Volume 6, Chapter 2 – A World Where Monsters Run Wild

“Hi-yo, Silver!”

Right now, I’m sitting on the driver’s bench of the borrowed carriage, driving it under Chris-san’s guidance.

“Oh, as expected of Fiene-sama. For the horse to start walking without even using the reins… Truly, Fiene-sama is revered even by animals.”

I had simply asked this little guy beforehand to start walking when I said “Hi-yo, Silver,” and it seemed to understand me perfectly, as it started moving right on cue.

Horses really are such intelligent animals.

Eh? You’re wondering why I’m doing something so strange?

Well, since we’re riding in a carriage by ourselves, I figured I’d like to experience what it feels like to be a coachman for a bit.

Besides, the shout you use to get a horse moving is “Hi-yo, Silver,” right?

I’ve always wanted to try that once. I have no idea what the original source is, though. ¹ “Hi-yo, Silver!” (often said as “Hi-yo, Silver, away!”) is the iconic catchphrase of the fictional Wild West hero, The Lone Ranger.

By the way, I’m told that the horse pulling this carriage isn’t named Silver-kun, but Gueran-kun.

Together with Gueran-kun, we will spend about a week traveling to Calvara, a town on the border of the White Moon Kingdom.

“By the way, Fiene-sama. What exactly is this ‘Hi-yo, Silver’?”

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Chris-san asks me with a completely straight face.

“‘Hi-yo, Silver’ is a shout used to tell a horse to start walking. If you do this, the horse will start moving.”

“I-is that so?”

“Haha, another one of Fiene-dono’s mysterious legends, is it? I shall try it myself if I ever have the chance to ride a horse.”

“Yes, please do. Even if it doesn’t work at first, I’m sure you’ll get the hang of it eventually.”

Is that so?”

Well, it’s just a shout, so it should be fine, right?

As we continued our conversation while driving the carriage, something began approaching us from afar, kicking up clouds of dust.

I narrowed my eyes, and gradually, their identity became clear.

“Three—no, five large wolves are heading our way. Given their size, I assume they’re monsters? Gueran-kun, please stop. And please stay calm. There we go.”

I told Gueran-kun to stop and pulled the cord in my hand to lightly apply the brake.

Apparently, the mechanism works by wrapping a leather strap around the axle to slow it down.

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Of course, it’s not like a car’s brake where you can come to an abrupt halt, but since we were only moving slightly faster than a human walking, it wasn’t much of an issue.

“Onee-sama, where are they?”

Lu-chan hurriedly climbed up onto the driver’s bench with her bow.

“Look, over where the dust is kicking up.”

“Ugh, they’re too far away!”

While we were talking, the wolves continued to close in on us.

“Those are… monsters called Red Jackals.”

Once they were large enough to see clearly, Chris-san told me the name of the monsters.

“Chris-san, what kind of monsters are Red Jackals?”

“Yes, Red Jackals are slightly oversized jackal monsters. Their characteristic is that they attack humans as soon as they spot them.”

“…Which is stronger, they or Goblins?”

“Stronger than Goblins, but I believe they are weaker than Hobgoblins.”

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“I see. Then it’s no problem if I just trap them. Barrier!”

I trapped the Red Jackals, who had come sufficiently close, inside a Barrier.

“Alright, Lu-chan, I’ll leave the rest to you.”

“Right! Mashiro-chan, please!”

Lu-chan summoned Mashiro-chan, who took down the Red Jackals with Wind Blades.

“Lu-chan, Mashiro-chan, good work.”

“Ehe!”

Lu-chan beamed with a happy smile.

“Now, let’s perform the rites and then move on.”

“Yes.”

We burned the corpses of the Red Jackals and then performed Purification.

This was, of course, to prevent other monsters—apparently, carnivorous beasts rarely attract other monsters—from being drawn in by the blood and flesh of the Red Jackals, and to ensure they wouldn’t revive as Undead.

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To be honest, I’ve never heard of a monster reviving as Undead, but since Purification doesn’t cost us anything, we do it just in case.

Then, we climbed back into the carriage to depart. Incidentally, Gueran-kun had become quite relaxed; while we were fighting the Red Jackals, it had been munching on the grass nearby.

Oh, this is exactly what you call “eating the grass by the roadside” (michikusa wo kuu). ² This is an idiom: “Something is delayed because you’re preoccupied with something else.”

Amazing!

Eh? Not funny? No, well… I suppose I thought that might be the case.

But when you see a horse eating grass growing on the road, you just kind of want to say it.

A-anyway, that’s how it is.

“Hi-yo, Silver!”

I asked Gueran-kun once more to move the carriage, and we continued our journey toward the White Moon Kingdom.

Monster attacks continued intermittently after that. Unlike when I was escorted by the soldiers of the Red Sky Empire, we were now fighting monsters directly.

Because of this, I could feel firsthand that this world was becoming a place where monsters ran rampant.