Book 6: Chapter 26

「Honestly……To go looking for someone whose face you don’t even know, just where were you planning to go?」

「Mu……Even I have an idea about it.」

Sancreed said that while handling the horse.

Since the two of them didn’t have any luggage in particular, what they borrowed wasn’t a carriage but a single horse. Since Luuty couldn’t handle horses by themselves, she left the reins to Sancreed and rode behind him.

Luuty asked a question while strangely putting strength into her hands that grabbed Sancreed.

「Hou, well now, well now. Surely you’ll tell me what kind of wonderful idea it was, right?」

「Here’s how it is. Considering the current relationship between the St. Altlis Kingdom and the Jiol Forest Kingdom, I thought that the pedestrian traffic on the highway connecting the two countries would be at a minimum.」

「I see?」

「If the target is a noble, she would have a certain amount of guards, and the attire and equipment of those guards would correspond with that level.」

「Hou, hou?」

「If I go along the highway and find a carriage that match those conditions, then it would be alright.」

After he said that brimming with confidence, Luuty punched Sancreed’s head with a *gatsun* with her fist.

「……What are you doing. That’s dangerous.」

「What’s dangerous is your way of thinking! Even if you found the carriage, there’s no guarantee that they would listen to your story. It wouldn’t be strange if they mistook for an assailant! So, what were you planning on doing after that?」

「I properly answered you, didn’t I.」

「Just・tell・me! Try saying it out loud!」

While being shaken by Luuty, Sancreed reluctantly opened his mouth.

「It would be fine if I just introduced myself, right? If I tell them that my objective was to meet with her at the same time, there shouldn’t be anything to misunderstand.」

「In that case, try telling me what that self-introduction would be right now. I’ll hear you out for you.」

「……Let’s see, I was planning on saying something like this. I am Sancreed from the Zadark Kingdom. I am not here with the aim of injuring you. If the one called Seira is in that carriage, I would like her cooperation in my objective. Something like that.」

Luuty ruminated over Sancreed’s words.

Let’s hypothesize this.

A man who claims to be someone of the Zadark Kingdom, which is a country of Mazoku, and gives off an air of not being an ordinary person at all appears in front of a carriage affiliated with St. Altlis Kingdom which has come on a royal decree.

He expressly declares that he has no aim of injuring them, and approaches saying that he wants Seira, the most important person there, to cooperate with him in his objective.

「……Shady. That’s extremely shady. Even thinking about it lightly, you’d be thought of as a kidnapper……」

「Why? I said that I wouldn’t injure them, you know.」

「In reverse, that can’t be heard as anything else but meaning that you would injure them if they didn’t cooperate. Take your own position into account more.」

「However, it was a request not as a general of the Zadark Kingdom but as an individual.」

「I’m not talking about you introducing yourself with just your name, you know!?」

After Luuty breathed a sigh at Sancreed who kept his head tilted in confusion, she muttered “it can’t be helped……” and spoke to him.

「If we meet them first, I will talk with them. For you, please don’t open your mouth and just keep quiet.」

「But」

「No buts. Honestly, whether it be you or Fainell……Are the people of the Zadark Kingdom nothing but people like you guys!?」

「That isn’t the case at all. I am……」

「Alright, shut up and look forward!」

While looking at Sancreed who made the horse run with a sudden look on his face, Luuty suddenly remembered the days in the past when she traveled with Ryuuya.

……It wasn’t like Sancreed and Ryuuya resembled each other.

Rather, appearance-wise, she was able to declare that they weren’t similar even a single bit.

But, how should she put it.

That thing that was like a mysterious sense of security that she felt when she was together with Ryuuya was there.

Why was it that when she looked at Sancreed, she would occasionally remember Ryuuya?

……By some chance, could it be how they could be insensitive yet be able to be considerate at times was similar?

She felt that that was the case, and also felt that that wasn’t the case.

By some chance, even how she went along with Sancreed like this was because she somehow felt something like a trace of Ryuuya in him……couldn’t that be the case?

Thinking that far, Luuty shook her head sideways.

There’s no way that could be the case.

Being like that made her seem like a regretful woman with Ryuuya.

She herself was the one who didn’t answer Ryuuya’s feelings, and even now, she felt that that was the correct decision.

She had no intention of being a pathetic woman that would drag that out even after a hundred years had passed.

「Luuty.」

「Fuhe?」

Suddenly being called out to in the middle of her indulgence of reverie, Luuty unconsciously let out a strange voice.

After hurriedly chasing the things that she thought of up until that point out of her head, Luuty made a forced cough, and recreated her serious face.

「……The air is strange.」

Having made a complete change from how he was up until just now, Sancreed’s voice was tinged with a trace of caution.

「The air?」

Having that mentioned, Luuty also noticed a sense of discomfort.

She could certainly feel it.

Within the usual air, an avaricious and repulsive presence similar to a rotten smell was mixed in.

……Something was here. Also, it was considerably close.

「……It would seem that I was right to come here.」

Stopping the horse, Sancreed drew his sword that was still brand new.

「I don’t want to admit it, but that looks to be the case.」

Taking a peek and checking at how Sancreed had readied his sword, Luuty took out her wand and readied it.

「……If I knew that things would turn out like this, I would have brought my bow along.」

「Things don’t really turn out that well.」

「Seriously.」

Around the two who were being cautious of their surroundings──From within the thickets of the forest along the highway, a group of Goblins appeared.

Among them, there were ones with daggers and long swords, and there was even the figure of a Goblin holding what looked like a staff.

At the very least, they were goods that normal Goblins shouldn’t possess.

「……What do you think?」

「Let’s see. Either they picked up stuff that a weapon merchant or something dropped, or maybe they picked up stuff that a spy from some country that was running away had cast aside in order to blend in with the general public……I suppose that would be about it. If they had created those weapons themselves, it might be best to advise the army that they should re-examine their treatment of Goblins.」

「I see. I thought that you guys would be helping the situation more. For you guys to readily drop arms that Goblins could pick up and equip, I wouldn’t be surprised if bandits came attacking with first-class equipment.」

Unable to come up with any words to refute Sancreed’s example, Luuty reflexively made a wry smile.

As a matter of fact, there was one more possibility.

The possibility that someone trying to deteriorate the public order within the Jiol Forest Kingdom was purposely disseminating the weapons.

In regards to this, there would be a need to propose this to the king and try having an investigation done.

「Well, no matter what the truth is……it seems that they plan on attacking us, you know?」

「That’s true.」

「I’ll ask this just in case, but can’t you persuade them?」

From Luuty’s point of view, who perceived Goblins as companions to the Mazoku, this was a question that could be said to be only natural.

However, Sancreed expressed an exasperated looking smile.

「If talk worked on these Goblins, then I wouldn’t mind trying. But it’s impossible, right?」

「Gegeh! Gigugagaga!」

Seeing the Goblin shout as if to be threatening, Luuty also muttered “that’s true……”.

Let alone talk, it didn’t seem like words would get through to them.

Maybe because they thought that Sancreed’s group, who came with just the two of them, were easy marks, one of the Goblins that had a longsword in its hands raised its arm.

「Gigaga! Gogagua!」

Matching with what seemed to be a command, the Goblins simultaneously jumped out from the thicket.

Luuty stood back to back with Sancreed, and readied herself so that she would be able to deal with the Goblins that came attacking them from the surroundings.

「Listen up, since the horse is something we borrowed, please protect it properly!」

「I know……Attack Fire!」

The Attack Fire that Sancreed fired burst, and it turned the Goblin that jumped out right in front of him into a clump of charcoal in an instant.

Following that, the Freeze Lance that Luuty fired froze two Goblins together in ice.

「Crush!」

After Luuty smashed the Goblins that were frozen in ice together with an explosive sound, the other nearby Goblins shuddered in fear, and their command started to lapse into chaos.

「You do some pretty heartless stuff, don’t you.」

Sancreed made a sneer at Luuty.

「It’s simply a fear that the Goblins will revive if I don’t do things like this.」

「Kuku, I see. But, from the looks of it, you’ll be fine even if I separate from you for a bit, right?」

Luuty expressed a question mark at the laughing Sancreed.

「What are you saying that you’ll do?」

「Ahh, it’s simple.」

Sancreed rang his still drawn sword with a *kachari*.

「I’ll go cut down the leader of these guys.」

At the same time he said that, Sancreed broke into a run at great speed.

Cutting down several Goblins that he came across in the way he was headed, Sancreed ran.

During that time, turning towards Luuty who became alone, the Goblins who were taking a wait-and-see attitude started to rush her.

「Ahh, jeez. You’re so selfish in the way you do things!」

Luuty sounded annoyed……however, while expressing a savage smile on her mouth, she turned her wand towards the Goblins and held it at the ready.

「O Wind, o wind freer than anything else! Thou art a gale faster than anyone else! Thou art an invisible blade sharper than anyone else! Recreate that natural way of things, and display thine power here!」

The wind that blew violently in Luuty’s surroundings had cut up the surrounding grass and made it flutter in the air.

Among the Goblins that flinched from that spectacle, several of them tried to run away, but it was already too late.

「Slash Storm!」

The countless blades of wind that were fired tore the Goblins to pieces.

Falling into a state of panic from the cruel deaths of their companions before them, the Goblins, some of them put themselves first and ran away, while another others became desperate and attacked Luuty.

However, Luuty calmly gazed at them.

She couldn’t allow them to get away here.

There was the possibility that the Goblins that ran away would multiply into a number greater than the number defeated.

If that were to happen, there would surely be even more victims from now on.

「O Wind, o ferocious wind. I am one who knows of thy gentleness. I am one who knows of thy sublimeness. I, am one who knows of thine wrath due to them. I shall recreate thine wrath here and now. In order to bring death to the foolish ones, I shall shake heaven and earth once more.」

Trying to smash Luuty’s head, one Goblin jumped up and swung its club down on her.

But, after Luuty repelled that attack with her wand, she immediately kicked the Goblin away with a high kick afterwards.

「……Blow away the impure sky.」

And then, the chant was completed.

「Wyrm Blade!」

The gigantic tornado that appeared rolled up the group of Goblins.

The tornado tore up, smashed, and pulverized the Goblins that it swallowed up.

The Goblins, and the weapons that the Goblins held……All of them turned to dust.

After that settled down, there was no longer anything left that remained.

「……Well, I guess that’s about it with this wand.」

After Luuty looked down at her wand and muttered, Sancreed returned to Luuty’s side with his sword sheathed in its scabbard.

「You did things pretty flashily, didn’t you?」

「Ara, did you finish things on your side?」

「As you can see.」

At Sancreed’s back, the corpses of cut up Goblins were scattered about.

After seeing that and nodding, Luuty placed a finger at her mouth as if pondering something.

「……However, the problem is if this is all of them or not, isn’t it. We annihilated the bunch that attacked us, but with this big of a scale, there is undoubtedly a settlement of them. We need to verify it.」

「Is that so.」

「Please don’t make a face as if it’s someone else’s problem. It’s fine if it’s done later, but I’ll be having you help out as well, got it?」

Being glared at by Luuty, Sancreed shrugged his shoulders.

「Me?」

「Yes, that’s right. The Zadark Kingdom is a friendly nation with the Jiol Forest Kingdom after all……Besides, we’re friends, right?」

Seeing Luuty make a broad smile, Sancreed, after making a face as if he was attacked in his unguarded moment, he replied with a similar smile.

「You’re a scary woman.」

「Yes, I am told that quite often.」

The fact that a carriage protected by a group wearing heavy armor had appeared in front of these two that smiled at each other was something had happened a short while after this.