Arc 3 - Chapter 10: Migration (1/2)

No matter how hard they tried to go fast, there was no way to stop the snow.

He actually couldn't wait to see the snow in the Second World because where he lived in the First World, because of global warming and industrialization, it was difficult to see proper snow in the winter months in his hometown and he always sad with that.

But the snow that fell here was too much exaggerated. The snowfall had already exceeded three rulers and was still falling.

"I hope the animals don't perish."

Yu had bought carts and oxen from the villages where they stopped so that the roarons could ride. Vehicles normally used to load bales were now used by the oxen to carry children and the elderly.

The oxen were covered with leather and wool so that they would not perish in the winter cold, and the animals were better fed than most roarons.

Because of the snow, the wagons carrying the roarons, like Yu's wagon, could not move easily. Some of the roarons tried to go ahead and clear the road for the vehicles, but this contributed little to their speed.

"Does it normally snow this much here?"

There was no south pole on the world map, and unless it was a flat world, which Yu believed it was not, there were too many gaps in the world map.

Still, when he looked at the map, he would not have thought that it would snow so much in İlonya, because Ethalot, which is on the same plane as the country and quite close to İlonya, has the geographical characteristics of the Middle East. It couldn't be normal for there to be so much snow in İlonya.

"I'm sorry it snowed for the first time in my life."

Yu couldn't spend all his gold buying food and board for the roarons, and the villages didn't sell enough food to feed them all. He had already spent hundreds of gold coins for them, but he had no intention of spending more, and there was not enough produce in the villages for them.

The children and the elderly, who would slow them down as they walked among the roarons, rode in carts pulled by oxen, while others walked on foot. One of them was Kigaro, who was walking right next to him.

What Yu could not deny was that at least the roarons were faster and more durable than humans. Roarons could walk all day long without stopping because of their physical strength. If he had been migrating with humans and not with them, he probably would not have reached the Mora until the middle or end of February.

But the roarons marched on throughout the day, trying to reach the Mora as fast as they could. They did not complain about the difficult conditions of the migration. On the contrary, they realized that the faster they went, the better it would be for them, and they made an effort to go even faster.

There were exactly one hundred and seventeen roaron children, fifteen elders, thirty-eight females and thirty roaron males. Only a very few of the children were close to reaching puberty.

"I wish you could love me more."

Kigaro didn't answer him. They hadn't been on good terms since the day Yu woke up. Not only with him, but with all the roarons and Yu. They didn't like him openly, but thanks to Yurine's influence, they didn't voice their dislike for him either.

"I don't regret what I did."

"You made us slaves."

"Yes," Yu didn't deny it. "That's how humans are, don't get involved with them."

He was not going to trust people he had just met. Even if the books he had read said good things about them, Yu was not going to give up his skepticism and trust their loyalty unquestioningly, relying only on books.

So on the night of the day he woke up, he offered the roarons a deal. The deal was that if the roarons wanted to come with them, they must dedicate their lives to Yurine. They must serve her cause, obey her and die when necessary.

It was basically the same deal he offered to Kigaro and it was a magical deal.

Yu knew they wouldn't like him, but he did it because he wanted to remind them of the debt they owed him; he did it because he had to solidify his path to success.

"After all, Yurine is a child and she doesn't know people as well as I do, so she can easily be wrong. I have to take precautions for her that she can't because it's my job to take care of things for her. So even if you don't like me, you should at least answer me when I talk to you."

Kigaro kept silent again and kept walking. The Roarons loved and respected Yurine, but that was exactly how they treated Yu.

They would do what he told them to do when he commanded them to do it, but they would not give him more than that. They didn't greet him, they even stopped talking when he passed them and waited for him to leave.

Yu thought it was disrespectful and ungrateful, but there was no need to raise the tension by rubbing it in their faces.

"I did what I believed was right, even if you are angry with me. If you are going to live in the human world, you must learn that people are unreliable beings. You can't trust people you've just met with things you care about."

Did the roarons really think he would simply entrust Yurine to their protection? Or should Yu believe without a shadow of a doubt that the cause for which he had laid down his life would be safe in their hands?

"We have a goal to achieve and there are things I have to do to achieve that goal. Yurine is too immature to think about these things, so it is my job to think for her. I'm not as strong as you, but there are different things I can do to protect our cause and my daughter."

"Your daughter?"

"Uh... I blurted it out."

Yu had succeeded. He didn't want to easily expose the father-daughter relationship between him and Yurine, but it was important to talk to Kigaro and be friends with him. So he said the only thing he thought would interest him.

"Since you've heard, there's no need to hide it any longer, but let's keep it between us."

He managed to surprise Kigaro and attract his attention. Kigaro was looking for similarities between her and Yu with a puzzled expression on his face. Naturally, he failed.

"You don't look anything like her."

"Don't we really alike? I'm sure she's just as arrogant as I am, actually. I think she's a lot like her father in a lot of ways."

When he first met Yurine, her arrogance bothered him because it was exactly on the same level as Yu's arrogance.

"I'm not talking about personality, her eyes and ears and tail and hair..."

"Yeah, she takes after her mom."

It was horrible to see his sharp teeth, but her open mouth, combined with the surprised look in his eyes made Yu laugh. There was nothing cat-like about Rie, but it was true that she looked like her mother. The shade of her hair and the color of her eyes were exactly the same.

"So that's why she loves you."

"Are you saying someone has to be blood related to love me? That hurts my heart. I don't think any girl can dislike my handsome face."

Roaron didn't know the beauty standards, but he was sure that he was the only person anywhere in the world who could score a perfect score on any beauty standard.

"If she is your daughter, why are you stewarding her? Children should serve their fathers."

"She's not my... I mean, she's not my blood daughter. I adopted her after her mother died."

"I didn't know it was like this."

Was he upset? Kigaro must have had an emotional side.

"What about her real father?"

"I'm her real father."

Yu clicked his tongue at Kigaro's choice of words. He didn't know exactly how a father should act, but he saw Yurine as his real daughter and himself as a real father.

"That's not what I meant."

"Yurine has a mixed origin, she never had the kind of father or mother you are talking about."

He would not say now that she was a sword fairy. But even if he didn't say it, the people in Andromedia must have known Yurine. The roarons would somehow find out when they got there.

"I would be a liar if I said everything I do is for my daughter. Half of what I do is for my own satisfaction. Yet I still want her to be happy and I will strive for that. I will never regret the things I do for her, even if it means you won't love me."

Kigaro did not continue talking. He must have been silent because he had satisfied his curiosity. Yu would have liked to chat some more to pass the time, but it was not a good idea to push Kigaro any further.

"I know we didn't get off to a good start, but I hope we get along well. Yurine will be more satisfied that way."

When he realized that Kigaro was not going to say anything, he said his last word.

"We will stop at the edge of the forest. Tomorrow we will reach the mountains that we see there and when we cross them we will be in the Mora."