“Packing up already, huh? Hadn’t expected you to be that excited for a break,” asked Nadine when she visited Alissa’s tent a few days later. The reinforcements from deeper within the Kingdom had arrived and relieved the fort’s manpower issue, which allowed them to send the original soldiers and fourth tier warriors to go on breaks, if in rotating shifts.

“Do I look like Ethan to you? That guy’s turning out to be quite a bit of a battle addict since he came here, but I for sure still favor my hot baths and comfy beds, thank you,” shot Alissa back though her tone was light. She had developed a bit of a friendship of sorts with Nadine in the months since she had been summoned to Ephemera, and found the Fifth Princess to be a genuinely nice person to be around so far.

Since they were taking their breaks in shifts, only three of the fourth tiers at a time would go out to rest and relax, along with a batch of soldiers to help cover their movements. Alissa happened to be part of the second group to get their turn, together with Nadine and Maribel, so she would be going out with them and the soldiers whose turn came up soon.

Their destination, Clearridge, was a large town of around thirty thousand inhabitants, so they were well suited for groups of a few thousand soldiers taking a break there. In fact, due to the place’s proximity to Fort Ixlay, a good chunk of the town’s business specifically catered to such soldiers, so there were taverns, brothels, and inns aplenty.

Other than that though, the town was also the home of one of the oldest academies in the Human Kingdom. The current academy was its third incarnation, as the original buildings had been lost to demon invasions in the past twice when the demons pushed the furthest. Even so, the present academy still boasted a history of nearly four centuries, with an extended history that lasted over a thousand years if one counted from the original.

The town itself gained its name from its location by a ridge that happened to act as a watershed that split a large river into two. The rivers in question flowed down from the Elefas mountains to the east, and the water was mostly pure water from the molten glaciers, which resulted in its crystal-clear state that made the early settlers choose such a name.

While the entertainment that the town typically catered for the resting soldiers tended to be on the cruder end, none of the three were particularly picky at the moment, and there were better establishments for those who had more money in their wallets anyway. Naturally, as Nadine was a royal princess she was not hurting for money, and Alissa herself had a hefty sum given to her to use while in town, so she had no issues on that field either.

As for preparation, none of them really had much to pack up. They had not gone to the frontlines carrying much at all in terms of personal belongings, mostly just their weapons, armor, and several changes of clothes that were practical and easy to move in. Dresses and the like had no place in a battlefield, after all, and even a royal princess agreed to that.

In fact if Nadine had arrived just five minutes sooner or later, Alissa would have finished packing up her meager belongings as it was. They would carry their weapons and armor with them, sure, and keep at least some of it on their body at all times in case of emergencies, but they wouldn’t be wearing them all too often otherwise.

From what the old knights had informed her, Clearridge was well-guarded and peaceful, so the worst they should run into would be some rowdy drunks at worst. Like most towns, there were naturally some criminal elements around, but none of those were foolish enough to mess with soldiers who came straight from the frontlines.

Like most criminals, they much favored preying on those who were too weak and cowardly to fight back. It simply wasn’t worth it to mess with someone who would likely react with violence instead and had absolutely no qualms with murder to boot. That was just a recipe for either some very dead thugs, or a horde of angry soldiers turning the town’s underworld inside out for revenge.

Naturally, neither case was desirable for the criminal elements of the town.

After she was done packing up her stuff, Alissa went with Nadine to help her and Maribel pack up theirs as well, more out of camaraderie rather than because they needed any help at all. With her help they were quickly finished packing up as well and were soon ready for their break to come.

Much like Sir Marsten had informed her, Clearridge’s academy was famous for its library, which was known to house copies of many ancient texts. The originals were supposedly hidden in some secure vault in the capital, as the academy’s people refused to risk the priceless originals to losses from demon invasions. The copies they had were certified ones, though, and other than in the academy’s library, no other place held such copies.

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Both Nadine and Sir Marsten had mentioned the library because they knew that Alissa had a penchant for reading back in the royal capital. They were unaware that she read all those books partly to learn of this world she had been summoned into, and partly to look for any bits that might have slipped into the books despite all that the powers that be tried to do, however.

Typically, books would be censored to ensure that only things the government in power wanted to see were included in them. Given how Ephemera was stuck at the equivalent of earth’s medieval period, however, Alissa felt certain that such a process would involve people reading the books one by one. People make mistakes, so it was not too out of expectation to find some things that slipped in despite attempts to erase knowledge about them.

She had already seen such tidbits in some of the books in the royal library, bits that painted the Kingdom at a rather bad light or embarrassing moments they likely would rather forget ever happened. The ancient books in Clearridge’s library had a good chance of having more such content, she felt. Given her status as a summoned [Hero] she doubted that she’d have any issues gaining access to the library.

Worst case, she could ask Nadine to pull some strings anyway. There were benefits to being friends with a Royal Princess.

Fortunately, the demons seemed to have retreated for real this time. The fort was unbothered by more demon attacks or harassment despite their vigilance until the reinforcements came. To say that everyone let out a collective sigh of relief was an understatement. Once the reinforcements took over the responsibility of the defense from the tired defenders, most of them just went straight to sleep for half the day or more.

Soon enough, they received confirmation that the first batch of soldiers were on their way back, and that the second batch – which Alissa was part of – could depart. The soldiers departed to the city by carriage, as it would be too tiresome to walk there on their own for the lower tiered and leveled soldiers. Alissa, Nadine, and Maribel had no such issue, though.

The three of them chose to travel to Clearridge on foot, as with their much higher stats they could reach the town in half the time the carriage would take. The carriages would only arrive there by morning of the next day even if they departed in the morning, while the three of them could easily reach the town by the evening without pushing themselves.

If it was an emergency and they needed to get there as soon as possible at all costs, they likely could reach Clearridge by noon.

As such the three of them just leisurely headed towards the city at a pace that was more of a fast walk than anything. One benefit of that method of transportation was that they also had more time to appreciate the scenery on the way, something Alissa had not had the chance to do since she arrived in Ephemera. She had been occupied with training and battles most of the time, with her free time mostly spent in the library, or sleeping when she was in the fort.

The world around them was somewhat alien in some ways, the way there were more purple plants than there were green, and the odd coloration of the woodland creatures to match was just one way the worlds differed. It had a beauty of its own regardless, however, one that even Alissa could appreciate despite her situation.

Alissa still harbored many, many doubts and questions in her heart, about the actual situation of the world she had been summoned in, and even the motives of those who had summoned her, or even whether the offer to send them back once they finished their task was even a real one or not. Even so, she knew better not to stress herself overmuch, something her very first skill had helped out with greatly.

Everytime she felt herself becoming agitated by such thoughts, the skill helped calm her down and allowed her to think more clearly. There was little she could do with no information, or even any certainty about the things around her. She felt almost certain that there were some things being hidden from her, but was not sure of the nature of the hidden things.

Similarly, while she had struck a friendship of sorts with Nadine, she was left somewhat uncertain on whether the Fifth Princess was as sincere and genuine as she portrayed herself to be or whether she was a really, really good actress. Alissa felt that Nadine was likely sincere with her though, not out of any logical reasoning but because that was what she felt with her gut.

That would probably mean that the things kept away from her were similarly kept away from Nadine, as it would have been difficult to remain so sincere and genuine if she knew something that would have been detrimental to her friend. Either that or the Fifth Princess was a master actress and manipulator and Alissa had fallen for it hook, line, and sinker.

At the moment she chose to trust the young women she knew, though not to the extent of voicing her questions yet. Partly because Alissa herself was still unsure what questions she would have asked, if any.

The three of them made good pace towards Clearridge, and soon found one of the rivers that split from the larger one by the ridge itself. Much like its reputation, the water – even this far downstream – was nearly crystal clear, so clean that they could look at the way down to the bottom of the stream and see the small crabs and other bottom dwellers flit about.

From there, they simply followed the river upstream and sure enough, when the sun was starting to drop towards the horizon, they spotted the town of Clearridge in the distance, right where Sir Marsten said it would be, perched behind a ridge that split the cascading river into two smaller ones. The town itself was walled, though much of the space outside the walls were occupied by farms and ranches, and even from afar it was easy to notice that the place bustled with life.

The three of them picked up their pace and walked past the many farms – some with crops Alissa felt looked familiar to ones from her own world, while others with very different ones – and the ranches that contained the various breeds of different animals. Some were ranched for their meat, milk, or eggs, while others served as beasts of burden.

They arrived at the town a good hour before sun had set.