Ulbaniello (3)
The ranch they reached after running hard for a full week looked barren and worn-out.
He hadn’t expected lush green fields, but the pasture the herd had chewed down had been reduced to a patchwork of sparse grass.
“Oh. And who might this be? Mupola!”
“It’s been a while, Kassler.”
The ranch owner, Kassler, welcomed the party after their grueling journey.
While the Ulbaniellos gave the exhausted horses a proper feed, the mercenaries unloaded their gear.
The ranch had several buildings that looked almost like tents.
Inside each one, there was space enough for one or two mercenaries to rest.
The interior was simple.
A rug that might as well have been a blanket covered the floor, and beds for the expected number of occupants stood in a neat row at regular intervals.
There was no other decoration worth mentioning.
And a structure like a tent wasn’t going to have windows, either.
When the wind blew hard, the whole thing visibly shuddered, as if it might collapse any moment.
In short, it was a place to rest for a while. Nothing more. Nothing less.
“Man, it’s been ages since I slept in a bed. I thought I was actually going to die.”
Still, it was better than riding in a rattling wagon, wasn’t it?
Isolde jumped straight onto a bed.
“You smell. Go wash up before you climb in.”
“It’s my bed anyway. What does it matter?”
“What? You’re sleeping here?”
Garrick stared at her as if she’d lost her mind.
“Why? Am I supposed to sleep somewhere else? You really are heartless.”
“Save the jokes. They must’ve prepared a separate place for the women.”
“Too much trouble to ask. You go find out for me.”
Apparently unwilling to get up, she rolled around on the bed in circles.
The others frowned at the way she was messing up the bedding.
“You’re impossible. I’m telling you now, I’m never using that bed.”
“Hey, the way you say that, what am I supposed to be? You’re just as filthy yourself.”
“I’m a man. You’re a woman.”
“Hah. So I’m only a woman when it’s convenient for you.”
By now, their bickering was familiar enough.
After sorting his things with Ronan, Lawrence asked Balick, “How many days are we resting before we move on?”
“If nothing unusual comes up, we’ll stay four days.”
“Longer than I expected. I thought we’d keep moving right away since there’s nothing to eat around here.”
“There are reasons we can’t just leave immediately. Unlike us, who only have to worry about keeping an eye on the perimeter, the Ulbaniellos make their living this way. There’s plenty to do.”
He didn’t need to ask what that meant.
Before half a day had passed, the ranch was in an uproar.
“See the spotted one? No, not that one. Yes, the one hiding between the mothers over there.”
“I see it. Wow, that one’s going to be a pain. Either the mother or the calf is going to get hurt.”
“Preventing that from happening is what an Ulbaniello does.”
“If neither of them gets hurt, I’m the one who will.”
The Ulbaniellos leaning against the fence grumbled among themselves.
Inside the corral, the carefully brought-in cattle were running around freely.
“Watch closely. You’re about to see something rare.”
“Stop standing over here and keep watch, then.”
“I’ve got eyes in the back of my head.”
Lawrence gave a dry laugh at Isolde’s breezy retort.
Still, it was true he was interested in what was happening.
While keeping an eye on the surroundings, he focused on what would unfold next.
“If you can’t do it, I’ll take over.”
“There’s no need for the captain to step in. We’ll handle it.”
“Enough. We’ve only just started moving. If even one of you gets hurt, we’ll be short-handed.”
Mupola stepped forward before the hesitant Ulbaniellos.
He crossed the fence and mounted a horse provided by the ranch.
The enclosure was pure chaos.
A herd of cattle was racing in circles without pause, and the swirling dust kicked up by their frantic movement felt threatening in itself.
“I’ll take care of it. Just follow me with the name tag and rope.”
The only tools he had were a whip-like switch and a rope.
First, Mupola split the herd in half.
He moved slowly, never once using the switch or the rope.
He circled them carefully, never doing anything that would agitate the cattle.
At the end of his gaze was the calf the Ulbaniellos had pointed out.
“Front and back. Just keep your distance.”
Little by little, he herded the spotted calf into a corner.
Once he separated it from its mother, who refused to leave its side, the other cattle sensed something was wrong and began to grow agitated.
Their movement changed.
As the thudding of hooves grew louder, the situation turned more urgent by the second.
Thud, thud, thud.
It was practically a blind, flesh-and-blood battering ram.
To an excited cow, nothing existed in front of its eyes.
Once they started charging, they looked ready to mow down anything in their path.
Mupola didn’t panic.
He moved with the same calm assurance as if he were used to this situation.
After tying the rope to a tree and checking the calf’s position, he pulled the rein tight.
From there, it was nothing short of a trick.
To Lawrence’s astonishment, Mupola, still on horseback, spun the rope around one hand and, almost as if leaping from the saddle, succeeded in looping it around the calf’s neck.
The calf, unaware it had been snared, kept running until it toppled over in a thoroughly embarrassing heap.
“Name tag!”
The two Ulbaniellos rushed in and pinned the fallen calf.
Mupola did not dismount.
Switch in hand, he drove off the mother cow, who had realized the danger to her calf and was charging back toward them.
Crack!
“Whoa. Whoa!”
The mother cow cried plaintively after being struck by the switch.
Meanwhile, a crude name tag was fastened to the calf’s ear.
At the Ulbaniellos’ signal that they were finished, the rope was released.
Finally free, the calf returned to its mother’s side.
Lawrence could only marvel at how swiftly it had all been done.
Judging by the small round of applause that rose around them, the other mercenaries felt much the same.
“I see this every time there’s a job. The Ulbaniellos’ rope work really is something else.”
“You see this every time?”
“It’s a monthly routine. The newborn calves need name tags so everyone knows who they belong to, but it’s not easy work, and somebody gets hurt now and then. Did you know that if a person gets bowled over by a cow, they fly through the air?”
“……”
Fly through the air, she said...
It was said with a laugh, but it wasn’t the sort of thing he could laugh about.
Even Lawrence, who hadn’t seen it himself, could imagine just how badly someone would be hurt after falling from the sky.
More than that, the trick he’d just seen kept replaying in his head.
The rope spinning through the air.
How Mupola had twirled it, how he’d thrown it.
It had snatched the calf’s neck with almost impossible precision, as if the rope had been drawn in by force.
Could I use that somehow?
Lawrence’s eyes, sunk deep in a pool of thought, quietly narrowed.
＊ ＊ ＊
They rested at Kassler’s ranch for five days, one more than expected.
It was enough time for rest and maintenance.
But from here on, because they were leaving the swamp’s outer edge behind, there was twice as much to prepare as when they’d set out from the village.
The thin clothes meant for shielding them from sunlight were replaced with thick robes.
And they stocked up on more Lamael than Kaizle, which they wouldn’t be able to use much longer.
As for water, there was no need to mention it.
Given the swamp’s nature, if one looked hard enough for water, one might find plenty of it.
But unlike the water cattle drank, people couldn’t safely drink that water.
“It’ll give you diarrhea. For all I know, you can just think of it as poison water.”
“During the rainy season, if you pick carefully enough, you can still drink the rainwater. But unless you’re from around here, I wouldn’t recommend it. If your stomach doesn’t take to it, you’ll end up throwing up more than you drink.”
The dry season and the rainy season were two different worlds.
Lawrence didn’t know how long they would stay in the Ulbazar Swamp, but experiencing the rainy season at least once didn’t seem like a bad thing.
“You said you’ve never gone into the swamp itself, right?”
“Yes. This is my first time.”
“Then this is where it starts. You’re in for a proper initiation.”
“Watch out for bugs, mage. If you see something crawling around, get up quick. Nine times out of ten, it’s a snake.”
“You’re joking, right?”
At Lawrence’s question, Garrick and Ronan both looked away.
“I wish I were.”
“And don’t forget we get docked from our pay every time we use an antidote.”
“……”
That was not welcome news.
“But you use poison, Garrick. Don’t you hate poisonous bugs?”
“Just because you’re a poison user doesn’t mean you like poison.”
“It’s hard enough doing the things you like. If you hate them, it must be even worse.”
“If things go wrong, you die. Who the hell would like that? The only weirdos who’d love poisonous bugs and snakes like the ones you’re talking about are hunters in the Kingdom of Sultaniya.”
How many days had it been since they left Kassler’s ranch?
The scattered traces of greenery here and there began to paint the landscape in earnest.
As waterways and rivers grew more numerous, the party’s pace gradually slowed.
Since there was plenty of grass for the cattle to eat, there was no need to push ahead any faster.
At the same time, the dangers his companions had warned him about became real.
Poisonous insects and snakes.
On top of that, lizards and bugs of all kinds, creatures he couldn’t even name, started appearing from every direction.
He immediately understood why they had prepared thick robes and hoods.
Countless insects fell onto his hood, and others that had slipped through the heavy robe bit him all over the body.
Some insects even ignored the robe altogether and bit straight through the clothes.
They were so vicious that the upper arm exposed below his sleeve was covered in red welts.
His entire body itched horribly.
The bites wouldn’t stop itching no matter what, and every so often they would flare into a prickling pain.
No matter how much a bite itched, he couldn’t scratch it.
He couldn’t stop himself from scratching in his sleep, but Lawrence made every effort to stay aware of it and keep his hands off the bitten spots.
“I’m dying. Fuck. I’m seriously dying!”
“Shut up. Serves you right for scratching like that.”
That was thanks to Garrick, an excellent example of what not to do.
He’d scratched his bites raw, and his body was covered in oozing sores.
“Tsk, tsk. A poison user being played by poison. That’s rich.”
“I told you, not all poison users like poison!”
He wasn’t joking when he said he didn’t want to end up like that.
Itched and ached.
The relentless sun beat down so hot it made him feel feverish.
And every time he washed the sweat that never seemed to stop pouring off him, his strength drained away.
Even so, jaguars still attacked the cattle.
With more natural cover around them, it became much harder to search out the beasts in advance than it had been at the swamp’s entrance.
The jaguars could swim through the river, of course, but they also hid in places no one would ever think to look and then sprang out suddenly.
Every time that happened, the bawling of cattle echoed through the swamp.
“Lawrence!”
“I see it!”
Unlike at the swamp’s outer edge, from here on there were many more chances to use Fire Tail.
With so many places for the jaguars to hide, Shadow Light alone had its limits when it came to searching for them.
Using Fire Tail felt closer to sweeping away the places the beasts had hidden in as much as it did striking them.
For a jaguar that prioritized hiding over speed, there could hardly have been a more reliable counter.
The problem, as always, was its destructive power.
Because it sliced through concealed targets in a single blow, anything caught in Fire Tail was burned to a crisp without fail.
It reduced damage, but it left him no way to preserve the remains.
So Lawrence changed his approach.
If he couldn’t lower the power, then he would improve his control.
He would narrow his aim and reduce the damage dealt to the rest of the body as much as possible.
The technique was similar to the Fire spell he’d handled at the mercenary guild.
At first, it didn’t go well.
For one thing, the jaguars were hard to see in the first place, and Fire Tail tended to burn everything around them.
But magic grows through combat.
As his ability to control Fire Tail improved, the corpses of the jaguars slowly began to change.
“Now I see why mages are feared.”
Balick, inspecting a jaguar Lawrence had killed, said as much.
The spell that had left nothing but charcoal-black husks behind.
The spell that had burned away the animal’s entire hide.
Now, it cleanly severed only the jaguar’s head.
“Didn’t you know? Mages are scary by nature.”
“...No, that’s not what I mean. I mean you’re scary.”
Isolde muttered in disbelief.
“I don’t know how you can focus like that. Up until now, I thought Garrick was the strangest person I’d ever met. Guess the world’s a lot bigger than I thought, and there are plenty of lunatics in it.”
“I agree with that. Out of all the women I’ve met, you’re the most unusual.”
“You just insulted me, didn’t you?”
“The one who called me a lunatic first was you, Isolde.”
Garrick happened to pass by and, hearing that, snickered.
＊ ＊ ＊
“Was it always this hard?”
“It’s still better than usual this time.”
Ronan, pointing to Shadow Light, said, “Thanks to the magic you’re using, fewer bugs and snakes are swarming us than they normally would.”
“This is fewer?” Lawrence blinked. “Then how bad is it on a normal day...?”
“If you want to know, go look at the mercenaries on the other side. They all look just like that guy.”
“I can guess without looking.”
That guy was obviously Garrick.
Seeing him twist and jerk his whole body nonstop, Isolde broke into a cackle.
Even after they applied medicine, it only held the line.
The reason was simple.
What use was medicine if he kept getting bitten and scratching himself open just as much? The situation never improved.
On the third day, when jaguar attacks had become somewhat more frequent, Lawrence’s tired eyes caught sight of a brilliant bird in the trees.
A blue bird perched on a branch.
What was unusual was that its beak was nearly as large as its head.
It looked sturdy enough to bore holes in trees like a woodpecker.
“Ronan. I didn’t know birds like that existed.”
“Birds? Oh. Nice catch. That’s a Sky-Blue Broad-Billed Bird.”
“A Sky-Blue Broad-Billed Bird?”
“It’s a peculiar bird that only lives in the swamp. I’ll let Balick know.”
Was it really worth reporting just for that?
All he’d done was spot a single bird.
Somehow, Isolde had heard and was now walking toward them from farther away.
“You found a Sky-Blue Broad-Billed Bird?”
“Not anymore. It was up there just now, but I don’t know where it went. If I’d known, I should’ve caught it.”
“No, the important thing is that you saw it. If you find a Sky-Blue Broad-Billed Bird, you can track its traces. Don’t be disappointed. If you pick the right direction, you’ll see not just one, but dozens of them.”
For some reason, Isolde looked excited.
“Sky-Blue Broad-Billed Birds only eat Waterseed. It’s this red fruit with a bumpy surface. Have you ever tried it?”
Lawrence shook his head.
“Then make sure you try it this chance. It’s really delicious. It’s so full of juice that people eat it as a substitute for water in the swamp.”
“If it’s such a convenient fruit, shouldn’t you stock up before setting out? Or is it expensive?”
“That too. But imagine carrying Waterseed all the way from here to the village. It’d spoil from the heat. That’s why it’s a fantasy fruit you can only eat in the swamp.”
“A fantasy fruit...”
For a moment, he thought of the fruit he hadn’t been able to eat in Dragon Valley.
“But how does finding a Sky-Blue Broad-Billed Bird connect to Waterseed?”
“I told you. They only eat Waterseed.”
“Don’t they eat other things too? It’s not like fruit is the only thing around. They must eat something else.”
“No. They don’t. Sky-Blue Broad-Billed Birds don’t eat anything but Waterseed.”
“What?”
That made no sense whatsoever.
It was a bird; surely it should eat insects or worms without issue.
“Wait. Then what happens if there’s no Waterseed around? Do they just not eat anything and die?”
“You catch on fast. Exactly. Sky-Blue Broad-Billed Birds starve to death if there’s no Waterseed.”
“……”
Even Lawrence had no words left.
“You want to know the best part? Waterseed needs clean water to grow. In other words, if you find Sky-Blue Broad-Billed Birds, they’re worth their weight in gold. At least in this swamp.”
She was right.
The Ulbaniellos began searching around the area where Lawrence had spotted the Sky-Blue Broad-Billed Bird.
Following its traces opened up a whole new world.
Greenery bloomed thickly everywhere.
And beyond the trees where the Sky-Blue Broad-Billed Birds came and went, there was a lake.
It was different from the rivers they’d seen so far in the swamp.
The water had a clear, luminous sheen to it and looked clean enough to drink directly.
It felt almost like this place wasn’t part of the swamp at all, but some other land entirely.
Not only the mercenaries but the Ulbaniellos too freely picked Waterseed that grew on the trees and ate it on the spot.
There was no need to peel it.
They ate the fruit exactly as it was, bumpy skin and all.
Lawrence, his eyes bright with expectation, lifted a Waterseed to his mouth.
…!
However much moisture it had stored, so much juice spilled out that he couldn’t even keep it all in his mouth.
It wasn’t merely sweet. It was unbelievably refreshing.
He couldn’t remember the last time he’d eaten anything this cold and clean.
He never would have guessed he’d find such a luxurious fruit in the middle of the Ulbazar Swamp, where the heat bore down like a living thing.
A fantasy fruit.
The name fit perfectly.
There was no better word for it than fantasy.
Lawrence finished off one Waterseed in an instant and reached for another.
It didn’t just quench his thirst; it made his whole body feel cool.
He felt strength surging through him from nowhere, and a smile rose on its own.
“There he is, the mage!”
“The star of the day has arrived!”
He was on his third Waterseed when the Ulbaniellos sitting near the water called out to him.
“Who would’ve thought we’d find a Sky-Blue Broad-Billed Bird. The spirits must be watching over you, mage sir.”
“It was just luck. You don’t have to praise me so much.”
He knew they were only being polite.
But since he wasn’t used to this sort of thing, it still made him awkwardly self-conscious.
“If it was luck, that makes it even more impressive. For a newcomer to the swamp to stumble into a miracle like this... Even seeing it with my own eyes, I can hardly believe it.”
“Now, now. You’re being rude. The mage sir said he’s from the clergy.”
“He’s clergy? That mage sir? What nonsense is that?”
The middle-aged Ulbaniello looked stunned and disbelieving.
“It’s fine. I don’t force my beliefs on anyone.”
“Huh... I heard the clergy and the Magic Tower don’t get along. Guess I didn’t know what I was talking about. Here, then. As an apology, I’ll give you this freshly grilled Sky-Blue Broad-Billed Bird.”
He handed Lawrence a freshly roasted bird, sizzling and appetizing.
“You know now, right? I don’t refuse food.”
“Hahaha! Of course! If it hadn’t been for you, we wouldn’t have even gotten to taste it!”
Maybe it was because he’d gone hungry so long in Dragon Valley.
Ever since arriving in the Ulbazar Swamp, his appetite had grown noticeably stronger.
He’d already been a big eater, and with his appetite increasing on top of that, it was no wonder the others were surprised.
The grilled Sky-Blue Broad-Billed Bird had a tender, juicy texture that made it especially appealing.
After living on dried meat and boiled fruit for so long, the taste felt even more precious. And unlike how it looked, there was plenty of meat to leave him thoroughly full.
There was no need to say anything about washing himself in clean water for the first time in ages.
His drinking water had been replenished.
Both cattle and humans had regained their vitality.
Evening watch that night felt lighter on the heart.
“Watch your head. Once the vegetation gets thick, all kinds of strange things start coming out.”
Still itchy, Garrick scratched his stomach hard enough to make noise as he spoke.
“I know, so stop scratching already. You’ll make it suppurate again.”
“What’s the big deal if it suppurates? If a snake bites you, you die in agony.”
“If we’re talking about poison, I think I’ve heard it more than a hundred times now. During the rainy season the swamp changes like this, so watch out for snakes coming down from the trees. Watch out for poisonous insects hiding in the grass. Don’t go near the rivers because the Eligator comes out. That’s everything Garrick’s told me.”
“You’re still far from knowing it all. You can hear more.”
Thanks to him, Lawrence had gained a clear sense of just how dangerous the swamp was.
As the man said, the swamp was full of insects of all kinds.
Even the snake he’d spotted in the trees a little while ago had been enormous.
A snake nearly as long as Balick had descended without making a sound, and Isolde’s scream had been so loud it felt like his ears might fall right off.
Fortunately, large snakes were said to be less likely to carry poison.
But that was beside the point; it was a monster snake big enough to swallow a person.
“In the rainy season, if a calf goes missing, don’t suspect a jaguar first. Suspect a snake. You know why? If a jaguar takes it, there’s usually some sign of a struggle or blood left behind. But if a snake eats it, the thing just vanishes without a trace.”
“Well, that’s certainly the information I was dying to hear.”
It wasn’t exactly something worth being surprised about.
If the thing looked like it could eat a person, then surely a calf wouldn’t be any different.
“Still, from what I’m hearing, the rainy season sounds better than the dry season.”
“There’s no easy season. The rainy season has its own problems. We only go because Eligator hides are worth money. Otherwise, I wouldn’t even look at the swamp in the rainy season.”
“It’s biting you again.”
“What?”
Garrick hurriedly shook himself off.
A tick-like insect dropped from him, not one but three or four of them in a flurry.
“Damn it. Those bastard bugs...”
On his arm, where the oozing sores had almost faded, fresh bite marks appeared again.
“You’re talking nonsense because you don’t know. In the rainy season, it rains. Every single day. Without fail. It just pours down like the sky’s been split open.”
“At least it won’t be hot, then.”
“You think so? It’s still sticky as hell. Your clothes rot, your armor gets heavy, and the food spoils. Isolde’s foot odor is basically torture. Need I go on?”
“Th-then stop already. It’s not as if Isolde wants to smell bad.”
“Why would I stop? You should smell Isolde’s foot odor for yourself. Then you’d think, ah, the dry season was better.”
“……”
There was no point hinting at him to stop.
Before Lawrence even realized it, a fearsome-looking Isolde was standing behind Garrick.
He sensed the disaster to come.
Quietly shifting his foot back, Lawrence slipped away from the spot.
A moment later, Garrick’s horrific scream rang out.
---