The Reason for Being Hired
"Come here, black-haired one." Paula, the guard captain, greeted me with a fairly bright voice. I could even feel her subtle gaze lingering. "It'd be nice if we had some time alone, but I suppose that's difficult."
She seemed unable to forget that night when Isabella had made her suggestion. The atmosphere alone made her seem to radiate a distinctly female energy.
"Kang Seo-ja isn't your plaything."
"Aren't you the one thinking that way rather than me?"
"Do you want to die?"
"Huhu… What about you?"
Syucali growled the moment she saw Paula. Paula bared her teeth right back at Syucali.
"Those two are still close, aren't they?"
"Isabella."
"Yes, you came."
Isabella seemed well aware of their relationship. "They don't look close at all."
"Maybe that's how it appears to someone seeing them for the first time."
They must have known each other for a long time. Actually, it was stranger that they didn't know each other—Syucali, whose reputation had spread widely in Cashew Village, and Isabella's guard captain.
"Do they always act like that?"
"Well, they greet each other that way whenever they meet."
Isabella watched the two with a smile before leaning in to whisper to me. "I'll be counting on you." With those words, she left. She looked busy before the caravan's departure, yet she'd still made time to see me. She must have expectations of me. I didn't know what, since she hadn't explained.
'Ah… She did say it. She asked me to protect her.'
I wondered if there could really be any danger while leading such a large caravan. It looked massive and sturdy at a glance.
"Eos."
"Yes, Master."
"You said you were betrayed by another demon race member."
"That is correct."
"Hmm…"
My gaze naturally drifted toward the people Isabella had hired. Was there an enemy within? The caravan was enormous, but that didn't mean it was without gaps. People were fragile precisely because they trusted others. Isabella knew that well—she'd lost her mansion because she trusted people too much. That was probably why she'd asked me to protect her. Naturally, my role was to stay among the hired hands and determine whether any of them were plotting something.
'No wonder she offered a hundred gold.'
"There will be some here too, Eos." Eos nodded.
"You need to watch the person who just whispered to me. She's the one leading this caravan."
"Understood."
Paula stayed by Isabella's side. The slaves and I would remain with the hired workers and observe the situation.
"We're departing!!"
With Paula's shout, Isabella's caravan began to move.
—Rattle… rattle…
The line was enormous. Controlling it alone seemed nearly impossible. I figured there were others hired for roles similar to mine scattered throughout. I was assigned to the sixteenth caravan wagon, walking alongside it to guard it.
"Kang Seo-ja, are you sure that luggage is all right?"
"Yeah. Don't worry about me and get along with the others."
"But I want to stay by your side…"
I shot Syucali a glare. She immediately turned and vanished. Syucali was the key. As a famous adventurer from Cashew Village, she'd have no trouble getting friendly with the other hires. And that was when people's true intentions would slip out. Waiting for good news from her while walking didn't seem like a bad idea.
"Master, how far are we going?" Eos, walking beside me, asked curiously.
"To the territory where the nobles are."
"A noble territory…"
Eos grew serious at the mention of nobles. "It won't be one of the Seven Great Demon Families."
"No."
The difference between demons and humans probably lay in their standards for rank. Demons valued strength and bloodline, while humans focused on wealth and power. Humans had strength and bloodlines too, but they were far inferior to demons. No matter how strong a human was, they formed parties or gathered in groups.
"We're under attack!"
"Where are they?!"
"Tch! Who the hell is messing with Isabella's caravan?!"
"Monsters appearing from the fourteenth wagon!"
Of course, there was strength in numbers for humans too.
—Shing!
"Don't use magic. Guard the luggage."
"Yes."
I set my pack down and drew my sword from beneath my robe. A pack of goblins was approaching the caravan.
—Slash! Thud!
The goblins weren't difficult to handle. But I could see the flow of mana in their sharp incoming attacks.
Deflection
—Ting… Slash.
"Kiek!"
"You're skilled."
I deflected a goblin's desperate strike and countered. After beheading the off-balance goblin, I looked for my next target.
'There are a lot of them.'
Plenty of people were defending the caravan, but it was strange how so many goblins had appeared. Did the wagons really smell that appetizing?
"Kiiiii…"
"Keeek!"
I unleashed noble swordsmanship against the fearless goblins' breakthrough. The noble swordsmanship, close to swift sword techniques, sliced through goblins following the flow of mana. Cutting through scattered flesh and blood, I searched for the next opponent.
—Whirrr!
In an instant, Syucali appeared with black waves flowing over her twin daggers. She charged ahead of me and tore straight through the front line.
"I told you to target their rear, didn't I?"
"They're just goblins~"
Syucali's movements were faster than before. The stat increases she'd gained were finally becoming visible. Together, we charged forward and wiped out the goblins. The creatures couldn't even resist as their numbers dwindled.
"Kieee…!"
I spotted a goblin carrying a torch running toward a wagon. It looked like it was about to throw the torch.
"I'll leave this to you."
"Yes!"
At the strange behavior, I immediately ran toward that goblin. "Where do you think you're going?" Seeing it about to throw the torch, I used water magic. The torch was engulfed in a water droplet and extinguished helplessly.
"Kieeeek!!"
"So hunger wasn't the goal."
—Slash!!
I finished off the goblin and looked at Syucali. "This side's done too." At her words, I nodded and surveyed the situation. The other wagons seemed to have been cleaned up to some extent as well.
"Anyone hurt?"
"No. If anything, I was getting sleepy, but now I feel a bit refreshed?"
Syucali grinned and spun around once. "You don't usually see this many goblins."
"You're right. Hmm… Do we really need to understand the monsters' strange behavior?"
"We don't."
The goblins were already dead. As Syucali said, there was no reason to think further about it.
"Interesting."
"What is?"
"Goblins sacrificing their lives for a purpose other than hunger."
I looked at the extinguished torch in my hand. "I don't understand it."
"If we could understand it, they wouldn't be classified as monsters, would they?"
"That's true."
Tossing the torch aside, I looked at the goblin corpses. I walked over to where faint mana was emanating and picked something up. It was a small, sparkling stone.
"A raw gem?"
It emitted the same light as the raw gems I'd seen at the general store. Maybe I could sell it later if I kept it.
'After a hunt, you collect the spoils.'
I wandered among the corpses, gathering anything with flowing mana.
"Whoa~ Did you two take care of all this?"
"As you can see."
"Just as expected from an adventurer Lady Isabella hired."
A caravan member from another wagon came over to check after their own area had been sorted out.
"We're departing again!"
Once all the wagons were ready, the caravan began moving once more.
"Nothing happened, right?"
I returned to Eos and picked up my pack again. "Nothing at all."
"Then do you know much about monsters?"
"I don't know their habits and wills well, but we demons know how to handle monsters."
"You know how to handle them?"
"Yes, because monsters are born with mana."
I took out the small stone I'd picked up earlier and showed it to Eos. "Is it this?"
"Correct. It's called a magic stone."
"I see."
Demons knew how to handle monsters. "If you understand magic stones, you could handle monsters even if you're not a demon."
"That's…"
Eos nodded. The behavior of the torch-wielding goblin I'd seen at the end. Syucali and the other adventurers didn't seem particularly concerned. But the aggressive actions of such a large group of goblins, despite not being hungry, made it worth suspecting.
'Someone wants to sabotage the territory's supply…'
I didn't know why Isabella had hired me, but it was clear she hadn't spoken lightly when asking me to protect her. 'I'll watch a bit more, and if it becomes certain, I'll tell Isabella.'
A mere goblin attack wouldn't stop this caravan. There was no need to make a big move yet.
—Rattle… rattle…
I walked on with the moving wagons. We continued walking for a while. Aside from the initial goblins, nothing major happened.
"Kang Seo-ja."
Syucali, who had been away, returned. "They say we'll be camping here tonight." The sky was growing dark. Looking at the other wagons ahead and behind, I could see campfires being lit and tents being pitched.
"Let's prepare too."
"Yes!"
Syucali's reply was energetic. She approached and helped me set down my pack. "You must be hungry!?"
"No."
I wondered what she was up to, but it turned out Syucali herself was hungry. "Washing up would be hard right now, so I'll start the fire!"
I raised my palm toward Syucali. "Water Ball."
—Splash!
The water magic struck Syucali square in the face. "Kyaaah!"