You Know Something, Don't You?
On the hill path leading down into Anton Village, Juhan, Estelle, and Photon were in the middle of a conversation.
“Pardon? You’re saying the young lady truly lost?”
“How many times do I have to say it? I lost.”
Photon kept pressing Estelle as if he simply could not believe it, asking again and again whether she had really been defeated. Juhan had tried to correct the misunderstanding for him.
“No. I lost.”
“That’s not true! I told you, I lost!”
“…….”
Faced with Estelle’s stubborn insistence that she was the one who had been beaten, Juhan simply shut his mouth. Photon, of course, still did not look convinced. The exchange made his absolute faith in her strength painfully clear.
Then Estelle added, almost casually,
“He could put someone like Riifa down without breaking a sweat.”
“Pardon? You mean Knight Riifa?”
Who the hell is Riifa? Some knight from her house?
Hearing that, Photon turned to stare at Juhan with wide, disbelieving eyes.
“Haa….”
“That’s not even the important part. His potential is on a completely different level.”
“Excuse me?”
“Not quite up to me, but right under me, maybe.”
The assessment was so brazen, so utterly certain, that for a moment Juhan found himself at a complete loss for words. Photon, on the other hand, looked as if he were seriously turning the idea over in his head.
“Right under the young lady would mean….”
He rolled his eyes as if running some silent calculation, then fixed his gaze on Juhan again.
“At that level, isn’t he a monster?”
“Exactly.”
Estelle nodded without the slightest hesitation.
“The kind you don’t want to let slip away.”
“Haa.”
“…….”
Something about the way the conversation was drifting made Juhan feel the need to change the subject. He turned to Photon.
“By the way, didn’t you say there was something urgent?”
In other words: Why did you come looking for us? Photon blinked as if he had just remembered, cleared his throat, and spoke.
“Ah, right. I got so caught up in that unexpected news that I completely lost track.”
He turned toward Estelle.
“Young lady, do you remember what Baron Anton told you?”
“…About the Executors going missing?”
“Yes.”
Photon nodded slowly.
“The Executors who were dispatched to Anton Village, and the priest who was moving with them, have all disappeared.”
“I remember.”
“We just received new information on the matter.”
His voice dropped a notch lower.
“They’ve found a location believed to be connected to their trail.”
“…Where?”
“Deep in the forest, far from the village. Some herb gatherers discovered it.”
He was not finished.
“Of course, they say it’s still only a theory at this stage.”
“We’ll know once we see it ourselves. Is the baron waiting in the village?”
“He’s already moved to the site. Shall we head there at once?”
“Yeah. Let’s go right now.”
There was not a shred of hesitation in her answer, as if this were simply a duty she was expected to fulfill. It was, in its own way, a little surprising.
Then she turned to Juhan.
“So. You’re coming with us, right?”
“…….”
It was less a question than a confident assumption that of course he would agree. Juhan, for his part, was thinking something else entirely.
So they finally found it.
The “traces” they were talking about had to be the devastation Karun had left behind the other day—destruction so vast it was impossible to erase or hide. The kind of scar that had completely changed the way Juhan looked at this world.
I should go take a look. If I can see how people are interpreting those traces and how they plan to respond, all the better.
After a brief moment of thought, Juhan nodded.
“Alright. I’ll come.”
“I knew it!”
Estelle beamed as if she had never doubted him for a second.
“Then we should hurry. Someone is waiting in the village to guide us.”
After that, no further conversation passed between them. Juhan and Estelle simply matched Photon’s pace as best they could and hurried down toward the village.
About five minutes later—
That him?
Juhan spotted a knight lingering near the village entrance. Not a Holy Knight—judging by his armor, one of Baron Anton’s men. The knight noticed them in turn and came running over.
“You’ve arrived!”
“Sorry we’re a little late.”
“Not at all. I’m just glad you’re here now. Shall we move at once?”
“Let’s. Lead the way.”
“Understood.”
The knight offered the two horses he had brought for Estelle and Photon. Then he glanced at Juhan.
“And… this gentleman?”
“This friend will be traveling with us. He’s quite skilled, so he won’t be a burden.”
“I see. The trouble is… we only prepared two horses.”
“It’s fine. I can just run alongside.”
The knight looked as if he wanted to ask whether Juhan was serious, but Estelle cut in first.
“Really? Then I’ll run too.”
“Pardon?”
“Young lady?”
Her completely matter-of-fact declaration that she would simply jog along with Juhan left both men momentarily speechless.
“No, you don’t have to go that far—”
“I said it’s fine. Or you can take my horse if you want.”
“…You’ve already dropped the formal speech with him, I see. He must have made quite an impression.”
After a brief back-and-forth, the arrangement settled itself easily enough: Photon and the knight would ride, while Juhan and Estelle would run behind them.
“Then we’ll be off.”
“You can go as fast as you like. Keeping up won’t be a problem.”
“…Yes. Understood.”
The knight’s expression was not a happy one—perhaps the idea of riding while the young lady ran beside him sat poorly with him—but there was nothing he could do about it. His only duty was to guide Estelle to the site.
And so they set out.
“You’re a good runner. You don’t even look winded.”
“…Yeah, well.”
Juhan answered Estelle’s endless stream of chatter with half-hearted replies while he kept pace behind the knight’s horse.
The forest was utterly still. The only sounds were their breathing and the soft thud of their footsteps. Time passed more quickly than expected, and before long they reached their destination.
“…Haa.”
“That’s the area. We’re almost there.”
Even from a distance the catastrophic traces of destruction were impossible to miss. Photon let out a short, stunned breath at the sight. Estelle, surprisingly, showed little reaction at all. The girl who had been cheerfully talking to Juhan moments earlier had already slipped back into a grave, focused expression.
The ground was hideously split open. Massive trees lay uprooted and scattered like discarded toys. It looked as though a colossal meteor had slammed into the forest and crushed everything for hundreds of meters around. Before any of them quite realized it, they had already stepped into the heart of the devastation.
Hm?
In the distance a group of people came into view.
“…which is why I still believe we should request additional support from the Holy Kingdom—”
“Baron Anton!”
The knight called out to the man at the center of the group. The man turned.
So that’s Baron Anton? Lord of the village and the Anton Baronry.
Juhan had lived in Anton Village for quite some time, yet this was the first time he had ever laid eyes on the man. The first impression was not bad—a middle-aged noble with a rather impressive mustache.
“Oh! Lady Estelle, you’ve come after all!”
The moment he saw them, the baron’s face lit up with a radiant smile and he hurried over as if greeting a savior. The intensity of that look was more than a little overwhelming coming from a middle-aged man.
“Baron Anton. I heard the rough outline on the way here.”
“You did? Excellent. Then I can explain the situation directly.”
“Have you found any traces that would let us pin down what happened?”
Estelle cut straight to the point. The baron’s expression darkened as he shook his head.
“We have not found any traces of the Executors themselves. That said… we did find something.”
“…….”
“A clue that at least allows us to guess what kind of being caused this catastrophe.”
He pointed at a depression in the earth.
“A footprint. From the size of it, some kind of enormous demonic beast whose identity we still can’t determine.”
“…Haa. You’re saying a demonic beast this large actually exists?”
It was so huge that anyone not paying close attention might have mistaken it for just another crater. Estelle approached it without a word, crouched down, and studied the print carefully.
“Baron, surely you must have some candidate for the culprit by now.”
“Ah, Steward Photon, you’re here as well. We’re looking diligently, of course, but…”
“Something’s off.”
Estelle’s short remark cut through their conversation.
“Pardon?”
The baron looked at her, clearly waiting for an explanation.
“Even a quick look around shows plenty of footprints in this area.”
“Yes. As if a battle took place.”
“But at a certain point they vanish completely.”
“Ah… now that you mention it…”
She was right. The unknown beast’s footprints continued for a stretch and then simply stopped, as if the creature had evaporated into thin air.
“If it walked away there should be more prints. If it flew, there should be wind pressure marks from lifting a body that size. Instead it’s just… gone. Like magic.”
Estelle let out a short, incredulous laugh, the kind that asked whether a creature like this was even allowed to exist in the world.
Juhan watched her theorizing in silence. There was nothing useful he could say even if he wanted to—what was he supposed to jump in with right now?
Estelle, however, had been watching him out of the corner of her eye. She walked straight up to him.
“Juhan.”
“Yeah?”
She looked as if she had just discovered something thoroughly entertaining.
“You know something, don’t you?”