Byeonggap’s new personal vehicle cut across the wasteland.

The plain — halfway between grassland and desert — was bleak beyond measure, not a single living thing in sight. Only a tail of dust clouds chased the chassis.

Dorma rode shotgun; Merilin sat in the back. The trunk and trailer were loaded with two weeks’ rations, spare clothes, weapons, and fuel.

«So you really left Doran behind, Hyungnim.»

Dorma watched the landscape blur past the window, then spoke abruptly. Byeonggap kept his eyes fixed straight ahead and answered flatly.

«If I dragged her along too, who’d guard the castle?»

«She looked pretty upset about it.»

«She’ll get over it.»

Byeonggap briefly recalled the scene from moments ago. Doran — cheeks puffed out like she’d been stung by a bee — had begged and pleaded to come along. But he’d been firm.

‘If I have to pick just one between Doran and Dorma, it’s Dorma every time.’

Merilin was essential — she had to guide the way. If they went just the two of them, it’d feel too empty. So bringing one more subordinate? No contest: Dorma.

Sure, traveling with Doran meant never having a dull moment. But when he weighed everything up, no one was easier to get along with than Dorma.

«Let’s wrap this up quick and head back.»

Byeonggap said that and shot a glance at the rearview mirror. Merilin was staring out the window with a face like a storm cloud. She’d worn that expression ever since they left the castle.

‘What’s her deal? Just a few days ago she was practically singing about wanting to go to the capital.’

He’d expected her to be bouncing off the walls like a kid before a field trip. Whatever — she was the hard-to-read type.

«Merilin, why the long face? Stomach hurt?»

Merilin flinched, then turned her gaze toward him.

«Huh? What did you say?»

«I asked why you look so down. Something wrong?»

«No, I just… feel a little queasy.»

«Ah, carsick, huh.»

Well, it made sense — a country bumpkin who’d never ridden in a vehicle before. Byeonggap nodded toward the glove box.

«Dorma, open that compartment in front of you.»

«Uh… you mean this?»

«Right. Press the latch and pull—it’ll open.»

«Ohh, so it does.»

«There’s a glass bottle in there, isn’t there?»

«Yes, Lord.»

«Give it to Merilin.»

Dorma did as he was told. Merilin took the motion-sickness remedy and tilted her head.

«What is this?»

«Medicine for your stomach. Open it and drink.»

«Ah… I, I’m fine, Lord. You needn’t waste something so precious on me…»

«Precious, my ass. Just drink it.»

«…I’ll humbly partake.»

Merilin swallowed the remedy. She didn’t seem to enjoy the taste much.

The car drove on for a while—two hours and fifteen minutes since they’d left Baltadren.

Byeonggap pulled over briefly and checked the built-in compass.

«Direction seems right.»

He swept his gaze across the landscape outside the window, then got out. Dorma and Merilin followed.

All that surrounded them were sparse sand dunes rising here and there.

Behind them, to the north, lay a mountain range and rocky ravines. But their heading was southeast.

«Merilin.»

«Yes, Lord.»

«Sorry, but let me check one more time.»

«Understood.»

She slipped off the bulky overcoat she wore. Her bare upper body was soon exposed—covered densely in tattoos.

‘Is the scale more detailed than I thought?’

The landmarks he had in mind were four castles along their route.

Limdri, Baicosus, Chitosan, and Hermonia—pass these four, and they’d finally reach Verbonia. If his estimate was right, they should’ve hit Limdri around now.

«What was the distance from Baltadren to Verbonia again?»

«A first-rate rider changing horses would take fifteen days; an ordinary messenger about a month and five days.»

«Hmm.»

Byeonggap genuinely wondered how many kilometers that was on horseback for a month. He’d guessed maybe 800 kilometers, but it could be more. That’s why he’d packed fifteen days’ worth of supplies.

«Alright, put your clothes back on.»

«Yes.»

Merilin slipped her overcoat back on. They climbed into the car and pressed on, steadily.

* * *

Five cigarettes deep into the drive, Byeonggap’s mind churned. It wasn’t just because their first landmark—Limdri—hadn’t appeared.

‘This is… like looking at Mars.’

As a kid, he’d seen actual photos of Mars in a science magazine. No civilized cities with Martians living in them.

The planet’s heartbeat had stopped entirely—the ground dead, the rivers dry. Asvillam was no different.

He’d hoped the terrain would improve after a few miles by car, but the barren land along the border of desert and prairie stretched on without end.

‘At this rate, could even decades make this place fertile again?’

Baltadren. It had taken over three weeks just to turn that limited territory into arable soil. Transforming this vast expanse would take more than a lifetime.

And yet, it wasn’t impossible. Right before his eyes was the miraculous thing that could make the impossible possible.

«Fuck!»

He yanked the wheel hard. A Grugle had burst out like a bolt from the blue — a damned jack-in-the-box.

Hidden by the mushroom-shaped rocks lining the road, he hadn’t seen it in time.

«W-What’s the matter!?»

Dorma and Merilin, both nodding off, jolted awake and asked.

«Grugle.»

Go Byeonggap shot back, eyes fixed on the side mirror. Lucky — didn’t seem to have hit it.

«Shit.»

The Grugle had latched onto the trailer and was hanging on. Its grip was so fierce it wouldn’t let go even at 80 kph — instead, it was slowly crawling up.

The trailer held oil and vehicle maintenance tools. He couldn’t let that thing have its way.

He slammed on the brakes.

«I’ll handle it!»

Before he could answer, Merilin was out of the car. She charged the Grugle with the ferocity of a wild beast.

The Grugle looked like a frog. Its maw split wide, and a dozen tendrils shot out from its throat.

Without even drawing her blade, Merilin swept her arm and sliced every tendril clean off. Then, in a single bound, she closed in and punched through its forehead.

Squelch! As she pulled her arm back, the Grugle’s head burst apart. It was over in the blink of an eye.

«She’s… quite the fighter.»

«Yeah. First time I’ve seen her fight.»

Merilin glanced around, then returned to the car.

«Wipe it with this.»

«Thank you.»

She cleaned her arm with the rag he handed her, then climbed back in.

Just then, more Grugles began to creep out from behind the mushroom-shaped rocks.

Those ghostly bastards really did appear like ghosts.

Merilin tensed to leap out again. Go Byeonggap stopped her quickly.

«Enough. Stay inside.»

«What? But….»

«They can’t catch up anyway.»

He started the car. The Grugles gave chase, but they fell behind fast. Fast as they were, they couldn’t match a vehicle.

«Are we all right?»

Dorma looked back at the shrinking Grugles and asked. Go Byeonggap answered in a dismissive tone.

«What’s there not to be all right about? Nothing to worry about.»

«Understood.»

«By the way, Merilin, are you hurt anywhere?» Go Byeonggap asked, glancing back.

«No, I’m fine.»

«Good to hear.»

«But there’s a bit of a smell…»

She sniffed at her own arm, the rotten stench having transferred from that brief contact. It clung to her skin like a stain.

Taking the cleansing wipes Dorma handed her, she scrubbed at her arm vigorously until the pale fabric came away streaked with grime.

Go Byeonggap drove quickly out of the mushroom-rock zone. A glance at his watch showed noon drawing near—four hours had already passed since they’d set out.

‘Should find a good spot to pull over and eat,’ he thought.

He kept the truck moving, scanning for a suitable place—somewhere a Grugle wouldn’t suddenly burst out of the ground.

Just a little farther, he told himself, pushing on for another fifteen minutes. Then he crested a high hill, and below it, sprawling across the valley, a castle came into view.

«Ah!»

«What’s that?» he murmured, slowing the vehicle.

It was Limdri—the first landmark on their route.

* * *

«Ahh…»

«Hits hard, doesn’t it?» Byeonggap said, watching her face.

It seems so. It’s different from Baltadren.

When they reached Limdri, the party stopped for a simple lunch amidst the ruins.

But Merilin could barely swallow her food. She’d been like this ever since she’d seen the full extent of Limdri’s devastation—shattered beyond recognition, ground to rubble without mercy.

Compared even to Baltadren, Limdri was a corpse. If a city were a body, this one had been severed cleanly at the ankles.

«Limdri was my parents’ hometown,» she said.

That single line was all she offered, her voice flat and hollow.

Byeonggap had hoped to search the ruins if any structures remained, but that plan died on the spot. They decided to push on toward the next destination without delay.

Before leaving, he checked the map again, using his fingers as a crude ruler to estimate the distance.

‘From Baltadren to Limdri took a little over four hours. At a steady eighty klicks per hour… that makes it about three hundred kilometers?’

His finger traced across the map, passing over Merilin’s chest to stop at her solar plexus. She flinched slightly at the contact but didn’t show it on her face.

He followed the route down along the flank of the kingdom until his finger landed on their final destination: Verbonia. The distance he calculated came out as follows.

‘Goddamn far. Baltadren to Verbonia is seventeen hundred klicks.’

That left about fourteen hundred kilometers ahead of them. He’d hoped they might reach it by tonight—wishful thinking, apparently. Still, if nothing went wrong, they should arrive by tomorrow evening.

«Asvillam in its prime was enormous,» Go Byeonggap muttered under his breath as he drove.

Merilin, who had been leaning her head against the window, stirred at his words.

«…Above, it touched the snowy mountains; below, it reached the sea. Horizontally, it stretched so far the sun never set. The Emperor held the continent beneath his arm, and so the continent itself became Asvillam. Asvillam was the only one under heaven…»

It wasn’t a boastful tone. If anything, it sounded more like a muttered thought, much like Byeonggap’s own habit.

The car kept rolling. Several times, rough terrain forced them to lift it and move it by hand.

There were also three or four skirmishes with the Grugle. In the process, the hood got scratched, and Byeonggap mourned it deeply.

By the time a pack of cigarettes ran dry, the sun had set. At dusk, they reached Baicosus, the second landmark on their route.

«Hm.»

«…»

Baicosus was even more ruined than Limdri. If he hadn’t been paying close attention, he might have driven right past it without even noticing.

«Baicosus is where a million allied troops clashed against a million enemies. They say the Sixth Sacred Warrior, Jashas, was defeated here.»

Merilin gave a brief explanation. There wasn’t much else to say about a place that was nothing but rubble.

«My Lord, what is your will? The sun is setting. Shall we make camp here?»

«No, it’s not even six yet. Let’s push on to the next spot. And we’re sleeping at my place.»

«At the Lord’s house? And us?»

«Of course you all sleep there too.»

«Uh… Are you sure that’s all right?»

«Why wouldn’t it be? I’ve got plenty of empty rooms. Anyway, hurry up and get in.»

«Yes.»

He was used to driving a lot, but after nothing but driving all day long, he felt antsy. Still, he gritted his teeth and pushed on.

«This vehicle is truly remarkable. To cover a distance that would take ten-odd days on horseback in less than a full day…»

Merilin, who had been downcast the entire time, suddenly perked up and asked with a spark of life. Byeonggap puffed his shoulders out for no good reason.

«Where I live, stuff like this is a dime a dozen. Hm… Want me to give you a tour of my place later?»

«Is that true?»

«Is it okay? For us to be out and about?»

«Dorma, you might have a little trouble. But Merilin, if you just cover your ears with the hood, it should be fine.»

«Hmm, I suppose I’m out, then.»

«Actually, come to think of it, Merilin, you might find it unpleasant. Where we’re going, it’s humans everywhere.»

«Ah… No, it’s fine. I’m capable of enough discretion for that.»

With this and that chitchat — telling stories about the physiology of this world called Earth — the pitch-black night had settled in.

Time had slipped past 10 PM.

‘This isn’t good. I meant to get to Chitosan, but it’s gotten way too late. I should find a decent spot to pull over and…’

He craned his neck and swept his gaze outside the window. Beyond the reach of the headlights, he couldn’t make out anything an inch ahead.

That was the moment. Two headlights caught a massive wall ahead. Before he could process it, a ball of fire dropped from the sky and slammed down in front of the car.

BOOM!

«Uwaah!»

«What—what the hell!?»

«Fire, all of a sudden?»

The fire struck five paces ahead of the car. In an instant it spread, forming a blazing barrier.

«Damn it! There are Grugles that shoot fire too?»

«What do we do, my Lord? Disembark and fight—mm!?»

«Urk! Light?»

All three in the car covered their eyes at once. A brilliant beam shot at them from the front.

It wasn’t the glow of the fire barrier. This was something more artificial—harsher, whiter. Like the high-output lantern he carried around.

Go Byeonggap blinked the sting from his eyes and looked ahead. What he saw made his jaw drop.

That wall up ahead was a castle wall. And someone was standing on top of it.