33. First Real Battle
33. First Real Battle
"......Miss Marilyn."
My lips parted only after a long silence had passed.
I must have drifted off to sleep.
The sunlight that had been beating down on the forest path was now the glow of sunset, and I could feel the world gradually deepening into crimson and black.
"Miss Marilyn, for what reason do you journey?"
"Because it is my calling."
She answered as if she had been waiting, despite the long silence I'd left her with.
Even with my head still resting on her lap, she quietly stroked my hair without a single hint of displeasure.
With the same careful touch she used when playing an instrument.
"When we first met, you introduced yourself not as a bard, but as a Clown."
But the mission she was always asserting—simply handling instruments could not have been the whole of it.
Even without certainty, I could feel it dimly. Because even as she looked after me, I had sensed her fingertips hesitate now and then.
"Is there a reason you claim that title for yourself?"
Was it proper for her, meant to be faithful to her mission, to fixate on someone like this?
As if she were feeling that very unease.
"......Because there is someone I serve."
The answer came after a short pause.
Soon, she began to whisper toward me in a low voice.
"Someone I serve......"
"A person I sincerely swore my loyalty to. They were the one who led me, a mere common beggar, out into the world and showed me what glory meant in the end."
Someone who had spent far longer, and given far more of their heart, than I—who had directly called her special—ever had.
The weight of the feelings she held for him was surely as heavy as the lifetime she had given.
He was, after all, the one who had given her the reason to journey through this harsh world.
"That person was someone who could achieve what no follower, myself included, ever could. That is why I swore my loyalty to him. Even if this life were to end, I harbored the hope that he would achieve what I could not, though I poured my whole life into it."
Her life, her dignity, all the effort and passion she would pour into living it.......
But even as she asserted that this was her truth, why did I feel such a tremor in her voice?
"But could it be that he, too, was drunk on glory for far too long?"
Slip.
Her touch gradually lost its strength.
Her hand, now resting limply on the ground, and she turned her head away from me to gaze outside the wagon.
"Just as memories fade over a long journey, he who had endlessly sought glory had also lost his smile before he knew it."
"...His smile, you say?"
"I wanted to make him smile again. And so, I left his side and wandered this world."
With the stories she had collected.......
And if even those were not enough, to craft such tales into something that could bring a smile to his face once more.
"But as I travel, I am gradually realizing. If this were a problem that could be solved by the efforts of a lowly Clown like myself, it is something anyone who serves him could accomplish......."
Just how twisted her heart must have become, repeating that endless, aimless journey again and again.
I could feel, through her murmurings in this moment, how much she had buried beyond that smile.
Why she considered me a special existence after a single day's meeting, and why she sought to lean on me even now.
"And so, perhaps I feel myself all the more drawn to my meetings with you."
Yes, because though it was only a beginning, it was still something I could at least hold expectations for.
"Because I find myself holding the hope that being with you might quench a thirst that loyalty can no longer satisfy......."
-Clatter, clatter.
Amid the silence came the sound of wheels meshing.
As I listened to that sound, I realized I had been jumping to conclusions and making a certain mistaken assumption.
Yes, it was simply something that remained in memory.
But still—if in a person's world, ruined beyond all repair, a single pillar that could never collapse were to rise from even those memories....... Could that in itself not be called hope?
"......Miss Marilyn."
If I alone in this world, solely with this ability I possess, could fulfill her.
Moreover, if my fate, destined to die on this road ahead, could be prolonged through this person's hands.......
"If it's alright. After this mission is over...."
If we were drawn to each other, then wouldn't it be good to stay together from now on?
-Crash!
Before I could even finish those words, a thunderous roar erupted from the wagon leading the front, and my head immediately lifted as my gaze shot forward.
Yes, it was an ambush.
"Ambush!"
I could tell even without something like precognition.
This was a world where it wouldn't be strange if you were already dead, should you fail to sense an omen like this.
"Miss Marilyn! Get down!!"
Confirming how we felt about each other was something that could wait until after we overcame this crisis.
So after I dismounted from the wagon with my spear in hand, Marilyn also quickly leaped off and landed in my arms.
In that moment, I noticed her movements were quite agile, despite her gentle appearance.
-Boom!
But there was no time for admiration. Something immediately crashed onto the cargo bed of the wagon where I had been, utterly obliterating that spot.
A boulder with enormous mass.......
-Crackle!
No, the boulder was squirming.
I knew it instinctively. This thing was decidedly 'a being with an ego.'
"...A demon beast."
A demon beast.
Monsters born when things that could only be called filth, affected by the power thickly spreading through this world, fused with the surrounding environment and awakened an ego and instincts.
Such beings had existed in small numbers in this world originally, but after the Demon King who tore through dimensions and his followers, the Demon King's army, appeared, their numbers had skyrocketed.
Scholars speculated that when beings like the Demon King interfered with a dimension, the world's laws became distorted, causing inanimate objects to take on traits akin to living creatures.......
-Grrrr, kyaaak!
But whatever the reason, demon beasts were definitely dangerous.
These bastards, fundamentally driven by the instinct to devour, labeled everything except their own kin as enemies and fought tooth and nail to gorge on whatever they could.
"Miss Marilyn. If you don't mind, may I ask for the same performance you gave yesterday?"
The moment my eyes caught the boulder gradually unclenching and transforming into the shape of a beast, I gripped my spear shaft, stepped back, and quietly posed the question to Marilyn, who stood behind me.
She, too, had stiffened up, and as she looked at the monster that had appeared before us, she spoke in a voice tinged with wariness.
"I can do it, but it will become more dangerous."
"Why is that?"
"Demon beasts are affected by it as well."
Of course. The performance reached everything within the range of its sound.
Unless they had earphones in, how could it possibly distinguish friend from foe?
-Kyaaaaa!
So if it was to be dealt with, I had to do it with my own hands.
Just as I felt my first real combat had abruptly arrived, the boulder, now transformed into a beast, began charging at me.
If I dodged here, Miss Marilyn would get hit. In that case, first, I'd guard......!
-Clang!
Good, I managed to block the first attack with the spear shaft.
But its body was a mass of rock, so it had considerable mass.
Having that slam into me at a fair speed, the strain inflicted on my side was no joke.
-Grrrrowl, kwaaah!!
It would be dangerous if I took the follow-up attack as well.
I urgently rolled to the side, taking advantage of my light armor, so the demon beast's claws passed through empty air. Soon, its eerily glowing red eyes fixed themselves on me.
Good, with this I've drawn its attention away from Miss Marilyn.
"Huff......."
I exhaled deeply, twisted my grip on the spear shaft, and glared at the approaching beast.
Get a grip. Don't get impatient.
I didn't need to overthink it. I just had to handle this bastard exactly as I had yesterday.
Even without Marilyn's support, the sensation from that time was something I had mentally rehearsed alone several times even after she left, so it was well within my ability to replicate.
-Kyaaaak!
The demon beast shrieked as it rushed at me while I steadied my heart.
I tracked that charge with my eyes, then immediately stepped back to dodge its overhead strike.
And using the rebound from my landing, I went forward again.
-Thunk!
The moment I felt the spearhead in my hand cleanly dig into the demon beast's shoulder, I twisted the shaft and swung it upward with force.
Crack! The monster's arm, cleanly severed by the spear strike, fell uselessly to the ground.
Taking advantage of its now-precarious balance, my spear tip swung with full force, aiming for the monster's head.
They said its body was no different from rock, but I had no hesitation in dealing my attacks.
Because what I was wielding was a weapon forged from 'mithril,' the most durable metal in this world.
-Crunch!
The demon beast's head was demolished by that sharpness.
The headless corpse soon sagged to the ground, but I couldn't afford the luxury of savoring my first victory.
In the first place, the wagon I had been riding was located near the center of the group, and the fact that a boulder had crashed onto it essentially meant the entire merchant caravan was in danger.
"A pack of demon beasts appeared on the flank! Gather over here!"
"We're too busy trying to hold the front line to die!"
"What the hell are the mages doing!?"
"We're charging our mana, so just shut up and hold out!"
Rock demon beasts were surging in from the front and sides.
The adventurers blocking them protected the evacuated merchants and began pouring their strength into taking them down.
Vanguards like shield-bearers blocked their path, while close-combat specialists like me, who used our mobility, drew the enemy's aggro.
And in such fights, the key to routing the enemy was always those in the dealer roles.
-Boom! Fwoosh!
When the mages cleared the demon beasts with area-of-effect spells, those skilled at taking down single targets—like archers or throwers—finished them off with the last hits.
Though they were low in rank, the adventurers gathered here were surprisingly seasoned in battle. They calmly responded to the demon beast ambush and whittled down their numbers.
-Booom!!
But if things had gone that smoothly, I wouldn't have called this world a dark fantasy.
Soon, as the adventurers noticed a gigantic shadow that appeared at the front, sheer shock began to spread across all their faces.
"What the hell is that now?"
-......Grrrrr.
What appeared with a growl was a monster boasting a size several times that of the one I had faced earlier.
The rocky protrusions sprouting from its body weren't just sharply honed; they turned the light that touched them into a blue reflective sheen, amplifying its presence.
As if it wasn't enough that this creature had torn through the forest's trees to appear, it further flaunted its might by reducing one of the wagons it collided with to powder.......
"Those with shields, guard the front! The rest of you, fend off the ones coming from the sides!"
"Don't talk nonsense! How are we supposed to block a monster like that......."
"Hey! If you won't block it, then move! I'll blast that thing away with my magic!!"
A belligerent mage stepped forward between the panicking vanguards.
He then gathered mana into the staff in his hand and began to form a massive sphere of electricity in front of him.
"Die, you monster! Have a taste of my ultimate magic's power, which I learned by pouring out my entire fortune!"
-Crackle, boom!
A brilliant flash struck the target point.
As the aftermath of the attack spread a smoke screen in all directions, the rear-line members, having had enough of the impromptu action, scowled and began gathering their power.
"That crazy bastard, for real!"
"Damn it, I don't care anymore! Since it's come to this, let it all out!!"
The moment they opened fire with a 'we've done it, so whatever happens, happens' attitude.
As all the attacks were thus slammed into one point and a thick smokescreen billowed out, one adventurer who had been watching with tense eyes opened his mouth and murmured quietly.
"Did we get it?"
-Thud!
A massive body crashed down where the smoke cleared.
The body of the monster, which had displayed such a majestic air until just moments before, was now miserably shattered and merely convulsing.
It was the wretched appearance of a corpse, breath extinguished and rigor mortis setting in; anyone could see that.
"We got it!"
"Alright! These bastards are softer than we thought! They're all hard on the outside but completely hollow on the inside!"
"Mop them all up!!"
The demon beasts' ambush was settled more easily than expected.