46
Chapter 46
There was one thing I realized during the journey.
It was a pretty important fact...
"What? Gerangi?"
Eileen asked back, her eyes widening.
That's right.
Gerangi was invisible to other people.
"You can't see this guy?"
"...?"
I lifted Gerangi, who was clicking its claws on my palm.
But Eileen just tilted her head, staring into empty space.
No wonder... no one thought it was weird even though I carried it around every time.
Is this guy only visible to me?
...It can't be a hallucination, right?
Perhaps my expression was too serious, because Eileen no longer took it as a joke.
"Couldn't it be something like a spirit?"
"A spirit?"
"I read about it in a book once. They say a spirit is invisible unless you're an elementalist, or unless it's a special case."
A spirit.
For some reason, that made sense to me.
Looking back at when we first met at the lake, it did give off the vibe of a water-attribute spirit from a game.
Of course, right now it was nothing more than a tiny crab.
"Were you an elementalist, Riv?"
Eileen looked at me with genuine wonder.
"...No, it just kind of happened."
Honestly, I don't even know exactly what an elementalist is.
But since something similar to a spirit is following me around, I guess it's close enough.
A magician who wears armor, wields a mace, and carries a spirit around.
What kind of terrible hybrid is this?
I stared blankly at the ring on my right index finger.
Thinking deeply about the ring's abilities, it wasn't just a simple magic tool.
Maybe this was a relic.
Come to think of it, Sir Rusein asking if I was an inheritor might not have been entirely wrong.
"Wow... A spirit, that's amazing."
Eileen exclaimed, her eyes wide.
She looked cute doing it, and I felt like I should show her something, but...
Scrape, scrape.
Gerangi was scratching its shell on my hand.
I wanted it to do something solemn or mysterious, but this was just on the level of a crab picked up from a local stream.
Yeah, it's probably better to just let her keep her fantasies.
"Anyway, the village is quiet."
As I changed the subject, Eileen nodded as well.
"It really is."
The Rahilside village we arrived at perfectly fit the word 'rural.'
The roads were neither wide nor narrow, just enough for a carriage to rattle past occasionally.
Houses were scattered sporadically, with wide farmlands spread out between them.
The overall scale of the village was larger than expected, but the area where residents actually lived was just a small section in the middle.
It only looked bigger because of the fields spreading in all directions.
"...It really is a peaceful atmosphere."
I nodded at Eileen's words.
A peaceful village without any incidents or battles.
Normally this would be a good thing, but it felt unfamiliar during a journey where things kept happening.
As soon as we arrived, the coachman unloaded the luggage in the center of the village and started talking with the residents.
Looking at the peaceful scenery of giving fodder to the horse pulling a plow, I recalled the purpose of coming to this village.
"For now, shall we go see if there's anything worth buying?"
We stopped by a small general store in the village.
The store had a surprisingly diverse range of goods, as if they were brought in from outside.
From the outside, it looked like an old man would run it, but the owner was surprisingly a young man.
"You're an outsider? What kind of goods are you looking for?"
The inside of the general store was more spacious than I thought.
The shelves were stocked with daily necessities and things useful for traveling.
I slowly looked around for the items I needed.
"Some simple food, and um, do you have any tools to start a fire?"
The young owner nodded and handed over a flint and tinder.
"By any chance, do you have something like soap?"
"Pardon? Luxury goods like that are hard to come by...."
I clicked my tongue and accepted the rest of the items.
Perhaps because it was the Middle Ages, hygiene was always a concern.
Soap wasn't common, and washing up wasn't easy either.
It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but it was still full of inconveniences by modern standards.
Maybe this reason alone was making me want to return home even more.
When we came outside, the horses were still quietly grazing.
"I think we bought everything we need, so shall we find an inn?"
"Yes, sounds good."
***
Lunchtime that day.
I was taking a nap for the first time in a while at the only inn in the village.
A stinging sensation from a bedbug bite made me open my eyes earlier than expected.
"Ugh-"
I came down to the dining room and made do with a lunch of hard rye bread and a drink called donkey milk.
Just then, a huge commotion could be heard from one side of the village.
I turned my head with bread still in my mouth.
People were flocking toward the village entrance, and I could hear someone shouting urgently.
"They say a monster appeared in the cave!"
"I heard Neil the herb gatherer barely made it back alive?"
For a moment, I doubted my ears.
A monster in this small rural village.
I roughly downed the milk from my wooden cup and walked through the gathering crowd.
"Ugh... Groan...."
A moment later, I saw a middle-aged man being supported through the crowd.
His clothes were covered in dirt, and one side of his abdomen was torn, making it hard for him to even breathe properly.
"In the... the back mountain cave... in there... it had four... eyes...!"
It seemed he had encountered something while gathering mushrooms in the cave near the village.
Seeing that he couldn't even speak properly, it was clear it was a pretty serious one.
I turned my head and met Eileen's eyes.
Her expression was also stiff.
A monster in this quiet village.
And of all times, while we were staying here.
It felt strange, as if incidents were following me around.
The herb gatherer was carried inside, leaning on the residents, and three or four sturdy young men from the village headed to the back mountain with farming tools.
'Well, if that's all, there's no need for me to step in.'
But despite my relief, that evening came.
The young men who had set off when the sun was high in the sky hadn't returned even after the sun went over the mountain.
I was on my way back from a light stroll around the village, enjoying the cool night breeze.
The worried voices of the village women gathered near the well lingered in my ears.
"He still hasn't returned..."
"Could something have happened?"
"I'm even more anxious since we heard about the monster."
"Shouldn't someone go help them?"
Worry and fear were gradually spreading among the residents.
To think they couldn't resolve it even with that many people.
Just what kind of monster appeared for them to....
"Shouldn't we send a letter to the Mercenary Guild or something?"
The eyes of the women suddenly fixed on me.
I wasn't armed since I just came out for a light stroll, but perhaps due to the accumulation of my past journeys, I still possessed a sturdiness fitting for my age.
Or maybe the coachman had been blabbering at the pub....
"Excuse me, by any chance... are you a mercenary?"
Desperation was evident in their eyes.
I hesitated for a moment, but eventually felt a pull from a corner of my heart.
"...That's right."
"Really...!? Do you happen to take requests as well?"
"What kind of request-"
"The cave! Could you go investigate the cave in the back mountain?"
"..."
It wasn't easy to refuse when the women crowded around and fired off their words all at once.
Maybe they were doing this on purpose, aiming for exactly that.
After all, not every desperate person is a good person.
In fact, the more desperate they are, the more their cunning tends to show.
"Please calm down, and for what reason are you making this request?"
I needed a brief confirmation.
"..."
"..."
The women suddenly fell silent at my question.
They probably thought everyone would be too scared to go after hearing about the monster.
Confirming their cunning actually made a part of my mind feel more at ease.
"What about the compensation?"
"Well..."
The women exchanged glances and started pitching in money bit by bit.
The pooled money amounted to two silver coins.
It wasn't a small amount, but compared to what I'd earned before, it felt a bit lacking.
"...I will accept the request."
"Really!?"
At those words, the women rejoiced, their faces brightening up.
"By any chance, when will you be departing?"
"I'll be going right now."
I had no intention of dragging this out in the first place.
I was planning to leave this village tomorrow anyway, and a cave would be dark whether it was day or night.
If there was one element of anxiety, it was just the darkness of the forest.
Based on what I observed during my stroll earlier, this back mountain wasn't particularly dense.
It wasn't packed enough to leave room for an ambush.
I returned to the inn and briefly explained the situation to Eileen, who was in the room.
"I want to go too."
"As you know, it's danger-"
"I want to be of help too."
Her eyes were resolute.
A conviction stronger than words was held within those eyes.
There was... no particular reason to break that resolve.
We finished our brief preparations and headed straight for the back mountain.
Naturally, I knew nothing about the geography of this village, and the residents must have understood that much since they assigned a guide.
"You're... the guide?"
"Y-yes...."
Surprisingly, the guide was a young boy who looked to be around middle school age.
Loose clothes draped over his small shoulders, and he was holding a short stick in his hand.
It looked like a staff, but in reality, it was probably just a long branch.
To send such a young child out as a guide to a potentially dangerous place.
From that alone, I could guess the level of ethics in this world.
"My father... went to the cave."
The child stopped walking and spoke quietly.
I turned my head and looked at the child.
His expression was calm, but his eyes kept darting to the ground.
It was a gaze that held back too much for such a young age.
"...."
I didn't add anything.
I could have easily told him not to worry and that I would save him.
But I already knew all too well how meaningless and empty those words were.
Fortunately, the cave wasn't far.
We managed to reach the cave entrance before the sun completely set.
There were signs of frequent passage, and the entrance looked artificially widened.
"Is this the cave?"
"Yes. Please... save my father."
I gave the child a small nod.
Then I told him to hide in the brush in front of the entrance.
It was better to keep him nearby and call him inside in an emergency rather than sending him back to the village alone.
After making sure the child crouched down in the brush, we quietly stepped into the cave.
Drip... drip...
As expected, it was chilly inside the cave.
Water drops dripped from the tips of stalactites above, and shallow puddles on the floor splashed with every step.
That echo spread far along the cave walls.
The tension that someone, somewhere, might be listening gradually spread.
A strangely grand yet gloomy atmosphere.
We cautiously stepped deeper into the darkness.
Barely pushing back the dark with a single torch, we went deeper, one slow step at a time.
"It's much deeper... than I thought."
Eileen's whisper came from beside me.
I answered in a low voice.
"From what I heard, it goes up and then slightly descends."
With that, we walked along the downward slope that bent in an inverted V shape.
Chirp, chirp- swoosh, swoosh.
A few bats flew up from deep inside the cave, flapping their wings.
Startled by the sudden sound of wings, Eileen almost screamed but covered her mouth as if she suddenly realized.
"...."
She smiled awkwardly.
I nodded and carefully moved my feet again.
The cave grew quieter, and we couldn't even see the bats anymore.
After a few minutes of walking while carefully keeping our balance, the long descent ended, and flat ground began to appear again.
That was when it happened.
"Gasp-"
From ahead, a small and strange coughing sound was heard.
I stopped reflexively.
"Someone is there."
Eileen said quietly.
I signaled with my hand that I was going forward, then slowly approached the direction of the sound.
There was a fork in the path branching off slightly to the side, and something was moving inside it.
And it seemed to have spotted me too.
"Kieek!"
"Kiek?"
A familiar cry.
The furry monster I was facing for the first time in a while since seeing it in the dungeon.
...It was a kobold.
Those monsters were blocking our way.