The Ghoul's Altar (2)
A man of unknown identity came calling.
I hadn't even heard him approach. He appeared as naturally as if he had been standing there from the very beginning.
"Nearly a fortnight, is it? I came to see how you've been getting on."
The man's attire was unchanged from two weeks prior. Long and black. Black bandages swathed his entire body, leaving not a scrap of skin visible.
His appearance still struck me as thoroughly suspicious, but I didn't let it show. I returned his greeting in a calm, even tone.
"What brings you here?"
"What brings me? I was just passing by and thought I'd drop in."
The man sat down casually on the sand. For a while, the conversation drifted through small talk — what I'd been up to, whether I'd made plenty of tools, whether I had a solid plan for where to escape to.
I offered only the standard answers. The man seemed itching to talk, pouring out words without pause.
"You look rather worn out. Come to think of it, did you make it to that stream alright?"
"You mean the lakeside?"
"Same difference. Anyway."
"I nearly got dragged under and killed by a water wraith. Why didn't you warn me beforehand?"
"Hmm? A water wraith?"
The man shot back as if he had no idea what I was talking about.
"There's no water wraith in that lake. I've never encountered anything of the sort."
"This island is crawling with monsters. Look at this. This is one I caught at dawn today. Nothing left but bones, and yet it was alive and moving — it attacked me!"
"It's the wilderness. Of course you'd find skeletons around. You're a cautious sort, so I figured you'd have prepared well enough on your own. That's why I didn't bother mentioning it."
The more we talked, the more suspicious he seemed.
After surveying the camp, the man spoke again.
"Looks like you've got two more companions."
"How did you know?"
"I guessed from the number of bowls."
"Couldn't I just be using all three myself?"
"Mages like us always pursue efficiency, don't we? No need to make three of the exact same thing."
Suspicious. The more we conversed, the more doubtful points piled up.
From the very beginning, I had considered the possibility that this man might actually be a monster. There was already the precedent of the siren, after all.
But I didn't let it show.
Neither the Valkyrie nor the Saintess was present. Openly displaying hostility carried too much risk.
No — even if the two of them were here, I still shouldn't pick a fight carelessly. There were so many things that demanded physical strength. Combat was best avoided whenever possible.
"So, what sort of people are your companions?"
"Nothing special about them. We only just met."
Watching his reactions carefully, I gradually revealed bits about the Valkyrie and the Saintess. I wanted to gauge how much he already knew about us.
"I see. Enemies forced to cooperate out of necessity."
Was he truly ignorant, or was he playing dumb while knowing full well?
But the next moment, the words he spoke left me certain.
"Can you trust them?"
That this was an attempt to sow discord.
Tyria and Rachel went to the stream first and checked the fish traps. All they had caught was a single minnow.
"Essentially a complete bust."
"These things happen. We'll just have to fish hard today."
Rachel and Tyria took the net the man had woven and waded into the lake. There was the risk of being dragged under by a water wraith, but equally, there were plenty of large fish.
The net the mage had made proved extremely useful. You simply lowered it below your waist, waited for fish to pass over it, and lifted. It took far less effort and cut the time dramatically.
"Wow! Jackpot today — absolute jackpot! Look at this!"
"…Colonel?"
"Ah. Ahem."
Tyria's eyes had gone pink. Just now she had sounded like a little child.
It couldn't be helped, really. She had spent most of her life in a cathedral in a major city. Fishing was an utterly novel experience.
"Anyway, even this much should be enough for a full meal."
"You should also think about stockpiling. We don't know how long it'll take to reach another island."
Rachel deftly packed the catch into a basket. Tyria tried to do the same, but the fish kept slipping through her fingers and she dropped one.
"Ah—!"
Released back into the wild.
"…"
"I-I'm sorry."
In the wild, food was the most important thing of all.
An extraordinary situation unfolded in which a Major was giving a Colonel the side-eye.
"It's fine. We'll come back tomorrow and catch more."
After fishing came the time to gather edible plants. Though Rachel had lived in the countryside, she had no knowledge whatsoever in this area, so Tyria — who had studied herbalism — took the lead.
Land animals were still nowhere to be seen. Birds neither. The forest was silent.
That quiet was subtly unnerving, so the two of them filled their baskets with wild greens and hurried out of the woods.
Perhaps because they walked at a brisk pace, the shoreline came into view quickly even though the sun was still high. Relieved, Tyria trotted ahead.
"Mage, we're ba—!"
Tyria's breath caught.
Rachel, following close behind, couldn't hit the brakes in time and bumped squarely into Tyria's back.
"Colonel? Why did you stop all of a sudd—"
"Shh."
Sensing something amiss, the two women hid in the underbrush.
It didn't take long to grasp the situation. An unidentified man was conversing with the mage from the Magic Kingdom. And in Whieon, no less.
"Who is that?"
"Must be that mysterious man the mage mentioned before."
"I can feel a wicked demonic energy."
"A demon or a monster. Most likely one of the two. Or else…"
Tyria let the sentence trail off. Surely it couldn't be those creatures. Monsters were one thing, but she had been told until her ears rang that the Church had thoroughly exterminated them.
Tyria was a vessel who received the will of the Heavenly God. To distinguish the words of the divine from the imitations spoken by demons, she had studied Whieon to a certain degree as well.
Because of that, she could hear and understand the conversation between the Magic Kingdom's mage and the mysterious man exactly as it was spoken.
"Judging by the look of things, you've built up a fair amount of trust."
"Not yet."
"You're too cautious for your own good. If you've gotten to the point where you won't be murdered in your sleep, that's trust enough."
"Is that what people normally call trust?"
"Haha, my friend. Didn't I tell you last time? A mage must be cunning."
The mage from the Magic Kingdom made no reply. It was a signal that the conversation was over.
"I'll be on my way, then. I'll come again."
The malign aura receded in an instant. The strength went out of Tyria's legs, which had been locked rigid.
She swayed.
Rachel hurriedly caught her before she could topple over. Rachel asked what on earth was wrong, whether she was hurt, what those two had been talking about to leave her like this — but Tyria had no strength left to answer. The world swam before her eyes.
What… did I just hear?
"…Major."
"Y-yes, Colonel."
For now, she didn't know. She still didn't know.
"Tomorrow, the two of us go hunting again. We leave that mage here."
The mysterious man was, at the very least, not on my side. The moment he told me not to uphold the virtues of a mage — or of a human being — I felt it clearly.
But that didn't mean I could look him in the eye and say, So you're our enemy, then? That was another matter entirely.
I knew nothing about the man.
He appeared and vanished like a ghost. If I picked a fight for no good reason and lost, it would be a dog's death.
Even if he were a monster, if the other party had no intention of fighting, you let them go. My goal was escape, not extermination.
So I merely played along just enough and kept my words sparse. Seeing my serious expression, the man seemed quite satisfied and left as he was.
Naturally, I had no intention of betraying my enemies.
No intention of betraying my enemies — the phrasing was a little strange, but… in any case, there was one reason I treated the Valkyrie and the Saintess well.
To prepare for the possibility of being rescued by the Holy Kingdom.
That guideline was not going to change anytime soon. Killing the Valkyrie's comrades in the final battle had been a self-defensive act because my own life was under threat, and it had also been the first time I had ever killed a person with my own hands.
Murder. Honestly, I never wanted to do it again.
"Mage. We're… back."
"…"
A short while later, the Valkyrie and the Saintess appeared carrying a great load of fish. They had truly caught a lot.
"Looks like the net did its job."
"…It did."
The Saintess answered weakly. She must have spent all her strength on catching fish.
I owed her from this morning. Thanks to her, the raw pain in my hands that should have lasted days had healed in less than half a day.
"I'll handle the cooking alone today. Caston, you rest."
"Ah — yes. Thank you."
She really must be exhausted.
After a late lunch, we decided to reinforce the sleeping shelter. Judging by the clouds, a downpour seemed likely, so I gathered broader leaves and packed the ceiling over the two women's sleeping area densely first.
After that I puttered with this and that, and before I knew it the sunset was settling in.
At any rate, it seemed another day had passed without incident.