Part 6 — Protector of Kanae (First Part)

69

A merchant caravan had come to the village.

Most years, they came before the snow had begun to pile up in hope of carrying off the annual products of the land in exchange for the goods they brought from villages elsewhere. This year, they had remained in a neighboring village while they kept track of the battle against demi-humans that had started in Lag. Essentially, they had decided to hold back until they knew the outcome.

Contrary to their expectations, Lag had survived the macaque assault and successfully driven them away. The bravery of their lord Moloch Vezin, also known as the Iron Taurus, had already been famous. His reputation only increased now that he had shown himself powerful enough to defeat an army of demi-humans several times larger than his own. The soldiers of Lag also became known as the strongest in the borderlands, and merchants who thought there might be profit in strengthening ties with such warriors made the difficult journey through the snow to visit the village.

The villagers were overjoyed of course. When they heard that a caravan was coming, every available hand in the village set to clearing the snow from the roads and the village square, and many turned out to wave to them when they arrived.

There came 10 carts, 5 merchants with 20 servants, and 7 mercenaries who were escorting them. Their horse-drawn carts came to a stop in the village square where customers began to line up to see the goods, and the village became lively as if it was a festival.

“Let’s go, Kai.”

“Have you got your money?”

“Yeah, I’ve got it.”

The caravans that periodically visited Lag would come in the spring and fall carrying many strange goods from the center to the small village that had little culture.

Lag would sell the queijo that was the local specialty, wool products from livestock, and the fur of small animals they’d captured. In return they’d accept currency of equivalent value. Some of this was then given to the villagers as their salary for working all year round, providing them with a small amount of money that they could use to make trades at this temporary bazaar.

The soldiers were among those who received coins from the lord’s household, albeit in small amounts. In a year, the lowest-ranking soldiers would generally receive two copper shechems, the mid-ranking soldiers three to five shechems, the core soldiers would receive a silver delshechem, and married men would receive an additional five shechems.

Obviously, they couldn’t buy very much. A single shechem was only enough for a few candies made from boiled-down malt, so most of the villagers crowding around the carts would stare in wonder at the curiosities on display and would choose something to buy only after examining everything many times.

Single soldiers would generally spend their money on food and alcohol, causing any savings they had to disappear in an instant. Most of Kai’s squad were already chewing on the candy they’d bought.

“What are you going to buy, Manso?” Kai asked while watching Manso continue to inspect the goods by himself.

Manso had five shechems in his hand. As one of the highest earners in the squad, Manso had a good amount of choice in terms of what he could buy.

He scratched his cheek awkwardly when he saw that Kai was looking at him.

“I don’t care about the sweet stuff all that much.”

“You’re not going to buy food?”

“You’ve gotta think carefully, or they’ll make you regret it. Take care, Kai.”

Manso was holding a red hair clip in his hand.

It was obviously meant to be worn by a girl, and the fact that Kai understood why Manso was buying it was a sign of how much he’d matured. He guessed that this was a gift for a girl who Manso had some relationship with.

At times like these, women could find out just how much men cared about them. If there was any suspicion that a man’s feelings weren’t sincere, the favoritism shown towards them at mealtimes would be put at risk, so it paid to be careful. Everyday meals were obviously more important than candy that would only last a short time. Kai took this to heart and watched Manso carefully.

After seeing Manso give his purchase to a girl, Kai looked at the coins that he held in his own hand.

Two delshechem.

A delshechem was worth 7 shechems, so Kai could buy 14 shechems worth of goods. One of those delshechems was what he’d earned as a high-ranking soldier, and the other had been given to him separately as a reward from the baron.

It was naturally Elsa who came to Kai’s mind. He followed Manso’s example and bought a hair clip with a small bell attached. It cost him 5 shechems.

Kai still had money to spend as he put the hair clip in his pocket. He decided he’d also buy some for the two other girls waiting for him in the valley.

Three more coins left...

He was about to spend them on random pieces of food, but he was surprised to see a familiar face when he turned around.

It was Elsa’s sister.

Lilisa and her mother didn’t work at the castle, so they received no salary. Instead, Lilisa was left sketching in the dirt with her toes and watching jealously as other villagers enjoyed shopping.

Although he didn’t want to get too involved with her, Kai considered Elsa his wife, which meant that her sister felt like something of a sister-in-law to him. He had leftover money, so he didn’t mind too much.

“Is there anything you want?”

“...!”

Lilisa’s narrow shoulders jumped when Kai suddenly spoke to her.

She looked straight at Kai who was standing beside her, and her eyes couldn’t have been any wider.

She opened her mouth as if to speak but then she closed it without saying anything. Then glared up at Kai and said, “You know I don’t have money!”

Kai remembered that things weren’t all good between them because of the arguments they’d had earlier. All Kai had ever done for her was ignore her constant requests to see Elsa.

He knew dealing with her wasn’t going to be easy, but she was his sister-in-law, so his desire to do something for her won out.

“I’ll buy it for you.”

“...!”

Lilisa looked at Kai as if she was shocked at how he’d acted like an adult by offering to spend his precious money on her. Lilisa had never been given a gift from a member of the opposite sex before, so her eyes darted about with indecision and she noticed that several other females around them were sneaking glances over at Kai. It was then that she remembered that Kai was the hero who’d saved the village and earned the favor of their lord.

In other words, an exceptional man was offering to buy her something.

The fact that he was willing to spend his hard-earned money on other people was proof that he was a very useful man.

She didn’t know what had made her sister fall in love with him, but even Lilisa could see that this man named Kai was not so bad looking.

Several different ideas came to her mind, causing her to look down at the ground as her face turned red. It felt wrong to have these feelings toward the terrible person who’d taken her sister away from her.

“You were looking at this just now. Did you want it?”

The thing that Kai picked up was carved from wood. It was a hair clip that looked like a kanzashi, and it came with a small comb. A merchant watching what was happening told them, “That’ll be three shechems,” with a big grin.

Kai held out the hair clip to show it to her, but Lilisa just looked at the ground in embarrassment. She showed no sign of coming around, so Kai went ahead and bought the hair clip before putting it into Lilisa’s hair while she was still looking down at the ground.

“...!!”

“Don’t lose it.”

With that, Kai patted his sister-in-law’s head and walked off.

Kai had had two delshechems, but now that large sum of money had been completely used up. When he watched his squadmates show off the candies they were eating, he felt a deep regret, but at the same time he felt refreshed after spending the money that he wasn’t used to carrying.

Kai had no idea just how much attention he’d drawn from everyone around him.

“Oh, that so?”

“Someone known as the Iron Taurus was never going to be so small. The misunderstanding caused some amusement.”

The village population was small, and the further one went from the lively atmosphere in the village square, the less people there were to be found.

White smoke began to rise when another pinch was added to the well-used brass incense burner, which shone with a sharp light. In Lag’s place of worship, the vague figures of two traveling priests were visible as they struck bells as part of the service they were holding. The service was being performed to send the village’s recently departed to the Samsara, at the request of House Moloch.

Two of the people who had come to Lag with the caravan of merchants were traveling priests. It was standard practice for these traveling priests to visit periodically and send off those who’d died that year. House Moloch would also ask any traveling priests who happened to be passing by to perform additional services.

The walls around them were adorned with scrolls bearing holy images, and wheat and millet from the village were piled on a plate beside the smoking incense burner as offerings.

The chants made by the traveling priests, words they spoke to pray for the dead, were heard by very few curious listeners. Most people were gathered at the bazaar, and few people in the borderlands would dwell on the deaths of people around them.

“He looks to be something of a hatchling.”

“The godstones of foul creatures are easily obtained here. Such people are bound to exist. He is not so different from ourselves.”

Although they both wore black in the style of priests, their long journey had left their robes dirty and terribly frayed in places. These two priests differed in height by more than a head, but they struck the bell more or less in unison as they continued to recite their prayers.

70

The caravan packed up as much as they could carry from Lag and then hastily left the next day. No one knew when conditions might take a turn for the worse in this season, so it was easy to get caught in a snowstorm if one wasn’t careful.

Although only a single day had passed, there was fresh snow covering the road and everything was colored the same white. The procession formed by the fast-moving caravan became hard to see through the light snow. With the caravan gone, winter would create a deep covering of snow that cut off Lag from any other would-be visitors.

But this year’s winter was a little unusual.

Even after the caravan had left, the traveling priests that had been with them stayed behind in the village.

In the harsh winter, traveling priests of the borderlands would generally become a burden for villages that had lodgings for priests, and they wouldn’t leave until the following spring. Lag had such lodgings made from stone, and so the priests asked to pass the winter there and their request was granted by House Moloch.

The disused lodgings were quickly cleaned and bedding was prepared so that the priests could enjoy their stay in comfort.

Women were also chosen to tend to them. Needless to say, they weren’t asked to spend the night with them, and their tasks were the ordinary tasks of a maid. One of these women was Lilisa, who had become an adult that winter.

“You can get water from the well behind the lodgings. If you can’t use it because it’s frozen, then there’s a deeper well behind the castle that you can use.”

“Yes, understood.”

“You’re to serve them the usual two meals per day. If you find there’s not enough, please let me know. The baron has given us permission to make some small allowances for our guests.”

“I’ll ask if the need arises.”

“Feel free to use firewood. Though if you need heat quickly, the communal fireplace in the barracks used by the men should always be warm. Please go there.”

These various pieces of advice came from the most experienced woman. Along with the two other women who were with her, these three people would be caring for the priests. The shortest and youngest of the group was Lilisa.

This was the first job she’d been given since starting to work for the castle, and her excessive nervousness was visible on her face. When she was told she’d be caring for two smelly men, she couldn’t stop worrying about the various types of trouble that could occur between men and women. However, the priests that were staying there this year had tattoos on their arms that proved that they had formally entered the priesthood, so the women looking after them felt no need to be particularly cautious.

While the women were talking to them, the priests sat very politely with their legs crossed and their backs straight.

“We shall trust ourselves to your care.”

“Not at all. It is us who should be grateful to you.”

“Sorry for the trouble.”

Along with the other women, Lilisa went through the unfamiliar motions of bowing to the guests.

It was already warm enough inside the swept and cleaned lodgings. The place had developed a lonely atmosphere after being uninhabited for a long time, but now that atmosphere was gone. With the cleaning mostly finished, the women were able to sit down and relax.

The priests were sitting cross-legged in front of the older women. What seemed likely to follow was a very informal conversation between them.

The women served them tea, and the priests shared strange stories from outside the village. The women were hungry for conversation topics, and so they found themselves completely absorbed in the stories the priests told. Priests that had spent time at Maas near the royal capital had many stories to tell.

The priests never stopped smiling as they told their tales, and they turned out to be good listeners as well as good storytellers. They listened to trivial tales that the women told about the village and enjoyed their stories so much that their reactions appeared exaggerated. Outsiders would normally have been bored by stories about infidelities by unremarkable soldiers and stories about how bugs in the wheat would get baked into the bread, but the priests listened with great interest. The women soon began to get carried away.

“This important visitor from the capital. Was he really so picky?”

“He was. He wouldn’t eat anything green. It was like feeding a child.”

“And he was picky when it came to you-know-what, too.”

“I see. Disgraceful behavior. Haha.”

Lilisa was sitting on a pile of straw in the corner of the room where she amused herself by touching the hair clip that held her hair back. She’d only just started work at the castle and couldn’t keep up with the conversations of the others. She was still too young to find amusement in conversations with the adults.

She looked over at the priests and couldn’t help but be impressed by the inquisitive nature of the pair.

They never seemed to grow tired of hearing about the official that had recently visited from the capital, the rumors about his entourage, or the important priest that had been with them.

Lilisa eventually grew tired of touching the hair clip and looked out of the lodgings. Women working in the castle would work day shifts and night shifts. Lilisa worked the day shift, so her work was finished around the time the sun was setting. She noticed that it had started to grow dim outside. She stood up when she remembered that her mother was alone in bed at home. The other women must have been too absorbed in the conversation to realize what time it was, so she feared she’d have to interrupt them.

Before she could speak, she realized that the conversation had turned to talk of a certain boy. They were talking about the boy who’d taken her sister away from her, and she couldn’t resist listening.

Lilisa knew very little about Kai. As she listened to the conversation, she learned that there were many sides to Kai that she’d never seen. Her interest caused her to move closer to the circle of people, and a considerate priest tried to include her when he noticed. At first she was hesitant: “Yeah, even I know about him.” Then before she knew it, she was talking about him as if defending him from the other women.

“He was my older sister’s lover.”

“He’s awful. He took my sister away while she was still breathing and hid her somewhere.”

“I just know my sister is still alive somewhere.”

She insisted on all of these things even when the other women tried to stop her. She felt proud of herself for being able to join in the conversation with the adults so easily. Then she got carried away.

“No matter how many times I ask him, he won’t tell me.”

The other women could only smile wryly as she passionately spoke of how horrible the boy was, but the priests clapped their hands in amusement as they listened.

She even told them that the boy would often leave the village in secret. She insisted that he was going to visit her sister.

The proof that her sister was still alive was in the medicine and fruit that was sometimes left by the entrance to their home for their sick mother. When she told them this one of the women hit her on the head.

“Can’t you guess where that came from?”

“You poor thing.”

A tug on Lilisa’s clothes forced her to sit down and then she listened with surprise as the adults, who acted like they knew everything, whispered the truth of the matter into her ears.

The reason he has to sneak out of the village is because he wants to visit your sister’s grave frequently but he can’t leave the village without permission. And as for the parcels left at your home, that must be him taking care of the family she left behind. It makes a lot of sense, doesn’t it?

“If he delivers things in secret, he must be a good man.”

“He’s in the good books of the baron too. He’d be a real catch. It’s such a shame about the girl.”

Lilisa still insisted that her sister wasn’t dead, but when she heard the shorter of the two priests’ assessment of the matter, she was left unable to argue.

“If your older sister is fit and well enough to visit the village and make these deliveries, why would she not show herself before her family?” he asked her. “Though strange things do happen,” he added.

The priest was looking at her with his head tilted as if trying to make her realize something. When he smiled, his eyes looked as though they were full of some deep wisdom.

71

After the battle with the macaques had been avoided, Kai began visiting the valley daily. It was as if he was making up for all the self-control he’d had to show while various events had prevented him from leaving the village.

There were also things that he needed to talk about with his followers.

Now that he’d accepted the macaques’ invitation, he needed to discuss how to deal with the matter.

“Master...”

Porek lowered his head respectfully as vapor rose from every part of Kai’s body while he allowed the koror to wipe his arms and legs.

“Might I offer you a change of clothes?” Porek asked.

Kai was dripping wet.

He looked as though he’d been swimming in cold water while still in his clothes. Although it didn’t seem to bother Kai, those around him couldn’t help but be concerned.

Porek silently offered Kai new clothing.

“What are you trying to say?”

“I just couldn’t help but notice that you’re rather wet...”

“Oh, right. Someone saw me leaving. I kinda panicked and fell into a waterway.”

“Please do take care.”

“Someone keeps watching me.”

He was only wearing simple clothes, so he took them off and threw them aside before putting on the change of clothes he’d been given. Kai struck his fist against the handle of the knife at his waist as if the memory annoyed him.

“I don’t get what their problem is.”

No one could answer him because none of them had actually been there. He sighed deeply as if he’d realized that muttering to himself was a pointless endeavor that would gain him no sympathy.

Kai had jumped down from the wall in an attempt to escape the eyes that were following him. He hadn’t wanted to leave footprints in the snow where he’d landed, so he’d made a half-hearted attempt at covering them up before concealing himself in a trench formed for a waterway. That was when he noticed a figure atop the wall, and so he had to carefully make his way to the valley by moving along the waterway.

It was as if someone knew about his excursions out of the village and had lain in wait for him.

“It’s not so long since you were troubled by invaders. If life in the village displeases you, there is always the option of moving to the valley.”

“I’m not ready for that yet,” Kai said bluntly. “I don’t want to abandon the village yet.”

There were sounds of disappointment from his people.

None of them could understand why someone blessed by such a powerful god could want a meager life in a village under the protection of an inferior god.

When Kai was done changing, he pulled a chair, which was little more than a round log, over to the bonfire and sat down.

Now that he’d taken up his position, everyone else in attendance chose their own places. They all sat in a fan-shaped arrangement with Kai at the center.

Close by Kai’s side were the koror tribe leader, Porek; the head soldier of the tribe’s army, Kechak; an old uzelle named Noizen who had horns so large they appeared to make walking difficult for him and who’d been left with the responsibilities of a village chief by Nirun; and an uzelle named Rezik with impressive round horns that came to sharp points. The leaders from the two villages that made up the nation of the valley were in assembly.

As the member with the most experience and the most powerful guardian, it was Porek who ranked highest and he was the one who addressed Kai.

“Master.”

Porek stepped forward by himself and gave his report while keeping his head bowed respectfully.

The nation of the valley was conducting expeditions to the nation of the macaques so they could actively gather information.

“As per your request, I have visited the macaque territory.”

“Right.”

“It is true without doubt that a gravesite has been defiled and someone has been transformed into a diabo. Corruption seeps from the diabo to its surroundings like ink spilled in water. Unless it is slain quickly, irreversible land rot may spread across the surrounding regions.”

While Kai was unable to act, Porek had gone ahead and visited the macaque territory himself.

Of course, secretly infiltrating macaque territory had carried some risk, but the small koror were quick and skilled at blending into the shadows, making them well suited to such tasks. Porek had observed a fairly wide stretch of macaque land and had gone deep into their territory.

“The abridor left Heju, and the tribes that followed rushed south like an avalanche. A severe food shortage resulted in the south. They have resorted to stealing from subservient species, and there has been a general air of disquiet.”

The macaque nation was in a somewhat chaotic state.

Although the aim had only been to determine whether the macaques had been honest, Porek had gotten a good idea of the difficult situation they were in. It was likely that their attack on Lag had been carried out in hope of stealing the ample food supplies that the humans had gathered for the winter.

When Porek’s report was over, it was Kechak, the head soldier, who spoke next.

He had sent some strong-legged koror to keep constant watch over the state of the macaque forces following their retreat. Most of the 1,000 macaques had returned to the territory ruled by the species as promised, but around 100 of their soldiers had remained in their makeshift fort while they kept close watch on Kai’s village.

Those remaining soldiers would likely be a thorn in their side until the macaques had assurances that Kai was going to accept their invitation. The macaques probably felt that they had no other option, but it still left a sour taste.

The uzelles had reached out to some other species in the area and had heard similar rumors about the macaques. The macaques were the major species in the eastern region, and there were many species subservient to them. The things those subservient species were saying suggested they bore grudges against the macaques for taking away their land, backing up what Porek had already said.

When the series of reports was over, Kai still had some basic doubts.

“This Abridor guy couldn’t beat it?”

Abridor was the title given to the high chief of the macaques, and Kai felt sure that someone with such a title must have a strong god as their guardian. But Porek explained that their king god, who had the devotion of so many others, had been weakened when the curse of the diabo suddenly laid waste to much of the land.

By gathering devotion from so many, the god had also gathered curses upon itself.

Porek knew that Kai lacked experience, so he provided more knowledge about the diabo.

“A god that transforms into a diabo will greedily drain the blessings given to the land, causing it to become a powerful god beyond control within a short amount of time. The diabo drains and the king god is drained. If we sit idle for too long, the situation could irreversibly worsen beyond our imagining...”

Kai could tell that Porek was hesitating as if it was forbidden to speak of such things. As if some superstition made him fear he’d invite disaster.

He was lost for words, as if it was too difficult to speak of.

“It is said that such creatures writhe in terrible pain as they spread a calamity, before finally succumbing to their own curse and dying a mad death as blood sprays from their every orifice. In the worst-case, the diabo will eventually die from its own poison even if we abandon our attempt to slay it. It is said that the land cursed by such gods of misfortune will rot and break apart, and then darkness, like blood from the depths of the soil, will spill out and plunge the land into darkness. However, if we can accept the loss of some land, then that itself is not a problem. The macaques will have brought about their own destruction by their own incompetence... There is no need for you to place yourself in danger to rescue them, Master. This problem will not bring ruin to the entire world. This means there is no absolute need for you to act. Please act according to your own discretion.”

“...”

Kai’s body shivered involuntarily.

He trembled as if they had just touched upon some forbidden subject.

Kill it!

Kill the diabo!

His god was shouting at him. Kai understood the reason behind the sense of urgency that the god of the valley felt.

He felt there was a reason why the god of the valley was called God of Arbitration by some and Protector by others.

The old ones had died out so long ago that their name was forgotten, and the last survivor must have guarded over the land for as long as he lived. Be it coincidence or necessity, he had taken on tasks that were beyond all others because he had the powerful blessings of the god of the valley. After the other old ones that were his own kind had died out, he may have lived only for the sake of protecting the valley he loved.

That was what Kai believed.

It felt as though this responsibility was placed on him as the host of the god of the valley.

“All right. I understand.”

“Master...”

“I’ll kill it.”

“Very well.”

Kai would have to turn a blind eye to the circumstances between the macaques and humans on this occasion.

He felt sure that his top priority had to be slaying the diabo.

A one-way trip would take two days. Four days for a return trip.

If he spent several days in battle at the location, he might need a full ten days’ worth of time. But he couldn’t just disappear for such a long time without the people of his village realizing.

I need to create an excuse.

He left it up to Porek to make contact with the macaques. They believed that the masked protector was a koror, so they’d have little trouble believing that another member of the same kind was acting on Kai’s behalf.

He ordered the others to continue in the tasks they’d been given and then everyone present demonstrated their loyalty to Kai in their own way. The koror put together the two hands that they used to create their crafts while the uzelle lowered their heads to present their horns.

It felt as though there was power in the close group they’d formed. If more devout followers could be gathered around the valley, they might form a group whose war potential was great, even when Kai was absent. Performing the responsibilities shouldered by the god of the valley might even require such military units that could operate independently.

Kai left Porek and went down into the valley. There he enjoyed passing the time with Aruwe and Nirun. He also checked in on Elsa, who still hadn’t regained consciousness. When he learned that lately her throat was able to move well enough for her to swallow small amounts of water, it was the happiest he’d felt in some time.

“Master smiled.”

Nirun laughed as she removed the tube placed into Elsa’s mouth, and Aruwe began to smile too. Kai realized that they’d both been worrying about him, and he patted their heads. The two had been left to take care of Elsa while he’d been busy.

“If you want to reward us, you should lay your hands on us already.”

“I have the remedy ready for you, Master.”

“...”

The unexpected course of events caused Kai to take another good look at the two of them, but they didn’t stir any strong feelings inside him. “Maybe another day,” he told them.

The two were annoyed by the lack of reward and tried to push Kai down onto the bed that was behind him. Kai had no trouble lifting them both up, one in each hand, and he threw them outside. The happy sounds they made when Kai threw them showed that they were both still young enough to be childish.

“Let me see Sis!”

When Kai looked at Elsa’s sleeping face, the face of her younger sister suddenly came to mind.

He wondered how pleased she’d be to see her older sister was safe and well. He thought about how she’d smile and other trivial things.

72

Humans had no knowledge of the happenings in the great forest.

For better or worse, they remained ignorant of those events because it wasn’t their problem. Even the previous battle triggered by the macaques’ struggle to survive was receding into memory and had caused no major damage.

The trader’s bazaar was over and all that remained was to shut oneself up for the uneventful winter. However, there was still one yearly event that was cause for activity in the village castle.

The winter solstice banquet.

As the highest authority in the borderlands, Count Balta would gather together those loyal to him to an event regularly held in the provincial capital of Baltavia where they could strengthen their ties.

They chose to hold the event in the harsh season of winter when the borderlands would be covered in snow and enemies from outside would give up on invading, which was the only time that the guardian bearers serving as lords were released from the responsibility to defend their territory. To make the most of the rare opportunity to leave their territory, each lord would happily accept the invitation from their superior, Count Balta, and lead a party to the provincial capital. The name “Winter Solstice Banquet” naturally arose as a result.

Of course, the winter snow could get rather deep, so traveling by horse-drawn carriage was difficult. This meant that most lords brought a party of only people capable of making it through the snow.

If a lord lived close by, they might be able to take along a few tough soldiers. If they were further away, the journey wasn’t to be taken lightly. In such cases, only guardian bearers and perhaps a few exceptionally strong soldiers could make their way to the soil of the provincial capital through the winter cold.

Three official guests from House Moloch would be attending the banquet. These were the three guardian bearers of House Moloch: Vezin, Olha, and Jose. This year would be the first year that Jose had attended.

It was unusual for a house so far from the capital as House Moloch to bring attendants, but this year would be an exception. A single boy had been chosen to accompany them as an escort.

“How come only my sister gets to go?!”

Although the two sisters were related by blood, they received very different treatment because only one of them possessed a guardian.

Only guardian bearers and a small number of their invited guests were permitted to attend the solstice banquet. Although the baron’s children received special treatment in the village, being the child of a lord didn’t entitle them to attend the event. Guardian bearers on the other hand were the only ones that high society considered nobles worthy of respect. Simply being part of a bloodline imparted no social status.

Olha and Jose were both children of the baron’s first wife, Carolina. There were no guardian bearers among the children of his second wife, Falda. Unlike Carolina, who had been born to House Bofoy in the neighboring territory, Falda had been born an ordinary village girl and originally entered the house as a servant.

Lord Vezin had said he would choose a successor after assessing the potential of his children from both wives, but he may have secretly preferred those carrying the blood of his first wife. Though many suspected that House Bofoy had actually influenced his decision from behind the scenes.

Lana was Falda’s oldest daughter, and she was the next oldest daughter after Jose. She had inherited her mother’s beautiful, flaxen hair, but there were prominent freckles around her somewhat low nose and she always envied the pale, blemish-free skin of her older sister Jose.

Since learning that Jose had been ordered to attend the solstice banquet, she had been repeatedly crying, “It’s not fair!” Her mother, Falda, was a quiet individual who always tried hard to ensure harmony within the household, but her mother’s subdued attitude only caused Lana to become irritated further.

Her brothers and sisters realized that this was causing Vezin to become more and more displeased, so they tried not to draw attention to themselves lest his anger also fall on them.

“Lana.”

“Mother, be quiet! Father! I want to go too!”

“Lana, please...”

“My sister’s going! It’s not fair! Why does she get to go?! It’s not fair!”

That was enough to make Falda turn pale. She grabbed Lana by the arm and tried to drag her out of the room. But Lana knew that her father was too kindhearted to raise his hand to his daughters, so she struggled free and began to stomp her feet on the floor like a spoiled child.

Olha had had about as much of this as he could take. “Oh, just take her along,” he said, causing all harmony in the household to be lost.

“It’s not worth putting up with her tantrums any longer. The only way she’ll understand the harshness of winter beyond these walls is if we let her go out and experience it for herself.”

“Brother!”

Lana had mistaken Olha’s talk for words of support, and at first, she looked delighted, but Olha’s cruel words soon soured her mood once more.

“I hope you don’t think that there’ll be anyone to carry you when you complain that you’re tired. You will walk to Baltavia through the snow on your own two feet with no one to assist you. It’s a long journey. Baltavia is a thousand yulds from this village. For someone like you, I suppose it might be possible to somehow reach the provincial capital after walking for a hundred days.”

The solstice banquet was only a month away. By Olha’s estimate, Lana wouldn’t make it on time even if she left immediately. Math wasn’t Lana’s strong point, but she knew when she was being made fun of.

The real problem was that the march through the snow was going to be difficult even for guardian bearers. The previous year, Olha had experienced the five-day journey, hurrying during the daylight hours, across the 1,000-yuld distance to the provincial capital. Even as a guardian bearer, Olha had found the march taxing.

The only way Lana could attend the solstice banquet would be if her father or brother carried her. Even though Jose was a guardian bearer, she was going to find it difficult to complete the journey on her own two feet, and the issue of who would carry her had already been discussed. Count Balta had issued an invitation to the “beautiful maiden” of House Moloch, so it was a given that she’d be attending the event with them.

However, in the eyes of the younger daughter Lana, this was unfair.

If someone else was to be carried, then she wanted to go too. As far as Lana was concerned, Jose was nothing more than a sister who was a little older than her, so the difference in how they were both treated perplexed her.

“The only one left to carry you would be that hatchling. If you’re going to cry at someone, why don’t you bother him?”

“That’s enough, Olha.”

Vezin had finally become irritated enough to speak up.

When Olha spoke of a hatchling, it was a metaphor for an inexperienced warrior who’d gained a lot of power without knowing how to use it, just like a bird of prey not long hatched from its egg. Needless to say, he was referring to Kai, the young soldier chosen to accompany them to the solstice banquet.

Lana felt she might burst into tears if her father looked her in the eye, so she ran from the room as if trying to escape his gaze. Those who tried to follow after her were stopped by a few words from Vezin.

“Leave her be. You spoil the girl too much.”

The difference in treatment between his first and second wives caused Lana to bemoan her position as Falda’s firstborn child. Her inability to attend the high-class social events such as the solstice banquet with the lords of the borderlands was a sign of the growing difference in value between Jose and Lana as noble sisters.

Jose had kept quiet because she felt somewhat responsible for the fuss. She could only sigh to herself as, with some sympathy, she watched her younger sister leave the room.

Now that Jose had lost control of her gravesite and experienced the effects of a curse placed over it, she keenly felt the burden of being a second-rate guardian bearer with fading powers. She’d gone to purify the defiled gravesite after the macaques had retreated. She’d seen how the underground portion of the gravestone had been dug up and how red blood had stained the surface of the damaged inscription. The memory filled her with dread. It had made her feel as though her heart had been torn out and was in the hands of some stranger.

The population of Lag was decreasing with each passing year. Things couldn’t go on as they were, but there was little prospect of restoring the lost village of Eda and securing the gravesite.

Now she was to attend the solstice banquet, largely for the sake of becoming betrothed. Her suitor was the sixth son of Count Balta, and the best she could hope for was that he might be competent enough to help defend the abandoned village.

If I could trade places with her, I wouldn’t hesitate...

Jose tried to forget about Lana. She thought about Kai, the hatchling boy who’d been chosen to accompany them to the provincial capital, and she listened to the discussion about the solstice banquet that the family had started.

Vezin had boasted that a journey of 1,000 yulds through snow would be no trouble for them whatsoever. Her father couldn’t have failed to notice that her brother was lost for words when he heard this happy talk of the journey. Her brother had also inherited a land god from a village they’d lost control over, and it was easy to imagine that they shared the exact same misgivings. In fact, her brother had asked their father for permission to build a new settlement where Elg once stood when the spring arrived. The suggestion was rejected because there was no way that their few remaining subjects could be split across two villages, but Jose shared her brother’s feelings.

If she could build a new village of her own where Eda once stood, she’d need a few villagers and a strong ally to help her defend it. When she thought about strong allies, it was that boy who came to her mind, and it made her cheeks hot when she thought of him. The fact that he was a greenhorn with no strong attachments made him all the more suitable.

Father does intend to make him a member of our household. Perhaps the chances of it happening aren’t so slim...

She’d already had several encounters with the boy. He was often rude, but he was surprisingly skilled, and Jose had learned that he could be surprisingly gentle and considerate.

Jose had realized that she actually had no objections to her father’s idea.

In about half a month, the four of them would be headed for the solstice banquet. When Jose thought about how she might see some new sides of the boy during their journey, it made her think that the long journey through the bitter cold might not be so bad after all.

The family discussion must have already been going on for half a toki. All the while, there was no sign of Lana, causing Falda to grow worried and head out with her attendants.

The women came back looking quite distressed when they failed to find Lana in her room or anywhere in the castle.

The family were surprised, but they didn’t feel that this was a crisis.

A short while later, an attendant came charging into the room.

“A horse!”

The woman must have run all the way there because she was gasping for breath as she spoke.

There were never visitors on horseback in the winter.

“One of the horses is missing!”

Lana never returned to her room.

In fact, she never returned to the castle at all that night.

The village was thrown into pandemonium.

73

The first thing Kai heard were cries of, “A horse was stolen.”

It was hard to imagine the punishment that would befall anyone responsible for the horses if one of them was stolen. Everyone concerned and everyone nearby were dashing around looking for some way to help, and confusion spread rapidly.

“A horse was stolen? Who stole it? How?”

“Semal was on watch, but he didn’t see it happen. Someone from our squad said he’d go out and search by himself.”

“Wait... Why was the village gate even open?”

“How would I know?”

The news that spread by word of mouth was hard to believe. There were many parts to it that made little sense.

Then one of the women who worked in the castle came running toward the panicking soldiers to give them orders from the baron. By this point, even the least intuitive people were able to grasp the whole situation.

The baron’s daughter Lana had run away from the village while sulking over some decision made by the baron. The little lady had gone crying to a young man who she knew was fond of her and asked him to take her out of the village. Because of the long distance to the provincial capital, she must have convinced him to steal a horse. That was everyone’s guess.

The young man, Semal, liked taking care of the animals and had no experience at all with women. It was well known that Lana had used him to practice her ability to charm. If she’d gone to him in tears, he probably caved instantly.

This led to people being chosen by drawing straws once more, and the youngest squad leader, Kai, bravely drew the winning straw for his squad. The snow outside the village was so deep that their shoes disappeared into it as they walked.

Overall, the lineup of soldiers who left the village weren’t so different from the lineup dispatched to search the forest depths. There was much resentment over the methods the older soldiers used to escape their responsibilities.

“Let’s just grab her quick and then get back to the village.”

Under Kai’s instruction, three squads set out following the tracks in the snow left by the troublesome lady. Tracking her was a simple matter in itself.

But as slow as the lady was, she was traveling on horseback, so their speed had allowed them to put some distance between themselves and the pursuers. Visibility was high on the flat plains of the borderlands, so no one had expected that they’d have such trouble spotting the horse once they started searching.

And there was definitely no one who expected what happened next.

“Hey! Are you all right?”

Roughly a toki after they’d started their pursuit, they found Semal walking through the snow on unsteady feet.

Semal had been kicked by the horse and now he was holding his abdomen in agony.

“I tried to stop her. I thought she’d die if I took her any further. I...”

They understood that he was head over heels for the lady and he’d felt she needed him, but they couldn’t understand why he’d gone rushing away from the village without a good supply of food or any gear to protect against the cold. Eventually, Semal had come to his senses, at which point he tried to convince her to go back to the village. But Lana had stubbornly refused and snatched the reins away from Semal.

Their behavior had spooked the horse. The horse was already being forced to travel through unfamiliar snow and must have been quite irritated. It kicked Semal without warning and then went galloping off in a new direction.

They could see that the tracks left by the horse extended endlessly across the plain.

They’d been headed due west toward the provincial capital, but after leaving Semal behind, the horse had headed toward the forest to the north.

“Shit... That’s a bad part of the forest.”

“Remember Banya? That was only a little further west.”

“You mean there could be pigs lurking there?”

“Shit. We’re not ready for this.”

Their fears were unfounded. At that time of year, there were only lagarto sleeping in the marshes; orgs were nowhere to be found. The home of the orgs was the plains to the far north, beyond the forest.

Kai listened to his squadmates’ clueless talk about the demi-human world within the forest. He didn’t tell them that he knew better. He had other ideas.

“I’m going on ahead,” Kai muttered before stepping forward.

His squadmates had gotten used to this, but recently, Kai had very rapidly developed into a leader who could give out instructions. At some point, the squad had gotten used to following Kai’s quick orders.

“Nail, you’re fast. Take your squad back to the village and ask for reinforcements.”

“Got it.”

“Chit, your squad’s coming with mine. You don’t have to enter the forest. Just wait for me to come back. I’ll shout if I need you.”

“Right!”

“Kai, I know the lagarto are peaceful during the winter, but don’t take any risks. Don’t expect us to come running over while you’re being eaten.”

“I know. Look after the squad while I’m gone, Manso.”

With that, Kai sprinted off.

He accelerated like an arrow unleashed from a tightly drawn bow. The deep layer of snow at his feet was scattered in all directions, and within a few moments, the rest of his squad were left behind.

To Kai, this was nothing. He hadn’t even used half of the power he’d often use when heading to the valley. He used just enough power to make him seem like a guardian bearer, but not quite. Displaying his power this way was something he’d practiced well.

His dumbfounded squadmates began slowly following after him. Kai briefly checked that they were following and then focused on his destination.

Demi-humans don’t move so much in winter. Everything should be fine.

He ran into the forest.

In no time at all he found the horse. The forest lacked the open space needed for a horse to run around freely.

While searching the area around the horse, Kai soon found a sorry-looking butt. She must have fallen from the horse and landed headfirst in the snow. Her pale legs were sticking out from the skirt of her clothing, but Kai wasn’t quite old enough to find that interesting.

The unladylike sight of the butt actually irritated him. He prodded it with his toe, mostly to check for signs of life.

When there was no response, he stood with one foot to either side and pulled her free from the snow. Her clothes and hair were a complete mess, and all the effort the girl had put into her appearance had gone to waste.

But she was still breathing. After checking that her life wasn’t in danger, Kai put her clothing right so that he’d feel less guilty and then he brushed the snow from her hair. Lady Lana still didn’t wake up.

This might just be my chance.

Kai felt he had to make the most of this opportunity. By some miracle, all the conditions needed for him to achieve his goal were right there before him.

Kai put Lady Lana over his shoulder like a piece of luggage and approached the horse, which was chewing on some bark. Using his incredible strength, he pulled the horse’s muzzle and made it turn around.

“Go home, you.”

The horse resisted the rough treatment at first, but when Kai stared at it from close range, survival instincts must have kicked in because a single hit to its rear was enough to send it galloping off in panic.

It was heading back by the way it came, so the horse was certain to encounter the other soldiers. Kai didn’t know exactly how much a horse was worth, but he knew they were valuable creatures.

All right. Let’s do this before she wakes up.

With Lady Lana still over his shoulder, Kai went running deeper into the forest.

He checked that there was no sign of the lagarto in their marshland, which meant that they were sleeping in their waterside nests, and then he ran straight across the watery surface of the marshland without a word’s notice.

He went deeper into the forest, as he’d done many times. His destination was, of course, his beloved territory that surrounded the valley.

When Lady Lana appeared to be waking up during the journey, a light chokehold applied with one hand prevented it. Kai appeared unannounced in the koror village of Hacar, at the valley’s edge. The mysterious warmth of the valley reached the village, so not much snow had lain there and many villagers were busy at work outdoors. When they saw Kai, they put down their work and gathered around him.

“My God!”

“How unusual! The sun is still high.”

“If you are free, you would be a welcome guest at my home.”

“No, no. You must come to my place.”

“Someone call Porek!”

He had always made his visits to the valley at night. The only time he’d visited the valley during the day had been his first ever visit, when he was on the verge of death.

When Porek came out at the villagers’ call, Kai put down the luggage he was carrying over his shoulder, making it clear that this was the reason for his visit. Porek looked at the human girl lying at Kai’s feet and made a wrong guess at what was happening: “You have found yourself a new wife, My Master.”

“I need you to look after her for a while.”

“Which is to say...”

“She’s the daughter of the lord of my village. I don’t know why, but she ran away from home, and now the poor girl’s going to be kidnapped by koror.”

“You’ve kidnapped her, My Master?”

“Basically. Just hold her here a while.”

As Porek was just about able to figure out what was going on, Kai puffed up his chest proudly, as if to say, you’re not the only one who can come up with a plan or two.

“She’s the lord’s daughter. If she’s missing, he’ll definitely send out people looking for her. I’m going to volunteer to lead the search. That’ll give me a few days to go look at this diabo.”

“Then I shall leave her in the care of my own household.”

“She’s a spoiled brat. You can beat her if she won’t do as she’s told.”

“Master, I don’t expect there will be any need for...”

“I don’t think I left many tracks, but they might find something. I’ll count on you all to erase my tracks.”

“When will you depart for Heju of the macaques?”

“Once I’ve got permission, I’ll head out right away. I’ll have somewhere else to be soon after.”

“Then I shall prepare with great haste.”

“I’m counting on you.”

With that, Kai allowed himself just one glance at the valley before shaking off the temptation and heading back to the place where he’d found the horse.

74

A lady of the baron’s house had been abducted.

The soldiers that chased after her searched tirelessly until the sun went down, but it was fruitless. The one precious clue found through their time-consuming efforts was a collection of suspicious footprints near where the horse had been found. The unavoidable conclusion was that Lady Lana had been abducted by demi-humans.

Kai had gone on ahead, and when he returned, he was informed that no sign of the lady had been found through the whole region. After reinforcements joined them, it was Basco who’d taken the lead. When Vezin heard Basco’s report, he was so overcome with rage for a time that he punched straight through a wall.

The way that demi-humans treated abducted human females was common knowledge to those living in the borderlands. But if they were to persist in their vain efforts to recover her, it could only lead to more lives being lost from the already dwindling population.

Any leader capable of basic math could see that no outcome could justify the risk. With little else to do in winter, it was an easy matter to put together a search party, but he couldn’t order his people to risk death in the forest, even for his own daughter. The most he could do was take a few half-hearted measures to ease his conscience.

While the baron bottled up his wild emotions and tried to be reasonable, Lana’s siblings and her mother Falda clung to the baron in tears. Jose felt as though she was responsible for Lana’s unhappiness and asked to use her position as a guardian bearer to lead the search party herself.

Jose claimed that even the dangers of the forest could be avoided if the party was accompanied by a guardian bearer, and they might be able to reach its depths. When she actually began to gear up, her father had to scold her.

“You’re barely even a doi sigil right now! Do you think that’ll scare away a wild demi-human?! And what would become of us if I allowed my daughter to be scarred right before her engagement?!”

Giving up on someone so easily might just have been a habit learned by inhabitants of the borderlands. When Falda saw Jose being scolded so, she gave up on her own foolish demands and agreed to follow the commands of their ruler, Vezin. Olha prayed for the well-being of his foolish half-sister, and Jose felt overcome by her own powerlessness.

The household would normally be in high spirits in the run-up to the solstice banquet, but there was little appetite for conversation after this misfortune.

As a father, Vezin was overcome with worry and decided he had to do something for the sake of his daughter. He would choose an individual with great accomplishments in combat and a talent for survival, and the individual would be sent to search the great forest for a short time. Basically, a guardian bearer would set out to search.

At first, it seemed likely that Olha would be chosen for the task, but Vezin changed his mind at the last moment, and the task fell upon another.

Needless to say, the individual was Kai.

When everything went exactly as he’d planned, Kai felt proud of himself and his own cunning. After returning home from the initial search attempt, he’d immediately begun preparing for a journey while his squadmates watched incredulously. When that preparation turned out to be worthwhile, even the quick-witted Manso was openly impressed. “You did well to predict that.” Kai went from being proud of himself to being unbearably smug.

Later, Kai learned more about how he’d been chosen and realized that a lot of it had just been down to coincidence. That brought him back down to earth.

At first, Vezin had been willing to give up on all search efforts. It was Jose who changed his mind, and she’d used her influence over the women’s council to ensure he was hounded over the issue.

The reality was that Olha had initially been expected to take on the task of searching, but he’d complained about it. “Why not just send out that hatchling?” That was how the torch was passed to Kai.

But still, everything had gone according to plan.

Kai secured a good supply of provisions and dried potatoes from Adelia in the food stores. Next, he borrowed a rucksack to carry a tent for the long journey through snow and a lot of clothing. It all felt light on his back. The rucksack was a special one that included a rack and was designed for use during the harvest, so once it was full it grew to be several times bigger than Kai himself.

“You’re going to go walking through snow with that thing on your back? Are you sure?”

“I can handle it. Look.”

“Don’t jump! Everything’s falling out!”

“Kai, you’re not doing this for fun.”

His squadmates understood the difficulty of entering the forest and spending several days there while searching for someone. They’d helped him negotiate with Adelia while she was preparing the dried potato.

Manso had sharpened Kai’s knife during the night.

Two days after Lana had gone missing, Kai set out from the village. A good number of people turned out to see him off. Kai walked out into the deep snow as they waved him goodbye. It wasn’t until the village was out of sight that he began to run.

His destination was the valley. The fact that Lana had gone missing in that area was fortunate.

To be given the freedom to leave his community for even just a few days was almost a miracle. Kai could run through the snow to his heart’s content and smiled when he saw the white clouds that hung in the air when he exhaled.

He spun in circles for no particular reason and then leaped into the air after a short run-up. He played with the innocence of a child.

He felt no need to hide, so he continued to run as he approached the village of Banya, causing the people there, who were probably soldiers, to make a fuss as they questioned what they were seeing. Banya must have been so short of men that they even had women acting as soldiers, because some of the voices yelling at him to stop were high-pitched women’s voices. That made Kai worry about the state of the village once more.

Kai was acting with permission from House Moloch, so, in preparation for times like this, he’d brought along a small flag bearing the house emblem. He raised up the small flag dyed with the emblem of House Moloch in his left hand and waved it at the soldiers who were watching him from Banya. As the population dropped year after year, life in the borderlands could feel lonely. Particularly in Banya where the men had died in battle, the survivors yearned for human contact. Kai’s perceptive ears heard a female soldier shouting to him, “Don’t get yourself killed!”

Kai then disappeared into the forest. His face quickly became expressionless as he looked to his left and right. He did something unusual by walking into the marshland of the lagarto where he found steam rising as he approached the waterside, as if the water there was still hot despite the winter cold.

Am I still being followed?

Without looking back, Kai searched for any nearby signs of life and made his decision quickly.

Although lagarto activity was reduced, they would expose half of their bodies from their nests to soak in the water while sleeping. There was no stirring from them, so they must have recognized Kai’s familiar scent.

From the waterside he identified a path of stepping stones and made his way across while looking out for any dark-colored lagarto. The waters of the marsh were shallow but wide, and he knew that this detour would soon shake off any pursuers.

That worked. They’re not coming after me.

Kai sighed to himself before climbing a nearby balen cedar.

He moved from branch to branch so as not to leave any tracks and headed deeper into the forest. After roaming the forest for quarter of a toki, he finally reached his valley.

Kai called for Porek and told him to make preparations before heading down into the valley to visit his cabin.

Despite it being winter, there was no sign of snow in the valley. The air was warm and his breath no longer formed white clouds. The sun shone through the leaves, which still hadn’t fallen from the trees, and the whole scene made it seem as though summer had never ended.

Aruwe knew that Kai would be heading into the macaque country. Her master could eat twice as much as a regular person, so she’d prepared various types of food to make sure he wouldn’t get hungry on the way. From inside the cabin she carried out various dried fruits, cakes made from steamed potatoes, and dried fish, all of which she wrapped up and attached to the rucksack, making Kai look like a turtle carrying its child. Kai told her he was impressed by how many things she’d made, and Aruwe smiled and said, “There’s always a lot to eat here in the valley.” She wasn’t wrong.

“Guess who!” Nirun came leaping out of the cabin and covered Kai’s eyes with her hands. After Kai put her down beside Aruwe, she told him, “I wish you’d show me more love.” There were tears in her eyes, and she sounded serious, but the complaint came at him from out of nowhere, so Kai had no idea what she meant.

Next, he checked on Elsa, who was still sleeping in the cabin. As he stroked her face many times, he could see just how much weight she’d lost. He gently squeezed a maca he’d collected on the way there and let the juice drip onto her dry lips. Some reflex made her throat move, and Kai could tell that it wouldn’t be much longer before she woke up.

He decided that he’d need to build a new cabin once she did wake up. They were husband and wife after all, and they’d need a proper house to themselves where they could do the various things that husbands and wives do.

The thought filled Kai with joy, causing him to break into a smile.

“Will you be resting here in the valley today?” Aruwe asked, sounding restless.

“No, I’m leaving soon.”

Kai’s response made her look sad all of a sudden.

Nirun was also looking at him with her cheeks puffed out in dissatisfaction.

“Am I not... attractive enough?” Aruwe asked him.

“I’ll always be ready, whenever you are,” Nirun told him.

“...”

Kai wasn’t moved in the slightest by the deer-like girl’s attempts to seduce him.

He was a little concerned that he was making Aruwe feel down when she tried so hard to serve him, but Kai was still naïve in some ways, and he was left scratching his head.

75

Although winter had arrived, there was not much snow lying in the forest where leaves and branches formed a natural umbrella. Kai and ten koror soldiers followed Porek as he acted as their guide and showed them the road made by demi-humans hidden in the snow.

Unknown to the humans, roads had been formed in the great forest that demi-humans could use to come and go, and just like the roads in the human nation, these roads had names. The road that Kai and the others were following was known as Dragon Spine, a famous road that went through the center of the great forest from east to west, following along rocky areas and ridges.

Although it included steep inclines, the road wasn’t blocked by snowdrifts and it was used most heavily during the winter. The road most used during the warmer seasons was a fairly flat, meandering road known as Serpent’s Bed that followed rivers and valleys. There were also other roads, such as a special, hidden road known as Wind Spirit Path that passed through numerous windy caves.

It felt similar to the previous trip into the forest depths, but as the signs of the great forest’s residents became fewer and farther between, they reached areas that were shrouded by fog irrespective of the season or weather. According to Porek, lands where the blessings of land gods were weak were often covered in fog.

Dragon Spine passed through some of these areas where the fog reduced visibility. To help them keep to the path, old strips of red cloth tied to the upper branches of trees served as landmarks guiding them forward. The red landmarks were visible overhead through the white haze, spaced roughly 50 yulds apart.

Kai didn’t realize it until it had been pointed out to him, but they had entered the territory of the macaques some time ago. Most of the eastern part of the great forest was territory controlled by macaques, and “infrastructure” like the land marks above them were the fruit of their efforts to maintain the area.

The region also included territories belonging to lesser species subservient to the macaques. Each time they entered one of these “autonomous regions,” they were asked to identify themselves and offer a small amount of food. This sort of toll was customary in the winter when food was scarce.

But of course, not every species was on good terms with the koror. They found their way blocked when they entered the territory of the badger-like woons, and Kai wasn’t sure what to do when the koror suddenly became aggressive in response. Porek and the others from Hacar who’d had to flee from the orgs had been attacked by these woons in their moment of weakness, and now there was a grudge between them.

At that point Kai had to get between them to restore order. After the woons saw him break a large balen cedar in two with his fist, getting permission to pass through wasn’t so difficult. One characteristic of woons was that they became meek when facing a strong warrior. The smug look on the faces of Porek and the other koror made Kai sigh.

The whole trip was about 100 yulds, and it took them a full two days because they had to allow the accompanying soldiers to keep up.

Kai had seen a lake from atop the final hill.

Soma Lake supported life in the macaque city of Heju, and the grayish surface of the water was visible through a veil of falling snow.

Kai expected Heju would be a fairly large settlement, but its streets were nowhere to be seen. This was because they were hidden by a thick fog that covered all of Heju. Kai soon realized that this land had lost the blessings of land gods and was in decline.

“The macaque palace, Dehoushi, is in that region. If we continue to climb, you’ll see the black smoke for yourself.”

“Will it still be burning?”

“It would appear that the interior burns continuously. I would not say it to them, but the smoke provides a useful landmark.”

“There’s a weird smell.”

“This is because many things are burning, and even the ice of the lake is rotten.”

The wind direction was one factor, but being able to smell the place from several yulds away suggested that there must be an intolerable stench at the site.

Dragon Spine continued on to Heju, but Porek led them along another path that branched off. That direction took them to where the macaque king, their abridor, was housed.

The situation was bad enough that the macaques had wanted to summon Kai even if it meant withdrawing from their assault on Lag.

As Kai turned his back on Heju, he felt as though he could hear the distant howling of some creature from afar.

Kai had never seen a macaque settlement so close up. The strange village that appeared before him ignited his curiosity, causing his gaze to wander to and fro.

Macaque nests were generally built in the tops of balen cedars. In the large trees they could make large nests by placing planks between branches, binding the pliable young branches with green leaves together at the top to form a dome, and then creating a single opening. As the macaques climbed up and down each tree, time and time again, they would strip the bark from the trunk, making their way of life damaging to the trees themselves.

Kai’s eyes shined as he wondered how many macaques could live in one of those great nests, but then they arrived before a great, ancient tree that must have been the biggest in the settlement. There a male macaque greeted them and introduced himself as the chief of the Nenem tribe.

He displayed his kumadori, and Porek and Kai returned the greeting by displaying their kumadori in the same way. This exchange suggested that they were to be treated as important guests. “Abridor, wait,” the chief then told them in broken speech before walking on ahead. Crude as his speech was, the words he spoke in the human tongue were easy to understand.

The settlement became lively in response to the arrival of guests important enough to be greeted by the tribe chief himself.

A great number of macaques, seemingly too many for the number of nests in the trees, nosily moved out of their path when herded by soldiers who were there to escort Kai’s party.

Starvation must have been rampant because several long arms rudely reached out, trying to steal from the koror in their party as they walked. Kai and the koror held off the troublemakers with their spears, but the chief leading them was able to stop the rude behavior with a single howl.

“Sorry. Everybody hungry.”

“We don’t have enough to share with you.”

“We get no food from human village. Very sad.”

As far as the eye could see, there were suffering gray creatures staring at them hungrily.

To know that they were just barely holding on to rationality behind those exhausted and dried-up eyes gave Kai goosebumps. He knew that they wouldn’t be able to leave the place in one piece if all of those suffering creatures came charging at them at once.

After a while, the chief of the Nenem tribe came to a stop.

The ancient balen cedar towered above them. The broad branches that grew from the tree had been used to make an unusually large hole at the top.

They imitated the chief by climbing a ladder formed by hanging vines. At the top, macaques who appeared to be servants pulled them up onto a deck and propelled them forward through a curtain formed by pieces of hanging hide.

The warm air embraced them. Porek came stumbling in behind them and bumped into Kai’s back.

There were close to ten macaques inside this one nest.

Their expressions changed when they saw the macaque who appeared to be the abridor, lying in a bed.

“Abridor cannot stand. Forgive rudeness.”

First it was the Nenem chief who bowed to them deeply, and then, as if following his example, the other macaques tending to the abridor also prostrated themselves.

These must have been the abridor’s family or attendants.

The male laid up in the bed was so big that he looked as though he’d find the ceiling of this nest rather low if he ever stood up. His carers helped him sit up so that just his upper body was raised up. Then the abridor looked back at Kai with wheezing breath and apologized in a weak-sounding voice. “Forgive my appearance.”

The land was polluted, and this foulness may have gathered in the “king” at the center of this great band of macaques, causing him to be cursed. At the height of battle, he had been stricken by a curse and collapsed, and his suffering was reminiscent of what had happened to Olha and Jose.

Having other land gods swear their devotion had given him some strength. Kai had experienced that for himself, so he could imagine what it might be like if the number of land gods swearing devotion increased.

A king to whom many land gods swore devotion would be able to absorb and collect small amounts of power from each, giving them power far beyond that of other gods. But of course, these blessings would not only come with an increase in strength, they could also cause the god to be pulled down by curses if the land was laid to waste like it had been.

“These happenings. Never before have we experienced this.”

The bed groaned under the incredible mass of the abridor. As he moved away from the feather pillows supporting him, it could be seen that his fur, with its vivid black and white stripes, had been lost in horrible fashion down his left side and on his abdomen. There was also purple bruising on his skin and a faint smell of rotting flesh.

“We had plan to organize and fight. But we were fools. The longer we waited, the more power we lost to sickness.”

The abridor clenched his fists and trembled in regret, knowing that he should have taken decisive action immediately while he still had his strength. As the diabo gained power, he had lost his own power. Before he knew it, they were fighting over power from the same source. For all the power that the abridor lost, the diabo gained power by stealing the land god’s blessings.

Even now, the diabo continued to greedily devour the power from the land. As time passed, the macaques were losing their power, and before long the situation would be beyond mending.

The abridor explained that their army had withdrawn upon the orders of the protector, but the assault on Lag had been necessary because they needed new land and food for the overwhelming number of suffering macaques.

He’s trying to say it’s my responsibility now.

Without saying it explicitly, he made it clear that they’d followed Kai’s orders, so now it was his job as protector to take responsibility and slay the diabo. This use of tact in negotiation was something that was common to humans and demi-humans alike.

“Protector, we implore you.”

The abridor fell from the bed to the floor, shaking off his carers as they tried to stop him. Then he pressed his forehead to the ground. He appeared to be willing to sacrifice his pride as the leader and defender of his people.

This king’s once-grand fur had fallen out in the most unsightly fashion, and now he was prostrating himself before a member of another species while his own kind watched. The sight was enough to make the macaques grind their teeth, and they began to groan as if it was more than they could take. Some even stomped their feet as if unable to contain their frustration.

Kai couldn’t help but feel uncomfortable at the idea of being called “Protector.”

He didn’t know the reasoning behind this name they’d given him, and he couldn’t fully accept that it was him who their king was prostrating himself before.

Kill it!

The god of the valley was wild with a passionate hatred for diabo, and it was impatiently waiting for the fight to begin.

He wondered if perhaps the old ones, his predecessor included, had met their downfall after being weakened by a diabo. Although it was his predecessor who had lived many years in solitude in the valley after becoming the sole survivor of his species, Kai felt for a moment that it was his own experience.

“I’ll kill the diabo,” Kai told them softly.

76

He still didn’t know what sort of creature a diabo was.

Although he’d heard much from Porek and others, he still didn’t feel as though he properly understood it.

Diabos had wrought disasters through the ages, leaving traces in the form of legends passed down by many different tribes. Porek and the people of Hacar told a story of how a band of soldiers, braced for death, had once been sent to slay a diabo created by the orgs.

Porek grimaced as he explained that they had acted as beaters, driving it into a deep pit, because the guardian bearers of their powerless species were capable of little else.

The uzelles had their own tale. It was the tale of how the then-leader of the uzelle had stabbed the diabo to death with their horns, but that was an absurd tale that sounded full of half-truths.

Legend had it that diabos could breathe terrible fire, they cursed all those who they touched, and they could come back to life even after their head was cut off. It was so hard to separate fact from fiction that Kai felt as if he’d learned absolutely nothing.

He’d recklessly taken on the task without actually knowing anything about the enemy he was facing, and now there was some part of him worrying that this might be a big mistake. He felt like a fool for promising so much just because they’d given him the title of protector.

But even so, this problem wasn’t something that could just be ignored. Someone had to do something about it, and it just so happened that the task had fallen on him, as master of the valley.

There was also Kai’s growing hunger for more knowledge that drove him to see for himself this bug in the world’s design that they called a diabo. Naturally, his main motivation was his sense of duty to save the macaques from a difficult situation, but at the same time he figured that it would be a good idea to experience a diabo for himself while he still had the option of backing out if things went badly.

Kill it!

And then there was the god of the valley’s enthusiasm.

It caused him to feel a strong sense of duty because he naturally shared his god’s feelings as its host vessel. It was almost like being driven by instinct.

The Nenem chief guided Kai and his followers along a path that only macaques knew about, leading out to where they found Heju in the region of Meso Lake. As they traveled, the fog gradually grew thicker, and reaching their destination might have been challenging without someone to guide them.

The overpowering smell of rot was enough to make Kai pull his thick scarf up over his nose. Porek and the others did likewise without being instructed.

“The water of the lake is terribly rotten,” Porek said quietly, as if he didn’t want the macaques to hear.

Through the fog came a faint sound of water, and when they finally saw the surface of the lake there were stiff-looking macaque corpses floating there.

Here and there, bent reeds swayed in the breeze.

“Master Torud.”

“Master Garam was defeated.”

“The Hizel tribe can’t... the males...”

Along the way they found wounded macaque soldiers crouching by the roadside, and they looked desperately at their guide, Torud, the chief of tribe Nenem. Efforts to reclaim Heju were still going on among the macaques.

Then there was suddenly a thunderous roar, and a red light lit up the fog.

It was the sound of something exploding, and then there was screaming. Soon after there was the sound of a cliff face crumbling, and fragments of rock came falling onto the lake surface near where Kai stood, sending up pillars of water.

An explosion?

It was an unusual phenomenon in a world where nothing like gunpowder should have existed.

Horrified expressions appeared on the faces of the wounded soldiers, and those who could still move began dragging their bodies along the ground toward the explosion. Torud also began to hurry there as if drawn toward it, so Kai and the others also had to do the same.

A pile of leaves that must have fallen from the rotting trees created an unpleasant feeling as it squelched beneath their feet. Every part of the land was rotten.

Torud pushed his way through a wall of macaque soldiers while Kai and the others followed along the path he created.

The cliff face that came into view looked like a rocky mountain full of holes. It was like some kind of giant apartment building. Kai’s attention was so drawn to what he saw above him that he walked straight into the back of Torud, who was frozen to the spot.

Although he wasn’t unfortunate enough to fall on his behind and dirty himself with the rotten fluids on the ground, he was surprised when the collision caused his mask to smash into his nose. Torud appeared oblivious to Kai’s pain as he howled threatening words to black macaques that were standing in their way.

Unlike most macaques, these black macaques were actually wearing woven clothing, and the long handles of the weapons they held out were crossed in the style of guards, blocking the path ahead.

What’s with these guys?

The weapons they held had strange shapes.

The metallic tips of their weapons were coated with green rust, and one end of the tip was shaped like a long, thin axe, while the other end had a sharp edge like a chisel made to break rocks. They were attached to long, wooden handles that curved like a bow.

If they were to swing these weapons, the weight of the metal part would surely make them bend. It was as though they were designed like whips used to strike at opponents.

The simple, pure black, woolen tunics that each of the soldiers was wearing were reminiscent of the black robes worn by human priests.

This black clothing was everywhere at the entrance to Dehoushi, making it hard to estimate how many there were. There had to be more than 100 or 200.

It was hard to see from behind the black backs that blocked the path, but there appeared to be many macaques who had fallen just like the region’s trees, and there were rising clouds of thick white smoke. They could also see workers picking up charred black bodies like mere objects and throwing them into the nearby grassy areas.

“Gahama has returned!”

“I saw the Princess of the North!”

Wounded macaques some distance away were shouting loudly.

They were behaving like a flock of birds alarmed by a snake in the grass where they’d hidden their eggs.

It made no sense for there to be killing between members of the same species at the entrance to Dehoushi.

Gahama? Princess of the North?

Kai was curious, but Torud argued vehemently with the figures in black without pausing to explain anything.

“You shan’t pass!”

“Orders of Royal Tree!”

“We have Abridor’s orders!”

“None shall pass!”

“We slay diabo! Stay back!”

Some sort of battle over who would lead the effort to slay the diabo seemed to be going on.

Torud tutted and asked about the “Royal Tree,” which appeared to be a term they used to refer to the king of the macaques. If they were under orders from the king, then that would make these guys in black the royal guard.

Kai couldn’t help but be confused.

The course of events didn’t make sense. Kai had thought the macaque with the title of abridor was the king of the macaques.

Kai knew they might have to break through if it came to it, so he tried to assess the combat potential of the macaques in black.

The army of macaques in black had already begun marching into Dehoushi while 30 or so remained standing in front and a similar number stood blocking the entrance to Dehoushi. The group appeared to operate based on a chain of command, rather than succumbing to whoever was strongest, which was unusual behavior for macaques.

Torud shot a glance at some other soldiers watching them from a distance, who came to stand with them. But even with two groups ready to fight, breaking through was going to be difficult.

Torud’s attempts to assert his authority didn’t appear to be improving the situation, so Kai put his hand against the muscles that bulged from Torud’s shoulder and tried to push him onward. When Torud still didn’t act, Kai tried throwing a punch at him.

“What?” Torud asked sternly, appearing a little hurt. Kai started off with the basics by confirming that the abridor wasn’t actually the king. The question made Torud frown. “He’s no king, but he is most powerful leader of our people.”

He explained that he was a member of the oldest macaque family, the macaque royalty, and that he was a great noble host to a great god who was the next most powerful after the king. The chief who led each tribe was known as the ridor. The title of abridor, meaning high chief, was given to the top ridor, who was a chief among chiefs, but not the head of their royal family.

The current abridor had gathered the most devotion from the other macaque tribes and was now their de facto leader.

Which begged the question, who was this king that the macaques in black followed?

“Oldest family like pureness. Mad from rotten blood.”

There had been mad kings for several generations, and the aspect of macaques that might have been called their “humanity” was not something they associated with their royal family. Thus, the abridor faction was formed. Torud then referred to him as the “acting king” for the first time.

Now Kai understood that the ones in front of them blocking the path were what might be called “royalists” or “loyalists.” They might have been a fanatical faction that were steadfast in their loyalty to the royal family.

If they were going to continue barring the path, that left few choices.

We’ll force our way through.

The macaque standing face-to-face with Torud appeared to be the commander of the group. It had already let its kumadori show as if trying to make it clear that they weren’t willing to let anyone pass. Kai stepped in front of their commander and casually took hold of the spear-like axe it held before pulling it toward himself.

The commander looked down at this koror warrior who was no taller than its navel and tried to lift the warrior up to belittle him.

It was to no avail.

Despite being a koror, the little warrior was steady as a rock.

Kai then casually pulled the weapon toward himself once again. It was the commander who was easily moved. It let out a startled yelp and tried to regain its posture after having stumbled forward.

But Kai wasn’t going to miss the opportunity. With his kumadori on display, Kai didn’t give his opponent a chance to stand up straight again. He twisted its weapon from its grasp and then kicked the back of its outstretched leg, forcing it to kneel down. Then he stood firmly on its bent knee. This was a technique from Zula-ryu used to steal an opponent’s weapon.

Now that it was sitting, it had been reduced to the height of its opponent and the tip of its nose was close to the mask, giving it a good view of Kai’s kumadori. The way its eyes widened suggested that it had grasped the difference in power between them.

“Abridor found Protector of Kanae.”

It was unclear whether Torud’s words reached it.

The gaze of the frenzied commander in black was fixed on the glyph on Kai’s forehead. The macaques in black who’d been watching tried to move nearer, but Kai turned the stolen weapon against the command and they stopped.

He waited for a while, but there was no response.

Kai soon gave up on talking and gave a signal with his eyes to urge Torud to start walking. Porek and the company of koror watched him step forward and then, after Kai threw down the weapon he’d been holding, they walked on behind Torud.

There was much shouting from behind them.

“Too late! Protector not needed!”

Although the commander was shouting at them, they didn’t look back.

“Wise Princess defeat diabo!”

Wise Princess.

That was the title given to the true leader of the macaques in black.

77

The front entrance to Dehoushi that Kai and the others passed through had led them into a corridor with a high ceiling that was something like an atrium. The ground at their feet formed steps that were carefully carved into the stone, and they went downward as they traveled deeper in.

To the side of the path lay many charred corpses that gave off thin wisps of smoke, and the air was filled with the unpleasant smell of burned fur. Although there were corpses everywhere, they were fortunate enough to find the stone floor in the middle of the corridor clear, as if something large had been dragged through there.

The numerous holes bored into the walls of Dehoushi formed a strange array of twists and turns like the interior of an ant’s nest, and some of them eventually connected to this main corridor. Here and there, the surviving macaques inside would peek out from within the holes with weapons in hand, showing that resistance efforts by their species as a whole were still going on.

As they followed the path, Torud shared as much useful information as he could about how to fight the diabo and the doings of the macaques over the past month or so.

Macaques tended not to embellish their tales, making them simple and easy to understand.

“One from Nova transformed. No one could believe.”

Nova was apparently a new territory that was being captured by the macaques at the northern limit. In the same way that macaques caused trouble for humans in the south, in the unknown plains beyond the forest they had stolen several land gods from other species and were continuing to claim more land.

In the midst of a battle to suppress those other species, the transformation had begun.

One guardian bearer had been stricken with a curse and soon transformed. The macaque army had scattered and retreated before they were able to deal with the chaos this created. No one had questioned the decision to bring back that early-stage diabo as they retreated. The creature hadn’t looked so strange at that point, and they’d been able to hold conversations with it. The macaques had therefore taken it back with them to Heju without any sense of the approaching crisis.

But then it ate the family members that had accompanied it to the border, and when other guardian bearers came to see how it was doing, it took them by surprise, killing them and stealing their blessings. Finally, it was recognized as a diabo and there were many efforts to slay it. That was the gist of what had happened.

The first thing that came to Kai’s mind was the way that Olha and Jose had collapsed after their gravesites were cursed.

It was inevitable that there would be grudges against those who greedily stole the land from other species. Once the strength of a curse reached a certain extent, the effect would extend to the nature of the land god itself, causing what they called a transformation, turning it into a diabo. That was the basic idea.

What was clear was that land gods who succumbed to the dark side were considered diabos.

A royal princess who’d made a name for herself in recent years had been there in the new land, Nova, that they were continuing to acquire in the north. The princess excelled in strategy and despite being female, she showed so much courage that she put the males to shame. She was known to have conquered the lands of many other species and stolen many of their gods. Thus, she earned the alias, Wise Princess of the North.

This Wise Princess of the North is going to slay the diabo...?

When they learned that their birthplace, Heju, was in chaos, their heroine had abandoned Nova and led her army home. Now, deep in these caverns, the diabo was being slain on royal palace grounds.

It would feel like a waste of effort to come this far without playing a part, but Kai absentmindedly supposed that it would make life a lot easier if this princess did all the work and slayed the diabo herself.

Torud, who was leading the party, came to a stop. He gestured for them to be quiet and then went on alone.

The slope that had continued downward into the cavern began to slope upward once more. There were a few dozen steps that led upward to a door decorated with reliefs. The reliefs looked like strange faces, but it was unclear whether they were the faces of people or gods.

This pit-like structure looked needless at a glance, but when under enemy attack, this area probably made it easier to protect the area they referred to as the royal palace grounds. The sturdy iron doors looked as though they’d been there for a long time. The doors were terribly warped at one side, which may have been evidence of the initial attack by the diabo.

Torud moved a corpse of his own kind out of their path and looked at Kai.

Kai scowled at the figures in black that were following them and waited for them to stop before he moved over beside Torud. From there they could see the royal palace grounds easily.

“These are the royal palace grounds?”

When he turned his head to look at what was pointed out ahead, the sensory information that hit first was the smell, rather than the sight. The rotting smell was worse than before and made it so difficult to breathe that it brought tears to the eyes.

Porek and the others in tow were also making groaning sounds. Kai had to shake off a sense of taboo before he could even look at the situation ahead of them. Then he saw exactly where the stench was coming from.

The bloody battlefield near the village of Banya had been horrific, but at least then the bodies had retained their original forms. There must have been some mechanism that supplied oil because evenly spaced flames were burning in the space that opened up ahead of them. The floor of that huge underground cavern lit by those small, flickering flames was littered with body parts that had once belonged to macaques.

It was a large limestone cavern that must have been 100 yules across and 30 yules high.

An uncountable number of stalactites hung from the ceiling, and stalagmites protruded upward like thorns.

Round, flat areas resembling platforms rose from the floor to the left and right like a terraced field, and the remains of furnishings rested on them, suggesting that people had once passed time here.

The macaques must have found this place and made it into a home for the royal family. Dripping water had been collected into water flows through ingenious remodeling, and there were various small springs here and there. Those would provide an inexhaustible supply of water that the residents could draw from.

The terrace of round platforms, which was formed by a very natural remodeling of the cavern, led up to a stone table in the deepest part of the cavern that was larger than the other platforms.

It was clear from looking that this space belonged to the king.

“That is where Abridor lived,” Torud said in answer to Kai’s question.

“Abridor is greatest, but not king. Abridor’s throne lower down, to right side of the rock.”

“So what about this Wise Princess?”

“Mad Princess was on the fifth seat. Lower down.” Torud spat the name as if it left a foul taste in his mouth.

The “Wise Princess” that the people known as Gahama treated as their queen held the fifth highest seat while Abridor held the second highest.

Then who was sitting in the royal throne above them all?

“That... is the diabo.”

At the edge of the large stone table, limbs that were clearly taken from macaque bodies jutted out like branches woven into a bird’s nest.

Rust-colored water from an unknown source steadily dripped from it.

They saw the creature’s blue back. It was a soft back like that of the salamanders that crept along river beds. The creature’s back undulated and gave off blue light in a pattern like leopard spots. It must have been feasting on the killed macaques.

There was a strange grinding sound. Kai looked and saw that Torud’s fangs were visible and he had been grinding his teeth.

Then the diabo raised its head like a snake poised to strike.

Its snake-like head then turned toward them, and its red eyes moved slowly.

Its throat then moved up and down, suggesting it had just swallowed whatever it had been chewing.

“It got too big. Cannot pass through door. We drove it into our home. Sealed it inside.”

The place where the royalty of their species should have lived was now home to the diabo.

The thick fog that covered Heju, the rotten trees and the lake... all of these happenings felt connected in Kai’s mind.

The diabo sat in a nest it had made on the throne. Then what had become of the rightful owner of that space? Abridor, who ranked second, had been driven to a neighboring village, and the king too should have had to flee.

They must have lost so many of their kind, but the macaques would never give up on Dehoushi. That was a common story anywhere.

It must be in that throne... The gravesite of the macaque king.

Perhaps the king that ranked above all others was already in the stomach of the diabo.

With their king god lost, this entire region had rapidly become a wasteland. Kai was able to reach that conclusion easily enough.

“Diabo!”

A clear, gallant voice echoed through the royal palace grounds.

Kai strained his eyes and searched for the source of the voice.

Below the terrace of the royal palace grounds, the army in black parted to either side and kept their bodies low under the cover of their lined-up shields. There must have been hundreds of macaques forming a black carpet of wool across the milky white rock face.

But there was no sign of the owner of the voice.

Kai’s eyes searched elsewhere.

Above the head of the diabo perched on the step, in one of the holes that must have been used by the royal family, there was a white figure.

A white macaque with armored limbs stood there with its arms raised as if it were supporting the ceiling of the small hole.

On its head it wore a hachigane that covered its forehead, and patterned scale armor covered its abdomen, making it clear at a glance that this was no ordinary macaque. The long tufts of white body fur that were visible through the gaps in its armor appeared to shine prominently in the darkness of the cavern.

The Wise Princess of the North.

In one hand she held up a wooden cage that contained a small beast. The small beast lay in the cage looking like a worn-out puppy.

“I have brought you a playmate. Rejoice, monster.”

Her clear, feminine voice resounded through the royal palace grounds, and it was followed by a howl that reverberated in the pit of one’s stomach. It was then that the form of the monster she spoke of appeared in Kai’s field of view.

The fur on its large muscles appeared to shine silver as it stood on end. A fearsome body resembling a small mountain was dragged along the many ropes that bound it in place as it stepped out from the shadow of the rocks.

Though macaques were many times the size of humans, they looked like children compared to this creature. It threw its head to the side and then blood was sent flying as a bitten handler screamed in agony.

An array of sharp fangs were visible when it slowly opened its mouth. Glistening sparks poured out when it exhaled, spreading out from its mouth in time with its heavy breathing.

There was an amber light dwelling within its eyes as it looked up at the diabo. Then its gaze shifted and seemed to pierce through the form of the Wise Princess.

“Deuswulf!”

Torud and Porek behind him both uttered the word at the same time.

It was at that moment that Kai fully understood what the Wise Princess of the North was planning.

78

He never came back...

Lilisa breathed white breath onto her numb fingers and then spread out the cloth she’d just wrung out. She felt as though winter was intensifying with each passing day. When she thought of the boy struggling through deep snow in the depth of a forest, she would mutter to herself, “Why doesn’t he just come back?”

It had been four days since Kai’s departure from the village.

It had been even longer since the lord’s daughter had been abducted. An entire six days had passed since that day.

Most people had already accepted that the life of the lord’s daughter Lana must have come to an unfortunate end. Human lives were lost easily in the borderlands. It was a tough world that they lived in, so the people of the village had learned not to dwell too long on the loss of a single human life.

Thus, Lilisa and the other villagers had come to terms with what had happened. They’d quickly given up on the foolish little lady and now they were more worried about whether their valuable defender of the village, Kai, would return safely.

The village was busy with preparations for the solstice banquet.

Jose’s engagement had been decided, and many of the women were fully occupied by efforts to make her a formal dress for the occasion, so anyone with free time in the castle was given embroidery work to do.

Since Lilisa had only started working in the castle that winter, she had never even spoken to the missing lady known as Lana. She lacked the knowledge or the skill to get involved in the tailoring work, so she felt separate from the hurried work going on in the castle.

“Lilisa, we need you to clean the lodgings.”

“Oh, all right.”

Lilisa was cleaning the lodgings just like she’d been instructed.

Sometimes she would take her own hair ornament in her hand. She felt relief after assuring herself that it hadn’t fallen out without her noticing, and then she absorbed herself in the familiar daily tasks.

The two priests were shut up inside the single room of the lodgings that day. Lilisa overhead pieces of the priests’ conversation as she cleaned. She didn’t intend to eavesdrop, but the work was boring and she couldn’t help but listen.

“...twins...it seems...the problem is...”

“...indeed...the hatchling might...”

“...foul creatures...marshes...his way across...no trouble...”

“...hatchling...this rate...never return...”

She had no idea what they were talking about. She didn’t care to understand as her work naturally took her closer to where they were. They must have noticed her because the conversation suddenly stopped.

It made Lilisa feel out of place, and so she quickly finished up her work and left the lodgings.

On that day, like all the others, the sky was full of heavy clouds and there was light snowfall.

It had been a silent day with no wind. But then the silence was broken by a sudden roar of distant thunder.

It happened so suddenly that it made Lilisa cower, but she wasn’t too afraid of thunder to gaze off toward the source of the sound. A bigger shock came when the two priests came running out of their lodgings, causing her to jump with fright.

Again and again, the sound of distant rumbling filled the air.

In the castle, the out-of-season thunder caused many curious faces to appear at the windows. The boys cleaning the cattle sheds also came out to look. Everyone was looking up at the sky.

What is this? My ears hurt.

Lilisa felt pain like a tearing in the depths of her ears.

She couldn’t calm her racing heart.

The two priests who’d come running out headed off to the village walls where they’d have a better view. Several men who weren’t too busy did likewise and hurried after them.

The roaring of distant thunder brought a sense of unease with it.

Lilisa reached for the ornament in her hair. At the back of her mind she was thinking about the boy.