Five Hundred Gold Coins for a Friend
The wind at Gado Shelter fluttered the edges of the wanted poster. Hugo’s fingers darted back and forth between the portrait and Kael’s face.
“What the hell are you?”
“Exactly what it says on the poster.”
“Exactly what it says? What does that even mean! Former escort knight of the Wallenstein Grand Duchy? The northern grand duchy? That Wallenstein?”
“There aren’t two Wallensteins in the empire.”
“……Wait. Just wait a second.”
Hugo paced around the shelter three full times, poster still clutched in his hand. His mouth never stopped moving as he muttered calculations.
“Five hundred gold coins. Five hundred could buy two houses in Valk. Enough liquor for a lifetime… No, I could open a tavern. If I open a tavern, I’ll get a wife, and if I get a wife…”
“Go ahead and do it.”
“What?”
“Turn me in. I won’t hold it against you. Five hundred coins is a fortune.”
Kael spoke so calmly that Hugo actually lost his momentum. He glanced between the poster and Kael once more, scratched his head furiously, then hurled a whole bowlful of curses at the sky. After that, he ripped the poster to shreds.
“……Damn it! This is all your fault! My tavern! My wife!”
“Why are you tearing it?”
“I don’t know! I just don’t know! That poster looked too damn unlucky!”
Hugo even stomped on the torn pieces and ground them into the dirt. Then, still fuming, he climbed onto his horse. Only after a long while did he grumble again.
“……You said three of the guys you entered the order with are buried. But the fourth one… well, he’s the first comrade I ever trusted my back to. Yesterday on patrol, you covered my rear, didn’t you? A back like that is worth more than five hundred coins. That’s the going rate.”
“If it’s the going rate, then I suppose there’s nothing to be done.”
“Yeah, it’s the going rate! No hidden meaning!”
Kael simply nodded. Numbers were easy to accept. He didn’t bother adding to the tally the fact that Hugo was spurring his horse faster than usual to hide how red his face had become. From that day on, however, Kael paid for the drinks. That, too, was the going rate.
“But listen.”
That night in their quarters, Hugo lay on his stomach across the cot and asked,
“Why is that grand duke’s daughter looking for you? A five-hundred-coin reward just for confirming your whereabouts, and another message the moment you’re found? This is completely…”
Hugo counted on his fingers.
“She’s desperate. Hey, you don’t think the grand duke’s daughter actually likes you, do you?”
“Don’t talk nonsense.”
“No, think about it. Normally, when an employee runs away, you either forget about them or catch them and beat them half to death. But ‘do not touch a single hair on his head’? What the hell is that?”
“She wants to punish me herself.”
Kael extinguished the lantern as he spoke. He had already drawn this conclusion back at Gado.
“It is the law of the grand duchy. Crimes within the household are judged within the household. If outsiders lay hands on the offender, it damages the family’s honor. So they want him brought back intact. Those five hundred coins aren’t my bounty. They’re the price of the grand duchy’s dignity.”
“……Hey, that’s terrifyingly logical? But then what happens if you actually get caught?”
“Who knows. The whip, or the underground dungeon.”
“How can you say that like it’s someone else’s problem?”
“It isn’t someone else’s problem. That’s why I won’t get caught.”
Hugo remained silent in the darkness for a long time. Then he buried his face in his pillow and mumbled,
“……Those grand duchy bastards are all insane. Whipping a worker like you.”
Fifteen days passed quickly.
The horned boar subjugation was their first group request. Kael and Hugo were placed in a six-man team. The horned boar was a demonic beast the size of an ox with hide like armor; under normal tactics, three spears would snap for every one that landed.
The veteran acting as leader gripped his spear tightly and shouted,
“Block the front and aim for the flanks! Two act as bait, two take the left—”
“The inner thigh is faster.”
Kael cut him off mid-sentence. The veteran glared.
“Where does a rookie get off—”
“The thinnest part of the hide is at the fold of the inner thigh. Let it charge once, then sever that spot the moment it turns. Once it collapses, anyone can finish the neck.”
“……You talk like you’ve done it before?”
“I have.”
Before the words even finished, the bushes exploded. Kael sidestepped the charging boar with a half-step, and the instant the beast changed direction, his iron sword flashed once. The boar collapsed with a scream.
“……Who’s taking the neck?”
The team members glanced at one another. That day’s reward was not split six ways. By unanimous decision, Kael received two shares. Kael declined one of them, claiming that information wasn’t worth the price of a sword. That refusal only fueled the rumors further.
Escorting caravans on the Gado road. Relocating rock turtles. Any team that included Kael never failed a request, nor did they suffer injuries. Nicknames began to circulate among the members.
The new aura user. The monster who laid the axe demon low in a single exchange.
“Kael! Next team’s heading out, come with us!”
“Hey rookie, take a look at my spear. The balance feels off.”
“How about a round of betting cards tonight? Ah, you only ever win and never lose. Then just come watch.”
The number of voices calling for him kept growing. Not orders to fill their cups, but invitations that a seat had been saved for him. Kael sometimes found himself strange for growing used to those voices.
The rules he had carved into his body over ten years were losing their purpose one by one. Lower your gaze. Do not approach until called. Sit at the table last. Here, lowering your gaze earned you curses for being stuffy, and arriving late to the table meant there was no meat left.
Hugo pestered him about the North whenever he had the chance.
“Hey, about that grand duke’s daughter. The rumors say she’s the empire’s greatest beauty. Is it true?”
“I don’t know.”
“What do you mean you don’t know? You spent ten years with her!”
“An escort knight does not look directly at his master.”
“……Not even once in ten years? You never saw her face at all?”
“I saw it when there was reason to. For security purposes.”
“Security purposes.”
Hugo gave him the look one might give the most pathetic thing in the world.
“So, what did the face you saw for security purposes look like?”
Kael paused the whetstone and thought for a moment. The face he had met on the dais rose in his mind. The one that had taken the paper, gone deathly pale, and called his name for the first time.
“……I’m not sure. I saw her angry face the most.”
“Anyway, everything in the North is frozen—people and weather alike.”
Hugo clicked his tongue. Kael resumed moving the whetstone. For a brief second he thought the last face he had seen had not been angry, but he could not find a name to attach to that expression, so he let the thought die.
The canyon matter continued to grow during those fifteen days.
The old guild master of the hunters’ guild spilled everything he knew for the price of three cups of liquor.
“No one enters the canyon anymore. The ones who go in don’t come out. The last person to return alive was old man Furrier. He said deep inside the canyon there’s a grey mist. Even though it isn’t midwinter, you can see your breath, and not a single bird cries.”
“He said the mist had a smell.”
“A smell? ……Now that you mention it, I think he did. Something between the smell of iron and ash. Hey, young man. How did you know that?”
“I’ve smelled it before.”
The guild master looked Kael up and down, then lowered his voice.
“Let me give you one piece of advice. The guild has given up on that canyon. Even when we sent a petition to the lord for an investigation, there was no reply. But young hotshots with skill like yours always think they’ll strike it rich and crawl inside. Don’t go in. What’s inside isn’t a fortune. It’s the end of a lifetime.”
On the way back, Kael also stopped by old man Furrier’s house. The old man cracked the door open only a finger’s width and peered out.
“If it’s about the canyon, go away.”
“I heard you saw the mist. Did the mist move?”
The eyes in the door crack trembled.
“……How did you—”
“It moved, then. Which direction?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know, I said. But… it was breathing. The mist was inhaling and exhaling. I only saw that much before I ran. I’ve climbed mountains my whole life, but something like that… Go, go away!”
The door slammed shut. The sound of the bolt being driven home rang out twice.
If his master had heard, he would have said the same thing. Think first about running away. The problem was that this was not a situation running could solve. The mere fact that that smell was appearing in the South was already wrong. The seal was in the North. It had to be in the North. So why?
He had to confirm it. If even one of the tasks his master had left behind had gone awry, then the only person on the continent who would know was him alone.
“Investigate the canyon?”
Vargas lifted his head from sharpening his axe blade.
“There’s no request for it? It’s been a while since the guild stopped taking search requests.”
“I do not require a commission fee. Please simply lend the name of the unit. It is for identity verification.”
“Staking your life on something that doesn’t even pay… Hey, rookie. You don’t have hero syndrome, do you?”
“No, sir. I am repaying a debt.”
“A debt?”
“A debt I owe to the person who taught me the sword.”
Vargas stared at his own reflection in the axe blade for a long time, then grinned.
“That kind of debt keeps piling on interest for a lifetime if you skip it. Fine. Go. Take Hugo with you.”
“What? Why me!”
Hugo, who had been playing cards in the corner, jumped to his feet.
“Because you’re the one with the most free time.”
“Commander, I heard the stories about that canyon! Why would we go into a place where even the birds don’t cry! A place where even the birds don’t cry!”
“Since the birds aren’t crying, you can cry instead. Have a safe trip.”
Departure was set for dawn two days later. At the market where they went to buy supplies, Hugo wagered his very soul haggling over a single coin.
“Why is rope one silver coin! Last month it was only seven coppers!”
“Everything for mountain expeditions has gone up lately. The mercenaries are buying it all up.”
“Bandits… Hey Kael, say something too. Huh? Where did he go?”
Kael was two stalls away, buying dried meat. He paid the asking price without bargaining, while Hugo clutched the back of his neck in agony. It was a scene that had repeated for fifteen days straight.
“You’re going to drive up the prices in all of Valk! Haggling is basic manners, manners!”
“It’s faster to earn the difference than to spend time bargaining.”
“That’s the most infuriating thing you’ve ever said!”
On the way back after finishing the shopping, Hugo suddenly lowered his voice.
“……By the way, did you hear? Lately there are men with northern accents wandering around the harbor district.”
Kael’s stride did not falter.
“They’re asking about someone at every inn. A black-haired swordsman around twenty-two. They’re offering generous rewards. But the funny thing is, they haven’t reported it to the authorities. They’re searching quietly. What do you think that means?”
“It means this is not an official search.”
“Right. It’s a private search. And that’s actually scarier.”
Hugo stopped there and glanced sideways at Kael. He did not say anything like “let’s run” or “hide.” He had simply spoken so Kael could hear. Kael understood the consideration, but chose to pretend he did not. That, too, was consideration.
The night before, Kael had finished packing his gear and was tending to his sword in a corner of the tavern. The sound of the whetstone gliding over the iron blade provided rhythm for Hugo’s grumbling.
“I wrote a will.”
“That was quick.”
“Don’t laugh. I’m being dragged into a canyon where even the birds don’t cry. My entire fortune is forty-two silver coins. Thirty go to the commander, ten to pay off my tab at the tavern, and two…”
Hugo emptied his cup.
“I left them to you. Buy some roasted chestnuts or something. You like roasted chestnuts, right? Last time when you were talking about that kid Pin or whatever, I saw your expression soften. I saw it all.”
“My expression did not soften.”
“It did though? Hey, you can’t see your own face, so of course you wouldn’t know.”
Instead of answering, Kael poured water onto the whetstone. It was true that he could not see his own face, so he had no proper rebuttal. It was a night like any other. Until the bell on the door rang.
Five customers entered. Hooded traveler cloaks, longswords at their waists. They looked like any mercenaries you might see anywhere in the South. Only Kael’s whetstone stopped, silently.
It was the sound of their boots. Southern mercenaries stepped from the toes. Footwork learned from alleyway brawls. These five were stepping from the heels. The steps of northern knights, drilled into them for ten years on the training grounds, steps that would not slip even on snow.
“Welcome! Five guests? Seats are in the back—”
While receiving the waiter’s greeting, the man in the lead lowered his hood. A familiar face slowly scanned the tavern before stopping on Kael in the corner.
“……Found you.”
It was Valter.