White Feathers in the Wilderness
"Is Ebrun perhaps an accomplice in all this?"
At Kajan's brutally frank choice of words, the Lord of Ebrun went pale and flapped his hands in frantic denial.
"Th-that could never be! You go far too far, sir!"
"A shadowy organization that has Tarados in its grip, and Kizen. Standing between the two of them, it feels like a tug-of-war."
Kajan rose smoothly to his feet.
"The moment we arrived, change began. You would do well to hold your rope tightly. The first knot is the treatment of your prisoners and the abducted. Judge wisely."
With only those parting words, Kajan left the room, and Simon followed after him.
"You were impressive back there, pressuring the Lord like that, Kajan!"
Simon said as they stepped out into the corridor. Kajan, his face expressionless, absently scratched at his scars.
"Even if only to make sure the prisoners are properly transported and the abducted are kept safe, this much pressure was unavoidable. They already have a record of cutting off information — no doubt they'll do their best to block any word that Kizen agents have come."
[Wait! Wait! Wait!]
Just then, a voice rang out from the necklace hanging around Simon's neck.
[Are you two perhaps confusing your priorities? You're supposed to be finding my main body, aren't you?!]
"Don't be so impatient, Kal. We're gathering information first, and then we'll leave right away."
Kajan nodded as well.
"I'll interrogate the thieves in the dungeon myself and see what I can wring out of them."
"Yes, please do."
A great mountain range lay between their destination, Tarados, and the Ebrun Territory.
The mountains naturally swarmed with monsters, and moving manpower and supplies through them was bound to be a struggle. Tarados's insularity owed as much to geography as to anything else.
And in a valley of that range sat a cave.
In the days when Tarados prospered, a secret tunnel had been carved through it to carry minerals out of the territory. Now, of course, barely anyone alive even knew the place existed — and it had become a den of thieves.
The bandits known as the Ganes Guild, who ruled the Tarados wilderness. And in the dead hours before dawn, two of their own arrived at the cave's mouth.
"Password!"
"Pinecone!"
Having passed the password without incident, the two bandits entered the cavern.
It was enormous. Bandits sprawled across the floor everywhere — gulping down liquor, or slumped against the walls asleep.
The pair walked another ten minutes or so before reaching the man who commanded the cave. He was chewing jerky with slow, grinding bites.
"What's this? Why are you two the only ones back?"
the bandit captain asked.
"Where are the others? The test subjects and the weapons procured from outside?"
"Ah, th-that is...!"
One bandit broke out in a cold sweat, darting glances at his companion. The scruffy-bearded one spoke up.
"Sorry. We lost everything."
BANG!
The captain slammed his fist down on a wooden crate and surged to his feet.
"Lost it all?"
"Yes."
"To whom?"
"Another bandit company. We're disguised as a merchant caravan, so they just came at us."
The captain leaned forward, craning his neck, and stared into the bearded man's eyes.
"We are the Ganes Guild. We hold Tarados and every mile around it in an iron grip — and there are bastards who still dare attack us, knowing that?"
"Seems they haven't been here long. We gave them our name and they fought to the death anyway."
"..."
The captain whirled around and stalked away. Then he picked up the beer mug he'd been drinking from and began to chug it down, gulp after gulp.
"Khh."
Wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, he said:
"Tie them up."
"!"
"Judging by how they talk, they're hiding something. String 'em up by the ankles and let them drink some water — they'll remember how to talk soon enough."
"Yes, sir!"
Bandits closed in from all sides.
"Wh-what do we do now, sir!"
the other bandit shrieked, his face drained white. The bearded man smiled faintly, stretched out his legs and crossed them, folded his arms, and placed a finger against his lips.
"I've always been on the tying side, myself~"
At those words, the captain's face twisted into a sneer.
"What the—"
SHRRRRIP!
Shloop!
The bodies of the advancing bandits were snared by webs raining down from the ceiling — and yanked skyward.
"GYAAAH!"
"Wh-what is this?!"
In an instant they had been wrapped into hanging cocoons, dangling helplessly — while above them, spiders clung to the ceiling, venom dripping from their jaws.
"Wh-when did—!"
The bearded man's coquettish pose wobbled — and then his entire body unraveled like thread, revealing within a withered, desiccated woman. She licked her lips with her tongue.
[No need for a long speech, is there? This cave belongs to us now.]
KUUUUNG!
This time one wall of the cave crumbled away, and a boy burst through — faded hair, deathly pale grey skin, dressed in aristocratic robes. He was twirling a crown in one hand.
[This is tedious! Can't we just turn the lot of them into zombies?]
One bandit, fearlessly — or mindlessly — charged at him, but the shockwave of the boy's casually thrown fist sent the man flying dozens of meters.
Every onlooker's face froze solid.
[Kekeke! If we're making anything, skeletons would be far more elegant!]
Every head turned. A towering skeleton was striding toward them, cape billowing.
[Sleep well, little ones!]
The great white greatsword in the skeleton's hand began to move.
Several hours later.
The creak of carriage wheels echoed through the quiet pre-dawn forest.
Up front, a terrified coachman drove the carriage, glancing nervously left and right every few seconds, while in the back seat sat Simon and Kajan, entirely at ease.
"K-Kizen students. Are we truly taking this route?"
"Yes."
Simon smiled pleasantly.
"We're in your care."
"K-kuhh!"
Tears welled up in the coachman's frightened eyes.
He could never have imagined things would come to this. Just yesterday, he'd assumed the boys' stubborn demands to be taken to Tarados would end as a simple misunderstanding — but Simon and Kajan had gone so far as to track down his very home.
And when the coachman had insisted that no amount of gold was worth more than his life, the two boys had held out before him their Kizen second-year student IDs.
If you won't do it as a favor, then we'll have to make it an order.
And so the coachman found himself carrying two fearless Kizen boys toward the cave tunnel crawling with bandits.
"I-it's not that I don't trust you two! But there could be hundreds, thousands of bandits in there! Men who could turn an entire territory into a wasteland! If you truly must go to Tarados, it would be far safer to go around through the mountains—"
But Simon and Kajan weren't listening. Simon was working through his backlog of Summoning homework even now, and Kajan was collating materials from the Thieves' Guild.
Ha — homework, with our lives hanging by a thread this very moment! This is what noble students are like!
Only the coachman was burning up with anxiety.
And so they arrived before the cave tunnel guarded by the bandit horde. Mercifully, there were no sentries visible at the entrance.
"W-we're really going in?"
"Yes."
Simon said, still scratching away with his quill.
"I heard a piece of information, you see — apparently the bandits all left together somewhere today. The place is empty."
Absolutely ridiculous!!
was all the coachman could timidly protest, and only in the depths of his heart.
"Don't worry so much. No matter what happens, we'll protect you. Ah, Kajan — question eleven here. Do Cryptguards have a nature that compels them to guard their own tombs?"
"According to the Guild's records, grave robbers only named them that because they kept getting interrupted mid-job. They have no innate duty to guard tombs. The answer is four."
"You look for the correct answer, not the incorrect ones."
Peace reigned on earth.
Choking back tears, the coachman drove his carriage toward the gaping maw of bandit-guarded hell.
So this is how my wretched life ends. Mother, I'll be along shortly.
And then they entered the cave.
...???
They emerged out the far side of the tunnel without meeting so much as a single enemy.
"Wh... what is this."
The words slipped out of him, hollow with disbelief.
There, on the other side of the cave, stretched the Tarados Territory. Dawn was just beginning to break.
Am I dreaming right now?
"Thank you for your hard work."
Simon and Kajan climbed down from the carriage.
"We're grateful you carried us this far. Here's the payment we promised."
Jingle—
Numbly accepting the coin pouch, the coachman managed a hollow laugh.
Did the bandits really all go on a picnic together?
No — impossible. In Tarados, where every scrap of effort went into cutting off movement to the outside, no chokepoint like this would ever be left empty.
He could guess the reason.
These two arranged it all in advance.
The coachman clenched the money in his fist.
...If it's Kizen, then.
Lost in thought for a moment, he looked up.
"H-how far into Tarados do you intend to go?"
Kajan answered.
"The slums that open up further east of here. We'll start there."
"Tarados's roads are rough and tangled — on a first visit, you'd lose your way a dozen times over. Luckily, this land is the hometown I was born and raised in."
The coachman turned and grinned.
"You paid me quite a hefty fare already. I hate being called a cheat — so out of conscience, I'll take you that far."
Simon's face lit up.
"Thank you! We'd be delighted!"
The two of them climbed back into the carriage to continue on.
And back in the cave tunnel—
Mmmph! Mmmph!
Hundreds of bandits writhed in their webs. Before them stood Pier, Erzsébet, and Prince.
Kririri!
The corpse spiders raised their legs in silent threat, and the bandits fell meek as lambs in an instant.
[Kekeke! So the boy means to travel on by carriage!]
Erzsébet said, her eyes gleaming.
[Then let us hurry and follow after him!]
[Understood!]
Pier turned his back.
[Prince! You stay behind for now and hold this place!]
[No way! Why does it have to be me?!]
Prince protested, shaking both fists in the air.
[You possess the greatest mobility in the Legion — only you can do this! When the battle begins, speak to the boy and ready yourself to descend upon your zombies there!]
At that, Prince preened.
[Muhuhu! If the Legion's greatest mobility is required, I suppose I have no choice! Now off with you!]
There was once a place that had known prosperity, thronged with countless adventurers.
Tarados — the great territory once hailed as the 'Jewel of Freedom.'
Ironically, it had now become the most suffocatingly unfree place in the entire kingdom, with both movement out of and into its borders under total control.
Just what is happening in this place?
Simon, his legs stretched out in the carriage, drew a request letter from his coat and unfolded it.
A single cry for help — sent through no proper channel, written in code.
"Save us."
However many times he read it, the words were deeply ominous.
[Wait! Wait! Why does that matter so much?!]
The necklace around his neck was shaking violently. Kal's fragment was kicking up a fuss.
[Humans die anyway! What's so serious about dying a little sooner? My main body! Tell them to hurry up and rescue my main body!]
Simon's face twisted into a pout, and he went ting—, flicking the necklace. Only then did Kal settle down somewhat.
"Indeed, so it is! Why would that be the important thing right now?"
This time a sweet fragrance arrived along with the words, and a pink-haired girl was clinging to Simon's side.
"To think I am enjoying a carriage date with such a beautiful woman."
Try as he might to get serious, these two made it impossible to focus. Simon peeled Erzsébet off his arm.
"Really, save it for later. Erze."
He understood her wanting to ride along, but her method of joining them was absurd. A pink-haired girl in expensive clothes had suddenly popped up in front of the carriage, striking a pose and shouting 'Hitchhiking!'
Ordinary civilians were present, no less. Reckless didn't even begin to cover it.
"Was that not natural, my lord?"
"Natural?!"
Simon pressed a hand to his forehead.
"This is Tarados. It's the most dangerous place on the continent right now, crawling with monsters — and you think a lone woman wandering the wilderness and hitchhiking a carriage ride is in any way believable?"
He'd exhausted himself putting on a convincing act for the coachman's sake.
But Erzsébet simply tilted her head with a smile.
"Yes — it is believable, my lord? A situation entirely plausible."
"Not even a little!"
At that same moment, in Tarados.
Mounted riders of the Ganes Guild wheeled in menacing circles, kicking up clouds of dust.
"Well now, milady! Where might you be wandering all alone in a dangerous place like this?!"
"Stay that way and the monsters will gobble you right up."
"A noble! She's a noble, ain't she? I wonder what her ransom would fetch?"
In the dust-choked wilderness stood a girl utterly out of place — short skirt, stockings, chestnut hair streaming in the wind.
"Haaaahm—"
Neither a sand-proof robe nor a turban. Nothing about her belonged to this terrain.
She was yawning, palm spread open.
"S-something's a bit odd, though."
Of course, even among bandits, there were those with functioning brains.
"A noble young lady that refined, that dripping with pedigree, just standing in Tarados as if she'd dropped out of the sky! Look at her! There isn't a grain of sand on her clothes!"
"Ah, who cares!"
the bandit captain rasped out a laugh.
"Just think of it as heaven dropping a woman down for me! From this moment on, this woman is mine!"
At the captain's declaration, the other bandits stirred.
"Y-you're not offering her to the boss?"
"We should seize her as a slave and sell her! Imagine the ransom!"
"B-boss! I get to have a little fun with her too, right? Right?"
While opinions clashed over the girl's fate—
"Hmmm—"
the girl herself was weighing their fate.
"Rescue Simon on the day he gets captured? Hmm, isn't that a bit too passive? Or perhaps present their heads as a gift and demand a coupon? No — that looks far too cruel."
Hmm... hmm...
Even surrounded on all sides by dozens of mounted men, the girl swayed her head back and forth, absorbed in her deliberations.
"Hey."
The man who seemed to be the leader of the riders approached, churning up dust.
"Stop muttering nonsense to yourself. From now on, you're my bride. Get in the back. If you get scraped up, your value drops — so it's in your interest to behave."
"Oh my."
The girl clasped her hands together and smiled.
"I do apologize, but the position of my spouse is a touch on the expensive side~"
Shring!
The leader drew his sword and leveled it at her.
"Expensive? However expensive you are, your life's price should cover it easily enough."
"Fufu."
The wind began to blow.
White feathers, drinking in the light, swirled down around her and the bandit company alike.
One by one, the bandits' eyes began to glaze over.
"Honestly, the world offers just so many ways to take one's own life."