Syla thought that Lori and Gauss would accept her offer and took a small chunk of her steak, but to her surprise, they instead rejected it.
"No– I mean, if it's a gift from someone, then you should eat it for yourself." Lori said after she shook her head, she then looked away from Syla and began chewing on her next dried meat.
"Lori is right, we're already satisfied with this, and also we can just buy the same steak when we arrive at Direwell, so you shouldn't feel guilty about us." Gauss added, he also looked away and instead talked with the carriage driver.
Syla stared blankly for a few seconds before regaining her conciousness.
"Right–" She said, turning her head to see the steak infront of her, since no one wanted the food, she began eating the steak all by herself. Syla used the wooden spoon that was inside her satchel and ate the steak in about 10 minutes, while she was eating, Lori and Gauss was having a conversation with the carriage driver, and from overhearing their conversation, Syla gained a few information that could potentially be important such as the name of the kingdom that she resides in, which is Widewent Kingdom.
Along with the kingdom's name, she also heard information about the king's internal conflicts, it seems like the royal family was having a battle of succession for the next ruler, with Gauss saying that there was a rumor that said the king's prince and princesses are abusing their authority to gain favorability towards their father.
Although the topic was interesting, Syla couldn't care less about it, because she knew that she won't ever be involved with the royal family, the only thing she hoped was for the next ruler to be a morally good person and will try their best to improve their citizen's life.
Apart from the royal family conflicts, Syla heard some facts about adventurers and some places that was rumored to have taken multiple lives for those who dared to go there. The carriage driver specifically told Gauss that he heard about a place called 'Graveyard Valley' located east from Direwell, near from the next town of Adhorn that was said to be a death zone, the driver heard that the Valley was home to a massive undead dungeon, anyone that tries to go near or even dare to exterminate the undead and rattling skeletons had always resulted in them never coming back.
After a lot of deaths that happened within the Valley, the mana released from those dead corpses eventually accumulated to become a miasma.
"What's a miasma?" Syla suddenly asked, catching everyone's attention as they all looked towards her.
"A miasma is a type of mana for the dead. When a place has a lot of miasma, undead will begin to emerge. Skeletons, Ghoul, Vengeful Spirits, and other things that doesn't belong in this world, they will all appear, their strength depends on the miasma, if the miasma was thick, then the undeads will become stronger too, the more deaths happened in a place with miasma, the stronger it becomes." Gauss explained the term to Syla, to which she responded by nodding.
"I see, so if you died, you'll become one of the undeads." Syla said.
"Yes, that's correct." Gauss agreed.
While Syla was thinking about the miasma, she imagined a scenario where she was put inside such place, she imagined an army of undeads rising from the ground and was about to attack her, before she could come up with a plan, she was suddenly jolted out of her imaginary world as the carriage driver shouted infront of everyone.
"Alright! Rest time is over, let's continue our small journey shall we?" He said, putting back his straw hat onto his head and standing up.
"Yes, i'll prepare right away." Lori said, followed by Gauss as the two of them packed their things up onto the backpack and headed towards the carriage.
Syla realized that they were about to continue moving, so she put the wooden spoon inside her food box and then packed everything into her satchel before she also walked towards the carriage, she sat on her previous seat as she watched the horses galloped, following the dirt road once more beneath the scorching sun.
Even though their journey were short, Syla was able learn many things from this trip, she saw all kinds of creatures and plants, she gained knowledges that she never knew before, and she also gained new friends, despite knowing that their friendship would most likely end when they arrived at Direwell.
'As i thought.. Being free just like this– It's not bad." Syla quietly said to herself, a little smile formed on her lips as she felt the gentle breeze hitting her face like an air conditioner.
Syla looked at both her side to appreciate the views, the sheer size of the grassland was insane, Syla couldn't see the exact end of it except for the direction of the forest she came from, the mountains in the horizon looked tall, its peak snowing endlessly like an eternal winter.
Syla also saw a few cliffs in the distance, one of them was near the dirt road that she will be moving to, she noticed that the road infront of her will curve towards the cliff, when she arrive there, the view of the forest behind her will be obstructed.
As if not wanting to lose the sight of her hometown, Syla looked back to the forest entrance, at that moment her mind flashed her with the memories of her parents, everything they've done and their final goodbyes to Syla.
'I'll see you later.. Mom, dad.' Syla thought before the carriage turned behind the cliff.
Now that the forest was out of their sight, Syla and Lori shifted their attention to the cliff that was right beside them, the cliff was approximately 30 meters tall and curved to the inside, making it impossible to climb unless by hanging, the only way to get ontop of the cliff seems to be the hill infront of them that gradually goes up.
While Syla and Lori was admiring the cliff, they saw a slime ontop of it that was about to slip off.
"Ah! That slime!" Lori said while pointing towards the monster.
And just as she had predicted, the slime then falls off the cliff and landed onto the grass below, despite the height of the fall, the slime was unexpectedly uninjured, it didn't care about the fact that it had just fell 30 meters down and kept sliding as if it never happened.
"Bouncy body have their own benefits huh." Gauss chuckled.
Syla only gasped throughout the whole ordeal, and soon enough she shrugged the slime out of her mind. The three of them kept moving as the wind followed them closely, accompanying their journey with comfort and chilly sensation.
The carriage took almost 6 hours before they reached Direwell, and after enduring the burning sun and waited as it began to set, Syla finally saw the town of Direwell in the distance, it's buildings were caged within a cobblestone walls and the atmosphere was different compared to Demiria.
"So that's Direwell." Syla said, her heart was pounding from the excitement of arriving at her first human settlement.
"It took a couple of hours, but we're here." Lori said.
The carriage went on to follow the wind as it passes by multiple carriages on the way, it had previously arrived on a crossroads, one that leads to Demiria and one that leads to another town, most carriages that they passed by were most likely heading towards that other town.
Syla noticed that the town was surrounded with farmlands, it stretches almost to the size of a football field, when she arrived in between them, all she could see around her was crops, all in various kinds, wheats, tomato, carrots, potato, and much more.
This town had been sustaining itself with the farmlands rather than importing from the capital or other towns, and it fascinates Syla as she couldn't wait to enter.