Chapter 39
Chapter 39
Ch. 39 .｡.:✧ Chapter 39 ✧:.｡.
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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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‘They all died.’
Even if they survived for now, they would be slaughtered by the pursuers catching up.
Once the archers realized that arrows were ineffective against us, they began targeting the carriage intensively this time.
Ping, ping!
However, perhaps because it was clearly the carriage carrying the territory’s successor, ordinary arrows couldn’t penetrate it.
The bastards then started shooting arrows at the coachman, and sensing the danger, I immediately jumped off my horse and climbed onto the carriage.
‘If the coachman dies… the carriage will overturn.’
If that happened, the young master and the dwarves would die on the spot.
I blocked all the arrows raining down on the coachman, and with that, we were able to escape the archers’ range of attack.
“Tha-thank you.”
Duff, the coachman, expressed his gratitude to me.
“It’s not over yet. Sir Rankbink will block some of the pursuers behind us, but the difference in numbers is too great for him to stop them all. There will definitely be trackers.”
At my words, Duff’s face turned pale.
“So we need to run as far away as possible.”
“…I’ll do my best.”
Fortunately, the archers didn’t target the horses.
They seemed to have momentarily aimed at the coachman after seeing the servants’ carriage collapse from a successful coachman snipe, but that became their misstep.
However, the joy was short-lived.
Vrroom…
The carriage’s speed was gradually dropping as time passed.
‘The horses are tired.’
It made sense.
They had sprinted at full speed on a hilly road, and the weight of the carriage had increased considerably with the addition of me and the dwarves.
They had even run through a steep slope, so the instantaneous stress they received was no joke.
It was a very harsh day for these pack horses.
“…We’re abandoning the carriage.”
Fortunately, Kayla’s horse was relatively intact. It seemed much less tiring for it to run with one person riding than to pull a carriage.
“Excuse me.”
I immediately opened the carriage door and found a frightened Banis and the still-bound dwarves inside.
“Kayla, untie the dwarves. Duff, go and detach the horses.”
“What do you intend to do, Jimnis?”
“For now… I plan to get off the road.”
In response to Banis’s question, I told him that it would be difficult for Sir Rankbink to block all the enemies and that there was a high possibility that trackers would soon rush in.
He was definitely a knight with skills rarely seen in a frontier territory, and he showed the ability to allow us to escape even in unfavorable conditions, but he wasn’t skilled enough to completely stop the thirty or so cavalry chasing after us with just two nameless fellows.
“If we take the normal route, they’ll catch up in no time. So…”
“You’re going to take a long detour back to the territory.”
“As I said before, the only one I can trust right now is you, Jimnis. I’ll be counting on you. Please bring me and these dwarves safely back to the territory.”
“I will do so.”
“The reward… I will make sure it’s substantial.”
I didn’t answer.
‘Where to go…’
‘If we go in this direction…’
Fortunately, I had Banis with me…
Duff untied the horses and brought them over.
I asked Banis,
“Can you ride a horse?”
“Of course I can ride.”
As a noble, he seemed to have extensive horseback riding experience despite his young age.
“You’ll have to carry a dwarf behind you.”
Since young Banis and the dwarves would inevitably be slow, I planned to have them ride horses.
“…If it’s necessary.”
They had already ridden in the same carriage before.
I looked at the dwarves Kayla had untied.
They seemed quite old, but considering the long lifespan of dwarves, comparable to elves, they had to be at least 100 years old even with that appearance.
“Can you speak?”
“…Of course.”
The dwarf answered in a slightly hoarse voice.
“That’s a relief. Currently, trackers are pursuing us. We need to run away as quickly as possible, so I’d appreciate your cooperation.”
“…Understood.”
The dwarf answered briefly.
If they were caught by the pursuers, there was no telling what fate awaited them, so they decided to cooperate with us who had formally borrowed them, at least for now.
“Then I’ll take the lead. Everyone, follow closely.”
I released the remaining horse in a random direction and then led the group in a chosen direction.
I wanted to abandon all of the horses, but I had no choice due to Kayla’s inconvenient leg and Banis’s obvious lack of stamina and speed.
As we left the path, the ground conditions worsened to the point of hindering the horses, so our speed was limited.
‘Still, this kind of path will be inconvenient for the enemies too.’
Moreover, they had more horses than us.
Like that, we walked until the sun set, checking our direction.
The problem was after the sun went down.
‘We’re severely lacking camping supplies.’
Fortunately, I had taken the luxurious-looking fur from Banis’s carriage, but that was it.
A little water and some food were all we had.
The numerous artifacts were all loaded in the servants’ carriage, so we had almost nothing.
I handed the fur I had brought to Banis, and we managed to distribute the food we had to have one meal.
‘We need to hunt…’
It was extremely difficult to find wild animals in this area.
Still, we couldn’t stay like this.
‘If we take a detour, it will take at least three days, up to four at most. We can’t starve for that entire period.’
The distance that would have taken a little over a day on horseback had increased several times because we had to walk and take a long detour.
Therefore, replenishing water and food was essential.
Moreover, if we hunted well, there would be a smell, but the leather…
“Co-cold…”
Just then, I heard Banis muttering softly.
Even though I had given him the fur, his young body couldn’t withstand the night weather.
‘He was raised preciously, after all.’
As the son of a noble, one who owned a territory, it was true that he had been raised relatively preciously compared to commoners.
We couldn’t even start a fire due to the trackers, so it was indeed quite cold.
However, even that understanding vanished with the absurd words that followed.
“Ji-Jimnis. Can I borrow your slave for a day? I want to warm my body.”
At first, I thought I had misheard.
The intention behind those words was obvious.
‘In this situation, you want to sleep with a woman?’
He’s young… I could understand that. Still, I didn’t expect him to say such a thing in this situation.
I replied as calmly as possible.
“I’m afraid that would be difficult.”
“Why is that?”
“She is our greatest combat asset. We need to allow her rest, and we also need to set up night watch shifts. If her stamina is depleted when we encounter the trackers…”
“…I see. I understand. I misspoke.”
As the situation improved, he seemed to have other thoughts.
Moreover, his way of speaking reverted to that of a precocious child.
The servant Duff also had the same dumbfounded reaction as me.
– What an idiotic brat.
The dwarf also seemed to share the same opinion, muttering softly in Dwarvish.
He probably thought no one could understand him, but I could speak a few non-human languages.
Therefore, I could understand what the dwarf was saying.
I looked at him with a peculiar gaze.
The dwarf flinched momentarily under my gaze, but soon lowered his head to avoid my eyes.
Banis was enduring the cold, wrapped tightly in the fur.
Surprisingly, Kayla didn’t have a particularly unpleasant expression.
She must have heard it, but she simply didn’t pay any attention to it.
“I’ll go and look around. I think I need to hunt if possible.”
“…Indeed, our food situation is not good.”
I was the only one who could do this.
Kayla lacked mobility for hunting, and the rest were just luggage.
At least Duff, as a servant, contributed by taking care of Banis in various ways, but his combat power was nonexistent.
“So I’m going out to check. If the young master tries anything funny after I leave, say it’s my order and refuse. Ignore any threats he makes.”
I could fully handle that level of threats.
“And in case of an enemy attack…”
I added in a voice low enough for only Kayla to hear.
“If it seems utterly hopeless, you can abandon them all. Prioritize your own life.”
It would be a shame to lose what we had built up so far, but it couldn’t be helped.
My top priorities were my own life and freedom, followed by the people I could trust and were on my side.
Athena and Kayla were more important to me than Banis or the dwarves.
As long as we were alive, even if it took some time, we could start over.
‘The risk level will increase, though.’
Still, it was better than dying here.
At my resolute words, Kayla nodded her head with a serious expression.
So, after entrusting the others to Kayla and going out to hunt…
“Damn it! How far did they run?”
Amusingly, I spotted the trackers.
?
The first thing that came to mind was that single question mark.
It wasn’t a joke.
It made sense. The direction they were heading was completely off.
I had moved quite far from the camp in a totally different direction for hunting.
‘I didn’t even move backwards, so why are they here?’
Moreover, the distance was quite far, so if they continued straight, we would never meet.
Should I say we missed each other?
Unless they suddenly made a sharp turn, but there was no basis for that.
‘The fact that they came here in the first place means they couldn’t properly track our traces.’
Literally, they had given up on everything and were wandering around, relying on luck.
Unless they encountered us by chance, their pursuit could be considered a failure.
‘Hmm… It’s better not to inform them.’
It didn’t align with my goals.
However, their supplies were tempting.
I could see about a dozen of them.
They had horses despite the terrain being like this.
But even if they had them, they wouldn’t be of much use.
‘There shouldn’t be any mana users… Then it should be manageable.’
If there were mana users in the first place, they wouldn’t have lost us.
If we could just extinguish the torches they were holding…
‘They’re human too, so they’ll rest soon…’
As expected, one of them spoke up.
“Damn it, this is it for today! Let’s find a place to rest for now!”
“Shit, we can’t lose them… The merchants won’t let this slide.”
“They might whine about making us pay a penalty, won’t they?”
“Well, we might all die before that. That dwarf, he’s from a count’s family, right?”
“Yeah. Damn it. Hey, boss, aren’t we screwed? I feel like we got involved in a pointless fight.”
“It’s too late now. What’s done is done. We either catch them and make a big score, or we all die. It’s one of the two.”
“If we succeed this time, we’re getting paid big, right?”
“We might even get an exclusive contract. They said they’d employ us until we die, but can we trust the merchants’ words? Still, if we don’t make any big mistakes, we can have a stable life for 10 years.”
“10 years… Considering the big money we’ll receive if we succeed, we could even retire, right?”
“So we need to find them fast! Let’s sleep a bit and resume searching. We have to find them before those Bosillian bastards do. Then we can even get an additional reward!”
“Ah, got it, I got it. Let’s sleep a bit and think about it!”
‘Merchants…’
It seemed they were the clients.
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