At night, an outpost has been established by the Latilians outside the wood.

“Well, let’s see what we have here.”

With everything settled, it’s time to investigate those who had ambushed them in the forest. Overall, they have fourteen prisoners, two dozen corpses to bury while the rest had probably fled far away into the trees. It is not likely that they will reorganize though, because their commander had been captured, but just to be sure, the cavalry was mobilized to patrol throughout the night.

“Wake up.”Slap

Forcefully dragging the bandit commander out of the open field, Belisari greets him with a decent slap. He didn’t have to do so, because the commander was awake all the time, but he still wanted to do it on the behalf of Lily. Partly, because he was a bit angry, but mostly…ehh…let’s say if it was the Archduchess who did that to the bandit, his face would be too deformed to speak.

Speaking of Lily, she is standing right behind the man, hands firmly on the sword that just delivered seven of his friends to God. Crueler. Its steel is still stained in blood. The sight of it must be terrifying to the bones for the bandit.

”Why is there a Latilian Army in this place?”-The commander, despite all of those against him, grits his teeth-”This is Elestovakia, not Latila.”

“No more”-Belisari, gentle and calm as he mostly is, replies-”This area is now liberated and will soon rejoin the Kingdom of Latila. You unexpectedly tried to attack the Latilian Central Army when we were on our way from the newly captured Voyage to Liston.”

The Prince pressed his voice, nailing his pressure on the man.

Not unexpectedly, the bandit is totally surprised hearing that explanation:

“H…how? Alright, please let me calm myself first.”-he takes a deep breath-”This is a war?”

Nod “Yes, there is a war between the Kingdom of Latila and the Kingdom of Vienna against the Elestovakian Empire. By the way, this is the Latilian Central Army, led by the Archprince of Latila, which is me, and the Archduchess of Voyage behind you.”

“So, the claim that you are the Archprince of Latila was not gibberish talk?”

“I can assure you that I am indeed the Archprince of Latila, unless my mind is drunk and I just imagine things and stuff, but I don’t drink, so that is not the case…”

Meanwhile, Gerald, Angela and Aurora are watching them from a distance and have their dinner. They seemed to be paying attention at first, but then disinterested when they realized the talk may take hours if it keeps going this way.

Not judging the Prince, but Aurora must say that his way of talking to strangers dragged everything too long. Well, lucky she didn’t have to encounter that on their first meeting, probably because he was shocked enough to skip the extra dialogues:

“He usually does things around to grab more info, at least that is what His Royal Highness claimed. By doing so he might be able to pick up more of the scattered info to fold them into a big picture.”

Angela said that. She is one of the people who knew him a lot, so that is probably true. But Aurora thinks wise:

“I think he just wants to enjoy the talk.”

Whatever, let Lily and Belisari do their job. Aurora is more curious about the book Gerald is reading.

Noticeably, unlike most times, the knight doesn’t wear armor. Instead, his current attire is a red coat decorated with several golden stripes, with hat and a silver cross necklace on the neck. He does look like a giant Catholic missionary in this uniform:

“What book are you reading?”

“The Holy Bible.”

Alright, so he does not just look like a missionary, he is one himself, aside from being a knight. The existence of the Holy Bible in this world is not something Aurora did not expect, as evidence of its religion Kristianity (The alphabet here had no “Ch”?) are everywhere during her time here. In fact, before she even embarked on her daring world jump, she knew that the equivalent version of the holy book of her old world had been floated everywhere around.

That said, what she didn’t know though is the content of it. It is a terrible assumption to say that the Bibles in both worlds contain the same stories, as the two worlds grew different from the other. Thankfully, she had a Bible from her homeworld to compare, borrowed from one of her acquaintances.

“May I borrow it for some time?”-asked Aurora politely, and that…actually worked. Gerald just closes the book and gives it to the girl, without any further question.

(Maybe he thought I wanted to convert? Well, whatever.)

Happily taking the book from the Knight, Aurora hurriedly returns to her tent, which is the first time it is ever being used from the day they left Latila. The girl can be seen crumbling into the tent, trying to read the book with a dim light from a candle.

“Gerald, Angela.”

It seemed like the Prince has done with the interrogation:

“Apparently.”-Belisari sits down to the campfire-”The guy agreed to lead us to the entrance of the plateau in exchange for us to release his team. He also promised not to be a bandit after this ever again and will submit himself to the nearest village around. I guess that is the best deal we could ask for.”

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“Why can’t we pull them along?”-Angela wonders-”We have enough accommodation to house some extra men, right? That should make sure to keep them away from the path of crime.”-and that is a sensible and frankly a smart idea, however:

“No, because the army will dwindle to a minimum soon enough.”

“Oh, that makes sense why don’t you want them to come along. But why? Why does the army need to be shrunk?”

The flier commander awaits for her answer from Belisari, but then Lily comes, she speaks:

“We are about to march into Carthagia right after Liston. The thing is: the Great Desert is vast, but with little water and food for our full army to sustain. Hence, we must cut the number of men before sending them into the sand.”

With their number of ten thousand, the logistics would be a nightmare. Imagine having to feed ten thousand combatants two meals per day, in two or three weeks, that would drain the last drop of water on the already barren desert. Not to mention that their marching speed will be reduced once they enter the sandzone, thus the slow moving force must be left behind:

“I planned that we go with just half of the Winged Husaria, the Flier Corp and the Marine Corp. About two thousand troops, that is it. A fifth of the men and a third of the horse. That is the most we can bring along if we want to reach the city of Carthagia before starving to death.”

“And there is one more thing.”-Belisari raises his hand to speak:

“Saying two thousand, but we must scatter the number into three prongs.”

“Even smaller!?”

Angela, at this point, doesn't know what her commanders are thinking anymore. They already leave behind eight thousand troops, and now they will split up into three, making an average contingent only consisting of six to seven hundred soldiers, too small for a scaled battle. This better has a proper explanation:

“Yes, because the plan will give us three benefit:

One, to reduce the logistic pressure on the paths. By moving in three individual groups, the army will cover a broader area to look for food and water.

Two, by moving in small prongs, we will be able to travel faster. The heat of the desert is lethal even for an equipped caravan. The less time we walk on sand, the better.

And three, we are attempting to force surrender Carthagia.”

**

“Goodbye, see you again.”

“Have a safe trip, Your Royal Highness.”

After leaving behind 500 men to man the newly built garrison, the army continues to navigate through the Meadow’s forest. Under the guidance of the bandits, they slowly, but steadily walk into the narrow pass of West Meadow Wood.

The deeper they sink into the wood, the greener their path becomes. At first, they only find trees with trunks that are normal in size, the same one they used to build their outpost with. They are nice, reminding people of forests in fantasy RPGs and novels, those with bushes underneath the ground and tall plants surged right above.

However, as they move, those plants fall behind, giving places for giant trees that are higher than even the Latila Palace to grow. Those trees arching into green cathedrals, sparking their leaves in sunlight of gold and dropping shadows to those who walk below. The scent of grass flutters away, replaced by the smell of moss and damp earth.

This is the borderline between a world where humans had discovered, and a world where nature remains almost untouched:

“Ah! So adorable!”

And then there come the animals.

They found some black bunnies on the way. Aurora picked one up from the colony and cuddled them respectively. The girl seems to love rabbits a lot, Belisari as well. What can’t be said the same are the rest of the team in the same carriage with her, they rather found them quite annoying when the bunnies keep climbing onto their shoulders:

“They love you.”-Lily speaks to the behind, giggling-”Why don’t we let them travel with us a bit. Their entire family is here, it won’t hurt.”

“No, I think their home is here.”

Belisari gently put them down and cut some grass for them, then they continued:

“Alright, careful, don’t get off the main road.”

The path is now hardly visible through layers of green. There are still some rocks marking the two sides of the path that distinct solid land from complete soft earth, but they also vanished as they approach the upfront plateau: which is already visible with scopes by now. Upon looking at the 700 meters tall range, Aurora’s heart fell. Climbing all of that will be a messy task.

Anyhow, for now, they have entered the grassy road, which is prettified with hedges of white little flowers that Aurora cannot recognize, and probably this plant cannot be found on Earth. According to Lily and Belisari, it is called White Flame, and is edible:

“Bleh.”

But when Aurora picks one up to taste, she is antagonized and immediately regrets it. Because just like its name, the flower is very spicy, like concentrated jalapeno but in the form of gentle bouquets. The spiciness is enough to disable the taste bud of a person for a few hours:

“You should’ve warned me.”

“You should’ve known it when we mentioned its name.”

With face slowly turning red, Aurora drank her entire water stock for this morning.

Due to its extremeness, no one uses Grass Flame for spice. That is a knowledge added to Aurora’s notebook, although its cost is quite painful. The next time she encounters anything new, there must be decent precautions!

But that is utterly unnecessary, because the rest of the new plants she found gave out fair touches to the tongue. A fancy orange flower with sweet honey, or another plant that tastes like a lighter version of vanilla. There are more spicy things (80% of the edible plants here give out a sense of hot-tongue) but none can compete with whatever White Flame poured into Aurora’s taste bud earlier.

“I didn’t expect to taste this ever again.”

However, the most valuable gift the forest has to offer Aurora is a bouquet of brown grasses, one that resemble a fancy spice, the best one Aurora ever tasted in her life:

“Cinnamon!”

The girl chews with visible joy on her face. The plant tastes exactly like her favorite treat of cinnamon rolls. Later she learned it is nicknamed Mud Candy, which can only be said as a perfect name for the plant.

It is not wrong to say that this Meadow is the spice factory.

The abundance of spices here really wonders Aurora, of how a country blessed with so many types of tongue-triggers can cook food so horrible. Perhaps they don’t know how to apply them into their meal? Though this comes with a benefit: If Aurora can simulate the growing conditions here in Latila, she can grow many of them and be rich in no time.

Regardless, tonight she will cook.