Episode 36. The Wizard Sorisimon
The party woke up late.
Awakening to the morning sun of the quiet inn, the desire to just settle down and live here stirred and raised its head.
“Good morning.”
“Morning to you too.”
The innkeeper had risen at dawn and was manning the counter. As expected of a former herbalist, he seemed to have no need for morning sleep.
“Breakfast?”
“Figured as much.”
The three of them polished off the warm morning stew without leaving a drop.
The innkeeper watched them eat with satisfaction before asking,
“Where are you off to so early?”
Binaeril answered, mumbling through a mouthful of bread,
“We’re goin’ wesht past Hohenberg.”
“Hohenberg? That’ll be dangerous.”
“Gulp. I know. But we’re in a hurry, so we’re cutting straight across.”
For people planning to cross a mountain range of death swarming with monsters, they were remarkably calm.
The innkeeper assessed the travelers’ appearances.
The only decent weapon among them seemed to be a single worn-out sword carried by one girl.
Unless they wanted to die young, no one would think of crossing Hohenberg so lightly armed.
“Are you lot wizards, by any chance?”
“Huh? How did you know?”
“I had a feeling you were so young, it had to be something like that.”
Humans who don’t fear monsters are usually of two kinds.
First, greenhorns who’ve never faced a monster and know no fear.
Second, humans who make their living fighting monsters.
To the eyes of the Moonflower Innkeeper, the composure of these youths looked like the latter.
“You know how much of a bitch Hohenberg is, what kinds of monsters live there?”
“Yes, we’ve heard.”
He shook his head. Binaeril looked at him with puzzled eyes.
“Being wizards, you may know the latter, but you’ll be less familiar with the former.”
“What do you mean?”
“Outsiders think Hohenberg is simply a high, rugged mountain. But that’s not the problem.”
“Finding your way is a bitch.”
That was new information.
“I’ve lived my whole life as an herbalist, coming and going through that mountain like it’s my own home, so I know. Even veteran travelers are prone to losing their way. Rocks jutting out and receding every which way. Ground that crumbles the moment you step on it, mountain fog rolling in constantly. Even before monsters appeared, that place was famous as a haunted mountain.”
“That’s… the first I’ve heard of it.”
“If it’s all your first time crossing Hohenberg, I’d advise giving up. Turn back peacefully. Or find yourself a capable guide.”
“A guide? Can we find someone like that?”
Just then, Silvia nudged Binaeril in the side.
“Isn’t he saying that to get us to hire him?”
The innkeeper burst into hearty laughter.
“Hahaha! I’m not going. I don’t even know your skill levels. These old knees of mine ache just looking at mountain paths now.”
“What, so there’s no solution, then?”
“Who knows? Maybe some crazy bastard with a good sense of direction, who treats Hohenberg like his own home, will just drop out of the sky.”
“Don’t you know anyone you could recommend, mister?”
“I’m not cold-blooded enough to send a fellow townsman to their death. I’m saying this out of pure concern for you.”
Even having heard such a warning, Binaeril and the others were in no position to choose otherwise.
“We’ll keep it in mind. Thank you for the advice.”
“Then will you be paying a premium for the room?”
“Just the standard rate! I’ll pay.”
Silvia butted in like a ghost and haggled.
“Tch. The young miss is quite firm.”
The man asked for four silver florins for the room and board.
The price was so honest that they felt they could have tipped on top of it.
“Rike. Pay the man.”
Rike, who had been patting her waist, let out a bewildered groan.
A strong premonition that something was wrong struck Binaeril.
He checked the pouch tied to his belt, searched his robes, and even rummaged through his pants, but he couldn’t find what should have been there.
“The purse… seems to be missing?”
With a flustered expression like a child caught misbehaving, Rike looked between the six eyes watching her.
“Oh dear….”
The innkeeper witnessed the rare spectacle of a patron transforming into a thief before his very eyes.
Displaying the superhuman patience of a former herbalist, he asked a single question.
“Did you meet the street urchins in town?”
“Vagrant children? Yes. Yesterday, in front of the general store….”
Having heard the circumstances, he identified the truth in one breath like the great detective of the century.
“The little brats did it.”
They headed to the general store near where they’d met the children.
“They’re not here.”
“Of course not.”
As expected, the street children were nowhere to be seen.
They would probably slink back only after Binaeril and the others left the village.
“What do we do?”
“What do you mean? We have to find them.”
They had only one reliable lead.
The general store lady!
After knocking on the door and waiting, they met the lady from yesterday.
“Oh my, here to buy something again? I haven’t even opened yet.”
Silvia took charge and explained the situation.
“No, that’s not it. The kids who were in front of the store yesterday, you know them?”
“I know them.”
“Where do they live?”
At the suspicious question, the lady assessed the group’s appearance.
“Did you lose something?”
Letting out a deep sigh, the lady pointed with her finger and told them where the street urchins lived.
Going down the alley she indicated, they found the children’s hideout.
It was a tent village spanning several alleys, sandwiched around a building with a collapsed pillar.
“Ah!”
A boy walking around with disheveled hair caught their eye.
It was the brat from in front of the general store yesterday.
“Found him.”
“Run!”
Silvia was much faster than the alley-cat-like boys.
Before he could take three steps, she had him lifted by the scruff of his neck.
“Looking at him like this, he really is just like a stray cat.”
“I didn’t do it!”
“Didn’t do what? I haven’t even said anything yet.”
“I don’t know anything.”
The boy twisted his head away with a snap, expressing a strong refusal to talk with his whole body.
“Look at this kid.”
When there was no sign he would return the money willingly, Binaeril stepped up.
“Want a little taste of something painful?”
Binaeril made electricity flow between his palms spread like a street performer’s.
It was meant to scare him, but…
“Wow! How did you do that, mister?”
He only ended up winning admiration instead.
“This isn’t how it’s supposed to go.”
“Binaeril, I’ll talk to him.”
Rike bent her knees to meet the captured boy’s eye level.
“That money is important to me. I have to go far away. Tell me, did you take it?”
The stubborn suspect melted instantly at Rike’s expression.
It was more magical than any magic in the world.
“I… already gave it all to Simon.”
“So you did take it?”
The little kid nodded.
“Simon bought us a ton of food with that money yesterday. So I don’t have it anymore.”
“Where is this Simon guy?”
“Over there.”
In the direction the kid pointed, a half-collapsed building was patched with swaths of cloth.
At a glance, it felt like the coziest spot in the tent village—the kind of place where the leader of the pack would be.
“Got it, thanks.”
Rike patted the little boy’s head and asked Silvia to put him down.
“Don’t bully Simon!”
Freed, the brat threw a parting threat as he disappeared into the alley.
“But, Simon?”
“No, I feel like I’ve heard that name somewhere.”
It was a strangely familiar name, even though it seemed like the first time hearing it.
A name as familiar as if they’d heard it very recently.
“Let’s just go catch the thief.”
The scenery inside the tent was completely different from the outside.
Mottled cloths overlapped layer upon layer, filtering the sunlight so that it felt as though they had entered among magnificent tapestries.
The sunlight passing through the tent and shattering on the floor broke like some pieces of brilliant red ruby, and others like deep olive peridots.
It was a place imbued with a sublime atmosphere, unbefitting a den of street urchins.
In the center of the tent hung a thin veil stretching across the space, and beyond it sat an old sofa with thick cushions.
And there, behind the sofa, they found today’s protagonist.
“You… are you Simon?”
Rike changed her form of address after confirming who he was.
Even to Binaeril, he was a boy far too young to be addressed so politely.
At most, was he two or three years older than the kid who had just run away?
The boy presumed to be Simon had a small mouth and nose, with horizontally long eyes.
His face was slender, but his relatively long eyes gave him an impression much like a wild animal.
“Who are you ladies.”
“Ladies?”
Simon was a sharp kid.
Sensing danger, he made up his mind to flee.
But his posture was peculiar.
Legs stretched straight back, upper body lowered, arms crossed as he crouched.
‘What the? Is he a feline?’
“Ah! Look!”
A pouch dangling from his waist jingled as he bent down.
It was unmistakable. Their belongings.
“Silvia! Bite!”
Silvia reflexively sprang out and grabbed Simon by the scruff of his neck.
“Ack!”
“Hey! What, bite? Do I look like a dog?”
“Aren’t you the princess’s hound?”
“You want to die?”
“Aaack! Save me!”
Since this was his home ground, it would be troublesome if things got noisy.
“Shh.”
Binaeril imagined Simon’s mouth sealed shut, unable to open.
Lacking resistance to magic, Simon immediately clamped his mouth shut.
“Mmph, mmmph!”
“This is ours. You shouldn’t touch other people’s things.”
In the meantime, Silvia reached for the purse on Simon’s waist…
“Huh? What’s this?”
The hem of Simon’s pants, wrapped in a strip of cloth below his waist, bulged and squirmed.
“Oh my!”
Rike covered her eyes with her palms and turned her head, having apparently imagined something.
But to Binaeril, that wasn’t what it was. He had never seen nor heard of something that wriggled around in all directions like that.
This time, a scream came from the other side. It was Silvia.
“Th-tail!”
Binaeril was also startled.
What had popped out from Simon’s bottom was none other than a tail!
Taking the chance while Silvia let go in surprise, Simon fled toward the entrance.
“Are you in, Sir Sorisimon?”
A new visitor’s voice came from outside the tent.
With a deeply flustered expression, Simon gauged the mood of the three, including Binaeril.
“Please hide, misters and misses!”
Simon herded Binaeril and the others behind a rug and answered the visitor.
“Enter.”
“Whoa, what?”
From the same person who had been kicking up a fuss just moments ago came a solemn, elderly voice utterly different from the mischievous boy.
Simon knelt on one knee on the old sofa and pulled a cord at his side.
With a swish—accompanied by a rustling sound, the cloth behind his head drew back, and the sunlight hitting his back illuminated the old sofa and Simon’s shadow.
And amazingly, the shadow cast upon the veil became the silhouette of a figure wearing a round hat!
All of this happened in less than five seconds.
“Good heavens.”
Simon pouted his lips and gave the stupefied Binaeril a sign to be quiet.
This place, a secret hideaway wrapped in tent cloth and veils, was none other than the audience chamber of the Wizard Sorisimon.