With the hemp sack in hand, Eiji started walking toward the break in the overgrowth. Yuna followed half a step behind him.
Partway along, the path turned into flagstones. Grass grew thick between the seams, snapping beneath their feet with every step. The broken stems showed fresh green inside. Weeds bleached gray down to their roots stretched all the way to the village entrance.
Two stone pillars that looked like gateposts stood at the entryway. The crossbeam that must have once spanned across them lay shattered at the foot of one pillar.
For the time being, they stepped inside the village.
First, he counted the houses. Six still retained the shape of their roofs. Two of those had broken ridges, slanting down like shed roofs.
The prime minister’s words had been accurate. "Several houses with intact roofs." Indeed, there were several.
That was all, however.
In the first house, half the wallboards were missing, letting the morning light reach all the way into the dirt entryway. In the second, the floorboards were warped; one look was enough to tell they would give way underfoot. In the third, the central beam sagged, turning the ceiling into a shallow funnel.
In the middle of what appeared to be a central square, there was a well. Only the circular stone rim remained, with neither wooden frame nor pulley in sight. Peering inside revealed no bottom, nor did any damp scent rise from it.
Beyond that lay the fields. The outlines of the ridges remained. The soil was gray, without so much as a single weed growing from it. Dirt that hadn’t sprouted grass in twenty years wouldn't recover anytime soon just from being tilled.
"The well has dried up, and the fields have not recovered."
There wasn't a single lie in what the prime minister had said. The information had been accurately conveyed. It was simply that not a single person in that castle had bothered to put those facts together and consider whether a human being could actually live here.
(...I see. Sure enough, nobody lied. It's just that nobody actually bothered to look, either.)
At the edge of the field, a handcart lay tipped over on its side. Its axle was broken, and one of the wheels had come off. The planks of the cart bed were weathered by wind and rain, but they weren't split.
Beside it lay three hoe heads. Their handles were rotted down to stubs. The rust on the blades was only on the surface.
At the outskirts of the village, a bridge spanning a small stream had collapsed. The riverbed was bone-dry. Only the stone-stacked piers stood at the bottom of the waterless ditch.
He approached the doorway of the first house.
Horizontal, shallow notches were carved in tiers into the doorframe pillar. The lowest was below knee height. The highest stopped at Eiji's waist. Beyond that, there was nothing higher.
He traced the top notch with his fingertip, then pulled his hand away.
Yuna had stopped in the middle of the square. Clasping the strap of her bag with both hands, she looked around the village.
"...It's awful. I think I understand why that driver wanted to run away."
She said it with a bitter smile.
However, Eiji immediately pushed back.
"No, not really."
"Huh?"
"The stonework is still solid, and at least three of the pillars are intact. The cart looks usable if we just replace the axle. Aren't there actually a lot of good finds here?"
That was how it looked to Eiji.
Even for a house missing its walls, as long as the pillars and beams were sound, the skeleton remained. Even if the floors were rotted, only one house had ruined joists. The cart could carry loads as long as the axle was replaced. The hoes could be used if he ground the blades down again. If the bridge piers were standing, laying some boards across would be all it took.
While Yuna was counting what had been lost, Eiji was counting what remained.
"Amazing... How can you tell all that?"
Yuna blinked in surprise, speaking with genuine admiration.
"It's not really that I figure it out—more like the information just flows into my head on its own."
"Is that the power of a Scavenger?"
"I think so. At the very least, I couldn't see any of this when I was back in Japan."
What he had learned in his grandfather's workshop was the craft of looking, touching, and figuring out the steps to take. No matter how much he touched something, what happened twenty years ago shouldn't have just appeared. Since coming to this world, that extra information had started attaching itself on its own.
"I knew it..."
Yuna clasped her hands in front of her chest. The corners of her mouth curved upward.
"What's up?"
"Nothing. Just that everyone else has terrible judgment."
She said it with a strangely meaningful tone. Keeping her eyes fixed on him, they sparkled brightly.
Feeling somewhat embarrassed, Eiji turned his face back toward the village.
"...Well, in terms of defeating the Demon King, my ability is a dud."
"I wonder about that."
Yuna didn't deny it outright. However, her expression remained distinctly pleased.
(She's throwing me off...)
Eiji walked over to the overturned cart and placed the hemp sack onto its bed. The boards were dry and unrotted. It was sturdy enough to set things on.
For now, he needed to check the contents of the hemp sack. Nobody had actually counted yet to see if what they called "three days' worth" was truly enough for three days.
Untying the cord, he opened the mouth of the bag.
Four loaves of dry black bread. Three chunks of dried meat, slightly larger than a palm. Beneath them were two waterskins.
Yuna came beside him and began counting with her fingers. Touching the bread one by one and checking the three pieces of dried meat, her fingers stopped at the waterskins.
"Water... is this all?"
"There are two. If it's just for drinking, it'll last two days; if we include washing, it won't even last one."
"Even though they said there was three days' worth of food..."
"They meant three days for one person. Those bastards didn't factor in you coming along."
Yuna pulled her hand away from the waterskin. Keeping her fingers rested on the edge of the cart bed, she stared into the mouth of the sack for a moment.
"...They really are the worst."
She spat out the words.
It was the kind of phrasing he had never heard come from Yuna's mouth before. Ever since elementary school, this childhood friend of his had always carefully chosen her words whenever speaking ill of someone. This was probably the first time she had spoken without filtering herself.
"The kingdom's the same way. They think we're done for in three days. They figured giving us any more would just be a waste."
"...How horrible. Even though we're all human."
"I guess that means we shouldn't expect that kind of morality in this world. Dojima said it too, remember? 'Shirakawa will throw in the towel right away.'"
At that, Yuna gasped softly and lifted her head. As if finally understanding the intent behind it, she furrowed her brows.
"So that's what he meant."
"Yeah. Though—I intend to prove his prediction wrong."
Like hell he was going to drop dead in a place like this.
He was definitely going to survive.
No, he hardly cared about himself anymore. At the very least, he wanted to ensure that this childhood friend of his, who had chosen to follow someone like him, survived.
If he made full use of this power... he was certain that even in a place like this—no, precisely because it was a place like this—they could make it through.