Ch.37To the Dwarf Kingdom (2)

Looking at the place Lilly pointed to, I could see a coachman conducting final checks, looking like he was about to depart soon.

“Is this the carriage going to Gagap?”

“Huh? Oh, yes. This is the carriage going to Gagap.”

“If there’s room, could I catch a ride? Of course, I’ll pay.”

When I showed him a silver coin, the coachman grabbed his chin and fell into thought, as if pondering something.

‘Were there already people inside?’

I glanced inside the carriage. I could sense three presences – not particularly strong, but not weak either.

They were probably adventurers or mercenaries like me.

I looked back at the coachman. He had a fairly young face, one that still showed a lot of inexperience.

It seemed he hadn’t been doing this job for long. Due to his lack of experience, he appeared worried about accidents that might occur when rough professionals like adventurers gathered in one place.

“Hmm, I suppose…”

The coachman’s mind seemed to be leaning toward refusal.

It was clear he didn’t want to create a situation where something might happen just for one more silver coin.

‘There don’t seem to be any other carriages ready to depart immediately…’

Looking at the other coachmen inspecting their carriages, I could sense reluctance to depart. At the same time, I could faintly detect thoughts hoping this carriage would leave soon.

‘There’s nothing good about wasting time here…’

Being a few days late to Gagap wouldn’t be a big problem.

However, I was currently in a situation where I’d deceived them about being an Apos Hunter. Since I didn’t know when pursuit might catch up, it seemed better to head to Gagap quickly.

Actually, pursuit itself wasn’t a problem. I just needed to encounter them in Gagap, not here.

So I took out four more silver coins to show the hesitant coachman.

“If one silver coin makes you hesitate, let’s make it five silver coins.”

“There are people who’ve already taken seats inside, so please make sure there are no weapon clashes.”

“That won’t happen, so don’t worry about it.”

While he might have given up one silver coin, when I offered five, the coachman immediately agreed. However, still worried, he earnestly requested that I please not cause any trouble.

“Then we’ll depart immediately, so please board.”

As if the departure preparations had also finished at just the right time, the coachman who received the silver coins headed to the driver’s seat.

I boarded the carriage without delay and saw the three who had boarded first.

“Get away from Leon, you thieving cat.”

“You get away from Leon, you sparkly thing, nya.”

“Guys…? There are more people now, so we should be a bit quieter… *sigh*…”

Three people were forcibly squeezed into seats meant for two, with two women engaged in a catfight over the man in the middle.

‘One of them is actually a cat. But there shouldn’t be a trait requiring cat beastkin to add “nya” at the end…’

It was truly a scene that explained why the coachman was reluctant to take additional passengers.

Any ordinary adventurer would have had plenty to complain about, saying they were rubbing salt in the wound.

Of course, this didn’t apply to me. I was too busy with things to do to spare attention for romance.

“Youth that can be enjoyed when young is a good thing. Have a good romance.”

Still, thanks to this, I could use the seat meant for two people by myself, so it wasn’t all bad.

The front area that would normally be noisy had frozen up from intimidation, so there didn’t seem to be much to worry about.

‘Should I get some sleep for now?’

Controlling mana to create the desired atmosphere was more difficult than I’d imagined, causing fatigue to accumulate quickly, so I needed recovery.

‘Please keep watch for a moment, Lilly…’

‘Get some rest.’

After asking Lilly to handle any potential threats, I closed my eyes and entered a brief rest.

* * *

Even after Frey fell asleep and the pressure that had been weighing down the carriage interior disappeared, no one could easily open their mouth.

This was because they thought Frey might do something to them if she woke up again.

Even without that, just the intimidating aura she naturally emitted made breathing uncomfortable, so they didn’t want to wake her.

So the man called Leon and the woman called “sparkly thing” were being very quiet.

However, the one called “thieving cat” simply stretched as if things were comfortable now and opened her mouth.

“Funyaaaa… The air got heavy and I froze up, nya…”

“Canon, be quiet…! You don’t know when that person might wake up…!”

“What, nya~ Spica, did you get scared or something, nya?”

Spica was startled and tried to cover Canon’s mouth, but Canon seemed superior in physical ability and ended up being subdued instead, only receiving mockery.

“Who got scared…!”

“Ahem… *cough*… There’s someone sleeping in front, so I think we should be a bit quieter.”

When Canon’s provocation made Spica raise her voice, Leon, who had been watching from the middle, intervened.

‘They’re loud.’

Lilly, watching the scene from inside Frey’s robe, looked at the three with an expression of disdain.

Even though they were riding in a carriage, she could see at a glance that they weren’t maintaining necessary vigilance and were just chattering among themselves.

Even skilled adventurers didn’t always do well at this, but due to worry that the tired Frey might wake up, it looked even worse in Lilly’s eyes.

‘But… that Leon guy seems strange somehow.’

While watching the trio, Lilly stared intently at Leon after noticing something odd.

Leon’s soul didn’t have a contract with an evil god, but there were clearly traces of something remaining in his soul.

It was a familiar feeling she’d sensed before, so Lilly tried to recall the memory, but failed.

“Hunya? I feel like someone’s watching, nya!”

Not only could she not clearly remember, but her gaze was too obvious, causing Canon nearby to react, so Lilly had no choice but to look away.

‘I’ll tell Frey when she wakes up.’

* * *

When night fell and the carriage stopped to prepare for camping, I also got off the carriage and moved to find a suitable spot.

As I put some distance between myself and the other passengers, Lilly emerged from my robe and began talking about what she had observed.

“Traces on the soul, you say.”

“Yeah, you know a lot of things, so I wondered if you might know something.”

“Even if you say that, I can’t see souls, so it’s not easy to know what kind of traces different things leave.”

While souls couldn’t be touched through ordinary methods, if one was determined to do something with souls, it wasn’t impossible.

After all, necromancers and shamans stored their own souls externally or used vengeful spirits.

“I’ll keep it in mind. If it’s something I know about, there should be some external effects.”

At least if it was the influence of something I knew, there would be some external manifestation.

‘I hope I can figure out what it is before we reach Gagap…’

While he’d become a suspicious existence that couldn’t be ignored, I had things to do that made tracking him difficult, so I could only hope this matter would resolve quickly.

After my conversation with Lilly ended, the camping passed without any problems.

The insects that had troubled me before gave up approaching just from me spreading pressure, so they weren’t a problem at all.

‘I bought insect repellent too, but it’s a shame.’

As for wild animals or monsters, whether due to intimidation or not, they weren’t visible at all, making night watch easy too.

It was just somehow strange.

As if that strangeness wasn’t just a feeling, problems occurred the next day.

*Clop clop. Clop clop.*

The horses that had been moving forward vigorously with the sound of hoofbeats suddenly stopped and reared up on their front legs, expressing their fear.

“Whoa…! The horses suddenly…!”

The coachman tried to calm the horses, but no matter how much he pulled the reins, they were caught in terror and rearing wildly, making it insufficient.

“Neighhhh–!!!”

“The carriage looks like it might tip over, nya~~!!”

“First, grab onto anything we can grab…!”

In a situation where the carriage might completely overturn if left alone, I increased the output of the mana I’d been gradually spreading and shot it at the horses.

“Calm down.”

At my single word, the horses that had been excitedly rearing stopped as if their previous behavior had been a lie.

However, their bodies were still trembling with fear, and I could feel emotions of wanting to flee immediately.

“Something seems to be approaching from outside.”

My widely spread ki sense also detected something approaching from far away.

And not long after…

*Thud!! Thud!!*

Rather than through ki sense, I could tell something was coming through simple vibrations transmitted through ears and ground.

“Something really big seems to be coming, nya!!”

“Calm down and prepare to fight!”

Behind Canon’s fuss and Spica’s trembling voice, as I tried to get off the carriage, Leon blocked my path.

“I’ll… I’ll do it.”

“Huh?”

Did he not know how strong the opponent was? Or was he overconfident that he could win despite knowing?

I looked at Leon with eyes asking if he was serious.

“This is something I must do.”

He seemed truly serious.

I could feel in his eyes that he would ignore whatever I said and rush out.

And as Spica and Canon followed along with Leon, a trio of hopeless cases was completed.

‘Does he think he’s some kind of hero… wait, hero?’

With a sinking feeling, I looked at the sword Leon wore at his waist.

There were two swords at his waist. An ordinary sword and one with a pure white hilt that caught the eye.

The ordinary sword didn’t need close examination, but what caught my attention was the sword with the pure white hilt.

Though it was sheathed so I couldn’t see the blade, I had a premonition that the blade would also boast a pure white color.

“No way… really?”

While my body froze, the trio had already gotten off the carriage and stood boldly before whatever was approaching.

“Aren’t you going to step in? With their skills, they’ll 100% die.”

“I am thinking of stepping in… but I want to watch for a bit.”

It was a sword that had never been drawn once during the hundreds of cycles I’d repeated.

It was a sword I’d expected might be drawable now that this had become reality.

But I never thought it would already be drawn.

‘It doesn’t seem like it’s been drawn for long…’

I looked at the hero standing boldly before the giant ogre.

Though the difference in their strength was clearly visible, if he was truly a hero, I held expectations that he might show something.

And indeed, they showed impressive moments despite the overwhelming difference in power.

Canon wielded daggers at high speed to confuse the ogre while Leon steadily dealt damage.

And Spica provided buffs and healing from behind, maintaining their endurance.

‘A warrior, assassin, and priest…’

The combination was ambiguous, but the trio seemed to have decent teamwork.

I even thought that maybe the three of them could actually defeat the ogre by working together.

“Ah, they lost.”

“Hmm… was it pointless expectation…”

Of course, the assassin got caught by the ogre and thrown at the priest, retiring them both together.

The so-called hero got careless worrying about his companions and ended up face-planted in the ground.

“The opponent was strong though…”

The ogre was certainly not an easy monster.

Powerful strength, durability that couldn’t be cut by ordinary swords, and regenerative ability that quickly healed most wounds.

It was too much for a novice adventurer party, and to be fair, they fought well.

‘Still, since he’s a hero, I believed he’d do better…’

For a novice adventurer, they did well, but if that was supposed to be the hero who would save the world, he was far below my passing grade.

The ogre approached to finish off the hero party, and the hero hesitated before moving his hand to draw the holy sword.

‘That sword seems like it shouldn’t be drawn carelessly…’

His actions showed that there were either restrictions or conditions.

Then it would be better to save it when possible.

“Save that sword for later.”

I moved quickly, severed the ogre’s arm as it reached for the hero, and looked at him.