MTM 65

“Are you sure this is the place?”

Zed, who had stepped down from the carriage, looked around the barren wasteland and asked. There was not a trace of a clear pool anywhere near what had been called an oasis. Only a few blackened, dried, and twisted trees stood scattered around.

The beautiful, fertile oasis Allen had described had completely vanished, leaving behind nothing but a desolate sight.

Allen, more shocked than anyone, clutched his head with both hands and ran toward the driver.

“H, hey… this can’t be it, right…? N, no way…?”

He asked in a nervous voice, but the driver nodded calmly. Until a year ago, there had indeed been an oasis here, but after several summer storms had swept through, it had disappeared without a trace.

“This can’t be… the oasis… it was definitely here…”

Allen’s face looked empty, like someone who had just watched a mirage vanish before his eyes. The driver spoke in an indifferent tone.

“If you pay more, I can take you to the southern end of the desert.”

“How, how much?”

Allen came to his senses and asked with difficulty. The driver lowered his hood and whispered the price by his ear. Allen’s eyes went wide, and he flinched. It was four times the fare they had paid to get here.

“That’s outrageous!”

Allen shouted, but the driver adjusted his hood again and slammed the carriage door, showing that the conversation was over. He looked ready to leave.

Allen turned to the others in panic.

“Guys… you’ve got some money, right…?”

Sweat drenched his face, and desperation filled his voice. But after spending everything they had in Hipora, Leon and Zed were in the same situation. Even if they gathered every coin left, it still wasn’t enough to pay the fare.

“Then have yourselves a pleasant trip.”

Deciding there was no reason to deal with travelers who couldn’t pay, the driver climbed onto the camel’s back. As he turned to head back, he circled them once, glancing at each of their faces.

Allen looked lost, Leon frowned under the blazing sun while gulping down water, Zed looked elsewhere without a hint of regret, and Harto stuck to him like a child. The driver laughed.

‘…I wonder if they can really make it to the south.’

Feeling a faint pang of pity, the driver spoke one last time.

“Oh, and you’d better watch out for the flowers that only bloom at night.”

After saying that, the driver took the camels and the carriage and rode off leisurely. The awful heat inside the carriage already felt strangely nostalgic.

˚ʚ♡ɞ˚

“This looks like the best spot we can find!”

Leon shouted as he found a small patch of shade behind a large rock. In the endless desert, that was the only place they could rest.

“Allen, come on, let’s get under the shade!”

“Huh…? Ah… yeah…”

Harto led Allen, who had been standing under the burning sun like someone being punished, into the shade.

But Allen crouched down with only his face barely in the shadow, feeling guilty toward the group. No one had blamed him, yet he looked sulky, like a scolded child.

The group huddled together under the rock’s shade and finally caught their breath.

“Let’s walk.”

When the carriage and camels had vanished from sight, Zed spoke.

“We planned to walk from the oasis anyway.”

“Walking through a desert isn’t as easy as it sounds…”

Allen, who had calmed down a little, shook his head. He added that walking through the desert while already half-exhausted was a completely different ordeal.

“Then what were you planning to do?”

“I was going to rest at the oasis for a full day, then travel the next morning… that was my perfect plan…”

The longer he spoke, the more his voice wavered. The bold, confident man they had seen in Belnok was gone, replaced by a pitiful sight. Zed found it frustrating but remained quiet, afraid that pushing him further would make him cry.

“I should’ve brought more water if I’d known this would happen…”

Leon muttered weakly. His cheeks were still flushed red from the heat that had tormented them inside the carriage. Heatstroke would be dangerous here, so Harto gave up most of his space to Leon.

“Then wouldn’t it be fine if we move after the sun goes down?”

Harto handed his water pouch to Leon and looked at Allen.

“No. Once the sun sets, you can’t tell which direction is which. You’ll get lost.”

“What about a compass?”

Zed took a compass out of Allen’s bag, then nodded. The needle inside spun restlessly as if caught in a storm, unable to point in any direction.

Allen watched it with a gloomy face, but he suddenly stood up as if he just had good idea.

“We have a mage with us!”

“I’m a mage specialized in tracking, not in navigation.”

Leon, who immediately saw through what Allen was hoping for, indifferently said. Allen slumped back down on the sand and stared blankly again.

“…Let’s think a little longer.”

The group rested in the shade of the rock, each lost in thought for a while.

“Hm, this is off-topic, but…”

Leon spoke suddenly, his eyes sparkling as if he had regained some strength.

“The driver told us to watch out for ‘the flower that only blooms at night.’ What do you think he meant by that?”

“Nonsense. Didn’t you see his face? He was just trying to scare us. That man’s a demon who sold his soul for money…”

“Maybe it was a metaphor.”

Allen waved his hand dismissively as he muttered, but Leon didn’t let it go. It was hard to imagine any flowers blooming in a desert, and being told to beware of flowers, not beasts, sounded absurd.

“…I don’t know about deserts, but since ancient times, people have said that flowers which bloom only at night feed on blood.”

“Blood? You mean they drink blood?”

At Zed’s calm words, Leon’s face was filled with surprise and curiosity.

“Yes. But they aren’t dangerous. They usually draw nourishment from the blood of dead animals.”

“Oh. So they don’t use tentacles to suck blood by force? That’s disappointing…”

Leon clicked his tongue in regret, picturing something in his head.

“Even that’s only a legend. And they don’t bloom in human lands. I remember reading that they only grew in the Forest of Life.”

“The Forest of Life? Ah… then they must be extinct now.”

“Yes. Even if someone had taken the seeds from the Forest of Life and planted them here, they wouldn’t have taken root.”

“Hm, that makes sense.”

Leon nodded at Zed’s words.

Meanwhile, Harto quietly listened to their conversation, imagining a flower that drank blood and bloomed only at night. It must be terrifying, but he thought it would also be very beautiful.

A moment later, the sun began to sink. The fierce heat cooled down, but now the sand wind blew endlessly, and the horizon blurred.

“Trouble never comes alone.”

Zed muttered, but among them, he was the only one who still looked composed.

“The direction is this way, right?”

Zed pointed toward the setting sun and the desert horizon. His fingertip faced south.

“That’s right. But once the sun’s gone, we’ll lose our bearings.”

“What about following the stars?”

When Zed asked, Allen let out a dry laugh.

“Don’t take the desert lightly. The stars here aren’t like the ones you see in cities or villages. Out here, hundreds of millions spill across the sky. Which one would you follow? Using constellations as a guide is nothing but a dream.”

Allen still looked hopeless.

On another note, Harto was startled by what Allen said. In his previous life, he had heard that if you followed the North Star, you’d never lose your way. But this world was different. The constellations and the sky’s order were nothing like Earth’s. Was there really not a single star here that could serve as a guide?

“There’s a way.”

Just as that heavy silence filled the air, Zed spoke. Allen almost replied with another “Don’t underestimate the desert,” but the light in Zed’s eyes shone brighter than before, and this time, the group was brimming with curiosity and expectation.