Ch. 77 Mongliu River

Many people said they were turned away by the synopsis QAQ, does anyone have any good suggestions?

——

After leaving the Waystation Street Ruins.

They traveled northwest along the road.

The group’s speed was much slower compared to a month ago.

Because Patches didn’t have a mount like Kalé, nor was he as tireless as Wilden.

And starting from some unknown time, Melina had been following by Mia’s side, not disappearing as she usually did.

For Melina, who usually rarely appeared, following along like this was a rare occurrence.

After all, during the month and a half at Waystation Street, Melina hadn’t appeared many times.

She took the initiative to hold Torrent’s reins.

Long before Torrent became Mia’s mount, he was already familiar with Melina.

“Melina.” Mia noticed this. “Don’t you plan to materialize as a spirit?”

Melina shook her head.

“It’s better this way; I can truly experience the feeling of traveling.” Melina turned back and gave Mia a very faint smile.

It was a smile so faint that Mia doubted if she was seeing an illusion.

“Hmm…”

It probably really was an illusion.

Actually, Little Wood’s emotionless trait was also quite cute.

Since Melina decided to stay by Mia’s side on foot…

The party had become four people.

Four people…

Mia rubbed her chin.

Wilden walked at the very front.

Melina led Torrent by the reins.

Patches walked idly at the very back.

There was a constant sense of déjà vu, but something was missing.

“Wait a minute!” Mia suddenly shouted, then turned her head: “Patches! Do something.”

“Eh?”

—

Under coercion (literal) and inducement (using a sharp blade to persuade), Patches shouldered the burden with a thick wooden stick.

He had a face that screamed ‘forced into business.’

That’s more like it.

Feeling very satisfied with her arrangement, Mia sat on horseback, nodding with smug contentment.

“Let’s go, the things inside are already very light.”

The roasted whole sheep from last night hadn’t been finished. After Mia went to sleep, Kalé had divided it into two portions in preparation for their parting the next morning.

The larger portion accounted for three-quarters of the sheep’s weight, all cut into easily stackable shapes and stuffed into the bag Kalé had given Mia.

However, by the time Patches took the bag, Mia had already taken the food out of it.

It seemed like things wouldn’t spoil inside the storage space.

The girl holding the stargazing staff hummed the melody of ‘You carry the load, I lead the horse.’

The four ‘master and disciples’ continued their journey westward.

But unlike when she first arrived, Mia chose to travel along the main road, making encounters with people inevitable.

So, she had the three Spirit Wolves scatter to maintain a lookout several kilometers away—to the front, the rear, and across the fields.

If they encountered approaching strangers, the Spirit Wolves would immediately return to sound the alarm.

They traveled peacefully like this until nightfall, when they found a ruin by the main road. A shallow stream flowed through the ruin, passed through a culvert under the main roadbed, and eventually led to Lake Agheel.

This place seemed to have been a waystation as well.

Being the former main road, there certainly needed to be places for people to rest and stay.

But unlike the Waystation Street where Master Sellen was hiding, there were neither brutal Miranda Flowers nor oversized, crazed Pumpkin Head Soldiers here.

It was just an ordinary ruin that had once been a waystation.

Mia decided to camp within the ruins.

One thing to be thankful for was that they had found the Waystation Street where Master Sellen was located right away, without wasting unnecessary time on other waystation ruins along the main road.

They lit a campfire at night and made do with a meal by reheating the leftover roast meat from the night before.

The journey thereafter followed much the same pattern.

Though the scenery was constantly changing, humans are not machines that can record everything.

After getting tired of looking, all the scenery seemed to become stagnant and unchanging.

Walking on the main road gave the illusion of a very slow pace.

When she was with Kalé before, they had adhered to the principle that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line and crossed directly through the wilderness.

But when building a road, one cannot simply follow the shortest straight line; the path must extend along terrain suitable for roadbed construction.

However, although it was a bit slower, they were able to find ruins to shelter from the wind and rain almost every night.

Not having to sleep out in the open wilderness was a good thing.

Recalling the scenes in the forest before, waking up to dew dripping on her in the morning…

Mia expressed that she absolutely never wanted to experience that again.

They moved along leisurely.

They passed several deserted villages.

On the road, they encountered several groups of muddled, completely non-aggressive wandering The Everliving.

A week later, a bridge spanning a great river appeared before them.

Patches had once said that the great river was named the Mongliu River.

Though it sounded like the name of a small forest brook,

The Mongliu River was indeed, without a doubt, a surging great river with a span of over a hundred meters.

The entire stretch of the river was sandwiched between nearly vertical canyons.

And the stone bridge above it, which seemed to be built at the widest part of the river as if to show off, was undoubtedly a wonder that could only be built in a fantasy world’s Middle Ages.

But…

“As expected, there are heavy guards,”

Mia, standing high and seeing far, said with regret.

“We should be able to sneak through.”

Wilden answered.

It just so happened that Kalé wasn’t there.

She and Patches could probably pretend to be Tarnished being captured for Grafting.

“It’s better not to take too many risks,” Mia shook her head.

After all, Wilden was still wearing that surcoat with the Great Tree and the Lion.

Unless it was absolutely necessary, Mia didn’t want to make things difficult for Wilden.

They were once comrades-in-arms serving the same lord; Mia had no twisted desire to make them kill each other.

Although such a thing might not necessarily happen… but didn’t Murphy say? If there’s a probability of something bad happening, it will happen.

Furthermore, Mia’s memories of gacha pulls from her past life made her extremely sensitive to things like probability.

There were no pursuers at the moment, and supplies were plentiful; there was no reason they had to speed up and sneak through.

It was better to take a safer path.

“Isn’t there another way?” Mia asked.

For example, the suspension bridge they had crossed when they came.

“That suspension bridge wasn’t built by you guys, was it?”

Mia looked at Patches.

“Regarding this question… hehe, as for who built it, the truth is like drawing lots from a box; you only know what it is once you pull it out.”

To this, Patches began his nonsense.

She wondered if this guy knew that in another world, a scientist named Schrödinger had proposed a theory similar to his.

If Schrödinger knew that a bandit had proposed this theory just to make excuses for himself, he would probably die of anger on the spot.

“Tsk, looks like it wasn’t you then.” Mia curled her lip in disdain.

After being exposed, Patches didn’t show a hint of guilt.

On the contrary, he still looked proud.

“At any rate, the fact that the suspension bridge is so well-maintained is partly thanks to our Patches Bandit Gang.” Having said that, he paused and then acted mysterious: “I actually know of another, closer way to cross the bridge.”

Ah, it finally appeared!

Patches’ trickery!

First, use lies to lure someone to a location (most often a cliff or a vertical cave), and then kick them down.

And this guy’s lure was usually ‘there’s treasure ahead’ or ‘there’s something interesting ahead.’

“Do you think I’ll believe you!” Mia said with righteous indignation, her expression unchanged.

Their relationship was passable, but business was business.

Against such things, one must be on guard!

“I’m not lying to you, there really is another way to cross the river. It’s much closer than that previous bridge.”

“Hmm…” Melina stared at Patches, pondered for a moment, and then looked at Mia: “He probably isn’t lying.”

The Kindling Maiden was far more sensitive to lies and sincerity than ordinary people.

“Is that so?”

Mia was somewhat surprised.

If Melina, who had always disliked Patches and treated him even more harshly than Kalé did, was willing to speak up for him and clear his name…

Perhaps Patches wasn’t wrong.

“Then let’s go. You lead the way, and don’t try any tricks.”

Mia warned.

This attitude caused Patches to display a superficial sadness: “Do you distrust me that much? After we’ve been through so much together…”

“A leopard can’t change its spots,” Mia shrugged.

To put it more bluntly,

A dog can’t stop eating dung.

Though sometimes, Patches’ trickery wasn’t malicious.

In Dark Souls 3’s Ringed City, he tricked the player, who already considered him a friend, and kicked them into a deep pit.

But he was actually sending the player onto the correct path towards the ending.

In the original Elden Ring, Patches kicked the player down the mountain at Volcano Manor.

But he also gave the warning: ‘Don’t go near Volcano Manor.’

The problem was… if you want to help someone, can’t you use a more acceptable method?