The mere thought of walking while wearing heavy armor was dreadful. In truth, the armor he had on was full plate mail of the sort knights wore. Though he had removed all the protective pieces such as greaves and gauntlets, its weight was still anything but light. And she was telling him to walk in such a thing…
Just you wait. One of these days, you’ll be scolded so badly tears will be squeezed right out of your eyes.
After glaring once at Yuliana, Mitchell turned away as though he had no choice and began to walk.
Mitchell’s wish was granted before long. As luck would have it, even the horse Yuliana was riding sprained its ankle.
“What do we do?”
Leaving the fallen horse thrashing on the ground, she stamped her feet in distress. Watching Yuliana like that, Mitchell even felt a sense of satisfaction. She, who had never walked before, would now have to make her way along a rough mountain path… The thought made Mitchell snort despite himself.
“Shall I cut its throat and at least put it out of its misery?”
As Mitchell calmly drew his sword, Yuliana glared at him and bit down hard on her lip.
“Leave it as it is. Your horse was the same, wasn’t it? Stop complaining and carry the luggage.”
Mitchell’s eyes went wide.
“You want me to carry all this?”
“Then should I, a princess, carry it?”
Seeing Yuliana glare at him fiercely, Mitchell felt his strength drain away once more. The horse collapsing was not only Yuliana’s problem. And so Mitchell approached the powerless, fallen horse. Since they were traveling all the way to the distant Krosen Empire, the load it carried was no joke, and now he had to carry it all by himself. It was impossible not to lose heart. He was filled with regret for having parted from the mercenary band for no good reason. If they had stayed with them, at the very least they would not have lost their way.
Crazy wench. All because she insisted on getting revenge for no reason…
But thinking it over, he himself was also to blame for agreeing. To abandon his honor as a knight and steal every last scrap of the party’s food… Mitchell silently untied the luggage.
“We have to reduce the weight. I can’t carry all of this. So let’s throw away all those useless ornaments of yours.”
“No. I can’t throw away a single thing.”
“Then suit yourself. I can’t move even one step from here…”
Seeing Mitchell flop down flat on his back, Yuliana resorted to her final measure.
“If you keep this up, I’ll tell your father.”
“Tell him or don’t, do as you please. Even Father would shake his head if he saw this load…”
Since Mitchell had taken the attitude of do whatever you want, Yuliana had no way to keep insisting. He showed no sign of yielding even an inch, so she began sorting through what to throw away with tears in her eyes. Since Yuliana was greedy by nature, discarding her possessions was unbearably painful. A little while later, when Mitchell saw the luggage Yuliana had sorted out, he lay back down again.
“Do you think I’m an ogre? I’m human, you know…”
Yuliana had no choice but to sort through the luggage again. Even after that, however, Mitchell rejected it twice more, and in the end she had to throw away everything except the money and food needed for travel, along with a few supplies. Only after sorting the load three times did Mitchell get up.
“That’s about the amount a human being can carry.”
Watching Mitchell stuff the items into the backpack, Yuliana’s eyes blazed with fury.
“We can’t just leave them here. Let’s dig a hole and bury them before we go. We can bring people back later and dig them up, can’t we?”
She was truly a girl of astonishing tenacity. But Mitchell was immovable.
“Do you honestly think we’ll ever be able to find this place again?”
With that one sentence, Mitchell dismissed Yuliana’s suggestion and turned away. Before they knew it, the sun had set and the surroundings had grown dim, so Yuliana, suddenly frightened, hurried after Mitchell.
“Wait for me.”
Only the abandoned items remained there, forlornly left behind. A little while later, one side of the space rippled faintly, then began to form a definite shape.
Sssssss.
Of course, the one who appeared there was Damon. Looking at the items scattered all over the place, he gave a sinister smile.
“Kekeke. Those brats are going to have a bit of a hard time.”
After briefly looking around, Damon went straight to the fallen horse. The horse had been thrashing about continuously, as if in great pain, but when Damon reached out and stroked its flank, it sprang upright as though nothing had happened.
Neigh!
The horse snorted repeatedly and rubbed its head against Damon’s face.
“Go. Your leg is fine now, so you should be able to leave this place without difficulty.”
When Damon spoke gently, the horse ran off as if it understood. It was in the exact opposite direction from the one the two had taken. His eyes gleaming, Damon cast Invisibility once more. His body vanished from that place again.
Mitchell and Yuliana ultimately failed to leave the mountain. Because she had never had to walk before, Yuliana quickly exhausted herself, and because of that their journey could not help but be delayed. In the end, Mitchell, too, gave up on walking any farther and hurried to prepare for sleeping outdoors. He was exhausted as well, and there was nothing more dangerous than walking at night.
Besides, in a deep mountain like this, there were bound to be packs of wolves. After finishing the preparations for camp, Mitchell roasted some dried meat over the fire and handed it to Yuliana.
“Thank you.”
Worn out from walking, Yuliana did not refuse this time and accepted the meat. She was so exhausted that the sweet tang of fatigue rose in her mouth, but Yuliana forced herself to chew. She had to eat if she wanted to walk. But there was a gaze watching them from afar. Of course, it was a gaze no one else could see.
“Is it time to reduce their food supply this time?”
A dry voice rang out from within the darkness. The sun had completely set, and the surroundings were pitch-black; only the campfire burning a short distance away dimly illuminated the darkness.
But even that light could not reveal one person’s presence… Damon, still hidden, watched the two of them. At a glance, both were clearly exhausted. Yuliana was a woman, so that was one thing, but Mitchell was just as worn out. Even after paring it down again and again, the load was still far from easy to carry… Yet Damon’s eyes, as he watched, were filled only with mockery.
“I wonder how many wolves are nearby.”
Muttering under his breath, Damon leisurely walked into the darkness. His plan was to summon the nearby wolves and keep the two from sleeping even a wink. Without ever dreaming that someone with such a vicious intention was close at hand, Mitchell and Yuliana were nodding off.
When Mitchell caught the rank smell unique to wild beasts carried on the wind, his mind snapped awake. He hurriedly woke Yuliana.
“Hey. Get up.”
Yuliana, who had fallen asleep crouched where she sat, immediately grew irritated.
“What is it?”
“Something’s approaching. From the looks of it, wolves.”
No sooner had Mitchell finished speaking than Yuliana sprang to her feet. Her sleepiness had already vanished without a trace. Watching her, Mitchell carefully drew his sword.
“No matter what happens, stay right behind me. If there are several wolves, climb up a tree without delay…”
Yuliana nodded, looking frightened. Feeling the stench grow stronger and stronger, Mitchell gripped his sword tightly with both hands.
“How many have gathered?”
But the moment the wolf pack came into view, all fighting spirit vanished from Mitchell’s mind. One might wonder how a knight of Paladin rank could be afraid of wolves, but seeing the situation would make it easy to understand.
“G-good heavens…”
Pale shadows approached, filling the entire forest. When Mitchell saw the glimmers crowding the woods like stars in the night sky, he felt chills crawl over his skin. It was an enormous wolf pack, numbering several hundred at a rough estimate. He had never imagined there could be so many wolves in the forest. The strength slipped from the hand that held his sword.
“Th-there’s no chance of winning.”
Yuliana had already scrambled up a tree in frantic haste. Her movements were so quick one could hardly think of her as a woman. In the end, Mitchell gave up on fighting. If he had at least been properly wearing his armor, he might have tried to fight, but he had already removed all of it. He was already struggling under the weight of the luggage; he had had no leisure to bring the armor as well.
Keeping the wolf pack that had approached to within a stone’s throw in check, Mitchell carefully backed away. In such a situation, he had no mind to gather the luggage. When his back touched the tree, Mitchell swiftly turned around. Then he began climbing the tree in a frenzy.
Grrrrr.
When wild beasts see a human’s back, it is their instinct to charge without hesitation. About a dozen wolves from the pack sprang nimbly at Mitchell. But perhaps his training had not been in vain, for Mitchell barely managed to avoid the wolves’ claws and climb the tree. Yuliana, who had gone up first, reached out and pulled him up. Once he was in the tree and looked down, Mitchell’s mouth fell open.
“G-good heavens.”
So many wolves that they could not even be counted surrounded the tree in a semicircular wave. There were far too many to count. About ten wolves were prowling beneath the tree, while the rest stared up at Mitchell and Yuliana without the slightest movement. That alone was enough to sap one’s courage. Suddenly, a cry of shock burst from Mitchell’s mouth.
“N-no!”
When he saw the prowling wolves thrusting their muzzles into their luggage, Mitchell’s face instantly darkened. Their food was inside it. If they lost their food when they did not know how much farther they would have to travel… Ignorant of Mitchell’s burning anxiety, the wolves tore open the luggage and began devouring the food ravenously.
“Kekeke. Eat. Eat until your bellies burst.”
In the darkness, Damon was smiling in satisfaction. His plan to deplete their food had succeeded without fail. Though they did not know it, the man and woman were surely weeping blood as they watched the starving wolves gobble up their provisions.
In truth, among the wolf pack that had gathered, only about ten were real. They were the ones with their muzzles buried in the luggage, frantically swallowing the dried meat. The rest were all fakes. They were illusions created through Mirror Image. Damon had used magic to inflate the number of wolves by several dozen times.
Mirror Image. It was magic that projected the image of an object into the air through magical power, producing an effect similar to the art of creating doubles among the sorceries of the Central Plains. The difference was that the forms produced by the double art had no substance, so if touched, they disappeared on the spot. But astonishingly, the illusions created by Mirror Image possessed substance. Of course, they could not inflict physical damage, but in terms of realism, they were far superior to the double art.
The wolf pack before their eyes consisted entirely of illusions made by Mirror Image. After scattering the thick scent of blood to lure in about ten wolves, Damon had cast Mirror Image and increased the number of wolves dramatically. Their number was more than enough to scare Mitchell and Yuliana out of their wits. Ten real wolves were sufficient to eat all the food. Smiling in satisfaction, Damon watched as the food Mitchell and Yuliana had stolen from the mercenary band was completely exhausted.
In the end, the two had no choice but to spend the entire night wide awake in the tree. The wolf pack surrounding the tree withdrew only around dawn, and only then could Mitchell and Yuliana climb down. Every joint in her body aching, Yuliana crouched where she stood. After clinging to the trunk all night long, she had no strength left in her body.
“Th-there isn’t any food left.”
Mitchell, who had hurriedly searched through the luggage, let out a bitter groan. Now they were in a position where they would have to go hungry. Just like the mercenary band. Their strength could not help but drain away. They did not know how long it would take to reach a village where they could buy food, but the conclusion was that they would have to starve the whole while. Mitchell and Yuliana sat there in a daze, utterly dispirited. Damon watched them with a smile of satisfaction. Of course, the two never dreamed of that fact.
The third operation Damon carried out was the task(?) of drying up their money supply.