Heeheeing-
“Stop eating…! You’re going to get a stomachache!”
I grabbed the mouth of the horse that was chomping on the corpse of the Nole.
The horse seemed grumpy, drooling and starting to squirm.
“Ugh, eek… Don’t drool…!”
Purr- Purr-!
No matter how much I wrestled with the horse, Aileen just stared blankly at me.
She didn’t help at all…
“A-Aileen…! Please stop it! This is bad…!”
“Why would anything bad happen…?”
Aileen tilted her head in confusion.
“Wha…? M-M-Meat! It eats meat! Horses are supposed to eat gr-grass…”
“What are you talking about, Noah?”
Aileen’s reaction was strange…?
“Horses are obviously carnivores. How else would they maintain that big body if they only ate grass?”
“R-Really…? Carnivores? For real…?”
Are the horses in this world carnivores…?
Really…?
I looked back at the thrashing horse.
Purr-
It nodded.
You understand me, huh…?
“Um… Sorry…?”
I released my grip on the horse’s mouth in apology.
Purr- Puhh-
With a thud, something hit my lower back.
Oh…
No way.
Hey. No…?
No, no way! That can’t be real?!
I apologized!!
Praying desperately that it wasn’t true, I turned my back to Aileen.
“A-Aileen… Is it really…?”
Puhuhh… E-Eh… Heheh…! Spit… Kwahahahah!*
“Don’t laugh!”
This little punk.
It just spat on me.
“This… this is gross… this brat…”
My body trembled with rage.
Heeheeing- Purr-
Nom nom nom-
The horse, after looking at me, snorted and started chomping on the Nole again.
I just want to smack it in the back of the head!
But what if it dies if I do…?
Well, then… I want to spit! Spit at it!
But… if I do the same thing…
Doesn’t that make me on the same level as this stupid horse…?
Ugh… I hate this…!
At that moment, while I was trembling in front of the horse, Aileen grabbed my wrist and lifted me up.
Memories of school days came flooding back.
When friends got into squabbles, and someone would grab you to break it up, it always turned into a fiery “Let go! Let go!!” scene.
I’d always wondered why, but now I get it.
Somehow, I felt emboldened!
Knowing that Aileen would stop me if I tried to hit that beast!
And I was showing that I was this mad!
Hey! Horse! I’m mad!! Super mad!!!
“Let go…! This, this little brat…!!”
“Oh really? Then do as you please.”
The grip Aileen had on my wrist loosened.
“Uh.”
Thanks to that, I froze on the spot.
This isn’t the picture I had in mind…?
“What? You’re not angry anymore? Why aren’t you doing anything?”
“Uh…?”
“Go ahead and do whatever you want. Whether you want to cook it or whatever, you decide, Noah.”
Oh, uh-oh…?
“Uh… uh? Well… If I think about it, if the horse gets hurt… it might become a bit… troublesome. I’ll hold back.”
Puhuhh- Alright? Got it. Then come here.
Aileen waved a handkerchief she had pulled from her pocket.
Walking over to Aileen, I turned my back to her.
“How can an adult fight with an animal?”
Aileen mumbled softly, stroking my back.
“I didn’t fight…”
“Yes, yes. Now, let me see your hands.”
Unlike before, her hands approached gently, lifting my wrist.
“Uh… Doesn’t it smell?”
“It does a little, but what can you do.”
“Eww…”
Swish- Swish-
The sticky liquid on my hands was all wiped away.
Rub- Rub-
But why won’t she let go…?
Rub- Rub-
“A-Aileen…?”
“How can such small hands lift such a Great Sword?”
Aileen quietly murmured as she kept rubbing my hands.
“Be careful not to get kidnapped. You have a body that makes people want to dissect you… if someone offers something delicious, don’t go with them. Even if they say they’re friends of Hermila or something, don’t go with them, alright?”
“I know! I’m not a kid…! B-But someone would kidnap me… to dissect me? Who…?”
Is there really some place like that in this world?!
In this world of swords and magic?
“The Mage Tower does that. If they find someone unusual or with a unique physique, they use sleep magic… Whoosh!”
“Ugh…!”
I suddenly gripped Aileen’s hand tightly in shock.
“And the Mage Tower is a pretty authoritative place, so even the empire can’t mess with it. Do you understand? If you get caught, it’s over. Game over.”
Aileen said, drawing her hand around her neck dramatically.
“Hack…”
“Always be careful. You never know when those Mage Tower wizards might pop up.”
“Y-Yeah…”
Am I really going to be experimented on…?
I’d seen the Mage Tower’s story even in the game, but it was so long ago it felt hazy.
Was the Mage Tower really that crazy of a place?
Just to be safe, I should try to keep it hidden…
Just like nobody recognized me in the rumor-heavy Alrva, I should be able to manage…
“Well, if you’re scared, we can hold hands like this. Some magic won’t work on me, so it’s okay.”
Aileen said, gently swinging our held hands.
“Aileen can’t be affected by magic…?!”
“Yep. Isn’t it cool?”
I nodded vigorously.
A counter to those wicked long-range dealers is by my side!
Aileen really is a good catch… a good friend!
“But that’s only for curse magic, so don’t use me as a shield or anything, okay?”
Oh?
“Well, of course I wouldn’t…! What do you take me for…?”
“Hmm- Sounds like you were planning to use me as a shield, but I’ll believe you. So what should we do with our hands? Should we keep holding them?”
I felt the soft warmth in my hand.
I hadn’t realized until I held it, but it’s a bit embarrassing now that I do.
But when I weigh this slight embarrassment against the fear of being kidnapped…
“We’ll hold hands… because we have to be careful of wizards.”
“Alright. Good idea.”
Aileen nodded happily.
“Then shall we go? Just like before, be sure to detect any monsters around us. From now on, I’ll catch them.”
I recalled Aileen’s abilities.
The first time we caught a Nole, it took about 10 seconds.
When we fought the mob that charged us after, it was around 5 seconds.
But the firepower diminished.
Well, as long as I have that level of firepower, I can finish it myself.
And I can find them ahead of time.
After calculating, I nodded.
I tightened my grip on Aileen’s hand, opened my eyes, and glared at the horse.
You better watch out once this quest is done.
Purr-
What a pesky guy.
“Let’s go… Aileen.”
I abruptly turned my head and tugged on Aileen’s hand.
But Aileen didn’t budge at all.
“Noah, we need to take the horse with us.”
Ugh, seriously annoying.
“… Y-Yeah.”
*
“It’s starting to get dark…”
Aileen whispered quietly, looking up at the sky.
We had walked quite a bit since getting away from that place.
We’ve already captured more than twenty Noles along the way.
“So… what should we do…?” I asked, turning to Aileen.
I can walk well even without light, but Aileen might struggle.
Physically, too.
Aileen pondered for a moment, then opened the map.
“We’ve entered about halfway now.”
“Yeah.”
“There’s a place not far from here where we can rest. It’s in ruins, but the house is still somewhat intact.”
“A house…? You’ve seen it before when you came here?”
“Yes. It’s not too bad. There was even a bed. It was dirty, but still… How about we rest there till sunrise?”
Aileen asked, tilting her head.
I had no reason to object, so I nodded.
“Then I’ll take the lead. I remember the way.”
“Yeah.”
Aileen’s hand led me.
Purr-
Click- Click-
Holding Aileen’s hand, I brushed against the ruins’ stone walls with my free hand.
It felt cold yet smooth.
It seemed like expensive stone.
Something like… marble?
It didn’t feel like just raw stone; it felt like processed stone.
Totally different from the feel I experienced in the game.
“What are you doing, Noah?”
Aileen turned around to look at me.
“Um… I just like the feel of the stone. I was feeling it a bit…”
It’s so smooth and cool; it’s incredibly addictive!
While I was rubbing the stone, I heard Aileen’s calm voice.
“But Noah, do you know why this village became ruins?”
“Uh… no?”
“It used to be an ordinary village until about twenty years ago, but then it got labeled as the bandit village. They said some incredible bandits lived here.”
“B-Bandits…!”
“Then one day, a certain bandit stole a high noble’s heirloom and supposedly hid here in this village.”
“Wha…!”
“So that noble got so mad that they destroyed this village. Just flattened it.”
“Ah…”
“But it turns out, this village wasn’t even the bandits’ village. That bandit never hid here. It was just a wild rumor…”
“W-What do you mean…?!”
“Isn’t it just hilarious? Just because someone believed a rumor, they turned an innocent village into ruins.”
Aileen looked up at the sky.
“It’s called the ‘Hablon Disaster.’ That incident happened in this village, known as ‘Hablon Village.’”
“Hablon…?”
Hablon?
Hablon… Hablon… I think I remember!
Aileen’s face turned back to me.
“But do you know what the most important thing is?”
“Y-Yeah…?”
Ack! Aileen just made me think of something far away again!
“This village became ruins, but just because it vanished from the map and got occupied by monsters… no one felt sorry. No one was angry.”
Bandits… village… ruins… Hablon…
“No one remained. They all died. But… if there had been… a survivor from this village… someone who remembered this village…”
Bandits, village, ruins, Hablon, survivor.
Ah, I remember now.
“How tormented they must be, seeing their land occupied by monsters… unable to retake it.”
Eight years ago.
When I first received the quest to start [Black Sun].
“Their family’s graves, their friends’ graves, unable to make them… how much-”
“The Survivor of Hablon…”
“Y-Yes…? What did you just say, Noah…?”
The quest’s title was.
‘The Survivor of Hablon.’
And that survivor’s name was.
Ruchi.
Platinum Adventurer.
One-eyed Ruchi.
