Chapter 130: The North (14)

When Alice opened her eyes, a beast was sitting there, sharpening its claws with a sharp gaze. Startled, Alice clutched her blanket tightly, jumped up, and screamed.

“Kyaaaaaaak!”

Her scream echoed widely through the winding cave, enough to attract the attention of the beastmen lying around. Wherever she looked, yellow eyes stared directly at her.

“W-what? W-who are you? Where’s my dad? Where’s Lorena?”

“I’m here, Alice. Calm down.”

Lorena, who had been stretching in the corner, smiled awkwardly and gestured as if to calm her down. Alice frantically rolled her eyes, recalling the events just before she lost consciousness. While she was briefly curled up from the cold, the sled had overturned. Evan had scooped Alice up and jumped off, and she remembered beastmen standing all around. She also recalled Evan saying something, and her shaking her head to refuse.

And now, Lorena was in this cave, but Evan wasn’t.

“Ah, Dad? Lorena. Where’s my dad?”

“Calm down, Alice. Evan is safe right now. He left after seeing you sleeping earlier.”

“R-really?”

Alice sat back down after hearing Lorena’s words. As she calmed down, the beastmen who had been watching her intently returned to their routines nonchalantly, as if they had never been observing her. Lorena started exercising again, and a beastman sat next to Alice, grooming its claws.

Alice glanced at the beastman beside her and asked Lorena.

“W-what’s happening to us right now?”

The beastman seemed completely uninterested in Lorena and Alice’s conversation. Alice wondered if these beastmen could even understand their language. Lorena said while doing push-ups.

“We’re… well, like hostages.”

“Hostages?”

Alice was startled by the word ‘hostages’. She looked around, searching for Evan, and got to her feet. Lorena stopped her push-ups and stood up again, saying.

“Oh, right. Alice. I’ll give you a tour of the facility here. It’ll be easier if I do it than the beastmen.”

“Hey, wait a minute, Lorena, what’s with you? Why are you so calm?”

Alice frowned at Lorena’s appearance, seeming perfectly adapted. She was so composed, it was as if she had betrayed Evan and sided with the beastmen. Just as Alice was about to say something with a displeased look, Lorena winked and said.

“It’ll be more convenient if I guide you. The beastmen’s grasp of our language is a bit clumsy.”

Alice nodded a beat later, calming her anger. Lorena naturally took the lead and left the cave, and Alice followed, carefully observing the beastmen lying on the floor or doing their own things.

“Agh…!”

As they stepped out of the cave, a chilling cold rushed in. Having stepped outside without thinking in her thin clothes, she shivered, wrapping her arms around herself. Lorena placed a hand over her chest and took a deep breath.

“Ah… I’m alive. Alice. You must have been really surprised, huh?”

Lorena said that and took off her coat, giving it to Alice. Alice quickly put on the coat and moved to a shaded spot a little distance from the cave. What she had thought was just a single cave turned out to be a village with a complex structure, like a giant beehive. Looking up, beastmen were moving around in holes dotted sporadically on the cliff face, and turning slightly revealed beastmen operating shops.

And surrounding the village was a vast expanse of dark forest. Alice sighed deeply, gazing at the vast forest, its end obscured by the snowy mist. She needed to escape, but the sheer size of the forest was enough to drain her motivation.

“So, where are we now?”

“It’s a beastmen village. Evan made a deal to enter the village under the condition that they wouldn’t lay a finger on me or you.”

“Ha…”

Alice sighed with a complicated expression. She didn’t know how to handle this situation. Alice lowered her voice.

“What about an escape plan?”

Lorena shook her head and said.

“There’s no plan yet. Evan said we need to observe the situation further for now. We…”

Lorena trailed off and gave an awkward laugh. She also didn’t know how to handle this situation. Doing nothing. Entrusting everything to Evan. This was completely unfamiliar territory for Lorena, who had always taken responsibility for the family in Jack’s stead, and for Alice, who had lived with the compulsion to protect her family.

So Alice posed a question to Lorena.

“Is there really nothing I can do?”

Lorena frowned at Alice’s question and fell into thought. Alice also put her head next to Lorena’s, pondering deeply for a moment. Lorena, who had squeezed her eyes shut and stomped her foot, grabbed Alice’s shoulders and said.

“The fugitive who went to Phoebe. Did they really arrive in Phoebe?”

“What?”

Lorena looked around and said.

“I asked a merchant selling goods here who they were selling to. One of the beastmen told me that this village used to trade and interact with humans to some extent. Although they had suddenly turned hostile after the leader changed, I heard they had interacted until quite recently.”

“If they interacted until recently, then villages that didn’t normally interact with beastmen are likely unaware of the current situation, right?”

“Probably.”

Alice nodded and fell into thought. Evan’s friend, who had set out to find the fugitive just like them, knew that the fugitive was in a village called Phoebe.

“If they’re a knight’s subordinate, they must work in the capital. They provided information about the hideout from the North to the capital, and since that person came down from the capital, quite some time must have passed. Did the fugitive stay in Phoebe the whole time? This is a person quick-witted enough to escape assassination attempts by the Thieves Guild; could they have been living obliviously, unaware that their hideout was discovered?”

Lorena agreed with her reasoning. This wasn’t just any fugitive; they had targeted the Hero’s family. There was no place where such a person could rest easy. Their neighbor could be an informant, or the landlord who was friendly until yesterday might turn violent. The fugitive had few options. They could either be caught after repeatedly fleeing through various villages, or escape to a village where the Thieves Guild couldn’t infiltrate. Lorena said.

“I haven’t heard of any beastmen joining the Thieves Guild.”

“The fugitive probably hasn’t either. So… in my opinion, I think the fugitive chose this beastmen village as a safe haven, free from the Thieves Guild and the Hero’s family’s connections?”

Lorena wore a sympathetic expression. She could vividly imagine what sight awaited him, having blindly rushed here trusting the rumors of the beastmen’s hospitality. Alice turned back and went into the cave. She was burning with motivation. She had found something she could do within this vast cave.

Lorena followed Alice, her face also full of enthusiasm. Alice found a wanted poster among her belongings. The image of a man with a large mole on his face caught her eye. Despite having rolled around in the snow, the poster remained undamaged. Alice smoothed the poster once, then presented it to the beastman still sitting in the same spot.

The beastman, who had been trimming its nails, glanced at the poster with an indifferent expression and tapped it with a finger, saying.

“Who is it? Your lover?”

Alice shook her head and said.

“Have you seen this person? I need an item that belonged to him.”

The beastman was more receptive than expected. It lowered its head, carefully examining the face on the poster, then took the poster with a firm grip. The beastman, pondering deeply while holding the poster up to the light, suddenly let out a growling sound towards the back of the cave.

The beastmen lying on the floor began to approach, their eyes sparkling. Both Alice and Lorena instinctively stepped back, eventually sitting down in a corner. The beastman tapped the poster in a beast-like language that Alice and Lorena couldn’t understand, then pointed at them again.

The beastmen nodded, passing the poster around. Then, a lanky beastman jabbed at the poster with its claws as if to pierce it, saying.

“I’ve seen him.”

All eyes turned to that beastman. Alice asked.

“Where is he?”

“He’s dead. He was alive when he came here, but he spat in the boss’s face because the boss showed him favor. So he was tortured for a week and then died.”

“Ah, I remember! I remember!”

“He was here! That happened!”

As the beastman explained the details, gasps of recognition erupted from all around. Alice asked.

“Where is that person’s item?”

“Follow me.”

Following the beastman’s lead, the two moved. The three were heading towards a small, round mound covered in pristine white snow. Alice felt a strange tension between the receding cave and the approaching mound. Was it like a warehouse for storing a dead person’s belongings? The forest was dark, making it hard to see.

Covered in white snow, it looked like a chocolate cake, or perhaps a chunk of meat sprinkled with cream cheese. But its uneven surface also evoked a sense of dread. Alice thought the item was stored in that warehouse. However, her certainty turned into anxiety as they got closer, and by the time she could confirm the mound’s true nature, she was overcome with horror.

“What the….”

“It’s here.”

This mound, easily towering over Alice’s height, was not a structure built by anyone. It was a tomb, a mixture of frozen clothes and grave goods. A tomb built over a considerable amount of time by discarding and adding grave goods. Alice turned her head away, gagging, and Lorena gasped for breath.

“It’s inside here.”

The beastman said that, pulling at a fur-lined garment sticking out. Alice gritted her teeth and stared at the tomb. She couldn’t give up now. The beastman was moving away, but Alice faced the pile of grave goods. She rolled up her sleeves and said.

“Let’s do it.”

For the sake of the dead,

she had to.