Volume 3 Chapter 87 Visiting The ‘Lion’s Companion’ II
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
After hearing the story from the village head, ‘Cockley Clay,’ Kian gathered everyone to share the information they had gathered.
Serena and Sarah had prepared a simple evening meal, so they gathered around the bonfire and shared tales of the strange occurrences that had befallen Rean’s party while they ate.
”──Rean seemed to be in really bad shape. It’s unlikely that the medicine from the village head could have controlled the symptoms, and there’s no doubt they continued the quest in less than perfect condition. Also, Ms. Lyritisse seemed to be feeling unwell. The village head’s daughter-in-law said she bought some underwear and shirts, but she was told that Ms. Lyritisse had a deathly pale face at the time.”
”Hmph. So half of ‘Lion’s Companion’ is out sick, huh? Pretty bold to push on like that. I’d turn back and sleep it off.”
Rufna, sitting next to them, spoke sharply, her voice carrying over the soft, white steam rising from her still-damp hair after her recent dip in the outdoor bath.
”I noticed something off about Ms. Lyritisse when I saw her a bit ago. She might have been feeling unwell since then.”
”Off, how exactly, Sir Kian?”
Priscilla, sipping her warmed wine, tilted her head, still buried up to her cheeks in her usual fluffy fur coat as she sat across from Kian.
”A few weeks ago, I saw her standing alone and dazed on East End’s central street. It was around dawn, and she seemed to have passed out on her feet… She came to when I called out to her, but she didn’t seem to know why she was standing in the middle of the road.”
”Hmmm… ‘Standing still’ isn’t exactly normal, is it?”
”Could she have just been drunk from too much drinking?”
Sarah sent a curious glance their way while massaging her own foot with a stick.
Kian shook his head.
”There was no smell of alcohol.”
”How about drugs?”
”I don’t know.”
”Hmm. If she really has sleepwalking, we gotta be super careful after grabbing her. Ms. Lyritisse is a big-time magician, right? If we try to stop her while she’s wandering in the night, she might blast us with magic.”
”Rean better get ready to deal with this as soon as he finds her. No way to know for sure till he checks, but hiding stuff like this from the group? That could be real bad.”
”Really? Maybe it’s not a big deal and he’s just keeping quiet so nobody worries?”
Serena said that, but Rufna shook her head, “If it was nothing, he’d already be whining to Lyritisse the healer-girl or that elf chick and begging for a random potion.”
Kian totally agreed with Rufna on this.
If Rean thought it was nothing, he’d just pop an elixir on the road and nap in the wagon.
Rean’s a huy in his early twenties, strong as hell, so a little cold wouldn’t slow him down.
Besides, he’s been an Adventurer a long time, and he’s gotten sick on quests before.
Rean’s not the type to just freeze up if he gets sick in the middle of a job.
(The only reason Rean kept this secret was because he felt so bad he couldn’t even tell the others──maybe bad enough they’d have to cancel the quest. Or maybe he knew neither Vestacia nor Lyritisse could actually cure his condition. Either way, there was definitely something nasty going on in his body.)
Sarah seemed to agree too.
She put down her stick, touched her chin, and opened her mouth.
”Guess he thought he couldn’t just ditch a quest from the Guildmaster himself. Is Mr. Rean one of those rare Adventurers who’s actually honest?”
”He goes way past honest──he can be stubborn as hell. That’s why with his skills, he shot up to Rank 1 Adventurer so freakin’ fast. ──Oh yeah,”
Kian lifted his face from his cup and glanced around at everyone.
”Before taking the request in Châtillon, I met Rean in a back alley of East End.”
”Sir Kian… You always seem to drop important information later, don’t you?”
”I’m not sure if it’s important, but he was with a suspicious merchant. The merchant looked Azraelian, greeting customers with ‘Turn stone to iron, lead to gold, Black Onyx to Roses.’ It’s some sort of deal in his merchant guild. He dresses nice but doesn’t seem to have much money, usually running his stall outside in East End. Rean seemed to be doing business with him.”
”Living, you deal with merchants. What’s your point, Master?”
”Just listen to the end,”
Kian replied, turning to Rufna who had a bewildered expression.
”It looked like Rean was being harassed for a debt. They were arguing really intensely.”
”A debt, huh?” “Hm…? A Rank 1 Adventurer being in debt is odd,”
Sarah frowned.
Priscilla commented, furrowing her brow as Sarah raised an eyebrow.
”It seems it wasn’t just about money. When I pressed the merchant, he hinted that Rean was being chased for something other than gold. He wouldn’t say what…”
”Fascinating. A debt beyond gold… Could it be some sort of right? Or maybe it involves a past favor related to his reputation, or a vow made in his youth. There are many possibilities.”
”Rufna, Sir Kian probably talked to us to get us to make a realistic guess. ──Sir Kian, in other words, Lord Rean may have made some kind of magical pact with the merchant. Perhaps that is what is causing the abnormalities in his body.”
”Exactly. By the way, the merchant had taken 2 rings from Rean. One had golden hair woven into it, and the other had flaxen hair. If I’m not mistaken, I’d say that hair probably belongs to Vestacia and Lyritisse.”
Kian said that, and everyone’s face changed but Serena.
”Master. Did Rean really give his girl’s hair to that shady merchant?”
”His girl, huh? Yeah, guess that’s right. Vestacia is his girl.”
”Lord Kian, you’re sure Rean gave that ring, the one with the hair, to the merchant?”
Priscilla stuck her head out from her fur coat and asked, raising her eyebrows.
”Yeah.”
”I see. So after that, Ms. Lyritisse was just standing there, blank, in the middle of East End’s main street. That’s a classic curse. Probably some mind-control with essence-sucking, or maybe bloodsucking. Old magic trick.”
Sarah said that, and Priscilla nodded.
”Hair is one of the most famous things we magicians use for cursing people. Sometimes it’s bones from family, sometimes fresh blood.”
”For example, Lady Priscilla used our master’s hair for that coma curse, right?”
”Yeah, that’s right. Hey, you don’t have to stare at me like that, it’s scary! Seriously, I’m sorry, okay? Lord Kian said it’s fine now. Can’t we just drop it?”
”Master, what’s that merchant’s deal? Was he a magician? Or some crazy strong spirit thing? Mental interference or sucking energy or whatever, that’s bad news for a Rank 1 Adventurer. Might even be worse than the silver-haired witch over here.”
”I’m not even a little bad news, okay!?”
”I don’t know. Felt like his magic power was just normal, like anybody, but now that I think about it, he really gave off this spooky, weird vibe.”
Kian’s whole adventure started when he met ‘glasses’.
And the one who sold ‘glasses’ to him for a single iron coin was that merchant.
’Glasses’ should know a few things about that merchant, but just refuses to talk.
Right now, ‘glasses’ is awake, but still sitting there with her mouth shut like a rock.
Suddenly, Serena, who’d been thinking about something, looked up.
”…Kian, did that merchant really say ‘Black Onyx to Roses’ to you?”
”Yeah. The pitch was ‘turn stone to iron, lead to gold, Black Onyx to Roses.’ He said it’s some merchant guild rule, but my jeweler friend──well, Mr. Owl──said he never heard of any merchant guild spouting that kind of line.”
”You asked Lord Owl about it? I don’t need you to tell him, but you should talk to us a bit more.”
”Sorry.”
”Well, if you’d told me you met a weird merchant, I would’ve just said ‘yeah, yeah’ and ignored it anyway. Guess you didn’t think it was that important either, Master?”
He did think it was important, but his natural secrecy took over, and he just couldn’t bring himself to talk about how he got his power or that the ‘glasses’ talk.
Also, if Natra and the others couldn’t hear the ‘glasses’, they’d just think he was nuts.
Only Oswald, trapped in the prison cell, had actually seen whoever was inside the ‘glasses’.
Kian went quiet, so Serena started talking instead.
”Me, Kian, and Ms. Aliona, we beat the ‘Labyrinth of Roses’ together, right? After we killed that vampire, the black Roses vines turned into this fancy Black Onyx wall. Black Onyx to Roses──maybe that merchant’s tied to the ‘Labyrinth of Roses’?”
”That’s probably digging too deep, but… honestly, I thought the same thing a little.”
”Yeah…”
”Maybe we shouldn’t mess with that merchant anymore. I got a bad feeling. My gut’s usually right.”
”Does that merchant always do business at a stall in town?”
”Yeah. I think so. I only found his shop once. The only other time I saw him, he was going after somebody to collect a debt.”
Kian said that, and everyone looked at each other, and it got quiet.
They all seemed to think they shouldn’t mess with that merchant more than they had to.
That merchant could just be a normal person, but his cursed stuff could be super dangerous.
They didn’t know if Rean was sick because of the merchant, but there’s a saying: “Don’t touch the gods, and they won’t curse you.”
(But if Rean was still alive, he might have to know about him. Well, he would try not to get involved.)
”Is that all?”
Priscilla stood up from the log and patted her butt, *pat pat*.
”Yes, that’s all. Sorry for calling you all here before bed.”
”It’s okay, it’s okay. Serena’s snacks were good. I’m going back to bed. See ya!”
”I’m going to sleep too. Milady Natra, if you want a bath, heat it up again. What about Master?”
”I’ll go in after the ladies are done.”
When Kian said that, Rufna put her hand on her forehead and went “tahー!”.
”Hey, you gonna drink our bathwater? You’re a pervert!”
”Of course not. Stop talking nonsense and go to sleep.”
”Sir Kian, if you want to drink our bathwater, we’ll prepare a clean bucket for you instead of that muddy water. Please don’t drink it like that.”
”Natra!? What are you saying?”
Sarah looked shocked at Natra’s teasing.
Natra said “Just kidding” with a straight face, but Kian thought she was serious and didn’t know what to do.
(The familiars said weird stuff, but Sarah is staring at me…)
Kian turned away from his childhood friend, who was looking at him with suspicion, and went to the tree where the horses were tied.
He started stretching, alone.
* * *
The next morning, they set out early from ‘Cockley Clay’s’ village, aiming for a place called ‘Snow Past of the Giant,’ which marked the border with Ramsey.
’Snow Past of the Giant’ seemed to refer to a pass between 2 tall mountains. Within 2 hours of leaving the village, they began to see a white, misty figure looming in the distant sky, going “uu-ssu” as if calling out to them.
Both mountains were high, and the wind blowing down from the Ramsey side was quite cold.
The warmth of the Châtillon current made the chill seem even more intense.
Priscilla’s equipment, which had initially seemed a bit exaggerated, now appeared to be just right.
At the base of the mountains, a deep green forest spread out, with no signs of human settlements nearby.
The sound of leaves rubbing together was occasionally interrupted by the distant howling of wolves, making the place feel quite eerie.
Kian, leading the way through the forest, wondered if the merchant caravans from Ramsey always used this road.
The road was just wide enough for 2 carriages to pass each other.
The forest on either side was impenetrable, and even an average escort wouldn’t be able to detect any traps set by bandits.
”Old wheel ruts and military boot prints continue for a while. Over there are the remains of a camp. That makes 4,”
Sarah said, walking beside him and pointing to a large hornbeam tree in front and to the right.
As she mentioned, the base of the hornbeam tree had signs of a fire being lit, with the charcoal now wet and crumbling apart.
With vampire vision, it was clear to see the details.
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Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
Thanks for reading.
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