Even So (3)
Baramson frowned at the figure who still hadn’t shown himself by morning. They’d already taken down a dragon—surely the man hadn’t bolted just because he didn’t want the job…
“Is he still out hunting?”
If that were the case, the man’s stamina was something else. Spending the day on a storm-lashed sea was one thing; spending the night in the woods on top of that was another.
“Maybe he just got lost?”
“Not a chance.”
Far more likely he’d failed to find a single kill and was still roaming until he did. Pride like that made the idea entirely plausible.
“Anyway—you all got proper rest, right?”
“Of course.”
“The adventurers too?”
“They’re in tip-top shape as well.”
They might not have eaten their fill, but he’d made sure they slept. A few of his people—the mages, specifically—had complained bitterly about him putting his own crew first, but that wasn’t his problem.
If they didn’t like it, they could go be captains themselves. The ones who’d died the least had the most to gripe about. Soft, fragile mages, the lot of them.
“And you, Captain? Are you all right?”
“Why wouldn’t I be? If I get tired I’ll sleep on the ship, so quit fretting.”
Today, the moment the men from Gamak Bay arrived, they would return to Gryu Telz as fast as possible. After that, they’d take the promised ships and crew and head straight for Zakrati.
For that to happen, his men needed to hold strong. Unless they hit some freak of a place like Dragon’s Throat, there wasn’t actually that much for him to do himself.
The reward for the Sea Dragon hunt? Compensation for the dead?
Not his concern. The contract was a little tangled, true, but the only one he’d hired was the Demon Knight. The rest had been contracted by the city, the Magic Tower, or someone else entirely.
They would make their own way back to the city and collect their own rewards.
“I hope Gryu Telz and the Magic Tower keep their word.”
“They’d better. Otherwise…”
Ah. Right. The Archmage—the one meant to collect their side of the payment—had collapsed.
Baramson scowled as the realization hit him. That meant Gryu Telz and the Magic Tower might well play dumb.
“It’s fine. If they won’t give us ships, we’ll steal them. And I never expected much from the Magic Tower to begin with.”
Still, he didn’t lose hope. He’d already recruited a few of the adventurers, and more than that—he had something solid to lean on.
“Above all else, we’ve got a swordsman who split the sea and cut down a dragon. What more do we need?”
His gamble had paid off beyond anything he could have imagined.
He felt sorry for the men he’d lost—but not sorry enough to regret it.
“Whoa. That’s a fair point. What good is manpower, then?”
“The way I see it, that guy isn’t even human.”
“I mean—does anything we planned even matter to him? Give him a dinghy and one person to row and he’d probably finish the whole thing. One swing of that sword and a ship goes under, right?”
“Hahaha! You’re not wrong! One swing and the ship sinks!”
Baramson roared with laughter at his men’s words.
Maybe because he’d seen the man’s power with his own eyes, it all sounded entirely realistic.
Especially with a dragon’s head sitting smack in the middle of the village—the one the Demon Knight had left lying on the beach, which the mages had found and hauled over. Clearly the man thought of it as little more than a fish head.
“Ha. Maybe we should try it this time? It actually seems possible.”
“Not bad. Though fishing Bipurit out of a sinking ship might be tough.”
“What if we ask him to sink every ship but the one Bipurit’s on? Then bring us Bipurit’s head.”
“Khahaha. That’s not half bad. I’ll ask him when he shows.”
Of course a man like that wouldn’t refuse. He might even ask if that was all they needed.
Just imagining it was a joy. Every anxiety and worry he’d carried all the way to Gryu Telz felt laughable now.
“That much, and Kipu and Tuna… even Wayan would be happy.”
“Damn right. You know how they are. They’d laugh and call it a bargain if they could trade their own lives to drag every last one of Bipurit’s lot down with them!”
“Yeah…”
Yeah. Truly. Every hardship he’d endured getting to this port had melted away like snow.
He could stand tall now before his dead crew, his brothers, and Piuon.
“But… Captain. You’re not taking that Inquisitor along, are you?”
“Are you out of your mind? You want us beaten to death by the locals?”
“Right? Whew.”
Even if the dragon-slayer weren’t available and they were short on hands, a temple figure was out of the question. No matter how fierce an impression that Inquisitor had left.
Zakrati—and every stronghold across the Yabad Region—still remembered the temple’s atrocities of forty years past.
“I already hated having her with us this time. I don’t want her on my ship again.”
“Same here.”
“At least we don’t actually need to take her…”
Baramson trailed off, feeling the ground tremble in the distance.
“Reinforcements!”
Gamak Bay had finally sent people.
“Good. Make final preparations, then. Boatswain—tell the adventurers we’re leaving soon. Itkam, go to their leader and ask for horses. If he won’t hand them over, show him the dragon head we cut off.”
He’d seen the mages grinning ear to ear earlier at the chance to study a dragon, but work was work. Baramson ordered them to take the horses by force if they had to.
“Aye, aye.”
The first mate ran a hand along her scabbard and answered with satisfaction.
“More importantly—why hasn’t the Demon Knight shown up yet?”
While issuing orders to his crew, he looked for anyone who might know the man’s whereabouts.
Soon he spotted a young Cueoty man with a salt-stained hood pulled over his head.
“Hey. When’s the Demon Knight getting here?”
“How would I know? The boss prefers going off alone.”
“You said you were traveling together for now, but I guess you’re not that close.”
“‘For now’ is an open-ended ‘for now,’ you know.”
“So it’s not just about hunting dragons together? I figured ‘temporary’ meant that.”
“The goal isn’t the dragon. It’s Satan.”
“…Then it’s not temporary, is it?”
“The boss is just a bit prickly.”
So were they companions or not? Baramson narrowed his eyes uncertainly.
“Oh—over there!”
People who’d been busy receiving relief supplies pointed off to one side.
“There he is, sir.”
“So it seems… but what the hell is he carrying?”
In the distance, the Demon Knight came into view, laden with something massive.
Thud!
I set down everything I’d hauled from the mountain.
Damn. No joke—my whole body ached. The weight on the way back nearly made me pass out.
“A bear…?”
“There’s a boar too…?”
Right. What I’d caught was a bear and a wild boar. Both of them packed enough meat to weigh a full ton each.
Dragging them here had been brutal. I’d seriously considered dumping one of them more than once. But bringing only one when even both wouldn’t be enough felt pointless, so I’d forced myself through it.
“Hey. I don’t think we need any more meat.”
Baramson asked with a sly grin. I had eyes—I knew exactly what he meant.
Reinforcements had arrived, so it was time to leave. Judging by the supplies still being moved, at least I wasn’t late. Good.
“Amusing. Assuming it’s yours by default.”
With that in mind, I tossed out a line that fit the concept and stepped aside. Baramson laughed with a booming khahaha and came over to inspect the meat. Dev was with him.
“Then why bring it?”
“I merely killed beasts that blocked a walking path.”
“Tough guy.”
“Boss—so we distribute this to the people?”
I glanced at Dev, who was reading my wishes perfectly, then looked away.
“Do with it as you like. Discard it.”
“Yes. We’ll hand it out.”
Dev’s little smirk made me suspect he was misreading me as some kind of tsundere, but as long as the meat reached the people, fine.
I watched him wave the villagers over and shifted so they could approach more easily. The one who came up to me was Baramson, grinning from ear to ear.
I, of course, knocked away the arm he tried to throw over my shoulder.
“We’re getting horses from the Gamak Bay reinforcements and heading straight to Gryu Telz. Do you need time?”
My answer was already decided.
“Lead the way.”
Ah—but had the Archmage and the Inquisitor woken up? If they still hadn’t, did I really have to leave them behind? Tch. No choice, but it was a real problem.
“Huh? You’re leaving right now?!”
Dev, who’d overheard, reacted immediately. The fact that he didn’t say anything about waking them or fetching them suggested they truly still hadn’t risen.
“W-what about the mage, or that thick-skulled wall?”
“Thick-skulled wall?”
“The priest.”
“Even if that one were awake, I wouldn’t take her.”
…Baramson really hated the temple.
At this rate, the Inquisitor probably couldn’t have come along even if she’d been perfectly fine.
“And we’re in a hurry. I heard the Archmage needs at least two days to wake.”
The Archmage looked okay, but the recovery time made it impossible. Dev seemed allowed to come—though whether he’d actually follow me was another question.
“What about you?”
Dev made a pained sound. Then he finally decided, and his answer was this:
“I’ll follow, of course. I only joined this road because of you in the first place, Knight.”
…It was? It wasn’t the Archmage who’d persuaded him??
What exactly had I done?
“More than that—we need to stay in contact if we’re ever going to regroup. If you go off alone, Knight, you won’t send any reply.”
And right after that he hit me where it hurt.
“Hahahaha! That does sound about right!”
Baramson started laughing like he’d sprung a leak, and I reflexively set my hand on the scabbard at my hip.
Only a second later did I remember the longsword was broken. All I caught was an empty sheath.
“Whoops—then I’ll go pass word to the mages and priests first. You’ll wait that long, yes?”
“Fine. That much.”
As I stood there grimacing and clutching the empty scabbard, Dev hastily backed off.
I got the feeling Dev and Baramson might hit it off surprisingly well. Anyone who wasn’t locked into a concept as antisocial as mine could probably find that kind of rhythm easily enough.
“……”
Still, being mocked with a temperament like mine was never going to put me in a good mood. I twisted my face into a scowl and let a murderous atmosphere settle around me.
“Captain! We’ve got the horses!”
If the first mate—who looked less like she’d borrowed them and more like she’d seized them—hadn’t cut in, I might have kept it up.
Behind her stood Gamak Bay’s commander, staring down at the dragon head with a troubled expression. Under the original plan, he would have been the one leading the dragon hunt.
“Oh, excellent! Any complaints?”
“One look at the head and he said he’d get ready right away. Ah—he wants to come along himself for the report, of course. The rest of his people will withdraw more slowly.”
“As long as we can leave immediately, I don’t care. The adventurers?”
“Horses enough for everyone. The adventurers are almost fully packed as well. Ah—someone from the temple and the Magic Tower is insisting on coming. What should we do?”
“If they don’t get in the way of travel, not my problem.”
“Yes, sir.”
Baramson snapped his fingers. One by one, people raised their hands—apparently a signal to confirm positions.
“All right, gather up! Once our Demon Knight friend arrives, we leave.”
“Do not call me ‘friend.’”
“Acquaintance, then.”
I left the slippery-tongued Baramson where he stood and clenched the empty scabbard hard. He ought to count himself lucky my longsword was broken.
“This should last us three days.”
“Good heavens, how can we ever thank you?”
While we waited for Dev, the conversation lapsed for a moment, and the villagers’ voices drifted into my ears.
“…So what? The sea’s still a long way from coming back.”
“You—!”
“Damn it, how are we supposed to last a month…”
Even in situations meant for joy, there are always people who can’t bring themselves to feel it.
That wasn’t a bad thing. In a group—especially a village—having at least one person who could look coldly at reality wasn’t a problem.
You did need enough sense not to tank everyone’s morale, of course.
“…You’ve done everything you could. The rest is the city’s job now.”
But Baramson said that to me. He seemed to think I was fretting over those people. My concept didn’t run that deep on the sympathy front.
“I don’t care.”
I turned away. As he’d said, I’d done everything I could. As a human I might not be able to help noticing—but there was no need to dwell on it too long.
“Um.”
No need to dwell—
“Mister.”
I found myself facing a child I’d seen at night. Not the kids from yesterday. This was the child I’d met the night I’d first wandered into this village—long before the dragon, long before even Gryu Telz.
Black clothes then, black clothes now.
“…I’m sorry for the mean things I said back then.”
The child bowed deeply. That small head looked especially round.
“What’d you do to the kid that you got an earful of mean words?”
More to the point, Baramson had been casually acting familiar with me for a while now. Was he Dev? Or did every job that involved “thief” or “pirate” in the description just work like this?
When he tried to jab me in the ribs, I drove the back of my hand into his solar plexus. His waist folded at a perfect right angle.
“Pff—”
Even with his crew watching, no one said a word. They only snickered and ribbed him about getting what he deserved. A truly unreserved bunch.
“Kid.”
Separately, I crooked a finger. The child flinched, then padded over on quick little steps.
Looking closer, the kid was taller than I’d thought. Just so thin it made them look smaller.
“……?”
I reached into my inventory. There was something perfect for this exact situation.
Something I had absolutely no use for, something that only ate up inventory slots—but that would make a perfect picture if I gave it to a child right now.
“This is…”
Adventurers of Tatara. That dead stock you foisted on me? I’ll dispose of one piece right here.
I took out a small pouch necklace from my inventory, added something extra inside, and held it out to the child.
“Is it okay for me to take this?”
“Take it.”
“I haven’t done a single good thing.”
“I said take it.”
I might have been speaking a bit harshly for a child, but the concept left me no choice. Still—it was something good, in its way.
A common ornament in the Derma region.
Local superstition holds that wearing it draws good fortune into the pouch.
The child blinked down at the fortune pouch necklace in their hands. Compared to what was inside, the multicolored-thread pouch was practically trash—but it did look rather pretty from the outside.
“I’ve finished speaking with them!”
“Oh—then let’s head out.”
Dev came racing back just in time. Time to leave.
“Leaving immediately?”
“Yes.”
“Then we go.”
With Gamak Bay’s commander joining us as well, everything was ready.
I didn’t know when he’d recruited them, but a couple of adventurers were already mounted alongside us. The dragon head loaded on a wagon—when had that gotten there?—looked especially solid and reassuring.
“What did you give the kid this time?”
“This time?”
“You handed out food to the children yesterday.”
“Guess he likes kids.”
Shouldn’t every adult like kids? Even if you didn’t, treating them well was the bare minimum of human decency, in my view.
Either way, I drew my two-hander and gave it a light swing.
Seok-geok!
A Chamgyeok that managed to miss every person still split the earth and cut the surrounding clamor clean in half.
“…Shall we depart?”
Fortunately, the swagger of the men who’d been creeping up on me fell into range as well.
“Uh!”
I swung into the saddle and signaled the horse.
Behind us, a child and adults cried out in wonder.
“P-pearls!”
“Huh?”
Dev, who’d stuck close to my side even while half-terrified, twisted around to look.
I didn’t bother.
“Wait—you left the pearls!”
“Huh? Pearls? Wait, Knight—”
Good. Looking at the formation, I could safely take the lead.
My horse shot out to the very front.