wind. Meanwhile, I wrapped my face with the flapping sleeping bag and shouted.
"What should we do? Should we wrap ourselves tightly in our sleeping bags here, or should we walk and look for other people?"
"...It would be better to walk. I cannot agree with the suggestion to find other people, but a windbreak seems necessary."
"Alright. Let's go!"
We each took a step.
I walked against the ground, and the Captain walked in the direction the ground was heading.
After walking three steps each and confirming the other wasn't following, we just snapped our heads back. The Captain, who was ahead, shouted while tightly gripping her hat.
"Shouldn't we obviously go forward? Walking backward when we can reach it faster is an act of going against the mission!"
"You want to advance while taking this wind to the face? Don't make me laugh. Even taking it with my back is barely manageable, how can I go forward!"
"I cannot neglect my mission over something as trivial as the wind!"
"Are you ignoring the wind right now? If you go against it, your body will fly away! Obviously we should walk backward and look!"
Our opinions were parallel lines. It can't be helped. I had no choice but to invoke the precious promise humanity had prepared to resolve such trivial conflicts.
I raised my fist high and shouted.
"Let's decide with rock-paper-scissors!"
The Captain shook her head firmly.
"Denial. It is impossible. The attitude toward the mission cannot be decided by something like rock-paper-scissors."
"Ah, seriously!"
Should I call this diligence, or should I call it being completely blockheaded?
How on earth did the Military Nation create someone like this? If all citizens of the Military Nation were like Captain Abby, voluntarily following orders, this country would have remained a wealthy and powerful nation forever.
"I really didn't want to use this method."
Still, going forward was crazy. Rather than walking against that wind looking for a windbreak with no guarantee, it'd be better to endure a wind-attribute attack magic.
So, you brought this upon yourself. Captain.
I spun around.
"...? Why are you turning backward? Didn't I say we should go forward."
"Catch me if you can!"
I just blindly ran backward. The Captain, looking flustered as she watched me flee, pointed her hand at my back and chased after me.
"Ah! Stop! Departure from me is not allowed!"
"Hahahaha! If people stopped when told, why would the world need police and laws! Catch me! Only then will I stop!"
"Warning...! If you do not stop, I will use force!"
"You don't have a shred of force anyway! None at all!"
Like that, with the Captain dragging behind me, I ran backward on the world's largest belt.
Perhaps running directly with her original body instead of a golem was awkward, as the Captain fell twice while chasing me. I felt so sorry for her clutching her reddened nose that I considered turning back, but running on two feet in this harsh world was a basic skill one must learn.
I thought of it as training and ran resolutely, swallowing my tears.
'This vivid pain... the sensation of riding the wind... things I couldn't feel with a golem whose pain was suppressed. Truly, I am running in my original body...!'
What do I do. She's so pitiful I can't run anymore. At this point, isn't the Military Nation the problem for raising a puppeteer into a puppet?
Just then, a windbreak came into view far away. I subtly stopped so the Captain could catch me. The Captain ran toward me with a proud expression.
"I caught you!"
Uh, but why isn't her speed slowing down.
"Aaaagh!"
A heavy impact struck my back. It was because the Captain crashed into me without slowing down. Even for me, a full-body tackle carrying the weight of her entire body was hard to endure, so I just tumbled on the ground.
The Captain, who climbed on top of my fallen body, gripped my arm tightly and said triumphantly.
"I will warn you firmly. From this point onward, if you leave my side arbitrarily, I will restrain and escort you, no matter what method it takes..."
Clap, clap, clap.
From somewhere, the sound of applause was heard.
At the sound reaching her ears, the Captain snapped her head up.
On the belt, several tens of meters away. There was a structure that looked as if it had popped out of the ground. It was a windbreak.
On top of the windbreak, which was convexly shaped to deflect the wind, someone was standing adeptly. A middle-aged man with a bold and agile impression had his arms crossed, looking this way with a face full of interest and clapping. In this fierce wind, his body did not sway at all.
He smiled a mischievous smile unbefitting his age.
"What a boisterous entrance!"
As his words ended, the faces of people who had been hiding from the wind on both sides of the windbreak appeared. They were looking at the new travelers with expressions of half-expectation, half-worry.
Meanwhile, the Captain's gaze turned toward the middle-aged man who had climbed onto the windbreak.
And horror. Pure horror filled her mind.
'...?! Why is he here?'
When the Captain lost her words for a moment at his sudden appearance, I stood up awkwardly, dusted off my hands and feet, and pointed at the windbreak.
"Bbi! A windbreak! Let's hurry and go inside since it's cold!"
'Therefore, Bbi is denied! I have no memory of allowing you a nickname! I have never had a nickname called Bbi either! And!'
Since I got on here, I had to play the role of the Captain's older brother. I calmly continued my act and shouted to the person on top of the windbreak.
"There happen to be people here! Hello! Can we go in too?"
'Please, stop! Entering there requires a bit more deep consideration...!'
The middle-aged man who had gone up to the top of the windbreak nodded largely and shouted.
"Of course! That's what the windbreak is made for! Come on in!"
A solid yet agile impression. A confident attitude as if he had everything in the world under his feet. An upright posture.
And above all, his body, which didn't sway a single bit while taking this raging wind head-on, seemed to assert that he was no ordinary person.
'Warning...! You are walking into a death trap right now!'
Huh, what is. I don't really feel any hostility? It's an extraordinary aura, but I'm a survival specialist who survived even in the Abyss where the Regressor, the Progenitor, and the King of Dogs were clashing. I don't get tense with people who have no hostility.
Unless the other person is a monster on the level of a Murder Tank or something...
'Danger! I cannot even convey that fact! A figure whose very existence has a security classification! Even though there is no one in the Military Nation who doesn't know him, someone with such a position and power...!'
I, who had been waving my hand and walking toward the windbreak, came to a halt. Turning my head, I saw the Captain looking at me pitifully, as if tears were about to drip from her eyes at any moment.
'If he asks me about my mission, I will have no choice but to spill everything! Because there are no unauthorized secrets for a figure like him! Even the fact that you are a laborer who returned alive from the Abyss!'
At her extremely urgent attitude, I read her thoughts again, and then I realized what the Captain was worried about. At the same time, a sense of crisis hit me that if I made a mistake, everything could be ruined.
No way. This coincidentally...
'He is one of the Six Generals of the Military Nation, General Patraxon!'
To think I'd run into one of the Military Nation's highest combat powers. I turned my head again. General Patraxon was just jumping down from the windbreak.
...If I run away in the opposite direction now, I'll really be playing a game of catch-me-if-you-can, won't I?