Episode 37. Simon the Guide
‘Simon and Sorisimon. So that’s why the name was familiar.’
That was the source of the déjà vu he’d felt from the name “Simon.”
The street urchin Simon—no, the village guardian sorcerer Sorisimon—received his visitor with a solemn voice.
「What dost thou desire, O mortal human.」
“Pfft!”
“Pffft!”
The voice itself was fine, but the sense in word choice was simply unbearable.
“‘Mortal human’? What’s that supposed to mean? Aren’t sorcerers human?”
“Hey, quiet down. They’ll hear you.”
Rike, too, had her face flushed bright red as she covered her mouth, trying to hold back laughter.
“My son was fooling around and tore a talisman to pieces…. Could I obtain another talisman from Lord Sorisimon?”
「Hast thou desecrated the sacred artifact I bestowed?」
It seemed Simon was rambling on, pulling out every sophisticated word he knew.
‘If this is what the image of the sorcerer class is like, I might seriously have to consider changing jobs.’
“I am deeply ashamed.”
He couldn’t understand how such a shoddy act was working, but the villager who had come to visit truly spoke with a voice full of shame.
「There shall be no forgiveness twice.」
Simon threw one of the talismans that had been strewn about carelessly on his side of the veil over it.
「Pay the price and begone!」
The oracle of the sorcerer Lord Sorisimon ended there.
It seemed to mean something like ‘pay up and get lost.’
The villager hastily accepted the talisman, tossed silver coins into the jar placed at the tent entrance, and left.
Now, the four sorcerers inside the small tent returned to being three sorcerers and a boy with a tail.
“Hey, fake sorcerer.”
Simon looked at Binaeril’s group huddled behind the folding screen.
Three pairs of eyes glared at the boy with expressions that said, ‘Look at this guy.’
“…Um, I’m done with my work, so can I get back to what I was doing earlier?”
“What you were doing earlier…?”
Without even waiting for an answer, the boy ran back outside the tent.
But Binaeril’s reaction was faster.
Binaeril pressed together the two flaps of cloth at the open entrance and froze them solid.
“Ack, it’s cold! What’s going on with this?!”
His retreat was cut off.
Simon tried to escape through the various holes in the dilapidated house, but each time he was blocked by Binaeril’s magic.
Only then did Simon realize there was a culprit among the visitors.
“Who are you guys?”
Crouching low, he assumed that same cat-like stance and warily watched Binaeril’s group.
“You don’t need to know who we are. Hand over that pouch. That’s ours.”
“You guys are thugs? Why are you trying to steal someone else’s money?”
Too tired to reply, Binaeril grabbed one of the blankets strewn nearby and chanted.
“Bind him.”
The blanket coiled around Simon like a snake, rendering him immobile.
Of course, they didn’t forget to snatch the lost money pouch before he was bound.
Seeing the pouch fly through the air and into Binaeril’s hand, Simon panicked.
“Uwaaah, it’s a ghost!”
Binaeril handed the received pouch over to Sylvia.
Sylvia checked the remaining money.
More money remained than she had expected.
“What are you guys? Sorcerers?”
“It doesn’t look like much is missing. Just a few silver coins?”
“A few silver coins are still money. Where did you spend this?”
“I bought food for my younger siblings. Are you guys sorcerers?”
“Pay back what you spent.”
“I don’t have it, I said I don’t! Are you a ghost, a sorcerer? What are you?!”
Watching Simon scream at the top of his lungs, Binaeril pretended to cover his ears.
“I’m a ghost, what about it?”
“At this point, we can just consider it charity and leave.”
“If we report him for impersonating a sorcerer, couldn’t we get a reward or something?”
The moment the word “report” came out, Simon, who had been shouting noisily, went quiet instantly.
“You’re not really going to do that, are you?”
“I can’t think of a single reason not to.”
Simon’s tail drooped.
It seemed you only needed to check his tail to know how he was feeling.
“I’ll do anything! Please! If people find out I did that, they’ll beat me to death!”
“If you can’t pay back the stolen money, I’ll beat you to death.”
“Give me some time!”
“No. We’re busy people. If we don’t set off diligently, we’ll have to sleep midway up Mount Hohenberg today….”
At that moment, Simon’s tail shot straight up.
“Did you say Hohenberg?”
“You guys, are you going to the Hohenberg Mountains? I know the way!”
The three sorcerers exchanged glances filled with puzzlement.
“That’s my hometown, I can guide you!”
Binaeril suddenly recalled the words the innkeeper had spat out like a joke that morning.
‘Who knows? Maybe some crazy bastard with a good sense of direction who’s made Hohenberg his home will fall right out of the sky.’
And just like that, a guide had fallen right out of the sky—an unexpected one had appeared.
Simon’s true identity was a demi-human.
Among demi-humans, he was a beastman, and more specifically, a member of the Miaozu, a race that resembled cats.
“We Miaozu live deep within the forests of the Hohenberg Mountain Range. My family, including my father, are all there.”
“Isn’t it dangerous living in Hohenberg?”
Binaeril grabbed and pushed away Simon’s tail, which was flicking right in front of his nose.
Letting out a bizarre shriek when his tail was caught, Simon wrapped both arms around it to protect it.
He retorted.
“What do you think is dangerous?”
“There’s no food, and there are lots of monsters.”
The boy shook his head.
“The most dangerous thing for most demi-humans, including the Miaozu, is humans. Demi-humans can live relatively comfortably where there are no humans.”
All across the continent, the slave trade of demi-humans was commonplace.
Now that he thought about it, Binaeril recalled hearing rumors that one of the main sources of income for mercenaries was raiding demi-human villages and selling them into slavery.
Simon, too, had apparently been pelted with stones and shunned by the citizens of Bruno.
It seemed the place he had drifted to while being chased by people was that very tent village.
At least the children hadn’t treated Simon the way the adults had.
“I had no choice but to pretend to be a sorcerer. There was no way to earn money by working.”
“I see….”
Rike, who was highly empathetic, already had tears welling in her eyes.
But Binaeril was not.
“If you know the geography of the Hohenberg Mountains so well, you could’ve just returned to the Miaozu settlement.”
“I wanted to go back, too! I never went to the human city of my own will in the first place. I tried climbing the mountains alone several times, but….”
“But?”
“…I’ll explain that gradually.”
Once they passed the entrance to the mountain foothills, the path soon disappeared.
All they could see was green; all they could hear was the chirping of grass insects and the rustling of vegetation embracing the wind.
It was fascinating to see a Miaozu for the first time.
Even when walking through dense thickets, his footsteps made almost no sound, and his movements were agile.
Binaeril’s group, climbing the mountain path, was soon drenched in sweat, but even after walking for an hour straight, Simon hadn’t shed a single drop of sweat.
According to him, being able to change his voice and pretend to be a sorcerer was also thanks to him being Miaozu.
He explained that Miaozu could easily produce various voices, making it easy to deceive people.
“This way!”
“Huff, huff.”
Simon really moved like a wildcat.
Most of the paths he guided them on were barely passable for humans to begin with.
It was rugged terrain between overgrown thickets too dense to enter bare-handed, requiring them to step on tree roots and rock crevices that would crumble at the touch of a finger.
Binaeril’s group somehow used magic to traverse the forest and followed him.
“Are you trying to make this hard for us on purpose?”
Sylvia finally grumbled, unable to hold it in.
“What’s with this? You guys are the ones who asked for the fastest route. And this kind of path is a flat road that even Miaozu kids can walk.”
“We’re humans!”
Clicking his tongue, he looked at the party on the verge of collapsing.
“Tsk tsk, to be this weak.”
“Let’s rest for a moment.”
While Binaeril and Rike sat down, Sylvia approached Simon on the tree branch and conversed with him.
As she watched while catching her breath, Simon came down from the branch.
In a nearby clearing, he proudly walked on all fours.
Binaeril asked Sylvia, who had returned from observing the Miaozu walking.
“What were you doing?”
“I asked him how he moves.”
“What are you going to do with that?”
Sylvia rolled her eyes.
“The way the Miaozu move. I was wondering if I could apply it to myself. Why?”
Hearing her words, he thought about it and realized it made sense.
Sylvia’s main weapon was martial arts. Among them, she especially prioritized speed.
Even though Simon had no understanding of magic whatsoever, he knew how to move with more agility than a fairly well-trained soldier.
“So, how is it? Do you think it’ll help?”
Sylvia tilted her head.
“I’m not sure yet. I think I could catch on quickly if I could observe various Miaozu movements, but….”
“You can slowly learn while crossing the mountain range, Sylvia.”
They had no idea how long it would take to cross Hohenberg anyway.
They might encounter monsters along the way.
“This is exactly as far as the safe zone goes.”
“As far as here? What lies beyond?”
“Monsters pop out. Actually, there is a safe path that the Miaozu use, but we can’t take it right now.”
“Why? Is the path rougher than this one?”
“No.”
“Then are monsters blocking the way?”
“Um, no.”
“Then what’s the problem?”
“In Wind Valley, there lives a spirit lord who protects the Miaozu. That’s the problem.”
Binaeril’s group exchanged glances.
“A spirit?”
Eden, mistakenly thinking he had been called, poked his head out from the ring.
Binaeril stroked Eden’s head and sent him back.
“Yes. The Wind Spirit Lord who lives in Wind Valley. Thanks to him, the Miaozu were able to build their village safely and cross the mountain range.”
“Uh… just from what you’re saying, it doesn’t sound like there’s any problem? Could it be that the spirit lord dislikes humans?”
At the hasty conclusion, Simon shook his head.
“Not just humans, but even the Miaozu can’t approach Wind Valley right now. A fierce wind has been blowing around the valley since not long ago.”
“Nobody knows the reason. I think the spirit lord might be angry about something. It’s because of that wind that I couldn’t return to my village and ended up in the human city.”
Simon scanned Binaeril’s group with faint hope.
“Isn’t there any way to talk to that wind spirit?”
“The spirit lord lives deep inside the valley. Not only is it impossible to enter because of the wind, but crucially, there is no spirit priest here, right?”
Guessing they wouldn’t understand, Simon immediately continued his explanation.
“In the Miaozu village, there is a separate spirit priest who serves and converses with the spirit lord.”
‘Isn’t that what they call a Spirit Master?’
Even among the mages of Elfenbein, those with special talents could commune with the spirits of nature.
“A spirit priest is a very, very noble profession that communes with the spirit lord. Hah, what would you humans know.”
Of course, as Simon said, the talent to handle spirits was indeed not very common.
Binaeril asked Simon.
“By spirit priest, do you mean someone who communes with spirits and commands them?”
“Commands?! How could anyone command a spirit lord! Spirits are holy beings that do not listen to anyone’s orders by nature….”
Binaeril summoned his little spirit again.
An earthen-hued spirit revealed itself from his ring.
Seeing that figure, Simon was at a loss for words.
His jaw dropped as if it might fall off.