Flame Giant (1)
Beating Shaka had done wonders for my standing. Everyone had taken a lashing from her at least once by then, and perhaps that was why they seemed so much better at putting themselves in my shoes.
And yet...
Could Shaka's future really stay untroubled after she'd launched indiscriminate mental assaults on the entire order from its very first day? Judging by the unshakable confidence she'd shown, declaring herself the strongest without a shred of shame, she'd probably be just fine.
For one thing, Shaka's constitution was nothing to scoff at. If what Daoists prize is innate talent, martial artists favor those born with exceptional bones and meridians. I wasn't a martial artist myself, but a physique as remarkable as hers was impossible to miss. Sooner or later, I'd likely catch her strutting around declaring herself the strongest with a sword, too.
"Is there anything else urgent?"
"No, my lord. Forgive me for troubling you."
Thalia bowed with crisp formality.
"Troubling me? I enjoyed myself."
With things more or less settled, I slipped out of the headquarters and returned to the palace. In that brief interval, the blockage in my meridians had been gathering strength. I was starting to think I might need to call for Colin soon, and the premonition sat poorly with me.
I had just stepped into the garden when—
"Piii—!"
With a whistle-like cry, something long and red came bounding toward me.
"Lunchbox?"
The red lizard scrambled up my leg and nimbly climbed onto my body. It settled on my shoulder and flicked out its tongue to lick my cheek.
"What, were you waiting for me?"
The lizard bobbed its head.
Of course, there was no way a lizard understood speech. It had to be coincidence.
I'd have to feed it, first things first—but a strange feeling came over me. Merely drawing close to the creature seemed to seep warmth into my frozen blood and qi.
I turned my head and stared hard at the Lunchbox.
It wasn't my imagination.
The creature really was radiating fire qi. As if it were trying to help me.
It felt like carrying a tiny sun on my shoulder. The fire qi was so pure that a salamander's tongue couldn't even begin to compare.
With the Lunchbox still perched on my shoulder, I folded myself into a cross-legged position in the middle of the garden. No one could enter the formation anyway, so it seemed like the perfect moment for a round of circulation meditation.
"Piii—!"
The Lunchbox made a nest on top of my head. Feeling the creature's heat pouring down from above, I completed a full circuit of qi.
When the circuit ended, warmth flowed distinctly through my body. I was certain the seizure from my blocked meridians, which had felt imminent, had been pushed back.
"Well, well."
I eyed the Lunchbox with growing appetite.
Seeing this, it really did seem to be a spirit creature.
Honestly, I didn't need refinement arts or a knightly order. If the creature would just reach maturity, every problem would be solved in one stroke.
"Just when are you going to grow up?"
"Piiiik—!"
The Lunchbox cried out at full volume and darted off, vanishing into the garden.
I'd put out the immediate fire, but the fundamental problem remained. A knot that could burst at any moment still crouched in my blood and meridians.
The best way to keep it in check was to swallow a fire-attribute inner core of grade three or higher. But the market dealt only in byproducts of grade five or six, and since the Lunchbox, not a single fire-attribute monster of grade three or above had ever gone to auction.
It seemed the time had come to provide for myself, but the cumbersome burdens—the knightly order, being the Duke's son—weighed on my mind.
...I'd have to set them down.
My life hung by a thread as it was; what else mattered? My senior brothers had kept quiet for the past ten years—they weren't about to do anything drastic in the span of a few days.
Having made up my mind, I summoned Srudal to the palace. But Srudal was so tall that his head kept smashing into the chandeliers, and I had to shift our meeting to the burning garden.
Srudal's presence remained as impressive as ever. The sight of an ogre hailed as the very avatar of destruction—dressed in rags, admittedly, since his custom garments were still being made—waiting for me with a respectful expression and proper bearing was enough to set any heart still young at heart fluttering.
"Young Lord Iden."
He bowed deeply at the waist.
"Welcome, Srudal."
"Piiiik—! Piiiik—!"
The Lunchbox shrieked shrilly from a distance. It seemed to have taken Srudal's appearance as a tremendous threat.
"I called you here for a simple reason: among my people, I doubt anyone knows monsters better than you."
"Naturally."
Srudal smiled gently.
"I was a 'monster' myself, once. If there is anything I know, I shall answer whatever you ask."
Srudal had devoured an ecologist's intellect and spent the first half of his life living as a monster, which made him more useful than anyone in a situation like this.
"Do you happen to know the whereabouts of any monster of grade three or higher with the power of fire? The closer to the holy city, the better."
"A monster bearing the power of fire..."
Srudal put on a thoughtful expression. I craned my neck back at a right angle to read it.
"Yes, there is one."
"Where?"
"The Forest of Silence. A violent flame giant named Thorvalg dwells there. I once proposed that he cease his senseless slaughter and live in harmony with his surroundings, but far from listening, he attacked me instead."
By the bestiary, a flame giant counted as a grade-three monster. And this fellow had actually tried to enlighten another monster—remarkable nerve, that.
"The Forest of Silence—that's northwest of the holy city, isn't it?"
"Yes. I can guide you to the exact location."
"Then guide me."
"You mean right now?"
"Yes. There's no reason to delay."
"Thorvalg is an extremely dangerous creature. He will show no respect whatsoever for your authority, Lord Iden."
"That's fine. I have no intention of respecting his strength either."
I left the palace with Srudal.
I saw no need to make a spectacle of my departure. The fewer people who knew my route, the better. Dragging a retinue along would do nothing but leak time and information. I showed Lily how to reach me in an emergency and asked Caroi to make sure the Lunchbox was fed. That was the extent of my preparations.
Fortunately, Srudal moved fast. His natural stride was enormous to begin with, and his stamina was such that he showed no sign of tiring.
A small commotion broke out when we passed through the city gate.
"Who goes there!"
"It's Iden."
"Srudal, knight in the service of Lord Iden."
In my opinion, the guards cleared the way not because they understood our words, but purely because they had no desire to be trampled by a charging ogre.
The moment we passed the outer gate and I set foot in fields rippling with grain, I realized just how long it had been since I'd left the city.
No—had it ever been at all?
A sense of liberation spread through my chest, as if something tight had come undone. In my past life I had wandered so restlessly that I never slept in the same place two nights running, yet since my rebirth I'd been glued to the palace like a piece of built-in furniture.
Thud, thud, thud...
I had been following Srudal for about ten minutes when—
"Past that yellow windmill, there is a waystation where we might rest briefly."
I couldn't see the windmill, let alone a waystation. The problem was that Srudal's shoulders were so broad they blocked my entire field of view.
No—the fundamental problem was that I was short. I was still a runt of twelve, after all.
"Srudal."
"Yes, my lord."
"Put me on your shoulder."
"As you command."
Srudal lifted me carefully and set me on his shoulder. The view opened up magnificently, incomparable to moments before. The yellow windmill he'd mentioned and the waystation beyond it were perfectly visible now.
"Onward, Srudal!"
"Yes, my lord!"
Thud, thud, thud...
The ogre began marching across the fields with the confidence of a general reviewing his troops.
It wasn't so different from traveling by carriage. The only difference was that this carriage could flatten anything that annoyed it, should the mood strike.
The Forest of Silence was a vast woodland northwest of the holy city. On paper it belonged to the County of Bilroy, but in truth it was no man's land. I'd heard the Bilroy family had poured generations of effort into clearing the forest for settlement, only to watch casualties mount helplessly thanks to violent monsters like Thorvalg.
"An ogre!"
"Eek! A monster!"
Srudal's bearing was so imposing that we left the main road at a certain point. That didn't mean the wilderness beyond was empty. Many of those roaming off the highway were the sort called adventurers—people prepared to risk a brush with monsters.
Upon spotting Srudal, the adventurers would freeze, bristle like hedgehogs, and only relax once they noticed me riding on his shoulder.
When evening came, we made camp in a suitable spot. Srudal uprooted nearby trees for firewood, while I gathered wild greens and fruits I'd noted during my alchemy studies.
"I have returned from the hunt."
I roasted the highland boar Srudal had caught over Samadhi True Fire, turning it gently, and dinner came together in no time. I wondered how we'd finish meat enough for dozens of grown men, but judging by the ogre's appetite, leftovers wouldn't be a concern.
On the second day of travel, we reached the edge of the Forest of Silence. Something was off. The forest's outskirts, which should have been deserted, were crowded with soldiers.
"An ogre!"
"A mature ogre approaching from the rear flank!"
A trumpeter galloped past, blowing a horn. Soldiers poured out from a wooden palisade. They snapped into ranks, formed a square, and leveled a dense wall of spears. The drilled precision marked them as a lord's regular troops.
"How curious."
Srudal said.
"There was no fortress like this when I left the Forest of Silence."
"When was that?"
"Six months ago."
For a fortress thrown up in six months, it was impressively large. They didn't just have well-trained soldiers; they had skilled engineers too, it seemed.
"Do not be afraid!"
A young knight rode out ahead of the square. He drew his sword, raised it high, and shouted in a voice that seemed to boil with blood.
"You answer to me, Baron Caldric! I will never abandon you and flee! So do not abandon those you love either!"
A hundred-odd soldiers roared like thunder. What a speech, what spirit. With command presence like that, even a common spearman might stand against a grade-three monster.
Of course, standing against it was one thing. The result would be carnage.
So they could see me clearly, I stepped up onto Srudal's shoulder and stood straight.
"Baron Caldric!"
The trumpeter shrieked in alarm.
"There's a child standing on the ogre's shoulder!"
Baron Caldric turned his reins toward us. His horse, however, lacked its rider's courage. It bucked and foamed, fighting to put distance between itself and the ogre, so he dismounted and approached at the utmost caution. From about fifteen meters out, he tilted his head up and asked carefully:
"Who are you?"
"This is Lord Iden Esterji, son of the Duke. Show proper courtesy."
At Srudal's composed announcement, Caldric's face went slack with disbelief. But he was a man of backbone.
"Absurd! What would Lord Iden be doing in a barony this remote, leading a monster around?"
"You serve my father as a vassal, yet you don't even know my face."
Caldric still hesitated. I extended both hands and raised a tongue of flame in one, a wind of frost in the other.
"We greet the Young Lord!"
Only then did the baron kneel.
"Srudal, set me down."
I stepped down Srudal's arm and landed lightly on the ground. Caldric knelt before me, though he still seemed unable to quite believe the situation.
He had reason to. I'd interacted with plenty of nobles by now, but not a single baron among them. The gulf between a baron and a duke was as wide as that between noble and commoner.
"Caldric. Why have you built a fortress in a place this remote?"
"The flame giant, my lord."
Caldric rose to his feet and pointed at smoke rising in the far distance.
"The flame giant's depredations worsen by the day. We were working out how to protect our people."
"Then this works out well. I'll deal with the flame giant for you."
I expected Caldric to rejoice. I'd even brought a stalwart ally in the form of an ogre. Instead, his face filled with worry.
"If you've come based on news from months ago, you should know the situation is no longer what it was."
"What's changed?"
"There are two flame giants now."
Caldric's voice was heavy with concern.
"It is mating season for the giants."