Wisp of Dream (4)
The charcoal burner's daughter looked up at me and flashed a smile.
It was less an expression of emotion than an imitation of facial muscle movement — a smile somehow unsettling to see on a child of eleven or twelve.
Somehow, the corners of my own mouth were stiffening.
Perhaps my expression had turned ugly, because the charcoal burner and his wife were trembling too hard to get a word out.
At that moment, a young man stepped forward.
"There's no need to hear anything, my lord!"
Neatly trimmed hair, a hard-looking face, a heavy iron crossbow slung over his shoulder, a sturdy breastplate, and a rosary of interlinked crosses around his neck.
It was the mercenary known as Gidon.
"That child possessed by the demon is what summoned the ogres. We must drive them out before something far worse befalls us!"
"Don't say such idiotic things."
The freckled Mira scoffed at the crossbowman.
"If she were possessed by a demon, then the possessed would have called in another demon, sure. Not an ogre."
"You're the one talking nonsense. The powerful demons of the Dark Realm and the Outer Realms can command the monsters of the Material Realm with a mere flick of the finger."
"Oh, really? Then when they bring in a troll or a wyvern, I'll act scared for you. I'll even pray by your side."
"Mira, that's enough."
The archer Cole frowned and tried to rein her in, but she just shrugged with a 'What, did I say something wrong?' look on her face.
Gidon's face flushed scarlet at the sight, and he glared at her, snapping.
"Quit your needling, you money-grubbing infidel witch."
"Ha! Anyone listening would think you were a cathedral knight. We're both in this for the coin, selling our swords because we're too poor to eat otherwise — aren't we?"
Well, this much I was used to by now. The dry, cynical Mira and Gidon, the devout believer of the Church of Radiance, tended to butt heads like this at the drop of a hat.
"I don't do this work for money, I—"
Just as Gidon was about to say more, Utekwai, who had been sitting on a log, furrowed his brow fiercely.
"Stop! Shut up! Before I rip out jaws!"
At the shout from Utekwai the heathen, Gidon shut his mouth with a sour look. It had barely been two weeks since he'd nearly gotten his back snapped over muttering about filthy heathens, so he seemed to be exercising some restraint.
Quick-witted Mira likewise shut up and stepped back, and then the plump Eson carefully opened his mouth.
"W-well, Gidon's not entirely wrong."
Under my gaze, Eson scratched his cheek and rolled his eyes as if searching his memory.
"When I was, oh, seven or eight. An old man possessed by a demon came to my village. Or to be precise, to the Montraut Abbey near us."
"And then?"
"After that old man arrived, goblins and kobolds showed up one after another, and then wolves-men, orcs, hill giants — all sorts of vicious monsters kept appearing."
"And you're saying that was because of the possessed old man?"
Eson spread both palms as he answered.
"Of course, my lord. Isn't it all too convenient to be coincidence? Monsters you'd be lucky to see once or twice a year appeared five times in a single month."
With every eye in the camp now fixed on him, Eson wet his lips and lowered his voice.
"On top of that, every night you'd hear the weeping of a maiden, healthy roosters would waste away and drop dead, and a fierce wind snapped the cross at the abbey—"
"Lord of Radiance above."
Glancing toward the sound of prayer, I saw Steedman, bald head dotted with beads of sweat, swallowing dryly.
"It wasn't until that possessed old man died that the horrors plaguing the village finally ended. The monsters stopped appearing, too. Whew, even now just thinking about it gives me cold sweats."
I noticed it every time — the people of this world were extremely sensitive to superstition and the supernatural. To Kim Seung-soo, such behavior looked like the product of premodern ignorance, but it wasn't something I could simply dismiss.
And how could I? This was a world where magic, dragons, and other dimensions all actually existed.
At the very least, in a world like this, if someone claimed to have seen a ghost at night, a reaction like 'A banshee's appeared? We should sprinkle holy water along the village outskirts and hold a joint prayer' felt more rational than 'Oh come on, ghosts aren't real, you must have misheard.'
When I scratched my brow in thought, the charcoal burner, having regained a bit of his composure, offered his explanation.
"As I said before, my lord, the demon possession was only what the village elders said. Whether it's true or not, we don't yet know."
"That's right."
The charcoal burner's wife found her courage and spoke up as well.
"And in Tabas, there were none of those... 'horrors' that mercenary spoke of. In my opinion, Alena is simply ill."
"...Alena? Is that her name?"
"Yes, that's right — Alena. She never misses church, and she prays more than five times a day, such a good child. A demon possessing a girl like her? That's absurd."
Alena, the daughter of the charcoal burner couple, had by now wiped the smile from her face and worn a blank expression.
An ordinary face, dressed in clothes shabby but clean.
She looked like a little girl you could find anywhere, yet something about her felt ominous — or was it just my imagination? Was she really possessed?
Utekwai, Ellen, and I observed her closely, but we sensed nothing unusual. Apart from her blank face and that bizarre smile she'd worn earlier, she seemed like a perfectly ordinary child.
"From what I hear, you're headed for Raven's Cliff. Take us with you, and I'll guide you there."
"A guide?"
As I wore a noncommittal expression, the young charcoal burner quickly added,
"Yes. The forest just ahead is full of fine, easy-to-char oak trees, so until a few years ago the kiln carts lined up for miles. I worked there for a long time myself, so I know the lay of the land around here like the back of my hand."
"Is that so?"
"Yes. With me guiding you, you could reach Raven's Cliff in three days."
At his bold claim, I turned my gaze toward the large woman standing among the mercenaries.
She scrunched up her face.
"Raven's Cliff in three days? Through the forest, no less?"
"Uh, y-yes."
"Don't tell me you're planning to go past the Tree of Oressa?"
As the heavily armored woman — thick scale armor, a heavy iron shield slung over her shoulder — made a fearsome face, the charcoal burner's expression dimmed a little.
"Th-that's right. But—"
"What kind of crap is that, you little shit!"
The woman, her side-cropped hair swept back neatly, snorted and looked around as she continued.
"I passed through this forest once when I was working as a house soldier out in Eastern Riding."
Her name was Dervish, a mercenary with experience serving as heavy infantry in a baron's retinue. In terms of combat ability, she ranked among the top three of the newly hired mercenaries.
"If we so much as brush against the Tree of Oressa passing through there, every last one of us is as good as dead. Everyone living around here knows that!"
"W-well, yes. But that was three years ago."
"What did you say?"
Avoiding Dervish's menacing glare, the charcoal burner looked up at me.
"You've heard the rumors about the lord of this land, haven't you? Count Mathianbel."
"...Roughly. They say he's gone senile or mad, and retired from public life."
At my words, the young charcoal burner wore a briefly perplexed look, hesitated with his lips, then spoke.
"...Were you not a noble lord, sir?"
Hm. Well, a knight is a noble too, I suppose.
"I am. Why?"
"Ah... no, never mind. In any case, when the Count retired, he committed several outrageous acts."
"Outrages?"
"Yes. He summoned every maiden and bachelor in Gistol to his castle. He tore the bell from the chapel and had it melted down..."
"So the rumors were true."
"One of those outrages was cutting down an ancient tree that stood in the forest just ahead. The name of that tree was the Tree of Oressa."
At the charcoal burner's explanation, the heavy infantrywoman Dervish let out a hollow laugh.
"He cut down the Tree of Oressa? A guardian tree with hundreds of spirits dwelling in it?"
"That story had everyone worried, but strangely, nothing happened at all. I heard from a priest that the spirits had all simply left the forest."
"The spirits left? The spirits who guarded that forest for thousands of years?"
"As the churches flourished nearby, well, they say the spirits were crushed under the power shown forth by the Lord of Radiance..."
Utekwai, who had been listening quietly, folded his arms with a grave face.
"Strange thing."
"What is?"
"Cutting guardian tree is dangerous thing. That nothing happened — hard to understand."
Ellen, who had returned from her meditation, came to my side and spoke up.
"Nature spirits have always been hard to understand. They're capricious and willful beyond reckoning."
"Which makes it stranger still. Hundreds of spirits just watched their guardian tree being felled. Doesn't make sense."
"Or perhaps the spirits really were overwhelmed by the might of the divine power and scattered to parts unknown. It's only natural for one kind of mana to push out another kind."
Utekwai, lost in thought for a moment, clicked his tongue in disappointment and muttered to himself.
"Tasard dirldi would know what this means."
He must have meant the druid Zanavas. Fair enough — this was the kind of thing a druid ought to figure out.
"In any case. That Oressa tree or whatever it's called is gone, so a fast road to Raven's Cliff has opened up. That about right?"
"Yes, my lord. And there's a small tavern along the way now, so you can rest there as well."
"Hmm."
When I scratched my brow, the archer Cole came over and murmured quietly.
"It's suspicious. They could be trying to lure us in."
"Maybe."
Ellen, who had been fiddling with her crystal orb, spoke up as well.
"I don't know whether that child is truly possessed by a demon or not, but is there any reason to take them along and swallow the unease?"
"I'd say there is."
"...There is?"
I nodded as I answered.
"What's our objective? Wiping out the bastards in Raven's Cliff and capturing Seitz the spell-breaker."
"And?"
"If that family turns out to be a trap set for us, I want to dig out whoever's behind it."
"...You're not even a little worried about walking into the trap itself?"
I simply smiled in silence.
Raven's Cliff — that is, the region corresponding to Chapter 4 in the game — had been designed to be playable solo by a level 26 character.
Of course, the game and reality were different, and from everything I'd experienced so far, reality was the harsher of the two.
But even taking all of that into account, our party's current strength was considerable.
For starters, the four of us — myself, Mungchi, Ellen, and Utekwai — all corresponded to hero-class characters, and our average level was pushing 25.
And 'average level 25' undersold it; in terms of raw stats, we were far beyond that.
On top of that, we had fourteen seasoned mercenaries equipped with the specialized gear and supplies for clearing this chapter.
In a situation like this, how could I not feel confident?
"Of course, I'm not letting my guard down. I just want to identify anything that might interfere and deal with it quickly."
Ellen fell silent, and Cole added,
"If she truly is a possessed child, she might summon monsters."
"Mira said something similar, but if the monsters being summoned are no more than ogres, it hardly matters."
"But Lord Phoenix—"
"Trap or genuine demonic mischief, either way, if we leave them behind now, we lose control of one more variable waiting down the road."
As Cole fell into thought, Mungchi — who at some point had glued herself to my left side — suddenly spoke up.
"Don't have to leave them."
"Hm?"
"There's other way, too."
Finishing her words with careful attention to her pronunciation, Mungchi's dark eyes sparkled.
I stared straight into that guileless gaze, utterly free of malice.
"And what other way would that be? I can't think of one."
"Eh."
"Besides, more than anything—"
I gently stroked the head of Mungchi, who had been about to say something more.
"I want to help Alena."
"...Eh?"
Mungchi, who had been enjoying my hand, made a dopey face, and I shrugged.
"It's pitiful, isn't it? She's just a kid."
"...Ah."
"Right?"
Mungchi worked her lips for a moment, then nodded.
"Yes, is true. Is pitiful."
"See?"
I chuckled and gave the girl's soft cheek a light pinch. Delighted, Mungchi let out a happy little 'heh' of laughter.
"Good decision."
Utekwai rose from his seat and declared in a voice that boomed across the camp.
"Charburner family, we take them!"
At that proclamation, several of the mercenaries — Gidon and Eson included — wore flustered expressions. But not one of them stepped forward to object.
"Sun is already high. We move out!"
And so our short rest came to an end, and the journey resumed once more.