New Incidents (3)
1.
“Are you really Sian?”
“Yeah.”
“That High Elf?”
“That’s right.”
As expected, the moment I opened my eyes I had to endure the same interrogation Rain had given me all over again.
At this point, you could just say the one man had turned into two women. If there was anything I genuinely didn’t understand about these people, it was why they acted so surprised that I’d gotten younger in a world where magic could make you fly through the sky and dragons existed.
Sure, the potion I’d made was a rare item whose original recipe was hard to come by, but even so, disguising your age with Transform or other shapeshifting magic should’ve been child’s play.
“I’ve got personal reasons for looking like this. You don’t need to make a big deal out of it.”
“……Personal reasons, huh.”
And it’s not like I wanted to look like this, either.
Ever since I’d gotten younger, even my thoughts seemed a little less mature, and I’d been falling asleep on my own like a child, completely against my will. It was an absurd nuisance.
If it was going to be like this, I should’ve just hidden my face and taken the potion somewhere no one could see me.
But regretting it now was too late.
I’d already taken as much as I needed, and all I had left was a tiny reserve for a true emergency, so I couldn’t afford to undo the effect or do anything reckless.
The ingredients for the Elixir of Youth were rare enough that even I had trouble finding them. It wasn’t something I could just mass-produce on a whim.
“By the way, what brought you here, Sian? Knowing you, you didn’t come to save us or anything.”
Aria tilted her head and asked.
“Yeah, you happened to run into me on the road. But you were all practically dying, so I kindly saved you.”
Sure, I hadn’t come here to rescue them specifically, but for her to say it so casually right in front of me…….
“I see.”
That girl had definitely gotten bolder while I wasn’t looking, not just in levels but in attitude too.
She’d already thanked me for helping, but considering all the things I had to do to keep those idiots alive, I kind of wanted to punch her once. Should I just put a fist through her head now?
-Swoosh!
“What the hell?!”
“Ah, you just looked too adorable, so I couldn’t help myself.”
Then, all of a sudden, Aria scooped me up in her arms.
“A-adorable?”
“Yes, really, you look like an angel descended from the sky…… Would it be all right if I held you like this for just a little while?”
“What are you talking about, put me down this ins- Ah.”
And then she rubbed her cheek against mine…….
“Ahhh, so soft. You really do feel like a child!”
“Stop…….”
As a cleric, Aria had divine power flowing through her body, and my strength began to drain away all on its own.
In my case, since I was currently in a High Elf body, her holiness didn’t pass my curse on to her. But that didn’t mean the special weakness divine power had toward demons had disappeared, and before I knew it, my arms and legs had gone limp.
Damn it. I won’t die, but I feel like I’m about to die, so let go of me already.
-Thud!
“Gh…….”
“That’s enough, Aria. Sian doesn’t like it.”
“Ah! S-sorry, Sian! I wasn’t thinking…….”
At last, I escaped thanks to that dwarf.
If she hadn’t stopped Aria, I might’ve been covered in divine power until I blacked out.
I really need to find some way around this weakness. If even the divine power resistance boost on the Dress of the Demon God I’m wearing right now isn’t enough to stop it, then I’m seriously vulnerable.
When you think about it, the fact that someone like me—who doesn’t take damage no matter what you do—can still be put down by a so-called holy sword in one shot, the problem is clearly severe.
“Haa. Anyway, I was escorting a caravan for the Turk Merchant Guild when I got separated unexpectedly. The problem is, I have no idea where this forest is, so I can’t move around carelessly.”
For now, I needed to put out the immediate fire in front of me first.
The earth spirit that dwarf had should know everything on the ground, so getting a guide shouldn’t be difficult.
“So I’m going to borrow the power of that dwarf over there. Summon the earth spirit and ask it to lead us to the nearest village. I saved your lives, so you can at least do that much, right?”
The dwarf nodded.
“Good. Also, are you feeling strange anywhere? The Hydra venom you were poisoned with is pretty nasty, so watch out for aftereffects.”
“Hmm, my shoulder’s a little stiff, but I’m fine. What about you, Thomas?”
“I’m fine too. Like Rain said, it seems Sian treated us.”
Then I guess I wouldn’t need to force any more antidote down their throats.
But now that I thought about it, it felt like someone was missing.
Come to think of it, where the hell did Rain go again?
That guy was nowhere in sight once more.
I turned my head and looked around, but nope, still nothing.
“By the way, where did that swordsman Rain go? I can feel his presence, but I can’t see him.”
“Ah, Rain’s probably over there.”
“There?”
So that was where he’d gone. He was closer than I’d expected.
-Rustle
“What are you doing there?”
At Aria’s words, I pushed aside the nearby brush and found him slumped against a tree, dozing off.
“……Huh? Ah? Are you Sian?”
“What’s with the dark circles under your eyes? Did you not sleep?”
Why was this guy dozing in some random spot instead of staying by the perfectly good campfire? On top of that, his face looked even worse than the last time I’d seen him, as if he hadn’t slept properly at all.
“Ah, it’s nothing. It’s not important.”
I didn’t know why he was acting like that, but whatever. Fine.
Time to get moving.
The train was still getting farther and farther away from me even as we spoke, so we needed to move as fast as possible.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
2.
-Thud!
The road through the forest was rougher than I’d expected.
Maybe it was because we didn’t have a carriage, or maybe because the monsters that had settled back into the woods over the course of a day had returned. Whatever the reason, wherever Sian went, one monster after another kept leaping out.
Ogres, gargoyles, goblins, and more…….
But Sian simply crushed them all with brute force and kept pressing forward.
The destination was the station where the train would stop.
Fortunately, there was one bit of good news for Sian: while chasing goblins and coming into this forest, she’d cut across the route the train was originally supposed to take and ended up out ahead of it.
And then, just in time, she acquired the best possible “mount” she could find in the forest, and together with the other adventurers, they began traveling at a fairly brisk pace.
Lv. 150
Wild unicorns that dwell deep in the forest. Those who are impure get turned into kebabs by its pointed horn.
If someone pure appears, it naturally offers its back, though sometimes it still runs away even from the pure.
If you break its horn, it becomes obedient.
-Clop! Clop!
“I-it’s my first time riding a unicorn?!”
Aria screamed at the absurd speed.
“Don’t worry. They’ve got plenty of pride, but once you break their horns, they turn meek!”
Two massive unicorns were racing across the forest.
“Hold on tight, Aria! If you let go, you could die!”
“I’m not letting go, Rain! So whatever happens, you’d better not let go of the reins! Treat them like your lifeline!”
One unicorn carried me and Thomas, while Rain carried Aria on his back as they ran.
As soon as they saw my group, they’d panicked and tried to bolt, but unfortunately they’d been caught and threatened before they could get away, so now they were being ridden.
The unicorns were as fast as the skeletal horse the goblin had ridden yesterday.
On top of that, they were strong enough to carry two people each without issue, so walking while trying to match the pace of the other adventurers had been driving me insane. Riding instead felt wonderfully refreshing.
At least Thomas, the dwarf, could stay comfortable thanks to the simple barrier I’d thrown up to block the wind.
She was small, sure, but clinging to me while riding the unicorn wasn’t bad at all, and those soft two lumps that occasionally brushed against my hand felt absurdly nice.
“Huh?! What are you doing!”
When I actually grabbed at her chest, Sian snapped at me, but she didn’t get that angry about it.
“Ah, the unicorn was running so fast I slipped…….”
After I’d explained myself away as just having lost my grip because of the bouncing, she only sighed once and turned her head forward again.
“Hey. Can we just keep going like this?”
“If we keep going straight ahead, that should be fine. They say we can get out of the forest in about forty kilometers.”
“Forty kilometers, huh. Then I’ll pick up the speed.”
Then, asking for the direction of our destination, she began murmuring something that sounded like an incantation.
-Crackle!
“……Hold on tight!”
She had cast a spell on the unicorn she was riding and the one Rain was riding.
-Crack!
“I-it got even faster?!”
Transparent barriers shaped like triangles formed around us, and red mana began to wrap itself around the unicorns.
That sent our speed soaring, and Rain cried out in shock. Then Sian created a special barrier on the other unicorn too, so riding became much more comfortable.
“I cast a body-strengthening spell on the unicorns! At this rate, they’ll probably be at least fifty percent faster than normal! If you fall off, your limbs will get torn clean off, so keep that in mind!”
-Whoosh!
As soon as Sian finished speaking, red mana began flowing into the unicorns’ legs, and their already blazing speed became even more unbelievable as they sliced through the forest.
At this rate, they could outpace the train and reach the village with the station first.
The destination Sian was heading for was one place.
It was the village where the desert began, and the ruin that had to be passed through to reach the beastmen nation of Sabra from the human settlements: Georgia Village.
* * *
“Woah, woah. Stop now.”
How much time had passed after that?
Sian finally brought the endlessly running unicorns to a stop and looked around properly, realizing they’d reached the vicinity of their destination.
Because they’d been in the forest, the endless rows of trees that had kept appearing wherever they went were gone, and before long the temperature had begun to rise while the ground changed from soil to sand.
-Rustle, rustle!
And judging by the sound that came every time the unicorns stepped forward, they really had arrived.
“All right, we’re here. Get down. Unless a unicorn is in the forest, they’re basically prey for the other monsters, so if we keep riding them, it’ll only become a hassle.”
“Ah, okay…….”
As soon as Aria climbed down, the unicorns bolted back into the forest.
They were the kind of creatures that didn’t really have any natural predators in the woods, and yet somehow their retreating backs looked heartbreakingly miserable, which somehow made me feel sorry for them.
Aria, feeling guilty, stood there for a moment and prayed that blessings would follow those unicorns.
“……But is this really Georgia Village?”
While looking around, Sian noticed something strange.
According to the map she’d gotten from Stran before boarding the train, the train was supposed to arrive here sometime this evening or tonight and spend the night here.
“The earth spirits say it is. They’re asking whether this is the destination shown on the map you gave them, Sian.”
But wasn’t something off?
Sure enough, there was a village visible on the far side.
A village of buildings made from brick and sand, suited to a desert climate, really did stand there.
There was even a railway running alongside it, so there was no doubt this was Georgia Village.
“Sian, I’m kind of scared.”
“Is that really the village you’re looking for, Sian? Maybe the map was wrong…….”
“No, that’s definitely it. And the railroad proves the Turk Merchant Guild has been here before.”
On top of that, it was spooky.
The sky was already packed with heavy clouds despite it still being midday, as if it were about to rain, and there was even a layer of fog that made no sense for a desert, giving the whole place the look of a scene where a ghost might pop out at any moment.
No matter how I looked at it, it didn’t seem like a village where people actually lived.
“……Let’s head to the village first. Just in case, don’t fall behind me for even a second.”
Still, I didn’t have any other choice, so I decided to go there first.
A village set where the desert began.
Its scale wasn’t as big as Fione Village had been, but it seemed like a fairly populous place nonetheless.
-Step, step
《 ~Neutral Stage(?)~ Georgia Village, Where the Desert Begins 》
“Ah, over there’s the guard post.”
“……There’s someone there. Probably a guard.”
“You two wait here a second. I’ll go check it out first.”
There was a guard post made of wood at the village entrance.
The fact that I could see a human silhouette there made it clear enough that this really was a village where people lived.
Still, since I had no idea what might happen, I decided to go ahead and check first.
I can sense people’s presence. Maybe I was too suspicious because of the appearance.
But then I started to think I’d been too on guard. As I got closer to the village, I could hear people talking little by little, and I estimated that at least fifty to a hundred people were living there.
Maybe I’d judged it too quickly just from the outside.
-Step
“Hey, I need to ask you something. Is this Georgia Village on the map here?”
I asked the guard at the post.
He held a spear in one hand and stared straight at me.
“……Hello? Can’t you hear me?”
But for some reason, there was no answer.
-Knock knock
Just in case, I knocked on the wall of the guard post, but there was still no reaction.
It wasn’t as though the guard was asleep or anything; he was staring right at me with his eyes wide open, and yet he didn’t answer a word I said.
“Hey, I asked if you’re ignoring me right now.”
So, getting a little annoyed, I stepped into the guard post and prodded the guard with my hand.
-Thud!
“?”
-Plop!
I didn’t push that hard…….
The guard collapsed weakly onto the floor, and on the guard post’s wooden floor, the mummified head that had fallen away from him rolled over all alone.
-Crunch!
Then the head brushed against my foot, and I stomped it into dust—
“……Kyaaaah!”
At the same time, Aria’s scream came from where Rain and the others were waiting.
Looks like this village was exactly the kind of place it looked like after all.