The Buffer Zone Beyond the Empire

They finished cleaning up at the lake and set off again by cart.

Worn out from the fun, Azu had fallen asleep.

Elza rested Azu's head on her lap and draped a blanket over her.

The cart jostled a fair amount, but Azu showed no signs of waking.

Elza gazed down at her with a look full of tenderness.

Master was driving, with Alexia sitting beside him.

The two horses, refreshed by water and grass, pulled the cart along steadily.

"Hey."

"What?"

"How's Azu been… in the labyrinths?"

"My, my. Worried, are we?"

A small, amused smile crossed Alexia's face.

"I mean, yeah. The Azu I saw used to come back crying. She's been a lot livelier since I put you all together, but still."

"And yet you send her in anyway, knowing all that. Quite the hypocrite."

"I know. But it's necessary. I didn't buy slaves because I wanted pets."

"… She's doing well. She's still rough around the edges as a leader, but she's a proper warrior now."

Master thought back. Azu, blood-soaked and crying.

Azu, turning her face down in a silent plea for help when other adventurers hassled her.

But now she smiled often.

Compared to the gloom of those early days, she'd come a long way.

"Still, it might be better to keep her close. That girl is too precarious. Whether fortune loves her or despises her, I can't tell."

"What, does she attract trouble?"

"A fair amount. The problem is that Azu tends to charge forward rather than play it safe. She's not reckless, exactly, but someday she'll throw her life away for your sake."

Master listened with an expressionless face.

Alexia couldn't read what he was thinking.

They hadn't known each other all that long. Alexia still didn't fully understand Master's personality or his way of thinking.

"… I see. Keep an eye on her in the labyrinths. What matters is earning consistently. There's no need to take pointless risks over a moment's emotion."

"Naturally. We're just your slaves, after all. As long as we're not being treated as disposable, our lives matter more."

The conversation felt a bit off for one between a slave and her owner, but then again, this was his first time being a master, and none of the three girls had any prior experience being slaves either.

This was simply the most natural dynamic the four of them could manage right now.

Elza swapped with Master, and Alexia took over driving.

Master took Elza's place so Azu wouldn't wake, settling her head on his lap instead.

She breathed softly in her sleep.

Eventually they left Imperial territory. Beyond it lay nothing of note.

A region with little national influence.

A handful of countries existed out here, but none besides Spartia had any real military or economic power. It was effectively a buffer zone.

If there'd been resources or mines, things might be different.

They followed the faint tracks left by merchants who'd traveled this way before.

Those tracks were a history in themselves. Merchants who'd risked their lives hauling goods, earning coin, buying more, hauling again.

And now a merchant named Master traveled that same path.

He let himself get a little sentimental. Elza, watching him, let out a soft laugh.

"What's so funny?"

"Oh, nothing at all. I was just thinking Master might actually make a fine priest."

"A priest? Don't be ridiculous. There's no money in it."

"We clergy hold poverty as a virtue, after all… well, certain people are a different story."

Certain people. The Church of the Sun God, no doubt.

The thought made Master frown.

A portion of his own money was, at this very moment, being funneled into a bronze statue for the Church of the Sun God.

Infuriating beyond words.

"They've been throwing their weight around lately. The lord's son is completely under their thumb. I wonder how the lord himself is doing."

"Word is he's bedridden with illness, but I wouldn't be surprised if that illness was actually…"

Elza didn't finish the sentence, but the implication was clear.

"Oh, they're definitely poisoning him. It's a classic play."

"Alexia-san… I went to the trouble of being delicate, so please don't just come out and say it. This is exactly why you never had any allies."

What had started as Elza's topic smoothly became a sermon aimed at Alexia.

Alexia wore an I-shouldn't-have-said-that expression and quietly endured the lecture.

A single merchant could do almost nothing about any of this. The memory of being thrown in jail for protesting was still fresh.

Exposing the lord's son's corruption would require bringing people in from the Kingdom's capital.

But he couldn't imagine anyone bothering to come out to a backwater like this. That was simply beyond a lone merchant's reach.

Still, if the Church of the Sun God took over the town, the future wouldn't be pretty.

The so-called Solar Union, currently under the Church of the Sun God's effective control, had originally been a different country entirely.

The area used to be a patchwork of small countries and city-states, but at some point they'd been reorganized into the Church of the Sun God's seat of power.

The rumors coming out of there weren't good.

By all accounts, the only ones living well were the Sun God clergy with rank.

Merchants rarely went near the place.

It was said to be peaceful, with few monsters, and they produced their own food.

In many ways, it was the polar opposite of Spartia.

Spartia and the Church of the Sun God were separated by multiple nations, so there'd been no major clash between them, but…

He'd once heard a tale that Barbaroi, Spartia's god of war and wealth, had been on good terms with the Creator King but utterly incompatible with the Sun God.

Someday, something might come of that.

While he was lost in thought, Azu bolted upright and grabbed her sword.

Startled, Master recoiled, but Azu paid him no mind. Despite having just been asleep, she scanned her surroundings with sharp alertness.

"Something's coming."

"You can tell? I don't see anything… Stop the horse."

At Azu's warning, Master had them halt.

Azu climbed off the cart and stared to the left. Sure enough, a cloud of dust was rising in the distance.

Incredible senses. A warrior worthy of the name, Master thought.

"At this rate the cart won't outrun them. Should we make a stand here?"

"Your call. This is your domain."

"Right! Leave it to us."

Azu answered happily.

Elza and Alexia climbed down from the cart and lined up beside her.

What emerged from the dust cloud was a pack of black wolves led by a massive wolf that walked on two legs. In one hand it gripped an enormous cleaver with a jagged blade.

"That's… an Etoroki. Bad luck."

"That's an Etoroki? I've never seen one in person."

Elza and Alexia exchanged words.

Azu seemed fully focused on the enemy.

"Don't just talk among yourselves. Explain."

"Oh, my apologies. That is an Etoroki. A wolf warrior said to have offered sacrifices to the wolf god and been transformed into a monster. Also known as the King of the Plains."

"Can you beat it? I'd hate to, but if we abandon the cargo, the cart could probably…"

"The horses might escape, but we wouldn't. We have to win."

Alexia slammed her battle axe into the ground.

"Exactly. Get in the cart and stay there. Make sure the horse doesn't bolt!"

The Etoroki let out a howl. At the same time, the black wolves charged as one.