Joel was blissfully enjoying his adventure, having no idea that his disappearance had triggered a state of emergency across the entire northern territories of the Empire.
The weather was perfect, as it was the transition period from winter to spring.
It was cold enough to keep his food from spoiling, yet warm enough that he wouldn’t freeze to death while camping in the forest.
Sir Bennet had provided several items beyond what Joel had initially requested.
As a former soldier, he knew far more about the essentials for camping than Joel did.
At the start of the trip, Joel had grumbled about the bag being excessively heavy.
However, when items that seemed useless to him—like flint and a brass kettle—turned out to be incredibly vital, he felt a deep sense of gratitude toward his father.
Although the mercenary his father found had betrayed him early on, the journey following that incident had been remarkably peaceful.
Joel, in a generous mood, decided to write off the mercenary issue as just one of those things that happens.
Joel’s days on the road followed a similar routine.
He would travel north on the mule—or so he firmly believed, though he was actually heading southeast—until sunset, then find a spot in the forest to sleep.
Because his father had packed plenty of flint, Joel managed to avoid freezing at night.
At first, he had stared at the stones, unsure of what to do, but fortunately, he had seen fires being built many times.
When he used to explore the woods with Robert as a child, Robert would often strike a fire with flint to roast potatoes for lunch.
Actually, Robert had tried to teach him the trick to starting a fire several times, but Joel had always let the instructions go in one ear and out the other, so he couldn’t quite remember them.
Still, after a few attempts, he got the hang of it.
Now, Joel could start a fire with flint reasonably well.
Once the campfire was lit and he lay down beside the mule, the deep night didn’t feel cold.
Joel would fall asleep leaning against the animal, and when morning came, he would melt snow in the brass kettle to wash up before continuing his journey.
Throughout his travels, Joel encountered neither wild beasts nor bandits.
It was nothing short of divine luck.
Even the somewhat ditzy Joel realized that fortune was smiling upon him repeatedly.
Regarding this, Joel thought that perhaps his late mother was protecting him, considering how things had gone smoothly during his encounter with the demon and now on this trip.
While moving, Joel’s only tasks in the cart were checking his direction with the compass and admiring the forest scenery.
Early in the trip, he had struggled with boredom and dozed off frequently, but soon he came to enjoy the view.
The further he traveled, the more the forest brimmed with green vitality.
Watching the lush landscape, the acts of chasing wealth and fame or being desperate to win someone’s love felt utterly meaningless.
For Joel, who had been tormented to his limit in the capital, this was a long-awaited time of peace.
There were no longer the voices of non-manifested commoners mocking him, nor the thunderous shouts of Count Lucas scolding him.
The only things reaching his ears were the songs of birds and the rustle of leaves in the wind.
Setting down his weary heart, Joel gradually regained a sense of stability, almost like a sage.
In reality, the fact that the forest was getting greener was an indicator that he was moving toward the warm south.
Unfortunately, Joel didn’t suspect for a single moment that he was going anywhere other than north. He simply thought it was because spring was approaching.
Naturally, Joel’s favorite part of the daily routine was mealtime.
While the mule rested and grazed, Joel would happily debate whether to eat the food from the farmhouse or the supplies Sir Bennet had packed.
Fortunately, his supplies were not just sufficient—they were overflowing.
Besides the ham, rye bread, and milk he received as a bonus from the farmer’s house, he had a mountain of food from Sir Bennet.
There were jars of honey-preserved fruit sealed with cork and wax, blocks of cheese and butter, two loaves of white bread, three handfuls of oats, and a large pouch stuffed with beef jerky and peas.
Sir Bennet, showing unexpected meticulousness, hadn’t even forgotten to pack sugar cubes and salt.
In particular, even though he ate the large ham from the farmhouse every day, it had barely decreased by a quarter of its original size.
Since he didn’t need to spend money on food, his travel funds remained ample.
To befriend the mule, Jack—who maintained a strangely sullen attitude—Joel decided to give all the sugar cubes Sir Bennet had packed to him.
Originally, Joel didn’t like the notoriously foul temper of mules or donkeys.
He wasn’t fond of the mule’s disrespectful attitude, as if it didn’t recognize him as its master, but he absolutely needed its help to finish this journey successfully.
He was also grateful that it pulled the cart all day without complaint.
So, during a rest stop, Joel approached the mule, scratched its cheek, and expressed his gratitude.
“I have thirty sugar cubes, and I’m going to give them all to you. Two every day. It’s hard for you to pull the carriage, after all.”
From then on, it might have been his imagination, but the mule’s dissatisfied face seemed to soften a bit.
Meanwhile, the clever mule, Jack, found his new master annoying in many ways, but since the human didn’t seem like a bad person, he was putting up with him for now.
Jack the mule had recognized from the start that there were two things about his new master that were “inhuman.”
One was that his face was so beautiful it was hard to believe he was human; the other was that his head was so empty it was hard to believe he was human.
In fact, on the first day, the mule had understood that the master wanted to go north.
Even after that, the new master would occasionally mutter to himself from behind, “I must be heading north correctly, right…?”
Understanding that the master wished to go north, Jack the mule had tried to subtly turn the direction, but the master was both dim-witted and stubborn.
Every time the mule tried to change course, the master would notice with uncanny sharpess and yank the reins back.
Even a beast could tell they were heading southeast just by looking at where the sun rose and set.
Indeed, wasn’t he, a beast, aware of that fact?
But since the master was so obstinate, the animal brain eventually concluded that the master must have some other plan in mind and simply followed.
Jack the mule was very annoyed by the thought that they might have to walk this long road all the way back, but he couldn’t bring himself to abandon a master who kept his promise of two sugar cubes a day and made sure to tuck a corner of the blanket over even a furry animal like himself every night.
Joel, who had been happily traveling through the forest, finally sensed something was wrong after moving in the cart pulled by Jack for nearly fifteen days.
“That’s strange. The border should be appearing soon…”
Joel stood on a hillside, muttering with a troubled face.
For some reason, a vast ocean stretched out before him.
Joel tilted his head and checked the map several times.
No matter how he looked at it, the scenery—the coastline and the location of the islands—didn’t match the description of the northern territories in the map at all.
Moreover, the forest was thick with lush greenery.
He had heard that the northern territories of the Empire were so cold it snowed until the end of March, but the weather felt far too hot even for early spring.
Becoming anxious, Joel put down the map and tapped the mule, who was resting and grazing nearby.
“Jack, by any chance… did I come the wrong way?”
Jack the mule stopped grazing and gave a dissatisfied snort.
It felt exactly like he was snapping, ‘You just figured that out now, you idiot?’ and Joel felt his anxiety skyrocket.
He had no clue where he was.
After scratching his chin and staring at the map for a long while, Joel finally concluded that he had to stop by a village and ask.
Until now, he had intentionally avoided villages out of fear that the Crown Prince might be looking for him, but now that things had come to this, he had no choice but to ask a person.
“Please, I hope I haven’t drifted too far from the Kingdom of Palein…”
Joel whispered in a restless tone.
The journey had been fun, but riding in a cart all day was no easy task.
If it was this hard before his belly had even grown, how difficult would it be once it did?
“I should have been more careful when I first picked the direction, I shouldn’t have just chosen randomly.”
It was far too late for such regrets now that he had reached the southeastern tip of the continent, but the innocent Joel simply muttered those words with a naive expression.
