Chapter 297 - Unending Mystery

Unending Mystery

Two days passed. I was able to move decently since yesterday morning, but Daniela insisted that I rest a while longer, just to be sure. And she would not take no for an answer, and so I did.

However, it was thanks to that rest that I was now able to run. Yes, run.

But the problem was whether or not I could use Eyes of the God Wolf.

“Uhh…grr…”

“You cannot?”

“There’s still this piercing pain in the back of my eyes…”

Unfortunately, two days had not been enough to recover the use of that skill. It was clear why. I had used ‘God Wolf Sword Reach’ in order to kill the Queen’s Knight Goblin. That skill mostly relied on Jack of all Trades, Master of None, but it also used Eyes of the God Wolf. And the entire burden was on the brain. The pain in my optic nerves was screaming at me.

“Do not use your eyes, Asagi.”

“I wish I didn’t have to, Daniela. But if we don’t do something, the city will be attacked.”

“Yes, but the city will not be any safer if you allow yourself to be crushed. We may not have enough time for you to recover completely, but there is no need to walk into the flames when you are carrying a bomb.”

“…”

That was true, of course. I couldn’t argue with her. And more than anything, I could feel that she was worried about me. And once I knew that, I was powerless. I raised my hands as a show of surrender.

“As long as you know.”

“Got it, partner.”

“So you must not use Eyes of the God Wolf for a while. It is useful, but also quite dangerous. Understand?”

“Ouch!”

I got flicked in the forehead. I rubbed at the sore spot which was surely turning red. Damn, that hurt.

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We left the now completely empty village and headed straight to the north. It was the direction that the goblins had come from. When I thinly spread out Presence Detection in that direction, I could vaguely detect people. So we were on the right track. But then again, it was so far away that I wasn’t sure if what I was detecting was humans or monsters. Regardless, it didn’t matter, as long as we caught up to them. If they were humans, good. If they were monsters, we would kill them.

The weather was bright and warm today. It had been cloudy during the previous two days, and snowed a few times, so I had been expecting bad weather today as well. Even, the fields of snow where we had all fought in and disturbed, was flat again. So it was difficult to find any traces of Adlus and the others.

I wondered what exactly we should look for as the bright sun shone down on us. Though, the wind itself was still cold. It was a good thing we had dressed warmly.

“It will be easy to lose each other like this since we’re both wearing white.”

“But that is a good thing. Besides, we can use Presence Detection, so it will not be a problem even if we are separated.”

That was true. It meant that we might be able to hide from monsters if needed.

Though, there weren’t any monsters around us now. Just the vague signals up north. I suppose it was because of Adlus and the others. I wanted to believe they were killing all the monsters in their path, and leaving a safe trail for us.

Well, they had so many seasoned Adventurers with them, so goblins weren’t going to slow them down.

“But there is no guarantee that there are no other strong monsters. Perhaps something like the Queen’s Knight Goblin.”

“I’ll have to be on the lookout then… But I hope there aren’t others.”

“…Yes.”

I had told Daniela everything. The Queen’s Knight Goblin had been a reincarnated human. He wasn’t able to fight his instincts, though. But he died as a human. And so I kept his greatsword.

Daniela and I talked a lot while we rested. About the possibility of humans reincarnating as monsters. Were there others out there? Of course, many of these things didn’t have answers. Perhaps that drifting soul just happened to be human, and it just happened to enter a vessel that was a monster. Either that, or it was the Nova. The automated thought machines that the ancient elves had left.

And then there was the biggest question. The question of whether abnormally evolved beings were the result of monsters gaining a human soul and evolving. When I was living in Fhiraldo, an old man called Macbel had told me about records concerning monster research. Such books were banned, but one of them had contained the line: ‘…I tried giving highly concentrated mana to weak monsters, while most of them died, on rare occasions, they would survive…’

What if that was wrong… Of course, once I started thinking like that, it became hard to know what to believe. Regardless, it was becoming difficult to believe it completely.

“It’s hard to believe that the monsters chosen to be studied in the Royal Capital just happened to have human souls in them.”

“Then perhaps it is both frail monsters and monsters with human souls that can become abnormally evolved beings.”

But there was no way for us to find out. And as I was getting tired and starting to feel a little sick, we ended the conversation there. After that, we pretty much decided to let the subject drop until we encountered one again…

Of course, knowing that they were once human changed the way I saw them. So in the future, I suppose I’d have to ask, ‘Excuse me. Were you formerly a human?’ Had Beowulf and Arthur been human once? What about the Assault Kobold and the Loup-garou? Yes, there wasn’t any point in thinking about that now.

Maybe we could come to an understanding in a way that didn’t involve killing. Perhaps we could help them remember what they used to be.

But if not…well, we would have to protect our own lives.

Different thoughts moved through my mind as we walked. Then Daniela suddenly stopped. I realized that I had been walking without paying much attention to my surroundings, and frantically spun around. But Daniela hadn’t pulled out her sword or her bow. I looked at her with a puzzled expression and she chuckled.

“You have a bad habit of overthinking things, Asagi.”

“What?”

“You were lost in thought until I stopped. Were you not?”

So it was nothing. Daniela just wanted to let me know that I was doing it again. Well, she could have just told me directly. I was a little annoyed.

“Sorry…”

“Haha. But it is not an entirely bad thing. And I like how you always think things through.”

“Ah. Oh…”

Now I felt bad. It was impossible not to get a little red at this unexpected treatment.

“Well, do not allow your temperature to get too high. It will hurt all the more when it gets colder.”

“Shut up. It’s you’re fault, you know. You idiot.”

I had a mean streak when I was embarrassed. But Daniela took no notice. It was always me who would mind.

It was partially because of such distractions that we did not catch up to Adlus and the others during that day. We rested many times during our march through the snow, and we were still in the middle of the snowfields by the time the sun started to set. We had a general idea of where they were, and Daniela knew how to navigate, so there was no chance of us getting lost. Still, walking in the middle of the night was dangerous.

“I guess that’s it for today.”

I stopped and muttered.

“No, we should continue a little farther. I want to walk until the sun has set completely.”

However, Daniela wanted to continue. But I didn’t think we’d reach the forest either way….

“If we go a little farther, we might find traces of Adlus’s camp.”

“…Ah, right.”

They should have passed through here as well. And in large numbers.

I had been considering waiting until the sun sets, and then making an igloo out of the snow. I could probably do it with ice magic as well, but I wanted to avoid any magic depletion if possible. And I doubted I would be able to do it all at once, anyway. After all, I was still wounded. I had to take it easy.

But perhaps Adlus and the others had done the same thing. We were just two people. But they were many. The workload could be distributed and the construction time would be much shorter.

“They are a large group, which means they will likely move slowly. Even if they kept moving until it was quite late, I doubt they would have advanced much farther than we will by nightfall. So if we keep going…”

“Right. Yes, I agree with you.”

It was hard to imagine that they would arrive in the forest in just one day… He wouldn’t take that risk. After all, he knew we would be following after him.

“Well, if the need arises, I will use wind magic to remove the snow. So do not worry.”

“I’ll help you.”

I was able to use Legs of the God Wolf without a problem now. However, it was still possible that I would start feeling pain, like with my eyes. And so I only used it as part of my rehabilitation routine. I doubted that moving a little snow would affect me much. Still, this need for caution was the reason I hadn’t used Legs of the Forest Wolf for travel…

We continued to walk with occasional breaks for another two hours. Then, just as Daniela had predicted, we discovered traces of Adlus’s camp. There were igloos that were half-buried in snow, and we also found traces of a bonfire after some digging.

It had been hard to find since there was two days worth of snow covering it all. But the land was thankfully flat enough to show the differences. It would have likely been completely hidden if we arrived a day later.

I sighed with relief. We moved away some of the snow and settled in for the night. Adlus had been kind enough to close off the igloos so the snow wouldn’t get inside. And so we were able to use them and rest.

The sun during the icesnow phase descended in no time. And like during the day, there were no clouds in the night sky. It was incredibly beautiful.