The Western Village
Before we set out, I stopped by the blacksmith.
"You've come for the armor."
"Yes. And I'd like to buy a sword as well."
The moment I said I meant to buy a sword, the blacksmith's eyes went round.
"Haha. Last time you bought one off a merchant and only left it with me to be tended. What's the occasion?"
"It broke almost at once."
I shrugged, and he laughed as if he'd seen it coming.
"A sword is only safe when you know the hand that made it. A blacksmith puts his name on every weapon he forges."
I wasn't convinced that was always true, but after being burned once, it sounded like something worth hearing. I couldn't reliably judge a weapon's condition by eye anymore, so buying from the forge was the safer choice.
"Then please recommend something a little longer than this."
I showed him the hobgoblin sword I'd been carrying.
"Then this ought to suit you."
It was a blade with a keen edge and real weight behind it. The length sat comfortably in the hand, and both the guard and the grip fit much like the one I'd been using. A plain design, and plainly good.
"How much?"
"Twenty silver."
"Hmm... that's a bit steep..."
"Haha. Haggling over a weapon this fine?"
The blacksmith smiled at me in a way that said there would be no bargaining.
"Gear is life, isn't it?"
He was right. For me, whatever I wore on my body was my life. There was nothing left to weigh, so I paid and gathered up the repaired armor and the new sword.
When I turned to Levan, who had been waiting, he glanced at me and let out a short laugh.
"Let's go."
With our preparations finished, we headed out through the castle's western gate.
"A little past the western village, there's a spot where herbs grow. Seems they're coming up bit by bit in the old herb field the village used to tend."
I'd been to that field once, on my own. Pass the village in front of the castle and it wasn't hard to find. At my words, Levan tilted his head.
"When did you go?"
"I went looking for herbs. Thought I'd make medicine."
That had been the idea, at first. I'd been so broke I figured I'd dig the herbs up and brew the stuff myself. In the game, if you had the materials, you could make it work somehow.
"You know how to do that?"
"No. I don't. I just..."
It hadn't gone the way I'd imagined. Even so, chewing the herbs raw had some effect, so for a while I'd stuffed them into my pockets and carried them around.
"Hehaha. Knew it."
"Knew what?"
"Means I guessed right."
Levan shrugged as if that were obvious.
...What was the point of saying more.
"Anyway. We need to be careful while we're passing through the village."
"I know. I've been around the village a lot."
"What, you used to come out here to steal?"
"Yeah."
Wait. He really had been a thief.
I stared at him blankly for a moment, and Levan burst out laughing.
"Haha. I went through those empty houses looking for anything worth taking. If that's stealing, then yeah, it was stealing."
Mid-story, his expression suddenly hardened.
"Oh, right. Now that I think of it, I ran into gnolls back then."
"Gnolls?"
"Yeah. Looked like a scouting party. I watched them from inside a house. I'd rather not run into those guys."
A gnoll scouting party would make for a nasty fight. If we met them, we met them—but I hoped there wouldn't be three or more.
In the peaceful days, the land west of the castle had been farmland and village, and traces of the people who had lived there still lingered everywhere. Fences lined the road. Beyond them lay torn-up fields, broken houses, and household goods left behind and smashed.
"Creepy."
No one had lived here in a long time, and penniless adventurers had picked the houses clean, which only made the place feel worse. Worse still, there were so many buildings that anything could hide, and an ambush would be hard to see coming. In the game, this stretch had killed plenty of people when monsters burst out of cover. Maybe that memory was why the air felt thick with the sense that something was about to happen.
"Hm?"
The thought had barely formed when I caught a shadow moving. It slipped away between the empty houses, and nothing about it felt human.
"Figures."
"What? Something there?"
I ignored Levan's flat question and scanned the surroundings. A wrongness prickled at me. I turned—and a spear whipped past, close enough to graze the air beside me, and buried itself in the ground.
"Aaah! What the hell!"
The spear had landed well away from him, and still he yelled louder than I did.
I looked straight toward where it had come from. A spear that size meant a gnoll.
"Looks like a gnoll."
"Damn... this just got heavier."
Still, only one? I needed to finish it before more showed up.
A beast with light brown fur stepped out from between the buildings, growling, already drawing back to throw another spear.
"Watch for any others. I'll take that one."
"Got it."
Before I could do anything else, the spear was already in the air. Slow. The spear coming at me looked slow.
Shwk!
I slipped aside by a hair again, and the enraged gnoll charged with an axe. Watching the thing come at me mad to kill me, I felt interest more than fear.
"Hah!"
Clang!
It closed in an instant and brought the axe down. I caught the blow. The force behind it was something I could hold. I shoved the axe aside, turned the sword, and cut across its torso.
"Keheng!"
I'd opened the unarmored stretch cleanly, and that single stroke sent the gnoll staggering back before it collapsed.
"Selen! There's another one over there!"
I didn't even have time to feel the win. Levan's voice hit at the same moment something came charging in from the side. The sound reached me, and instinct screamed. I ducked.
Whoom!
A massive club tore through the space where my head had been. A fraction later and it would have connected. I hadn't even known it was that close.
I put a few steps between us, turned, and faced the gnoll. It carried a club studded with spikes, and its fur was a deep black. In size and in gear, it looked far stronger than the one I'd just fought.
"Graaah...!"
I raised my sword and watched the roaring gnoll come on, forcing myself to stay calm. That weapon was too nasty. Meeting it head-on with a sword would be rough.
As it charged, the gnoll lifted the club high and brought it down fast.
"Hgh...!"
I'd thought the swing was too big, but it came down faster than I expected. I couldn't block cleanly and lurched aside in an awkward dodge. Pressing the advantage, the gnoll swung for my flank, and I got the sword up and barely stopped it.
Clang!
"Hrgh!"
The shock that ran up the blade was considerable. Worse, the sword was driven back far enough that the edge kissed my thigh and tore the cloth.
Not again...
I didn't even have time to rage about repair costs before a thrust slammed into my gut.
"Kkh..."
It was the unspiked part of the club, so the hit landed like a fist to the solar plexus. I staggered back, and at last managed to set my feet and hold the sword properly.
"Graah!"
I heard the gnoll roar and raised the sword in a clumsy block—but it never reached me.
"Damn, I'm late. You all right?"
Levan had stabbed it in the back, and as it turned he cut upward through its torso. In that opening I ran at the gnoll, which still hadn't gone all the way down. I brought the sword down on the thing as it barely stayed on its feet.
"Kreeek!"
The gnoll shrieked and did not fall. I'd swung big, expecting one cut to end it. This one wasn't going down that easily.
"Wh-what is this thing."
I backed off to make space. Writhing in pain, the gnoll flailed its arms without aim.
"Fall back for now."
I was already retreating at his word when the gnoll locked onto me and charged, more frenzied than before. What the—how was it still moving like that?
It came in fast this time, club held tight and low, a short stance meant to make dodging hard.
"Ngh."
"Selen! Just focus on blocking!"
The distance closed again, and the instant its stance shifted, I felt it.
A thrust.
The moment I saw it, I knew. The club drove in fast, and I saw its path with perfect clarity.
Whoom!
I twisted just enough to slip it. Close enough that the spikes scraped my armor. And I moved the sword with the same motion. There was no room for a big swing, so I drew the blade across it as if pulling the edge free.
"Keek!"
The gnoll's arm opened under the cut, and it screamed. I put distance between us at once. A deep wound in the arm that held its weapon, the gnoll stumbled back as well.
The cut must have gone deep. Its stance fell apart. I didn't let the moment pass. I closed on the retreating gnoll.
"Hah!"
I drove the sword into the opening at its torso, and the blade sank in where it couldn't stop me. The instant it bit deep enough to run the thing through, I knew I'd won.
"Kreeek!"
It screamed—and grabbed me, close as I was.
"Ah."
Too close?
The gnoll lifted me and threw me to the ground.
"Guh...!"
A dying thing, and it could still do this...
"Gr...rr..."
But that must have been the last of its strength. It toppled with my sword still buried in it.
Hah... that was close.
"Ugh..."
The pain I hadn't felt in the rush of the fight came creeping in. I stayed where I'd fallen, and Levan came up beside me.
"Why fight like that? If you'd just defended, you could've won a lot safer."
"Felt like I could."
"Unbelievable."
As I tried to sit up, Levan pulled the sword out of the gnoll and brought it to me.
"Can you stand?"
"Ugh..."
I started to rise, grabbed Levan where he stood beside me, and sank back down.
"Hey—! No, I mean, I was..."
The last hit hurt too much, and my sword hand was numb from cutting through that thick hide.
"Seriously... fighting these things... is no small job."
After the fight, my body felt twice as heavy as usual.
"Here. Drink this, for now."
"I'm fine. We came out to pick herbs. What am I doing drinking a potion."
What a waste.
After a few breaths, the pain settled into something I could bear. Nothing was badly hurt, anyway.
"Save it within reason, will you. If you die, that's the end."
"I said I'm fine."
I was a little dizzy, but if I admitted it he'd make a scene about drinking the thing. The moment I took the sword from him, I nearly collapsed again. I planted the blade in the ground and stood there a moment, and Levan grabbed my shoulder and gave me a shove.
"It's my money, so just drink it!"
That brought a strange sense of relief. Maybe it was easier because it hadn't been mine to begin with.
In the end I took the healing potion and drank. Halfway through, I stopped. I didn't think I needed the rest... I stole a glance at Levan. The look he gave me when I paused might as well have been a curse, so I finished what was left.
"And if you collapse and just lie there useless, who do you think is going to look after you?"
"Mm... you would."
Levan let out an empty laugh and stared at me, at a loss for words. He didn't deny it. Traveling together had been worth something, then.
"...Anyway. An adventurer's body is their fortune."
His nagging reached me through a haze. I really must have been hurting. I lifted my head. He was still watching me. Worry sat on his face, or maybe irritation. Hard to tell. Either way, he was right. I'd been too stubborn.
Eyes half-closing, I looked away from him and caught sight of the weapons the gnolls had used.
"That... grab that club the thing was using..."
"What? Ha. Unbelievable. Guess you're fine after all."
Even so, he laughed with interest and picked up the bludgeon.
"Looks pretty decent."
Levan was tall himself, and even so the club was so huge I couldn't imagine anyone actually swinging it.
"Still, hauling this around would be rough. Let's leave it there and pick it up on the way back."
He gathered the fallen gnolls' gear and stuffed it out of sight in an empty house. Meanwhile I sat back down and rested.
The damage I'd been holding down was definitely breaking loose. I'd come back from the ogre fight without proper treatment, and even if the gnolls hadn't cut me, they'd beaten me plenty.
"If it's too much, go back. I can dig them up alone."
"No."
Still, after finishing a whole potion, I was all right. Really, this time. I was fine.
"I'm fine now."
Levan frowned, eyes full of doubt.
"Then quit standing around and move. We don't want more gnolls showing up."
"Fair enough. The time it'd take to break your stubbornness, I could finish the request and have some left over."
We moved on through the village, looking for the herb field. Fortunately, we didn't meet any more monsters.
"Over there, maybe."
Past the village, on a low hill, herbs were growing. They sprawled in a tangle beneath a large tree.
"Sit and rest. Sleep, if you want."
"And trust what, exactly, enough to sleep?"
Even so, I leaned back under the tree and sat.
"Then keep a good watch."
Levan started searching out the red herbs and digging them up, and I closed my eyes. A quiet wind moved over me, and listening to the soft rustle of herbs being pulled, I felt as if I might actually drift off.
"Aaaaah!"
And then a very faint scream reached me. I opened my eyes. Levan showed no reaction, as if he hadn't heard it.
"Did you not hear that?"
"Hear what?"
From very far off, the sound of someone running.
"Help meee!"
I had definitely heard it.