I had thought we would arrive somewhere people lived.
Then, after confirming we had come to a station abandoned for a long time, I had thought we were in the mountains.
In the end, when we stepped out through that iron door, what lay outside was an endless plain.
Better than the desert, at least.
That was all I could tell myself.
There were traces of man-made buildings in the little wood, but they had long since been eaten away by trees and vines and turned into a scatter of broken stone.
In the center of the wood was a place thick with tender green grass and tiny white flowers.
White stones slept under the cover of plants, already become part of the earth.
A steel pillar, long since mottled, was covered in palm-shaped green leaves climbing the vines — everything had long since been assimilated by this thriving nature.
From the outside, no one would have thought there was a station underneath.
In a little wood overgrown with plants there was hardly even a place to set a foot, let alone find an entrance.
All that could be said was that coming out through another exit had been relatively easy for us.
After a simple tidying-up, Alice, still curious about everything, came back to the edge of the wood and to my side.
For someone who had lived in a desert region, grassland this vast was probably something she had never even dreamed of.
Her delight showed on her face.
At the same time, though, it also meant we had no idea which way to go.
Never mind navigation — we did not even have a map.
Where was this?
Who was I?
Those questions filled my mind again.
The last time I had felt like this was also right after crawling up from underground…
This was too hard.
So everything those isekai stories talked about was fake, wasn’t it! (flail)
[16:58]
The sun still hung high overhead, but there was clearly a wash of yellow in the light.
Setting out in a hurry was probably not a good idea either, but by now MKR4-003 had likely already driven the engineering vehicle away.
I did not know when I would next see that cozy car.
God.
I had only just left, and I already wanted to go back.
This world was truly full of malice toward NEETs.
Should… should we stay one more night?
But I had forgotten.
While charging, the engineering vehicle had to Construct and excavate continuously.
Ai.
“Are we going to camp here…?”
I had not even taken a step.
I sighed quietly.
“Eh? Yulin-chan, you’re already planning to camp?”
Compared with pessimistic me, Alice was far more positive, as expected.
“Isn’t it almost night?”
After so long adjusting, Alice had long since gone from a nocturnal creature to a normal one.
This was no longer the desert.
She would not still be thinking of traveling at night, would she?
While I was thinking that, Alice put a hand to her brow and looked into the distance.
“It’s fine, Yulin-chan. This weather doesn’t look like rain for a while, and evening is cooler too. We can walk a bit more.”
Walk…
These days shut in the car had brought the shut-in in me back.
With my current stamina, I figured twenty minutes of continuous walking was the limit.
No more than that!
But before I could resist, Alice grabbed my hand and ran forward.
“Let’s go! Off on an adventure with Yulin-chan!”
“Ah — hey…”
Adventure.
For me, it had always been nothing more than a longing buried at the bottom of my heart.
In games, in anime, in TV and movies —
I knew perfectly well that if I were the protagonist, I would not last three episodes.
There was a stretch when I especially loved watching Bear Grylls while I ate.
Apart from those crunchy little appetizers, I probably… still liked nature quite a lot.
On the condition that I was only watching.
Really, really, really — once again I was caught completely off guard.
I had thought traveling a grassland with relatively decent weather would be much easier than the desert.
I had not expected the grass to be full of pitfalls at every moment…
Why.
Which rat or which rabbit had dug that hole.
I nearly twisted my ankle!
One thing, at least, was not outside my expectations.
Alice had lived in desert country, and her survival skills did not apply very well on the grassland.
The three laws of wilderness survival: water, food, shelter.
Alice had stockpiled a good deal of water in her pack, but even so, without the storage crystal we could not hoard very much.
If we did not move, the weather was not that hot.
But perhaps because it had rained not long ago, the slightly damp air and the temperature attacked together, and it was easy to sweat.
In short, we had not walked long before it already felt muggy and miserable.
Would we get heatstroke if this went on?
I thought that.
Looking back I could still see a corner of the little wood.
It was already some distance from us.
I sat on the grass for a while.
Only when the pain in my foot had more or less completely faded did I slowly stand.
“Yulin-chan, are you all right?”
Alice, who had been watching me the whole time, asked at once, concerned.
“Mm. I’m fine now.”
If I got hurt, that would truly be a big problem.
At that moment I felt keenly how cruel it was to leave civilized society and throw oneself into the wild.
An ordinary sprain, even a little cold, could become a matter of life and death outdoors.
The key was — this was not a TV show.
There was no production crew that could come pick you up in an emergency.
I tried moving my ankle.
It should be all right.
“A-anyway, let’s be a bit more careful.”
I did not know whether I was saying it to myself or to Alice.
“Mm~”
It was not the desert, but living in the wilderness was as ordinary as a home-cooked meal for Alice.
Unlike me, who felt muggy and miserable after a few steps, Alice seemed quite at ease.
She put a hand up against the sunlight, which had begun to turn red, and locked onto a tree in the distance.
“When you’re traveling a long way in the wild, it’s best to give yourself a target you can see.
“Yulin-chan, let’s rest under that tree today.”
“S-sure…”
I nodded quietly.
I was actually a little short of breath.
Back in Eden, carrying the metal case had not felt heavy.
Out here on a trek, though, it really did put a certain burden on me.
But looking at Alice walking not far ahead, the pack on her back was much heavier than mine, wasn’t it…
She really was tough.
Maybe I would feel better if I ate something.
I thought that.
Just as Alice had said, if there was a goal in front of you, the will would be stirred up.
The tree was not close, but after walking about half an hour we still reached it.
I set the metal case down from my back.
Sitting under the tree, I only wanted to rest.
The sky overhead had gone from crimson and was gradually taking on ink.
Under a single shining star, Alice bent to look at me.
“You worked hard, Yulin-chan. Let’s rest here today.”
“Mm… mm.”
Would Alice really not find someone this weak annoying?
If she were traveling alone, I felt that no matter how long it took, she would always find a way to walk out.
But lying on the grass, I had no strength left at that moment except to watch my chest rise and fall with my breathing.
No staff.
No storage crystal.
Even starting a fire was not an easy thing.
After settling me down, Alice straightened her clothes and said, “Yulin-chan, I’m going to look for some dry wood and tinder. Be careful by yourself, all right? Stay here and wait for me like a good girl.”
“All right…”
I felt like a child.
Perhaps I really was one.