With another drop in the endless sea of homely huts and dirty hovels he had been forced to wander left behind, Falin continued his journey. He had at last reached the Elzen Valley proper, if only just. The town behind him was the second within the valley he had visited, with the first being right on the cusp.

Nothing much had changed from the previous region. Just more tiny homes and ignorant townsfolk. If anything, they had gotten worse. Maybe it was the isolation of the valley, or maybe it had just been a more stupid than average breed of human that hat taken root here. He didn’t particularly care whether nurture or nature was at fault. It was the end result that mattered to him. On the bright side, he would admit there had been some nice scenery on the way in, with the mountains and all. The sun rising over the peaks, casting its rays down upon a land covered with the thinnest of mists, was a feast for the eyes, and a sight he would not soon forget. As a former aspiring artist, he could appreciate a good landscape and nature’s splendor. It was these humans living so close to beasts that he took issue with. There were ways to enjoy nature and be civilized, if one cared to put in the effort. At least at first, he had been able to put those methods into practice, although he doubted his example would be followed.

Now, however, even the views were gone. The valley was wide enough that one often could not see either edge, and that was the situation Falin found himself in now. He was surrounded by the same flat grass and trees he had seen before arriving. Now, Falin was no uncultured swine who could only enjoy nature in the form of grand, sweeping vistas. Lonely, open fields had their charms too. But he had seen enough of them for this trip. He had tired of them, as anyone would after months of almost nothing else. He might have considered a trip to the mountains for the view—and the variety—alone, but he did have a job to be doing. He couldn’t delay it for such a petty reason, even if he was on track to arrive early. He did still have his investigations as a detour, after all, and there was always the off-chance that he would find something significant that would further delay him. Besides that, it just wasn’t right to put off his mission for personal enrichment.

So, the journey was going to remain just as dull as before for the foreseeable future. Worse, he wasn’t even halfway to his final destination. He would be, approximately, when he reached the end of the valley, but that was still a month off. And while Zentril would offer a respite, he was not optimistic that rural areas elsewhere would be any different. With few exceptions, they hadn’t been in his past experience. It wasn’t like he could try to avoid them either, aiming for the most populous settlements he could. The whole point was for him not to do that. Moments of rest would be few and far between from Zentril to Ovda. He could at least stop at Klarc’s hometown on the way. Falin hadn’t thought highly of the boy in life, but he had given his life to defeat the Demon King, and that deserved recognition. For now, though, he would need to learn to live with boredom.

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At least, that was how it seemed before he sensed something close by. Another powerful mortal. One he recognized, much as he wished he didn’t. The hag, of course. He almost cursed himself for complaining about boredom. Clearly, some deity or another had seen fit to show him how much worse things could get. He would take a lifetime of boredom over the frustration of having to hold a conversation with the Seventh.

He slowed his walk to a crawl. He did not change course to go meet her. Decorum and his orders demanded he did, but it was the last thing he wanted. He had some plausible deniability, at least. He could claim he thought this road would turn and meet her. That seemed unlikely, based on the general direction he sensed her from and the way his road was going, but he didn’t know the area well. Then, by the time he realized he had been wrong, he would have had to backtrack to meet her, and it was more important that he continue toward his duties in the south rather than exchange pleasantries with a fellow knight. Yes, that was a plausible story.

With a sigh, he dismissed that notion and turned off the road. He knew pretending wasn’t an option. It had been a fun fantasy, but it wouldn’t do to neglect his obligations, no matter how unpleasant. That was beneath a man of his station. If he had been willing to do that, he would have stopped talking to the humans of the region except to pay for things long ago and done his sanity wonders in the process. Might as well get this over with.

Then he came to a halt. There was someone else with her. Something else. He had been too distraught to notice, but there it was. There was something strange about it, something he couldn’t identify, but that was definitely a high-rank demon. Yet there didn’t seem to be any signs of a fight. It was possible, but unlikely, that he wouldn’t have been able to hear or see anything from this distance, even if only barely. There were no surges in Malice either, and neither of them seemed to be moving as he would expect from a fight—though, in fairness, something like that could have slipped by his senses. Taken all together, it certainly did not seem that the Seventh was fighting this demon. What was she doing then? Just talking to it? The hag was known for being a bit soft, for reasons nobody quite seemed to know, but even Falin never would have thought she would associate so openly with a demon.

How fascinating. He had to know what was going on there. His reluctance evaporating, he started walking again, this time at a hurried pace. Even if he hadn’t been curious, a demon in the valley was something that needed immediate rectifying, regardless of the Seventh’s foolishness or his reluctance. Besides, while it wasn’t likely this was going to be fun, it was all but guaranteed to be interesting.