Chapter 265 – Reunion
In the evening, when the sky started to turn blue. They gathered inside Trisian’s tent.
The number of people is the same as when we met in the morning.
“Adjutant, how is the crew returning?”
“Everyone has returned except for the three who headed west.”
At the adjutant’s words, Trisian fell silent for a moment.
“… What is the composition of the three Westerners?”
“There was one veteran with more than 8 years of service.”
The deputy’s expression darkened as he answered.
It wasn’t a complex search, it was a simple one that required just walking in one direction for four hours.
The failure to return from such a simple search cannot be explained by hopeful observations such as getting lost.
It’s like a disappearance.
And what does it mean to disappear in this forest teeming with hostile monsters? It was so obvious.
So it was easy to guess why the adjutant’s expression was dark.
He’s just a passer-by who doesn’t care much about me, but he must have been an old colleague.
Trissian was silent for a moment at the adjutant’s report, then opened her mouth.
“… As scheduled, we depart tomorrow morning for the west side.”
“All right.”
“Instruct the crew to set a night watch and have dinner and rest. Excluding mercenaries during night watch.”
“All right.”
The adjutant bowed his head and left.
In this case, we are bona fide helpers. So you can’t make us stay up all night.
“Three guards never returned… It’s a pity that I took the risk and sent it.”
My mother muttered as she closed her eyes.
“Hmm…”
Roin, with his mouth shut, crossed his arms and made a moaning sound as if thinking about something.
“What’s the matter?”
“I’m thinking about it.”
“What are you thinking?”
“With a three-man team, two people take on the enemy, giving one person enough time to escape. However, all three did not return. Do you know what that means?”
“Hmm…”
I stroked his chin at Roin’s words.
A situation in which three people cannot escape at all?
“Either the number is large enough to surround three people… ?”
“Or it is a case where the guards have such overwhelming power that they do not even buy time to escape. I can’t believe it was the work of a wild animal. This is definitely the behavior of a monster.”
Trisian went on.
She took off her helm and put it on her bag, then pulled out one of her biscuits and asked.
I grabbed her with my index finger and thumb, bit into her fangs, and broke it with quite a bit of force. The biscuit snapped! And crashed with a hard sound.
She continued to chew on the hard, tasteless-looking biscuit without changing her expression.
“However, there has been no report of a monster that was strong enough to overpower three guards or a large group found in the forest southwest of here.”
“Is there something wrong with not having it?”
“It must be a matter of timing.”
“A matter of timing?”
I frowned, not understanding what he was saying.
“The ‘former’ guard chief took a bribe and kept quiet about the disappearance case. Maybe because of that, the current disappearance case has been happening since long ago? I couldn’t tell if it was something new, or if it was caused by monsters. I mean, I only recently learned that people are disappearing from the forest to the southwest.”
This is a story that has been told before.
However, as a result of today’s search operation, it was almost certain that it was the monster’s work.
Wouldn’t it be a story that would end if we set off west tomorrow morning to track down and deal with the enemy?
“Wouldn’t it be over if I go and kill the monster tomorrow morning?”
“I said it was a matter of timing. Is it something that has happened since ancient times? I don’t know if it’s something that started happening recently.”
“If it’s been happening since the old days, do you think it’s going to be a problem?”
“For a long time, if it was a monster that didn’t even leave behind eyewitness accounts enough to kill everyone it encountered in this forest, it wouldn’t be normal. A dangerous enemy It would be great if you could find out about your enemies before you run into them. If you are unlucky, only the crew members will die and the monsters may run away and not be able to deal with it.”
“…”
She closed her mouth at her words.
It is a barbaric and harsh world where human rights do not even exist. I thought it was normal for people to die one by one. It seems I was the only one who thought that way.
“You want to minimize the sacrifice?”
“If you are a commander, it is a natural idea. To be honest, the fact that the three people who went out west died is also heartbreaking. I can’t show strong emotions in front of my subordinates, so I’m just holding back.”
There was obvious anger in Trissian’s chewing on the biscuits.
I couldn’t make a fire in the rain barrel, so I lay still in the tent after the dinner I had packed.
The falling raindrops hit the tent.
The bodies of Natalya and Roin, who were sitting next to each other, were warm, so I didn’t have to worry about the cold.
“I don’t know when this happened…”
“You mean that story?”
“Huh.”
He nodded, feeling Natalia’s breath in his ear.
For some reason, the conversation I had with Trissian didn’t easily get out of my head.
‘If I don’t care, only the crew members could die and miss the monsters.’
Of course, she will react more slowly to her death than the people in my world. She doesn’t kneel down and snort when her men are dead.
That said, if it’s a question of whether you’re used to death, it’s not.
It’s a harsh world, so people die easily. If you do, you will die.
I feel the warmth of Natalia and Roin sitting next to me.
When a fight breaks out, I rarely step forward myself. Even if I go out, it won’t help much.
Most of the fighting is left to Natalia.
What about finding traces of monsters when doing quests?
That’s what Roin does.
I wanted to impress Trisian, so I brought Natalya and Loin to help her with her work, but what if an enemy Natalya can’t handle appears?
Even when the spider queen and the troll were in danger, their lives were at stake.
I am standing on a precarious line where I can fall off with just one foot sprain.
Only then do I realize that I was looking at this world lightly.
I thought it was funny before, but when Hergel was assassinated, all the plans were almost ruined.
Everything doesn’t go the way I think. Somewhere, something different from what I expected happens.
Complex thoughts flooded my head, wondering if I had thought too easily.
“Weather!! We leave in 30 minutes!!”
As I sat rubbing my sleepy eyes at the loud voices of the men talking, the old man stretched himself up next to me.
“Turn it off~~. Oh, it’s refreshing. After all, rainy days are the best.”
It had been raining since yesterday and it was still pouring in the morning.
The sky was overcast and lacked the refreshing feeling of morning. The damp air that clings to it is annoying.
“Ugh, it’s humid.”
“Iknow, right…”
Natalia opened her eyes from the side. Natalya’s beautiful, thick, wavy blonde hair was in a mess because of the dampness.
“Ugh, it’s cold…”
Natalya trembled as she wrapped her arms around his voluptuous breasts.
As she said, the autumn rain is extremely cold.
For breakfast she ate a quick bite of beef jerky, put on her robe, and crawled out of the tent. The large tent located in the center of the vacant lot was in the final stage of demolition, leaving only the hideous skeleton.
“I was thinking about it last night.”
“Hmm?”
As I was watching the large tent being put in order, an old man approached me from behind.
“What are you thinking?”
“You said people were disappearing. A pharmacist or hunter who usually came into the forest?”
“Yeah, it was.”
“At first, you thought that Trician was the work of the Black Moon, didn’t you?”
“That’s right. It was.”
Yes, she apparently thought the disappearance was the work of the Black Moon from the beginning.
“What is the reason Trisian thinks so?”
“Actually, most of the disappearances that happen near the city are because of the black moon.”
“That’s right. But this time, the people who went deep into the forest are disappearing. Do you know what that means?”
“…”
In response to Roin’s question, she shut her mouth.
Assuming that the Black Moon kidnaps people, most of the places where the crime takes place are in shallow forests.
If you want to kidnap him and drag him away easily, there’s no way you’ll kidnap him in a deep forest like this.
The story of yes is that people were kidnapped from the Black Moon before reaching the deep forest. To put it in reverse.
“There’s no way a person could have reached the monster deep in the forest?”
“Well, there may be variables, but my guess is that this disappearance case will be a recent incident. Still, it’s the same thing to subdue, but at least it’s a story that it won’t be a monster with a large group.”
“The group isn’t going to be big enough?”
“Did you see the map Trician showed you yesterday?”
“Map? Huh. I saw. Why?”
“The forest to the southwest here is a forest close to the city, but it was a forest connected to the unexplored lands surrounding Arpagon. A large group of monsters will need that much food, so they will go deep into the unexplored areas rather than near cities like this.”
“Then, the identity of the monster is likely to be a single entity with enough power to kill three guards by itself?”
“It will be like that. At least it certainly gives us the advantage of being outnumbered.”
