“Simel, I really don’t know what it is you want to do with that lizard, but I think we should do away with it. It is clearly feral. Totally untrustable.” Mumbling such things, I watch Simel as he rummages through the things in the tent, eventually finding a small knapsack. He looks inside of it, and I only barely catch a glimpse of its contents—a pair of small books, a quill and ink, a bundle of herbs, a few pouches, a pair of crowns, a bit of jewellery, a rolled up piece of parchment—before he snatches out a single item and closes the rest, hanging the knapsack over his shoulder.

As I inch closer, my eye falls on the item in his hand. “Oh, hey, I know what that is!”

At my voice, Simel jerks, head swivelling to look at me in terror. I point at the little silver thing in his hand. “That’s a silver compass, right? My other friend told me all about it! Very cool thing. Is it expensive?” Simel doesn’t answer me. Standing up, he pushes past me and over to the large table in the middle of the room, which is still covered in a really really large map. The map is seriously big enough to cover the whole table, and since the table is quite big, that’s a feat.

I wish I could understand the map, but I really can’t. All I know is that it’s a big map, showing cities and oceans and mountains and forests. Oh, and also a big black splotch. There are a few little figurines on top of it, but they’re all toppled over, so I don’t know if they mean anything.

Simel frowns at the little figures and picks up one of them, showing a crowned phoenix. He puts the figurine in the big black area, which I presume to be the desert we’re currently in.

Moving with the knowledge of an expert, he grabs the other figurines as well, putting them all across the map, some in cities, others in forests. And then, he holds a final one. It’s fleshy and tainted with red and looks like a tall, hairless wendigo of some sort, with long claws and teeth and carved flames at its feet. It actually looks pretty cool, but I really wouldn’t want to meet it if it was real. Hmm. Might as well ask just in case. “Hey, Simel. That thing doesn’t exist for real, right?”

He gives me a look that says a thousand words I can’t read. Then, he puts it next to the crowned phoenix. Interesting. The craftsmanship on these is really nice…

I reach out to look at the phoenix closer, but he slaps my hand away. “Fine, fine,” I mumble at him.

Ignoring me, Simel places the silver compass on the map. When he flips open the lid, I find the little red arrow pointing at me. Heh, uh, that’s quite the coincidence. I must just be standing in the way, I guess. But when I cha-cha slide to the left, the arrow follows me. Huh. That would suggest that… But I don’t really…

Why would Simel be following me?

My brows furrow.

And with an army, to boot. Glancing across the table, I watch as Simel removes the red vial from inside the compass and replaces it with another. Going by the way the map is placed, it’s pointing to the east. Grabbing a pencil and a long tool of some sort, Simel draws a line along the map from one of the little figurines towards the phoenix and hairless wendigo.

I shake my head. No, I mean… They had the prince, right? Yeah. In that case, he could very well have told them about what happened in the forest—about how I killed the witch and saved the… Well, I didn’t save her exactly, but I did save him by proxy, so I still saved a royalty. And then I killed him a while later. Eh, you win some, you lose some. What’s important is that Simel marched an army to the witch for whatever reason, maybe even to rescue the princess, and then instantly started marching towards me presumably once they’d heard the prince’s story.

In that case, that would suggest…

Scratching my chin, I silently watch how Simel repeats his process with a few other vials and figurines, forming lines and slowly triangulating our position based on our position relative to them. He’s clever, alright.

I mean, everything considered… Isn’t there a chance that he wanted to come visit me? Or—or maybe the prince wanted to thank me for saving him. Maybe they were even going to bring me back to that empire place to let me have the emperor’s daughter’s hand in marriage!

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

—Oh, wait, I killed her. Shoot.

Still, some sort of reward wouldn’t be out of place, no?

I can’t imagine any other good reason for them to come after me with an army. It makes no sense. I wish I could ask Simel, but he’s kind of mute, so I’d need to do it in yes-or-no questions, and even then he might just refuse to answer at all. Damn it. Why does life have to be so complicated?

Anyhow, while I’ve been mulling over these important things, Simel has apparently finished triangulating our current position. Looking at the map, it seems we are… Right in the middle of the black desert. Unsurprising, but okay. Also, looking at the name of the desert, it seems that it’s actually called…

The desert desert.

Excuse me?

I rub my eyes. Yeah, no, that’s still what it says. The written words get automatically translated into Korean in my head, and the translation leaves it at desert desert. The desert desert.

—Oh, but if I look at the subheading, there’s another name! Let’s see here… The Desert Desert of Black Sand. Uhuh. Wow, that’s… That’s really what it’s called? Interesting.

Anyhow, the desert is really expansive, even more than I’d thought myself. No wonder it took them a month to get all the way here, from… —Over there! The witch’s tower and her wailing forest is still on the map, with all the harpies drawn in and everything. It’s really detailed, huh? Still, I’m kind of surprised to see it so close to the desert. I mean, there’s even a little river going from the tower into the desert! I wonder why it’s red, though. Weird.

Nevertheless, we’re apparently almost in the perfect epicentre of the desert, so it would take at least a month no matter which direction you went in. As I stare at the map, Simel suddenly points at something in a way that’s clearly for me to see. Hm? What’s that? Oh, it’s a little city! It’s on the outskirts of the desert, but it’s absolutely meant to be a city.

While I look down at the city, Simel draws a line from where our little figurines are, all the way over to the desert city, and then…

And then, he draws a long, swirling, twisting line all the way over to a spot on the very other side of the table, where it ends at a large city. A city close to the border, but still within a massive country whose name I actually recognise.

The Split-Horizon Empire.

The city Simel is now pointing to is dubbed ‘Crown of the Country.’ Weird name for a city. Nevertheless, I know what he’s saying, and I know what he’s trying to express.

“You want us to go to the Empire?” I ask with no little amount of scepticism. He nods at me, which is nice, because I would like to not have to go halfway across the world because he made a joke. I look back down at the map, at the line snaking between mountains and across a sea and through cities. “I don’t know, isn’t that, maybe… a bit far?”

He stares at me. I huff. “I mean, I’ll still do it if it helps you get somewhere safe, but…” Searching the map, I quickly find what I’m looking for. I point at the little red-coloured city. “—Wouldn’t you rather get here? To the Shore City of Acheron?” His gaze doesn’t shift an inch. To dispel the tension at least slightly, I give a nervous chuckle. “Heh, I just… Or maybe that’s where you live now? The Empire?”

But the crests don’t match up, so I doubt it. The Empire’s crest is a red sun split by a blade. That’s not the crest Simel wears. Besides, the Shore City of Acheron is much closer. Still over a month’s trek, but not nearly as daunting as the Empire.

Simel’s gaze burns into me. I try to swallow down my fears. “Honestly, I’m a bit… You know when we met? When—when we were in the prince’s tent? I didn’t say it then, but I kind of… I defeated him.” His expression doesn’t show the slightest hint of change. As a matter of fact, he seems thoroughly unsurprised. Sighing, I raise my hands in surrender. “What I’m trying to say is that those Empire guys might not be too hot on me.”

I look up. And into his eyes. His eyes that shine with a demand. A demand that echoes through my mind. Four simple words.

Do the right thing.

My hands twist into fists. “...But I’ll still do it,” I say, defeated. I look up at him. “I’ll take you there. Even if it’s the last thing I do.”

That’s what he wanted to hear.

With my agreement, Simel removes the silver compass from the table and packs it into his knapsack, alongside a few other things. He was even able to somehow find a pair of bags to go on the lizard’s saddle. He packs these with various things, including the map and the little figurines. Within only a few minutes—the majority of which I spent just looking at him—he’s fully packed.

And I’m standing without a single thing in my hands.

So… this is it? We’re leaving straight away? Not even going to stop by the crib for provisions? Well, anything still in there is tainted by gore, and it’s not like Simel eats meat anyways, and I don’t need to eat to begin with, so I guess there’s no real need to return there.

But it still doesn’t feel right. Shouldn’t I at least be able to bid the crib adieu? Is that so bad? Apparently so.

Since Simel is too weak to carry his bags properly, I grab the saddle ones for him. I also hoist them onto the lizard’s back, despite its attempts to protest. Simel easily calms it down, though.

In that case, we have pretty much all we need.

Simel is trying to use a regular compass, but I stop him. He looks at me. “I don’t need a compass, Simel. If it’s where I want to go, I’ll be able to get there.” This obviously confuses the shit out of him, but it was a funny line, so I won’t explain it to him.

Sticking my nose in the air, I take a deep whiff. Since I want to get to the Empire, that’s what I’ll smell. But, firstly, we need to get to that one city he pointed out. So that’s what I try to focus on. Sniff sniff sniff. Sni—iff.

I turn towards where the sun is rising. “Yup, that’s the way.” I turn back to Simel only to find him already atop the lizard.

I’m just about to jump up next to him when the lizard hisses and I remember that this feral creature illogically has it out for me. Oh, you don’t want me to ride you? Fine! I’ll just walk right next to you. How’s that, huh? And if we get attacked, you’re the one going down first, punk!

The lizard, of course, doesn’t understand anything I think. But I still got my anger out there, so while still seething a little, we set out into the deep desert.