After we finished a light meal, the innkeeper approached and spoke cautiously.
“I won’t take payment for the meal. You helped the village.”
Unlike before, his tone was clearly courteous.
Probably because he’d seen me use magic.
As he spoke, the innkeeper naturally lowered his gaze to the table.
As his eyes swept over the plates Chad had emptied one by one, there was a deep shock in them that he couldn’t quite put into words.
No wonder. There seemed to be easily more than ten plates.
‘Maybe he was so obsessed with that one sausage earlier because he knew this would happen.’
“Oh, thank you.”
When I bowed politely, Chad, sitting beside me, answered glibly.
“Wow, we really saved on lunch today. This village is seriously great.”
At the end of his sentence, he set down his spoon and let out a satisfied burp.
I was probably not imagining the way the innkeeper’s eyebrow twitched ever so slightly.
“The others…”
I asked carefully.
The innkeeper lowered his eyes for a moment, then slowly shook his head.
“The people you saw at dawn are all that’s left.”
It was a short, calm answer, but the weight contained within it was by no means light.
Feeling the back of my neck grow numb, I silently nodded.
A small village where barely twenty people had lived.
Now only four or five remained, barely clinging to life.
Because of just one person.
No, because of one monster, everything had collapsed.
Roofs had caved in, walls had been torn apart, and people had lost the places where they lived.
This was reality.
No one had warned them, and no one had helped them.
Everything simply vanished quietly, in an instant.
Such a cruel and futile reality.
“…Has the recovery work been finished?”
“No. It’s been delayed a little because the rain turned everything to mud.”
The rain-soaked ground had become a mire, making even moving the bodies difficult.
They still had not recovered all the dead.
From what I heard, when civilians suffered great damage like this, nearby cities would send soldiers, but…
Even that, he said, had no clear schedule yet.
On top of that, the rain was causing the bodies to decay even faster.
As time passed, the stench grew thicker, and swarms of flies slowly began to gather throughout the village.
For now, everyone could only wait in silence.
“Then… what will you do?”
When I asked, he smiled quietly and answered.
“…We’ll have to leave.”
With eyes filled with regret, he looked around the inn he had protected all this time.
The old but tidy interior, the floor where rain seeped in beyond the collapsed outer wall, the empty rooms.
“It’s a village with its share of history, but rebuilding seems impossible. All the able-bodied men are dead, and this village doesn’t really have any remarkable resources… so there won’t be any support.”
Even without him saying more, I understood.
Who would offer support to such a remote, small, shabby village?
In the end, it meant this village was destined to vanish from the map.
‘What a bleak reality.’
I couldn’t say anything.
What did it feel like for the place where you had lived your whole life to crumble in a single moment?
I didn’t dare imagine it.
Without saying anything more, the innkeeper quietly returned to the kitchen.
Chad, who had been listening silently beside me until then, slowly opened his mouth.
“…A village disappearing isn’t anything special.”
Chad muttered as he brushed away bread crumbs.
His tone was light as usual, but there was something strangely heavy soaked into it.
“It feels rough the first time. But after you see it a few times, you get used to it.”
Why did those words sound so hollow?
“…How many times have you experienced it?”
When I asked without thinking, he laughed briefly and replied.
“Who knows. I gave up counting a long time ago.”
At that moment, the fingers visible between the gaps in his armor twitched faintly.
Beneath the leather gauntlets were reddish stains, marks that made it clear what he had clashed against without needing any explanation.
He simply tapped his helmet and continued.
“So I’m saying this because I don’t want you feeling guilty for no reason. It’s not your fault.”
It was a strangely unlike-him word of comfort.
Did my expression look that bad?
Unable to hide my conflicted expression, I slowly nodded.
Thud, thud.
The sound of someone coming down the wooden stairs rang out quietly.
When I turned my head, I saw a familiar face.
“B-Brother!”
“…Sairun?”
It was Sairun.
As though he had not fully recovered yet, he was carefully descending the stairs with one hand pressed to his side.
The way he caught his breath and slowly set his foot down one step at a time made it clear that the journey was far more difficult than it looked.
In the end, he managed to come all the way down the stairs.
“Ugh.”
Seeing that, I asked with a sigh in my voice.
“Why did you come down in that state?”
Sairun widened his eyes as though he found me ridiculous and retorted.
“I called you, but you didn’t answer, so I came down! Ugh, talking loudly makes my stomach…”
He flinched again, clutching his abdomen.
“So why did you call me?”
“I’m hungry…”
“…You came all the way here just to say that?”
“Yes. You didn’t come, Brother. I thought I was going to starve to death up there.”
Sairun furrowed his brows as though he felt wronged for no reason. Seeing that expression, he really did seem hungry.
“Fine, sit down. Don’t push yourself for nothing.”
I chose a chair nearby that looked to be in decent condition, pulled it over, and seated him.
As soon as he sat down, he took a breath, then immediately looked over the table and said,
“Is there anything left? I feel like I’d live if I just had a bowl of soup…”
At that, Chad turned his head.
“Oh, you like soup too? Innkeeper! One more bowl of soup here!”
“I’ll order.”
I let out a light sigh and raised my hand. Perhaps he heard from the kitchen, because the innkeeper soon nodded quietly.
Only then did Sairun speak as though relieved.
“Whew, I’m glad I survived after all.”
“My stomach… I’m really hungry. I’m on the verge of death, seriously.”
Sairun grumbled from his seat as he caught his breath inwardly. Then he turned his head and met the eyes of the unfamiliar person across from him.
“…Uh, who are you?”
“Oh. Finally greeting me?”
Still wearing his helmet, Chad bowed his head and raised a hand.
“Chad.”
“…Ch-Chad?”
Sairun looked at me with puzzled eyes. I added a brief explanation.
“He’s the one who saved us yesterday at dawn. Apparently Aileen sent him.”
“Oh, is that so? Then… thank you.”
Sairun tried to stand from his seat, but immediately sat back down from the pain in his abdomen and only bowed his head.
“So you’re Sairun. I heard about you. But you’re skinnier than I expected. Are you really that thin, or is it because your clothes hide it?”
“Pardon?”
“Nothing, just talking to myself.”
A sound like laughter slipped out from inside the helmet.
Sairun looked at me once more with an expression as though he had encountered someone of unknown identity.
“Brother, this person… we can trust him, right?”
“…At the very least, it’s true that he saved us.”
At those words, Sairun nodded with a complicated expression.
“…For now, let me eat some soup first and think after that. Don’t leave judgment to a hungry man.”
“Haha, that’s true.”
Chad laughed loudly and tapped the table, while Sairun laughed weakly.
‘Two strange guys have gathered together.’
The sight of the two of them sitting face-to-face, with completely different personalities and appearances, was anything but harmonious.
I bit into my bread and swallowed a sigh.
It was clear that the journey ahead would give me a headache.
After watching Sairun frantically shovel down the soup that soon came out for a while, I turned back to Chad and asked,
“Have you ever been to the Yellow Magic Tower?”
Chad lightly shook his head.
“No. But I’ve seen those bastards before.”
For a moment, I thought, ‘As expected of a knight, he has a lot of experience.’
But what followed was a little different from what I expected.
“I met one in a tavern and got him to buy me drinks and snacks. Man, I ate quite a lot back then.”
“…”
Just what kind of beggar mentality did this man have, mooching food wherever he went?
I didn’t say it aloud, but it must have already shown on my face.
“I only found out later that the person who treated me was from the Yellow Magic Tower. He was pretty famous… what was it again? Something about iron.”
Chad scratched his chin, vaguely searching his memory.
“Was it Iron Ironfoot? Or Steel Fang? Anyway, a name like that.”
“…Then you’ve never seen them on a battlefield?”
At my question, Chad searched his memory for a moment, then changed his tone and spoke seriously.
“Do you know why I only wear this kind of gambeson?”
“…Because you have no money?”
“…That’s not wrong.”
A short breath mixed with laughter came from inside the helmet.
Chad tugged once at the collar of his gambeson with his fingertips, then spoke as though showing off some old troublesome possession.
“When I was wandering around in the past, I was on the same battlefield as those Yellow Magic Tower bastards. More precisely, I was on the side that got dragged in as a mercenary.”
“So you fought them?”
“I fought. As allies. On the same side as those bastards.”
Chad stopped speaking and closed his eyes for a moment.
At my question, Chad was silent for a while. From inside the helmet came the low sound of him drawing in a breath, and he slowly gave his answer.
“Those bastards are demons.”
“Pardon?”
Demons?
He quietly tugged at the sleeve of his gambeson and continued.
“It was five years ago, I think. A battle near the northeastern mountain range, in Delmorn Gorge. At the time, I belonged to a mercenary company, and we were hired by the local lord to defend a viscounty.”
I listened to him in silence.
“The ones attacking us were rebels who had risen up nearby. Their numbers were about the same as ours, but we had one mage from the Yellow Magic Tower on our side.”
“…A mage?”
“He said he was from the Magic Tower, but he didn’t really talk to us or share strategy. He just stayed still by himself, and once the battle started, he moved on his own.”
Chad drank a mouthful of water, then continued.
“It was a typical defensive battle that day. Since we had secured the high ground, the beginning favored us. The enemies below had the advantage in numbers, but because they had to climb uphill, they couldn’t charge properly and were stumbling around.”
He tapped the tabletop with his finger.
“We were stabbing the charging bastards with spears and rolling rocks down to push them back. Well, I thought it was going to flow evenly like that. Both the enemy and our side were gradually falling one by one, and bodies were piling up on the ground.”
After pausing briefly, he slowly shook his head.
“That was when it happened. One guy suddenly burst out from the formation below. I don’t know where he got it, but he was wearing steel heavy armor over his entire body, and he came pushing up like a wall. Even when two or three men clung to him and stabbed him with spears, he didn’t budge. Blades bounced off when they struck him.”
“…Was he a heavy infantryman?”
“He was beyond that. A truly insane monster. He charged at full speed as if ignoring the weight, and the front line collapsed all at once. The formation we had built up until then had a hole punched through it in an instant.”
Chad’s expression darkened again.
“Even the men who were supposed to be pretty good got smashed by him. Crushed along with their armor, you could say. It didn’t feel like we were fighting a person, but a rampaging beast made of iron.”
Chad rubbed his helmet and drained the water left in his cup.
“That was when it happened. The alchemist from the Yellow Magic Tower, who normally barely spoke and whose purpose we didn’t even know, suddenly stepped forward and placed his hand on the ground. Then the heavy infantryman’s armor started rippling strangely.”
“…His armor?”
“Yeah. That hunk of iron armor ended up becoming his tomb.”
Chad slowly clenched his palm as though retracing the memory.
“The entire suit of armor bent inward. As if a giant hand had grabbed it from the outside and squeezed. The backplate buckled inward, the breastplate folded, and from the knee joints came this horrible sound—then blood bursting from inside flowed out through the gaps in the armor.”
He sighed inside his helmet.
“When we saw that, we all froze for a moment. The enemy and our allies alike. That was when I felt it. That was magic, yes, but it wasn’t magic meant for people.”
“…So what happened after that?”
“The enemies saw it and ran, and we won the battle. We got bloodied, but we survived. The problem was…”
Chad tilted his head and tugged at the sleeve of his gambeson.
“The next day, all of us took off our metal armor. It didn’t feel like protection anymore, but shackles. Because no one could be sure whose side that bastard was really on.”
There was no emotion in his voice, nor any humor.
It was simply a calm tone, but that made it feel even more chilling.
“Later, I happened to overhear our commander talking with that Yellow Magic Tower bastard, and he said this.”
Chad shrugged and recited as though chanting.
“‘A battlefield is noisy and chaotic, like untuned metal sounds. I merely tune it.’”
“…”
“After that day, I made up my mind. Rather than share a battlefield with a madman, I’d rather starve to death.”
He turned his head and glanced at Sairun, who was still hurriedly spooning soup into his mouth, then gave a bitter smile.
“That’s why I only wear gambeson. I avoid touching iron as much as I can. My life is precious, you see.”
Only then did I understand.
The reason Chad, despite possessing strength like cast iron, wore only that crude quilted clothing.
It wasn’t simply because he had no money, but truly a choice made in order to survive.
…Of course, it did seem like he had no money too.
“But is what you’re wearing on your head all right, then?”
At my question, he nodded and rapped the back of his hand against his helmet.
“Artifacts are fine. Probably… their structure is different. Of course, if some absurd monster shows up, who knows, but it doesn’t work on most people. That’s this thing’s only advantage.”
“Ah…”
So in the end, even that kind of magic didn’t work against artifacts.
Still, an ability that could prevent people from wearing metal protection seemed far too overpowered.
“Of course, there are things besides artifacts that it doesn’t work on. Famous knights wear armor just fine, after all.”
“What? You just said armor all gets crumpled.”
“That’s ordinary armor. Things are a little different with specially made magic armor, or defensive gear made from rare minerals.”
“…So things like that do exist.”
If that was the case, there was only one reason Chad didn’t wear such things.
“As expected, you don’t have the money, do you?”
“…Yeah.”
After going around in circles, the conclusion was a matter of cost.