Genius Mage in a Cultivation World

Chapter 144 - The Perils Of The Journey

"Do you really believe it will be that simple? To migrate the entire population of a huge country?" Sitra suddenly asked instead of answering Layn's question. But in a sense, her question could be taken as an answer on its own. 

"Isn't that what Castor spoke about?" Layn countered with a smile, only to shake his head and then look down. "No, it's impossible for such an insanely huge endeavor to happen overnight. But that begs an even better question," Layn said as he raised his eyes and looked right at Sitra's face. 

"If you can't protect your southern holdings now, how do you intend to protect them while moving population down south at the same time?" Layn struck right into the most important problem of any operation of this size. 

The logistic of it all. 

Sitra admitted that her country couldn't sustain any more significant force at the steppe just a moment earlier. As such, it was clear that it wasn't capable of enduring the burden of migrating its population through this dangerous area either. 

"Why should I care?" Rather than answering the question, Sitra shook her arms. "It's not up to me to figure out details like that." She shook her shoulders to show how little she cared. "That's what nobles and the top brass are for. They are the ones that need to figure it out."

This entire conversation happened before the entire camp went to sleep. Or rather, before the three of Layn's escorts agreed to give him one more night for rest before he would also need to pick up the duty of the night watch. 

Thanks to this privilege, Layn could come back to his full strenght, as long as one only meant his physical state. No monsters appeared near their group, nor had he any magic stones to dustify and use to suck the mana out of thin air. As such, Layn was stuck with just the little energy to sustain his translation spell. 

But even this simple arcana of his was chipping away at the little mana his body could naturally produce from the atmosphere. So, just in order to focus his body on the task of producing energy, Layn had no other choice but to purse his lips, close his eyes and silence his entire self. 

All to bring this passive production of energy that he could do to the point where it would at least cover the mana cost of his translation spell. 

Even with this little inconvenience, the group continued to travel forward. Reaching the place where Castor's unit first encountered Layn's lifeless body took them an entire day. 

"So? Where do we go now?" Sitra asked when she finally stood up from the ground. By using some kind of means that Layn had no idea about, she was somehow capable of deducing the place where Castor's group camped just a few days earlier. 

Or rather than deduce, confirm that they actually arrived at the right spot. 

"Can you find the place where you found me?" Layn inquired as the anxiety started to build up in his mind. 'I fought in the night, so I can't even judge the direction I was blasted off to by where the sun was. And little to say,' Layn thought as he raised his head to the blue sky, 'I know nothing about the stars of this strange place.'

For a short moment, Layn believed that he never actually left the world that he was born in. Sadly, there was just too many factors disqualifying such a theory. 

First, the stars. While there was a chance that Layn moved so far back into the past that the constellations above changed completely, it was an explanation that the archmage didn't want to endorse. 

But on the topic of stars, there was something that Layn couldn't ignore. While many other factors were influencing it, it was a fact that the ancient world's night sky was different from what he saw back in the desert. In fact, the sky above the Slavian's fortress also appeared to be different than what Layn saw back at his camp!

Sadly for Layn's initial hopes, the stars were only the beginning. From tribes that only survived in mythology, through tribes that didn't mark their presence at all, all the way to new magic...

It seemed as if everything in the world was scheming together to make sure Layn would abandon all hope that the desert, Slavian world, and the ancient world he knew off laid all in a single planet. Or rather, they were all from the same world.

"Give me a moment... But what am I supposed to look out for?" Sitra climbed back up on her saddle before posing a relatively basic question. 

"I don't know..." Layn took a while to think about this surprisingly hard question. "A depression in the ground? Cave-in? A carved mark in the ground?" Layn guessed while rubbing his chin. "You know, I wasn't particularly awake when I dropped to the ground, so I can't really tell if it was a soft or a hard landing," Layn added, clearly trouble by his own lack of ability to solve the problem. 

"I under..." Sitra started, only to cut her words mid-sentence. "Wait, is that it?" she suddenly asked, pushing her arm in a certain direction. 

From Layn's point of view, she was pointing at just more grass amongst the sea of it. Even after a prolonged effort, he couldn't see anything special about the direction she pointed her hand at. 

"What do you mean?" Layn had no other choice but to ask after his efforts turned futile. 

"Don't try to look for the ravines. Look at the grass," Sitra gave her advice, yet when Layn's grimace of confusion only deepened, she struck the sides of her horse to get a bit closer to the man. "Look," she repeated, forcing the archmage to look across her own arm. 

And surely enough, once pointed out in such a direct way, Layn finally noticed the peculiarity. Some distance away from their position, the otherwise even grass was slightly lower. Not because it was cut, but because something forcefully bent it with such force that even the few days that passed since the event weren't enough for the grass to properly recover. 

"And now we know where we should go now," Layn announced with a smile. While the scar on the sea of grass was barely noticeable, one could easily see its pattern. Stretching in a long line, it laid more or less on a north-south axis with a slight inclination towards the east. 

Once the group got their direction, the main reason for their stoppage was finally resolved. Yet, while initially rejoicing, Layn's mood continued to suffer hit after hit with each hour passing. 

Soon, the day came to an end, forcing the group to take a stop and set up a primitive camp. While they didn't encounter any monsters so far, it would be foolish to assume that the same trend would stay forever. 

After all, if such an assumption were to be proven wrong, it would only happen in the absolutely worst way possible. 

Yet, as one day of the journey turned into two days and two days extended into three, the shadow of doubt cast over the group. With Layn still keeping up his act of staying silent and focused, neither Sitra nor the two other escorts of his managed to keep their morale high.

"Isn't it annoying?" Layn suddenly spoke up when he felt that the group wasn't that far from just giving up. 

"What is?" Sitra asked in an annoyed tone. Even though Layn spoke very little over the past three days, hearing him wasn't something she wished. Or rather, hearing him complain was something that she couldn't stomach. 

"You know, whenever you read accounts of great adventures of heroes long gone, you can just skim through their perilous journey in a moment. A day has passed, they took a week to reach the next city, the army marched for two months before reaching the battlefield..." Layn started to recount the few stories he used to love as a small kid. 

"Yeah? And what about it?" Sitra asked, clearly trying to avoid talking herself. From the look on her face, she believed Layn's words were nothing more but a desperate attempt at warding off the boredom of the long journey. 

"Wouldn't it be fun to just say: we took three days to reach the camp?" Layn sighed. "Certainly, it's easier to say that rather than to actually travel for that long. After all, one someone hears it, they will be spared all the pains of camping without a proper bed, without a blanket to ward off the cold of the night..." Layn continued his ramble, not bothered by the measly reaction of his companions. 

"What the hell are you talking about?" Sitra finally snapped, unable to listen to Layn's random rambling anymore. 

"I mean, it took us three days to reach the camp. Not that bad, isn't it?" Layn suddenly announced before stretching his arm in the distance. "Look, can you see the blueness?" he asked before looking in the direction he was pointing at himself. 

"Wait, what?" Sitra finally snapped out of her passive state, glancing over in the direction Layn pointed his hand at. "Huh? Is that a sea?" she asked, suddenly reinvigorated by the unexpected yet pleasant news. 

"You wish," Layn smirked before correcting the girl.. "It's a sweet-water lake. And the camp with my people is set right at its coast!"