Chapter 19
Chapter 19
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 19
Chapter Title: The One-Armed Man
-----------------------------------------------------------------
It’s a bit much to say myself, but my memory isn’t bad.
In fact, it’s quite good.
I rarely forgot something I’d seen once, and even concepts I didn’t quite grasp became easy to accept after reading them over a few times.
For a voice like this to be one I couldn’t clearly recall meant that, at the very least, it didn’t belong to someone I was deeply connected to.
The only thing I could deduce from the voice was that it belonged to an adult male…
After a moment of thought, I pulled the sword from the corpse and walked toward the crevice.
Arjan spoke again.
“Young Master.”
“I know. But he saved our lives, didn’t he? If he’d wanted to, he could have killed us with that last attack.”
“…Then I will go.”
“Are you serious? Look at this gap. It’s too narrow. I could slip out quickly if I needed to, but it would take you time, Butler.”
Arjan was quite tall for a woman, and though her clothes hid it, her muscle density was considerable.
I, on the other hand, had only escaped my skeletal state less than a month ago.
It was obvious which of us could pass through this fissure more easily.
“Besides, my condition is better than yours overall.”
“But…”
I watched Arjan, wondering how she would try to persuade me, but what she said was rather unexpected.
“…That voice sounds familiar. It might be someone I know.”
“Really?”
I stroked my chin and said.
“Then I have all the more reason to go.”
“Pardon?”
Ignoring the puzzled Arjan, I squeezed my body into the crevice.
From behind, I heard a groan, followed by Arjan’s voice.
“If you are not back within five minutes, I will follow.”
“Do that.”
As I navigated the darkness, I continued to think.
Naturally, Arjan and I didn’t have many mutual acquaintances.
That was true even though we had once lived in the same mansion.
I still didn’t even know what Arjan’s favorite food was.
This meant the number of people she and I both knew was surprisingly limited.
At this point, the answer was simple.
Whoever was beyond this crevice was someone connected to the Bednickers.
* * *
After about a minute of moving forward, I was able to exit the crevice.
Beyond it, a rather spacious area unfolded. As I looked around, I was quite surprised.
First of all, the place was fairly bright.
I wondered why, and upon closer inspection, I saw that the walls themselves were emitting a faint glow.
Luminescent stones, perhaps?
In a corner, a puddle of water had formed, and a weak stream trickled down from a crack in the rock.
So far, these were things that, while rare, could still be found in a natural cave.
What truly caught my attention was something else.
Signs of habitation.
The space contained what was clearly a desk, a chair, and even a bed, all carved from rock…
“…”
A man sat on the stone bed, glaring at me.
He had disheveled hair and a bushy beard.
His appearance was shabby, and he wore clothes only slightly better than rags. One side of him seemed empty.
Looking closer, I saw the man was missing his right arm.
But even more striking than his being one-armed was the look in his eyes.
The eyes peering out from beneath his tangled hair seemed no different from a beast’s.
“What’s this, a pipsqueak of a brat?”
A listless voice rang out.
He was, of course, talking about me.
I could guess how my outward appearance looked right now, so I nodded in agreement.
“I may be small, but I’m strong.”
“Well, listen to you.”
In any case, the man’s beard made it impossible to guess his age.
At first, I thought he was an old man, but it occurred to me that he might be surprisingly young.
The man scratched his hair vigorously.
I hoped the flakes that flew off each time were dust, not dandruff.
First, I offered him the sword I was holding.
“Here.”
“Just leave it anywhere over there.”
“Yes, sir.”
I leaned the chipped sword against a nearby wall.
All the while, the man was staring at me blankly.
“…Well, I’ll be. I was wondering what kind of bastard was fighting the cult in the Jewel Mountains. Never thought it’d be a snot-nosed little kid.”
“Hey now. I’m grateful you saved my life, but please stop treating me like some ignorant brat.”
My appearance might be this way, but my mind was over thirty, and being treated like a child was unpleasant.
“Oh yeah?”
As he said that, the man tilted his head, then suddenly flicked his finger.
*Flick-.*
I twisted my head, dodging the piece of stone that flew at me.
“Hm?”
A sigh escaped my lips.
“There are plenty of other ways to test someone, so why do you freaks always resort to these kinds of surprise attacks—”
Damn it.
I stopped mid-sentence and dodged four more flying stone fragments.
“Hoh.”
Only then did the look in the man’s eyes change slightly.
“So you’re not a complete brat, are you? Right. You must be something special to have entered the Jewel Mountains in the first place.”
“…”
“What’s your name, kid?”
“Ruan.”
I withheld my family name for now.
The man’s identity was still uncertain.
The probability of him being connected to the Bednickers was high, but that didn’t guarantee it was a good connection.
In fact, even looking at him directly, I had no idea who this man was.
If I could just get him to shave that beard, I might get a clue.
“And you?”
The man paused for a moment before speaking.
“…Call me Dan.”
From his attitude, it clearly wasn’t his real name.
An alias?
Or maybe a nickname.
What could it be short for?
*‘Danny, Daniel, Danner, Jonathan…’*
Racking my brain, I still couldn’t come up with a name that fit.
“You had someone with you outside. Why’d you come alone?”
“I thought it might be dangerous if we both came.”
“I’m not a dangerous person. Go bring your friend.”
I felt that he was being sincere.
This man didn't give off a malicious aura.
Despite his somewhat flippant way of speaking, his gestures carried a strange sense of dignity…
However, I knew how meaningless it was to judge a person as simply good or evil.
A good person wasn’t guaranteed to be beneficial to me.
And an evil person wouldn’t necessarily bring me harm.
To know for sure if this stranger was friend or foe, there was something I needed to find out above all else.
“What are you doing here?”
“…”
When viewing people from a utilitarian perspective, nothing was more revealing than their purpose.
At my question, Dan blinked his eyes slowly and spoke in a drawling tone.
“Let’s see… What am I doing here? Hmm. Your question is so direct, I’m at a loss for words.”
“…”
“Who am I? What am I doing here? What kind of bastard was I, and what kind of being will I become…”
Dan suddenly fell into a pensive state, as if he had been asked a question concerning the ultimate truth.
*‘Is he crazy?’*
I didn’t mean it as an insult; he might genuinely be mentally unstable.
If he was suffering from madness, it would be best to avoid him, regardless of his purpose.
As I subtly took a step back, Dan burst out laughing.
“Just kidding.”
“…”
“I’m here dreaming of revenge.”
“Revenge?”
“That’s right. I got done in real good.”
“By whom?”
“A snake bastard.”
“You mean the Jewel Beast.”
“That’s the one.”
“Hmm.”
Arjan had said it.
In the Jewel Mountains, the Jewel Beast was an absolute catastrophe, a being no different from death itself.
From my own brief encounter, her words weren’t entirely wrong.
The Sapphire Snake I saw, in particular, probably had the capacity to annihilate a company or two of knights on its own.
“Alone?”
“Yeah.”
What should one call a man who intended to hunt such a Jewel Beast by himself?
The word ‘eccentric’ was beginning to feel insufficient to describe Dan’s identity.
I looked around the area once more.
This place, hidden within a fissure in the cave, could easily be called a living space.
Another question arose.
How long had this man been staying here?
“How long has it been?”
“Hmm.”
Dan habitually stroked his beard and said.
“Ever since I lost my arm, I’ve been chasing that thing. I don’t know the paths of these mountains in detail, but I feel like I’ve been everywhere. Did you know? Once you get to the center of the mountains, you can’t tell day from night. The undergrowth is so thick it completely blocks the sky. Thanks to that, I’ve lost all sense of time.”
It was a very long way of saying he didn’t know, but something else he said caught my attention.
“Chasing it? Isn’t this your base? And the snake’s lair, too.”
Dan shook his head.
“It’s a temporary lair. That monster is fickle. It changes its residence constantly. Well, it’s been staying here for a while now, though. Anyway, in these vast mountains, if you lose it once, there’s no guarantee you’ll ever find it again. That’s why I’m sticking to it like glue.”
“…”
I closed my mouth, which had nearly fallen open.
Judging by the signs of life in this place, Dan had been here for a considerable amount of time. A few months, at the very least.
Just how long had this man been chasing the Jewel Beast?
It was then.
I heard a presence from behind, and Arjan emerged from the crevice.
“Butler?”
Had it already been five minutes?
I had lost track while focused on the conversation.
But Arjan was staring intently at Dan, not me.
“You are…”
Her expression was one of disbelief.
“You’re… ah. That red-haired kid from back then.”
Unlike her, Dan recognized Arjan in an instant.
Then his gaze shifted to me.
“In that case, brat, are you by any chance Delac’s son?”
For a moment, I almost blurted out, “Delac?”
Not because I didn’t know the name, but because I had never imagined I would hear it in this moment, from this man’s mouth, in this manner.
“Who are you?”
I had no choice but to change my tone.
Delac C. Bednicker.
Before a man who spoke the Iron-Blooded Duke’s name as if he were a friend, I had no other option.