Chapter 47

Chapter 47. "What the Dead Feel Toward the Dying." 7

After going some distance into the forest, Rene and I first searched for the shortest route cutting across from the northern clearing where the dragon's grave the others called the king lay. (That was what I decided to think of it as, at any rate. It was buried under earth, after all.)

No matter how I thought about it, once they had found the object, why would they waste time in this dangerous forest?

They would have come back early, sat around leisurely drinking tea, and chatted with one another.

After all, our house had unusual conversation partners in the form of elves and dwarves. Considering the way they behaved, that seemed likely enough.

Rene, who had climbed a tree and was looking around, lightly stepped from branch to branch and came down once she seemed to have figured out where we were.

Despite jumping down from such a tall tree, Rene suffered no shock at all.

Because she was an elf.

If I had jumped down like that, the ground probably would have caved in.

"If we go about forty meck farther ahead, there is a large rock. From there, let us move forward as we search. It is the shortest route if you draw a line from the king's grave in the north to our house."

"All right. Let us go."

Rene raised a hand and pointed into the forest to our right from where we stood. I pulled my gauntlets from my pocket and slipped them onto my hands as I started walking that way.

Rene followed behind me, then apparently decided that something about me did not suit the present situation and called me to a stop.

"Wait a moment. Han, are you really going to wander through the forest like that?"

"Hm?"

When I turned my head, Rene was digging through her pocket and had pulled out a leather cord. She came over to me, gathered up my loose hair, and tied it back tightly with the cord.

"There. That is better. Let us go."

Rene smiled sweetly, wrapped herself around my arm, and started walking forward. I touched the hair she had tied for me and let myself be dragged along by her.
After going a bit farther, just as she had said, there was a great rock jutting sharply up toward the sky, and beyond it I could dimly see a broad clearing. (The place where we were standing now was a slightly elevated hill.)

I leaped lightly onto the rock and looked around, then glanced down at Rene, who had her ears pricked up and seemed to be listening for something, before standing guard over our surroundings.

But something felt strange. Apparently I was not the only one who thought so. Rene raised her ears and looked here and there before speaking in a puzzled tone.

"This is strange. There are no sounds of monsters nearby."

That was certainly true. Aside from seeing a few bands of orcs and goblins running somewhere in the distance on the way here, Rene and I had made it this far without fighting even once.

Mmm, so this really was something serious. Thinking that, I opened and closed my hands a few times and tilted my head back to look upward. Rene had raised her palm and was talking with someone perched upon it.

I was too far away to make it out clearly, but it looked like something with a human body and wings arms. And it seemed far larger than the light spirit from before.

About the size of my fist, perhaps? A moment later, Rene bowed her head to it, lifted her hand, and then the thing perched on her palm spread its wings (arms?) wide and vanished somewhere.

At the sight, I blinked in surprise, but it had definitely disappeared. A spirit? What kind of spirit was it? Hmm, since it had wings....

While I was thinking that, Rene leaped off the rock, spun once in midair, landed lightly on the ground, relaxed her posture, stood up, and came toward me with her head turned toward the king's grave visible in the distance.

"I asked a Sylph. Most of the monsters in the forest are returning to their lairs in terror. And the spirits are frightened as well, so even when called, very few are willing to answer."

I nodded at her words.

"They all sense something and are hiding in whatever place they think is safest. This really is something serious. We need to find Miss Narsh and the others quickly. By the way, can the spirits tell us where they are?"

"Yes. They were seen passing near the Spirit Spring. They will not be able to move very quickly, so if we run, we should meet them about five hundred meck away from the spring."

She raised her hand and pointed west, contrary to what we had expected, and I smiled bitterly.

"So our guess was wrong. Still, at least finding out where they are is a relief. Shall we go?"

"Yes."

Rene nodded, drawing the longswords at her waist into both hands. I turned toward her and smiled, then dashed down the hill.

Behind me, Rene crouched slightly, then launched herself into the air, flew past me in a single bound, landed lightly below the hill, and immediately sprang forward again.

Not willing to lose, I increased my speed and ran after her, and after a while, through sheer competition in speed, the two of us ended up running side by side.

As I ducked my head slightly to avoid a branch rushing toward me, Rene's voice came from beside me.

"It feels rather strange, with none of the monsters we always meet around us."

"Huff! Hah! Yeah, but huff huff... it means we can get to our destination... faster, right?!"

I said it while twisting my body sideways to avoid another tree hurtling at me, and seeing that, Rene looked at the side of my face and smiled.

We had run like that for a while when suddenly something sprang out from between the low shrubs ahead of us.

"Ugh!"

I threw my body aside with all my strength to avoid it, then fought desperately to regain my balance, but in the end the momentum of my run was too great and I lost it completely, crashing to the ground.

I rolled along the forest floor for a bit, then struck a tree in front of me and only barely managed to stop my body from continuing any farther.

"Urgh, what was that?"

Still lying there, I turned my gaze toward the thing that had leaped out of the forest. Up ahead, a small child was crouched on the ground, eyes squeezed shut, clutching its head with both hands.

But in one respect it looked very different from an ordinary human, elf, or dwarf child. While I was staring at it, Rene hurried over with a startled expression. She came out from behind the tree, knelt in front of me, helped me back to my feet, and said,

"Are you all right? Are you hurt anywhere?"

"Ah, I am fine. But dear, I think maybe I have been overworking myself lately."

At my words, Rene tilted her head and gave me a blank "Hm?" I raised a hand and pointed to the child ahead of us, still crouched there and now lowering its hands to look around.

"That child. To my eyes, it does not seem to have any legs. How does it look to you?"

Following my hand, Rene looked ahead and showed a slightly startled expression. It was a Huria child. And it was wearing nothing on its upper body.

Looking at its face, it was rather cute, though it seemed younger than Luna. About five years old, perhaps? Rene turned back to me and helped me stand up completely. I was not really hurt anywhere, but I decided to let her fuss over me as she pleased.

With her help, I rose to my feet and brushed the dirt from my shirt and trousers. Once Rene had confirmed there was nothing wrong with me, she slowly walked toward the Huria child, which was still crouching there, tail coiling round and round while it shrank in on itself and looked around.

The little one, not noticing her at all, kept looking around until suddenly it gave a startled jerk, stood up, and tried to run forward.

But it could not escape.

Because Rene had stepped on its tail.

As the child twisted and struggled over and over to flee, Rene bent down, looking at its back, and said, (She was still standing on its tail.)

"Little one? Where are you trying to go in such a hurry?"

At the sound of her voice, the child's body stiffened in an instant. Then it slowly turned its head, trying to find Rene.

Yet instead of looking where she actually stood, it stared at a point slightly off to the side. Then its trembling jaw opened.

"Ah, ah. Ah. Aaaah?!"

Hm? Could it not... speak?

The child reached out now as if to touch Rene's face, but Rene was not where its hand searched.

Seeing that, Rene gently eased her foot off its tail and tilted her head a little so the child could touch her face. The little one fumbled over Rene's face for a while, then soon lifted its hand to her ear, only to snatch it away again with a shock. At the sight, I gave a faint bitter smile, and Rene too touched her own ear and said,

"So it cannot see properly either. It must not have been long since it hatched from its egg."

I tilted my head at that.

"An egg? So they are ovoviviparous?"

"Yes. Huria are ovoviviparous. But they raise their children on mother's milk. Interesting, is it not? Hatched from an egg, yet raised on the mother's milk... what should one call that? A mammal? Or a reptile?"

Saying that, Rene quickly reached out toward the Huria child, which was backing away with a miserable face while touching both its ears, and scooped it up into her arms.

The little one struggled, tail whipping wildly as it resisted, but once Rene lowered her head and whispered something softly to it, it quieted almost at once.

No, rather than quieting, it was more like it mistook Rene for its mother. Giving up its resistance, it lifted the tail that had been hanging limply, wrapped it around Rene's waist, and rubbed its face happily against her chest.

Rene looked down at the little one with a soft smile, then turned to me and said,

"If it cannot see and cannot speak, then it must have only just hatched from its egg. And if that is true, then somewhere nearby there is a mother who has lost her child. I must return this child to its real mother. So you go on ahead. Find Miss Narsh and the others, then call for me. Understood?"

Hearing that, I nodded, cast a jealous glance at the little creature nestled against Rene's chest, then looked back at her.

"I am not really in a position to say this, but there is nothing more frightening than a mother who has lost her child. So... be careful. If things look bad, use the necklace. All right?"

I said that, pointing at my chest, and Rene smiled with her eyes. Then I turned away from her face, spun around, and ran forward once more. After I had gone some distance, I glanced back, but Rene and the child were already nowhere to be seen.

She trusted me, and I trusted her.

Smiling faintly, I ran on through the forest.

As I kept running, avoiding the obstacles that blocked my way, a certain resolve suddenly came back to me. Once, I had said to others that I would smash apart anything that blocked my path. And I had meant it. But the moment I resolved it, the vow crumbled.

If I stopped, then who would carry it out? If the answer was that someone else would continue it, then that was a foolish answer. In the end, the only person who could fulfill the vow was the one who had made it: me.

So I erased that resolve about smashing through whatever blocked my way. Because I had learned that there were things in this world that could not be broken.

And that was why, even now, whenever something blocked my path, I first avoided it. Just like the rocks and trees that had blocked my way earlier. I did not want to revive old memories.

Even now, I veered slightly aside to avoid another tree rushing at me, and kept running onward.

I paid little mind to the smaller branches scraping across my arms, legs, and face. Once I had fixed a goal in mind, I had always been the sort who looked only at that and kept running.

As I ran, I encountered yet another object.

Ahead of me, in the afternoon sunlight, a pure white body darted suddenly across my path. No matter how I looked at it, it was a horse.

A white horse at that. Why would something like a horse be in this forest? Slowing a little, I thought it over.

If a horse raised by humans entered this place, it would not last even an hour before becoming a fine meal for the nearby monsters.

Then what was that?

And right here in the middle of the forest, no less.

I kept running, puzzled. Then the creature seemed to notice something and turned its head toward me, and our eyes met. And I was stunned.

"What in the world?! A unicorn?!"

"Hihiiihinghing~~!!"

The creature reared up, crying loudly at the sight of me, then immediately fled deeper into the forest. I hurried after it just enough to watch its retreating back with a vacant expression.

"I cannot believe it. I always thought unicorns were nothing more than legendary beasts."

I was truly shocked. I had even started babbling to myself. After watching it disappear for a while, I finally tore my feet away from the spot and ran forward again.

How far had I come? It felt like I should be near now. Slowing little by little, I looked around my surroundings, only to find myself once more staring in a daze.

Suddenly something emerged from behind a rock ahead of me, walking straight toward me with heavy footfalls.

(At first, I thought they were Narsh's golems.)