Episode 28
The vicinity of the Celt Mountain Range was a lawless zone fraught with danger. If one moved around here with only a small number of people, it meant they had the skill to match.
In particular, the people before them all looked like knights armed with expensive equipment, so they couldn’t help but tense up automatically.
These days, wars were frequent, so there were many deserters and many who plundered the belongings of dead knights.
As each of them picked up their weapons, Rapilta, who was blocking the way, loosened his stiff shoulders and furrowed his brows.
“What’s with them?”
“It seems they’ve taken us for bandits.”
“C-couldn’t we resolve this through conversation?”
Roki looked at the merchant caravan party and gave a bitter smile.
Because he knew from the conversation just before that they were completely mistaken for mountain bandits because of him.
‘Just what kind of perception do people have of Nodeuin that they become guarded the moment they see me? This is troublesome… Should I take off the raven mask so they don’t mistake me for a Nodeuin?’
If it weren’t for the raven mask, there wouldn’t be many who could see him as a Nodeuin.
In truth, it was because he wasn’t a Nodeuin, and he didn’t have their characteristic green hair and light green eyes.
“It’s probably because of me. They must have mistaken us for attackers because I’m a Nodeuin.”
“Hah! No matter what, we have a knight right here! Do we not look like knights?”
“Elder Albereu, you should speak properly. How long has it been since you abandoned your knighthood?”
“What should we do?”
When Pol asked worriedly, Rapilta fell into thought for a moment.
Soon, he clapped his hands. Then he raised his hand to them and approached.
At the gesture indicating there was no intention to resist, the mercenaries looked at each other and murmured, but shortly after, Rapilta pulled a leather pouch from his bosom and held it out to them.
“We aren’t trying to harm you. We just wish you would help us.”
“Help you?”
The most vigilant slave merchant, Ajareu, asked as if puzzled, and Rapilta tossed the pouch to them.
When Ajareu gave a glance, one of the mercenaries picked it up, checked its contents, and his eyes went wide.
He looked considerably bewildered.
“What is it? What’s wrong?”
Stimulated by the curious behavior, Ajareu asked, and the mercenary immediately showed the inside of the pouch.
Silver shining coins.
It was a pouch filled with silver coins.
At that, Ajareu started in surprise, got down from the driver’s seat, and snatched the pouch from the mercenary’s hand. Then he glanced at Rapilta.
It was a vigilant gaze that seemed to ask, ‘You’re not going to snatch it back, right?’
“What business do you have?”
“We were hoping you could help us a bit. That is the reward. How about it?”
“Help you? Specifically, what kind of help?”
“Water and food, and then an escort to the territory.”
Ajareu looked into the pouch once more and smiled.
“Fine. But I won’t listen to any other demands.”
“Very well.”
The moment those words fell, strength left Ajareu’s shoulders, and he couldn’t take his eyes off the pouch.
Smiling fearsomely at the money, he looked like a man obsessed with it.
At that sight, Roki scratched his cheek.
Sure enough, they said money could move even the priests of the Holy Order; this world, too, was a place where people lived, and it seemed money held considerable influence.
Roki looked at Ajareu, who was sitting back down on the driver’s seat. To be precise, he stared at the wagon behind him.
Inside the wagon, which two donkeys were barely pulling, he could hear faint breathing.
‘Are there… people inside?’
From the sound of the breathing, their condition didn’t seem very good.
Some were moaning, exhaling rough breaths as if they might die at any moment if left untreated.
Hidden by the tarp, it was impossible to know for sure, but they were presumed to be mostly women.
Since they looked like a merchant caravan, the goods were human.
Then it was an obvious story.
The man sitting on the driver’s seat was a slave merchant.
Roki, too, had memories of seeing countless slaves that Nodeuin had plundered and kidnapped from the frozen lands, so he knew all too well how slaves were treated in this place.
They were nothing more than livestock or tools. Beings subordinate to their master.
That was what a ‘slave’ was.
‘It’s none of my business.’
“Now then, let’s depart! If we’re late, the goods will spoil!”
Unlike those groaning inside the wagon, the slave merchant Ajareu’s voice overflowed with energy.
***
—Hee-haw…!
Perhaps exhausted from pulling the wagon, the donkey foamed at the mouth and shook its head.
When the donkey sat down right there, the enraged Ajareu kicked its back with his foot.
“You beast! What’s wrong with you?! Keep going! We’re almost there now! We just need to go a few more hours!”
But the two donkeys continuously shook their heads, let out pained sounds, and refused to move.
Rather, they looked as though they would die if pushed any harder, so Ajareu stopped kicking and broke out in a cold sweat.
“Damn it! Don’t die! If you die, I can’t even sell you later! If I’d known this, I would have bought more expensive horses…!”
“What will you do?”
At the mercenary’s words, Ajareu glanced at the donkeys and pressed hard on his temples.
“We’ll rest and then go! Ugh, but if the goods die in the meantime, it’ll really be a loss!”
Roki couldn’t help but shake his head at the sight of someone who viewed humans purely as goods.
“Why do you do that?”
Albereu asked from beside him, and Roki pointed at the wagon.
“There are people dying in there.”
“Hmm, you mean the slaves?”
Albereu seemed to have noticed as well, but he didn’t show any obvious agitation. Rather, he spoke as if accustomed to it.
“What can we do? It’s not as if we can help them, is it?”
Seeing him speak so nonchalantly, it was evident this was a common occurrence.
“That reminds me of what you said when we first met. Didn’t you say a knight helps those in trouble?”
“Aren’t slaves not people?”
At Albereu’s smiling words, Roki was momentarily at a loss for words.
The people of this continent were ingrained with the thought that ‘slave = tool’. Having lived that way since childhood, to them it was common sense.
“Is it common to buy and sell slaves?”
“It’s a very rare tale for commoners, but a very common one for nobles.”
“…….”
“You should rest now, too. It seems everyone is resting!”
Saying so, Albereu headed toward where Rapilta and Pol were sitting and resting.
Roki glanced at the wagon.
Ajareu took something out of his travel bag, looking dissatisfied.
It was a piece of bread. It was about the size of two fists clenched together, and it was so decayed that mold was growing here and there.
Ajareu slightly lifted the tarp covering the wagon and threw it inside.
In an instant, the wagon rattled and became noisy.
It was a clamor like beasts that had realized feed had arrived fighting to eat more.
“You lot! Don’t fight! You’ll damage the merchandise!”
Ajareu poked the inside of the wagon with a stick. Then the noisy wagon gradually grew quiet.
With a satisfied smile, Ajareu next headed to the other wagon behind it.
This time, too, what he took out from the travel bag was bread.
However, its condition was incomparably better than before.
Ajareu stealthily lifted the other wagon’s tarp.
In that moment, Roki’s eyes lit up.
Not human?
Inside was a different demi-human species, similar to but distinct from humans.
‘A Dark Elf?’
Tawny skin that stood out, crimson eyes. A girl with long, pointed ears was imprisoned with shackles and chains on her arms, legs, and neck.
It was Roki’s first time seeing a Dark Elf.
He had heard about demi-humans a few times.
When he first saw the dwarf Reuran, he had become interested and looked into other demi-humans, but… never in his dreams had he expected to see a different demi-human immediately upon arriving on the continent.
And an elf, known as the fairy of the forest, at that!
‘I heard demi-humans are treated exactly like slaves, unlike humans…?’
It was said that because they were not human, they could not be converted.
Therefore, killing them or capturing them as slaves supposedly incurred no legal punishment.
Due to humanity’s indiscriminate hunting, most hid and lived in seclusion, becoming a race of mystery.
The reason the dwarf Reuran was in the frozen wasteland devoid of anything was also for that reason.
“Mr. Hun, stop standing there and let’s rest.”
At Rapilta’s words, Roki looked at him for a moment and nodded. He turned his gaze back to the wagon, but the tarp was already closed.
He was interested, but that was all. What Roki had to do from now on was ‘information gathering’.
Roki headed toward where Rapilta’s party was.
“Here, Mr. Hun.”
Rapilta handed over the water and food received from Ajareu.
The water had a slightly murky hue, and the bread was as hard as a rock.
Roki had no need to eat them, so he refused with a wave of his hand and sat down.
“Excuse me, but as this is my first time traveling the continent, I have something I’m curious about.”
“Hmm?”
Rapilta’s party looked at each other, then turned their eyes to Roki.
“By any chance, is there a place where I can obtain information?”
“Information?”
Everyone looked at each other with bewildered expressions.
“Even if you say information… if it’s knowledge needed for the continent, it’s better to experience it directly than to hear it through words.”
At Rapilta’s words, Roki looked at Pol.
As a mage, he should have a certain amount of knowledge, so he should know of a place with reliable information.
“Well… exactly what kind of information do you want? About history? About magic? Or perhaps….”
“About rumors.”
“Rumors?”
“Yes, the rumors that there is an ‘Angel of Death’ here, in the Ronia Kingdom.”
“Angel of Death…? What’s that?”
Pol tilted his head, and Albereu shook his head as if he didn’t know. However, unexpectedly, Rapilta opened his mouth.
“Ah! I’ve heard of it in a tavern before. You’re talking about the angel that spreads the plague?”
In an instant, strength entered Roki’s hands.
“Could you tell me in more detail?”
“Hmm? So you’re interested in such things?”
“Such things…?”
It was slightly off-putting to Roki, but by the tone, it sounded like Rapilta had meant something else.
As if it referred not to someone, but to something.
“Yes. According to rumors, a formless plague—that’s what they call the Angel of Death.”
“Formless?”
Was it simply a disease?
Until now, the Nodeuin had been chasing its traces following the order to ‘Track down the Angel of Death’. And the rumors had spread even to the Ronia Kingdom.
In fact, a plague was spreading in the Ronia Kingdom.
Its exact name was ‘Worm Pest’.
It was said that worm-like things parasitized the body, led to death, and eventually ‘resurrected’ the victim.
As undead, directly.
‘If it’s as Rapilta says, it’s just a story about a plague?’
Then it really was a groundless rumor….
“But someone said it. The Angel of Death takes the form of an incredibly beautiful woman.”
“…A woman, you say?”
“And another person said it’s like a reaper. I’m not sure, but they say the Angel of Death both brings death and drives it away. That’s why it was given the nickname ‘Angel’. None of them are accurate.”
“…What must I do to obtain accurate information?”
“Well? I only heard that story in a tavern, too. If you want accurate information… wouldn’t you have to go to Amheukga?”
“Amheukga?”
At Roki’s question, Albereu crossed his arms and shook his head.
“Their information may be reliable, but they’re dangerous folk.”
“What kind of folk?”
“They’re an assassin organization.”
“…….”
“Their information network reaches every corner of the continent, but their scale is small in comparison, so finding them is like plucking stars from the sky. Well, we tried to find Amheukga, too… but we gave up in the end.”
“I see.”
He had obtained information, but it was insufficient.
But one reliable piece of information was that the assassin group called ‘Amheukga’ possessed an information network beyond imagination.
“By any chance, after making contact with those called Amheukga, must something be paid as an information fee?”
“Well….”
This time, Pol spoke with an awkward smile.
“It’s money.”
Roki looked at Rapilta’s party.
Come to think of it, they had said they were looking for ‘Amheukga’ as well. He became curious as to why they had given up searching for it.
“You said earlier that you were looking for Amheukga; why are you searching for that organization?”
“Well, we….”
Rapilta and Pol seemed reluctant to speak. They gauged Albereu’s reaction, and Albereu shook his head with a gesture that seemed to carry meaning.
“I’m sorry, but I can’t tell you in detail. However, we are simply searching for a ‘potion’ shrouded in rumors.”
“A potion, you say?”
“Yes, a panacea potion created by the Archmage that can cure anything. That’s what we’re looking for.”