East Ruins (3)
Hiiing—
"Stop eating that...! You'll get a stomachache!"
I grabbed the horse's mouth as it crunched greedily through the Noll's carcass. The beast twisted its body, drool streaming from its lips in pure spite.
"Ugh, eugh... Don't drool...!"
Prrrr— prrr—!
Whether I wrestled the horse or not, Aileen just stared at me blankly, offering no help whatsoever...
"A-Aileen...! Please stop this thing! This is bad...!"
"Why would it be bad...?"
Aileen tilted her head.
"Uweh...? M-meat! It's eating meat! Horses are herbi— herbivores..."
"What are you talking about, Noah?"
Aileen's reaction was strange...?
"Horses are carnivores, of course. How else would they keep that size if they only ate grass?"
"Whaaat...? Carnivores? F-for real...?"
Horses in this world are carnivores...?
Okay...?
I turned to look at the thrashing horse.
Prrr—
It nodded.
You... you understand words too...?
"Uh... um... s-sorry...?"
I apologized and let go of its mouth.
Prrrrrr— pfuh—
Something wet smacked against the small of my back.
Uh...
No way.
Hey. Horse...?
It's not, right? Please tell me it's not that!
I apologized!!
Praying desperately that it wasn't, I turned my back toward Aileen.
"A-Aileen... this thing didn't just..."
"Pfft... uh, uh... kkhhhk...! S-spit... kyahahahaha!"
"Don't laugh!"
This bastard.
It spat on me.
"Y-you... you little...!"
My whole body trembled with rage.
Hiiing— prrr—
Crunch crunch—
The horse brat glanced my way, snorted a laugh through its nose, and went right back to devouring the Noll.
I want to smack the back of its head!
But what if I hit it and die...?
Th-then... I want to spit too! Spit right back!
But if I do the exact same thing...
W-wouldn't that make me the same level as this dumb horse...?
Uuuugh... this is so unfair...!
I was still trembling at the horse when Aileen suddenly seized my wrist and lifted it. Memories of my school days flashed through my mind—those times when friends would start arguing, trading only words, until someone grabbed them to break it up... and then the fire would suddenly roar to life with "Let go! Let me go!!"
I always used to wonder why they did that.
Now I understood.
It gave you courage!
Because you knew Aileen would stop you even if you tried to hit the beast!
And it was a way to show just how furious you were!
Hey! Horse! I'm mad!! Really mad!!!
"Let go...! Y-you bastard...!!"
"Is that so? Then go ahead. Do whatever you want."
The hand holding my wrist went limp and released me.
"Ehk."
I froze solid on the spot.
This... this wasn't the picture I had in mind...?
"What? Weren't you angry? Why aren't you doing anything?"
"Whaat...?"
"Catch it and boil it, fry it, kill it or spare it—do whatever you like, Noah."
Uh, uh-oh...?
"Uh... uhh...? Um... th-thinking about it... if the horse gets hurt... things might get a little... hard. I'll hold back."
"Pffft— is that so? All right. Then come here."
Aileen pulled a handkerchief from her clothes and waved it loosely at me. I toddled over and turned my back to her.
"Should an adult really be fighting with an animal?"
She murmured as she gently wiped my back.
"I wasn't fighting..."
"Yes, yes. Now give me your hand."
Unlike before, her hand approached softly and lifted my wrist.
"Ugh... doesn't it smell?"
"It does, but what can you do?"
"Eugh..."
Swish— swish—
The sticky liquid coating my hand was wiped completely clean.
Knead— knead—
But why won't she let go...?
Knead— knead—
"A-Aileen...?"
"How do you even lift that greatsword with such small hands?"
Aileen kept massaging my hand as she murmured quietly.
"Be careful not to get kidnapped. You've got the kind of body that makes people want to dissect it... If someone offers to buy you something tasty, don't follow them. And even if they say they're Hermila or a friend of mine and just want to talk, don't go with them. Understood?"
"I know! I'm not a kid...! B-but... someone would kidnap me to... dissect me? Who...?"
Does this world have places like NASA too?!
In a world of swords and magic?
"The Magic Tower does that. When they find someone unusual or with a special constitution, they use sleep magic and... whoosh!"
"Hwaak...!"
My startled hand squeezed Aileen's tightly.
"And the Magic Tower is quite prestigious, so even the Empire can't touch them lightly. Do you understand what I'm saying? If they catch you, it's over. Finished."
Aileen drew a finger across her throat with a sharp motion.
"Hup..."
"Always be careful. Those Magic Tower mages can pop out from anywhere."
"Yees..."
Am I really going to end up as an experiment...?
I saw the Magic Tower storyline in the game too, but it was so long ago it's all fuzzy.
Was the Magic Tower really that much of a lunatic asylum?
Just in case, I should hide as much as possible...
Even in Alrba, where rumors flew everywhere, no one ever figured out who I was, so it should be doable... right?
"Well, if you're scared, Noah, we can just hold hands while we walk. Magic like that doesn't work on me, so I'm fine."
Aileen swayed our joined hands lightly as she spoke.
"Magic doesn't work on you, Aileen...?!"
"Yes. Cool, right?"
I nodded hard.
The perfect counter to those sneaky long-range dealers was right beside me!
As expected, Aileen was a great meat shie— a great friend!
"But it's only curse magic that doesn't work, so don't go using me as a shield or anything, okay?"
Uh-oh.
"O-of... of course I wouldn't...! What do you take me for..."
"Hmm— looked like you were planning to use me as a shield, but I'll believe you. So what about the hands? Shall we keep holding them?"
I felt the soft warmth of her hand. When she first grabbed it I hadn't noticed, but now that I was really feeling it, it was a little embarrassing.
But... if I put this tiny bit of embarrassment on a scale against getting kidnapped...
"L-let's hold them... We have to be careful of mages."
"Good. That's a smart idea."
Aileen nodded readily.
"Shall we go, then? Just detect the magic beasts around us like before. From now on, I'll handle the catching."
I thought back over Aileen's abilities. The first time she took down a Noll it had taken about ten seconds. Against the pack that rushed us later, roughly five. The firepower had dropped, though.
But with that much power I can still finish them off myself.
And if we spot them early, even better.
I finished the rough calculation and nodded. Gripping Aileen's hand tightly, I cracked open my closed eyes and glared at the horse.
You just wait till this request is over.
Prrr—
What an annoying brat.
"Let's go... Aileen."
I whipped my head around and tugged her hand forward.
But Aileen didn't budge an inch.
"Noah. We have to take the horse too."
Ugh, seriously irritating.
"...Yees."
"The sun's starting to go down..."
Aileen whispered quietly, gazing up at the sky. We had left that place behind and walked a long way in. Just the Nolls we had caught along the way already numbered over twenty.
"Then... what should we do...?"
I asked, turning to her. I could walk fine without light, but Aileen might struggle—physically as well.
She thought for a moment, then spoke while studying the map.
"We've come about halfway now."
"Yees."
"There's a place not far from here where we can rest. It's still ruins, but that house was relatively intact."
"A house...? Did you... visit it when you came here before?"
"Yes. It wasn't too bad. There was even a bed. Dirty, sure... but anyway—shall we rest there a little until sunrise?"
Aileen tilted her head as she asked. I had no reason to refuse, so I nodded.
"Then I'll take the lead. I remember the way."
"Yees."
Aileen's hand guided me forward.
Prrr—
Clop— clop—
Holding her hand and following, I brushed the remaining free hand along the stone walls of the ruins. Cold, yet smooth to the touch. Expensive stone, it seemed. Something like marble? Not the feel of raw rock—processed stone. Completely different from anything I'd seen in the game.
"What are you doing, Noah?"
Aileen glanced back at me.
"Mm... the stone feels nice. I was just touching it a bit..."
Smooth and cool—it's insanely addictive!
As I kept rubbing the stone, Aileen's voice came again, a little quieter.
"Noah. Do you know why this village became ruins?"
"Umm... no?"
"Until twenty years ago it was an ordinary village. Then rumors spread that it was a bandit village—that incredible thieves lived here."
"B-bandits...!"
"Then one day, some thief stole a priceless heirloom from a high-ranking noble, and word went around that he'd hidden in this village."
"Hwaak...!"
"So that noble flew into such a rage that he smashed the whole place like this. Completely destroyed it."
"Ah..."
"But... this village was never actually a bandit den. That thief never even hid here. It was all just a baseless rumor."
"Th-that's...!"
"It's not even funny, is it? Believing nothing but a rumor and turning an innocent village into ruins like this."
Aileen looked up at the sky.
"They call it the 'Hablon Massacre.' That incident. This village used to be called Hablon Village."
"Hablon...?"
Hablon?
Hablon... Hablon... wait... I feel like I should remember this!
Aileen's face turned back toward me.
"But do you know what the most important part is?"
"Yes...?"
Ack! Aileen started talking and it flew right out of my head again!
"Even though this village became ruins, even though it vanished from the maps and was overrun by magic beasts—no one felt sorry. No one got angry."
Bandit... village... ruins... Hablon...
"Because no one was left. Everyone died. But... if there had been a survivor in this village... if someone still remembered this place..."
Bandit, village, ruins, Hablon, survivor.
Ah. I remember.
"How much would that person's heart burn? Watching the land get taken over by magic beasts... becoming ground they couldn't even reclaim."
Eight years ago.
When I first started Black Sun, the very first request I received.
"Unable even to make graves for their family, for their friends... how much—"
"The survivor of Hablon..."
"Y-yes...? Noah, what did you just..."
The title of the request was
'Survivor of Hablon.'
And that survivor's name was
Luci.
The Platinum-grade adventurer.
One-eyed Luci.