Chapter 166 – Friends (1)
20. Friends (1)
“Yes? Are you?”
“What happened to Ar?”
“Beautiful?”
My colleagues who were watching my reaction expressed their interest. There was a mixture of worry and doubt.
“Master. When did you get this note?”
“Was it last night?”
“Last night? So, did you ever say where you are or where you are going?”
“I don’t know that far. I asked if your group was in the room, and I said I had to be away for a while, so I said no right now. Then he urgently asked me if I had a small piece of paper to use as a note, scrawled something on it, and immediately ran out. That’s all.”
“… Thank you.”
Just one word: help. Last night. Very urgent writing and attitude. The testimony of the innkeeper who seems to have fled somewhere under the circumstances.
“For now, I’m going to look for Ar, but what about you guys? I’m not giving you an order by the way.”
“What are you talking about? Of course you have to find it.”
“That’s right. Even though we broke up like that…”
“Uhm. I’m just bored when I’m alone. Maybe my senses can help.”
“… Um, yes Then put all your belongings aside from your weapons in the room and come back down.”
Traveling by wagon for a long time was more tiring than expected. So, although travel poisoning was not resolved, I couldn’t turn away from the poor wolf girl. There was also a sense of guilt that I had awakened the nature of her race that I hadn’t known about by dragging her into my warrior corps for no reason, and it was because I had been unilaterally favored by her after that.
Before entering District 2, when I was under stress because I couldn’t find a good bard. Ar suddenly appeared, threw her Illumina, and then disappeared again. She said it very cool and chic, as if she didn’t really want anything in return. As a result, although the bard she picked up had trouble once, she did a great job in breaking through the second area, so the favor multiplied several times.
We left the inn again in our current clothes. And went straight to Ar’s house.
“Is Ar at home?”
“No, I think the odds of that are low. Listening to her words, she seems like a very proud child, but seeing that she urgently asked Hendrick for help and ran away again, you must have already said that home is not a safe place?”
“I still need to stop by. Right now, she has no idea where Ar is or what situation she’s in, so she needs to get some clues.”
“That’s right.”
My thoughts were the same. There were no smartphones, computers, or even landlines here, so I had no choice but to run with my feet to find out something. The only thing I knew about Ar was that she was a wounded werewolf girl of the outer class type, and that her house was very shabby.
‘No matter how short the time we spent together, I didn’t know too much.’
I couldn’t imagine how she would feel when she asked me for help, a girl who had been struggling to survive in this rough city without a place to lean on. What was she like when she went to the inn and was told I was gone? What would she look like when she hurriedly left her note and ran out again.
She was one of those who were her companions to Ar, but the thought that she might have been more than I to Ar made her impatience.
“… Oh my god.”
“At this point, it’s no longer a home…”
With our main forces, it didn’t take long to get to Ar’s house. However, what greeted us was not a building with many defects, which was quite inconvenient to call it a house, but a messy field.
It was full of traces of someone thoroughly searching and destroying it.
“Let’s investigate the road first. Then we will decide our next destination.”
“Yes, chief.”
We began to investigate Ar’s house, which had become a heap of garbage. Ar’s house was very narrow, so the pile wasn’t too big, but I carefully removed it in case something inside could be damaged.
We’ll soon find out what Ar used to use… We were able to excavate a few items that are believed to be .
“I collected them all, but… What can we learn from this?”
“Um…”
It was stifling. There was really nothing but junk. An old fork, a plate with missing teeth, something I thought was a rag, but when I opened it up, it was clothes… There were only things that made me sober.
‘If you see a search dog or a detection dog, they will let you sniff the object and then track it down, wouldn’t it?’
It was absurd even when I thought about it. It was rude to Illumina.
“Perhaps the clue was destroyed when this place collapsed.”
“But other than here, there’s nowhere else to get clues.”
“Ar is… I know I’ve never had anyone close to me. He once said that he had no choice but to keep his distance because there were only people who would take advantage of him, eat his back and try to get him out of it somehow.”
“Ha… Er this guy… No matter how urgent it is, why is it like that, where is it? .”
It must have been so urgent, but it was quite frustrating from the point of view of trying to help. In particular, I couldn’t get rid of travel poisoning and moved straight away, so my body was quite tired.
“Wait… ?”
“Uh?”
“Stay still.”
As she was racking her brains over how to deal with this situation, Illumina flashed her eyes and suddenly started digging her ground.
“Illumina. What are you doing now…”
“I don’t know what it is, but it’s okay. Once I found it, I found it.”
‘No, how did you find it?’
Putting my astonishment aside, the dust in her hands was nothing but an old bag. And that pocket was familiar.
“Captain. That!”
“Uh. It’s the pouch I gave to Ar. I kept some gold coins. Illumina! Open it quickly.”
Illumina carefully opened her pocket with her other hand and brushed her off. Dozens of gold coins spilled out of the pocket.
“This guy didn’t use any of the things I gave him. After saying thank you and saying I’ll use it well…”
“Illumina. Is the gold coin over? Are there any more?”
“Huh. There’s nothing inside except gold coins, wait.”
Illumina turned her pocket inside out. Inside the pocket was written in very small letters.
“Letter?”
“It looks like it has the same font.”
“Come on, read it!”
“Hendrick, I think you can find it, so write it here. In fact, the species may not be able to afford to live.”
“No, it’s true that I finally found it…”
Listening to the back story, why is it so salty…
“There is already space… I think I got caught I’m being chased. I thought about getting out of here altogether, but it seemed like it would be more dangerous. Because it’s complicated. I think there are many places to hide. But now it’s the limit. I don’t want to harm you, but I still have someone to rely on, only you… 」
The article ended there. From the context, it seemed like it was written before stopping at an inn. But this time it wasn’t a joke. There was one clue.
“You heard me. Is that right?”
“Yes.”
A werewolf, a predator that brutally hunts humans. A cursed race that humans are hostile to.
Ar was a werewolf half-blood who inherited half the blood of that race, and there would be no other reason for her to be caught and run away.
“No matter what, I wouldn’t have run away to the temple.”
“Maybe he hid in the slums?”
“At this point, it seems highly likely. Because it’s spacious, messy, and complicated.”
“But the slums of Salem are quite large. We’ll have to disperse to search as quickly as possible, but it could be dangerous if we deal alone with those who are pursuing Ar.”
“That is also true.”
I had to make a decision. It was like standing in front of a crossroads in a dungeon. I had to quickly choose whether to take the risk and value speed or the safety of the party.
“Let’s split it in two. Me and Kaya, Shay and Illumina. Let’s scatter like this. I’ll take the west side, Shay take the south side. Finding Ar is important, but keep in mind that the most important thing is your safety.”
“Yes, chief. I’ll keep that in mind.”
What I chose was a compromise. It’s true that I want to help Ar, but I can’t prioritize the safety of my comrades.
“Let’s go, Kaya.”
“Yes, chief.”
I will do my best to find it though.
As I kicked off the ground and ran, dust rose. The place that used to be Ar’s home was once again in ruins when they disappeared.
**
‘It’s unfortunate. It’s unfair. It’s so unfair.’
Ar wanted to cry. But I didn’t have the time or the mood to do that. After chasing for a long time in a hungry state, his stamina was discharged.
‘I was just asserting my rights…’
Ar thought that he had changed. Although the time spent hanging out with Hendrick and his colleagues was short, it was because of that time that he was able to find a reason to live and boost his self-esteem.
So she didn’t act like a hoe anymore. Until then, if she had focused on survival itself without being caught as a werewolf (mixed race) somehow, she wouldn’t be able to register as a full-time warrior now, but she would be a fellow ‘Ar’ who was once with the real warriors. It was meant to live
Although she still doesn’t get along well with others, she’s a little more active. As she naturally has a good sense of humor and her skills are good, as she reveals more of her real skills, her commission completion rate increases, and her rewards, which she naturally drops, naturally increase.
The problem arose there.
Since she broke up with Hendrick, she has been preparing her mind step by step. She said that she will take her share from now on, regardless of what she had done before. However… So far, those who have shared (used) her and her requests had no intention of doing that at all.
Ar resisted, but Puksu could not win. ‘As a human being’.
If I had awakened my instincts and transformed like that time, I would have been confident even if a hero or a number of bad scum attacked me… Then her life ended there. Like her father, she will have to hide for the rest of her life deep in the deserted mountains.
She didn’t like that. So she ran away. She struggled desperately and managed to get out. But, unfortunately, one of those chasing Ar was seriously injured by Ar’s resistance and went to visit a healing nun.
The nun was quite sensitive, and she kept picking up faint auras that a normal person would never be able to tell apart. Those who were chasing her are initially wanted to follow her this far, but there were also those who were hurt by her and decided to follow her to the end in order to make good use of her to show her the real thing.
She didn’t move as quickly and skillfully as Ar, but they were numerous, and her nun’s pursuit was slow but sure. It’s already the 4th time she managed to shake it off. Ar had a hunch that if she caught up this time, it would be the end for her.
‘Okay… Rather than avoiding me because of me, it’s better to cross paths.’
After a brief breather that might have been her final break, Ar had just slipped out of her dog hole to give her as much distance as she could afford.
“I was here.”
“… !”
“I’ve been looking for you for a long time.”
Her spine tingled.
