Chapter 37 – Detour
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Just like in any other city, armed gatekeepers had been deployed in front of Dilan’niren’s gates.
They were equipped with unrefined short swords which focused on sturdiness over beauty, as well as plated leather armor which wouldn’t obstruct their movements. Their gauntlets, greaves, and helmets used different designs, each meticulously adjusted for easier use.
Those gatekeeper squads were far removed from anything hinting at flashiness, unlike the guards in Urvan and Satyna, whose uniforms emphasized outward appearance and a sense of unity.
Moreover, the gatekeepers over here were ill-bred men with mercenary backgrounds, all having scarred faces, crushed eyes, or similar remains of past battles — in short, they looked like a tough bunch. Their work attitude was not good by any standard, seeing how they were downing alcohol and smoking pipes at their station, like common thugs you’d find in back alleys.
If not for their red-white cords matching the red-white flag fluttering above the gates, no one would have been able to identify them as part of the guard protocol.
They didn’t perform any strict inspections like the drug control in Satyna, but sometimes, the guards would stop “suspicious” — at least from their point of view — pedestrians, demanding to be shown luggage or IDs, all in an effort to find something to nitpick.
And naturally enough, Kei was also stopped.
Kei felt dejected, wondering why they ignored Aileen and stopped only him, but once he showed his Urvan honorary citizenship ID, the nitpicky guard flinched away as if having a torch thrust at him, and quieted down.
Thanks to that, he was allowed to pass without a hitch. But, if not for his ID, him being allowed to enter the city might have remained a pipe dream.
“I guess the tournament participation has proven its worth.”
“No kidding. Thank god you got that citizenship! The face of that guard, when you showed it to him, was priceless!”
Aileen laughed cheerfully as she slapped Kei on the back. On one hand, she looked cheerful towards Kei, in a considerate and supportive way, but on the other hand, traces of resentment towards the guards oozed out of her voice. Trying to pass it off as a joke was much like Aileen, Kei thought.
“For sure. God bless authority.” Kei shrugged with a wry smile.
Horse riding was banned inside the city, so he walked while pulling Sasuke by the reins.
A messy city — that was the plain impression of Dilan’niren that he got.
Stone houses following the duchy’s architectural style were disorderly stuck between wooden Northland houses which heavily relied on curvy designs. In-between those two, you could also find rectangular stone buildings which had been forcefully remodeled with wood, following Snowland customs.
The signboards used both Latin and Cyrillic alphabets side by side, and they could hear people talk Russian just by walking through the streets. As vast the duchy may be, no other city would host Snowlanders and Plainsfolk having pleasant chats in public.
…Still, this sure feels odd.
Kei muttered with a stiff expression, letting his eyes wander to the left and right.
—He couldn’t calm down. As if his spine was tingling from numbness.
This whole place felt too sharp, and too hostile.
He was just walking, and yet the passersby were actively avoiding him. Although the streets were crowded with people, an open space had formed around only him. A shopkeeper that was displaying his wares frowned at the sight of Kei, and the women who were having an idle chat also turned quiet as if they had agreed to do so in advance.
Regardless of Snowlander or Plainsfolk, all of them acted the same towards him — staring at him scornfully.
“……”
He also felt some sense of alienation when he started living in Urvan, but this was too abnormal. It went beyond simple discomfort and turned into something incomprehensible instead.
“It feels kinda strange.” Aileen, who had caught up to him without him even noticing, muttered those words.
“Yeah,” Kei gave a vague nod, wondering how to deal with the situation.
He could have understood if the city were to be in wartime. But, as of now nothing particularly noteworthy was happening, so he couldn’t understand the reason behind their hostility.
“…Should we look for an inn for now?”
“We’re really staying here?” Aileen vented her displeasure as she looked up to the sky where the sun was still at its zenith.
Kei could tell what she was trying to say, but then frowned as he rubbed his chin.
“I mean, it’s not like I love this city either. But don’t you think it’d be pretty rash to march into the infamous Northland without any prior investigation?”
“…Mmh.” Aileen grunted her approval with a difficult expression after seeing the truth in his words.
The two continued to stare at each other in the middle of the street until an angry passerby yelled at them for being nuisances, bringing them back to their senses and causing them to walk on.
“…We aren’t even allowed a quiet moment to think.”
“Time to look for an inn, after all? …I mean, for me to look for one.”
“Can I leave it to you?”
“Sure.”
Aileen replied with a smile, then gave Suzuka’s reins to Kei and started to weave her way through the crowd. As she did, her golden ponytail swayed, making Kei slow down to watch her graceful figure push her way through the waves of people.
Aileen was assertively calling out to pedestrians with a friendly smile. She appeared to mainly focus on asking Snowlanders for directions by using Russian. The young men, in particular, broke into smiles and readily answered her questions.
Some of them even tried some pick-up lines on her, but after Aileen told them something and pointed to Kei, their expressions instantly changed, which amused him. Some were astonished, some turned away after becoming sulky, and some lost interest after sighing — either way, they showed a variety of reactions. Kei didn’t look at them directly to avoid any potential provocations.
After slowly walking for about ten minutes and reaching the central part of the city, Aileen came back from her information gathering.
“…How did it go?”
“Uhh… Well, I guess. I did find out some things.” She answered powerlessly, but her expression betrayed her dissatisfaction. After she cast a glance at the people around them, she continued, “It’s a bit hard to talk here. Let’s go outside the city.”
“Outside?” Kei asked with an eyebrow twitching upward.
Still, he didn’t probe any further. He knew there had to be a good reason for it, if Aileen was saying so, and thus he silently handed Suzuka’s reins back to her.
Then they went back the way they came, leaving the city through the southern gate.
They ignored the guard, who was puzzled by them coming back out as he had apparently remembered their faces after the ID incident, and moved away from the gate.
Even when looking back, the wall seemed as unwelcoming and refusing to visitors as before. As Aileen remained silent, deeply stuck in her own thoughts, Kei couldn’t hide his unease, wondering what in the world had happened.
Before long, as they headed down the road and arrived at a cluster of trees with no one around, Aileen finally relaxed her shoulders and heaved a big sigh.
“Ahhh… Good grief. The situation isn’t anything like we’ve heard.”
“So, just what is going on?” Kei flopped down on a patch of grass.
“Trouble, that’s what,” Aileen grumbled and sat down on a stump opposite of him. Resting her elbow on her knee to support her chin, she appeared somewhat sulky.
After a short pause, she started speaking.
“—To get to the point, it seems that the Grasslanders on the western highway are getting violent.”
“What? The Grasslanders?”
Kei widened his eyes, not having expected that piece of news in the least.
“…What are the Grasslanders doing in Northland?”
“Beats me. I don’t know the reason, but it seems that mounted bandits have been causing troubles west of the highway. Travelers and peddlers got attacked…some settlements got burned down with women and children being mercilessly slaughtered. If this didn’t sow resentment I wouldn’t know what else does.”
“…What the hell?”
Kei held his forehead as if enduring a headache.
“So that’s why everyone was seething with so much anger towards me.”
On this side, Kei’s appearance was extremely similar to that of a Grasslander. From Kei’s perspective, his Japanese facial features were very different from the strong European features of the Grasslanders, but the Snowlanders and the Plainsfolk weren’t able to tell the difference.
It wasn’t hard to imagine what the citizens were thinking when Kei suddenly entered the city.
Looking at it under these circumstances, those guards were maybe just faithful to their duties as well. Anyone would’ve stopped someone dressed as a Grasslander if they suddenly showed up while some Grasslanders were rampaging not too far away from the city. Even Kei might’ve stopped himself in their shoes.
“…What’s the number of mounted bandits or whatever we’re talking about here?”
“Apparently they aren’t just limited to some odd dozen or anything like that. Some say there’s around a hundred of them on the loose.”
“A hundred—,” Kei muttered to process it while at the same retrieving the map out of his chest pocket and spreading it on the ground. He slowly traced the mountain range separating the duchy and Northland on the parchment with a finger
“…Even if we deduct some exaggeration, it’d still be around 50 people. How did they reach Northland with such numbers…? They couldn’t simply have stormed through Dilan’niren. So, did they bypass the mountains by sea? Or did they cross the mountains in groups?”
“It doesn’t seem like they went through Dilan’niren. Apparently they suddenly appeared on the highway and started rampaging… The general rumor is that they crossed the “Great Forest””
Aileen peered down on the map, drawing a circle around the western part of the mountain range with her snow-white finger.
“It’s not on the map, but the elevation around there is quite low. Somewhat like Dilan’niren, actually.”
“But this forest is 【Abyss】 isn’t it?”
【Abyss】was the name of a particular area in the forest region where Green Salamanders and Grande Urs roamed. In 【DEMONDAL】, it was an ominous area even top players wouldn’t survive without proper preparations and equipment.
At the very least, this was no place the citizens of this world, who didn’t possess body strengthening through Crests, could simply walk through. Much less in such large numbers.
It’d be a different story if they were under the protection of a powerful magician, but the Grasslanders were lacking in magical skills. They did have a culture of shamanism, but they didn’t have techniques to employ and converse with Spirits.
“Well, that’s why it’s ultimately just a rumor. We don’t know if they really went through the forest.” Aileen raised her hands in defeat. “—Still, it’s clear that there are no other routes. Even if they used the sea route, no one has spotted them prowling the shores, and there were no signs of destruction by bandits near the eastern route that crosses the mountains. It really feels like they just appeared out of nowhere and started wreaking havoc around the highway.”
“Hmm… it’s quite a mystery.”
Kei rubbed his chin as he dropped his gaze on the map spread out on the ground.
Northland was vast. Even if you said west of the highway, it covered an area going beyond the distance the two had traveled so far. There were forests, rivers, hills, and even wastelands exposing barren lands. Kei smiled ironically, thinking there was indeed much to be gained by going wild there.
“In the first place, how are they resupplying themselves while being isolated? Haven’t they been at it for more than a month now?”
“Aren’t they just stealing the resources after they set the settlements on fire? Plus there are rivers and lakes in the western parts.”
“…I’m surprised those hotblooded Snowlanders are letting them do as they please.”
“No, as you’d expect, the cities and settlements around here seem to have dispatched a lot of warriors. But the bandits made sure to stay clear from any huge subjugation unit. Even when the subjugation units tried to besiege the bandits in order to drag them out in the open, the bandits apparently escaped as if they had already known about the subjugation units’ plans. But when it came to smaller squads and straddlers, who hadn’t joined up with the main unit at the time, the bandits launched attacks, causing heavy losses.”
“…They’re quite something.”
The corners of Kei’s mouth rose, but his expression remained stiff.
It wasn’t normal for bandits to continue their rampage while steering clear from pursuits for a month, all while being isolated, outnumbered, and on unfamiliar land. On one hand, he was impressed by their performance, but on the other hand, he resented them for causing so much trouble.
Should he praise the mounted bandits for their daringness, or should he lament the uselessness of the subjugation squads — as Kei was pondering, he suddenly remembered the Snowland warrior Alexei.
It was an unforgettable journey from Satyna to Urvan. One full of incidents, where his sense of distance with Aileen had changed. It also allowed him to pile up experience in escorting a caravan, and he was challenged to his first real duel.
—There was something he had realized after arriving in Dilan’niren.
That is, even among the Snowlanders, superb warriors like Alexei weren’t commonplace at all. Dilan’niren was a big city, and thus had a huge population. As such he did see quite a few warriors that seemed to be tough, but few exhibited an aura at the level of Alexei.
Looking at it from another perspective, it was still a fact that a certain number of such superb warriors existed. However, that reckless youth had left a strong impression on him, making him imagine Northland as a place where you couldn’t throw a rock without hitting some monstrous warrior, and yet—
“—They are far too good at this, so the Snowlanders are starting to jump at shadows, suspecting that the bandits might have someone leaking information to them in the city.”
Kei was brought back to his senses thanks to Aileen’s triumphant explanation.
“…What’s wrong, Kei?”
“…Oh, nothing.”
Her eyes, looking like they were transparent, were pinned on Kei. He felt calmness spread inside himself as her blue eyes, which were clearer than the sky, stared back at him. When she tilted her head in confusion, Kei shook his head and continued, “I was just thinking about the Snowlanders. Sowing internal discord with this situation must be the enemy’s goal.”
“Yeah. The citizens seemed pretty pissed that the subjugation units aren’t producing any results. It appears that the cooperation between the tribes is also falling apart lately.”
“I see…”
Even though it was just a short period of time, Aileen had managed to gather vital information. Kei folded his arms, impressed how using her mother language had allowed Aileen to act much more freely.
He had understood the general situation, leaving him with the question of how to proceed.
“…Hmm.”
Aileen also folded her arms like Kei and groaned.
“…What do we do, Kei?”
“Looks like the Valgren Plan has become useless.”
Based on Valgren Krembrart’s — the former silver mushroom hair — advice, Kei and Aileen had decided on their general travel route.
They once again dropped their eyes on the map — or to be precise, on northbound Bratya Highway depicted in the middle of the paper.
Their initial plan would have them prioritize their safety, avoid areas with bad public order, and try to avoid traveling alone as much as possible. First they’d have found and joined some caravan bound northwards along the Bratya Highway. Their destination would be the gigantic city Belyansk which rivaled Dilan’niren. Next, they’d have used their horses to proceed east, crossing the plains in one go in order to reach Frontier City Nafea. And lastly, they’d have ultimately headed for “Sharit,” a settlement near their destination — the “Haunted Forest.”
“The assumption Bratya Highway is safe has been shattered.”
“That shroomy old man… This is not what he told us.”
“Didn’t the thieves only appear recently? It’d be unfair to blame it on him. He’s a magician, not a prophet… Besides, he’s not exactly shroomy anymore.”
“We rushed out of Urvan after that, but I wonder what happened to his wig.”
“Good question…”
In the end he apparently failed to find the wig Siv blew off. It’d be great if he had a spare, but if not, he’d have been forced to stay without a wig for a while.
“We even broke his telescope…”
“I’m honestly scared about returning to Urvan. What if he asks us for reimbursement?”
“His wig aside, that telescope looked quite luxurious…”
“I don’t think he’d demand it after such a long time… Or let’s say, I hope he doesn’t…”
They glanced at each other and heaved deep sighs.
“Anyway, that…”
“…doesn’t matter now.”
Noticing how they were trying to escape reality, the two forced themselves back on topic.
“What do we do? Should we call it quits and go back for the time being?”
“Yeaaah.”
Seeing Kei acting cautious, Aileen sighed and looked up.
She just stared into the distance. Rather than thinking about anything, she looked blankly into the sky as if trying to count stars during daytime.
“…Kei, what do you think will happen if we go back?”
“What do you mean?”
“Autumn is going to start in two weeks. If we wait for the heat to die down, it’ll be winter. If that happens, we’d have to postpone our journey until next year’s spring.”
Aileen sat on the stump while holding both of her knees. Her earnest eyes fixed on Kei.
“I don’t think making a fresh start would necessarily be met with a better condition.”
“…Hmm.”
“The mounted bandits are only rampaging in the western parts right now. The Grasslanders bad reputation is spreading here too… but turning it around, that’s all that’s happening. If we go further east, it shouldn’t have spread very much.”
As she talked, Aileen’s voice gained more enthusiasm.
“So if we go east while we can, we should be able to avoid baseless discrimination and oppression. But the longer we delay it, the more the bandit topic will spread… So if we come back here next year, it could be… uhh, even worse for you, Kei… I think that’s a possibility as well.”
“…I see.”
“So… I was thinking, if we’re planning to go on, I believe this…” Aileen said and looked away. “I believe this would be… the right time.”
She was speaking in fragments, uncharacteristically of her.
“You have a point.” Kei nodded in earnest.
With the worsening of the safety on the highway and the risk of Kei himself being mistaken for the enemy, he was thinking it’d be better to wait and see for some time, but Aileen’s point was also valid. There was no proof that the situation would improve over time.
And above all — he felt Aileen’s strong will to go to the Haunted Forest as quickly as possible. To go there and find out the cause of this transfer phenomenon. Of course, she also understood the risks involved in this.
Does she want to return, I wonder?
He didn’t know. However, it was quite clear that she desired to know whether it was actually possible to do so.
Kei himself wasn’t rushing to investigate the cause as he had no reason to hurry.
But it was different for Aileen — he could tell her anxiety when looking at her from the side. She appeared to fear that something stored in her heart would fade away. Moreover, she sensed the acute danger that there wouldn’t be another chance if they let go of this one.
If that’s how it is, I have no right to raise any objections
He — couldn’t say anything.
“Alright,” Kei picked up the map with a smile, “let’s reconsider our route and go with the one appearing to be the least dangerous.”
“…Okay.”
Aileen smiled back at him as she nodded in response. A smile as transient as a fleeting dream.
†††
After a few dozen minutes of discussion, the two settled on their new route.
At present, they had three choices available to them.
The first route would continue eastwards within the duchy’s bounds, and cross the mountains via a frontier city called Ozero. It was the shortest route on paper, but they had to cross steep mountains, and since they didn’t have proper mountaineering equipment, they rejected this option.
Another route was to stray off the highway once they crossed Dilan’niren, traversing the plains to the northeast. It sounded simple enough, but they’d have to keep going on trackless paths. Furthermore, they’d pass through barren land with few water sources and no settlements, so it’d be difficult to resupply on the way. Kei and Aileen could still do something about their own water and food, but being unable to secure the same for Sasuke and Suzuka would’ve been fatal.
Thus, they excluded this route as well, leaving them with only one option remaining.
It was to follow the Yegor Highway, which was smaller than the Bratya Highway. With this route, they’d travel alongside the mountain range until they ran into a river that flowed southwards, after which they would head straight to the north. Though this was a pretty big detour, there were forests and groves of trees along the way, as well as small roadside villages and settlements, so they believed it would be relatively easy to resupply there.
According to Mr. Valgren’s information, it was “not exactly a safe” area, but they had no choice but to accept some risks. They could only tell themselves that it was still better as they wouldn’t have to deal with the mounted bandits.
Thus, after resupplying in Dilan’niren, they headed straight east.
Kei and Aileen enjoyed the comfortable horse trip.
The vegetation had drastically changed in comparison to the duchy, with bushes and conifers visibly gaining in quantity. The base of the duchy mountains was covered by forests, but the Northland side appeared to be a little on the barren side, resulting in only few trees to be found there.
Even so, Kei smiled as he saw animals like birds and goats here and there, realizing they’d at least be able to procure food if it was necessary, leaving water aside. According to Aileen, however, a normal person wouldn’t be able to see them.
Holding on to Sasuke’s reins, Kei kept galloping while enjoying the scenery around him which was so unlike the duchy.
However, after a while, they gradually came to realize what Valgren meant by it not being a safe route.
First off, the highway was in an extremely bad condition. The paving was cracked up, and some parts were even missing, to the point that it’d create an impediment for carriages. The highway could be described as deserted — even the villages they spotted along the way gave off a negative atmosphere, with the seedy-looking villagers bluntly glaring at them as they kept following their every move.
“Did the rumor about the mounted bandits reach them, after all?”
Aileen uneasily asked from behind.
“I don’t know… Either way, they don’t seem happy about seeing us.”
Kei answered with a stiff voice, then confirmed “Dragon Stinger” in his left hand, warning himself to not lower his guard.
…Still, escorting the caravan proved to be a valuable experience.
That thought crossed Kei’s mind while he was paying close attention to his entire field of view.
He was currently vigilant, but he was most certainly not overly tense. His shoulders were moderately relaxed, his eyes taking in his entire surroundings. He wasn’t doing it consciously, but if something were to move within his visual field, he’d immediately notice.
Kei believed that he had learned this way of relaxing himself during the short time he spent with the other guards of the caravan escort.
For example, just when he sensed something being off with the bushes at the end of the road, a deer family suddenly jumped out of it. When he felt a gaze from above, he found a white bird silently looking down on him. Suddenly looking to the right, his eyes met with a wildcat that observed him from the tree shade.
He felt impressed with himself that he was now able to notice such small details.
An arrow could suddenly fly at him, there could be a trap on the road, a robber could rush at him from cover — in this world where carelessness could lead to death, he had grown quite familiar with that kind of dry atmosphere.
The reason why he could still feel at ease lay in him already being used to it, or perhaps it was an expression of still remaining traces of carelessness.
He couldn’t judge it objectively, but since he didn’t feel burdened by it, he told himself that it shouldn’t be a bad thing. Kei sighed and unconsciously caressed the quiver tied to the saddle.
They galloped for about two hours. When the sun started to sink and they started discussing how to spend the night, they reached a small settlement.
It was a so-called road village, houses lined up on either side of the road. The settlements along the Yegor Highway all looked miserly, but this village was…comparatively better.
At the very least the house doors weren’t tilted and the place wasn’t filled with spider webs or smeared with soot. The residents were also relatively amiable compared to the other settlements. They seemed to only speak Russian, but according to Aileen, the village chief offered them a place for the night out of goodwill.
The two felt uneasy spending the night outside in unfamiliar land, so they gratefully accepted it.
Giving Sasuke and Suzuka into their host’s custody, they dropped their luggage in a simple room at the chief’s house, and were invited for dinner.
In the living room, illuminated by the warm lamp light, they found the well-built white-haired chief, his old wife, a man and woman that appeared to be their son and his wife, and three young children. The entire family was present. Kei and Aileen borrowed the tattered chairs that seemed to have been taken out of the warehouse just now, and joined them.
‘”——?——!”‘
‘”——. ——, ——”‘
As Aileen and the village chief chatted in Russian, Kei who had nothing else to do started surveying the house.
“So this is how this house was built…”
It had a thatched roof you wouldn’t find in the duchy, and a simple structure that seemed like something straight out of a child’s drawing. Seeing him being interested, the children began to laugh for some reason.
At first, he thought they found a person of a different race an odd sight, so he just answered with a forced smile — but it didn’t take him long to notice something wasn’t quite right.
What the…? The way they’re looking at me…
The eldest of them seemed to be about ten while the youngest appeared to be four years old. Big brother, sister, and youngest brother — but, Kei felt something unpleasant in their eyes. Something he could only describe as a tinge of shrewdness.
Are they making fun of me…?
At first, he suspected it was discrimination due to their young age, but it felt a little different from being looked down on as a member of another race.
Their mother, who noticed Kei suspecting something, slapped the hand of the eldest son who was pointing at Kei and rebuked him.
After a while, the meal was served.
That’s when he noticed — none of the “family members” were doing the cooking.
The ones who brought in the dishes, dressed in a simple tunics were—
“—Grasslanders?”
It wasn’t just Kei who was taken aback. Aileen next to him who was engaged in a chatter also put her conversation on hold.
The ones carrying the plates were two Grasslanders. Both of them were women and had peculiar tattoos on their faces, but they also wore iron collars and were quite thin. They looked a little surprised when they saw Kei, but they silently placed the dishes on the table and quickly excused themselves.
“What was that…”
Aileen heard his mutter and asked a quick question to the village chief, who answered back with a smile, “Ведомого.”
“…Slaves, it seems.”
Aileen muttered with a difficult expression.
“I see…”
Kei couldn’t do much more than pull an equally difficult expression. But at the same time, he felt like that answer explained things.
They pulled themselves together and started dinner. Aileen reached out to one of the soup plates on the table, but the village chief stopped her and instead offered a different dish to the two, which seemed to have been made with ingredients of higher quality.
“…It looks like this dish is a traditional cuisine of this village for entertaining guests.”
“…Oh?”
So far as it went, it smelled delicious. Its aroma was peculiarly spicy in a way. The chief and the rest observed Aileen and Kei’s reaction, polite smiles on their faces.
“Well, let’s accept their generosity.”
“Right.”
Seeing the two start eating, the rest also went ahead. Kei suspected that it might be a custom of this village to wait for the guests to begin a meal.
Their traditional cooking turned out to be a creamy soup which was stuffed with big amounts of pork, roots, and leafy vegetables. It had a sour taste, similar to sauerkraut, and with the soup stock’s flavor having permeated the entire dish, it was very delicious. However, Kei felt like the fragrance resembling coriander was somehow out of place here.
Other than that, they were also treated to things like brown bread, dried fruits, grilled sausages, and, albeit at a small quantity, distilled alcohol. The food was unbelievably luxurious for a rural village. But Kei couldn’t really enjoy the dinner since he felt bothered by the family’s look – as if they were monitoring him – constantly checking him out, on top of him being unable to talk with them.
After the meal, Aileen quickly finished her conversation and the two retired to the room that had been offered to them.
“Phew. We ended up stuffing ourselves.”
“Yeah…”
Aileen happily slapped her belly. Then they plopped down on the only bed in the room side by side.
“…The thing about the slaves was a shock though.”
“It sure was. Apparently, many of the Grasslanders that fell into slavery during the military campaign had been sold to Northland. Since then, uhh… how to put it, more of the “goods” have been arriving from time to time. Similar slaves, I mean.”
“I see…”
Perhaps the children were simply honest, Kei tried to convince himself, but something was still bugging him about all of this. For some reason, he simply couldn’t settle down.
“…Hey, Aileen. What do you think about these villagers?”
“…Hmm,” he went ahead, trying to ask Aileen.
She seemed to also harbor some reservations, “……They feel kinda fishy?”
“You think so too, huh?”
“Yeah. It’s like, I dunno…”
They naturally lowered their voices.
“I get the feeling they’re way too hospitable to random travelers.”
“That’s what I thought too. And also, they were constantly checking us out.”
“Do they plan to attack us while we sleep after getting us fed up first…?”
“…What if that’s the case?”
“It’ll be hard to move now… but maybe we could just pay them for their hospitality and leave the village right away.”
“Hmm, I guess we could…” Aileen mumbled under her breath as she pondered, and then clapped her hands, continuing, “Wait, I could just set an alarm spell. It will scare them off if it’s triggered, and it’s very effective against humans.”
“That works.”
In the end, Aileen manifested Kerstin and cast a precautionary watch spell that would be effective against people on the door.
Since the bed was small, the two couldn’t roll around to their heart’s content, resulting in Kei leaning against the wall while giving Aileen a lap pillow. Neither of the two let go of their weapons, sleeping in a posture that would allow them to immediately respond.
“Goodnight, Kei.”
“Goodnight, Aileen.”
Aileen fell asleep on Kei’s lap, using a bunch of clothes as a pillow. Kei couldn’t quite relax in his current posture, but he was gradually lured into a deep slumber, despite expecting otherwise.
The night progressed.
And then something did happen.
‘”——!!——!?”‘
Rough yelling in Russian.
Just as Kei’s eyes snapped open, Aileen flung her blanket aside, jumping to her feet.
Looking towards the door, they found it gaping open, with a man on the floor while being swallowed by shadows.
“It’s the village chief!”
“I knew it!”
Behind the chief, his son and his son’s wife lay on the ground, lamps in their hands.
【——Liberigxu】
Upon Aileen’s short command, the shadows dispersed, revealing the village chief. He was ghastly pale as he groveled on the floor.
‘”——!?——, ——!”‘
Aileen questioned him with a harsh voice, and the chief started making incoherent excuses. Kei held “Dragon Stinger” in one hand while putting his left hand on his sword and glared at the couple behind the village chief to keep them in check.
‘”——!”‘
Once the village chief explained himself somewhat, Aileen rebuked him sharply.
‘”——, ——…”‘
As she started speaking with a low and eerie tone, the chief and the couple broke into cold sweat, immediately prostrating with their bodies trembling like newborn fawns. Kei didn’t understand the situation, but since Aileen still emitted a coercive aura, he decided to keep his act up as well.
Afterward, the couple rushed out of the house after being ordered to do something, and Kei fetched their luggage in response to an eye signal by Aileen.
Surprisingly enough, several villagers had been waiting outside, armed with torches, sickles, clubs, and other weapons. The moment they saw the two, they started to seeth with bloodlust, but when Aileen released Kerstin’s shadows as a threat, they scattered away in all directions like baby spiders.
As if substituting them, the couple returned while holding Sasuke and Suzuka’s reins.
‘”——”‘ Aileen barked at them with a commanding tone, causing them to retreat into their house while repeatedly bowing.
“Okay, let’s go, Kei.”
“G-Got it.”
They fastened their luggage on Sasuke’s saddle and quickly left the village. Neither Sasuke nor Suzuka could see overly well in the dark, so Kei was leading the way by pulling the reins accordingly.
“…Pfft!”
They continued in silence for a while, but once they were far enough, they simultaneously burst into laughter.
They continued laughing like fools for a while.
“Yeah okay, watching the chief and the rest act so frightened was priceless.” Kei commented while wiping the tears out of his eyes.
Sitting on Suzuka, Aileen threw out her chest in an exaggerated manner, “Wasn’t it a pretty nice performance?”
“Yeah. Your villain act would’ve even shocked Ralph Fiennes — anyway, what did you say to them? They seemed pretty frightened.”
“Oh, nothing much. “I am a great dark magician! I would’ve spared you if you had remained obedient, but maybe I should curse your entire family!” or something like that.”
“That’s it?”
“Well, that and a few more threats. Stuff like “Maybe I should plunge your three grandkids into insanity by forcing them to eat each other” and “Myaybe I should turn you into my corpse puppet and the work you as slaves for all eternity” and stuff like that.”
“That’s quite some nasty stuff.”
“Oh, I forgot,” Aileen suddenly remembered something, adding, “About that so-called “traditional cuisine” they offered. The chief confessed on his own, but apparently, it was poisoned.”
“Say what?!”
Kei shouted and checked his body — but he didn’t feel like anything was off.
“Well I say poisoned, but it was just a sleeping drug. Then again, we’ve got enhanced bodies so yeah…”
“True… some random poison won’t work on us. Really a blessing for that to be the case…”
They continued talking, but they couldn’t simply spend all night traveling, so they decided to camp out in the woods, a little away from the road.
They gathered firewood, assorted rocks, and set charcoal on fire.
The warm light of the campfire dispersed the moonlit darkness. Considering the angle of the thickets, they used their extra blankets to set up impromptu walls for blocking the light from being visible through the trees.
“Should I use the watch spell here as well?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay, I’ll test “alarm” then.”
Aileen started rummaging through the luggage and pulled out a device that looked like a combination of a bell, scales, and a lever.
During their one-month stay in Urvan, the two didn’t dedicate all their time on just investigating.
Since the thinking of the spirits had grown more flexible ever since they got transferred to this world, they went through trial and error, trying to implement new ways of using magic.
This “alarm” Aileen came up with could be called extremely revolutionary among their experiments.
【Kerstin, kage-jitsu, naru-ko.】
Upon Aileen offering Kerstin a crystal, the shadow at her feet dispersed in all directions. Thus putting an enemy detection barrier around them.
It was entirely different from the watch spell she used during the caravan escort.
“Okay, now with this…”
Aileen placed a crystal on the saucer of the “alarm” on the ground. Acting as a weight, the crystal pushed a tiny hammer above the bell through a lever mechanism.
The structure of this “alarm” was extremely simple.
If an “enemy” invaded a radius of fifty meters, Kerstin would threaten that invader with her shadows.
As compensation for that, Aileen would additionally offer the crystal on the saucer — it was that type of contract.
The “offered” crystal would automatically turn into magic power according to the contract and disappear, resulting in the hammer falling onto the bell thanks to the loss of the counterweight.
The innovativeness of this device and spell would allow Kerstin to cause physical interference, even if in a limited way.
Usually, as an incarnation of dusk and with her being no more than a low-ranking Spirit, her ability to interfere with the physical plane at small catalyst costs was very low. As such, with the watch spell she used during the caravan escort, the most Kerstin could do was to send signals through the shadowgraphs. In short, if a watchman fell asleep, she’d have no way of warning them.
However, Aileen focused on the fact that even low-ranking spirits could return a catalyst into magic power — in other words, erase it. And thanks to the idea of using the catalyst as a weight, she managed to “threaten the enemy” and “ring a bell” at the same time.
This would allow them to quickly deal with aggressors, even if they didn’t stand watch in turns, as long as one of them was sleeping lightly enough to react to the bell. The method was an outstanding method to decrease the burden on two people as they wouldn’t need to keep watch all night long during their trip.
At the very least, they couldn’t find any tool that used the catalysts in a similar manner in Urvan. At present, the spell was for the most part dependent on Aileen’s magic power, and the “alarm” itself was a device that could hardly be called a magic tool, but the two believed that they’d be able to create a magic alarm even ordinary people could use, as long as they possessed crystals, someday.
If they collaborated with Cornwell Company, it could turn into a fairly interesting business. This world had no concept of a patent, and since it had a simple structure, other magicians would be able to copy it, but given the anticipated, overwhelming demand, Aileen wouldn’t run out of work for sure.
“Yeah, in that sense, I kinda look forward to our return.” Kei said, just to become startled by his own mention of “return.”
“Yeah. Anyway, we were chased out of bed way ahead of time, so I’m kinda sleepy.”
Aileen didn’t seem to mind Kei’s remark, merely yawning a bit.
“…You sleep first, Aileen. I’ll do the “night watch”.” Kei sat down and leaned against a tree trunk, smiling faintly.
“Oh, really?”, muttered Aileen and pulled a blanket out of her luggage.
Then she spread a leather mat on the ground, immediately plopping down on it.
And used Kei’s lap as a pillow.
“…Isn’t it hard to sleep like this?”
“I’m fine with it… Goodnight.”
Ignoring Kei’s concerns, she nestled her body close to him and started to doze off.
“……”
A warm light illuminated the place. Light and the shadows flickered as a cold night wind blew through their camp, filling their small, enclosed space with the atmosphere of unfamiliar land.
Only the half-moon, Kei felt he had seen so often, was gently watching over the two.
Kei threw a twig into the crackling fire. Sparks scattered and embers gently drifted upwards.
“Return…huh…?”, unconsciously left his lips.
On a sudden impulse, he gently stroked Aileen’s head as it rested in his lap. He did it with extreme care as if dealing with a fragile piece of art, so as to not disturb her sleep.
They had somehow made it out alive, and yet they poisoned and got assaulted during the night.
That reality started to fully sink in.
—Does Aileen want to return?
And eventually, it led to this thought. Whenever he realized he was alone, that thought constantly came to haunt him. And naturally enough, he had no answer.
He had no answer—
He then suddenly took notice of Aileen’s alarm.
To eventually create a tool that anyone could use as long as they had crystals.
Turning it around — it’d also be something Kei could use.
Even if Aileen was no longer by his side.
“……”
Kei shook his head, closed his eyes, and bumped his head against the tree trunk behind him.
For the time being, he decided to rely on the blessing of this alarm while letting sleep take free reign over him.
While feeling Aileen’s pleasant warmth in his lap—
—without thinking about anything for now.
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