by Ennki Hakari
The oil caught fire as soon as the magic made contact, consuming the ogres in bright red flames. The first wave of monsters writhed on the ground, causing the ones behind them to stop in their tracks.
The squads broke from their line, each one focusing on a different ogre. They split off, raising their swords, spears, and other weapons to attack their targets from multiple angles at once. Each squad had one member with a large shield who took the ogre head on, drawing its attention and protecting the other squad members. They all moved about with ease, as if they were well accustomed to fighting together.
I decided I could learn a thing or two from these shield bearers.
A pair of screeching ogres, brandishing clubs, broke free and charged toward Dalsen, Ariane, and me.
I pulled the round shield off my back and drew my sword, readying myself for the assault.
I caught the first ogre’s club on my shield, throwing the monster off balance. I swung my massive sword, cleaving the ogre in two with a diagonal slash.
I turned my attention to the other ogre and slammed my shield straight into its face before thrusting my sword through its stomach, severing its spine. The ogre went limp and fell to the ground with a thud.
After making sure it wasn’t going to be getting back up, I checked on the progress of the squads and their respective ogres. Ariane and I split up to provide what support we could to the soldiers, quickly wiping out the remaining ogres.
“I had no idea you were an elf, Miss Ariane.”
Dalsen smiled warmly as he approached Ariane, his men busily cleaning up the road and collecting rune stones.
“I can’t thank you enough for your assistance.”
Ariane drew her hood back and crossed her arms.
Dalsen didn’t seem at all taken aback by her appearance.
“I’ve heard stories that elves used to roam the forests outside of town back in my great-grandfather’s days, but I’ve never seen one with my own two eyes.”
The way he regarded Ariane was completely different from most of the humans we’d encountered, as if she were something exceedingly precious and rare.
Ariane remained silent, a cautious look on her face.
“You’ve never seen an elf before?” I asked.
Dalsen nodded cheerfully. “My family has ruled Grahd since the time of my great-grandfather. It’s said that elves would often come to the aid of any humans who needed assistance. My great-grandfather himself, in fact, was once saved by elves in these very woods, though I never would have imagined I’d be saying the same.”
Ariane dismissed his praise. “Even without our help, I’m sure you could have dealt with this situation on your own.”
Dalsen shook his head. “If it weren’t for you two, I might never have seen my boys’ faces again.”
Ariane waved her hand. “Really, it’s nothing. We simply did what you asked. Anyway, could you tell us the way to the next town?”
“Ah, that’s right. But first, let’s head back to Grahd so I can properly pay you.”
Ariane and I responded at the same time.
“No, really.”
“We’re fine.”
Ariane nodded for me to speak.
“Really, we’d like to continue on to the Revlon Empire from here. We’d appreciate it if you could tell us the way.”
Dalsen looked surprised.
“But…I don’t have much on hand. I can’t possibly repay you here.”
He emptied the contents of a leather pouch into his hand—several gold and silver coins.
“This is more than enough. After all, I did break one of your bows.” I tried to make light of the situation.
Dalsen watched me closely. He opened his mouth again as if to say something, but Ariane beat him to it.
She smirked. “You can finish repaying us by making sure that your children and grandchildren hold elves in the same high regard you do and continue to rule Grahd long after you’re gone. End of discussion.”
I nodded, to show that Ariane and I were in agreement. If Dalsen’s family remained in power and continued to treat elves with respect and dignity, that would be more than enough payment.
Dalsen told us how to get to the next town in Revlon. We parted with the hunting party and continued on our way.
***
“Some humans aren’t so bad, I guess.” Ariane mumbled this once we were some distance from Dalsen’s men.
“You can say that again.”
The road turned toward the northwest, curving gently along with the forest that bordered it. The trees were now blocking us from the sight of the soldiers. I decided it was best only to use Dimensional Step for small jumps from here on out, since we were now entering the Revlon Empire. We’d been told that monsters were increasingly common here at the border, so it seemed unwise to teleport too far out and risk having to fight them.
I also wanted to avoid taking the wrong path and ending up in a completely different town like last time, so I made sure to confirm the correct direction with Ariane every time we teleported.
The road to Kaysehk, the closest town on the empire’s side of the border, was completely devoid of traffic.
We’d decided to see what we could learn about Viscount Drassos du Barysimon while we were in Kaysehk. Under normal circumstances, it’d be essentially impossible to find someone in a country like the Revlon Empire, which was about five times as large as the Rhoden Kingdom. However, I was optimistic. Given that the viscount had captured and transported an elf internationally, it seemed likely that we’d find some sort of clue near the Rhoden border.
“Hold up, Arc.”
Ariane’s voice broke me from my thoughts, her hand on my shoulder from the last jump. There was a trace of worry in her words.
I looked back at her.
“What’s wrong?”
We were standing in the middle of an unremarkable meadow next to a lone road that stretched off into the distance. It was all rather tranquil, really. There weren’t any large forests nearby, and, thanks to my keen vision, I could tell that there were no monsters near us.
However, Ariane looked concerned.
Ponta tapped its paw against the top of my helmet, begging for something to eat as its tail swished across my back. At least the spirit creature didn’t seem too worried.
Ariane furrowed her brow. “The mana is really dense here. Far more than it should be.”
I cocked my head, unsure what was menacing about this. Back in the Great Canada Forest, she’d mentioned the density of the mana as well, which was why there were so many monsters there. The denser the mana, the more powerful the monsters.
“Usually mana is stored in certain types of trees and floats freely throughout the forest, or perhaps in pits or caves where it can’t easily dissipate. It’s almost unheard of to run into mana concentrations like this out in the open.”
Apparently, mana was a lot like fog, in that it tended to settle in low spots.
Now that she mentioned it, I realized that we had a perfect line of sight in almost all directions, with very little in the way. There weren’t any changes in the terrain or plant life for the mana to cling on to.
Even though I could neither sense nor see mana, I could still feel the same odd tingling sensation on my skin that I’d felt back in Canada. Well, maybe skin wasn’t exactly the right word, but it certainly felt a lot like that.
Ariane wore a heavy expression on her face as she lowered her hood, her golden eyes staring intensely at our surroundings, looking for something.
She moved to a patch of grass just off the road and knelt, picking up some sort of fragment; a beautiful, purple splinter of crystal that caught the light.
Ariane spoke in a low voice. “It’s a piece of a cultivation rune stone.”
I was about to ask what a cultivation rune stone was when I spotted a similar fragment on the ground in front of me and leaned over to pick it up.
“Is this also part of a cultivation rune stone?”
“What are they used for?”
I rolled the shining, semi-transparent crystal shard around in the palm of my hand.
“Usually, they’re broken into small pieces and spread throughout a field to cultivate a strong, abundant harvest.”
“Huh…”
It sounded like they were some sort of fertilizer. But if that were the case, then why were all these fragments out here by the side of the road in the middle of a meadow? There weren’t any farmlands or human dwellings as far as I could see.
Ariane continued. “These need to be handled with care. Throwing rune stones around in a haphazard manner like this could lead to an excess of mana in the area and attract all sorts of monsters.”
Back in my world, using chemical fertilizers could ultimately strip the land of its nutrients, but magical fertilizers drawing in monsters was a different problem entirely.
“Do you remember all the massive trees and monsters that inhabit the forests in Canada?”
I nodded.
“Back when the founding elder first arrived, Canada was nothing but barren land. No trees, no forest—nothing. He created the cultivation rune stones and built up the land, giving life to the massive forest you see today.”
Now that was impressive. Granted, the founding elder would have done this about 800 years ago, which was more than enough time for a great forest to spring up, but still. Ariane might not see this as a big deal, on account of her long lifespan, but for me, the very idea of turning barren land into a massive forest like that was quite shocking.
“According to the stories, he shattered the cultivation rune stones and scattered them across the land in order to give the elves a place we could defend as our own home…and escape the humans who constantly hunted us. As the mana-rich trees grew, the roads were slowly closed off and monsters began to gather, creating a place that separated us from humans. That’s what gave rise to the Great Forest.”
I scanned the ground, taking in the enormous number of cultivation rune stone shards scattered around us.
It seemed unlikely that these had ended up here by chance. Someone must have done this intentionally.
This had to be what was responsible for the sudden increase in monsters along the border between the Rhoden Kingdom and the Holy East Revlon Empire. But who was behind it?
“Did elves leave these here?”
I intended it to be a simple question, but Ariane’s eyes narrowed, and there was a certain edge to her voice when she responded.
“What would elves have to gain from scattering cultivation rune stones at the border between two human countries?”
I could think of a few ways elves might benefit from drawing monsters here, though I didn’t say any of them out loud. For example, if the region grew more dangerous for the human nobles who interfered in elven affairs, it would force them to turn their attention away from the elves. But I knew pushing the issue would only annoy Ariane even more.
“Besides, these might be elven made, but we aren’t the only ones who have them. We’ve traded a lot of cultivation rune stones to the Grand Duchy of Limbult, and I hear that Limbult goes on to sell them to other countries.”
These stones sounded like a prized possession among humans, thanks to their ability to make barren land arable. Limbult must have been making a fortune in exports if they were the only place humans could get their hands on them.
Their rarity made it even less likely that someone would just scatter a bunch of these cultivation rune stones along the side of the road.
“I can only imagine, then, that these stones might be a point of conflict among humans.”
I crushed the shard in my hand and let the wind carry the dust away.
“The elves originally created them to build the forest. When we started selling them to humans, we left out the fact that they attract monsters. We simply told them that the stones should be used with care.”
“Oh? So humans don’t know about the side effect?”
Ariane shrugged. “The world is full of greedy people.”
“I see…”
If breaking them up and scattering them about increased crop yield, then it stood to reason that higher concentrations would increase the yield even more. It was only a matter of time until someone ignored the elves’ warning. Sooner or later, the humans would discover the cultivation rune stones’ secret. Had the elves done this intentionally in order to turn the humans’ land into monster-filled forests? Was their hope, then, to conquer these lands? If so, that would make them quite the long-term planners.
“Is there anything we can do to mitigate their effect?”
For the time being, I’d wanted to see if we could at least keep this area monster-free.
“That would be a challenge.” Ariane frowned. “Burying the exposed shards in the ground will eliminate some of the mana, but I don’t know how much has been spread around, or over how wide an area.”
“Still, for all the mana in the area, I’m surprised there aren’t any monsters.” I prodded at one of the shards with the tip of my boot while Ariane surveyed the scene around us.
Of course, there was the mob of ogres near Grahd, and the fang boar. But other than that, we hadn’t really run into any monsters, despite all the reports we kept hearing. Either they’d moved on, or there was something else we were missing.
The best we could do for now was crush any shards we could find and let the wind carry them away. We couldn’t spend all day playing in the dirt.
In all likelihood, this was the work of some noble and there wasn’t much Ariane and I on our own could do about it. It was about time for us to go.
Chapter 4:
The Monster Tamer
As we crested the mountains that ran along Rhoden’s northwest border, the Holy East Revlon Empire border town of Kaysehk came into view. We found ourselves staring down at a sturdy-looking fortress surrounded by high walls that stood out starkly against the horizon.
Unlike Grahd, this border town was massive, likely due to the sheer space available here. Several small rivers and waterways cut through the land around the stately town, creating rather fertile farmland.
Even though Kaysehk sat at a crossroads—where the road stretching off to the east that we’d traveled met another leading south toward the Rhoden Kingdom—there was very little in the way of traffic, other than a few humans I’d assumed lived in the town. I guessed this was because of all the monster attacks.
The closer we got to Kaysehk, the more guards began appearing—and the more they eyed us with suspicion.
All of them were dressed in the same dark gray uniforms and wore light armor made of dull steel. They gave the impression of military platoons on patrol.
As we neared the gate, I observed just how many soldiers guarded it. Considering how few people seemed to be entering the town right now, I knew we’d stand out: one of us was a skeleton knight who refused to take off his helmet, and the other was a dark elf who refused take off her hood. Things might get ugly if we were interrogated.
“We should probably avoid going through the main entrance.”
“You’re right.” Ariane seemed to share my concerns.
We started circling around the town, looking for an area with as few soldiers standing watch as possible. I could hear Ponta snoring from atop my head.
Many soldiers seemed to be coming and going from a small fort surrounded by a wooden fence just outside the town’s western wall. It looked like this was where the soldiers were stationed. Also, judging by its haphazard construction, this fort had been built recently and hastily. However, from this vantage, I couldn’t see past the outer wall.
We decided to avoid the western side and instead used Dimensional Step to teleport to the east side of town, where there weren’t any guards. From there, we teleported past the walls and into Kaysehk itself.
I couldn’t help but laugh about how accustomed I was to entering towns this way
.
In stark contrast to how empty the road had been, the town itself seemed full of life.
I noted a lot of soldier-like men in civilian clothes milling about the crowd, but I also saw a lot of other mercenaries walking around freely, so I figured I wouldn’t stand out too much.
I turned to Ariane. “All right, we managed to enter a town in the Revlon Empire. Now we just have to find out where this Viscount Drassos du Barysimon is.”
As to how we were going to find him… Well, we were pretty much limited to walking around town and asking random people if they knew anything.
We’d been told that, unlike in the Rhoden Kingdom, things wouldn’t end so well if Ariane’s true identity was discovered, so we decided not to split up. Nor did we want to draw undue attention to ourselves by throwing out the viscount’s name. We’d need to ask discreetly.
After heading along the main thoroughfare for a way, we found ourselves at a market.
This seemed like a perfect place to gather information, since we’d have a chance to speak to merchants and other customers as we shopped.
Surprisingly, despite the aromas of all the foods being offered in the market, Ponta was still asleep. I slid the cottontail fox down from atop my helmet and handed it to Ariane before searching out a vendor selling nuts and berries, the perfect snack to eat while traveling. When I spotted one, I called out to him.
“Excuse me, sir. I’d like a handful of these walnuts here.”
“Absolutely!”
The man offered me a warm smile and scooped a heaping handful into a hemp bag, which he handed to me.
“All right, that’ll be one lierre.”
I’d been about to ask if the merchant knew anything about Barysimon, but was taken aback by what he just said. It had completely slipped my mind that different countries would use different currencies.
I reached into the leather pouch at my waist and pulled out a gold coin.
“Will this do?”
“Ah, Rhoden money. Sure, you can use that here. That’ll be nine lierre in change.”
The man handed nine silver coins back to me. They were almost identical in thickness and texture to the ones I was used to, though they had a slightly more detailed symbol engraved on their faces.