272

Chapter 272: Tell Me (2)

At the last village I'd stopped at, I'd been told that Münmund would appear if I traveled just a few more days.

And after following a road that hardly deserved to be called a road, on the third day an actual wall appeared.

It was too substantial to seem like something belonging to a village, yet a little too low to be the wall of a city.

“I wasn't told there was another village…….”

But there was no need to be confused by that.

The opinion that this is too substantial to belong to a village was, in truth, an argument that only applied in regions where demons rarely appeared.

Just because humans couldn't cross a stone wall or a log palisade didn't mean demons couldn't break through one.

Stone walls tended to be low, and log palisades, being made of what they were, were fairly easy to break through.

“Traveler?”

Therefore, this really was a village.

A village whose outer defenses had simply been reinforced to prepare for demons that might leak out from the demonic territory.

A place with walls, but no formally trained soldiers.

“Ah, yes! But is this perhaps Münmund?”

“What? Hahaha. Of course not! This is Behen! We've got a Village Chief instead of a Lord.”

“Ah… so it isn't a city?”

“Right. You've got farther to go before Münmund.”

For reference, my conclusion about the latter wasn't based purely on intuition.

Just look, for example, at the guard currently poking his head out.

Wasn't he dressed in ordinary clothes without so much as leather armor?

“Could I ask how much farther I need to go?”

“Hm, Münmund? If you're asking how long it takes to reach Münmund… about a day if you take the shortcut. If you keep following the highway like you are now, it usually takes around three days.”

“A shortcut… there's a shortcut?”

“Ooof course there is. The downside is that it goes through the mountains, so it's hard to find the way unless you're a local.”

The same went for the friendly question-and-answer session that followed.

He seemed to be speaking as though none of this was a big deal, but if he'd received proper training, he probably wouldn't have acted this way.

He would have been more wary and first asked me things like why I'd come here and what my name was.

Because that was what a soldier standing guard was supposed to do.

“And demons that slip out of the demonic territory sometimes show up along that route… and with the demons acting up these days, nobody uses it at all anymore. So if you're going, stick to the highway. Of course, the highway isn't completely safe either.”

But he simply kept talking without considering any of that.

In other words, in the end, he was closer to an ordinary person carrying a weapon than a real soldier.

“Are the demons really causing that much trouble?”

“…Uh, hmm. Just asking, but haven't you heard the other news?”

“The other news……?”

“A merchant caravan heading for Münmund vanished without a trace.”

“…This is the first I've heard of it.”

“It happened four days ago.”

“…We must have missed each other. It seems I left before the news reached me.”

“…Looks that way.”

The fact that the person standing guard was closer to an ordinary civilian than a soldier could, in one sense, be unfortunate for the village.

It meant there was a fairly high chance he could make some serious mistake.

For me, however, separate from the village's circumstances, it was rather welcome.

“Hmm. If demons have been appearing ahead… then, um. Is there anywhere inside the village where I could rest?”

“You want to stay here? Well, camping outside is rough. But our village doesn't have an inn.”

“I'll only spend the night and leave immediately afterward. Would that still be impossible?”

“Uhh… hmm. Wait a moment. I still need to check whether you've got anything dangerous.”

“Of course.”

After all, being questioned by properly trained soldiers had been rather difficult for me too.

Whenever they threw a sharp question at me, my head would hurt from trying to choose an excuse on the spot.

“…Oh.”

“Is something wrong?”

“No, no, nothing. You're taller than I expected…….”

“…….”

“Give me your luggage first. I'll check it in front of you, so don't worry about anything getting stolen.”

“I'm not worried about that.”

Compared to those inspections, I could only be grateful for something this lax.

With my permission, the man took my bag and opened it.

“Huh? This is all you've got? How'd you make it all the way here with such pathetic luggage?”

“Haha…….”

“You don't even have a weapon… and why'd you put another bag inside your bag? Seriously, I'm impressed you made it this far. Forget demons—you're dressed like one bad encounter with a wild beast would get your head taken off.”

Of course, I'd put everything important in my inventory—the spatial-storage bracelet, not the bag—so there were only a few things the guard could actually see.

Looking at my pitiful luggage, his eyes filled with equal parts sympathy and bewilderment.

“Um, you're not… some noble who ran away from home or anything, are you……?”

“There's no way I'm a noble. Why would you think that……?”

“Well, now that I'm looking at you up close, your skin's really pale, and you've got a jewel in your ear… and you clearly don't even know how to pack properly…….”

That's…

Fair.

I could see why he'd misunderstand.

A few of the cities I'd passed through suddenly came to mind.

Sometimes the soldiers at checkpoints had looked at me like I was some clueless, sheltered idiot.

Had they been making the same assumption?

“…I simply inherited a little money.”

“So you are a rich young master…….”

“I'm not exactly a rich young master. I only have enough to support myself.”

“Sure, Young Master.”

“I told you, I'm not a young master…….”

That was probably what had happened.

Thinking something along the lines of, No wonder checkpoints were strangely easy to get through, I scratched my head.

Rustle.

That was when my rummaged-through bag was returned to me.

“All right, I'm done. I was a little worried because you're so big, but it turns out you're a man who takes after his face rather than his build.”

“My face……?”

“I mean you look harmless.”

Well… my face was a little bland right now.

As I answered with mixed feelings, the guard grinned broadly.

Tap.

The way he lightly nudged my forearm with his elbow displayed the full extent of his easygoing nature.

“All right, all right! Hurry up and come in! Our village has more things it doesn't have than things it does, so it probably won't satisfy a Young Master's tastes.”

“I keep telling you, the 'Young Master' thing…….”

At this rate, I had the feeling I'd be treated like a young master for my entire stay here.

Was this really okay?

While I stood there wondering, the guard slipped through the partially opened gate.

“If you don't hurry up, I'm closing it!”

“W-wait a moment.”

Well, at least he didn't seem to be mocking me or treating me like an easy mark, so it was probably fine.

I followed him into the village.

Clang.

The gate closed the moment I stepped inside.

“Hup.”

The locking mechanism on the inside used the old-fashioned method of slotting a thick plank across the middle.

Seeing him manage it alone without any help made me think he was surprisingly strong.

“Come on, follow me!”

“Pardon?”

“Why are you making that face? You thought I was going to let you wander around the village by yourself?”

“No, I just… shouldn't you be guarding your post……?”

“Nobody comes here anyway. And what am I supposed to do if I send you off alone and something happens?”

The guard said that and chuckled.

“Funny. Feels like you're more worried about this village after arriving today than I am after living here all twenty years of my life.”

There wasn't really anything I could say to that.

I awkwardly scratched the back of my neck.

“If you're really worried… Hey! Misha! Watch the wall for me for a bit!”

“Out of nowhere?”

“We've got an outsider. I need to show him around.”

“An… outsider!?”

At the guard's call, a boy came pattering over.

He was a Middle boy who reached about to my chest, with gray eyes so silvery that they were quite beautiful.

“Whoa. A real outsider. But you're sooo tall!”

“Keh-heh-heh. That's a height Misha, who refuses to drink milk, can only dream of.”

“No! I'm going to get that tall too! You can grow without drinking milk!”

“Oho, really?”

The guard chuckled again at the boy's declaration.

The laugh itself practically radiated Oh, is that so?

The boy's eyes rolled around.

“You can grow without drinking milk… it's true…….”

“Who knows? Then give it a try. But don't come complaining to me later when you don't get any taller.”

“Uh, um…….”

He was obviously a picky eater.

I glanced at the child's shifting eyes and slipped my hand into my pocket.

Ah.

I didn't have any candy left.

There was no longer anyone beside me I wanted to give it to, so I'd never had a reason to buy more.

That belated realization made my fingers freeze for a moment.

“Um, Hyung.”

“…Hm?”

“Did you drink milk too, Hyung……?”

While I'd been thinking, the child had grabbed the hem of my clothes with a gloomy expression.

It was so cute that I reflexively covered my mouth.

The guard standing beside me was already clutching his stomach and trembling with laughter.

“…Of course. I drank lots of milk too.”

“Really……?”

“Yes.”

“Then if I drink milk too, can I grow as tall as you, Hyung?”

“…If things go well, maybe you can?”

My current height would be considered extremely tall even on Earth…

In a place where the average Middle probably wasn't even 170 centimeters, wouldn't reaching this height be even more difficult?

Even while thinking that, I deliberately gave him an encouraging answer.

I had no intention of forcing him to eat something he hated, but I figured this degree of encouragement was probably fine.

Especially since, in this era, distribution difficulties meant the variety of food available to people was fairly limited.

If he could eat it, it was probably better for him to have as much variety as possible…….

“But don't drink so much you upset your stomach. And you need to eat a balanced variety of things besides milk too.”

“Yes!”

Gathering what little knowledge I possessed, I gave him that advice and smiled with the corners of my eyes.

The child smiled back, then shouted, “I just have to watch the wall, right?!” and dashed toward it at full speed.

“Good instincts, Young Master.”

“I told you I'm not a young master…….”

Read only on MUGEX

I let out a light breath as the guard burst into laughter at my timid objection.

I knew he wasn't genuinely treating me that way and only kept doing it because my reactions amused him, so I wasn't offended.

I could have ordinary conversations like this again and again without ever tiring of them.

I simply liked them.

“Anyway, let's head farther in. We don't have an inn, but… somebody ought to have a spare room for one person.”

“Haha…….”

“If nobody does, you can sleep at my house. I don't think my family will mind.”

“I'd only be grateful if I could, but… would that really be all right?”

“Of course! Oh, right. For reference, my name's Til. Ticha, Tisha, Tasha. Call me whatever you like.”

“Ah, um. Tisha?”

“Sure. That works.”

I followed Tisha deeper into the village.

Several houses came into view first, followed by the fields nestled between them.

These couldn't be all the fields they had.

The slash-and-burn plots I'd seen outside the walls were probably part of their farmland as well.

“Hmm. I suppose there isn't a Temple here.”

“Ah, no. It's a small village.”

If there wasn't a Temple, could I leave the disguise skill off today?

The stuff I'd applied to my eyebrows while the disguise skill was active retained a fair amount of its effect even after I turned the skill off, so as long as there wasn't a Priest around, I should probably be fine.

I tugged the sleeves that already came down over the backs of my hands a little farther and asked,

“There's no one here who can use Divine Power either?”

“Oh, of course not.”

Crk.

With a sound only I could hear, the condition that had been steadily deteriorating by the moment returned to normal.

Physical comfort purchased in exchange for the anxiety that someone might discover me.

“Why do you ask, though?”

“I just thought I'd offer a prayer for safe travels before I left. If there isn't anywhere, I'll just do it silently.”

“Heh-heh. Sure. I'm sure God will hear you well enough.”

Would He?

The person that God wanted dead most might very well be me.

I entertained that thought briefly, then ended my answer with a faint smile.

“Ah, right. I've been meaning to ask you this—how did you even find our village?”

“I simply followed the road…….”

“Huh? The road?”

“Is something wrong?”

“No, I mean, how did you even recognize it as a road? Even people from our village get confused there sometimes.”

“Uh……?”

Wait.

What did he just say?

Flustered by Tisha's words, I explained the route I'd taken.

If that wasn't a road, then what was it?

Sure, it hadn't exactly looked like a road, but still.

My explanation was packed with sentiments along those lines.

“Ahhh. You were supposed to keep going straight from the boulder, but you got mixed up there.”

“…….”

“Still, maybe it's actually for the best. If you keep going that way you'll reach Münmund, but this isn't a particularly good time for it.”

I wasn't so sure.

Whether I went straight there then or spent today here and continued tomorrow, I doubted the safety of the highway would change all that much.

I rolled the thought around on my tongue, then swallowed it.

At any rate, stopping in a village halfway through was much better for me than camping outside six nights in a row.

And as for the safety of the highway… well, separate from whether anything out there was strong enough to hurt me, it was still better to know an attack might happen than to be ambushed without warning.

“Here—over there is our Village Chief's house.”

“Is it all right to ask the Village Chief?”

“It's the biggest house in the village, so there ought to be a spare room, right? Even if there isn't, I figure we should report that I've brought an outsider into the village.”

“Ah.”

Tisha's explanation made sense.

No matter how small the village, it was better to report something like this to the person in charge—whether that position was elected or whatever else.

“Though… it doesn't look like this is the right time.”

“Pardon?”

“Something seems to have happened.”

“What??”

Of course, even a report could only be made when circumstances allowed it.

Realizing that the senses I'd relaxed after entering the village had become noisy again, I raised a finger.

What was probably the Village Chief's house was crowded with people.

“Uh! Huh?!”

Tisha panicked and ran forward.

I followed him.

Not for any particular reason other than wanting to avoid being treated like some suspicious bastard if I stayed too far away from him.

“Village Chief! What happened?!”

“Oh, Ticha. Good timing. A whole bunch of injured people just came in…….”

But what I encountered when we reached them were three people groaning from all manner of wounds.

The thick smell of blood made my brow furrow, and my eyes naturally swept over each of them.

I still had medicinal herbs left from the Great Forest.

Maybe I should work out how much they needed and take some out.

“……?”

But then, in the midst of that thought, my eyes met those of someone clutching an arm.

“Atya?”

Crunch.

My arm—

perhaps my entire body.

Beneath my skin.

It began to burn.