The Swamp After the Rain
“I’m a little hurt that you only realized that now.”
“No, I’d heard it from Isolde, but... killing a bugbear in one blow? That sounds ridiculous. I assumed it was nonsense, of course. But seeing this now, I’m not so sure.”
“It’s true that I killed the bugbear in one shot. But if you’re asking whether I took it down alone, then no, I didn’t.”
It had been possible only because the mercenaries in front of the bugbear had risked their lives to draw its attention.
“Well, that figures. Even so, the power is beyond doubt, isn’t it? If a bugbear had assumed it was safe and then been ambushed like this... truly impressive. If only we had someone like you, I’m certain our village wouldn’t be as poor as it is.”
“If you want to hire me, you’ll need a great deal of money.”
“Once this job is over, the lord may send word for you. No—if you return safely from the bugbear’s nest, he’ll definitely come looking.”
“I doubt it. What reason would a noble have to look for me?”
It was a pointless conversation.
Lawrence remembered Baron Jeffrey from Hilton Village.
He ate so well every day that he was fat, and he wore jewels on every part of his body as if he were wrapping himself in symbols of wealth.
Lawrence had no idea what his face looked like.
When Baron Jeffrey made his rounds through the village, people were too busy bowing their heads to the ground to see anything at all.
No one dared look up.
There were more than a few people who’d been hauled off to the castle simply for being a little too slow to show proper respect.
He remembered that cold, indifferent gaze, that frostbitten attitude.
The way villagers were treated as if they weren’t even human because they were orphans.
Nobles, it seemed, didn’t think of commoners as people either.
“The name of a mage carries that much weight.”
“I’m also a cleric of the Order. As far as I know, nobles don’t lightly interfere in the Order’s affairs.”
“You said yourself you’re an unusual case. And you’re not even a proper priest or temple guardian. You’re not one of the Order’s high-ranking people, so there’s room for negotiation, isn’t there?”
“That...” Lawrence couldn’t deny it.
It was unlikely to happen, but if some noble were to offer him an enormous reward, he wasn’t confident he wouldn’t be tempted.
“The fact that you’re working as a mercenary is proof enough. You’ve only borrowed the Order’s name; you’re far from a true cleric. That means your attitude toward the divine has to be different too.”
“At any rate, this is all just hypothetical, isn’t it? I can’t imagine a noble would approach me with goodwill in the first place.”
“Even if it is hypothetical, think about it. Maybe not now, but with your ability, rumors will spread eventually. And when they do, they’ll follow you under the name of fame.”
He couldn’t say the thought had never crossed his mind.
When people thought of mages, they were supposed to be the sort of beings singers and bards sang about—figures who rode the battlefield beside legends.
And while some of those heroes had risen from humble commoners to stand above the masses, most of their companions had been nobles from distinguished bloodlines.
In other words, mages and nobles were inseparable, like water and fish.
“I believe there was an opening for a lord’s mage. Our swamp isn’t exactly the sort of place mages like, as you can see. If you were to become the territory’s mage... honestly, I’d welcome it.”
“That’s getting a little ahead of ourselves. Even if, as you say, such an offer were to come up, surviving the swamp comes first.”
He couldn’t afford to lose sight of what mattered at this very moment.
No, to begin with, he hadn’t expected Neil to react this strongly just from seeing a single spell.
Back at camp, when he’d used Shadow Light or Shadow, Neil had seemed almost indifferent. But once he saw a proper attack spell, his attitude had clearly changed.
If he’d known this would happen, he should have insisted on showing him Shadow Spear during the herb-gathering trip.
Back then, out of respect for Neil’s way of doing things, he hadn’t used a single spell on the request. He hadn’t expected that choice to come back in the form of this reaction.
“Don’t worry about it. I’ll personally see you safely back to the village. So you should seriously think over the matter of becoming the lord’s mage.”
At Neil’s grave tone, Lawrence nodded.
All right.
He could think of it as a good experience.
Lawrence was a mage.
There was no need to complicate it with flowery language.
A mage only needed to prove himself with magic.
He checked the goblin corpses.
Perhaps because he’d focused more on speed than power.
The goblins exposed to Shadow Spear were still at least recognizable as bodies.
The one that had taken the strike head-on was left as nothing more than strips of flesh, while the one caught in the stray explosion was missing bits of its body here and there.
As Lawrence rummaged through the corpses, which stank of filth and rot, he found the thing he’d been looking for.
A whistle no larger than a pinky finger.
Stained with goblin blood, it was a blowpipe dart.
He shook it lightly, and the needle inside slipped out.
“Depending on how it’s used, it can even paralyze a jaguar.”
“If it can take down a magical beast, then humans are obvious prey.”
Neil, who had followed Lawrence in among the goblin bodies, spoke up.
“The downside is that it takes quite a while before the effect sets in. Mercenaries unfamiliar with the swamp sometimes don’t even realize they’ve been hit by a goblin dart and keep wandering around until they suddenly collapse. That’s usually what happens to outsiders who die without a fight.”
“It’s similar to the Forest Spiders in Spider Forest. They use paralyzing needles too, just like these goblins.”
Even without any other toxic effect, it was a problem.
Once you couldn’t move in a swamp like this, death was the only guest that ever came calling.
That wasn’t an exaggeration. The final looks on those dragged away by the Forest Spiders’ paralysis needles had been exactly like that.
Meat scraps reduced to a meal for spiders.
The thought that he might see the same horrifying sight here made Lawrence’s expression go stiff.
“Where can I get an antidote?”
“Swamp water. More precisely, you need to mix the water from the rainy season with several herbs. It’s a simple recipe, but not something an ordinary mercenary could make. Here, just eat this quietly.”
Inside a small bottle was a green powder.
There was no need to ask. This was probably the antidote.
“I’ll take it later.”
“I have absolutely no desire to drag you along. Eat it now, before your body goes numb.”
This time, his lightly mocking words were right.
On the lower leg, where the hem of the vestment didn’t reach, a tiny needle was sticking out.
He hadn’t felt it.
Apparently, he’d already been hit by one of the goblins’ darts.
* * *
As they ventured deeper into the swamp, the number of monsters they encountered gradually increased as well.
Jaguars lying in wait with their breath held, watching for prey.
Countless goblins moving in packs.
Even wild animals Lawrence couldn’t identify filled the edge of his vision.
And eventually, they came face-to-face with the creature he had only heard of in stories.
At first, he thought he was seeing things.
That was because a black something—something so massive it could only be described as crude and brutish—had been swimming through the river at tremendous speed.
But it wasn’t an illusion.
The sheer size of it was beyond what one would think a fish could possibly possess.
A pitch-black streak glided leisurely across the river.
Then, above the water’s surface, leather as hard as armor broke the skin of the river.
And right atop it, two eyes fixed on their prey with merciless coldness.
Once the danger lurking in the rainy-season swamp had moved off into the distance, the two of them emerged from the camouflage netting.
“It’s really enormous. I didn’t realize it from hearing about it, but I had no idea an alligator could be that big.”
It had been hard to see in the water, but even the dark shadow alone had been enough to suggest its approximate size.
He’d heard they walked on two legs on land.
At that size, weren’t they almost as big as the trolls he’d only heard about?
“A full-grown alligator can rival a building in size. Before you even think about exterminating one, you have to think about running. Still, they usually aren’t that big. The one that just passed by was an unusual case.”
“That’s somewhat reassuring. If something like that attacked while we were crossing the river, we wouldn’t even find a body.”
“In the river, they’re more dangerous than that bugbear ever was. If they were easy to kill, there’d be no reason their hides were so valuable.”
He packed the camouflage net away in his bag.
After being wrapped in it over and over again, he’d grown used to it, just like the foul-smelling hide armor.
The odor was still miserable, but not so miserable that he had to weigh it against his life.
“I’ve heard there used to be a wild animal called a crocodile in the swamp. In appearance too. Supposedly it was almost identical to an alligator in every way. Then, at some point, the crocodiles vanished and alligators took their place. The ancestors used to say that nature itself was angry, and called it the wrath of the divine.”
By now, Neil added, it was really just the sort of story one told and forgot.
“Alligators walk on two legs on land. They’re so powerful they can uproot trees and use them as weapons. Their jaws are no less monstrous; they can even crush stone with them. But if you fight one while staring only at its front, that tail will come flying around and take your head clean off.”
“I heard fire is their weakness, at least. But looking at that thing, I have no idea how many people would even dare try.”
“If you’re alone, of course. Why do you think mercenaries form parties? It’s all to hunt alligators. Just like when a bugbear is being taken down, with someone holding the front with a shield. If an alligator is surrounded and attacked from multiple directions, it will fall eventually.”
The problem was the hide, he continued.
“Once the fighting gets fierce, the hide is bound to get damaged. That’s why the alligator skins mercenaries bring back are all in different condition. Skilled mercenaries bring back hides with no injuries, while those who fought desperate battles bring back hides covered in scars.”
“The clerk told me that alligators live deep in the swamp, so even bringing the hide back is a problem.”
Lawrence thought of the alligator he’d just seen.
For something that large, the hide must be enormous too. Carrying that and getting out of the swamp couldn’t be easy.
“You don’t bring back the whole hide. You cut out the damaged parts and take whatever’s still intact. Among those, the most valuable section is the alligator’s belly. It’s commonly called the center cut, and it’s valued above all the other by-products.”
“The belly hide... then, Neil, is there anything I should be careful about when skinning one? Like some special tool or something?”
“That doesn’t matter. As long as you can kill it, the rest is just a matter of heating your sword over a fire. If you’ve got enough time, the center cut is easy enough to take.”
That was useful information.
If he ever had to fight an alligator, Lawrence resolved to avoid its belly as much as possible.
Fortunately—or unfortunately—after that, they didn’t encounter any more alligators of such absurd size.
The ones they saw from time to time were smaller than the Forest Spiders or bugbears, though that comparison wasn’t especially meaningful when the monsters being used as reference points were so massive to begin with.
Looking back on it now, he felt as though all monsters were simply huge.
It was fair to say that goblins were the only monsters smaller than Lawrence.
Still, what did size matter?
Whatever the monster, it was equal before the magic the boy wielded.
The alligator would be no different before long.
“Lucky break. The alligator’s out hunting.”
Lawrence looked in the direction Neil pointed.
As he’d said, a black streak was slicing through the water.
This was a good opportunity.
If he could see how it fought, he might be able to decide how to deal with it later, should the need arise.
The unfortunate prey was a jaguar resting near the riverbank.
The creature, moving silently through the water, seized one of the jaguar’s legs in its jaws and dragged it straight under.
A cry of pain rang out.
The jaguar, pulled into the water, struggled against the sudden ambush, but the water that erupted a moment later turned blue with blood and fell still.
It had taken less than a minute from the start of the hunt to the end.
“You saw that, didn’t you? Why you need to be careful around them.”
“......”
There was no need for Neil to tell him that.
If Lawrence had been the jaguar, he would have died without even knowing what had happened.
If the creature were fighting in front of him, that was one thing.
But if it hunted with the careful patience of a predator, then he would have no advantage at all.
The entire swamp was, after all, a hunting ground prepared for the alligator’s benefit.
“From here on, we’ll set up camp a little farther from the river. We’ll naturally run into more snakes that way, but our chances of survival are still better. We have Lamael.”
“Understood.”
Lawrence nodded quietly.
Perhaps it was because they’d reached the swamp’s center.
The steadily darkening marsh looked as if it were refusing to welcome uninvited guests.
The rain showed no sign of stopping, and the river swollen by the downpour kept blocking their path again and again.
Water. Water. Water.
There was nothing to see anywhere but water.
It was enough to make anyone sigh.
“This way’s no good either. We’re turning back.”
“Turning back? That’s the third time already.”
“We don’t have a choice. Even if we built a boat out of wood, the current’s too strong—we’d be swept away in no time. If you want to live, you have to turn back, even if it’s hard.”
The invisible road. The dark landmarks.
The swamp’s center, where dense trees had begun to cluster together, was gradually changing shape until it resembled another forest growing up out of the river.
“Watch your footing. One wrong step and you’ll fall into the river and die.”
It was nothing like the swamp in the dry season.
With rain pouring down as if the sky itself had been torn open, it was nearly impossible to find a place that wasn’t soaked.
Rivers linked into rivers, and wherever the water was shallow enough, snakes as thick as a man’s forearm were busy slithering about.
Lawrence was reminded all over again how convenient Shadow Light truly was.
In the dry season swamp, one use of Shadow Light had been enough to drive away snakes and insects.
But in the rainy season, it had become a lantern that attracted snakes instead, and so he had no choice but to rely entirely on Lamael to keep them at bay.
“Bear with it a little longer. Once I’ve driven them off this one time, I’ll cut down the smoke.”
“......”
Instead of an answer, only coughing filled the silence.
The smoke from burning Lamael was so harsh that his tears and snot wouldn’t stop flowing.
And yet he couldn’t wipe his eyes or nose either.
If he tried to wipe away the smoke, it only came back stinging worse than before.
The best he could do was endure the burning pain and, if possible, wash it off with the rain falling from the sky rather than touch it with his hands.
Had it been about ten days since they entered the swamp’s center?
Only then did Lawrence finally find enough room to breathe and look around properly.
“Feeling a little more alive now?”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t realize it would be this hard.”
He had no excuse.
For the past few days, aside from walking, he’d left everything to Neil.
“Now I understand why everyone said to be careful in the rainy-season swamp. I’m really glad you came as our guide, Neil.”
“Out in nature, people only become smaller and smaller. It’s only natural that those who adapt to the environment and evolve with it are the ones who survive. We don’t even need to look far for proof—the animals we’ve seen crossing the swamp have been exactly that way.”
Neil pulled out a pot he’d buried in the ground.
However he’d made it, when he lifted the lid, warm steam rose from inside.
It was soup.
A nourishing meal he’d prepared for Lawrence, who’d been lacking energy lately.
The food they’d brought from the village had long since run out, except for the emergency rations, and this dish had been made from ingredients Neil had gathered himself.
“Even in such a barren place, life still blooms. The rain from the heavens is seed scattered across the swamp, so compared with the dry season, where only dust and dirt can take root, the rainy season is the happier of the two.”
“Is that also the great will of the divine?”
“According to your Order’s teachings, it would be the great will of the goddess.”
At his utterly natural answer, Lawrence let out a small laugh.