Chapter 58 – Scars.
Meanwhile, outside the wagon, the coachmen felt with their own bodies that they were about to enter the cloud region. When the Hildisbeans kicked the ground, the thick moss instead of grass was hit by their feet and tore off and bounced into the air.
“Oops, I feel bad.”
The comrade next to him tossed aside in fright when one of them clung to his armour. Moss is not a very good feeling. I could understand.
“I’ll miss that moss soon.”
“Anyway, I hate that huge moss that grows under the clouds.”
However, even such moss can be seen growing only in sunny outskirts, but if you go a little deeper, you will not be able to see even that kind of moss. All you can see is the wet earth and the eerie creatures that live there. There was already a smell of damp, salty salt in the air.
“Are you ready to light the torch?”
“Uh, though it smells a bit nasty.”
“What’s new?”
Turning on a torch won’t help much, but it’s much better than not having one, so I had no choice but to prepare. Torches are not ordinary torches that burn with only oil. A piece of fat from a dead Hildisbini cut into appropriate sizes and wrapped in an oiled cloth for use in a brazier. Once lit, it was a torch that would not go out even if it rained. If you ask how they got the fat of the creatures that lead their wagons, all I can say is that the journey wasn’t smooth.
“The things that dragons spit out don’t go out even if you put them in water!”
“But if you try to get what they spit, everyone will burn to death!”
Feeling the tension in the surroundings getting darker, their voices were aroused, and they joked, not joking. There are many people who actually wanted to have the flames of the dragons, but because of the order from above, they tried to do that and couldn’t even dig a bone. Somehow the principle was similarly figured out and used like this, but it still doesn’t burn as strongly as the dragon’s flame. Their flames show an incomprehensible appearance, burning even more fiercely when put into water. It will hold up even if it gets wet, but it will fade if you put too much on it.
“Light the fire!”
Eventually, even the dim light disappeared, and the torch that had just begun to burn barely illuminated the surroundings.
– Beep!
When he blows a whistle to check the wagons that may be coming after him, they also answer by blowing a whistle. Judging from the interval of the sound, it didn’t look like anyone had left the procession or been harmed yet. As the torch was made in this way, it would not go out if possible, but it was the most stable way to send and receive signals with a whistle because you do not know if it will go out due to some unexpected situation and it is difficult to see even if you wave the flag. Now, thanks to the torches, that’s unlikely, but he led the lead, and he had to handle all the steering alone. Driving a wagon in the dark, where nothing can be seen, gives more tension than expected.
“There will be no problem if we just go in a straight line like this.”
That was easier said than done. There are no paved roads here, and it is surrounded on all sides by walls that darkness cannot reach. There are no indicators to guide you. Since Hildisbini are bright at night, even if they can avoid obstacles on their own, it is important whether or not they are dangerous creatures. No matter how strong the Hildisbini were, it was difficult to survive here with the people living under the clouds.
In the clouds, pale streaks of lightning streaked silently across the sky, briefly illuminating the underside of the clouds. The earth that was briefly revealed in the darkness was a plain made of soggy mud. It is the exact opposite of the dry wilderness they have been running through so far. Kurleung! The sound of lightning was heard a beat late, and a colleague complained.
“What’s so extreme about this guy’s environment!”
I couldn’t bear to deny it, so I didn’t say anything about his annoyed complaints. Just as the words turned into seed, hailstones began to fall, leaving no time to vomit.
“Evil! Crazy!”
The voices of comrades swearing that a block of ice was stuck between their helmets and the sound of Hildisbiny kicking the ground began to be drowned out by the sound of falling hailstones hitting the shields on the coachman’s seat, their armor, and the wagon.
“Protect the torch! If you lose the torch already, there is no answer!”
Then, once again, a bolt of lightning cut through the sky and roared like a scream.
“Hold up the shield!!!”
Because in that short time when lightning lit up the whole place, they could find that hailstones the size of human heads, which could not be detected with the brightness of torches, had come close to them. Fighting! And a dull sound rang out. Fortunately, the coachman next to him raised his shield and prevented him from being hit directly by a large hailstone, but their concerns increased.
“Damn it! This is too heavy.”
A small but crackling sound was heard, and it seemed that the shield had been shattered a lot. You can’t even hope for no casualties when you see hailstones of this size. It’s hard to hear because it’s buried in the hailstones, but it’s even more so when you hear a small scream coming from behind. Perhaps he noticed that, and his voice wasn’t good either. Compared to the small ones, it was falling less, but the big hailstones were mixed in with no boredom.
“You’re out of luck.”
It is common to get hailstones under the cloud belt, but such large hailstones are relatively rare. But, of course, hailstones fall like that.
“What are you going to do? If you want to go back, you have to go back now. If you go deeper, you won’t be able to beat it.”
The man who was holding the shield next to Donar looked at himself as he spoke. As if to let him decide. And it was something he had to decide. Now he was leading this chariot. This procession was entirely at his discretion.
“I am…”
People’s faces came up. There were a lot of people I met for the first time when I entered the upper ranks, but they were people I became attached to after sharing the joys and sorrows for nearly a year. No matter how much I wanted to give affection, there were many people who couldn’t be affectionate, but it was a time when I couldn’t be affectionate. I also made friends like Shalby and Truss. If you make a mistake, you may lose even if you pass this place safely. And Sif’s face came to mind. A lover who promised to marry if he passed this place. I squeezed the reins tight. I didn’t want to lose them here and now. Donar tried to tell him to go back, but his mouth wouldn’t come out.
The moment you open your mouth. Because the look of his colleague watching him came into his eyes. The figure of a knight holding a shield and silently blocking hailstones the size of their heads while looking at him. There, he had the confidence to rebuke himself. It is an illusion. Simply because his comrades were covering their faces with the same armor and helmet as his own, it would have been just that his appearance overlapped with them. Suddenly, I remembered the conversation I had with the girl last night.
“It’s all I can do for you.”
“Wait, what is this?”
“The rest can only be obtained by going on your own.”
After that, the fire in her hearth went out and the figure of her girl who disappeared together made the meeting with her feel like an overnight dream, but the symbol of her hometown fell and on the left chest of her plain armor. The cross was still attached to it.
“It goes like this.”
Donar stopped him from asking to go back, and he said let’s go on. If we go back now, what is the probability that the next time is not the worst? Even if you return from a situation where you have already suffered damage, is there a way to repair the damage or to go through this place again?
“It’s not the best, but it’s not the worst either.”
The weather wasn’t good, and the hail wasn’t just hail, it came with big hail, but it wasn’t really the worst. At its worst, the hailstones were basically the size of a human head, and at worst they could be the size of a wagon. The torches that had already been lit were not broken by the hailstones and still lit up their vicinity. His colleague nodded. He himself nodded. All that’s left now is to pass through the cloud zone and pray that it really isn’t the worst. Fortunately, as we ran through the clouds, the force of the hailstones from the sky gradually weakened and stopped shortly thereafter.
“Good!”
He cheered and put his whistle to his mouth.
– Beep!
The whistle of the chariots chasing him from behind also returned to normal. If we kept going like this, we could pass through the cloud zone safely enough. Once again, when lightning spread across the sky and lit up the world. If it hadn’t been visible for a moment.
“Crawfish…?”
It’s a big size even compared to Hildisbini who leads the wagon. Its natural armour, its carapace, was made up of many layers, and its long whiskers and large, sharp claws gleamed in the pale light of lightning and reflected the light. It was a natural enemy of travelers who said that if they met under the cloud zone, they would be doomed the moment they met. There was no time to rejoice that the hail had stopped. Because I found the face of the thing I shouldn’t meet the most under the cloud zone.
“I don’t think you’ve seen us yet.”
I thought it might end like this, but fortunately or unfortunately, the crayfish was found far away from them. If you look at the still, maybe you didn’t find them. Even so, Donar couldn’t stop his tension. Crayfish are less dangerous creatures than dragons. That’s because crawfish don’t fly, can’t use magic, and even live in a limited number of places. But even that is a story in comparison.
There was a reason crayfish were called the natural enemies of travelers. The crayfish’s large claws are strong enough to grab and tear even a sturdy wagon. The hard shell of crayfish is difficult to even scratch with a spear knife. You can break it by swinging a mace or shooting a gun. The problem is that the mace won’t start swinging while driving a wagon, and guns are only installed on walls to deal with dragons. It was impossible to load such a heavy object into the wagon.
There are small ballistas, but the upper of an adult crayfish is no small ballista. The biggest problem was that they had a habit of forming groups. A few of them will be annihilated by the rest no matter what. At least, when a dragon attacks a city, you are given a weapon to deal with, but when you encounter a crayfish, you have to struggle without even a weapon to deal with.
-Beep beep!
First of all, he signaled with a whistle, and he urged Hildisbini to speed up, trying to observe the creature and its surroundings. But in the dark, I couldn’t see. We have no choice but to wait for another lightning strike. I was moving at full speed to avoid the crayfish, but they might have already spotted them and approached me in the dark.
‘I hope the lightning strikes soon.’
The lightning that strikes occasionally is quiet at this time. When I asked the whistle in my mouth whether I should at least throw a torch and find the location of the crayfish out of nervousness. Suddenly, lightning crossed the sky. Unfortunately, his disturbing thoughts came true. The crayfish, which had been seen from quite a distance, was seen approaching them. It seemed that they were running fast, anticipating the path they were going to. But there was a happy miscalculation.
“One?”
-Rumble!
It was only when the light of lightning illuminated the world and it got dark that the sound of lightning rang out. As soon as the light of lightning cleared the darkness, it was frightening to see a huge crayfish swimming across the muddy ground and running towards them, but it was clear that there was only one. Could it be that I saw it wrong? After examining himself, he clearly saw the appearance of only one crayfish.
“No way.”
Maybe we can pass under the cloud zone more smoothly than we thought.
“Git!”
He called his colleague by name with hope.
“Can you drive the carriage for me!?”
“Is there a way?”
“If I’m right!”
He held out his hand and Donnar placed the whistle and reins in his hand. Then, lighting a spare fan, he climbed onto the roof of the wagon, which was higher than the driver’s seat. It was a risky action in a running wagon, but it was inevitable. Originally, even a ladder was installed to use it like this. Climbing onto the roof, he leaned as far as he could to avoid falling into the headwind and felt for the roof of the carriage.
“It should have been around here…!”
Soon after, grab the handle and push it to open the door. If you asked why there was a door on the roof of the carriage, you could tell by looking at what was underneath it. The hidden weapon was revealed when the torch was shined. It was a ballista. Even among ballistas, it was small and unassembled, so it was shabby, but it was the largest weapon that could be installed on this wagon. When the world flashed again while setting up the support that had been lying down for storage, I found that the crayfish had already approached nearby. He blew his whistle, thinking that at this rate, they would collide before he could even finish assembling.
– Boo-woo!
However, it is not the whistle used to move the wagon. That whistle had already been handed over to my colleague. Then Donar lit the other fan with the torch in his hand and held it back as if he were throwing a spear. There was no problem with the iron fan. The question is whether you can stick this into a crayfish or not. If his prediction is correct, the torch will surely stick to his body. If I’m wrong, I’ll have to prepare for annihilation, but at that moment, I saw a crayfish come close to me, revealing its figure sneakily in the wagon’s torch.
The first thing to appear was a large claw foot. When he found it, he threw it with all his might, anticipating where the head would be. If there was a little error in his judgment, and if there was a little mistake, everyone could die. The torch that had left his hand became a wedge, slowly clearing away the surrounding darkness and cutting through the air. Eventually, the moment when the hideous face of the crawfish, which seems to have been made by weaving several lines, is revealed.
-Kiririk!
Puck! As the perch was thrust into his face, he let out a grotesque sound as if in pain. But that was enough. His thoughts were all right.
“As expected, it hasn’t been long since she escaped!”
Originally, its shell was not something that could be pierced by a person throwing a sharp iron stake. I thought it was strange for a guy who usually goes in a group to run alone without his own people, so I did it just in case, but it was as he expected. Crayfish are quite strange creatures. It is a glutton that runs in groups and eats grass and other creatures at random, and it is also ferocious, so it relentlessly pursues creatures that invade its territory until it is repelled or killed. However, the ferocity of the crawfish went too far.
When crayfish grow, they shed their shells. The crayfish in that condition must remain weak for at least one day. However, if the tribe sees the condition, the crayfish will be eaten by the tribe. When they see their people in a weak state, they can’t protect them, but they cause a commotion. So, when a crayfish is molting, it quietly leaves the group, finishes molting alone, and joins its own species when the shell hardens again. That must have been the reason he was alone. It was really lucky.
– Whiririk! Puck!
He moved his feet with comparatively small claws to get the torch stuck in my face, but a sudden hailstone struck him. Again, there was no hail. If you look at the carriage that follows right behind them, there is Odur in the coachman’s seat who turns the sling around and throws the hailstones that fell earlier instead of bullets. As expected, it wasn’t too bad, but it worked well for the guy who had just finished shedding and stopped his movement. Thanks to this, the crayfish fell behind in the wagon, and he used the gap to assemble the entire ballista.
The wagon that Git was driving was still running at full speed, and there was no way the crayfish that had fallen behind could catch up, but it was just in case. Holding the control stick of the ballista, I was watching behind the disappearance of crayfish. Fortunately, there was no sign of an emergency from the back, as if the crayfish were no longer chasing. When I was relieved for a while like that. A heavy hailstone hit his armor.
“Ugh! Hail again!”
He had to leave the ballista he had assembled and go down to the driver’s seat again.
“Ouch!?”
“Git!”
Hearing the screams, he hurriedly went down to the driver’s seat and saw his colleague who had been hit by hailstones and collapsed.
“Fuck, I’m fine, so keep driving the carriage!”
Fortunately, he held the reins while holding the whistle that he seemed to have missed as he was talking normally as if there was no danger to his life. How long did he get through the falling hailstones without slowing the wagon like that?
“It’s light! It’s light!”
A light appeared at the end of the endless darkness. Git shouted loudly.
“Because it’s still a long way to go. It’s blocking hailstones well!”
“I know!”
Hildisbiny was overtaxed to avoid the crayfish, but as if to say that it was not pointless, a blinding light soon covered their vision. As his eyes adjusted to the light, Donar’s eyes saw a vast meadow and the walls of a city presumed to be Lantua in the distance. They were finally out of the clouds. In my heart, I wanted to drive the wagon to Lantua with this momentum, but considering the mental state of the coachmen who endured under the cloud for half a day and the stamina of Hildisbini, who had to maintain full speed, I had to rest near the cloud.
I took a deep breath, inhaled, and blew my whistle to calm the thumping sound of my heart that was still pounding because of the tension that hadn’t subsided.
-Beep!
