episode_0060

The moment he fell into despair. Twooong! A rough tearing sound ripped through people’s ears. At the same time, the crayfish’s body was seen being hit by something and collapsing to the side. He, who had been chasing the crayfish, was able to clearly watch the spear fly in with terrifying force, piercing the creature’s side and seemingly pinning it to the ground to prevent it from moving any further. Donar was familiar with the spear that had pierced the crayfish’s side. It was a spear he had loaded into the ballista.

I couldn’t even think about using it because it broke from the hail. Thanks to that, Sief was safe, but who on earth? Without needing to wonder, he soon found out who had used the ballista.

“Kkeuaht! Head, my head!”

Amidst the silence, a boy’s voice came from that direction, so it was impossible not to know. No, it seems difficult to say that it was aimed and fired.

“Does it hurt a lot?”

“Eueueu, Belka.”

Listening to the children’s conversation, people, including Donar, couldn’t help but let out a hollow laugh.

“I can’t believe it worked so perfectly like that, it’s so absurd.”

After the crayfish commotion ended, Shalby, who was listening to the story while eating dinner together, couldn’t stop giggling.

“My head still hurts.”

Usher frowned, rubbing his head where a bump seemed to be forming. He had been able to watch the whole scene of people rushing to stop the crayfish from the roof of the wagon Donar had left behind. When they eventually missed it and he saw Sief in danger, he was surprised and jumped up, hitting his head on the ballista right above him. The story was that the broken ballista had accidentally activated because of that. The people who heard Usher’s account laughed in disbelief.

If he had activated the ballista out of childishness to save Sief, they really could have scolded him for being reckless. But since the simple malfunction of the broken ballista had saved Sief, there was nothing to say.

“Still, you saved me. Thank you.”

“But I didn’t really do anything.”

Usher shook his head, saying it was just a coincidence to Sief’s words of gratitude, but Donar said,

“It was a coincidence that happened because you guys were there. You guys are very lucky charms.”

“Eck, even you, Mister.”

There were some injuries because of the crayfish, but no one died, it was said. Usher felt burdened by their gratitude because he didn’t think he had done anything.

“By the way, that crayfish shell must be expensive. Are you really not going to take it?”

Donar said, recalling the crayfish’s appearance after being hit by the spear and dying. Crayfish are rarely caught, so there are many expensive byproducts that people will pay almost anything for. Typically, the crayfish’s hard shell is a valuable item that collectors would eagerly pursue.

“No thanks. What would we use something like that for?”

He told Usher that it was really expensive and tried to persuade him, but he couldn’t convince him in the end. That evening’s dinner was a stew with a lot of crayfish meat dug out and put in. The taste was so good that everyone praised it, but Donar was still bothered by the crayfish’s behavior.

“No matter how fierce and angry it was, does it usually charge like that?”

Even if animals can fight and win against an opponent, they tend to avoid fighting if there is a risk of getting hurt themselves. It’s really rare to see something charge recklessly like the crayfish they saw today. That’s also why their response was delayed today. Usually, you can’t imagine it charging like that.

“That child was destined to die from the moment its shell was broken.”

It was Belka who answered Donar’s question.

“What does that mean?”

Instead of answering his question, the girl held out her bowl to him. Feeling that she wanted him to take it, he received her bowl and realized that she hadn’t even taken a spoonful of the stew inside.

“You, this.”

“Never show your weaknesses to others. Even if they are of the same kind. So, please don’t forget that preciousness.”

He wanted to ask why she hadn’t eaten it, but the girl was already saying something else.

“Usher.”

“Did you finish eating?”

Belka held out her hand to Usher without saying anything, and Usher accepted it as a yes and went straight to the wagon where they were staying. He, who had become like a dog chasing a chicken, pondered the girl’s words and was reminded of the crayfish’s habits. Come to think of it, weren’t they very similar?

After passing through the cloud zone and resting for another day, they were finally able to fully see the walls of Lantua. Usher admired the walls. Although it wasn’t as overwhelmingly large as the sky barrier created by the clouds, the walls, with their yellowish sand color, looked so big that they wouldn’t be tall enough even if several of the wagons they had come on were stacked on top of each other. He couldn’t even guess how long it would have taken to build something like that. In fact, Belka, who was next to him, seemed to be looking at the scars engraved on the walls rather than the walls themselves, so Usher’s attention also turned to that direction.

“Why are the walls so crooked?”

It was also noticeable that the uppermost part of the walls, which were engraved with numerous scars as if showing the storms they had endured, looked too irregular. It was strange to think that such a shape was created artificially, as if it had been broken and melted.

“That must be a sign of an attack.”

It was Shalby who said this, looking up at the walls with a look of deep emotion next to them. Usher made an ambiguous expression at his words. An attack? Was there usually something that would attack a place where people live? The village where Usher lived was peaceful for a long time, except for the last day he left, so there was no chance of an attack. Could it be that monsters like the ones that attacked his village were common creatures outside the forest? Recalling the image of the large crayfish that had chased the caravan yesterday and almost caused a big problem, Usher thought that might be the case.

“There are many stories in our country that dragon attacks are frequent and dangerous, but other places are not peaceful either.”

Because there are creatures that prey on or target people everywhere, people must live together in at least villages or cities, he said, and Usher realized that his guess was right. The outside of the forest seems to be full of things that are much stranger and more dangerous than he thought. At that moment, Donar ran towards them.

“Shalby! Were you here?”

“Why? What’s wrong?”

“Tell the people. There will be an inspection soon.”

As Donar conveyed the story about the inspection through Shalby and the coachmen, Usher and Belka, who were looking at the walls, had to return to the wagon where they were staying. This was because everyone had to be in their place since the wagons were going to be inspected for the inspection. Thruss, who was also in the wagon with them, was waiting for the inspection with a very nervous look, so Usher whispered in Belka’s ear.

“Why are they doing this inspection?”

“Maybe it’s because there might be someone with bad intentions.”

She nodded at her words, saying that if someone like that came in and did something bad, there was no telling what would happen. He thought that someone like Pan, who they had abandoned in the wilderness, could also enter, so it seemed natural to do an inspection. That was when they were whispering and talking. The door of the wagon swung open and a man appeared with an old man. Usher’s eyes widened in surprise at the sight of the man. This was because the man’s height was noticeably small even compared to him, who was short.

If the man was the same age as the children, he wouldn’t have been so surprised. However, the man, who was so short that he didn’t look strange even if he was a child, clearly looked like an adult man. The story that many dwarves lived in Lantua came to Usher’s mind. He thought they would be small when he heard the word dwarf, but he didn’t know they would be this small. The dwarf, who had neatly combed his dark brown hair and was wearing neat clothes, looked very picky.

“What is this place for?”

The dwarf’s voice was cold, sharp, and as unemotional as he looked, without any childish feeling.

“It is a place to treat the injured.”

The old man spoke politely to him, who seemed much younger than himself. Usher noticed from that sight that he should not treat that dwarf carelessly. He looked around the wagon where several patients were sleeping.

“A caravan with professional knights, space to accommodate patients, and a doctor.”

He muttered suspiciously, carefully looking around the wagon. His eyes seemed to be saying that he suspected this caravan. Usher swallowed as the inspection became more tense than he had expected. Finally, his gaze turned to them. And a surprised expression.

“Those children.”

He said children, but the dwarf’s gaze was directed at Belka. He wondered if something was wrong, so he held the girl’s hand tightly, and he shook his head and said again with a cold look.

“Are those children also patients? They don’t seem to have any problems on the outside.”

“There is a child who is physically weak. One is just there because he is worried about his friend.”

“Is that so?”

His gaze stayed on Belka for a long time before falling off.

“And he is also the owner of the horse.”

“A horse, are you perhaps talking about that horse, not Hildisvini?”

The dwarf seemed really surprised at the story that there was a horse. He seemed to have heard from Donar that horses were precious, but was he reacting to that extent? Usher still didn’t have a good sense of how precious horses were. No matter how he thought about it, Hildisvini, who was sturdy and strong, seemed more expensive than a horse that only looked plausible. Hildisvini was also overwhelmingly large. It was even more so for him, who had been riding horses for a few days after leaving the forest.

The horse couldn’t even run with them in the wilderness, let alone walk for a long time, it was struggling and panting. Hildisvini, on the other hand, was pulling a wagon bigger than them and running all day without showing any signs of exhaustion.

“Would it be okay to examine the horse directly?”

His question was directed at them. Listening to the dwarf saying that he wanted to see it directly, he thought that horses must be precious, and he looked at Belka.

“What should we do?”

“It’ll be okay. It’ll be helpful to show him in order to enter the city.”

Belka looked at the old man and whispered to Usher at his question.

“And Usher is the owner of the horse. So, it’s good for Usher to do what he wants.”

“Ugh, okay.”

He didn’t really want to be the owner of that horse, who had a lewd personality, but Usher looked at the dwarf and nodded, meaning permission.

“It’s okay.”

He made a noise with his nose as he answered stiffly, being very nervous.

“Hmm, if it’s not a discourtesy, I’d like to go and examine the horse together.”

He was confused because he didn’t know what his intention was, but Belka also said that it would be good to go, so they had to leave the wagon and follow the old man and the dwarf. And the place they arrived at was the wagon where they had put the horse.

“This is really a horse.”

“Ah! You mustn’t touch it carelessly!”

The dwarf tried to bring his hand to the horse as if he was surprised, but Usher grabbed his hand in horror. As soon as he did, he heard the sound of the horse clashing its teeth. The horse was trying to bite the hand he had held out. He would have been bitten if Usher hadn’t grabbed it. As he looked at the horse blankly, Usher sighed, thinking that something terrible almost happened.

“This one has a bad personality and bites.”

-Heeheeing

The horse cried as if it was wronged, but he didn’t fall for it because he had often heard stories that it had almost bitten them when Donar or the other coachmen took care of it. As Usher glared at it and grabbed the horse’s snout, the horse looked at him carefully. The dwarf nodded as he watched him and the horse. They soon followed the old man and the dwarf because it was awkward to go back right away. He looked at the wagon full of hail and finally checked the crayfish shells, and he seemed satisfied.

“Did you say your hometown is Pasiphaenia?”

“That’s right.”

“Hmm, I knew there were rumors that the knights who protect the country are skilled because dragon attacks are frequent, but I didn’t know it would be to this extent.”

He tapped the crayfish shells as if checking their condition and wrote something with a pen on the parchment he was holding and looked at it.

“Good. There are some suspicious parts that are not completely absent, but the condition and quality of the items are not bad, so it doesn’t matter.”

Saying that they also needed manpower, he rolled up the parchment and put it in his arms.

“The results will be out within half a day.”

The dwarf said that and got on the wagon he was seeing for the first time. It was small compared to the wagon they had come on, but it was still a big wagon. His gaze at Belka seemed to be particularly long, but he didn’t know the reason. All Usher could tell was that the businesslike and meticulous gaze was different from the gaze Rogi had at Belka. The wagon carrying the dwarf disappeared through the huge iron gates between the walls.