East Road Quest

Chapter 91: The Chaos of Memories

A large insect scuttled past Sapph.

Reacting instinctively, Sapph leaped backward, only to trip over a tree root and lose her balance. She fell into a pit covered in leaves, her lower half sinking into the foliage-filled hole.

With a dazed expression, Sapph looked down at the embarrassing and absurd predicament that had just befallen her.

Ruby, perched above, had been watching Sapph’s comical struggle. He almost laughed but stopped himself, thinking it would feel like admitting defeat. So, he asked with a serious tone, “Did you fall on purpose just to be funny?”

“No!” Sapph exclaimed.

She tried to climb out on her own, but her hands kept sinking into the leafy ground, unable to find a firm grip.

Ruby, finding the situation amusing and not particularly dangerous, chose to watch rather than help.

“You’re supposed to be lucky, but you seem to have the worst luck,” Ruby remarked.

“That reminds me, something similar happened recently. I fell into a mud puddle trying to avoid a carriage.”

“Oh, do tell. It sounds entertaining.”

“No thanks. It’s not a pleasant memory, and I’d rather not become your joke.”

Sapph tried to push herself up again but sank further into the leaves, floundering.

Merald had noticed the scene but was already twenty paces ahead and didn’t bother turning back, judging the situation as non-threatening.

“Take my hand,” Jade offered, reaching out cautiously from the edge of the pit.

Ruby braced himself for the possibility of both falling in together, but to his disappointment, it didn’t happen.

Jade managed to pull Sapph out and asked, “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” she replied, dusting off the dirt and leaves from her pants and inspecting the hole she had fallen into.

It seemed Sapph was more upset about her dirty pants than the fall itself.

“That was close. The leaves were so thick I didn’t even see the hole,” Sapph said, readjusting her hood to cover her horns.

“We should only step where Emerald has,” Jade suggested.

“I would have, if it weren’t for that,” Jade added, noticing the insect belatedly.

Ruby thought if Jade had seen the insect first, he would have mimicked Sapph’s ridiculous actions.

“Strange as it is, it’s quite large,” Jade observed.

The creature was as big as a large dog, its body long and slender, making it hard to distinguish its legs from its torso.

The insect slowly moved and then pierced a tree root with its needle-like mouth, becoming so still it seemed part of the tree itself.

“That’s a ‘Phasmaki Beetle,’ a type of plant,” Emerald explained, waiting for Jade and Sapph to catch up.

“A plant? You just called it an insect,” Jade questioned.

“It’s named after an insect, but it’s a plant. A parasitic one that feeds on the sap of other trees.”

“How can you call it a plant if it moves?” Sapph asked, giving the Phasmaki Beetle a wide berth.

“If you cut it in half, you’d see xylem and phloem, not internal organs,” Emerald replied.

“That’s still hard to grasp. It moves, after all. And that sharp point could stab someone,” Jade pondered.

“Ah, good observation. It has been known to mistake napping elves for trees and stab them.”

“Isn’t that dangerous?”

“It’s rare, so no need to worry. If you chew on its branches, they’re quite sweet, often used as candy ingredients. Want to try some?” Emerald offered, pulling out a dagger.

“I’m all for new experiences on a journey, but I’ll pass on this one!” Jade declined firmly, and Sapph quickly shook her head, her hood slipping off again.

Before Emerald could even offer, Ruby had already snapped off a ‘leg’ of another Phasmaki Beetle feeding on a nearby tree and started chewing.

“It really is sweet.”

Even with a leg missing, the Phasmaki Beetle remained still, not attempting to flee.

“That stillness makes it seem like a real plant,” Jade mused, watching with interest.

“I remember reading about it in a botanical guide,” Ruby said, chewing thoughtfully.

“The author had the same question. If a plant moves, is it still a plant or an animal? And if a plant starts eating animals, hasn’t it stepped out of its domain?”

“And the conclusion?”

“I can’t remember that part.”

“Figures,” Jade muttered disinterestedly.

Emerald, who was about ten steps ahead, spoke.

“I never expected Sapphire to be so startled by such a thing. From now on, I’ll consider this and inform you in advance about plants that might scare you. If I haven’t pointed it out, don’t be alarmed, and just follow the path I’ve taken.”

Emerald pointed to a cluster of spotted mushrooms growing about five steps away.

“Ah, don’t go near there. If you touch the mushrooms, your skin will turn black and you’ll die after about three days.”

Sapphire shivered with an expressionless face.

After analyzing what Emerald had just said, Ruby spoke up.

“Not to be alarmed by things not pointed out…? Hmm, it seems like Emerald just attempted a joke, but no one is laughing.”

“Which part of what you just said was supposed to be a joke?” Jade asked, looking up at Ruby who was hanging from a tree.

Sapphire seemed clueless as well.

Ruby, dangling from the branch, pondered for a moment before giving up on explaining.

“I’ve realized these past few days that your sense of humor doesn’t quite match mine.”

Ruby was moving about five steps above the ground, stepping on tree branches.

Sometimes, she swung from branch to branch like a monkey, which made it easier to protect the two of them.

Just now, Ruby could have easily helped Sapphire when she nearly stumbled. If it had been a cliff, she would have thrown a chain without hesitation to catch her. It was just that it didn’t seem dangerous enough to warrant any action.

“Have you ever joked with me enough to realize that our sense of humor doesn’t match?” Jade asked, continuing to walk after Emerald.

“Shall I try one now? It was when I was passing through a certain village, a story from 500 years ago.”

Ruby, hanging upside down, supported herself with just her toes, moving between the trees.

“In that village lived a wicked lord who excessively taxed travelers. Unaware, I ended up on the bridge leading into the village. The bridge guard claimed, ‘You must pay a toll equal to the number of steps you take to cross this bridge!’”

“A peculiar method, isn’t it?”

“So, I confirmed with him if it was indeed ‘footsteps,’ and after he affirmed, I did a handstand and crossed the bridge on my hands. Then the guard chased after me, insisting that in this case, I must pay for the number of hand placements. I argued that he had clearly said ‘footsteps,’ so why change it to ‘handsteps’ now? He replied that ‘footsteps’ were simply a generic term for any unit used to cross the bridge, regardless of the means. Therefore, if you rode a horse, it would be the horse’s steps, and if you crossed in a carriage, it would be the number of wheel rotations multiplied.”

“It’s getting more complicated. So, what did you do? You didn’t just pay up, did you?”

“I smashed the bridge and leaped across the river in one step. Then I shouted, ‘How much do I owe you for this one?’”

As soon as Ruby finished her story, Sapphire said,

“You destroyed a precious structure of that village? The villagers must have struggled for years to rebuild the bridge.”

“That’s not the point of my story,” Ruby said, looking expectantly at Jade.

“The guard must have run away, right?”

“Of course.”

“Then he wasn’t startled by your idea, but rather by your strength.”

“Ah, blooming flowers! As expected, you all think differently than I do.”

Ruby flipped her position and climbed back up into the trees.

Jade shrugged and walked over to where Emerald was standing.

Emerald looked up at Ruby with a curious expression, coughed a few times, and urged them to continue on the path.

‘Huh? Did that guy just hold back a laugh at my story?’

Those who Ruby wished would laugh didn’t, and those who it didn’t matter to did, leaving her feeling quite peculiar.

Ruby knew from experience and knowledge how short human lifespans were.

If she had lived among angels who scorned humans for their finite lives, enjoying their own immortality, she might not have understood. But Ruby had lived among humans, colliding with their lives. Thus, she knew well how vast a span of 500 years was to them.

To humans, 500 years ago was called ‘history.’ But to Ruby, it was ‘memory.’

Among those memories were some that remained vivid no matter how much time passed, and others that faded away, making room for new ones.

Ruby was currently struggling with the collision between ‘remaining memories’ and ‘newly experienced memories.’

Even to her, a hundred years was a very long time. Five hundred years was, needless to say, even longer.

To prevent recent experiences with Jade from pushing out older memories, Ruby consciously tried to recall memories from 500 years ago. And now, a funny phenomenon occurred where those very memories were pushing out recent ones.

The turning point had been after she fainted from the poison of a Dukuboia and woke up.

She was confused whether it was when Jade released her in the red desert’s Baipel temple or when she got up from the bed inside Sage’s cabin to scold the Buffaloroad tormenting Sapphire… which of these had happened first.

It wasn’t just one or two instances where the chronological order of memories was mixed up.

For Ruby, retracing her memories to reproduce those moments in her mind was as accurate as traveling back in time to that era. That’s why it became a problem.

For instance, Ruby vividly remembered ‘the incident of breaking the bridge due to the toll’ as if it happened yesterday. So much so, that she mistook it for a more recent event than chasing bandits across the Kumon grasslands with the guidance of the Kun tribe nomads.

Recent memories were being pushed out by past ones, making it seem like meeting the wise Sage was not a recent event but something that happened hundreds of years ago.

The confusion in the sequence of memories made reflecting on the past feel like predicting the future.

For example, it was like this:

She tried to recall a memory from two days ago.

As Ruby vividly recalled the memories, she unwittingly found herself slipping back into the situation from two days ago.

Caught in the illusion that the events of two days prior were ‘present,’ Ruby could then accurately predict what would happen the next day. It was to be expected, for she had already experienced ‘yesterday’—the future.

In this way, she reconstructed events that would occur at some point in the future into the past, to the extent that her upcoming meeting with Cauking transformed from a ‘plan’ or ‘fantasy’ into a memory.

In her recollections, Ruby clashed with Cauking in a desolate ancient city.

Endlessly, Ruby pummeled Cauking with her bare fists and bound his neck with chains, beating him down. Yet, her attacks left no impact on Cauking.

Conversely, each swing of Cauking’s fist and axe struck true, and with each hit, Ruby felt a significant shock.

Ruby fell, unable to rise again. Cauking approached, axe raised high.

Ruby knew but could not evade.

With the final devastating blow, Ruby’s body was cleaved in two.

Ruby died…

After experiencing death, Ruby awoke from her memories.

She was still hanging from a tree, and below on the forest path, Sapphire and Jade were walking and talking.

They were seriously discussing which part of the bridge toll story Ruby had just mentioned was funny.

“Hmm, caught in another daydream, I suppose.”

Even as she ruminated on the ‘memory’ of fighting Cauking, Ruby remained vigilant, protecting Jade and Sapphire.

“Don’t get confused. The death I just suffered at Cauking’s hands is nothing more than a figment of imagination, born from their timidity. I do not possess the ability to foresee the future.”

After the encounter with the Phasmaki beetle, Jade and Sapphire had come across many strange creatures that were indistinguishable as plant or insect, but they never asked about them.

Ruby, walking above in the trees, discovered even more such creatures but paid them no mind.

Ruby tried to shake off unnecessary worries, striving not to recall the memories of dying at Cauking’s hands. Instead, she decided to focus her energy on worrying about Jade and Sapphire.

“There’s no flat ground that could be called a path. The two of them must be exhausted.”

The rocks were so massive they could be mistaken for mountains, and the oak trees clutched them with roots so thick they made the boulders seem like pebbles. The trees were so large that Jade and Sapphire had to climb over a single root as if scaling a mountain.

Jade and Sapphire preferred to handle most things themselves, but they did not refuse Ruby’s help on the forest path.

“Without Emerald, even with my help, it would have taken a day to travel 10 chiffons (Author’s note: approximately 5 kilometers).”

Emerald never lost her way and always moved forward unhesitatingly, choosing paths that were relatively easy for Sapphire and Jade to walk. Yet, Jade struggled.

As they traveled, Ruby began to drift into other thoughts.

She gave up and allowed 90% of her concentration to battle the confusion of her memories, dedicating the remaining 10% to protecting Jade and Sapphire.

After all, Emerald took care of the rest.

Even when resting at night, Emerald always stood guard.

Ruby, perched in the tree, was sufficient as a backup sentry.

“How about I take over the watch for a bit? Ruby’s here too.”

Jade’s voice came from below the tree.

Ruby, lost in the ‘memory’ of dying to Cauking for the fifth time, returned to the present moment. Of course, it took a few seconds to fully realize that this was ‘now.’

“It’s been two days since we left the cabin, and I haven’t seen you sleep once. Are you alright?”

Jade asked.

“Don’t think that a guardian of the Dark Forest can do their job while sleeping.”

Emerald refused with a cold tone.

Jade had never considered it before. “But even a sentinel needs to sleep, right? If a battle breaks out, a lot of strength will be required. Wouldn’t it be better if I, who am not fighting, stand guard?”

Jade asked with a coldness to match that of Merald.

“Standing guard isn’t just about staying awake and watching. You have no knowledge of the potential dangers that could arise in the forest. It’s impossible for you to handle any sudden situations that may occur there,” Merald replied, pointing up to the trees.

“If something happens, Ruby and I will need to move together, and it’s a situation that requires both of us. Do you think you can stand guard? That’s out of the question.”

Ruby silently agreed with Merald’s words.

“It was a pointless suggestion. Understood,” Jade conceded with a chilly nod.

In truth, even if Merald were asleep, Ruby could have stood guard alone. Normally, he would have scolded, ‘I don’t care whether you sleep or not. If something happens, I can handle it alone!’ But this time, he let it be.

Ruby wasn’t able to exert his full concentration at the moment. He was indeed sleepy, but he did not sleep. He was tired of sleeping too much.

“Get some rest. You are my precious…” Merald carefully chose his next words, “…wizard.”

Jade didn’t miss the hesitation.

“Were you about to call me your precious ‘tool’?” Jade’s sharp gaze was so intense that even Ruby, who was far away, could feel it.

“…Actually, I was going to say ‘weapon.’ It’s something I shouldn’t say, but you always catch on. You’re relentless, even with the jokes earlier…”

“Huh? Jokes?”

“That, after seeing the Phasmakibeetle… No, let’s move on. Is your arm okay? It seems to bother you every time you move.”

“There’s no hindrance to movement, but there’s still a sense of foreignness. It’s like there’s no pain in the tooth, but it feels like something is stuck between them.”

“Any other pain? If you can’t move at a critical moment, there would be nothing worse.”

Jade smirked.

“I’m receiving precious treatment.”

“Because you are precious. So go to sleep. Don’t worry about me.”

Jade reluctantly returned to his spot and lay down next to Saph.

“It seems that Merald’s earlier comment was indeed a joke,” Jade whispered to Saph.

“Your efforts to understand the culture of elves and orcs are commendable, but it might be best to stop with the jokes now,” Saph murmured sleepily, his voice blending into the silence of the forest.

Ruby revisited the memory of dying at the hands of Cauking once again. He had died to Cauking another time.

‘It’s absurd. Cauking? How could I die to someone with such a rotten name? This isn’t a memory. It’s not a premonition. It’s just a timid figment of my imagination, nothing more.’

Ruby cast a hazy gaze somewhere to the east. His vision, which could see farther than humans, elves, or even hawks, caught the creeping mist brought by the slow night breeze.

‘Such a night is perfect for an ambush. I need to focus more. It would be more embarrassing to die to some insignificant demon before Cauking gets to me.’

Ruby’s eyes unconsciously flared red.

‘I am an angel. An angel must not suffer embarrassment. And an angel must not die to a demon. It is Cauking who must die!’