The Crimson Wolf
Two weeks later.
Ion was resting at an inn in the Dachsen estate.
He could have headed to another territory, but he had chosen Dachsen because it was a count's domain. Selling goods in a place with more people was far better than trying to peddle them in a small estate like the one he had come from. It was also easier to blend in among the crowds.
In a place like this, flaunting wealth was an easy way to invite trouble. Especially for someone as young as Ion—even if he was a knight, he could easily be seen as an easy target.
After arriving, he secured a room at the inn and unpacked his belongings. Most of the items were women's clothing that looked somewhat expensive, along with a few men's tunics. He kept only two outfits that fit him and sold the rest at the market. Deep in his pack were coins and jewels.
After selling the jewels and the stubborn donkey, he counted his money and found he had roughly four gold coins. That was a considerable sum—more than a typical knight's annual salary of three gold and fifty silver, and enough to tempt even servants like Guido and Ana to murder for it.
Of course, he hadn't sold everything at once. He had been selling the items gradually, a little each day.
With all his goods finally sold, Ion went down to the dining hall feeling lighter. He ordered beer and a meal. Soon, bread, stew, and ale were set before him.
Inns always kept stew on hand because nothing filled the stomach so cheaply and reliably. The fire under the great pot only went out when the inn closed for the night. All manner of meat and vegetables simmered continuously, and though the stew looked unremarkable, the broth was rich. Soaking bread in it made for a hard meal to dislike.
After finishing his meal and rinsing it down with ale, Ion called over Heinz, the innkeeper.
“Heinz, may I ask you something?”
The plump, fifty-year-old man gave a friendly smile and wiped the table with a cloth as he nodded.
“Of course. Ask anything.”
“Are there any tasks in this territory that a knight might be asked to handle?”
Heinz thought for a moment before answering.
“If it's something suitable for a knight… there's a missing persons case that's been giving the Chief of Security quite the headache lately.”
“Missing persons? Do you know any details?”
“That's the problem—we don't. Rumor has it there's a monster snatching people, but no one has actually seen it.”
“A monster that eats people…”
“If you go to the Chief of Security, he'll give you the full story.”
“Thank you.”
Ion slid two coins across the table to Heinz.
Young knights like him often earned coin while wandering by training against stronger knights or resolving local troubles for a reward. It was one way they made their names known. Mercenaries existed too, but they usually took on territory wars or merchant escorts. Men who fought for pay weren't interested in battling unknown monsters.
Ion finished his ale and headed for the lord's castle.
Several officials worked in the territory. A steward or advisor oversaw all administrative duties under the lord, with scribes, the Chief of Security, a diplomat, a treasurer, and an advisor beneath them. The Chief of Security handled military, guard, and judicial matters. In smaller estates the knight commander often took the role, but in a relatively large domain like Dachsen, several ordinary officials usually divided the work.
When Ion explained his purpose to the guards at the castle gate, they immediately escorted him to a small office where the Chief of Security worked.
“Chief of Security Sven.”
“Ion Rise of Bergen.”
Sven was a man in his sixties. This matter seemed to be classified as minor administrative work rather than something critical to the territory's operations. The office Ion was shown into was small enough for only two people.
Sven searched his memory.
“Rise of Bergen… Wasn't that Sir Anton's—”
“Yes. I'm his son.”
Sven nodded.
“Ah, so young Sir Ion has grown into such a fine knight and taken up his father's mantle. Sir Anton must be proud.”
“Thank you.”
As expected, Sven appeared to be an experienced official with broad knowledge, the sort who handled many different tasks.
“Our Dachsen castle was originally built elsewhere but was relocated and rebuilt here after a landslide destroyed the old one. The ruins lie about half a day's ride east. Mushrooms and medicinal herbs grow well there, but people have been disappearing.”
An abandoned, ruined castle with no inhabitants was exactly the kind of place beasts or vagrants would gather.
“Has anyone witnessed anything? The innkeeper mentioned a monster that eats people.”
“That's only rumor. No one has seen anything—only people have vanished.”
“Then the goal isn't to slay a monster, but to uncover the truth.”
“Correct. We would be satisfied simply learning whether the missing are alive or dead.”
“Understood.”
The disappearances had made the locals uneasy, and the task was meant to ease that fear. Since they didn't know whether it would involve fighting or searching, they couldn't entrust it to mercenaries either.
Sven regarded Ion with interest.
“You seem quite young, yet very accustomed to this sort of work.”
Ion felt a twinge of discomfort. He was an eighteen-year-old who had only just become a knight—not the man who had lived as a knight for over twenty years before regressing.
“…I heard a great deal from my father.”
“I had heard he was an excellent knight. Clearly that was true.”
Ion received a rough map marking the location of the old ruins and left the castle. They hadn't discussed payment; for work like this, compensation was settled afterward once both sides were satisfied. That was one difference from mercenaries, whose fees were fixed in advance.
On the way back, Ion stopped at the market to buy supplies, returned to the inn, mounted Yan, and rode out.
* * *
Half a day's ride meant arriving in the afternoon if he left in the morning. It seemed better to depart now, camp somewhere suitable, and search the ruins in the morning, so he set out early.
After entering the mountain path a short distance, darkness fell. While looking for a place to camp, Ion sensed something strange about the trail.
‘Something's…’
Holding the reins as he walked, Ion let them go and sent Yan back the way they had come. Yan, Anton's horse, was only five years old but quite clever. Sensing the odd atmosphere, the horse turned and retreated a little way up the path to hide.
Ion studied the narrow trail again, then glanced at the bushes on either side. With enough experience, one sometimes felt an inexplicable sense of danger. That was exactly what he felt now.
Something was hiding.
The map confirmed it. The map's detection range seemed to be about ten meters. A single red dot appeared faintly, and that was enough.
Ion slowly drew his longsword.
At that moment, shouts erupted from both sides of the forest.
“He noticed us!”
“Attack!”
“Shoot!”
Men sprang up and loosed arrows. The arrows came from too far away to be a real threat. Ion dodged them lightly and knocked one spent shaft aside with his blade.
When arrows proved useless, the rest drew shortswords and arming swords and charged.
“There's only one of them!”
“Kill the man—we can sell the armor!”
Seeing them attack in gambesons with decent weapons, Ion judged them mercenaries or bandits. The bandits who had worked with Guido had been pathetic, but those who operated along well-traveled roads needed at least this level of armament.
Including the archers, there were about ten of them. Their numbers were high, but with the map and his blessing, Ion could reduce them one by one.
“Die!”
Three bandits thrust their swords at him simultaneously. Ion gripped his blade with one hand and blocked with the flat, then shoved hard. As space opened, he slashed across the throat of the foremost man.
“Ghk!”
At the same time, he drove the pommel into another man's face.
Crunch!
Half the man's face caved in and he toppled backward. Ion spun and drove his sword deep into the third bandit on the left.
“Kuhk!”
In an instant, three men were down.
The map didn't show distant enemies, so close-quarters fighting was inevitable. Fortunately, Ion had plenty of experience in melee.
“Wh-what? Keep your distance!”
“He's a real knight! Don't get close!”
“Shoot him!”
The bandits sensed the danger and fell back, sending more arrows flying.
Whoosh!
Ion spun the body of a bandit impaled on his sword to shield himself.
“Aaaagh!”
Four archers remained, protected by bandits in front. Too many stood between Ion and the bowmen, and retreating would only make dodging arrows harder.
Ion lowered his stance and angled his body to minimize his profile.
—Awooooo!
A wolf's howl echoed through the trees.
The bandits' expressions turned strange. They looked uneasy. Ion didn't know why, but it was an opening.
He kicked off the ground and lunged forward.
Whoosh!
An arrow streaked toward him, but the reduced distance let it glance off his left pauldron and fly away. Ion swung at the bandits shielding the archers, then kicked the shin of one whose greave left his leg exposed.
Crack!
Something snapped cleanly. The bandit pitched forward. Ion stepped on the fallen man's back, launched himself forward, and drove his sword between an archer's eyes.
“Kk!”
The archer died instantly. Strength surged through Ion's limbs. He yanked his blade free and smashed the pommel into the jaw of another bandit rushing from behind. The man collapsed.
“Keep your distance!”
“Make room for the archers!”
The bandits tried to pull back again, but Ion caught a flash of red moving through the trees.
—Grrraaagh!
A massive red wolf burst from the forest and sank its teeth into a bandit's head. Its entire body was crimson—an unusual sight—and it hunted alone rather than in a pack. Most striking of all, the map marked it with a blue dot.
Yellow meant caution. Red meant enemy.
“A wolf! That red one's here!”
“Shoot! Shoot it!”
The bandits clearly knew the creature. Whatever it was, it was attacking them.
Blue dots seemed to indicate allies.
‘Good. For now, it's on our side!’
Ion charged the bandits, sword thrusting. The archers came first. He drove his blade deep into the side of one aiming at the wolf. The bowstring slipped; the arrow flew slowly and struck the ground.
The wolf, still shaking a bandit by the leg, watched the arrow land, then met Ion's eyes. For a brief moment their gazes locked before both turned back to the fight.
Attacked from both sides, the bandits' numbers dwindled rapidly.
Crunch!
Ion pulled his sword from the last bandit's skull and watched the wolf tear out an archer's throat. The wolf was larger than an ordinary wolf but smaller than a dire wolf, which was classified as a monster.
“Ghh…”
Once the archer went limp, the red wolf lifted its head. It looked at Ion. There was no hostility in its eyes. Its purpose seemed fulfilled.
The wolf turned and disappeared slowly into the forest. The blue dot on the map vanished with it.
Ion finished off any bandits still breathing, then searched the bodies. Nothing unusual turned up. He dragged the corpses off the path and marked the spot with branches so others could find them later. Taking Yan's reins, he continued along the trail.
‘I need to find a place to rest tonight.’
* * *
‘This spot will do.’
Leading his horse along the mountain path, Ion found a suitable campsite. The area was sheltered by trees, the ground was level, and a small stream ran nearby on the way up.
While clearing space for his tent, he discovered a bandit hideout. Several connected pits had been dug deep and covered with wooden lids camouflaged by leaves and grass. It wasn't a temporary shelter; there were separate areas for sleeping and for discarding animal bones. A foul stench led him outside, where he found a mound of earth hidden among the trees.
‘…!’
Scraping away the soil revealed human corpses buried shallowly. They matched the missing persons he had been sent to find, though fewer than expected. He reburied the bodies and marked the spot with branches so others could locate it.
‘There may be more hideouts. I should search deeper into the mountains.’
While continuing his search, he found animal hides drying under a tree—red wolf pups.
‘So that's why it held a grudge.’
The bandits must have found the pups, realized they weren't ordinary wolves, and killed them to sell. Ion had never seen a red wolf before, not in his previous life or this one. That explained why the wolf had attacked the bandits. Losing its young, the mother had every reason to seek vengeance.
Ion dug a hole and buried the hides. After finishing his search, he pitched his tent a short distance away, lit a fire, and chewed on dried meat. Just as he was about to sleep—
—Awooooo!
A wolf's howl drifted from far away. Knowing it came from a mother who had lost her pups made the sound even more sorrowful.
·
·
·
Ion rose and headed for the old ruins. Several hours later he found a path of solid stone. Following it, he came upon a castle crushed beneath enormous boulders. He had heard it was destroyed by a landslide, but the scale was larger than expected. It looked as though the entire mountainside had collapsed.
Sections of corridor remained among the ruins, like a dungeon. The damp, dark environment was ideal for herbs and mushrooms—and for monsters.
Ion climbed over the rocks and slipped through a warped window into a tilted room.