East Ruins (1)
The damp, clinging stench that had clung to us for two days was gone. In its place, a dry scent settled thickly over everything.
“From here on, we should proceed carefully.”
“...Yes.”
Bracing for the unexpected, we dismounted and continued on foot.
Crunch— crunch—
Tiny stones skittered and rolled underfoot with every step.
“It’s strangely quiet...”
Aileen murmured, left hand gripping her horse’s reins while her right held the map open.
Had she been here before?
“Um... have you... ever been here before?”
“Ah, yes. I passed through once, a while back.”
“Why this way...? It’s dangerous...”
“Just... I had some other business to take care of along the way, so I came through.”
Maybe her party had taken a commission that brought them here.
I nodded, accepting it at face value.
“What about you, Noah? Have you been here?”
Of course I had.
More times than I could count on all my fingers and toes put together!
I started to nod... then hurriedly shook my head instead.
“N-no...!”
Whew... that was close.
If I admitted I’d been here—when I couldn’t even ride a horse properly and didn’t know the first thing about long-distance travel gear...
Ugh... just imagining it made me dizzy.
“I see... Aren’t you scared?”
“...? Of what?”
“Just... going somewhere you’ve never been. It’s a little frightening, isn’t it?”
“Mmm... I am trembling, but...”
This trembling wasn’t from fear.
It felt more like anticipation.
Of course, the thought of waking Carpeng or getting surrounded by a pack of gnolls was terrifying—really, truly terrifying.
But if I just gritted my teeth and fought through it... somehow, things would work out.
So the anticipation outweighed the fear.
This was the world I’d loved, after all.
It was a shame I couldn’t see it with my own eyes, but...
“Hmm... I see. That’s unexpected.”
“Yes...? What’s unexpected...?”
“Heh heh... Nothing. No magic beasts nearby, right?”
“There are some, but... uh... at this distance it should be fine...?”
By my sense, three gnolls were clustered a little under twenty meters away.
But a gnoll’s nose wasn’t that sharp.
We weren’t heading that way anyway, so no problem!
“Noah. Can you sense people as well, not just magic beasts?”
“Uh... detection?”
Aileen nodded.
“Mmm... yes. But... if they’re too far, I can’t tell who...”
“You can tell who they are?”
“A-among people I know...?”
Aileen touched her lips thoughtfully.
“Then that means there’s no one except Hermila, right?”
Uh... she was right?
No, wait.
That was way too harsh!
“N-no, it’s not.”
“There’s more? Come on... no way.”
Hah...
Hey!
You, you!!
You don’t pull that kind of joke on someone who genuinely has no friends!
It actually hurts, you know...
“...There are.”
“Who?”
Who were my friends in this world, anyway...?
Uh... Hermila, and the only other person I’d really talked to was Aileen...?
That was it. Two.
I was going to lose my mind.
One friend a month. Not bad?
Huh. Better than my previous life, maybe?
“Uh... H-Hermila and... A... Aileen...”
“Pfft...! And?”
“That’s all...”
Aileen’s shoulders shook violently with laughter.
Really... she was being way too mean...
I-I wanted friends too, you know!
But! But!!
My social stats were zero, so it was hard!
If I could just pick a fight like a real man, settle it with fists, then light up a cigarette afterward!
I didn’t smoke, but still...
That was how you made friends!
Except no one ever picked a fight with me...
Well... only a lunatic would pick a fight with a blind girl under 150 centimeters...
Ah... there had been one, actually.
The guy who tried to steal my weapon on the first day...
But he vanished the next day.
Had he gone far away like me?
For someone who just left, he never showed up again for two whole months...
Well, he was an adventurer. Probably moved on to another village.
Anyway.
Aileen, your words were way too harsh.
“Th-then... do you have any, Aileen? Friends?”
I put as much defiance into it as I could.
She clearly didn’t look like she had any!
Her personality was terrible.
She was probably friendless just like past-life me.
“Hm? We’re not talking about people we know—we’re talking about ‘friends’? So that means you thought of me as a ‘friend,’ Noah?”
Aileen’s reply was... nothing like what I’d expected.
“N-no... no! O-only Hermila...!”
It was the loudest my voice had been in two months.
Maybe I’d grown a little...?
“Oh... so I’m not a friend?”
Aileen slumped with her whole body, voice shrinking into a dejected mumble.
You... wanted to be my friend...? For real?
Th-then you should have said so!
You were always snapping at me—I thought you hated me!
“Uh, um... we a-are friends... yes...”
“Really?”
Nod—
“Then can I ask one favor, as friends?”
“Yes...!”
“Then instead of Aileen, call me Unnie. You’ll do that for a friend, right?”
“Y-yes...?”
Unnie? U-unnieee?!
Absolutely not!
My pride would never allow it! I couldn’t!
Not Noona, not Hyung—Unnie?!
That didn’t even make sense. Tch.
“I can’t...!”
“Haa... I see... So Noah is the kind of friend who won’t even grant a friend’s request... Sigh...”
She slumped with her whole body again.
No. I wasn’t changing my mind. Go back.
This was truly, absolutely impossible.
“A-and... friends don’t... use titles like th-that.”
“I’m older than you, Noah. If you won’t call me Unnie, what are you going to call me?”
“How... old are you, Aileen?”
“Twenty-five.”
Huh... we were the same age?
You look ridiculously young...
“How old are you, Noah?”
“M-me...?”
Uh... well... I’d told the Adventurers’ Guild I was twenty.
I was actually twenty-five, but... my current appearance looked younger than that...
“Twenty...!”
“What? Twenty? You, Noah? With that face?!”
Aileen cupped my cheeks in both hands.
“Whoa, you’re insanely baby-faced... And the way you act isn’t like a twenty-year-old either...”
What?!
I slapped her hands away.
“What’s wrong with the way I act...!”
“Hm? Ah, no... just... it’s kind of cute.”
Cute?!
Oh, come on.
“I’m not cute.”
“Fine. Then you’re not-cute Noah. But that still makes me the Unnie.”
Uh... she wasn’t wrong.
But I... I was a guy...?
Calling her Unnie was something my pride would truly, truly never allow.
“J-just... you can speak casually, Aileen... I’ll keep calling you Aileen...”
A sharp prickle—
“Wait.”
I drew the greatsword hanging at my hip.
“Gnolls. Twelve of them. Coming from the right path right now. Remaining distance... twenty meters.”
“Twelve...?”
“And.”
Gnolls usually moved in packs.
The ones charging now all carried close-range weapons.
That meant there was a rear guard.
I expanded my Qi Sensing.
“Rear guard is... twenty-four.”
“Twenty-four...? N-Noah. We should retreat for now...”
I could hear Aileen’s breath trembling.
My commission was escort duty.
I had to protect Aileen.
I pulled her behind me.
“It’s all right. Just stay behind me.”
Five.
I narrowed my Qi Sensing and focused my mind.
Four.
First strike—the two in front.
Three.
Then the three behind them.
Two.
The rest.
One.
I left it to instinct.
Rrrr—
Grr-...
The two lead gnolls came into view.
“Aileen. I’m counting on you. Hup—!”
After delivering the shortest possible message, I charged forward.
Combining the force of the charge with the power of my footwork, I swung the greatsword.
With a wet burst—two heads exploded.
I spun immediately.
The greatsword followed my body.
Instead of killing the momentum, I poured more strength into it.
Blood droplets scattered as the blade carved through the air.
The three gnolls that had been following behind were torn apart.
I expanded my Qi Sensing again.
The rear guard was roughly fifteen meters back.
A hastily thrown-together pack.
No leader.
This was doable.
“Noah!”
“I need some support.”
The path the gnolls were flooding down painted itself clearly in my mind.
Too narrow to swing a greatsword properly.
So I didn’t swing—I thrust.
First, one.
I leveled the greatsword straight ahead and sprinted.
A gnoll’s belly split open.
From the right, a mace came swinging.
I twisted the hilt and blocked it.
From the left, a gnoll lunged with jaws wide—I slammed it aside with my shoulder.
I drove my knee into the solar plexus of the one that had swung the mace.
Then I rammed the greatsword into the face of the gnoll right in front of me.
I swung my right fist.
It smashed into the solar plexus of another charging gnoll.
Crunch—its ribs shattered.
“Noah!”
I felt Aileen’s energy gather.
I pulled my right hand back and gripped the greatsword again.
With my left I seized a gnoll by the throat and yanked it forward.
“Aileen!”
I ducked.
The sound of air tearing filled my ears as the two gnolls in front of me burst apart.
I drove the greatsword into the heart of the one still clutching its broken ribs.
I steadied my breathing.
Three front-liners left.
I wrenched the embedded greatsword free.
The terrain was bad.
I had to push forward.
Aileen’s prep time was roughly ten seconds.
Time was tight.
“Aileen. Get ready again. Widest range you’ve got. Aim for the ones in the rear.”
Grrra-!
A gnoll charged.
The alley was far too narrow for the greatsword.
I hooked it back at my hip.
I checked the two potions in my inner pocket, then charged the gnolls bare-handed.
My right hand still gripped the hilt.
I shot my left hand out and seized a gnoll’s jaw.
Twisting my shoulder, I slammed my left arm toward the ground. Crack—its jaw tore free.
I switched the hilt to my left hand.
With my right I uppercut the next gnoll’s snout, then spun and shoved the one on my left.
Just a little more.
I stomped on the neck of the gnoll that had crumpled from the jaw strike. I felt the vertebrae shatter.
I turned to finish the one I’d shoved—
And fangs sank into my left arm.
Too late.
My left hand was still on the sword.
With my right I yanked the hammer from my thigh strap.
I smashed it into the skull of the gnoll locked onto my arm.
It wouldn’t let go. Again.
Again. Again. Again. Again.
An eyeball burst.
Brain matter sprayed.
The muscle in my left arm tore.
Strength drained from my left hand.
The gnoll’s jaws still held.
Again. Again. Again. Again.
Again. Again. Again. Again.
Again. Again. Again. Again.
The gnoll’s head caved in.
Only shattered fangs remained embedded in the flesh.
I ripped them out, meat and all.
I pulled a potion from my inner pocket and dumped it over my left arm.
A searing, burning sensation—and the bleeding stopped.
I widened my Qi Sensing.
Just around the bend of the alley, the rear-guard gnolls waited.
Aileen had finished preparing.
“Aileen. Follow carefully.”
She nodded.
I tested my left arm.
The muscle hadn’t fully recovered yet.
Still.
This was doable.
I would protect Aileen.
I had to.
I clenched the hilt in my right hand and sprinted out of the alley.
In a sunlit path of the East Ruins, under the warm August sun, a brilliant red flower bloomed in full glory.