Tell Me (2)
Had I heard it in the last village I stopped at—that Munmunt would appear after just a few more days of travel?
Following a path that hardly deserved the name, I found myself staring at a wall on the third day. It was far too substantial to belong to a mere village, yet a little too low to claim the dignity of a city wall.
“I never heard there was another village along the way…”
There was no real need to puzzle over it, though. The notion that a wall this serious couldn’t belong to a village only held true in regions where demon sightings were rare.
As if demons would politely refuse to climb a low stone fence or a soft log palisade simply because humans couldn’t. Stone fences were usually short, and log walls were soft by nature of the material.
“Traveler?”
So this was a village after all—just one that had reinforced its outer wall more carefully against demons leaking out of Maryeok.
A place that possessed walls, yet no properly trained soldiers.
“Ah, yes! By any chance, is this Munmunt?”
“What? Haha! Not a chance! This is Behen. We’ve got a village chief instead of a lord.”
“Ah… so it’s not a city?”
“Right. Munmunt’s farther on from here.”
The proof for the latter claim needed no guesswork. Just look at the soldier who had poked his head out: ordinary clothes, not even leather armor.
“If I may ask, how much farther is it?”
“Munmunt? If you’re asking about the time to Munmunt… take the shortcut and it’s about a day. Stick to the main road like you’ve been doing and it’s usually three.”
“A shortcut… there’s a shortcut?”
“Sure is. Only catch is you have to go over the mountain, so anyone who isn’t a local will have a devil of a time finding the trail.”
The easy back-and-forth continued in the same vein.
He spoke as though it were nothing, but a properly trained soldier never would have. He would have stayed more wary, asked first why I had come, what my name was.
That was a sentry’s job, after all.
“And that alley sometimes has demons that slipped out of Maryeok… with the demons so active these days, nobody uses it at all. So if you’re going, stick to the road. Not that the road’s exactly safe either.”
But he chattered on without thinking of any of that. In the end he was closer to an armed civilian than a real soldier.
“Are the demons really that restless?”
“…Uh, well. Can I ask—have you heard any other news?”
“Other news…?”
“About a merchant caravan headed for Munmunt that just vanished.”
“…First I’ve heard of it.”
“Happened four days ago.”
“…I must have crossed paths with the news. Looks like I left before the word reached me.”
“…Seems that way.”
That the man on watch was more civilian than soldier might well be the village’s misfortune; the odds of him making a serious mistake were fairly high.
For me, though, it was rather welcome.
“Hmm. If demons have appeared ahead… well. Would there be somewhere inside the village I could rest?”
“Rest and move on? Yeah, sleeping outdoors is rough. But we don’t have an inn.”
“I’ll only stay the night and leave first thing. Would that still be impossible?”
“Weeell… hang on. I’ve got to check whether you’re dangerous or not.”
“Of course.”
That was fair enough. Being interrogated by a properly trained soldier had always been a headache for me; the occasional sharp question left me scrambling for a cover story and made my skull ache.
“…Oh.”
“Is something wrong?”
“No, no—nothing. You’re taller than I expected…”
“…….”
“Hand over your pack first. I’ll check it right in front of you, so no worries about theft.”
“I’m not worried about that.”
Compared to real questioning, this half-hearted search was pure relief. The man took my bag with my permission and opened it.
“Huh. That’s all? How’d you even get this far with such a skimpy pack?”
“Haha……”.
“Not even a single weapon… and why’s there another bag inside the bag? Anyway, you really made it all the way here. Demons? Hell, one wrong run-in with a wild beast and you’d lose your head looking like that.”
Of course everything important was stored in my inventory—the spatial bracelet, not the pack—so what the soldier could see was sparse. Looking at my meager belongings, his eyes filled with a mix of pity and odd curiosity.
“Say… you wouldn’t happen to be a noble who ran away from home or something…?”
“Me, a noble? Why would you think that…”
“Well, up close your skin’s pale and you’ve got a jewel in your ear… and you clearly don’t know how to pack…”
That… was fair. An easy mistake to make.
I suddenly recalled the cities I had passed through. At the checkpoints the soldiers had sometimes looked at me as though I were some spoiled child—could that have been the same misunderstanding?
“…I just inherited a little money, that’s all.”
“So you are a rich young master, then…”
“Not quite a rich young master. Just enough to look after myself.”
“Sure thing, young master.”
“I’m not a young master…”
That was probably it. I scratched my head, thinking, No wonder the checkpoints were weirdly easy to pass.
Swoosh. The rumpled bag was returned just then.
“There, all done. Your size made me a bit nervous, but in the end you turn out to be more face-value than bulk-value.”
“Face-value…?”
“Means you look gentle.”
Well… my current expression was a little bland, true.
While I answered with a dubious look, the soldier flashed a grin. Tap. He gave my forearm a couple of light knocks with his elbow, the size of his cheeky friendliness on full display.
“Come on in already! It’s a village that has more of nothing than something, so it might not impress a young master like you.”
“I keep saying I’m not a young master…”
Somehow I felt I was going to be treated like a young master the entire time I stayed here. Was that really all right?
While I fretted, the soldier slipped through the slightly open gate.
“If you don’t hurry I’ll shut it.”
“W-wait a second.”
Still, there was no mockery or sense that he was treating me like an easy mark, so it would be fine. I followed him into the village. Clank. The moment I stepped through, the gate closed.
“Urgh.”
The inner locking bar was the old-fashioned kind that slid a plank into place; doing it alone without help took a fair amount of strength.
“This way!”
“Pardon?”
“Why that face? Did you think I’d just send you into the village by yourself?”
“No, I just… you should be at your post…”
“Nobody’s coming anyway. And if I let you wander off alone and something happens, what then?”
The soldier said it and snickered.
“Funny how the guy who’s lived here twenty years is less worried about the village than the guy who just arrived today.”
There was nothing I could really answer to that. I scratched the back of my neck sheepishly.
“If you’re that worried… hey! Misha! Watch the wall for me a bit!”
“Out of nowhere?”
“An outsider showed up, so I’ve got to show him around.”
“Uh… an outsider!?”
At the soldier’s call a boy came pattering over. A Middle-race boy who only came up to my chest; his gray eyes were like pure silver and truly lovely.
“Whoa. A real outsider. But you’re so tall!”
“Heh-heh. That’s the height milk-hating Misha will never reach in his dreams.”
“No way! I’m gonna grow that tall too! I can grow without milk!”
“Oho, really?”
The boy’s shout set the soldier snickering again. The laughter itself carried a clear “oh-ho” feel. The boy’s eyes rolled around.
“I can grow without milk… it’s true…”
“I don’t know. Give it a try then. Just don’t come complaining to me later when you stay short.”
“Uh… uh…”
A picky eater for sure. I glanced at the boy’s darting eyes and slipped a hand into my pocket.
Ah. No more candy. The people I wanted to give it to were no longer beside me, so I had never bought more. The belated realization made my fingers go still for a moment.
“Um, mister.”
“…Yeah?”
“Did you drink milk too…?”
In the meantime the boy had grabbed my sleeve with a downcast face. It was so adorable I automatically covered my mouth. The soldier beside me was already clutching his stomach and shaking.
“…Of course. I drank a lot of milk.”
“Really…?”
“Yes.”
“Then if I drink milk, will I grow as tall as you, mister?”
“…If you do it right, maybe you will.”
My current height was already enormous even back on Earth… in a place where the average for Middles seemed under 170, it would be even harder to hit.
I thought that while deliberately agreeing. I had no intention of forcing him to eat what he hated, but a little encouragement like this should be fine.
Besides, in this age the difficulty of distribution meant the variety of food was limited. If something was available, it was better to feed it whenever possible…
“But don’t drink so much you get a stomachache. You have to eat other things too, nice and balanced.”
“Yes!”
I pulled together my meager knowledge, gave the advice, and offered the boy a soft smile. He smiled back, shouted, “I just have to watch the wall, right!?” and dashed off toward the fortifications.
“You’ve got a good sense for these things, young master.”
“I keep saying I’m not a young master…”
I let out a light breath while the soldier cackled at my timid protest. Knowing he wasn’t serious and was only teasing because my reaction was fun kept it from feeling unpleasant.
These ordinary conversations never grew old no matter how many times I had them; they simply felt good.
“Anyway, let’s head inside. No inn, but… someone ought to spare a room for one person.”
“Haha……”.
“If there’s really no room you can sleep at my place. My family won’t mind.”
“I’d be grateful if that were possible… but is it really all right?”
“Of course! Oh, right—my name’s Til. Ticha, Tisha, Tasha—call me whatever you like.”
“Ah, um. Tisha?”
“Yeah. That works.”
I followed Tisha deeper into the village. Houses came into view first, then the fields nestled between them. Those weren’t the only fields; the ones I had seen outside the walls, the slash-and-burn clearings, were probably part of their farmland as well.
“Hmm. Looks like there’s no temple here.”
“Ah, yeah. Too small a village.”
No temple meant I could safely drop the Disguise Skill tonight. The eyebrows drawn while the skill was active still held some of the effect even after it was turned off, so as long as there were no priests it should be fine.
I tugged the sleeves that already reached the backs of my hands a little farther down and asked,
“No one who uses Holy Power either?”
“Heavens, of course not.”
Creak. A sound only I could hear, and the condition that had been steadily draining returned. Physical comfort swapped places with the anxiety that someone might notice.
“Why do you ask?”
“Just thought I’d offer a prayer for safety before I leave. If there’s no one, I’ll just do it in my heart.”
“Heh. Sure. The gods will hear you just fine.”
Would they? The one thing that god might want dead most of all was probably me.
I entertained the thought a moment, then simply answered with a gentle smile.
“Oh, right. I’ve been meaning to ask—how did you even find our village?”
“I just followed the road…”
“Huh? The road?”
“Is there a problem?”
“No, just—how did you even recognize it? Even our own people get confused by that path sometimes.”
“Uh…?”
What did he just say?
I blinked at Tisha’s words, then explained the route I had taken. If that wasn’t a road, what was it? It hadn’t looked much like a road, true, but I put all that meaning into the explanation.
“Ahh. You were supposed to keep going from the rock as a landmark, and you got turned around there.”
“…….”
“Still, maybe it’s lucky. If you’d kept going that way you’d reach Munmunt, but the situation there’s pretty bad right now.”
I wasn’t so sure. Whether I went straight then or spent one night here and left tomorrow, the road’s safety wouldn’t change much.
I rolled the thought on my tongue and swallowed it. Six straight nights of camping were far worse than stopping at a village in the middle, at least for me. And the road’s safety… well, even if I was strong enough not to be an easy target, knowing about an ambush was still better than being surprised by one.
“Here we are—that’s the village chief’s house.”
“Is it all right to trouble the chief?”
“His is the biggest house in the village, so there should be a spare room. Even if there isn’t, I ought to report that I brought an outsider.”
“Ah.”
Tisha’s explanation made sense. Even in a tiny village it was better to report such things to the head—elected or otherwise.
“Only… it doesn’t look like the right moment.”
“Pardon?”
“Something’s happened.”
“What??”
But even reporting required the situation to allow it. I felt the senses I had relaxed upon entering the village grow noisy again and lifted a finger.
The place that was probably the chief’s house was thronged with people.
“Ah! Ah?!”
Tisha panicked and dashed forward. I followed right behind him. Nothing more than wanting to avoid being treated like a suspicious stranger if I stayed too far back.
“Chief! What’s going on!”
“Oh, Ticha. Perfect timing. A bunch of injured people just came pouring in…”
And what we found when we arrived were three people groaning under all sorts of wounds.
The thick smell of blood made my brow crease; my gaze automatically swept over the injured. I still had medicinal herbs from the Great Forest left—maybe I should calculate the needed amounts and take some out.
“……?”
In the middle of that, my eyes met those of someone clutching an arm.
“Atya?”
Crunch.
My arm—no, perhaps my whole body. The flesh beneath the skin—
began to burn.