Sugar Road | Episode 1: The Girl Who Hears the Voice of the Stars
Synopsis
The continent still bears the scars of war and the attacks of demons. Rina, a girl who can perceive the voices of the stars, learns from the turbulence in the night sky that the "boundaries" separating nations and races have begun to waver. At the same time, Narv, a traveling merchant of both Human and Goblin descent, rescues Lilu, a young Goblin girl whose mother was taken away, while transporting the regulated sweet, Nectar Stone. Joined by a star calendar observer, a general from Mead, and an inspector from the Papal States, the group heads north along the Sugar Road. In the gate city of Rashta-Room, they face the unsettling connection between the ledgers of the "Twin Moon Allied Trading Company," which manipulates transit permits, relief efforts, and the price of Nectar Stone, and the symbols on the star charts. They attempt to prevent the city's discontent from turning into a riot and to redraw the path through records and testimonies.
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Chapter 1: A Shadow Cast on the Sugar Road
1. The Girl Who Hears the Voice of the Stars
Rina still remembers clearly the night she first heard the voice of the stars. She was only six or seven years old. Outside the window, there was no smoke from war or the roar of demons, only the cold night wind blowing. Until then, to her, stars were nothing more than specks of light scattered across the sky.
That night, a single light split the sky, leaving a trail behind it.
“Ah...”
A voiceless sound spilled from deep within her chest. Even though shooting stars shouldn't have been rare, that light looked so vivid, as if it were falling toward her alone. Her chest grew hot. Even though she was just looking up, her breathing became difficult. Her eyes stung, and tears welled up.
—The stars are calling.
Before it could become words, that sensation reached her heart.
“Rina? What’s wrong? Are you crying?”
Hearing her mother’s voice from behind, Rina turned around in surprise. Only then did she realize she was crying.
“I don’t know... but the stars...”
She started to say, but choked on her words. She couldn't explain what was wrong with the stars. Something invisible deep in her chest was pulling her strongly.
Her mother gently stroked her hair.
“Were you scared?”
“No... I’m not scared. But...”
She wasn't scared. If anything, it felt incredibly nostalgic. Yet, her chest felt tight and painful.
Her mother narrowed her eyes. A flicker of surprise crossed them for a moment.
“...Let’s talk to your father. Perhaps you possess something special.”
That night, the lights in their house stayed on later than usual.
A few days later, her father took her to visit an old mage who lived on the outskirts of town.
“You cried when you saw the stars, you say?”
Stroking his graying beard, the old man stared intently at Rina. His dark red, tattered robe was worn thin in places from years of use.
“...Sit here, young lady.”
As she sat in the chair as prompted, the old man took a small staff with a blue stone from the back of a shelf. The stone at the tip glowed faintly.
“Close your eyes and remember that night. When you looked at the stars, what happened deep in your chest?”
Rina closed her eyes as told. Beyond the darkness, the light from that night emerged. The star falling with a trail. The pain and nostalgia that tightened her chest.
At that moment, the stone on the staff glowed even brighter. She could feel the old man holding his breath from beyond the darkness.
“...Ho. To synchronize so readily with the magic of the stars.”
“What does it mean?”
Her father’s voice was anxious. Rina opened her eyes. The old man had completely lost his previously bored expression and had a serious look in his eyes, as if he were looking at something far away.
“This girl has the sensitivity to feel the flow of the stars. And it’s not just a simple talent. ...This is a light that could change the era.”
“Change the era...?”
Her father’s eyes widened. Rina stared at the old man’s face, not understanding half of what was being said. The old man slowly shook his head.
“But at the same time, it is dangerous. The continent is currently devastated by war and demon attacks. How this power is handled will change this child’s fate, and the fate of those around her.”
It fell into the room like a heavy prophecy.
Demons attacked the city, and the world was stained dark once again. Rina, who had become a lonely girl after losing her parents while fleeing, was taken in by the wandering scholar Carvel.
“Cry as much as you want. But someday, you must find for yourself the reason you survived.”
That ignited a heat in Rina’s chest different from that of the stars.
A few years later. Rina was gazing at the night sky from a room in the Tower of Learning—the Grana Tower. The starry sky she looked up at from the tower window was much wider than the one she had seen in her hometown. But that light from that night remained vivid even now. It was resonating with the same heat deep in her chest.
“...What are the stars trying to tell me?”
The moment she whispered that, a single light streaked across the distant sky.
This time, it was toward the southwest—the direction of the Sugar Road, the great artery of the continent that was supposed to connect the ancient Eldia to the Yorn Empire and the Mead Empire. Rina suddenly felt a sense of foreboding. The trajectory of the stars was more disturbed than usual.
—Is the boundary... wavering?
The seams between worlds—between nations, between people, between eras. The feeling that the invisible stitches connecting them were creaking. Rina gripped the window frame.
That wavering was changing someone’s choice somewhere.
The next day, a man traveling along the Sugar Road was about to step into an incident surrounding the boundary.
2. The Man Walking the Boundary
Narv Illun was humming a tune.
“♪ Leaving the snowy village, crossing two skies,
Buying sweet dreams in the city of sand ~”
His intentionally off-key singing voice melted into the dry wind. The creaking of the wagon. The horse’s hooves trotted along the dirt road.
This was the southwestern part of the Yorn Empire, a branch road off the northern end of the Sugar Road. It was said to have once been bustling with wagons and travelers from all over the continent, but now the scars of war and the lingering tension over faith had left the road desolate.
“Narv-san, you made that song up on the spot again, didn’t you?”
Walking next to the wagon was a young Human woman—his assistant, Rea. She looked up at Narv with half-closed eyes, her curly brown hair tied back, and a simple leather bag slung over her shoulder. She was still in her late teens, but when it came to calculations and negotiations, she could easily outsmart most merchants.
“It’s not made up. Journeys are born from songs. The road looked lonely, so I had to liven it up a bit.”
“I’ve never heard of a merchant who shows pity to a road.”
Contrary to her words, a faint smile appeared on Rea’s lips. Narv shrugged and tapped the wagon’s canvas cover lightly.
“Besides, I have a good listener loaded in here. I have to provide some music so it doesn’t get bored.”
Inside the canvas, wooden crates were packed tightly. Deep inside those boxes, which looked like ordinary household goods at first glance, a few boxes of something special were hidden.
—Nectar Stone.
A lump of sweetness made by solidifying sap collected from southern sweet trees using Mead Empire technology. It is said that just melting it on your tongue spreads the sweetness of ten cups of sugar. Normally, high tariffs are imposed, and the amount that can be brought into the Yorn Empire is strictly regulated.
But the stricter the regulations, the more people look for loopholes.
“By the way, Rea. Do you remember the name of the village at the end of this road?”
“Yes. The small village of Glaz. It’s famous in the guild as a place where ‘the inspections are tough and merchants suffer.’”
“Right, that ‘merchant-sufferer.’”
Narv laughed happily.
“Ordinary merchants avoid places like that. That’s exactly why there’s a point in taking Nectar Stone there.”
“...Is there anyone who will buy it? In such a remote area.”
“There is. Soldiers who forgot the taste of sweets in the war, farmers who want to give their sick family a little luxury. Everywhere in the world, ‘sweet dreams’ are sought after.”
Rea frowned slightly.
“But if we get caught...”
“We’ll get scolded. Probably pretty badly.”
Narv said it lightly and patted Rea’s head.
“You’re a worrier. It’s okay, even though I look like this, I’m the ‘son of a border-crosser.’ I can read the expressions of the Yorn temple side and the inner thoughts of the Mead merchants reasonably well.”
Half of his joking words were true. A Human father and a Goblin mother. Being of both bloodlines, Narv was an outsider in both countries, and in both countries, he was free.
That is why Narv prefers to choose the boundaries that no one wants to walk.
3. The Omen
Past noon. The shadow of a white building appeared ahead on the road. It was likely an inspection station converted from a small prayer hall. A moon seal indicating Yorn’s faith was displayed on the wall, and soldiers holding spears stood in front of it.
“...Just as the rumors said.”
Rea gasped softly.
“It’s the Temple Knights. That emblem.”
On the soldiers’ chests, the emblem of the Temple Knights—the order directly under the Papal States—was shining. They were not as large-scale as the Holy Purification Army, but they were known for being merciless when it came to cracking down on contraband.
“You really pay attention.”
“Information is a tool for survival.”
Narv gave a bitter smile at Rea’s reply.
“Alright. Then, to survive, let’s play the ‘honest merchant’ today.”
“You say that like you’re not always honest.”
“Ah, of course, I’m always honest. It’s just that the direction of my honesty is a little different.”
While exchanging banter, Narv steadied his breathing inwardly. Inside the canvas, on top of the Nectar Stone boxes, even thicker cloth and cheap sundries were stacked. It was made hard to find. But when you get caught, it’s usually when your ‘luck’ is bad.
—The wind direction is... not bad. Now, which way will the wind blow today?
As he approached the inspection station pulling the wagon, one of the soldiers raised his hand.
“Stop. This is an inspection station of the Papal States Temple Knights. We will check your transit permit and inspect your cargo.”
“Haha. Thank you for your hard work.”
Narv stopped the horse and stepped forward with a smile.
“I am Narv Illun, belonging to the Continental Traveling Merchant Guild. Here is the transit permit. And this is a modest amount of dried meat. I hope it provides some relief for your long life at the station.”
“Is this a bribe?”
The soldier raised his eyebrows, but another voice cut in from behind.
“It’s fine, this is what you call ‘human kindness.’”
The owner of the voice was a middle-aged man. He was muscular enough to be seen even over his armor, and an old scar ran diagonally across his face.
“Captain!”
The soldiers hurriedly straightened their posture. The man—Temple Knight platoon leader Raul—looked at the transit permit Narv had handed over, then narrowed his eyes.
“...Illun? That’s a name I’ve heard somewhere.”
—Good grief.
Narv shrugged inwardly.
“Where could it be? The continent seems wide but is actually narrow.”
Raul pondered for a while, then shook his head.
“Well, never mind. It’s the rules, I’ll have you let us inspect the cargo.”
The soldiers approached the wagon. Rea looked up at Narv anxiously for a moment.
“It’s okay. Take a deep breath.”
Whispering that, Narv stepped back. The soldiers flipped the canvas with practiced hands, tapped the wooden crates, and sometimes opened the lids to check the contents. Cloth, food, cheap tools, pottery. None of them were particularly suspicious.
“I’ll have you open this box too.”
One soldier reached for the third crate in the row where the Nectar Stone was stacked.
—That is not a Nectar Stone box. Narv instantly recalled the positional relationship and counted on his fingers inwardly.
—...No problem.
The soldier opened the lid. What came out was cheap cloth made in the Mead Empire.
“Hmm...”
The soldier picked up a piece of cloth and held it up to the light.
“Mead-made, huh? I assume the tariffs have been paid?”
“Of course.”
Narv handed over the receipt he had prepared. Raul took it, glanced at it, and nodded.
“No problem. ...However.”
He suddenly looked up.
“There is talk that the smuggling of Nectar Stone is rampant in this area recently. The Papal States are concerned that the sweets brought from the Mead Empire are disrupting the discipline of soldiers tired from the war.”
—Corruption, huh...
Narv gave a bitter smile inwardly, but didn’t show it on his face.
“Nectar Stone is such a luxury item, it doesn’t suit our wagon.”
That was when it happened.
“Captain! We found something strange over here!”
A young soldier’s voice rang out from the shadow of the inspection station building. Everyone’s gaze turned that way. Rea also looked reflexively.
A small shadow was crouching in the shade of the stone wall. It was—gray skin and pointed ears. A small body wrapped in thin cloth.
“...A Goblin child?”
Rea whispered. The child was trembling. At its feet were a torn cloth bag and scattered pieces of dried meat. Apparently, it had been sneaking into the inspection station’s food storage.
“Illegal entry by a different race?”
One soldier frowned and reached for the hilt of his sword.
“It seems it was trying to steal food! As expected, different races are—”
“Wait.”
Raul’s voice stopped him. He slowly approached the child and crouched down in front of it.
“Are you alone?”
The child bit its lip and didn’t answer, keeping its head down. But its trembling was severe, and it looked like it was about to collapse at any moment.
“Captain, a thing like this—”
“It is not a ‘thing,’ it is a ‘child.’”
Raul’s voice lowered.
“But rules are rules. Illegal entry by a different race must be judged by the Papal States.”
The air became heavy. Tension ran among the soldiers. Narv exhaled and walked toward Raul.
“Captain.”
“...What is it, Illun?”
“Can’t you make this child my cargo?”
The air froze. Rea let out a blank sound, “Huh!?”
The soldiers also looked at him with eyes mixed with amazement or anger. Raul frowned.
“Is this the time for jokes?”
“I’m quite serious.”
Narv shrugged.
“Our guild sometimes finds orphans in various places and takes them in as cargo handlers or bookkeepers. If we say we ‘happened’ to find this child near here... it would be better than sending it to the Papal States to die of disease and hunger, right?”
“Narv-san...”
Rea pulled his sleeve. Obvious anxiety was in her eyes. Raul stared at Narv in silence, then dropped his gaze to the Goblin child.
“...What is your name?”
The child looked up slightly. Its golden eyes were wavering with fear and caution.
“...Li, Lu.”
A raspy voice leaked out. It was a name of the same lineage as a certain Goblin woman Narv had met in the Mead Empire before.
—...I see.
Narv narrowed his eyes for a moment, then immediately hid the expression. Raul stood up and exhaled deeply.
“Do as you like.”
“Captain!”
“Rules exist to be followed. But there are also rules that must be broken to protect people. You all saw nothing. Understood?”
The soldiers looked at each other and nodded, albeit reluctantly. Narv bowed slightly and placed his hand on the shoulder of the child named Lilu.
“Alright, it’s settled. From today, you are cargo. Human villages are scary, but the inside of a wagon is reasonably comfortable.”
“...Strange person.”
Lilu twisted her lips slightly. Whether it was a smile or just confusion, it was still indistinguishable. But at that moment, a streak of white light crossed the sky above the inspection station.
Narv looked up involuntarily.
“...A shooting star?”
In the thin sky dragging the remnants of the day, a streak of light that shouldn't have been there was carved. It disappeared in an instant, but it left a strange snag deep in his chest.
—...The wind direction is starting to change.
Was it a merchant’s intuition, or something else? Narv stopped thinking about it and returned to the wagon.
“Well, let’s go. The road won’t wait.”
4. From the Tower Window
At almost the same time. On the upper floor of the Grana Tower, Rina was looking down at the star chart spread out on her desk. The place where she had marked a small sign—the movement of the stars she observed last night was slightly shifting its orbit.
“As I thought...”
The stars revolve regularly. But very rarely, their orbits are disturbed. When someone makes a big decision. When a boundary is crossed somewhere.
There isn't enough observational material to prove the causal relationship. Even so, Rina’s senses were telling her that. She looked out the window. Far away, the southwestern horizon. She searched for the afterimage of the light she felt she had just seen there.
“...Someone has crossed the ‘line’ again.”
The words that spilled out were not directed at anyone. The line called a national border. The line called the difference in race. The line drawn between faith and disbelief.
The footprints of someone who stepped over them are appearing on the stars as a faint wavering.
—This wavering will surely not be noticed by anyone immediately. But if it piles up—
Rina sighed while feeling that power.
“From inside the tower, I can’t do anything, huh.”
The wind blowing through the window turned the edge of the star chart. Tucked in there was a letter that had arrived a few days ago from an old friend of her master, Carvel. It was written to the sender as follows:
—Leader of the Continental Traveling Merchant Guild, Narv Illun
The letter contained frank words about the current state of the Sugar Road after the war and the sparks that continue to smolder between Yorn and Mead.
“A merchant walking the boundary, huh...”
Rina whispered and folded the letter. The stars said nothing and continued to twinkle.
Somewhere on the continent, a man walking while laughing at the boundary line and a small Goblin child who had become new cargo had already taken a step. The afterglow of the shooting star she had seen earlier was still twinkling in Rina’s chest without disappearing.
That light looked like it was pointing to the road leading outside the tower.
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