Orcs (2)
The Shadow Spear surged forward.
The orc that had been following the trail finally straightened up.
By the time it sensed the ominous presence creeping up behind it, it was already too late.
The moment it turned, its body was split cleanly in two.
Top and bottom, severed in a single stroke.
Its lower half lay far away, beyond the upended line where earth met sky.
The question that had flickered in its eyes would never be answered.
A beat later, blue blood geysered from the cut surface.
There was no reversal.
It was almost disappointingly simple.
The orc, killed in one blow, never moved again.
That was the Shadow Spear that had once slain a bugbear in a single strike.
An orc caught by surprise and turned into a corpse—that was only natural.
Lawrence drove his dagger into the orc’s heart.
He collected the blood as it spilled into a vial he had prepared in advance.
By the time it was half full, the blood had already started to darken to black.
He corked the vial and cut off the orc’s nose to keep as proof.
Then he coldly assessed the situation.
Where the Shadow Spear had struck, only a crater remained.
Maybe I should rein in the power a little.
No. It would probably be better to raise the aim rather than weaken it.
If he toned the power down carelessly, there was always the chance the orc might survive.
Better to hurl it harmlessly into the sky instead, where the risk was lower.
He had come deep into the Rival Plains just in case.
Leaving traces of himself behind at the scene would be foolish.
Tracks never lied.
He pulled an axe from the orc’s corpse.
To erase the blast mark, he chopped and pressed the ground all around it.
It was crude, but better than doing nothing.
When he finished, Lawrence took the axe with him.
He had wanted to take the bow too, if possible, but when the orc’s body had been split in two, the bow had split with it.
After collecting everything worth taking, Lawrence left the spot behind.
The one-hit-kill Shadow Spear.
The second orc. The third. He dealt with them the same way.
Because he attacked from a safe distance, he never exposed himself to danger.
The feeling that everything was clicking into place exactly as planned was satisfying.
He controlled what he could, then rolled the dice inside those limits.
Maybe it was the stress from his recent reading lessons.
Whatever the reason, tracking down the orcs one by one and cutting them off was exhilarating.
The only disappointment was that there weren’t many of them.
Finding their trail wasn’t difficult.
Chasing it, however, took quite a bit of time.
By the time he was following the fourth set of tracks, the water bottle he had brought with him was already empty.
“……”
Maybe I should bring more next time.
Perhaps because he had been fighting the trail as much as the orcs, he was thirstier than usual.
He decided he would hunt only the orc he was currently tracking.
With that in mind, Lawrence endured his thirst and kept following the traces.
The fourth orc was wounded.
Its body, visible beneath its leather armor, was covered in injuries.
Worst of all, its right arm was bleeding so badly that the bone showed through.
It was breathing harshly through its shoulder.
Blue blood dripped from lips that couldn’t quite close.
This time, Lawrence approached with caution.
There was an unspoken rule among mercenaries that they did not interfere with one another’s prey.
If another mercenary had already wounded it in a clash and the fight wasn’t over yet, he couldn’t afford to act recklessly.
But even as time passed, there was no sign of any other mercenary.
Only two conclusions remained.
Either the mercenary who fought the orc had been wiped out, or they had fled.
After thinking it over for a moment, Lawrence raised a hand.
It felt like a shame to turn back now.
He had already come this far; the time he’d spent following the trail would go to waste.
Even if it was a monster, it didn’t mean it couldn’t feel pain.
As a final act of mercy, he should end its suffering at once.
“Shadow Spear.”
He aimed slightly upward.
From below to above, like a rising strike.
The third orc had aimed too high and blown apart the entire area around its chest, but Lawrence would not repeat that mistake.
Once his aim was set, the Shadow Spear sprang from his hand.
The staggering shape, surprisingly, dodged it.
“What…?”
No way.
How did it dodge that?
The orc looked back.
Its expression changed the instant it spotted Lawrence.
The axe slung over its shoulder, the orc bent one knee.
Its blue eyes sharpened with fighting spirit.
Leaning forward with its weight shifted onto the front foot, it looked almost like a wolf.
Though its injured right arm hung limp, it kept its gaze locked on Lawrence.
Was it not planning to die like this?
If it was going to die anyway, did it want to go down fighting?
Lawrence didn’t know.
Judging by the wounds, though, there was no chance the orc would survive.
He couldn’t tell how stubborn its life force was, but the blood pouring from its injuries was already close to a lethal amount.
Lawrence’s eyes grew cold as he looked at it.
A final mercy.
If it insisted on taking the harder road, then there was nothing to be done.
He watched the orc drag its feet as it moved.
Even with wounds severe enough to bring it close to death, its eyes were still alive.
That cold, watchful stare tracked every move of its enemy.
Its presence was fierce, as though it would spring the instant Lawrence showed the slightest suspicious movement.
But it couldn’t hide how exhausted it was.
Its breathing was ragged, its shoulders heaving with every shallow pull of air.
There was no denying it: the flame of life would soon go out.
“Shadow Spear.”
Even if it was wounded, there was no reason to take unnecessary risks.
The orc, waiting only for the moment to charge, was thrown into confusion by the reappearing Shadow Spear, its eyes darting everywhere.
Lawrence was not about to waste that opening.
The Shadow Spear shot toward it.
The orc slipped aside with a light, agile motion.
It wasn’t luck.
That was not the speed of a creature that should have been crippled.
The orc retreated, then slung its axe onto its back again.
“Kyaaral!”
It hadn’t dodged perfectly.
The already serious wound in its right arm had been caught by the Shadow Spear.
But the orc didn’t care.
Its eyes were already alight with resolve.
It was coming.
Lawrence knew it at once.
The Shadow Spear was too slow now.
He needed time. Lawrence thrust his hand toward it.
“Bind.”
Greenery on the ground surged up into vines.
Crack.
The branch beneath the orc’s feet snapped.
And then, in the next instant, its body vanished.
An explosive leap. By the time Lawrence registered what had happened, the axe was already looming over his head.
“…!? Holy Shield!”
He barked the spell almost by reflex.
A shield of radiance rose before the hand he had extended to cast Bind.
Clang!
“Ghk!”
The Holy Shield shattered under a single axe blow from the orc.
He couldn’t withstand the shock and stumbled backward.
His head was spinning.
The impact felt as if his whole body had been turned inside out.
Bile surged up his throat.
He forced it back down and clenched his teeth as he lifted his head.
His judgment had been wrong.
The orc, having reset its stance with the axe, was rolling its shoulder in wide circles.
Its muscles swelled.
As if it felt no pain from the injury at all, it hurled the axe forward.
There was no time to see it and react.
The moment he saw the arm swing, he threw himself flat to the ground.
Thunk!
The tree behind Lawrence toppled straight backward.
What monstrous strength.
And it had been thrown with one hand.
The orc began pulling the axe back along the thick rope attached to it.
Its message was clear: if Lawrence didn’t come to it, it would come again.
At that sight, he raised both hands.
“Shadow Spear.”
Fast.
Faster than the orc.
As if mirroring the boy’s will, the process ended in an instant.
The orc was still hauling back its axe.
This time, it wouldn’t dodge. Having devoured mana without restraint, the Shadow Spear left Lawrence’s hand.
The orc, just about to throw the axe again, darted away from its position at once.
But this was no ordinary Shadow Spear.
The wind split.
Leaving a black trail in its wake, the spear reached the orc in the blink of an eye.
This was speed the orc had clearly not expected.
Had it sensed that there was no way to escape?
Arrogantly, the creature chose to meet the shadow spear head-on with its axe.
“Kyaaral!”
The result was obvious.
The Shadow Spear devoured the orc along with its axe.
Organs and chunks of flesh spilled out.
Blue blood burst from the body impaled by the shadow spear.
Even after receiving its death sentence, the orc took one step, then another toward Lawrence before finally stopping.
And yet, it still hadn’t died?
As proof of a life force that would not give in, its mouth moved with effort.
“■■■….”
Lawrence had no idea what it said.
With that, the orc fell silent.
“Huff. Huff.”
Lawrence sank down where he stood.
He was so shocked he didn’t even think about collecting the blood.
If it hadn’t been for the Holy Shield, it would have been truly dangerous.
He hadn’t expected trying Bind there to backfire on him.
The orc’s movements were simply too fast for Bind to catch.
No—if it had caught it, could it really have stopped that movement?
It probably wouldn’t even have bought time.
Only now did he understand why the mercenary who’d been fighting that orc hadn’t been visible.
It was that strong.
Just as people varied in strength, so did orcs.
The reason he hadn’t noticed that until now was because he had always taken them by surprise.
He couldn’t afford to underestimate them.
No matter how powerful magic was, it wasn’t omnipotent.
And Lawrence was alone.
With no one behind him, he had to do his best every single moment.
This was no time to worry about leaving traces behind.
Once he was dead, traces wouldn’t matter at all.
He should be grateful he still had his head attached to his body.
Massaging his aching lower back, Lawrence took out his dagger.
He might be leaving, but he couldn’t forget the nose.
* * *
Lawrence visited the magic shop after a long while.
He had been delayed by the orc hunt, and by the time he came to exchange his fourth reading book, ten whole days had passed since his last visit.
“Hello?”
Lawrence headed for the counter and looked for Lurizisa.
Whenever there were no customers, she was usually inside reading a magic book, and he had no doubt she’d be there today as well.
But the person who appeared was a male clerk instead.
“What is it? Looking for something?”
The clerk’s voice was curt, as if telling him not to bother him.
“I’m looking for the clerk who’s usually here. The one who always…”
“The one who always? Ah. Lady Lurizisa has gone to the royal capital.”
“She’s gone?”
“Yes. I’m normally in charge of the Rombamel branch. Lady Lurizisa was a student here on practical training from the Royal Academy.”
Lawrence blinked at him blankly.
“What do you mean?”
“The Royal Academy has required credits for graduation. That’s why noble children are sent out to practice in remote places. The extra points are pretty substantial, so our Rombamel branch is quite popular.”
So working as a clerk in the magic shop had been part of her training.
Lurizisa had apparently been a student at the Royal Academy.
He would no longer be able to meet her.
As the thought took root in his mind, a deep sense of disappointment spread through him.
“Why were you looking for Lady Lurizisa, by the way?”
“Well… I suppose you could call it a promise. She said she’d exchange reading books with me.”
He wasn’t sure promise was the right word.
More precisely, it was closer to her lending him reading books in stages so he could study magic texts.
“By any chance, are you the friend Lady Lurizisa mentioned?”
Friend.
It was a word he hadn’t heard in a very long time.
“Silver hair and golden eyes. She said your name was Lawrence. Is that you?”
“Ah, yes. I’m Lawrence.”
“Please wait a moment.”
While the clerk went inside, Lawrence fell into thought.
Had Lurizisa thought of him as a friend?
He had never really considered it, so honestly, he didn’t know.
She was a noble, after all.
Was it even sensible to speak of being friends with a noble?
No. That wasn’t important now.
…If she really had thought of him as a friend, then why had she left without even saying a word?
The friends he had buried in his heart surfaced one by one, and he felt unexpectedly gloomy.
After a while, the clerk came back carrying several books.
“These are the things Lady Lurizisa left here. She told me to give them to her friend Lawrence if he showed up.”
“Lady Lurizisa did?”
“Yes. I definitely passed the message along.”
With that, the clerk disappeared back into the shop.
Left alone, Lawrence checked the items Lurizisa had entrusted to the store.
Three books and a handkerchief embroidered with a golden lion.
The handkerchief bulged in the middle, as if something had been wrapped inside it.
He carefully unfolded it first, then opened the books.
Two of them were reading books he still needed to study.
The third was clearly different at a glance.
On the thick cover was the title Water.
He recognized it immediately. It was a magic book.
Suppressing his excitement, he began to look through it.
Thanks to the reading lessons he had done with Lurizisa, he was able to make out parts of the text.
Water was a basic water-aspect spell.
In other words, just as Fire kindled flame, Water created water.
Lawrence closed the magic book and unfolded the handkerchief.
The exquisitely embroidered lion stole his attention at once.
The handkerchief, woven through with golden thread, was luxurious beyond measure.
It looked like the work of an unknown master craftsman.
When he opened it fully, a pocket watch and a letter fell out.
The letter, carefully opened, contained writing in a familiar hand.
The first paragraph began with an apology.
It said she was sorry for leaving only a letter behind.
Then came a note about the Academy’s practical training period.
Most of the body was about reading and magic.
It continued the same subject he had often asked her about.
It was full of advice on what he should keep in mind after finishing his studies.
When he reached the part asking him to buy her some sheep’s-milk yogurt the next time he visited the royal capital, a laugh escaped him before he could stop it.
Lurizisa was a noble attending the Royal Academy.
Surely she could afford a bowl of sheep’s-milk yogurt?
This was her way of saying they should meet again someday.
“……”
Like rain soaking into parched earth, Lurizisa’s letter seeped into Lawrence’s heart.
It was a warmth the boy had never felt in all the years of his life.
A fragrance like a flower just beginning to bloom tickled his nose.
The handkerchief still held plenty of Lurizisa’s scent.
For a brief moment, he let himself be intoxicated by that charming fragrance.
Then Lawrence carefully tucked the handkerchief into his chest.
Until the day he would go to the royal capital and see Lurizisa again.
He hoped the flower scent lingering on the cloth would not fade.
Quietly, the boy buried that small wish deep in his heart.
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