The Knight
'There's no reason anyone would have done that on purpose.'
The first thing that came to mind was someone's interference, but I discarded that assumption immediately.
Common sense dictated that there was absolutely no reason for it.
If you picked up a talent like Lena, you'd put her to use right away—why would anyone deliberately block her awakening?
'More likely, some unusual natural phenomenon is at work in that slum.'
A space with unusually thin mana, perhaps?
Or mana of some peculiar attribute, dense enough to interfere with awakening?
I was curious, admittedly, but there was no turning the carriage around now that we were already outside Volston.
In any case, Lena awakening was a very good thing, so I filed it away for later.
···
Two full days later.
Just as Lena was slowly acclimating to the tedium and the motion sickness, we arrived at the village we'd been aiming for.
"We've arrived!"
"Finally!"
At the coachman's shout, I peered outside, and the full vista of the snow-covered village spread out before us.
As befit a settlement inside the safe zone, its defining features were a low wooden palisade and a thoroughly lackadaisical perimeter.
Looking at the village still buried under snow reminded me of the pioneer village near the snowfield.
Creeeak···
Spotting the large guild emblem carved into our carriage, the village gate swung open on its own.
Not even a minimal verification procedure, despite the fact that all they'd done was confirm a mark—they must have been in a truly desperate state.
Barely moments after the carriage rolled inside, a grandfather who appeared to be the village chief darted out in a single stride to greet us.
"Adventurers! Please, save our children, I beg you!"
"You're the village chief? Let's start by verifying your token. Here's our card—"
"···Rank 8."
Having examined the card we held out, the chief's expression turned peculiar.
Disappointment was unmistakably mixed into his face.
Ordinarily this wasn't a rank that warranted such treatment—ah, they must already have had a Rank 8 among the people assigned to this request.
And when the chief's gaze swept over Lena, his expression reached its crescendo.
"And this child is—"
"Something like an apprentice. In any case, let's hear about the request. You needn't worry too much. We came because we believed we were up to the task. Surely you don't think we'd handle a matter of life and death carelessly?"
"Well, yes···"
I deployed my Aura as well, projecting an uncharacteristically confident bearing, radiating sheer presence.
It felt as though the chief might withhold his proper cooperation otherwise.
Granted, refusing to cooperate with the very party who had come all this way to accept the request wouldn't be a rational choice—but people drowning in despair are all too easily seduced by that devil called resignation.
Whether my efforts bore fruit or not, a flicker of lightness returned to the chief's face.
We were escorted to the chief's house.
The parlor, prepared for receiving guests, gave off an atmosphere sitting somewhere between affluence and plainness.
I took a sip of the warm tea the chief offered, let out a long breath, and got straight to the point.
"Please, tell me the details."
"···You haven't read what was written on the request form?"
"Of course I have. But what a local says firsthand may differ—and besides, a full two days have passed between what the form describes and the situation as it stands now, haven't they?"
"Ohh···"
At my neatly reasoned argument, something like genuine admiration spread across the chief's wrinkled face.
What now?
"Everyone who's come before either launched straight into a search or made us explain everything from the beginning—whereas you gentlemen seem to be rather well-trained."
···Apparently, everyone the guild had sent before had dragged the organization's image straight into the gutter.
Those were ranks teeming with hot blood in their prime; they must have acted however they pleased.
So many of them had shunned study entirely in favor of training to awaken their mana—regrettably, the average conduct of low-rank guild members was not exactly stellar.
"Allow me to explain from the very beginning. The first disappearance occurred a month and a half ago—"
The first victim had been a hunter who worked the nearby forest.
Someone who, beyond any doubt, knew the forest's rhythms better than anyone else in the village.
Yet he had vanished, leaving behind nothing but a single worn-out boot.
"Because he lived alone, on top of everything, the discovery came all the later. It had rained once in the interim, so no trace of any kind could be found where the boot was discovered."
"Hmm···"
"The next incident occurred a week later. A young man standing night watch at the palisade simply vanished overnight."
"Were there traces this time?"
Footprints.
Monster tracks leading in from the forest.
Only then did the villagers understand who—or rather, what—was behind the disappearances.
"I can't say for certain, but the size of the footprints alone lets you roughly gauge the creature's build, doesn't it? To my eye, it seemed a fairly large beast. And yet it moved so stealthily that not one of the men keeping watch alongside the victim noticed a thing."
"What sort of monsters live in the forest?"
"Volston Castle conducts regular culls, so there's nothing truly dangerous. At worst, [Horned Wolves] and [Four-Armed Monkeys] posed a threat."
Both were nothing more than Rank 9 monsters.
Dire to an ordinary person, but with mana-stone-coated rounds, there was no reason they couldn't be taken down.
Could it have drifted in from somewhere else?
"The request form didn't specify the monster's identity—but you don't know anything more, do you?"
"It always strikes under cover of night, you see··· Please, catch that thing, I beg you! Just yesterday it came right into the village and carried off a young child! To be honest, we hold no hope that the abducted are still alive. If you would only—only take down that creature!"
"We'll do our utmost. Please don't worry yourself. Then—"
"Ah! One moment, if you please! There's someone staying at the inn right now—"
···
Once we were out of the chief's house, we put our heads together.
With as many as three of us, pooling our opinions might well unearth something new.
Noah spoke first.
"A monster coming inside the village proper as recently as yesterday, you say. One point strikes me as rather odd."
"What is it?"
"Ooh! I think I know!"
Before Noah could continue, Lena thrust her hand into the air like a student desperate to give a presentation.
I wordlessly gestured for her to go ahead.
"I don't know much about monsters, but—doesn't it seem kind of weird that it's only taking one person at a time?"
"Exactly."
"Other cases, fine, whatever—but it's straight-up breaking into the village itself, right? Which means it's fully scouted the village's strength and identified itself a weak point. And if that's true, there's no reason to annoyingly drag people off one by one."
"Do you truly have no idea what the reason might be?"
"Nooo··· Maybe the monster's a gourmet type? No wait, even then it could just grab a bunch at once and eat them one at a time—"
Lena clutched her head, uttering quietly macabre speculation with complete nonchalance.
Noah gave her head an approving pat, then picked up where she'd left off.
"A monster with power at Rank 8 or above—one that has already faced guild members multiple times and is deliberately reporting itself as a weak link. One reason comes to mind."
"···Don't tell me its goal is to lure us in?"
"It likely wasn't targeting us specifically. But I do suspect it's hunting guild members. Perhaps an awakened corpse tastes better?"
Listening to Lena and Noah, a deduction drifted up unbidden in my mind.
Noah did not refute my thought.
Did monsters really possess that degree of intelligence?
And if so—
"Doesn't this make the situation a whole lot worse?"
"Why do you say that?"
"It's devoured small parties any number of times. And yet it's still brazen enough to keep drawing attention—which means it was waiting for new guild members to appear."
"Aha! So the monster might be stronger than we think? Like, it's confident in itself?"
"Right. And it may have deliberately left survivors, too—so that we'd misjudge its true strength."
"Uuu··· Morbidly scary, right from my very first request."
Lena shuddered, hugging her arms and quivering—whether it was justified or not.
The unbroken-in joints of her armor clinked together with a metallic ring.
Had we picked a bad request?
For a rookie like Lena, it might prove a brutal trial.
'···Nothing to be done about it. We'll carry out the request while keeping Lena as protected as possible. In the worst case, even if the request fails, Lena comes home safe.'
Back out of the request now, and a penalty would be waiting for us.
Having come this far, retreat wasn't an option.
I rose from my seat and led the party onward.
"Let's head to the inn first."
"Isn't it rather early to turn in for the night? Gathering more information again?"
"No—it's what the chief mentioned. Apparently there's a knight staying at the inn."
To be precise, it was a knight-in-training performing something in the vein of musashugyo—a warrior's pilgrimage.
A young man said to have arrived in this very village this very morning.
Whether out of a sense of justice or simply dazzled by the prospect of glory, he had supposedly volunteered to slay the monster tormenting this village.
"You intend to cooperate with him?"
"The chief certainly wants that—but I'll need to see his face first before deciding. I don't know what manner of person he is."
Come to think of it, this was the first time since arriving in this world that I'd laid eyes on anyone knight-related.
What sort of person would he be?
Knights were an expensive undertaking, and were said to be drawn mostly from noble houses—would he come off arrogant and high-handed?
In that case, it would simply be better for us to move on our own.
···
My concerns were, quite pleasantly, proven wrong.
The moment the inn door swung open, what met our eyes was a blond young man boisterously drinking beer shoulder-to-shoulder with the village locals—well before nightfall.
"Fear not!!! I shall be the one to protect this village!!"
"Long live the knight! We'll believe in you and you alone!"
"No, hold on, I'm not technically a knight yet—hm?"
A face not handsome exactly, but plenty pleasant to look at, atop a well-balanced frame that spoke of diligent training—among the ordinary villagers, he stood out unmistakably.
For all the drink he'd been putting away, he showed no sign of intoxication, and upon spotting us he cut through the crowd with steps entirely sure of foot.
The young man thrust out a hand for a handshake without so much as a by-your-leave.
"A body well tempered, and the measured flow of mana about you··· A pleasure! You would be the adventurers the guild sent, I take it?"
"···That's right. You must have heard from the chief."
"Of course! Never in my wildest imaginings did I think such an affair would be unfolding in the village I happened upon by chance··· I, Henri! How could one who eats of the nation's salt abandon the people to a wicked beast's depredations?! With this body, I shall—"
With theatrical flourishes, the blond youth launched into a lengthy recitation of just how shattered he'd been to learn of it, and just how immense his devotion to this cause was.
The villagers applauded his speech and cheered him on approvingly.
He didn't seem like a bad man··· but a somewhat odd one?
Only after rattling on solo for nearly three more minutes did the young man finally introduce himself.
"Ah, forgive me! My name is Henri Laurence de Monieux! I labor day and night to become a knight! Please, feel free to simply call me Henri!"
'Hmm··· I noticed it from how he mingled with the common folk, but granting permission to use his given name upon a first meeting.'
I could not imagine him to be the sort with any reverence for authority.
And given how thoroughly he'd bonded with the residents barely moments after arriving in the village, his character was clearly a good one.
I liked him.
"A pleasure, Henri. We are—"
I introduced the party one by one.
Henri listened to my every word with passionate intensity, as though determined never to forget a syllable.
Once my brief introduction—blending my strength with Noah's, should any unforeseen situation arise—was finished, he flailed his arms about and roared with even greater fervor.
"You've reached the realm of Expert! Truly magnificent! All who walk the sword's path are comrades! From this day forward, I shall honor you as my senpai!!"
"Hold on, you don't even know what kind of person I am—?"
"Heroes recognize their fellow heroes!!! You carry the very bearing of a hero, senpai—how could I possibly turn my gaze away!!"
"Haaah···?"
"Mister's a hero. Must be nice. Hehe···"
Could this man not hold a conversation without bolting an exclamation mark onto every sentence?
Combined with the already-deafening din of the tavern, it was enough to make my ears ache.
And in the middle of it all, Lena—harboring some strange fantasy about heroes, apparently—was gazing at him with envy.
Noah, meanwhile··· had already drifted far from her seat and was placing our food order.
Chaos, absolute chaos.