Escape to the Morava Valley

As Noren set off on the second day, she finally realized what she had forgotten.

The little girl, Anna, had been so terrified by the bandits that she’d hidden beneath the carriage, only to inexplicably forget to crawl out later. Astonishingly, she had even fallen asleep there.

It was truly baffling how she managed to sleep, utterly unconcerned about being flattened by the wheels!

To prevent the little one from wandering off again and getting lost, Noren pulled Anna onto her own horse, holding her securely in front.

“Anna, are you really that afraid of bandits?” Noren sat steadily on horseback, her chest rising and falling with a gentle bounce.

The heavy weight repeatedly bumped against the back of Anna’s head, making the little girl’s mind feel hazy. She almost saw her HP bar above her head continuously depleting.

Anna (HP): -1, -1, -1, -1, -1…

“Anna. Anna? Anna!” Noren called Anna’s name three times in quick succession. Seeing no response, she reached out and pinched her small cheek.

It felt smooth and soft.

“Ah?” Anna finally snapped back to reality after her cheek was pinched. She twisted her head back as much as she could. “Is something the matter, Young Miss?”

“How much longer until we’re out of this forest?” Noren looked down at the small girl in her arms. Although she knew Anna was already sixteen, her petite frame and youthful face invariably reminded Noren of Freya, making it impossible not to treat her like a child.

“Hmm…” Anna furrowed her brow in thought, glancing around. Soon, she had an answer. “It should be…”

Before she could finish, her eyes widened in delight, and she pointed ahead. “Look! Once we pass that crooked oak tree, we’ll be out!”

Noren followed Anna’s gaze, seeing a bare oak tree, thick enough for a man to embrace, its trunk twisting into three waves, standing guard at a bend in the forest road.

After they rounded this oak tree, the exit of the dense forest indeed appeared.

A soft, white light streamed through the verdant archway formed by the trees, illuminating the path ahead. It appeared like a shimmering curtain of light leading to another world, breathtakingly beautiful and ethereal.

“Young Miss, beyond this is the open plain!” Anna clapped her hands happily. The ambush they encountered on the road had caused her immense mental stress, making her feel as though she had led them astray, thus encountering the bandits.

Anna felt deeply ashamed, frightened, and worried that Noren would punish her.

But now, with the exit in sight, she finally breathed a sigh of relief.

“Good! Giddy up!” Noren squeezed her horse’s flanks again, pressing her legs so firmly that the horse’s belly indented with the marks of her heels. The grey horse, clearly uncomfortable, tensed its dark, wrinkled muzzle.

It wanted to buck.

“Hee-hee-hee~~~” The grey horse reared its front legs, letting out a loud neigh, then charged towards the forest exit with the two riders on its back!

An onslaught of dazzling white light enveloped them, forcing both to instinctively shut their eyes.

****

****

As the horse gradually slowed its pace, Noren squinted open an eye.

The blinding white light had vanished, and the oppressive feeling of something pressing down on her head had disappeared without a trace. The sounds around her were no longer distinct, but rather distant and expansive.

After traversing the dense forest that stretched from north to south, they had entered the river valley plains of the Morava River. This was an incredibly vast expanse, with two straight wheel ruts extending to the horizon, seemingly foretelling a long journey ahead.

“Ahhhhh!” Noren shouted loudly towards the boundless plains before them, her voice carrying far into the distance, leaving only an empty echo in her ears.

The powerful shout allowed Noren to shed the heavy burden of the recent killings, and the scenery before her lifted her spirits.

She exhaled slowly, then smiled at the little girl in her arms. “Anna, how much further is it to Kroměříž from here?”

Anna placed her hand horizontally above her brow, squinting towards the sun. Then she pointed forward. “Young Miss, if we follow this road straight, we should see that great river by sunset.”

A piercing cry rang out.

No sooner had Anna finished speaking than a dark shadow, swift as the wind, flashed past them.

Noren looked up, seeing a grey-brown eagle with its sharp talons embedded in a wild rabbit’s fur, soaring higher with a loud, piercing shriek.

“Tolke.”

“Hm.” Tolke, who had arrived moments later, drew his bow and nocked an arrow, his eyes opening and closing.

The eagle’s free-soaring figure became as clear as a target viewed through a camera lens, after several contractions of the aperture and adjustments of focus.

Its beak was sharp as a hook, its feathers keen as blades; every detail was frozen in Tolke’s pupils.

“Whoosh—”

The three fingers hooked on the bowstring released, stirring a small ripple in the air as the arrow instantly flew behind the soaring eagle.

The eagle seemed to sense the danger behind it, turning mid-flight with a flap of its wings, causing the arrow to graze past its feathers.

“What a pity…” Tolke sighed, shaking his head.

Noren merely glanced at the sky before dismissing it, then nudged the horse’s flanks with her heels. “Ya~”

The grey horse neighed again, then galloped freely across the vast plains towards the distant horizon.

Its speed increased steadily, and as it raced forward, gusts of wind surged against them, lifting Noren’s golden bangs and billowing the collar and sleeves of her linen gambeson.

The wild wind whipped the horse’s mane, making it difficult for Anna to keep her eyes open, yet Noren felt exceptionally comfortable, a sensation she hadn’t experienced in a long time.

‘Noren: Stress -50’

Tolke watched Noren gallop away, then looked back at the caravan that had just emerged from the dense forest, a helpless smile gracing his lips.

He stopped his horse and remained in place, gazing into the distance as Noren’s figure shrank from the size of a fingernail until it vanished below the horizon.

“Clip-clop-clop…” Igor rode his mottled horse up beside Tolke, his face etched with confusion. “Miss Noren, she…”

Tolke shook his head, signaling not to worry about her. “We’ll continue with the caravan.”

Tolke shouted to the caravan behind him. “Accelerate!”

The drivers cracked their whips, and the draft horses snorted, stepping forward as the carriage wheels creaked and spun faster.

A high-pitched shriek echoed from the sky once more.

Startled by the eagle’s cry, Igor abruptly looked up, seeing the majestic bird soaring through the sky, its wings spread wide as it flew into the distance.

A strange revelation surfaced in Igor’s mind. He pulled a small, glistening vial from his pocket, its smooth, hard texture rubbing between his fingers.

‘Should I tell Noren about this treasure?’ Igor felt that sending an unwitting Noren headfirst into Kroměříž without revealing everything would undoubtedly be extremely dangerous.

‘But even Mayor Kunar covets this treasure so much. Will Noren truly not be overcome by greed and try to seize it?’ Igor hesitated. In his view, the desires of worldly nobles were like an abyss, capable of swallowing the entire world.

‘Forget it, I’ll take it one step at a time!’ Igor’s brow remained furrowed. He felt as if he were crossing a treacherous tightrope, with wolves ahead and lions behind, and the slightest misstep would plunge him into raging floods.

Lost in thought, the caravan had already moved a hundred yards ahead. Igor tucked the small vial back into his pocket, then flicked his horsewhip.

“Giddy up!”