The Sudden Disappearance
After the rapid meal, Ahin watched Er and Jina speak, his face unable to hide his shock as he opened his mouth.
“No, why would I even consider a duel… I don’t even plan to stick around anymore!”
“Ahin, think about it. If you just keep dodging like this, do you really think that person will give up?”
Er was the one saying it, of course.
After all the conversations they’d had, she had long since figured out that Jina would never easily back down.
“So let’s crush her heart until she never dares to challenge again!”
“Eh, Er… today you’re really scary.”
“Huh?”
Er tilted her head with an innocent expression, as if she had no idea what was going on. To Ahin, watching her, she was nothing more than a target of fear.
But perhaps seeing that expression also looked too dangerous, Jina, who had been standing a little apart, let out a petulant voice.
“Ahin, what are you doing? Talking in low voices with another woman while I’m standing here…”
“It’s not like that! These two women really… what the hell are they trying to make me do?”
Caught off guard, Ahin racked his brain for a moment, then soon spoke with a deeply troubled expression.
“Crap… I don’t know. Er, Jina, no matter what method I choose, you two will follow it?”
“Of course.”
“It’s obvious. By winning through his own method, he’ll surely be acknowledged, right?”
Ahin, having heard their intentions, spoke in a firm voice.
“Then let’s have the match.”
“…Eh?”
“A match?”
Both women reacted with a look of hesitation upon hearing those words.
“Ahin, even if it is, a brawl might be a bit…”
“Exactly. If word gets out that a Holy Knight beat up a regular adventurer, it’ll be troublesome.”
“…Who beat who?”
“Did you not hear properly? I said I’d beat you.”
“Fine, let’s do it properly. I’ll shut that unlucky mouth of yours.”
“As I wished.”
Again the atmosphere rapidly turned sinister, and Ahin, sticking out his tongue, separated the two of them and said,
“Stop it. That’s not the way.”
“What now?”
“Carpe is our home ground, right?”
Ahin said that with a smirk, then continued.
“Take one request from the guild and settle it with that.”
“A request?”
“Ahin, you’re not seriously thinking of taking just one request and deciding based on that contribution, are you?”
“Exactly that.”
They would compete by completing one request, each showing which one contributed more.
It was a way to compare the two who kept claiming they were better than the other, and it also suited Ahin’s obvious intention to side openly with Er.
After all, Jina, who had lived her whole life as a Holy Knight at the temple, would never have been able to imagine achieving great feats in the adventurers’ requests,
“That’s disgusting! It’s completely disadvantageous for me…”
“Fine, then you can leave, Jina.”
Ahin said that, curling the corner of his mouth, and added,
“You were the one who said you’d follow any method, weren’t you?”
“…Ahin, you really—”
“Exactly. If you have complaints, you shouldn’t have said you’d let me handle it.”
With that said, Ahin grinned mockingly, and Jina, clenching her fists tightly to suppress her anger, spoke.
“Hoo… fine, I accept. No matter how forcefully I drag you back, as long as I don’t break your legs and lock you somewhere… huh?”
Jina, still speaking, suddenly widened her large eyes.
“Break your legs? That seems like a pretty good method.”
“S-stop!”
“Ahin, give me a moment. There’s something I want to experiment with…”
“Stop! Stop it!!”
“Both of you, please stop. So, Ahin, what kind of request will you take?”
“Um… how about a monster pursuit request? It seems the simplest and the one with the most numbers.”
Even a slight lack of people made the world a dangerous place full of all kinds of monsters, so there were countless requests just to hunt them.
Although Jina had plenty of experience catching monsters while training to become a Holy Knight, she had never actually pursued and tracked them down herself.
Ahin, thinking that if their physical strengths were similar, then skill and experience would decide, looked between the two women and said,
“It should be fine to just pick a reasonably suitable one, right?”
“…How will we decide the method?”
“The one with the higher contribution wins.”
But only Ahin would judge the contribution.
From the very start, the event was already full of his bias.
Despite the overwhelmingly disadvantageous situation, Jina spoke with a challenging voice.
“…Fine. No matter what, as long as I show an overwhelming appearance, that’s all there is to it, right? The perfect person for Ahin is me, after all!”
“Hoo hoo, good spirit. But I’ll show you that there’s an unbridgeable wall between me and you! In the name of belief and unity—
“Eruuuuuu!!! Please!! Forget that name!! When exactly did I ever say that?!”
Er, about to utter the forbidden name, was stopped by Ahin, who was panicking, and he sighed.
“Hoo, let’s decide the details tomorrow. Today, my energy is all drained, so I can’t do anything.”
“Ahin, you’re weak now? Just by that—”
“Do you have no conscience? Who attacked you while you were sleeping…”
“…Now that I think about it, Ahin. You were in the healing center, weren’t you?”
When Jina found Ahin, he had been lying in the city’s central healing center.
Jina was surprised to see Ahin lying in an unusual place and was about to remove his pants to check his body condition when Ahin opened his eyes and screamed, fleeing in a panic—everything that followed was the story’s origin.
“Are you hurt somewhere? If it’s a serious injury, then—”
“…Serious injury?”
His shoulder had been shattered, and not long ago he hadn’t even been poisoned.
Although both injuries had been cleanly treated and he only needed to be discharged, simply being in the healing center was enough to stir Jina’s nerves.
What if he had been seriously injured?
Jina’s answer was simple.
“Lock him up.”
“…”
“If you keep wandering around and get hurt, my heart aches when I look at you.”
Her blue eyes, speaking so, were chillingly unsettling, and Ahin couldn’t help but tremble.
Er, wondering why Ahin was reacting so extremely to just one of Jina’s words, asked in a low voice.
“Ahin, why are you acting so unlike yourself? Just like usual—”
“That’s because you don’t know… that guy isn’t normal!”
Perhaps a bad memory surfaced at Er’s question, and Ahin clutched his head, speaking in a terrified voice.
“Suddenly appearing and checking what I’m doing, then suddenly waking up at night to find me right there, and when eating, asking if there’s any weird taste and making me laugh…”
“I never did anything unsanitary, though?”
“Then what exactly did you put in it?!”
Ahin shouted loudly and pointed angrily.
“And why do you suddenly come in during baths?!”
“Oh my, how embarrassing. If I say such embarrassing stories in front of others, what will they think?”
“Please stop!”
Looking at Ahin, who was now almost begging, Er showed a hesitant expression and spoke.
“…You two were pretty close, weren’t you?”
“Close? What a horrifying—”
“Then of course. Living together and growing up together—”
“…Together?”
Because the word ‘together’ couldn’t be overlooked, Er frowned.
“Ah, ahaha… now that I think about it, you mentioned your sister, right? Then it makes sense. Sister… so we’re like siblings?”
“Siblings? No, just—”
“Siblings… or rather… a bit deeper relationship?”
“…Deeper?”
“Then of course… you’re officially acknowledged by Ahin’s parents.”
“…Parents?”
Surprised by the unexpected word, Er looked at Ahin and asked.
“Ahin, do you have parents?”
“You’re cursing me right now? I should get angry?”
“Ah, no, that’s not the intention… if you have parents, why are you living like this—”
Since it was confirmed now that Ahin had run away from the temple, Er’s only question was this one.
A person with family, why live so miserably?
At least, isn’t it better to meet family? If it were his parents, they would worry about Ahin.
As if sensing Er’s thoughts, Ahin let out a small sigh and said,
“I don’t know where they are.”
“…Eh?”
“Both of them left to travel after leaving me with Master… always with the heart of a honeymoon trip or something.”
“…”
“So without coming directly to the temple every now and then, there’s no way to meet.”
Ahin’s parents were people with strong action.
Two commoners wouldn’t have found it easy, but the moment they learned their son had entered the temple’s education facility, Seonghwagwan, and met a trustworthy master, they dropped everything and set off on a nationwide journey.
“They just suddenly appear out of nowhere, so I guess we’ll meet again someday.”
“Ahin, stop doing that. It’s not out of spite. Every now and then if a letter comes, I get really happy—”
“T-there’s never been—”
Ahin, stammering as if not knowing what to say, turned his head away, and Jina, smiling faintly at that, spoke.
“Hoo hoo, you wouldn’t know? How are your mom and dad? They’re really amazing and free-spirited people. They have great discernment, and they approved me as Ahin’s partner!”
“There was never—”
“You couldn’t convince Ahin yourself, so you targeted the family instead? That’s really—”
“…What exactly are you trying to say?”
“Hoo hoo, well, I’ll leave the rest to your imagination.”
“…”
“…”
The two stared at each other in silence.
In the atmosphere that was about to explode, Ahin, who had been watching their eyes, wondered whether he should flee right now.
“Hoo, if you can shake me as deeply as my parents, you’re mistaken.”
“I never intended to shake you, but I guess I did?”
“It’s up to Ahin to choose. No matter what, I will win—”
“Very confident.”
Jina looked at Er’s voice with a pitiful expression.
“Right, it’s up to Ahin to choose. I’ll show you the overwhelming difference in skill… after that, you don’t need to say anything.”
“I’m looking forward to it. The moment you sob and accept defeat.”
“That suits me. We can be good friends.”
“Hoo hoo… let’s behave well, Jina.”
“Of course, Er.”
“Hoo hoo hoo…”
“Haha haha…”
Looking at the scene where two beautiful women shook hands and shared laughter, a man trembled with his shoulders. Why?
Perhaps only the people involved knew the truth.
●
Carpe was a huge city, but not all humans living around it lived inside it.
Crossing the forests surrounding the city, into the mountainous areas lined with rugged mountain ranges, many people lived there too.
Among them were woodcutters, herbalists, and many others.
Right now, a middle-aged man sweating profusely while climbing the mountain was also a person of such a profession.
“We’re in trouble. Why is it so hard today…”
“Exactly. Yesterday you said to drink moderately.”
“Our little one just got married, how can I drink moderately? If I could, I’d even—”
“Everyone stop making useless remarks and do your work. If we come back empty-handed today, it’ll be troublesome.”
“Right. Just imagining how much my wife will scratch the pot if I come back empty-handed is terrifying.”
The people climbing the mountain while chatting with their companions were hunters from the village at the foot of the mountain.
Though monsters overflowed in the mountains and forests, hunting was actively carried out.
The demand for meat, which couldn’t be handled by raising livestock alone, sent many people carrying bows into the mountains and fields.
Still, there was no need to worry. The strongest monster around here was probably a goblin, and they were easy to drive away.
Even if a group chased them, as soon as a couple were hit and fell, the rest would flee in panic.
These hunters, having lived for decades honing their bow skills, weren’t especially difficult opponents.
“Hoo, I should quit this soon. I can handle everything else, but hunting is the biggest problem.”
“That’s because your flask is empty, idiot.”
“Listen here, it’s hard when you don’t drink! Really, every year it gets worse. Even this morning my knees were aching—”
“Shh, everyone be quiet. I found one.”
The men stopped talking at their companion’s words and, careful not to make noise, crouched down.
Peeking through the bushes, they saw a large mountain beast and clenched their fists.
It was a fairly big deer.
The antlers were large and thick; one of those would last a week even if they returned empty-handed.
As mentioned earlier, they were skilled hunters.
They had hunted countless deer and weren’t clumsy enough to make careless mistakes.
After a few simple gestures, they scattered to block the deer’s path.
The slope was steep and dangerous, so the deer’s movements weren’t very flexible, which was good for them, and even if the arrows missed, it would be easier.
One hunter pulled the bowstring hard.
The skilled archer, who had shot countless arrows, fired straight without any mistake.
-Uwaaaaarrr!!
“Nice!”
“Your skill is solid.”
The hunters cheered at the sight of the deer collapsing with an arrow in it.
“Today’s luck is good. Let’s go down now. Carrying just that one down will be tough.”
“Right, that’s a good idea.”
“We should drink when we go down.”
“The guy complaining about the flask has a good mouth—”
And at that moment.
The man who had been about to say something to his companion who kept mocking him about the flask suddenly froze.
He was gone.
His companion’s face.
The body was still there.
Exactly the same posture of kneeling and holding the deer’s front leg.
Only the head was missing.
Right after, a fountain of red water burst from where the companion’s head had been.
“…Eh?”
The instant the sudden change made him panic and he let out a dazed sound.
“Aaaaah!!!!”
That voice was the companion’s who had shot the deer, filled with agony, a desperate scream.
Red blood spurting from his eyes and the scream piercing his ears.
Those together bent the man’s knee.
“U-uuuh, uwaaaah!!”
Ahin sat down on the ground, screaming, then immediately turned and started running as if barely able to wait.
What was happening?
Something he didn’t know yet.
And at that moment he could see it.
A pair of red eyes hidden in the forest.
Directly staring at him from between the thick bushes.
That was the last thing he could see—