Karahan (3)
"Noah, can you see exactly where it is?"
"Ah... uh... um... th-this way."
I pointed a finger and poked the spot just left of the woman's navel, where a small stone-like lump was visible.
And then—
Pshk—
Without the slightest hesitation, Rubia drove the knife in.
"E-eek...!"
Hepais, standing beside us, let out a scream, her face contorted in pure horror.
"U-uuugh... Ru-Rubia...? A-are you really okay with this?"
I was... the same...
Ah... even so, how can she just... do it like it's nothing...?
But Rubia paid no mind to our reactions and began working the knife around inside.
"Yes. I've had to do this sort of thing quite a lot. There are magic beasts that lay eggs inside a person's body, you know. So I'm used to it. I know exactly how to cut and how to heal afterward..."
Her voice was calm and even, but the knife itself was merciless as it stirred through the woman's abdomen.
"The method is a little rough, but I can heal her completely without any lasting damage. If she'd been conscious, she might have developed phantom pain or trauma, but she's already out cold, so..."
Pshk— squelch— schlick—
"I'm a bit worried about how much blood she's lost, but I'll heal her as much as I can. It's better than letting those people catch her again, don't you think?"
With every movement the woman's body jerked and convulsed.
Unable to watch any longer, Hepais staggered off to a corner and started retching, while I pulled my hand off the sword hilt and could only let out tiny whimpers.
Then—
"Ah, found it."
The knife came free with a wet pshook, and Rubia's voice sounded a little brighter.
Thinking it might finally be over, I carefully set my hand back on the hilt and spoke up.
"I-is it finished...?"
"No. Not yet. I've only opened her up and taken it out. I haven't closed her yet."
"Hyeek..."
I clenched my free hand instead of the hilt.
Open and close... Is a human body really that easy...?
After that nightmare of a stretch finally ended—
"Haa... There. All done. Thankfully it hadn't activated yet."
The soft rustle of fabric and the sound of Rubia's footsteps approached.
I immediately gripped the greatsword's hilt again and checked on the woman.
"Sh-she's fine...?"
Aside from her pulse being a little weaker, she looked remarkably whole.
The healing speed seemed even faster than before, too...
"Of course. Lately I've healed wounds far worse than this..."
"I-it's over... uugh—"
Hepais came stumbling out from behind the rock, took one look at Rubia and the woman, and immediately started gagging again.
"We should move camp first. I don't think they've pinpointed our location yet, but you never know... and those corpses are a problem too."
"Agreed... one hundred percent agreed!"
Hepais threw herself into packing the moment Rubia suggested it, already getting ready to leave.
"Umm... th-then, could I do just a little skinning before we go...? Wh-why... because minotaur hide is insanely, insanely expensive...? And those horns too..."
I pointed at the bodies lying behind us.
"Horn wolf hide is... r-really warm in winter toooo... a-and... the horns...! I heard if you boil them down they make a great tonic..."
I just can't leave them behind...
The goblins and orcs we've been slaughtering forever are common everywhere, so whatever... but these are actual horn wolves and a minotaur!
Just the hides and teeth and horns alone are worth a fortune...!
It'll take a little time, but still!
"Hmm... then how about only until we finish packing?"
"Uh... d-do I not have to help pack?"
"I'm fine!"
"Of course."
"R-really?"
Rubia and Hepais both nodded without hesitation.
"Th-thank you so much...!"
I immediately dug the skinning tools out of the pack beside Hepais and dashed over to where the minotaur carcasses lay scattered.
"Heheheh—!"
"This looks good."
Following the map, we settled on a new campsite that was something like a cave.
Not deep enough to really be a cave, yet cave-like enough that you couldn't call it anything else—an oddly in-between place.
"Then I'll pitch the tent right away, yeah?"
Hepais carefully set down the woman she'd been carrying on her back as she spoke.
"Mm. And Noah, please just keep watch like before."
Rubia lowered the huge pack from her own back and let out a soft sigh.
Me... I wasn't carrying a single thing.
I was too short to piggyback the woman, and if I wore a pack I wouldn't be able to focus on fighting, so they'd told me to go empty-handed...
On top of that, every material I'd skinned had gone straight into the bag Rubia was carrying...
I'd been so embarrassed I'd half-wished a magic beast would jump out along the way... but not even an ant showed up...
And now! Once again I was supposed to do nothing but stand guard!
This is so awkward!!
I'm not a freeloader!
"Umm... I can keep watch for magic beasts while I work, though..."
"It's fine. Hepais and I are enough. Just rest easy."
But Rubia firmly refused.
"...All right..."
Feeling a little dejected for no good reason, I went and sat down beside the unconscious woman.
She was dressed in the spare clothes we'd brought and wrapped snugly in a blanket on top of that.
From what Rubia had told us on the way here, it seemed she'd been kidnapped.
The organization's name was the Red Scorpion.
An incredibly cheesy name, but apparently they were a pretty infamous criminal syndicate in Urusphier.
They looked like total amateurs to me, yet plenty of adventurers and knights had taken commissions to wipe them out and every single one had failed.
Their trademark was a red scorpion tattoo somewhere on their bodies, but Rubia said this woman didn't seem to have one.
She had so many scars it was hard to be sure whether it had been removed or never existed... but probably not, right?
Rubia had also said she'd been through a lot of terrible things...
Worse than a slave's life, apparently, so she couldn't be one of them.
But... she never explained exactly what those things were.
She just sealed her lips and said it was too early for Hepais and me to know, that she'd tell us when we were adults.
Hepais maybe, but I'm already an adult—why won't she tell me...?
I'm a perfectly respectable twenty years old here, and back on Earth I was a whole... uh... how old was I again.
Anyway.
I'm an adult too... I know how the world works...
"Haa..."
I was crouching there, kicking at the dirt for no reason, when—
"Uuugh..."
A dry, cracked sound escaped the woman's throat.
Her eyes slowly opened.
She's awake!
"E-excuse me... a-are you... okayyy...?"
I leaned my face into her field of vision so she'd know I was there.
"Wh-who..."
Maybe her eyes still weren't focusing properly.
But if she asked who I was, how was I supposed to explain...?
Saying my name wouldn't mean anything to her.
Hmm...
"Ah...! I-I'm a Gold-rank adventurer...!"
Heheh... I'm a full-on Gold rank now!
Pretty cool, right!!
But... didn't that sound a little weird too...?
Should I have gone with something like 'I'm the one who saved you. You're safe now'...?
"Ad...venturer... sir..."
While I was still scrambling for a better line, the woman's hand suddenly seized my collar.
"Th... thank... y—"
Then, in a trembling voice, she looked straight at my face—
"H-huu... ha! A-a demon... the b-blood-drinking...!"
—and the moment she got a clear look, she started babbling nonsense and thrashing in a full-blown fit.
"Uh, uhh... ah? Ru-Rubia...!!"
"Noah? What... ah, she's awake... why is she like this...?"
Rubia rushed over at once and examined the violently shaking woman.
When she still wouldn't calm down, Rubia carefully poured divine power into her and slipped off her robe.
"Haaah, hah... ha... uugh... s-save me... uh... P-Priestess...?"
"Yes. Are you all right?"
That seemed to settle her a little; she clutched Rubia's hand tightly.
"Noah Unni... what happened?"
"Umm... sh-she saw me... and just... went like that..."
She definitely... called me a demon... a blood-drinking demon...
She used my nickname, right...?
"Thaat... it's probably because of the rumors about me..."
"Huh? If it's Unni's rumors... hmm, but is that really enough to react like that? If she'd actually seen you, maybe."
"Umm... I dunno... I don't kill people, though..."
That was true enough.
No matter how scary the rumors got... it wasn't like I went around slaughtering humans left and right.
At most I just killed a few magic beasts...
Hepais stared at me with a strange expression for a moment, then suddenly bristled and raked her hair back.
"Hah, but it's still pretty ridiculous. Unni found her so fast we could save her. Getting treated like that by the person who rescued you—it's pissing me off."
Her face twisted and her voice was thick with irritation.
"I can't take it. I'm going over there and explaining—"
"Waaah, d-don't, Hepais... just calm down first."
"Why? No, she needs to know exactly who she owes her life to. Right?"
"Th-that's true, but... th-this... once she calms down a bit..."
I was still struggling to soothe the thoroughly worked-up Hepais when Rubia's voice called out.
The two of them had been talking intently... was it over?
"Noah. Could you come here for a moment?"
She even beckoned me over.
Is it okay to go...?
What if she freaks out again the second she sees me...?
I stood there for a long time, white-knuckling the sword hilt and dithering, until Rubia walked over while supporting the woman.
"I-I'm so... sorry... I wasn't in my right mind. To say something so awful to the person who saved me..."
I'd bolted behind Hepais in case she panicked again, only for her to suddenly start apologizing.
"Eh, uh..."
"I'm truly sorry... the sight of you in Roholan Village... I just couldn't forget it..."
Roholan?
Ah... so she was someone who'd seen me in Roholan.
"Ah... i-it's okay..."
I accepted her apology with a nod, and behind me Hepais muttered under her breath.
"Yeah... if it was that scene, I can kinda get it..."
Why?
Wasn't I cool...?
"When Unni killed that mage who was getting in the way... honestly, even I was a little shocked."
"U-uhh...? Mage...?"
"Yeah. You know... the one shooting arrows from behind—"
"Ah, aah... that?"
"Huh? 'That'...?"
The three of them all looked at me with weird expressions.
I had no idea why they were staring like that.
I just kept talking.
"That wasn't a person. It was a magic beast."
The magic beast that had dared to lay a hand on Rubia.
"So... I made a special point of killing it cruelly."
Ordinary people who aren't adventurers get shocked just from watching a magic beast die, huh...
Yeah... that makes sense.
I should keep that in mind.