Cat's Eye and the Dashing Man (1)
"I am one with nature!"
Beneath a night sky glittering with stars, a gentle breeze stirred and the moonlight shone bright. He had no idea how far he'd run since slipping out of the village, but Cloud was still tearing across the fields, shouldering through the brush. Sweat beaded on his forehead and his breath came ragged—yet his spirits had never been higher.
"Look at those stars in the night sky! How beautiful they are! This is what traveling is all about! I'm free! I'm living the magnificent life! Ahahaha!"
Bit by bit, the laughter drained from his face. Along with it, he stopped running and slowed to a walk. He'd sprinted a long way without once looking back, so he figured there was no chance Sylvia could have kept up by now.
"Fuck. No matter how I look at it, settling down with a pretty wife sounds way better. Traveling alone for a hundred days just makes you a drifter and a loner—where's anyone going to sing your praises? Goddamn it."
He tilted his head back and stared at the sky, letting out a long groan, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.
"What am I supposed to do with my life? I finally get a house, and somehow nothing goes the way it should. Getting chased by a noble—so this is how it ends? Bullshit. My adventure just started. Who has their life called on the spot like that? It's not fair, you rotten gods."
The stars overhead, utterly indifferent to his ruined life, shone on in endless brilliance.
And fate granted Cloud not even a moment's rest. A colossal shadow fell across the field as a monster of tremendous bulk came stomping toward him—easily four meters tall, one-eyed, with pointed ears, and in one hand a massive club studded with iron spikes.
"Whoa……."
The moment he laid eyes on it, Cloud knew exactly what it was: a Cyclops, one of the fabled giant races.
"UOOOOOAH!"
The instant the Cyclops spotted him, it hoisted its club overhead and began to charge.
"Aagh, shit!"
Cloud bolted across the field and plunged into a thickly wooded forest. Behind him, the Cyclops smashed through every tree in its path with its club, snapping them like twigs as it thundered after him.
Each step the creature took shook the earth like an earthquake.
How long can I keep this up? The question surfaced in Cloud's mind as he crashed frantically through the undergrowth. Cold sweat poured down his back, his breathing grew ragged, and bare branches whipped across his cheeks, stinging like burns. He tripped over rocks again and again—and every time he did, the gap between him and the Cyclops shrank a little more.
"GRAAAAH!"
The Cyclops ripped a tree out by the roots and hurled it at him. It sailed just over Cloud's head and slammed into the ground right in front of him, cutting off his path. Clutching his pounding heart, he scrambled to change direction and fled—but his life-or-death sprint was fast reaching its limit.
"Haa... haa...!"
Running blind, without thought of where he was going, he found himself standing before the mouth of a huge cave. Jumbled bones of every kind of animal lay strewn about the entrance—and plenty that looked disturbingly human. Seeing them, he understood at once. This was the Cyclops's lair.
"Goddamn it... 'Come on down and catch your dinner fresh at home,' huh. And here I am, walked right in."
He had nothing left to run on. His ankle was wrenched and throbbing, his arm and cheek bled from scrapes, and his whole body was a mass of wounds. Out of options, he gave up on everything and turned around.
"UOOOOOAH!"
The Cyclops had caught up in an instant. It loosed a savage shriek and swung its club down. Cloud squeezed his eyes shut on reflex.
Goodbye, Father. Sorry about burning the house down. Farewell, Sara—guess I won't be buying you that house after all. Live well, Barbara. You're the woman who taught me the joys of sex, and I'll always be grateful. And Emilia—I'll pray from heaven above that you pop out a kid and get tossed out on the street. Anyway, may you all live long and happy lives. And last of all, Mom. So glad I'll get to see you again...
Having dictated his last will and testament in his head, he clenched his teeth, bracing to be crushed flat by the club.
But something was wrong.
Nothing happened—for far longer than it should have. By his count, the Cyclops's club ought to have come down by now, yet somehow the moment stretched on and on.
Is the Cyclops debating whether to keep me as a pet? Do I look cute up close or something?
"Hm?"
Cloud slowly opened his eyes—and an unbelievable sight filled his vision.
A female knight in gleaming white armor, standing alone against the Cyclops!
"Sylvia? What are you doing here?!"
It was none other than Sylvia, blade locked against the Cyclops's descending club, straining with all her might to hold it back!
"Ugh...! What do you think you're doing?! Stop standing there gawking and get clear, Cloud!"
"Huh? Oh—right! Got it!"
Cloud scrambled out of the way. The moment he cleared the spot, Sylvia disengaged and sprang back—and the club came slamming down where she'd stood.
THOOM—!
The impact was terrifying: the ground caved in and a violent tremor rolled outward in every direction.
And I was about to take a hit from that thing. Cloud swallowed hard, then looked at the woman standing before him. Her back was to him, her eyes never leaving the Cyclops.
Somehow, it felt like being protected.
This girl was dead set on killing me—so why is she saving me? Has she lost her mind...?
"Stay back, Cloud!"
With the shout she launched herself forward, silk-gold hair streaming behind her as she charged the Cyclops—several times her size—without a flicker of hesitation.
Whoa. Don't tell me she's actually trying to take it down?
Cloud, hopelessly lost, shouted his question.
"Hey! Why are you saving me? You think I'm your husband or something?!"
"Silence! Hold your tongue before I tear it out!"
Sylvia flared up without warning and unleashed a furious assault on the Cyclops, as if venting everything at once. The strikes were precise, and they were devastating. Cloud's words, it seemed, had done wonders for her morale.
Cloud decided to do his part and keep cheering on her splendid performance.
"If we get married, the house is on you!"
"Quit spouting bullshit, you worthless piece of trash!"
With an irritated shriek, Sylvia leapt high into the air—and drove her foot into the Cyclops's single eye. The massive body swayed backward and toppled, kicking up an enormous cloud of dust as it crashed to the ground.
KABOOM!
Given a moment's breathing room, Sylvia spun toward him and bellowed in fury.
"Don't misunderstand, Cloud! Once I'm finished with this creature, you are next! I saved you for one reason only—so that I might tear you limb from limb with my own two hands! Do you understand? Until this battle is over, you will not move from that spot!"
"GRAAAAH!"
The Cyclops rose to its feet once more. She poured every ounce of her focus back into the fight, while Cloud wet his dry lips and tensed.
Truth be told, Sylvia wore the unmistakable expression of a woman who hated Cloud, that rotten son of a bitch, to the very core of her being—and was taking it all out on the Cyclops.
Well, of course. The notion of a woman who'd been violated sparing her violator had never made a lick of sense.
"Funny thing, though... being told not to move just makes me want to move. Time for me to make my exit."
Dying to the Cyclops or dying to Sylvia came to the same thing either way, so Cloud resolved to run from both. And so, little by little, little by little—backing away so gradually it wouldn't be noticed—he soon turned tail and bolted, and in the end he made it out of the forest unscathed.
The dizzying night behind him, the sun now hung at its zenith. Cloud was making his way across rocky terrain, wiping the beads of sweat from his brow as last night's image of Sylvia drifted through his mind.
"That girl's probably dead by now. Knight or not, there's no way she beat a powerful Cyclops."
According to the stories Cloud had heard as a child, a single Cyclops was strong enough to flatten an entire village into a wasteland. Even granting that she'd received formal knightly training, she was still a woman. No woman's strength could best a Cyclops single-handedly, he concluded. Unless, of course, she happened to be a Sword Master.
"Her personality was rotten, but her face sure was pretty... Somehow it feels like a waste, her being dead. Tsk tsk. Another beauty lost to the world. What a shame. They do say the beautiful die young."
Muttering nonstop under his breath, he kept walking.
"Still, she did die for my sake, so when I find the time I'll build her a modest grave or something. Rest well up in heaven, Lady Knight Sylvia."
As if in answer, a cool breeze swept past and ruffled his hair.
Not long after he'd left the rugged rocks behind, he came upon a stream. Having crossed harsh mountain country, he decided his aching feet had earned a rest, so he pulled off his shoes and dipped them into the water.
He was humming and kneading his soles when he noticed a scrap of white cloth drifting down the current from upstream. He fished it out with his hand.
"Huh?"
It was a woman's undergarment. It had been torn, apparently by force, and the fabric was still clean—hardly something long abandoned.
Curiosity stirred, Cloud found himself drifting slowly upstream without quite deciding to. The streambed was slick with mossy stones, and even picking his way carefully, the soles of his feet ached—but he didn't stop. If luck was with him, there might be quite the show waiting at the end of it, he figured.
Pressing on, he next discovered a woman's shoes.
Cloud grew a touch uneasy.
"Don't tell me a corpse is going to turn up next."
Just when you least expect it, that's when it gets you—sensing something ominous in the air, he turned to leave. He'd meant to head back. The thought that there might genuinely be a dead body up there made his skin crawl.
That was when it happened.
Cloud's ears pricked.
"Is anyone there? Please... save me. Somebody, please save me..."
A woman's faint, delicate voice caught his ear.
"Well, well. A damsel in distress?"
A wry smile curled across his lips at once.
"If I'm lucky, in exchange for saving her...? Heh heh. Suppose I'll just take a little peek."
Following the water further up, he came upon a great boulder towering higher than a man's head. And hanging from that boulder was a woman in the bare, both wrists bound and suspended by rope. The instant she spotted Cloud's head peeking out, she pleaded desperately, eyes brimming with hope for rescue.
"O nameless hero over there! Save me, please. Do not simply pass me by—save this poor girl, I beg of you...!"
Cloud didn't rush straight over; he scanned the surroundings first. No one in sight. Quiet as the grave.
He looked at her again. She hung there, stripped of so much as a single thread.
Sh-she might just marry me as her reward for the rescue...!
Dreaming of the cozy little household they'd build together, he swallowed hard—then slapped himself across the face.
Hero Mode: ON!
"Fair maiden in peril! I shall rescue you this instant!"
Eyes blazing with justice, he dashed over and undid every rope binding her. As she began to crumple, he caught her in a hurry and laid her gently across his lap—then ground his teeth, eyes burning with righteous fury.
"Who are the villains who could do this to a woman as beautiful as you! May the heavens strike those scoundrels down!"
"Bandits," the weary woman said weakly. "I'd come up the mountain to gather wild herbs, and they took me captive."
"Those wretches! I won't let them get away with this! Where are they now? I'll hunt them down this instant and round up every last one!"
"They've all gone. After they strung me up here by the ropes..."
"Is... is that so?"
Cloud let out a silent sigh of relief. Phew. Thank god for that.
Then he summoned his valiant, hero's expression once more.
"Then let us quit this place at once. As a man who cannot simply walk past another in peril, I shall see you safely to the village, my lady."
As Cloud gathered her up in a princess carry, her arms wound around his neck—and her ample breasts pressed flush against his chest.
"Just a moment, please. I'm feeling a little dizzy. Let us rest here awhile before we go."
"Ye—yes? Hngh...!"