I obey the god Lagdaratohka.
It was a written contract.
Kai opened his eyes, and for a few moments, he felt completely unable to move. But then he saw that the inscription continued for another line, and he moved his trembling fingertip toward it.
His finger slid horizontally along the inscription.
Lagdaratohka ranks among Baalitoliga’s assembly of gods.
Eda’s land god was subservient to Lag’s land god, and Lag’s land god served some other god known as Baal-something-or-other... That was as much as Kai understood.
The inscription was on the surface opposite the side that Lady White and the others were cleaning.
Kai tried to remember the valley’s gravesite in detail and came to the conclusion that there was no inscription on the rear side of the gravestone. It was possible that it had just worn off, but he was certain that if there had been an inscription on the rear, it couldn’t have been very long.
He wasn’t sure why he was able to read God Era Script so suddenly, but it was a major discovery. In his excitement, he pretended to be cleaning as he moved around to the other side to read the inscription on the front face of the stone. And then...
“You’re too close. Give me some space.”
“Spread out, all of you!”
Flynn with the bent back waved a hand at the cluster of men, and they begrudgingly started spreading out.
The room wasn’t just cramped, it also got very hot. When a lot of sweat-covered men gathered in one spot, the heat wasn’t just physically tiring, it could also be mentally tiring.
With the men spread out to give her more space, Lady White recovered her enthusiasm and became absorbed in her work once more. Lady White wasn’t the type of person who becomes guarded around members of the opposite sex.
Fortunately for Kai, enough space had opened up for him to touch the inscription on the front while cleaning it.
Huh...?
He couldn’t understand the inscription on the front no matter where he touched it. He picked up meanings here and there, but when he tried to put the series of mental images together, they broke down and fell apart. The text was nothing more than a meaningless jumble of characters.
It’s like ciphertext, was the thought that came to Kai’s mind.
He wasn’t exactly sure what ciphertext was, but he guessed that it meant that the original meaning of the words had been obscured somehow. If he’d had more time and if there was no one watching, he could have studied the inscription to try and figure it out, but he would probably never get the chance.
Kai glanced over at Lady White, wondering whether she could read the text. He immediately noticed that Lady White’s clothing around her chest had started to come loose while she was cleaning, and he hastily averted his gaze.
It was causing the other men to move closer again. Kai struggled to think of some way to let Lady White know, but he never got the chance.
They were interrupted by shouting from the soldiers on lookout outside the gravesite.
“Get out, quick! Something’s coming!”
“Hide the gravesite!”
Everyone threw down the cleaning tools they were holding and scrambled out of the gravesite.
The stone cover standing by the entrance was pushed back into place, and then several soldiers began hastily covering it over with soil. Flynn was the first to grasp the situation.
“They’re headed directly for us,” he told Lady White, hoping to get her permission to act. “The enemy are macaques.”
The land around Eda was no longer under human control. Demi-humans had so much influence over the area that they’d had to abandon the village. It was fair to say that it was Kai and the others who were trespassing on another’s land.
From somewhere within the forest that lay close to the village ruins, they heard howling sounds. That was how macaques would call for more of their own kind to gather.
The fighting started quickly and things immediately went badly for the humans.
The macaques came at them yelling. Even without an understanding of their language, the message was clear to everyone: this is our land; humans aren’t welcome.
The human party had been assembled by a half-baked selection contest, so they could barely form squads to fight as groups. Flynn’s squad was able to put up a good fight, but the other soldiers were easily scattered and were almost ready to flee.
“Take the lady with you and run,” Flynn commanded three of the soldiers. But when they tried to escape with Lady White, she shook them off and ran toward the enemy, so they had no choice but to follow after her.
She boldly stated her name to her macaque opponents and several of them soon surrounded her. The soldiers defending her raised their spears to form a barrier, but they were already weak at the knees, and the situation looked grave.
“You can’t fight them, My Lady!”
“But I’m a guardian bearer! I don’t care how strong macaques are compared to humans. I can handle this!”
“Fighting is our job. Please, fall back and leave it to us.”
“But I’ve trained to fight...”
“My Lady!”
A warrior-class macaque leaped at Lady White’s back while she was still arguing with the soldiers. It leaped at her with great agility, perhaps wanting to capture this human with unusual hair. The soldiers swiftly raised their spears to greet it, but the tough, charcoal-colored fur of the macaque deflected every spearpoint.
Lady White had spoken bravely, but the attack left her paralyzed in fear, and despite all her training, all she could do was wave her spear around blindly as she stood there pigeon-toed.
Kai had already leaped into action the moment he saw that she was in trouble.
Fortunately for him, everyone’s attention was focused on Lady White and her attackers. No one noticed how powerfully Kai was able to leap, or how quickly he accelerated, as he rapidly closed in on the macaque soldier.
He put all of his might behind his spear and drove it into the defenseless back of the macaque soldier.
17
If the baron had been there, he probably could have used his overwhelming power to lift a macaque soldier off its feet and destroy its body like a toy.
If Olha had been there, the sharpness of the large sword he carried would probably have allowed him to effortlessly take a macaque’s head off.
Lady White’s in trouble.
The power of her land god itself had been continuously fading. And even if she was more powerful than an ordinary human, power had to be wielded correctly to be useful for anything more than brainless displays of strength. And if a guardian bearer left themselves exposed and defenseless, that was an invitation for a malicious enemy to put their toughened flesh to the test.
The threat posed by the hostile macaques had caused Lady White’s kumadori to appear. The sigil it formed looked basic compared to the baron’s, and the color was faint.
“I-I’m as strong as any other doi sigil!” Lady White yelled as she stood facing the macaques.
Doi? Kai didn’t know what that meant, but he guessed that the word described the rank of her land god. Regardless, yelling courageously at her opponents did little to hide the fact that her whole body was shaking, and the spear looked like it might slip from her grip. It was hard to believe that this young girl had any power at all.
Kai twisted his spear and drove it deeper into the macaque’s back, and he pulled it back out only once he felt confident that he’d completely destroyed its intestines. The body looked like it would collapse onto Lady White, but he changed its course with a kick.
Although Lady White was surprised when a macaque soldier in front of her collapsed, what left her wide-eyed in shock was the sight of the young soldier standing behind it with a spear in hand.
Now that death was far off after coming so close, her trembling knees gave way and she sat down on the ground. Perhaps it was because of the bright light behind him, but at first, she did
n’t recognize the boy as Kai.
“Are you all right, My Lady?”
Lady White’s eyes teared up as if she’d just recognized Kai, but she quickly wiped the tears away with her sleeve. She still couldn’t stand up, but she spoke with feigned confidence to save face.
“Well, it was my first fight. I was a little surprised, that’s all... You’re quite strong, Kai, even for a soldier.”
“Lately, everyone keeps telling me I’ve gotten a lot stronger.”
Even though they were still surrounded by armed macaques, they’d started a carefree conversation and neither friend nor foe tried to get between them.
Kai was unexceptional in terms of his rank as a Lag soldier, but he was somewhere in the top 30 out of roughly 100 soldiers, so he could probably be called strong, relatively speaking.
The three guards who’d stood helplessly at Lady White’s side were all older than Kai, but they were still young compared to most soldiers.
It was only the younger soldiers who fought to be included in cleaning duty, but those chosen were still the soldiers considered competent enough to guard Lady White. They could be described as being in the upper-low ranks.
The guards were clearly annoyed that Kai had completely robbed them of a chance to prove themselves.
They all knew of course that Kai was a promising soldier who’d quickly climbed to the higher ranks, and they knew how important it was to stay on the good side of higher-ranking soldiers. But even so, they couldn’t stop their pubescent brains from running wild with thoughts of how they might impress Lady White.
“We’re still here with you!”
“We can handle a few macaques!”
“Quick, get yourself some place safe!”
Their bad tempers and jealous behavior made Kai scratch his head in confusion.
He couldn’t help but laugh when wondering if they were stupid enough to think they might actually have a chance with a baron’s daughter. To the soldiers, that came across as sneering from someone suddenly full of themselves after becoming popular, and it made the three of them so angry that they were almost in tears.
Kai took a quick look at the surroundings.
There were still several macaques facing Lady White, but they hadn’t moved since seeing Kai appear from out of nowhere and take down a warrior-class macaque. It was likely that they felt the aura of a strong warrior from him. When Kai looked a macaque in the eye, it was enough to make it back away.
Kai was still keeping his kumadori suppressed, of course. He hadn’t the slightest intention of showing that to his fellow soldiers.
As he turned his body, his spear whipped around with him, sending globs of blood flying and creating a whistling sound that was hard to ignore. It was proof of the high speed of his weapon’s movements.
“Kai...”
“My Lady, you should hide with the others. Guys, get her out of here.”
The other soldiers might have been older, but Kai ranked higher and had authority over them. More importantly, he’d just saved their lives, and it would have been shameful not to show at least some respect. The young soldiers understood that much at least, and although they looked angrily at Kai, they nodded and took Lady White away as ordered.
“You saved me,” Lady White said. “Thank you, Kai.”
Kai looked at her just briefly and nodded. At that moment, his stare was the only thing keeping the macaques fixed in place.
When the macaques saw the four others trying to leave, they finally came to their senses and moved forward with their weapons held ready. But their movements came to a stop just a moment later when Kai thrust his spear into the ground with a thud.
“Your opponent’s standing right here.”
Other soldiers were watching the backs of the motionless macaques and were using this opportunity to creep behind him.
Kai needed to wait for the right timing.
He wasn’t going to try to defeat these enemies alone. He didn’t need to keep all the credit to himself.
Kai had set rules for himself when it came to how he should behave while on the battlefield. He knew that if he wanted to keep his current lifestyle in the village, he’d better not make waves for no reason.
Two of his enemies fell victim to surprise attacks from behind, and they screeched as they fell to the ground. Kai went for the remaining enemy while it was still distracted by the sudden screeching of the others. He drove his spear straight through its stomach, which was a hard target to miss.
Kai’s strength was beyond the strength of an ordinary human, and the hardness of the macaque’s fur wasn’t enough to stop him from driving his weapon deep into its flesh. When the spearhead was fully inside its body, he twisted the spear handle, and then ripped the spear back out.
Blood and entrails erupted from the macaque’s stomach like water gushing from a broken pot. A simple spear thrust alone wasn’t always enough to kill the enemy instantly, so humans throughout history had developed many techniques for increasing the damage done to an opponent’s internal organs.
As a species, macaques specialized in the use of violence, but even they were stunned to see Kai kill his opponent with a single blow. Flynn and his squadmates, who had banded together to kill just one macaque, were left speechless when they saw the effectiveness of Kai’s attack.
His combat abilities were clearly beyond what anyone expected from an upper-middle-ranked soldier. They unconsciously acknowledged that this boy would someday be one of their top-ranking soldiers, and he became more than just a “hatchling” in their eyes—he was a young dragon on the rise.
When the macaques realized that their enemy included a powerful warrior who was too much for them to handle, they had decided that the battle was not going their way and were already turning to flee. It was a common way for battles to end when only one side had a guardian bearer.
With the killing over, the soldiers could enjoy a festival of leveling up. They gathered around the enemies that they’d brought down to search for their godstones.
When weak soldiers could only take down an enemy while part of a group, the enemy’s godstone was generally shared between the group. It was hoped that this would help them grow.
But the superior fighters who stood out from the crowd and could take down an enemy single-handedly would keep the first godstone to themselves, and then would have to offer every godstone after that to their lord’s house as a rule.
Kai found the exact position of the godstone and had no trouble prying it out with his spearhead. He worked like an old veteran who’d gotten used to extracting godstones one after the other. He collected two godstones in this manner.
He placed one in his pocket to keep as an offering and used the butt of his spear to break open the bigger one that came from the warrior-class macaque. He swallowed the amber marrow that spilled from the opening in a single gulp. The lower-ranking soldiers watched enviously as Kai ate from his godstone like a man.
This was one reason why the gap in ability between soldiers only grew wider with time.
Marrow’s so damn good!
As he ate, he felt the heat caused by his development within his godstone.
Even now that he had the blessings of a land god, he felt no less grateful for this feeling. The reason that soldiers were required to offer godstones to the lord’s household was so the household could share in this growth. It was evidence that even guardian bearers had the potential for further growth.
The marrow probably tasted so rich because his body hungered for it and demanded more. Even though Kai wasn’t particularly hungry, he felt sure that nothing could ever taste better than the marrow of the godstones that gave him power.
It feels like the god of the valley is happy too.
He greedily scraped out and ate the marrow before dropping the round bone known as the godstone to the ground. He then moved away from it in consideration of the low-ranking soldiers who might want to feed on any scraps.
In front of him
stood Lady White.
The macaques had run off quickly, so she’d probably given up on seeking refuge and had stood there waiting instead.
She looked at the scene of the battle with a vague smile, but the frustration she felt inside was still visible. For someone brought up on the lukewarm offerings presented to her household, it felt strange to watch soldiers win godstones by their own power and use them to further increase their strength.
Her gaze shifted to Kai for just a moment.
Then she suddenly gave up on trying to save face and let her frustration show clearly as she gestured to Kai to move closer.
Kai had a feeling that their early morning training sessions were going to be more intense from now on.
18
Rumors that Lady White’s party had been attacked by macaques spread quickly through the village.
And then, when it turned out that every single one of the few dozen soldiers escorting Lady White had returned safely, the rumor went from being bad news to a heroic tale of conquest over macaques.
The name on everyone’s lips when they talked about this conquest over macaques was Kai, the name of the youngest soldier in the village. Naturally, he became the center of attention.
“Which of you is the one named Kai?”
Kai knew that all of his fellow soldiers were talking about him, but he would never have imagined that the baron himself would come looking for him.
The baron took one look at Kai, and he could immediately tell that this boy was the youngest of the soldiers, but he was surprised to find he was so small and thin. The baron took hold of Kai’s collar and lifted him into the air to find out whether the boy was as light as he looked.
“You could do with a little more meat on you.”
The reason that the baron had come looking for Kai was not difficult to guess. He was there to give Kai a chance to take part in one of his farcical training sessions.
“I want to see it for myself. This spearwork that slaughters macaques one after another and can take them down with a single thrust.”
Teogonia: Volume 1 (Premium) Page 11