Chapter 4

Aghh!

My head hurts as if an enromous needle is stabbing it. I feel dizzy and weak. Can't even lift a finger. But I can feel that I am not on the grassy ground of the plain. I am on a bed being warmly wrapped around by a blanket.

I can open my eyes.

An unfamiliar ceiling. It is made of wood.

"Are you awake?" a sweet voice of a young girl from the side of the bed.

I look there without waking up from the bed.

She is sitting on a chair beside the bed and looking at me while wearing a concerned and anxious expression. She is a pretty girl around 16 years old. Her brown hairs are cut short and falling on her shoulders. The front bangs are being parted into two parts. The left part is lifted by a red flower patterned hair pin while the right one is hanging on her wide forehead. The eyes are filled with the innocence of a young maiden. She is not wearing any makeup to support the beauty of her pale skin, and yet her plain and clear face looks pretty in its own way. Her slime figure with 164 cm height fit very well with an ordianary dress of a village girl which is a white dress which looks a little worn-out and dirty combined with brown waist coat being wore on top of that. Her appearance is standing out for the innocence, plainess, prettiness, and freshness of a naive village girl rather than fancily gorgeousness.

Her cheeks and ears become rosy red as we meet our eyes.

"How long was I out?" I mumble.

"You were unconscious for just a day,"

A day, huh?

"We found you while we were going out to collect flowers. You should be grateful. You could have died if we weren't there. " A young boy comes into the room and says in an annoyed tone as he leans his body to the wooden frame of the door.

He looks 4 or 5 years younger than the girl. He has an ordinary short haircut of a boy. Looking at his brown hair and facial features, it is obvious that he is the younger brother of the girl. However, his height has grown to the same length as his sister. Unlike the girl, he has piercing eyes filled with doubts. The skinny body with a little bit of muscles, a brownish skin burnt by the bright sun, and the coutious personality, he had been forced to mature at a young age to protect his naive sister.

"Why are you speaking like that!! I never taught you to speak to an older person that way!!" The girl becomes furious at the young boy's attitude and scolds him.

"You are just too gullible and naive, sis. Bring a random guy on the street home. " The boy counters her back angrily.

I have no word to say at their argument. He is right. She is kind and naive. But I am relieved and grateful that she saved me.

"Okay, okay. Then chase him out. He is already awake!" the boy shouted.

"HEY!!! Get out of this room right now!!!"

The sister is really furious.

"Tsk."

Bang!!!

He gets out of the room and kicks the wall vigorously as a mean to take out his anger.

"..."

Well, this is awkward.

"I am sorry for the unsightly scene you had to witness," the girl apologizes while bowing her head down.

"No, no. I am grateful that you saved me back then, "

The girl sighs.

"That is my younger brother, Arthur. Usually, he is not like that. We lost our parents when we were really young, and I have been single-handedly raising him myself. So, I am like both a mother and sister to him. Acting like that was just his way to try to protect me. Please, forgive him. "

"Well, I totally get that. I kinda feel bad that you guys had to fight because of me. "

We are holding a conversation normally, but she still blushes when our eyes meet.

"Oh! I haven't introduced myself yet. " she suddenly notices it and says it out loud.

Well, I also haven't yet.

"I am Sarah," she introduces herself politely.

"I am Ranpo."

I introduce myself too, but she is still acting like she is not really satisfied with my answer. She opens her mouth a little and prepares to say something, but she decides that she should not.

Why is she acting like that? Maybe she wants to know why I was lying on the ground at night.

"The truth is I am travelling to a city, and I was out of food and water yesterday."

"Ohh~~"

It looks like it satisfies her curiosity.

"Which city are you going to?"

"Well, to be honest, I am not really familiar with the geography around this area. Haha"

I try to laugh it off.

"Ehhh... then you don't know where you are going to?" Sarah asks in surprise.

"T-then, where did you come from?"

"Well, it is a place called Earth. I wanted to live my life in a big and peaceful city, which is why I was crossing that grassy plains. " I tell her a lie mixed with some truths.

Yes, there is no way a girl who lives in a rural village would be aware of the geography of the whole world. She is bound to think that I am talking about a country or a city named Earth, which she does not know.

"Earth? Ohh~~, then you are from a foreign country?"

I nod.

"Wow!!! Then you are so amazing that you crossed the Emerald Plain on foot. Don't tell me you are a magician?" she asks with her eyes shining with excitement.

"W-well, I do have a skill," I answer with a sour face.

"Woww~~, this is amazing. This is the first time I've ever seen a magician in person. " she seems super delighted that she can't even surpress her soft lips from forming a big smile.

Are magicians rare in this world? But anyway, now I know that there are other people beside me who can use skills or magic. Well, it is a given considering this is a fantasy world.

But she is smiling so brightly and innocently this much just because she sees a magician.

"Is there any city nearby?" I ask.

"If you want to get to the city, there is actually the capital of this country at the west. it would only take 2 days on foot from here, "

She starts to become talkactive as she gets to know that I am a magician.

"Capital?"

"Yes, it is called Capital Nathana, the capital of Crolin Kingdom,"

Captial, huh?

"Really? I guess I will go there then."

Sarah then looks at me with an excited face filled with envy.

She wants to live in those kinds of big cities too, huh? Instead of stucking in a small village like this with her brother.

Gluuu...gluuuuu

After surviving barely from exhaustion and starvation thanked to the siblings, my stomach, which has no consideration, has started demanding food by making sound the moment it's known that the master is alive.

"Hahahah..."

I can only laugh it off by making an embarrassed face.

"Oh~~, I will bring something to eat for you," Sarah prepares to stand up from her chair.

"No, no, sorry, I didn't mean that. I am already grateful that you saved me. There is no need to feed me"

She halts her movements and stands up at the entrance of the room with her right hand holding the door frame.

"It's okay. You don't need to feel bad. The food is ready. I've already prepared it and have been waiting for you to wake up to have it. It would go to waste if you refuse, " she says as she turns around and looks at me with a pair of eyes filled with kindness and sympathy.

"I'll have it. Thank you very much. "

I no longer try to refuse her and give in.

Well, it is rude to refuse her anymore than this.

She nods politely and gets out of the room with a big bright smile on her face.

What a good and kind kid. No wonder her brother is so protective of her. I would do whatever it takes to protect her, too, if she were my sister.

Knock.Knock.

The sound of the door knocking wakes me up from thinking.

"I am coming in~~" Sarah voice.

"Yes~~" I reply and lift my upper body from lying on the bed to get into sitting postition. The milky colour blanket falls down from my body as I get up.

Sarah comes into the room with a serving tray made of wood with some dishes on it. Then she put in on a small table which lies at the right side of the bed.

Vegetable soup and some bread.

A watery soup with a lot of green and fresh vegetables in a wooden bowl and two pieces of rough bread are lying beside the bowl.

Even though she wanted to feed me that much before, she seems kinda embarassed and nervous when she brought the food into the room.

I pick up the wooden spoon and dig the first spoon of soup from the bowl.

If I say it is delicious , it would be a lie. The soup is so watery that I can't taste it all at on the tongue. However, the vegetables taste very extraordinary, fresh, and delicious. The taste of the vegetables alone covers the watery taste.

And the bread tastes normal except the rough and hard skin.

"I-I am sorry for making a great magician put these kinds of food into the mouth," Sarah says sorrowly as she looks at me eating them.

"No, no, they are extremely delicious, especially the vegetables. They are very fresh and tasty. Did you grow them yourself?"

I ask her with my mouth full of bread and vegetable soup.

"Yess~~~" I planted them and grew them myself. They are from the vegetable farm at the back. "

She seems very excited and happy that I noticed about the vegetables and talks about how she planted them and how she carefully grow them without stopping.

She is very talkactive when it comes to something she likes. Not even a trace of her being down before because of the food has left.

We then talk about many things for a long time and I learn a lot about this world from her.

Right now, I am in a country called Crolin Kingdom, which exists at the sourth of the Emerald Plain. Emerald Plain, the green field of grasses which I was in yesterday, is an enormous flat land filled with green. Sarah said it would take a normal person 9 or 10 months to cross that on foot. Most of the areas are unexplored, and almost all countries are waiting for any opportunity to grasp the land as their territory. There are two rivers flowing across the plain from north to south. The left river is named "Left Trial" and the right one is called "Right Trail". People call two of them combined as "The flowing tears of Goddess." Crolin Kingdom possess about 50000 kilometre square of the southen part of the Emerald Plain including some part of the "Left Trail". As neighbouring countries, there are Vesalia Empire which exist at the East of Crolin Kingdom possessing 21000 kilometre square of the east part of Emerald Plain. At the west of Emerald Plain and south-west of Crolin Kingdom, there exists a small country called Dold KIngdom, which does not have any possession on Emerald Plain. There were wars that happened before for the claim of Emerald Plain, but it've been peaceful for more than 20 years now. Even Sarah does not know about the northern nations that exist at the north of the Emerald Plain.

We completely lost track of time as we discussed this world and the nightfall has come.

"Oh~, it is already evening. Time sure flies fast when having fun. " Sarah looks at the secenery from outside, getting dark, and says.

"Yes, but hasn't Arthur come home yet?"

"Oh! it's true. I wonder what he is doing outside at a time like this" Sarah's face starts to get filled with the shadow of anxiety and worry.

She does not talk anymore and looks outside with a longing face from time to time and wonders if her brother has come back.

"I wonder if I was too harsh on him,"

"Wel..."

Knock. Knock.

Sarah rushes toward the door the moment she hears the knocking sound of the door and opens it without hesitation.

!?

But instead of her brother, there were a couple of villagers standing in front of the house.

After that, the man standing in the middle of the group opens his saliva full mouth and says the words which shaken the delicate and innocence heart of Sarah and make her break down.

Those words are

"Sarah, listen carefully. Your brother has committed a murder and on the run!"