250

Chapter 250 — Will It Mean Anything? (4)

The promised third day arrived, but my condition was still poor.

The muscle aches had eased somewhat, but the fever simply refused to break.

“Haah.”

Still, I could move.

Yes. I could finally get out of bed.

That was enough.

I pushed myself upright so I could leave the Great Forest.

[Sir Knight, are you leaving?]

“It is time—”

[You’re really leaving?]

But the attempt was blocked before it could even begin.

The Mountain Lord, which had been coiled up inside the cave, suddenly thrust its head toward me.

[Do you know how hard we worked to keep you alive, and you’re really just going to up and leave like this!?]

The Mountain Lord’s antics did not end there.

Its natural, low rumbling cry mixed with the voice only I could hear and boomed throughout the cave.

The sound was powerful enough to drown out even my tinnitus, and my mouth slowly fell open.

[Good grief, good grief! I grew medicinal herbs and even raised fruit myself just to save you! I nursed you that much! How can you say you’re going to leave just like that!! How can you, Sir Knight!!]

…Why are you wording it like that!?

You’re making me sound like some shameless bastard who doesn’t understand gratitude!

[Who knew Sir Knight was this kind of person? Good grief, good grief.]

I stared in disbelief as the Mountain Lord wiped at its face with its tail and wailed theatrically.

I-Is this really something worth crying over……?

Objectively speaking, I could look shameless if someone saw only the surface of what had happened.

I might even seem like an utterly brazen, ungrateful bastard.

But if you looked beneath the surface, my choice wasn’t incomprehensible!

And this was precisely the kind of situation where what lay beneath the surface mattered more!

You know that too, so why……!

“O Thunder Serpent, what in the world is happening?”

Perhaps the Mountain Lord’s utterly unexpected behavior had left me too stunned.

I failed to stop the priests who woke from the commotion and rushed over, nor could I prevent them from finding me and surrounding me.

My ankles were well and truly caught.

“…Let go.”

Noooo, people!

I’m not doing this because I hate you!

I’m doing it because I’m thinking about what’s best for you!

If people find out you hid me, you’re the ones who’ll suffer!

You’ve only just started interacting with outsiders again, so it’ll make things even more troublesome!

You people—what, even if your faiths are different, aren’t you afraid of becoming enemies with the Temple?

Do you think if things become a problem you can simply close the country off again and be done with it?

“I carry a curse within me, and for the sake of my own objective, I abandoned the greater cause.”

My mind was turning fairly well after resting for a few days—fairly well compared with three days ago, at least; it was probably still worse than usual—so I carefully chose my words.

I had to leave.

Over the last three days, I had realized that the desire of these people to protect me was sincere.

That only made my urge to leave stronger.

I did not want to become someone who brought harm to people who had helped me.

“I am not someone you should protect.”

I did not want greed to make me destroy this place and lose the warmth I had received over the last several days.

[Sir Knight…….]

“We are not trying to protect you.”

But before my words could weigh down everyone present, a clear, ringing voice divided the gathered priests into two groups.

Standing in the opening was a boy I had not spent long with before, yet who had left a distinct impression on me.

His increased height and longer limbs compared with the last time I saw him were especially noticeable.

“We merely wish to become a cradle in which you may rest.”

“…I don’t need one.”

“No. There is no living thing in this world that does not need a place to call home.”

“That is merely your opinion.”

“And an opinion with which a great many others would agree.”

It hadn’t been *that* long since we parted…

Children really did grow quickly.

I looked at the boy—no, the Grand Chieftain—who seemed to have grown a good five centimeters, and felt strangely awkward.

Did children… normally grow *this* fast……?

“Was that perhaps too presumptuous of me? But benefactor of the Great Forest, considering the debt this forest owes you, this selfishness of ours can only be inevitable.”

No.

Before that…

Had the Grand Chieftain always been able to speak this language?

“…Everything I did in this forest was carried out solely of my own will. There is no debt for you to repay.”

“Is that so?”

Had he learned our language after what happened back then?

But he was far too fluent, wasn’t he?

It hadn’t been that long.

Of course, if he’d already known the language at the time, he would have spoken to us directly…

So had he genuinely learned it after we separated?

“We wished to repay the Thunder Serpent and, at your request, sent letters outside and allowed outsiders to enter. Yet it appears the kindness we intended to repay never existed in the first place.”

Suddenly, the Grand Chieftain’s eyes glittered like stars.

Distracted as I had been by his language skills, I only then felt a subtle sense of foreboding.

Wait.

Don’t tell me this is—

“Then may we consider that a debt the Thunder Serpent owes this forest?”

…This is a scam!

“That’s absurd……”

“I trust the great Black Thunder Serpent would not reverse his own words like some petty man.”

“…….”

Once again, I remembered.

Right.

This kid was the Grand Chieftain.

The Mountain Lord might have more or less picked him up and put him in the position, but he was still the Grand Chieftain……!

He might be young, but he was still someone carrying out the duties of Grand Chieftain remarkably well……!

“Lie down.”

I stared at the Mountain Lord grinning foolishly behind him, the priests smiling pleasantly, and the Grand Chieftain threatening me with a bright and innocent expression.

I felt empty inside.

No, I thought they’d keep trying to persuade me emotionally to the very end…

How did this turn into exploiting a technicality in the middle of my argument……?

“…I will leave in three days.”

“Shall we discuss that when the time comes?”

I squeezed my eyes shut at the clever, mischievous smile on the boy’s face.

My fever still hadn’t broken completely, so I no longer had the energy to keep thinking and arguing.

“And Thunder Serpent, you should give up on lying.”

“……?”

“If you truly abandoned the greater cause for the sake of your own objective, would you not already have tried to use valuable pieces such as us?”

Or perhaps…

the kid’s provocation had simply made my fever spike again.

Read only on MUGEX

* * *

Perhaps that human could only be satisfied if every word he spoke was kept.

Watching him try to run away again three days later, Yukgwi flicked a fin.

If the Mountain Lord and the Grand Chieftain had not already been lying in wait, the man truly would have succeeded in escaping.

“You again……!”

“I believed the value of what this forest has done for the Thunder Serpent should at least be enough to pay for a month’s stay…….”

“Stop making things up.”

“So that argument no longer works?”

The following day was the same.

The Grand Chieftain had anticipated that the knight’s attempt to flee would not end after a single try and had prepared accordingly.

Once again, that preparation caught the human by the ankle.

As an added measure, the Mountain Lord wrapped the knight tightly in its own body, declaring that this would stop him from escaping.

“More importantly, please try some of this. It is a fruit that only grows during this season……”

[Hehe, I put some effort in this year, so it should be even tastier.]

The following day too.

“…Do you not have work?”

“The priests of the swamp have been helping me considerably, so I have had more free time of late.”

[Keeping Sir Knight from running away is the most important job, isn’t it? Those idiots can handle the petty stuff just fine.]

And the day after that was much the same.

The knight looked as though he was going insane, but with the swamp’s two authorities clinging to him, escape was nothing more than a dream.

Ultimately, the human rested in the swamp until every wound on his feet disappeared and the fever was completely gone.

More precisely, until the moment when the Mountain Lord and the Grand Chieftain finally let down their guard.

[…You leaving?]

So Yukgwi had thought the man had finally abandoned the idea of leaving, but apparently not.

Pushing that idle thought aside, Yukgwi glanced at the human.

The man, dressing himself under cover of night, gave off only a cool, razor-edged presence.

It was impossible to imagine that he had spent nearly twenty days groaning in illness.

“I have stayed long enough.”

But beneath that taciturn exterior, he was clearly either softhearted or cunning.

One of the two.

Yukgwi narrowed its eyes at the being who could have left this place without difficulty if he had simply forced his way through.

[Why are you sneaking away?]

The fact that the human had possessed the ability to leave yet had not done so had made Yukgwi wonder whether he intended to exploit this place.

In other words, perhaps he had confirmed he could remain here safely and had decided to settle in deliberately.

But at this point, that hypothesis had collapsed.

If he had been testing the trustworthiness of potential allies, then once their reliability was confirmed, remaining here would have been the obvious move.

Yet once again, he chose to leave.

It was a suspicious choice to dismiss merely as the result of recovering his health.

[If you simply told them, ‘My body is healed, so I’m leaving,’ they would be disappointed, but they wouldn’t stop you.]

For precisely the reason Yukgwi had just stated.

“I know.”

The knight was not acting this way out of ignorance.

He slipped his feet into his combat boots, then put on his vest and coat one after another.

Finally, he slid his right hand into his gauntlet.

[Then why are you sneaking out like a rat?]

Clank.

When he moved his fingers, metal plates struck one another, each releasing its own sound.

“Were you interested in me?”

[…Only in the parts of you that fall outside what I would call normal.]

At Yukgwi’s response, the corner of the knight’s mouth lowered.

The greatsword he lifted with one hand settled against his back and was secured in place.

“…If you answer my question, I will answer yours.”

[A trade. Interesting.]

Neither of them could afford to spend too long on this, considering the possibility that the others might wake……

[Fine. Let’s do it.]

Yukgwi decided to accept.

It was fairly curious as to why the human was sneaking away.

And it also wanted to know what question mattered enough for him to ask even while escaping.

“Your question.”

[Why are you sneaking away like a rat?]

“…I judged that if they knew what I was trying to find, they might stop me again.”

[Good. Your question?]

“A way to conceal Demonic Energy.”

The problem was that the answer was considerably more unexpected than Yukgwi had anticipated.

[You’ve got nerve. I may tolerate you now, but that doesn’t mean I’m favorably disposed toward those who carry Demonic Energy. Or are you asking because you trust the fact that I’m currently unable to kill you?]

“Is that your question for the trade?”

Yukgwi breathed out heavily at the response.

Well.

According to the man himself, he had shaken off a group of humans in pursuit of his own objective.

Once he left this place, there was a risk of being caught again, so a question like that made a certain amount of sense.

[No, so you don’t have to answer. As for your question…….]

Should Yukgwi answer properly?

Or pretend ignorance?

After considering it briefly, Yukgwi decided to simply explain as much as it knew.

There was nothing among Yukgwi’s knowledge that seemed particularly usable for this human anyway.

[Sealing is the most common method, I suppose. Of course, to use a seal you need sufficient knowledge, and there is always the risk that someone knowledgeable in such things will notice it.]

“…Other than sealing?”

[That counts as a question, doesn’t it?]

“Do you have something you want to ask?”

[Your objective. The thing you ran away from the humans to seek, without telling these people.]

At that question, the knight fell silent for a long while.

As though weighing the value of the single question he would gain by answering against the weight carried by the answer itself.

“…Home.”

And then.

“A way to return home.”

The former won.

Though the answer was so far removed from Yukgwi’s expectations that it felt like some further explanation was probably necessary.

[That’s too short.]

“…Swear that you will tell no one.”

[Is this really something that needs an oath……?]

The answer had already been puzzling enough, and now this demand was added on top.

Yukgwi began wondering just how deep the circumstances behind this were.

Besides, an oath was not especially binding, was it?

It was merely a promise.

So Yukgwi accepted readily.

It made the decision lightly, thinking there was no harm in offering a promise that was nothing more than words.

“I am not the soul that originally belonged to this body. I was dragged here because the original owner of this body contracted with a demon.”

Well.

Had Yukgwi known that would be the answer, it would never have involved itself.

Yukgwi remembered its past self lounging around while thinking that whatever circumstances this human had were none of its concern.

Whatever his circumstances are, they’re none of my concern?

Damn it!

They’re completely my concern!!

Yukgwi suddenly wanted to go back in time and wring its own neck.