Gargoyle, the Taste of an Axe
"And here I thought you were a good man. I suppose I was wrong."
Now that she knew about his relationship with Kiera, there was no longer any need for her to use honorifics when speaking of the Hero.
"I am a good man. Do you believe what Kiera told you?"
"Judging by that reaction, you really did date her, didn't you?"
Audrite scoffed and shot him a look. Jealousy was written plainly across her face.
"I swear on my life, I never got her pregnant."
"Aha, so you did sleep together. I've never once slept with a man, you know."
"It's been so long I don't even remember what she looked like naked."
"Funny — you can't remember her bare body, but you seem to remember perfectly well that you never got her pregnant."
The intensity of her glare sharpened further.
Maru kept his eyes fixed straight ahead, refusing to meet hers, and spoke with complete seriousness.
"I really don't want there to be any misunderstanding here. Yes, I dated Kiera. But she was never pregnant. I have no idea why she'd tell such a lie."
"Then prove it."
"How am I supposed to prove something that never happened?"
"You could prove it by telling me yourself, straight from your own mouth — instead of making me hear about your past from someone else."
"If I tell you my past, you'll believe me?"
She gave a small nod.
"Honestly, I don't know what to make of what the Hero told me. I couldn't understand why she'd say those things to me. I even wondered if she had some bad motive — trying to slander you, maybe. Something like that. But it turns out all of this happened because... well, you keep so much hidden from me, don't you? Am I just supposed to swallow whatever the Hero says? If not, then do your part and explain yourself properly. Things like: this is what I did, this is where I was born. At least the Hero was kind enough to say what kind of man you were. She said you were the pack mule of the Hero's party."
It wasn't a lie.
On the face of it, the princess's argument was perfectly reasonable.
Slowly, Maru began to feel that he had little choice but to be persuaded — that he ought to tell her at least some of his past.
"Is the Hero's claim that you were a pack mule also a lie?"
"That part is true. Disappointed that I'm from such a humble background?"
"You must be quite strong, then. I like strong men."
"Is that why you go to the unloading yard every day? To feast your eyes on all those muscular, powerful men?"
"I'm sorry, what?"
When Audrite stared at him as if he'd lost his mind, Maru just laughed and slapped his reins.
"This isn't the right place for it, so once the job's done and we're headed back, I'll tell you about my past. Now hurry up and keep up!"
He picked up speed and pushed ahead.
Audrite smiled in satisfaction and called out at his back.
"Good! I'll stay up all night if I have to — so you'd better tell me every single thing, not one detail left out!"
Then she snapped her reins as well and urged her horse into a gallop.
When they arrived near the site of the accident, they happened upon a group of people hiding in the brush.
More than ten of them were pacing in frustration, unable to approach the overturned wagon.
"What are you all doing here?"
When Audrite reined in and asked, they came shuffling over with faces full of dread.
"A gargoyle showed up, and now none of us can get anywhere near that side."
"There are two people hiding under the overturned cargo bed. We have to rescue them before the gargoyle finds them — but what can we do?"
Piecing together their account, it seemed the wagon had tumbled into a field and spilled its cargo, and the gargoyle had appeared almost at once, drawn by the smell of foodstuffs from the shattered crates.
Most of the people had fled in time. Two had not.
Those two, they said, were lying flat inside the overturned cargo bed, hiding for their lives.
"L-look over there! It's coming down again!"
"Oh no, oh dear...! If it catches them, it's all over!"
Just then they could see the gargoyle, which had been circling overhead, touch down on the ground and begin tearing into one of the dead horses.
It was a fairly large one.
"I wish it would just eat, fly off, eat, fly off, and finally leave. But it keeps circling this same area."
Every horse that had been pulling the wagons had been hunted down and killed by the gargoyle, and parts of the carcasses had already been devoured.
The two figures hidden in the overturned cargo bed were faintly visible as well, pressed low to the ground, keeping as still as they possibly could.
"Is it too strong for you all to handle?"
Audrite looked at one knight and two squires.
They were the escort guards of the cargo wagon.
The knight, whose armor looked expensive and who carried himself with a certain dignity, coughed awkwardly before speaking.
"My apologies, Your Highness. At first we did try to drive it off, but the creature scavenged some strange elixirs, and now it's stronger than an ordinary gargoyle. So, regrettably..."
Among the cargo had been several varieties of elixirs made by alchemists, and after the gargoyle had swallowed those too, its flesh had hardened and its strength had grown abnormally.
The knight held out his sword.
The blade was broken.
"I struck it only once, and this is what happened. There was nothing more I could do."
"Hmm... how grim."
Audrite crossed her arms and fell into thought.
Before arriving here, worried that bandits might appear, she had sent a request for reinforcements to the knight order — but they had received the order with no preparation whatsoever, and it would take a minimum of thirty minutes to an hour before they arrived, armed and ready.
If the two hiding in the cargo bed were discovered in the meantime, it would be a disaster.
"Why are you agonizing over it so much?"
Maru looked at her with a smile.
Audrite glanced at him once, then shifted her gaze to the accident site in the distance.
"I was trying to figure out how to deal with the gargoyle."
"Don't bother. I'll catch it for you."
"I'm sorry?"
Maru started walking straight toward the gargoyle.
Audrite grabbed him in a panic.
"You're supposed to be hiding your abilities!"
"Not in front of a woman I like."
"!?"
At those unexpected words, her heart gave a little flutter.
She stared at him blankly for a moment, then lowered her eyes.
"...But still. That gargoyle is far stronger than an ordinary one."
"A few days ago I caught a giant monster dozens of times stronger than that thing. Don't worry."
Leaving it at that, Maru smiled and headed toward the gargoyle.
Audrite was worried, but he seemed so confident that she had no choice but to watch and see. Part of her, truthfully, was curious about his abilities.
Until now she had only ever heard stories of him traveling and subjugating monsters alongside Edward. This was the first time she would witness him fight with her own eyes.
How would he fight, exactly?
Could he really catch it?
She was half expectation, half anxiety.
"Wh-where is he going?"
The moment Maru marched off toward the gargoyle without warning, the crowd began to stir.
"Don't tell me he's going to kill himself?"
"He... he worked his way up as an administrator. He probably can't even swing a sword. Why is he doing this?"
"H-Highness! The guardian is going to die like that! He's going to die! Order him to scurry back here before it's too late!"
While the people fretted, Maru had already closed the distance to the gargoyle.
The creature, busy feasting on the horse carcass, noticed his presence and came crawling toward him on all fours with a leisurely, ambling gait.
The knight, who had been watching the scene with remarkable calm, addressed everyone.
"Any of you who've never watched a man die, close your eyes. The gargoyle is famed for tearing its victims apart in the cruelest way imaginable when it takes a life."
"H-hey there, Sir Knight! Don't just stand there — can't you go help him?"
"As a knight, my conscience pricks me, but I am no fool. If I went, all we'd get is one more person eaten instead of two — a foolish little tableau, nothing more."
The squires backed him up.
"He shouldn't have stepped in. He should have observed the situation more carefully, like our knight did. That's reckless."
"Even the most skilled knight would wait for reinforcements in a situation like this."
While the crowd clamored, Maru arrived right in front of the gargoyle.
The creature didn't lunge immediately.
Baring its sharp fangs, it fixed its gaze on Maru and slowly circled sideways, as though sizing him up.
Drool dripped steadily from its muzzle.
"Kiera's already got me in a foul mood. Why don't you take the beating in her place."
Maru moved in the opposite direction, tracing a half circle to mirror the creature's movements.
His plan was to wait for the attack — the moment it lunged, he would seize its body and hurl it.
"Kieeeeeeek!"
The gargoyle suddenly bared its teeth and roared.
His ears rang. At the same time, a revolting stench came rolling in on the wind.
A foul reek poured from its savage, gaping maw.
Sick of it, Maru charged in first.
Closing the distance in a flash, he wrapped both hands around the creature's throat.
The gargoyle flinched, then instinctively beat its wings and lifted slightly off the ground.
Its fang-filled muzzle clamped down hard on Maru's arm — and left not a single wound.
Maru's skin was as hard as wrought iron.
Every bite rang out with a dull, metallic clack.
"Kieeeek!"
Realizing it was getting nowhere, the gargoyle beat its wings harder and rose higher, then shoved both feet against Maru's chest with all its might.
Maru had resolved to hold onto its neck to the bitter end, but the sweat slicking the creature's skin made his hands slip free, and he dropped back to the ground.
"Damn it."
Wiping the sticky sweat from his palms onto his trousers, Maru clicked his tongue.
The gargoyle circled overhead, biding its time for an opening.
After waiting a while and seeing no sign of it coming down, Maru looked around. All sorts of junk lay scattered across the ground — debris spilled from the shattered cargo crates. Among it, he spotted a broken wooden pole.
He picked it up and aimed it at the gargoyle in the sky, drew a deep breath, and hurled it with everything he had.
The gargoyle dodged neatly to the side. It was just a plain wooden pole — with no propulsion like an arrow, it had little force behind it.
"Annoying little pest."
He was clicking his tongue and glaring up at it when, suddenly, the sun was blotted from his view.
Maru narrowed his eyes — and the gargoyle seized the opening without hesitation, diving straight down upon him.
The impact hit Maru like a massive slab of iron.
He caught the gargoyle full in his arms and toppled backward with a crash.
The crowd screamed all at once.
"No!"
"Ah!"
"O Lord above! I knew this would happen!"
"......"
Even Audrite, who had been watching with a face taut with tension, felt cold sweat trickling down her back. Frozen in dread, she couldn't make a single sound.
From above, the gargoyle bore down on him savagely.
It kept shoving its grotesquely splayed muzzle at him, trying to bite his head off.
Maru raised his elbow and blocked it, keeping the creature's jaws from closing.
Evidently all those elixirs it had gulped down had done their work — the crushing weight it pressed upon him was astonishingly heavy.
Any ordinary human would have been pinned helplessly and eaten right there.
But Maru was different.
Flat on his back, he shoved and wrestled against the creature's body, and in a moment he had slipped free of the pressure.
With a clean, powerful flip he reversed their positions and swiftly pinned the beast beneath him.
Just like that, the tables had turned.
When he smashed a fist into the gargoyle's skull, the crowd burst into cheers.
"The guardian is this strong...?"
"Th-that's incredible!"
"Keep it up — you've got this!"
Audrite let out an awed breath, her mouth falling open without her meaning it to.
"He's... really good at fighting, isn't he...?"
She had seen countless people fight with swords, but this was the first time she'd ever seen someone fight bare-handed, and it was strikingly novel. The sheer force of it poured out of him — so overwhelming she couldn't tear her eyes away.