Ch.7Toward the Tinder (3)

The cheese workshop was located far from the harbor, near the city’s border.

Perhaps it was to procure raw milk a bit more freshly from the farms on the outskirts of the city.

Considering it took 30 minutes even by rickshaw, it would have surely taken about 2 hours on foot.

“We’ve arrived, my lord.”

“Thank you for your service.”

I generously handed the rickshaw puller 10 copper coins, and having earned easily twice what he expected, he departed with a broad smile.

As I approached the main entrance of the cheese workshop, I could already smell the tangy aroma of cheese.

“Come to think of it, it’s been quite a while since I’ve had cheese. Maybe I’ll buy a piece on my way back…”

Muttering to myself, I knocked on the workshop door.

“Who is it?”

“An adventurer. I’ve come regarding a request.”

“Ah. Please wait a moment.”

Clank!

With the sound of a latch being undone from inside, the workshop door opened, and a clean-shaven young man appeared.

“……”

“What’s wrong?”

“N-nothing. It’s just… I didn’t expect you to be so young…”

“I hear that often, so it doesn’t bother me. Anyway, I’m here to fulfill a request.”

“That’s not my department but Timothy’s. You’ll need to go directly to the warehouse.”

“Where is the warehouse?”

“Go through the main gate and straight to the right.”

“Thank you.”

I gave him a brief nod before walking to the right in search of Timothy.

After walking for about 5 minutes,

I came upon the warehouse, where employees were packaging cheese blocks and loading them onto carts.

I observed this for a moment before noticing one warehouse that, unlike the others which were open, was tightly shut, with a caretaker nearby.

Instinctively, I approached him, thinking he must be Timothy.

“Are you Timothy?”

“Hmm?”

“I’ve come about a request.”

I sensed anxiety from Timothy.

A skill that children raised in back alleys inevitably acquire…

Timothy, with the eyes of a debtor and an addict, approached me when he realized I was an adventurer.

“I’m Timothy. I’m in charge of warehouse number 16 here.”

“And…?”

“About a month or two ago… cheese stored here started disappearing. But no matter how much we searched, we couldn’t find so much as a mouse or even a mouse hole!”

“There’s nothing unusual about the warehouse…?”

“Exactly! We mobilized all the employees and searched thoroughly, but found nothing!”

Timothy was on the verge of losing his mind.

If I felt frustrated just hearing about it, his suffering as the warehouse keeper must have been immense.

“Hmm.”

This is truly a situation that would make ghosts weep.

Cheese disappearing without any entry point… I should probably take a look myself.

“Can you open the warehouse? I think I need to see it firsthand…”

“Ah… I’ll come with you then.”

Timothy took out a key, unlocked the large padlock, brought two lanterns, and handed one to me.

“It’s not good for the cheese to be exposed to lantern light. Please be careful.”

“I will.”

Timothy and I entered the warehouse with dimly lit lanterns.

*

The inside of the warehouse was dark.

The combination of the tangy smell of cheese and the distinctive odor of aged wood… it could only be described as extremely unique.

Thud… thud…

Timothy and I searched for gaps in the warehouse by the light of our lanterns, and the search continued for a full hour.

And… nothing turned up.

Bang!

“I-it must be haunted…! We need to get out of here! We should burn it down!”

Timothy struck the wall, exploding with anxiety.

His unsteadily wavering lantern reflected his mental state.

“Calm down. We’ve only confirmed that there’s nothing wrong with the warehouse itself.”

But even as I said this, my doubts remained.

What could it be?

A magician’s doing? But spell casters wouldn’t waste their magic just to steal cheese…

The mystery remained unsolved.

As my need for cognitive closure went unfulfilled, I too felt like I was being swallowed by anxiety.

What should I do now?

…

Damn. I can’t think of anything good.

Especially not in this dark warehouse.

Let’s get out of here first.

Some sunlight might at least improve my mood.

Just as I was about to approach Timothy, who was turning into a slime against one wall,

Tock. Tock. Tock. Tap!

“Huh?”

For a moment, I doubted my ears.

Tock. Tock. Tock. Tap!

No, this wasn’t my imagination.

This part, right here…

The floorboards where I stepped were made of different wood.

“Timothy!”

I called out to Timothy urgently.

“What… what is it?”

“Has the warehouse been repaired recently?”

“Um… no? But why do you ask?”

Tock. Tock. Tock.

Tap! Tap! Tap!

I demonstrated the different sounds to Timothy three times, and when he realized what those sounds meant, his face turned pale.

“W-what is this…?”

Click! Whoosh!

As he turned his lantern to maximum brightness with a pale face, we could finally see that the material of the floor was different in just one spot.

“Holy shit…”

“W-what is this? Why is only this part different? Do you, do you know?”

“Timothy. This is a tunnel. Some bastards have been digging under the warehouse and stealing cheese.”

When I explained, Timothy screamed.

“There are thieves under the warehouse?!”

“Shhhh! Timothy. I’ll keep watch here. You go alert people and call for reinforcements!”

Rattle… rattle…

As I finished speaking, the tunnel cover began to move with a sound.

There’s no need to describe Timothy’s expression now.

Thud!

And finally, as the tunnel cover was pushed open from below, I sent Timothy away and drew my sword.

*

After about 4 minutes, three people emerged from the tunnel.

They were all armed with wooden clubs reinforced with iron, and each carried a sack for stealing cheese.

“We’ll be done with the cheese here after just three or four more thefts.”

“Can’t we rob another warehouse? The cheese here is so delicious…”

“Go ahead if you want to end up with a noose around your neck.”

The thieves were chatting among themselves as they began filling their sacks with cheese.

Moving stealthily, I deliberately planted my drawn sword into the floor to make a noise.

Thunk!

“Huh?”

As the thieves’ attention was diverted, I turned the brightness of my lantern to maximum.

Whoosh!

“Damn! We’ve been caught!”

Swish!

Crack!

“Arghhhh!”

I smashed the lantern against the head of the nearest thief, then grabbed my planted sword with my right hand and charged.

“You bastard!”

The thief swung his club, but his technique was too crude.

Clack! Slash!

“Ugh.”

I blocked the club with my sword’s crossguard, then pushed the blade forward to cut his throat.

“Gurgle…”

Blood poured from his neck.

The thief tried desperately to stop the bleeding with his hands, but I had no intention of letting him.

I drew my short sword with my left hand and threw it at the last charging thief to make him falter, then thrust my longsword through the heart of the thief who was clutching his throat.

After pulling my blood-soaked longsword out, I dispatched the remaining thief after three exchanges and went to retrieve my fallen short sword.

“You fucking bastard!!!”

“What? Urgh!”

Thud!

Damn! This guy… he didn’t die from my throw earlier!

I was mounted by the thief, causing me to lose grip of my longsword.

“Die! You son of a bitch!”

Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!

Urgh!

Sharp pain struck my face in three consecutive blows, followed by fierce punches to my abdomen.

Crack…

“You little piece of shit… I won’t let you die easily…”

The thief, with a large wound on one side of his head, pinned me against the wall and pulled out a small dagger from his clothes.

He began to thrust the dagger at me, and I desperately tried to block it with one arm.

“Urgh…!”

“Eeek…!”

Damn. This is bad.

The strength difference is too great.

How much cheese has this guy eaten?

Watching the dagger blade slowly approaching, I desperately tried to think of an escape.

Then, one method came to mind, and with a gambler’s resolve, I put it into action.

“Hup!”

Thwack!

“Wha-?”

I didn’t have the strength to push the dagger away, but I could change its direction.

I used my last bit of strength to twist the dagger to the left, and as the thief was thrown off balance by the altered trajectory, I landed a blow and tumbled to the floor.

Crawling on the ground, I could see my short sword next to a corpse.

If I could just grab that sword, I could win.

“Huff! Huff!”

“You slippery bastard!”

The thief, having regained his senses, lunged at me, and I crawled ungracefully across the floor to grasp my short sword.

Grab!

My grabbing the sword and the thief seizing my shoulder happened almost simultaneously.

As the thief twisted my shoulder to the right, I swung my sword at his neck.

Slash!

The thief, who had been holding me with his left hand and was about to stab me with the dagger in his right, had his throat cut, and acrid blood began to pour down onto my face below.

“Fuck!”

I kicked the thief away with a curse and got to my feet.

“Haaaa…”

Crack!

“Urgh…”

Realigning my broken nose, I wiped the blood from both my swords and sheathed them.

Perhaps due to the release of tension, a numbing pain suddenly washed over me.

Just before losing consciousness, the last thing I saw was Timothy rushing in as the door opened.