At the same time, on the snowfields of the main island, a massive crowd draped in yellow-and-blue cloaks marched across the frozen landscape. They were followers of the new religion. No one knew exactly where they were headed, but every face wore the same exhausted expression.
One weary man turned to the woman walking beside him.
"...I'm exhausted. How much farther do we have to go?"
"Shut up. If you've got the energy to talk, use it to take a few more steps."
The woman snapped at him impatiently, telling him not to waste his strength.
A few yards behind them, a little girl tugged weakly at the sleeve of the woman beside her.
"Mom... I'm so hungry..."
"Would you stop whining?! You think you're the only one who's hungry?! I'm starving too!"
"Waaahhh...!"
Her mother's harsh outburst frightened the little girl, who immediately burst into tears.
An unrelated man walking nearby shouted angrily at the mother.
"Hey! Make your kid shut up! She's giving me a headache!"
The mother wasn't about to back down.
"Then why are you yelling?! You're the one making my head hurt!"
"You old hag! Looking for a fight?!"
"Bring it on! You think I'm scared of you?!"
The two continued arguing, yet not a single person stepped in. Everyone simply stared ahead with cold, indifferent expressions.
Inside the luxurious carriage leading the procession sat the silver-haired preacher. Pulling back the curtain, he looked at the man walking beside the carriage.
"Why is it so noisy out there?"
"Lord Fitok, a middle-aged man and a woman have started arguing."
"And no one's stopping them?"
"Why should they? Life is precious. Don't waste your time on other people. Follow your own desires. Isn't that what you taught us?"
The arguing pair were simply acting on their feelings. They were angry, so they argued. The bystanders felt it wasn't their responsibility to interfere.
Fitok fixed the man beside the carriage with a stern glare.
"That is what I taught you. But we're traveling. If we're delayed by even one second, can you take responsibility for it?"
"I-I'm sorry! I'll stop them right away!"
Threatened with the consequences, the man hurried over in a panic to break up the argument.
Fitok lowered the curtain again. Clenching his left fist while resting his right palm in front of his face, he sighed in disappointment.
"Humans truly are foolish... Always fighting among themselves. They don't have the slightest sense of unity as a race..."
The next moment, however, the corners of his lips slowly curled into a satisfied smile.
"...It's wonderful."
The change in his expression was so sudden that his previous disappointment seemed entirely fake. The smile on his face resembled that of a demon.
Then he remembered someone.
He took out a piece of pink cloth and held it beneath his nose, inhaling its scent. A blissful smile spread across his face.
"I wonder how that alluring young woman is doing. Can she survive this freezing winter all by herself? Hehehe..."
It was as though Fitok longed for the cloth's owner, yet cared nothing about whether she lived or died.
After that, orange-haired woman drove the carriage. With nothing else to do, I decided to ask her something.
"So... why are you pretending to be a man?"
She answered gloomily.
"Once a woman passes twenty without getting married, it becomes incredibly difficult to find a husband. The only men left are usually widowers or divorcees. I'm twenty-two this year. If I admit I'm a woman, people will just call me an old maid..."
"Not really. You're still young until you're thirty."
"The way people think in Amebisalon is different from Aslangari. Here, if a woman isn't married by twenty, she's treated like a defective product left forgotten in a corner. No one even gives her a second glance. Being born a woman is so unfair..."
"There's nothing unfair about it. Some things in life are simply destined. You can't escape them."
"So... are you my destiny?"
"Definitely not. Absolutely impossible. Not even a one-in-ten-thousand chance."
Without the slightest hesitation, I rejected her assumption completely.
My destined partner had already been decided.
My blunt answer immediately upset the orange-haired woman.
"Hey! Nobody knows what the future holds! There could still be a one-in-a-hundred-thousand chance!"
"If I'd known you'd think that, I wouldn't have said anything. I really should've kept my mouth shut."
I lightly slapped my own lips.
Why had I tried to comfort her in the first place? I had only brought trouble on myself.
Later, we entered another city to have dinner.
While searching for a restaurant, we overheard a conversation between several women.
"Ma'am, is that greasy butcher still not opening his shop?"
"I heard his warehouse was completely looted during the mass robbery a few days ago. He lost everything."
"I also heard the chicken farm up north had all its eggs stolen. Those bandits are terrifying."
The conversation caught me completely off guard.
"A mass robbery? Public safety here is terrible."
The orange-haired woman picked up on my comment and replied seriously,
"Don't generalize. My town was very safe."
Since I was from another country, she probably thought I was judging the security of the entire nation based on one region's problems, so she was eager to distance her hometown from it.
I understood that much.
"The responsibility lies with the local lord. I assume your town and this city aren't under the same lord?"
If they were, then the citizens themselves would be the problem.
"They're not. We left our lord's territory a long time ago. This belongs to a different lord."
That settled it.
Because of the food shortage, however, meal prices had tripled.
What a ridiculous situation.
Good thing I had money.