Chapter 64. The Sky Is Blue—No, Red
Sure enough, Hamelin Great Forest was f*cked.
Kieeeek……!
Kak!
Monsters bursting out everywhere. The types were so varied you couldn’t even count them.
The most common among them were goblins, but—could those really be goblins?
‘What kind of size is that…….’
A goblin, by definition, was about one and a half meters tall, short in stature, with a frail frame like a child’s.
And yet, the symbol was the tight, compact dry muscles bunched all over its body.
Puh-bung, pung!
I used hongok to pop the goblins’ heads cleanly, then looked down at the bodies sprawled on the ground.
They were about two meters tall.
Bigger than most well-built adult men.
And those muscles—what were they?
‘Looks like they’ve been eating a lot of good stuff.’
It was the kind of body that reminded me of Hickster, the second son of the martial House Dolanpe. That guy, exactly.
“U-um……. Mage, may I take a quick look?”
“Go ahead.”
I stared at the goblins, then stepped aside.
Raileigh had a bundle of baggage strapped over his shoulder—yet he strode up like it wasn’t heavy at all, lowered his posture, and examined the goblins.
Despite having the face of a traitor, once we entered Hamelin Great Forest, Raileigh was surprisingly faithful to his duties.
Even now—look.
“Mm, as I thought. These guys seem like the ones who formed a tribe near the Second Base Camp. We call them Kenti goblins…….”
“Kenti?”
“You know, that thing—often served at nobles’ tables…… a fruit that boosts concentration.”
Now that he said it, a memory surfaced.
Before House Brando decided to send me to the academy.
Meals that had already been abundant suddenly increased overnight in both quantity and quality.
What I ate then was probably……
‘Right. Lakan mountain single-horned mountain goat loin, with kenti fruit salad.’
I didn’t remember every meal, but those two ingredients were always on the table, so they stuck in my mind.
“But why ‘Kenti’ goblins? They don’t look like the kind that would eat grass.”
“Ah, that’s because there’s a natural kenti grove near their tribe. And they eat kenti fruit pretty often too. Goblins are… omnivores, aren’t they.”
“Yeah, they are.”
“Um, may I keep checking?”
When I nodded, Raileigh went back to studying the kenti goblins.
What he focused on was their nails—and their soles, and the claws on their feet.
After examining them for a moment, Raileigh lifted his head.
“Mm. As I thought.”
“What. What is it.”
Instead of answering, Raileigh pushed into the bushes the goblins had come out of and stared at the ground as if trying to bore a hole through it.
After a short while—
“We should adjust the route. If I’m right, the ecosystem around the Second Base Camp has been pushed all the way out to the perimeter. The truth is, even near the Second Base Camp, there aren’t many monsters that could make kenti goblins flee.”
Individually, they weren’t anything special, but because they hunted in packs, they were considered high in the ecosystem.
But—
“If you look at their nails… there’s a lot of dirt and bark stuck there. And their soles are covered in wounds too. No matter how I think about it, it’s clear they were running from something.”
He explained his reasoning, but to be honest, I didn’t really get it.
Still, I understood the conclusion.
“So you want to adjust the route?”
“Mm, yes. I think we should. Ah! Of course, I’m not underestimating you mages. It’s just… I think it might be better to avoid unconfirmed variables as much as possible……. Haha.”
Raileigh laughed awkwardly and rubbed his hands together.
Even with that massive build and fierce face, it didn’t look awkward at all—meaning it wasn’t the first or second time he’d rubbed his palms like that.
Anyway.
“Fine. Then. You okay with that?”
“……Mm, yes.”
When I agreed, Oberon nodded as well.
Even if it meant going a bit out of the way, avoid unconfirmed variables.
That was something I strongly agreed with too.
No matter what kind of monster was ahead, I was confident I could break through—but we weren’t going to be crossing Hamelin Great Forest for just a day or two.
More than anything—
‘Nothing’s more lethal than an unconfirmed danger.’
What kills an elephant isn’t a brave lion. It’s a venomous snake hiding its fangs.
Anyway, two days since arriving in Hamelin Great Forest.
The schedule had mostly been like this.
If monsters showed up, I smashed them, and then based on the smashed monsters, Raileigh set our direction.
And Raileigh’s pathfinding was quite precise.
Even now—look.
Ssss—
My senses expanded to the limit.
The presence of countless lifeforms in the great forest pressed against my skin in detail.
And at the very edge of it—
one presence, unusually distinct and vivid.
‘……Hmm.’
After identifying it, I drew my senses back in.
Maybe because the space was packed so densely with presence. A fatigue several times heavier than usual crashed down all at once.
‘Definitely…….’
I watched Raileigh walking ahead.
He constantly rolled his eyes around as he scanned the surroundings, and just looking at him, it was easy to guess why he’d been called “Sneaky” back in his Black and White Zone vagrant days.
But regardless of that—
‘He’s competent.’
Hamelin Great Forest was a place where living creatures were packed to an extreme.
If I maximized my senses, I could find a path—but then my mind would tire before my body did.
In that sense, Raileigh was an excellent Pathfinder.
So—how long did we push through the thickets of the great forest?
After dealing with a few orcs and a few goblins that jumped out from the bushes,
and catching several beast-type monsters whose names I didn’t know—
“Mm. We’re almost there.”
Raileigh, who had been walking ahead, stopped.
When I pushed through the bushes and came up beside him, an open view greeted us.
Towering giant trees.
Unknown bushes growing thickly.
And spread wide across that space, a wetland (濕地).
A marsh too clear to be called a swamp, and too murky to be called a lake—puddles stretching broad like a river.
Raileigh spoke.
“If we cross this wetland, we’ll reach the First Base Camp.”
The First Base Camp was close.
After arriving at the wetland,
Raileigh declared a rest and immediately set us up.
But only Oberon and I rested—Raileigh made the spot, then stood right back up.
“Mages, please rest comfortably. Before we cross the wetland, I’m going to check the surroundings. Normally, it’s not a section that needs special caution, but… just in case.”
Sitting on a suitable fallen trunk, I waved my hand lightly without replying.
Raileigh bowed neatly and withdrew, whether I answered or not.
It was the time when the sun was starting to sink.
‘If we’re crossing, we should cross quickly.’
Moving at night was burdensome in many ways.
According to Raileigh, Hamelin Great Forest’s day and night were different too.
Like… a different ecosystem unfolding in the same space.
But the one who truly felt pressed wasn’t me.
“…….”
Oberon, staring at the ground with a hardened expression.
He had a delicate impression, but the light in his eyes was firm beyond measure.
Yet that quiet surface was rippling with an unknown anxiety, and I watched him briefly before turning my gaze away.
‘It makes sense he’d be impatient.’
Our destination was the Fourth Base Camp.
Hamelin Great Forest near Greentown.
Of the four base camps, it lay deepest inside, and to reach the Fourth Base Camp, we had to pass through the First, Second, and Third Base Camps.
There were ways to go without stopping, but what did he say?
- A Pathfinder can’t handle every situation. The ecosystem around that area is best known by that base camp. Especially at times like this, you must stop and gather information.
It was slower, but the more reliable way to arrive.
Anyway.
‘It’s already been two days…….’
It had taken one day longer than the normal schedule.
The First Base Camp wasn’t that deep, so normally it took only a day to a day and a half.
‘It might be hard to arrive today too.’
Above the open sky over the wetland,
the sun sinking lower and lower—if it got much later, we’d be stuck no matter what.
As I sat there, letting thoughts wander, a voice came from the side and snapped me out of it.
“……Senior.”
“……?”
I looked at Oberon, puzzled.
Two days since entering Hamelin Great Forest—
and in all that time, Oberon hadn’t spoken to me first even once.
But now—
“The Monster Wave… it’ll probably be soon, right?”
“……?”
I tilted my head, confused.
A Monster Wave—why, all of a sudden?
“The ecosystem at the Second Base Camp has been pushed out to the perimeter. For now, the monsters are instinctively staying within Hamelin Great Forest, but if a little more time passes……”
“Yeah, they’ll spill out.”
“How many will die?”
“Who knows.”
It wasn’t a topic that interested me much.
Greentown was already busy preparing to evacuate, and beyond Hamelin Great Forest was the wide, open Deumeur Plain.
No matter how many monsters burst out, would it really affect nearby territories or cities?
‘That part… you never know.’
Up close, it would look like a lot, but it wasn’t like the monsters would clump together like an army and march forward.
In the end, they were running out to survive, so they’d hide in some mountain area and settle in.
But Oberon seemed to be thinking differently.
“Then… even if we had to push ourselves, we should have found Destrow quickly and eliminated it.”
“…….”
“My thinking was too shallow. It wasn’t only Destrow that was a problem…….”
He clenched his teeth like something was frustrating him.
I stared at him quietly, then asked,
“Is that what you were worried about?”
“Huh?”
“You’ve looked gloomy ever since we entered Hamelin Great Forest. Was it because of that?”
“……Ah, yes. It’s embarrassing, but when I saw the orc riders, even I froze for a moment. Even I, who’ve learned magic—so what about ordinary people? Thinking about that… I ended up like this….”
I didn’t even ask, and he poured out his feelings in detail.
“……Mm. Yeah.”
I watched him for a moment, then nodded.
I didn’t have much to say.
What was I supposed to say?
‘He’s… pure.’
Too pure.
It felt like his entire way of thinking was different from mine.
Yeah—when I first met Henji. When I saw his masked face. It was similar to that impression.
In other words……
A mismatch.
To think that in this situation, he was worrying not about his master, but about some stranger he’d never met—over something that might not even happen!
“Ugh.”
In an instant, I felt like I was sitting on a bed of thorns, and I quietly turned my gaze away.
I was waiting for Raileigh to return—but Oberon’s rambling didn’t stop there.
“It’s my fault. Because I’m lacking, I ended up holding Master back.”
“Mm…… yeah.”
“If I had trained just a little more, not only would I have found Destrow’s ruins, I would have already destroyed it by now…….”
“Yeah, I see.”
The sky is blue.
No—red.
Because the sun is setting, so of course it’s red.
Yet the muddy water of the wetland, even while holding the reddening sunset, did not turn red.
With someone like Oberon in front of me, the thoughts I could have were only this kind of nonsense.
And even then, as if he’d been holding it in for two days, he kept talking without pause—
it was truly hard to endure.
Just as that miserable stretch of time was passing—
Rustle.
The bushes shook.
“…….”
The face that appeared from beyond them was, of course, the excellent slave—no, the Pathfinder, Raileigh.
But why?
“……?”
Raileigh’s face was stiff as a board.
“And so I must, without fail, destroy Destrow, and beyond that, in this world—?”
Even Oberon, who had been chattering nonstop, sensed something off and clamped his mouth shut.
As silence dropped between us—
Raileigh opened his mouth.
“W-we… we have to run. M-mages. Right now—right now…!”
Even in his urgency, he didn’t raise his voice.
But his movements were fast—so rushed that he practically dragged Oberon and me along, pulling us to move.
And he muttered something, too.
“W-why is it here…… it should be far inside its territory…… no, this has never happened before.”
Words that made no sense.
I let him pull me, silently, while watching him go pale as paper. And in that moment—
Gwooooooo—
From beyond the bushes.
From the wetland, a massive roar echoed out.
That sound alone shook the surrounding trees and plants, and even I couldn’t help raising my guard at it.
I stopped.
Still being pulled by Raileigh’s hand, I halted and looked toward where the sound came from.
Maybe he panicked because I wasn’t moving—
Raileigh’s voice, on the verge of panic, rang out.
“I-it’s the Swamp Ruler. Hurry—hurry, we have to run. We can live because we didn’t step into the water. We can live, I’m telling you. So hurry—!”
“The Swamp Ruler?”
Two days into Hamelin Great Forest.
The Swamp Ruler.
The first danger of the great forest that I faced.
It was the encounter with the first monster—a creature that, through countless years, had devoured innumerable adventurers and mercenaries.