Whoosh—the wind blew, brushing past my cheek.
Perhaps because it had rained not long ago, the air felt distinctly colder even compared to a few days before.
That was not the only reason; it was also because the time was coming when it would be fair to call it late autumn.
It was not yet cold enough to make my body tremble, but it was beginning to pass beyond a pleasant coolness and into something that felt like chill.
Still, in line with that, there was now only a little over a month left until D’ardim, our current immediate goal.
Though there had been many unexpected delays along the way, we were progressing faster than I had thought.
We would likely arrive with plenty of time to spare before the middle of the 14th month.
Speaking of the 14th month, it had been around the middle of last year’s 14th month that I met Kunrot again and received Cassian’s staff, so nearly a whole year had already passed.
Come to think of it, I wondered if Eila was doing well.
We had promised to see each other again someday, but that was still a long way off.
Thinking back, not long after that I had picked up Rutina’s egg, and not long after that, I had taken in Illiana.
When I considered it that way, this year felt as though it had passed rather peacefully compared to last year.
Lost in such thoughts, and at times walking while talking with the children, before I knew it, the sun had tilted and the sky was gradually turning red with sunset.
Fortunately, we were able to reach a village before the sun touched the horizon.
For a village expanded by cutting down trees from within the forest, it was fairly large.
Since it was a village of this size, it naturally had an inn, so it seemed we would not have to sleep in a church tonight.
When we opened the door of an inn standing near the village entrance and went inside, the first floor was packed with people and bustling noisily.
“No, my good man. How does that make any sense?”
“If you don’t like it, then forget it.”
“We need another barrel of beer here……”
“Tomorrow, without fail, I’ll……!”
I roughly swept my eyes over the number of people, and there seemed to be about twenty of them. Every single one was armed, if only lightly.
I wondered if some merchant caravan was staying here and they were its escorts, but I had not seen any wagons like that outside.
With a slight sense of puzzlement, I approached the innkeeper and asked about the lodging fee.
“Five ellets.”
“Pardon?”
“I said five ellets. And there’s only one room left.”
It was expensive.
At the place we had stayed just three days ago, one room had been one and a half ellets, so this was truly absurdly expensive.
It was not as if I lacked money, but there was only one room as well, and it felt like I was being completely ripped off.
For the moment, I took out five copper coins and said,
“There are quite a lot of people here.”
“Tell me about it. They say they came to hunt some wyvern or whatever, and it’s already been five days. Well, it’s good for me.”
“A wyvern?”
“Who knows? I wouldn’t know. If you’re curious, ask those people.”
I turned around and asked Cassian and Illiana if it would be all right, then paid five copper coins and took one room.
One room for three people.
When three of us entered a room that looked as if it was meant for two at most, it really did feel cramped.
“……Wouldn’t it be better to just go to the church?”
“And how do you know what that place will be like?”
When I set the backpack down in the corner, Rutina seemed to realize we had arrived and opened the mouth of the bag, poking her head out.
Then, after seeing me and Illiana, she was about to come out of the bag, but upon seeing Cassian, she crawled right back inside.
“……”
Cassian looked disappointed again this time, but perhaps because it happened every day, she did not seem to mind it too much.
Then Rutina came out of the bag and walked toward Cassian, only to turn the moment Cassian’s gaze was about to reach her and leap onto my lap, settling there.
“Kkyuiit!”
“No……”
I had only realized this recently, but Rutina, at least now, did not dislike Cassian even if she did not particularly like her.
It was clear that she was doing that because she found Cassian’s reactions amusing whenever she adjusted the distance between them this way and that.
After all, when it was actually necessary, she clung to Cassian’s body just fine, yet only acted like this when we were resting.
Since none of us wanted to go down to the noisy place below, Cassian sat on the chair provided, while Illiana and I sat on the bed and ate dinner.
Though as expected, calling it a meal was generous; it was only dried bread, jerky, and a bit of dried fish.
“Come to think of it, earlier they said the people downstairs came to hunt a wyvern.”
“They did. Though I’ve never heard of one living around here.”
“But what kind of magical beast is a wyvern, exactly?”
“No need to think too hard about it. You can consider it a kind of dragon.”
Though it differed by species, they were generally lizards with horns, wings, and bodies covered all over in thick, hard scales.
Compared to the higher dragons usually simply called dragons, the biggest difference was that their forelegs had degenerated and disappeared, and they used their wings in place of arms, like birds.
“A dragon? Like Rutina?”
“Kkyuiiii……”
When Illiana slipped her thumbs under Rutina’s wings and lifted her while holding her body, Rutina relaxed completely and dangled limply like a cat.
“Even so, comparing them to Rutina would be rude to Rutina.”
Strictly speaking, it was only that if one had to classify them somehow, they would be classified as a kind of dragon.
For example, it was like how cats and lions were both classified as felines.
They were classified as the same feline family, but if you put a cat and a lion together and made them fight, the cat would not last long before meeting its end—that was the sort of gap between them.
Of course, mature individuals, though weak, could still use breath attacks, and they were adept at handling magic, sometimes firing powerful spells.
Also, individuals that had lived a long time had extremely high intelligence; even if they could not speak, they could generally understand human speech.
However, if it was a dragon, then once it was only about one or two years old, it could use a breath attack at a basic level.
And understanding all human speech was almost complete after about four or five years. With just a bit more teaching, a dragon could even vibrate the air with magic and speak, so making the comparison itself was rude.
And above all, cats at least had the advantage of being cute compared to lions, but as one could tell from looking at Rutina, wyverns were not like that either.
If anything, one could say they had more points that could be called ugly.
“Still, since their classification is what it is, they are strong. It depends on the individual, but if it’s an adult, you can assume it’s a bit above you.”
When I took Rutina, who had been held in Illiana’s hands, back onto my lap, Rutina rubbed her head against my hand as though pleased.
“Kkyuiit.”
“Well, for this one to become that strong, it’ll take at least another fifty years.”
If there was a drawback, it was that her growth was so slow that even most long-lived races would grow old and die without seeing her become an adult.
As we talked, the sun slipped beyond the horizon before we knew it, and it became time to sleep.
However, there was only one bed, and it could hardly be called large even as empty flattery.
If Illiana lay down and I lay beside her, there would not be enough room for one more person.
And as it happened, there was only enough space on the floor for exactly one person to lie down and sleep.
For that reason.
“Damn it, I’m holding back, I’m holding back……”
“Well, if Illiana’s all right with it, you can come up and I can sleep on the floor.”
When I turned to look behind me, Illiana was gently shaking her head.
“That’s what she says.”
“Yeah, I figured……”
I did feel a little sorry for Cassian, but it could not be helped.
It was not as if I could make Illiana sleep on the floor.
◇
The next day.
Since I had no particular interest in who was hunting the wyvern or what they were doing, we packed our things as planned and set off south again.
From what I had heard around the time I woke up, they seemed to have prepared very diligently and all gone out.
I did not know whether the wyvern was an adult or not, but honestly, I did not really think those people would be able to catch it.
There had been a few mages among them, so I had taken a brief look, but to be frank, they were terrible.
On average, one could say they were only just strong enough to claim they were slightly stronger than Cassian had been around this time last year.
There were some strong mages, but even the strongest person was clearly weaker than Cassian. He seemed about the same as that fellow—Draut, was it?
“I can hear something noisy in the distance.”
“It must be those people. At that rate, they’ll scare everything away.”
Since dragons were like that, wyverns also had a strong tendency to prefer quiet places.
If they had already been doing that for five whole days, I suspected it might have already run off and built a new nest somewhere far away.
“Still, let’s stay on guard as we go. Whether it was an eyewitness account or whatever, there must have been something for them to come in a group like that.”
“Yeah.”
And so we advanced through the forest, making some preparations for a possible attack from the sky as well.
Then—
—Kuaaaaaak!!
“It really is here.”
A wild wyvern appeared.