Chapter 361: Welcome to the South

The Great Forest was the natural border separating the human territories at the center of the continent from the non-human lands of the south.

It was also one of the worst possible places to get lost.

There was only one relatively safe road through it, and once you strayed from it, the vegetation grew so dense that it was easy to lose your bearings within minutes.

Of course, that assumed you lived long enough to worry about being lost.

The half-humans who inhabited the forest and the wild beasts lurking among the trees usually dealt with travelers long before that.

For most people, at least.

Because when someone was strong enough, the Great Forest stopped being a deathtrap and became merely an inconvenient road...

As the woman who emerged from between the last trees had just demonstrated.

She was tall and slender, with pale skin, intense red eyes, and black hair that fell down her back.

She wore a navy-blue suit that remained almost spotless despite three weeks of travel, and her calm expression showed not the slightest sign of exhaustion.

For three weeks she had seen nothing but enormous moss-covered trunks, roots heaving up from the ground, and branches so dense the light barely managed to filter through the leaves.

Yet the moment she left the last trees behind, the world seemed to open up before her.

The southern plains stretched as far as the eye could see, covered by an immense green carpet that rose and fell in gentle undulations.

Here and there small clusters of trees appeared, and a shining river cut across the plain under the golden afternoon light.

The woman stood there for a long moment, sweeping her gaze over the landscape without a word.

"So this is the south..." she murmured.

"Finally!"

The voice came from behind, loaded with irritation and pure exhaustion.

"Finally, finally, finally! Finally the damn trees are over!"

A second woman came out of the forest, dragging her feet.

She was identical to the first, but quite a bit shorter, and her black hair was cut at chin length.

And unlike her sister, the journey showed on her.

She had leaves tangled in her hair, mud up to her knees, and a tear in the skirt of her dress that, judging by her face, she still hadn’t forgiven the forest for.

She dropped onto the grass with a groan.

"This fucking trip has been a nightmare," she complained, plucking a leaf from her hair and flinging it away. "A nightmare from start to finish. Months of walking. And then this godforsaken forest, where every tree looks the same and we spent three weeks going in circles."

"Actually, it was three and a half weeks."

"I don’t care!" The shorter one pointed at the forest with an accusing finger. "Even the mosquitoes in there tried to kill me! Do you know how humiliating that is?"

"..."

"I swear, if I’d known the trip was going to be like this, I wouldn’t have come."

"Lily, you were the one who cried to Father to let you come with me," the taller woman replied, glancing at her sideways.

"I know, Dalia," she answered, clenching her fists. "You don’t have to throw it in my face every time I open my mouth."

"Then stop opening it to complain."

"I complain because I have reasons!"

Dalia didn’t even bother to respond. She remained standing at the edge of the forest, arms crossed, her gaze lost in the plains.

Lily looked at her from the ground, grimaced, and ended up hugging her legs.

"...Hey," she murmured, much more serious now. "Don’t you think everything that’s been happening back there is insane?"

Dalia knew exactly what she meant.

The journey had left images that were hard to forget.

Entire villages reduced to ashes, fields burned black, and families walking for days beside carts loaded with everything they had managed to save.

Many didn’t even know where they were going; they only knew which army they were fleeing from.

On the sides of some roads they had also seen bodies hanging from trees, with signs nailed to their chests calling them traitors, cowards, or scum.

And when they weren’t coming across the aftermath of war, they were coming across the war itself.

Entire armies marching under different banners, forcing them to take detours so as not to get caught between them.

Humans against humans.

"I just don’t get it," Lily continued. "They’re all human, they all worship the same goddess, and they all seem to agree when it comes to hating non-humans... So why the hell are they fighting each other?"

"It’s not our business, Lily."

"But--"

"The only thing that matters to us is finding Rose and bringing her home," Dalia cut in, frowning. "Just as Father ordered. What the humans do has nothing to do with that."

Lily let out a long sigh and dropped her forehead onto her knees.

"I don’t even know why I bother asking you..."

"Neither do I."

Lily raised her head and shot her a murderous look, but Dalia didn’t even turn around to see it.

For a while, neither of them said anything.

Lily plucked a blade of grass and began winding it between her fingers as she watched the plain.

The afternoon sun painted the sky orange, and a warm breeze rippled through the grass in slow waves.

Seen from here, the south didn’t look especially dangerous or wild. It was just an immense green expanse vanishing into the horizon.

And, for some reason, that unsettled her even more.

"Still, think about it," she said. "If the humans are like this, and they’re supposed to be the civilized ones... I don’t even want to imagine how the non-humans live down here."

Dalia finally turned to look at her.

"I’m serious. If the ones with kings, laws, churches, and all that are tearing each other apart, what can you expect from a bunch of demihuman and half-human tribes with nobody to keep them in check?"

"..."

"I bet they kill each other over anything down here," Lily said as she tossed the blade of grass aside. "And Sister Rose went and settled right in the middle of all this... Seriously, I don’t get it. We’ll probably end up finding her in a cave, surrounded by--"

"Shut up."

Lily was left with her mouth hanging open mid-sentence.

"...Excuse me?"

Dalia turned around.

"What do you mean, shut up?" Lily jumped to her feet, brushing the grass off her dress. "I’ve spent months putting up with your silences, your faces, and your ’it’s not our business,’ and now you’re telling me to shut up on top of it? You know what, Dalia? I’m sick of you treating me like I’m--"

"Look up."

"What?"

"Up, Lily."

Something in Dalia’s voice made Lily decide to be quiet.

Her sister was still standing with her arms crossed, as calm as ever, though now her gaze was raised to the sky.

Lily followed the direction of her eyes without much enthusiasm, and for a few seconds she found nothing strange among the orange-tinted clouds.

Then one of the shadows moved.

It wasn’t a cloud.

It was an enormous creature advancing south, with an elongated body, a tail trailing behind, and two gigantic wings.

It didn’t take Lily long to recognize that silhouette.

At the start of her journey through the Great White North she had seen several dragons crossing the sky, enough to know exactly what she was looking at.

The strange part was that, according to everything Dalia and their father had told her, those creatures never left the north.

And yet one was flying over the southern plains right now, months away from any snowy mountain.

"...You’ve got to be fucking kidding me," Lily murmured.