What the Avalanche Unearthed

Awoooooo—!!

Letting out a long, keening cry, the Howling Wolf tore across the snowfield. Its eyes, searching for prey, were fixed on a village where humans gathered. Despite its massive frame, it ran astonishingly fast—before long, the village would spot it too.

The rest was easy to picture. Terror-stricken villagers would scramble to evacuate, and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the wolf, as if mocking them, would run down the fleeing with its vicious fangs. It was a scene anyone could have imagined unfolding.

But before that horrific future ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠could come to pass—

"Where do you think you're going."

Someone blocked the Howling Wolf's path. A knight clad in black Night Armor. It was Luden.

Luden leapt high and dropped down upon the Howling Wolf. Aura blazed like fire along the sword in his hand.

SHRAK!

The wolf's head split clean in two before it could so much as whimper. Headless, its body carried its momentum onward, tumbling lifeless into the snow.

"Whew. Where do these things keep coming from?"

Having cut down the Howling Wolf in a single stroke, Luden's face showed no particular satisfaction. It wasn't the first time, after all.

"No wonder the lord's been tearing his hair out."

A week had already passed since he arrived in Vincent. He had spent that time hunting monsters at the lord's request, and in doing so he'd come to understand, viscerally, why the man had claimed he lacked the strength to spare. In just one week, the territory had logged more than ten monster sightings. Not all of them were on the level of a corrupted spirit, but some carried a high danger rating all the same.

If the Vincent territory had always been a place where monsters appeared often, the way Kaisar was, that would be one thing. Since it wasn't, this phenomenon had to fall squarely into the category of abnormal. The lord seemed to be writing the whole affair off as a stretch of bad luck—understandable enough, since monster appearances always came tangled up with any number of factors, and running down a cause for each one was exhausting work.

Luden might have seen it the same way, if nothing were gnawing at him.

"So it really is here."

In his past life, there had been a swordsman of infamous renown. Cutting people down indiscriminately, he had become, in the blink of an eye, a vicious criminal the state itself could no longer ignore. He eventually died at the hands of the subjugation force sent to capture him, but the trail he left behind was retold by countless tongues. And the subject that came up most often of all was—

"The Demonic Sword, Blood Fang."

"Finding the thing will be a problem in itself."

In his past life, Vincent was where that swordsman had first revealed himself. On that fact alone, declaring the demonic sword was here might have been a hasty judgment—but everything happening lately had hardened his suspicion into conviction.

The Blood Fang of legend was a blade that called for blood. Those bewitched by its power gathered to it as if by instinct, and naturally began taking one another's lives. It was only right to call it a demonic sword. Its mere existence was danger beyond measure.

"For now its power must still be weak, since only some monsters seem affected. The question is how long that lasts."

Luden was not, by his own honest assessment, a man who moved on a sense of justice. But neither was he cold enough to feign ignorance when he could plainly see calamity coming if he did nothing. Above all, leaving the demonic sword alone meant a headache down the road.

So Luden wanted to recover the sword before anything could happen. The problem was how to find one blade in a territory this vast.

"Oh well."

If you didn't know, you asked. And so—

"Has anything strange been happening in the territory lately?"

"Even trivial things would help."

"Hmm. Let's see—aside from the monsters running wild... ah. There was that."

Marquis Vincent, who had been mulling it over, clapped his hands together.

"About a month ago, was it? There was a day of heavy snowfall, and I'm told an avalanche came down that day."

"An avalanche?"

"It happened on a mountain within the territory. No lives were lost, so I didn't think it terribly important. Reports of monsters appearing came in right after, so it slipped my mind as well."

The Marquis spoke as if it were nothing, but at those words, Luden's eyes gleamed. That was exactly the feeling he'd been chasing.

"Where is it?"

"Hm?"

"That mountain. I'd like to go see it."

"That's fine by me, but is there a reason?"

Luden grinned.

"Just because. I'm rather fond of mountains."

Mountains with treasure hidden in them, especially.

"This is the place."

The next day, Luden went straight to the mountain the lord had described. It wasn't far from the territory's heart, so he arrived around midday.

"What a mess."

The mountain was a sorry sight. It still towered ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠overhead, but the tracks of snow that had poured down it like a wave remained carved into its face, and here and there uprooted trees and displaced rocks jutted out of the slope. Once winter passed and the snow melted, it would look even worse.

"Luden! We climb up this way, right, yep?"

"That's the way. But keep a sharp eye out for a sword that might've been dropped somewhere on the slope."

"Leave it to me, yep!"

Despite the cold, Sarah, dressed in light clothing, went bounding across the snowfield. She looked exactly like a puppy driven wild by fresh snowfall.

Even so, he had decent expectations of her. Even if her specialty—her sense of smell—wouldn't be much use this time, her intuition was first-rate.

"Let's just hope it isn't buried deep under the snow."

Apart from the wind that gusted now and then and the soft hiss of snow slipping loose somewhere, the mountain lay silent as the grave. Perhaps because of the avalanche, there wasn't even a trace of the common beasts that should have been about. The pristine white snow glittered in the sunlight.

Crunch. Crunch.

Climbing a snowbound mountain was grueling work. Every deep-sinking step stole your strength, while the biting cold and the pathless white wore down body and spirit alike.

"Now, where would it be."

Of course, for Luden—who had cleared any number of quests—this much hardly counted as hardship. He didn't even need to use skills or items. Not a trace of strain showed on his face as he waded through the snow.

Before he knew it, he had gone quite deep into the mountain.

"The snow's piled deeper than I expected. Should I use Clairvoyance?"

Clairvoyance was an extremely useful skill, but it came with the drawback of heavy fatigue. Sweeping the entire mountain and checking every last spot with it would be hopelessly inefficient. But then, finding a single sword in a mountain blanketed wall ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to wall in snow was next to impossible anyway. Honestly, waiting for spring might be faster.

"Luden! Luden!"

"Hm?"

Sarah's voice rang out without warning. Had she run ahead and gotten close by? He followed her voice.

"Luden! Over here, over here!"

"Sarah, it's dangerous to jump around like that."

She had climbed somewhere high and was hopping about. Just as Luden thought how tireless she was and moved to warn her again, he noticed something off.

"Huh? Wait—what is she standing on?"

He looked again at the spot where Sarah had climbed. It was snow, piled high—a mound bulging up like a small garden. Perhaps a hill had stood there once. But studying the top of it closely, he found a small gap, and beyond the gap, the shape of another space.

"Hmm. So this snow is sealing something off."

Luden weighed it for a moment, then approached the heaped snowdrift. And then—

KRA-KA-BOOOOM!!

"Waaah?!"

A massive roar and Sarah's shriek rang out at the same instant. The towering snowdrift collapsed with a crash, and a thick haze of snow mist billowed upward.

"Oof. You startled me, yep."

Twisting mid-fall with impressive agility to land safely, Sarah pouted at him, cute as anything. But her eyes soon went wide and round.

"It's a cave, yep!"

"Was it always there?"

Once the snow that had sealed it was cleared away, what appeared was a pitch-black cave.

Going by all the moss, it's been here a long while. Hidden away all this time, then exposed when the avalanche hit?

Luden studied the cave for a while—then abruptly, his brow furrowed. Faint but unmistakable, the smell of blood was drifting from inside. And it was the raw, coppery reek of blood spilled only moments ago.

"Grrrrrrr."

Then came a sound like the growl of a beast. He turned to find Sarah with her head bowed, her whole body shuddering.

"Sarah?"

Something was wrong with her. Luden realized it at once and called out to her, but—

"KRAAAAAWR!"

"?!"

It happened in a heartbeat. Sarah suddenly roared and plunged into the cave.

"Sarah!!"

Sensing something deeply wrong, Luden hurried to go after her. But at that moment—

A cold prickle shot through him. Luden sensed the threat on pure instinct, his body reacting before his mind could catch up.

KUWAAAA-BOOOM!!

An explosion erupted.

A man and a woman stood gazing at the site of the blast. The man clicked his tongue.

"Honestly. She specifically warned me not to do anything that draws attention."

"That's because you leave traces behind. We came here to recover it. Don't stir up pointless commotion."

"Tch. Obviously."

At the woman's words, the man grumbled his way toward the cave. But when he got a look at the spot where the explosion had settled, he stopped mid-stride and turned to her.

"What gives? Don't tell me you went easy on it."

"As if I would! How is he perfectly fine after taking that head-on?"

"Looks to me like he dodged. Quick one, apparently."

"Who are you people?"

Luden, who had emerged from the blast without a scratch, looked the pair over as he asked. A purple-haired woman in robes, and a blond man in leather armor. Both faces he had never seen before.

The blond man grinned.

"How'd a kid wander all the way out here? Doesn't seem like much of a sightseeing spot."

"Identify yourselves first."

"Sorry, but we've got business of our own. Look, kid—just tell yourself you had bad luck. You happened to run into us here, and we can't exactly send you off nicely."

"Ched. Skip the chatter. You haven't forgotten our objective, have you?"

"Yeah, yeah. I know, I know."

Under her glare, the man called Ched answered lazily—and drew his sword. And then—

CLANG!

"Oho. Same as before, huh. Not your average punk, are you?"

Ched looked at Luden, who had blocked his strike, an intrigued expression spreading across his face.

A textbook swordsman, huh. Then that attack earlier was the woman's doing.

Even in the middle of a sudden ambush, Luden calmly took stock. He didn't know who they were or why they were attacking him—but as long as they came at him, he would fight. Their identities could wait until he'd pinned them down.

And Sarah, who ran into that cave, is worrying me too.

A bad feeling had been gnawing at him for a while now.

Clang! Clang! CLANG!

"Hah! What's the matter? Winded already?"

Ched drove at Luden without a shred of restraint. Whether he'd ever properly trained in swordsmanship was doubtful—his blade was crude and simple—but it was fast.

And strong.

In raw physical ability, Ched had the edge over Luden.

"Shame, that. Thought you'd be more fun."

Watching Luden do nothing but parry, Ched apparently decided it was about over—and readied his finishing blow. Luden's eyes flashed.

"Huh?"

Ched's eyes went wide. Not only had Luden slipped lightly past the blow meant to end it—in that instant, the man's presence had simply vanished from his senses. By the time he caught Luden's movement again, a frost-blue blade was already at the tip of his nose.

In that very moment—

KRA-KA-KRAK!!

Brilliant yellow lightning came crashing down. Luden flung himself desperately clear, and the lightning blasted the spot where he'd stood.

"Ched, you idiot! What the hell do you think you're doing?"

The woman watching from behind shouted. The moment her comrade landed in danger, she had intervened with magic. Only because Luden had kept one eye on her the entire time he traded blows with Ched was he able to avoid the strike.

A mage after all.

From the look of things, the one to watch wasn't the man—it was the woman.

"Seria."

"No time for games."

"I wasn't playing. This bastard's no joke."

Ched's expression hardened. The fact that he'd nearly been hit if not for Seria's help drove his guard home. And Seria, too, began readying her magic.

This just got troublesome.

One exchange was all it took to know. Those two—

—were anything but ordinary.