The Druid Who Devoured the Great Nature

About a third of the people drew their swords. There was no one who tried to stop them, saying things like ‘what’s going on’ or ‘let’s talk it out’. It was a secret gambling den that ran on a trial-and-error basis without a proper system. It probably meant that they were used to such commotions.

Did they think it was just a brawl? However, the fact that they reacted this much just because I asked about the origin of an item came to me as a rather different impression.

“Damn it, where did we get caught?”

“We can just catch them and ask.”

“No, it’s dangerous. Let’s just take care of it here.”

“I think there’s some misunderstanding.”

In the public district, acts that harmed a person’s life were prohibited. Well, was there any place where that wasn’t the case legally, but this place had the particularity of being the place where the king resided. It was a symbolic meaning that even if a war broke out between the territories, the public district should be left in peace.

But they showed no hesitation. To the point where I could even feel a hint of desperation. It was not the mindset of thugs who were just trying to make a quick buck from dice gambling.

“I don’t know what you’re mistaken about, but I didn’t come to catch you…”

Suddenly, with the sound of something breaking and shattering, people’s screams were heard. It was the upper floor. The upper floor of the gambling den was an ordinary inn. It wouldn’t be strange if a fight broke out, as there were many drunkards who drank in broad daylight.

But the problem was that it was so intense that it could be heard even on the lower floor. This was close to the level of tearing down an entire establishment.

“……”

At the sudden commotion, everyone stopped what they were doing and pricked up their ears. A tension different from before filled the hall. The people who were stealthily packing their equipment and getting up.

Right after the sound of someone swallowing their saliva echoed like thunder.

The ceiling collapsed. A ray of light poured into the dark space. Through it, a number of silhouettes with their backs to the light were looking down at us.

“Kkeuaaak!”

“My! My leg! Help me!”

The gamblers who were unlucky enough to be crushed by the bricks asked for help, but that was their problem.

“Damn it!”

“We’re caught! Run!”

“It’s a raid! Everyone scatter!”

A secret gambling den, a place that was illegal just by its name. As if they had experienced it before, the gamblers hurriedly ran. A part of the wall rattled and rotated. It must be a secret passage made in preparation for a raid.

“Let’s go too.”

“Wait a minute.”

I stopped Sage, who was trying to escape mixed in with them.

‘It doesn’t seem like an ordinary gambling den raid.’

The performance was too extreme. No matter how much Brahms was a city that was said to be medieval, they wouldn’t cripple or let people die just to raid a gambling den. Furthermore, they were just observing the fleeing gamblers indifferently, rather than trying to catch them.

It wasn’t a raid. There was another purpose. It was then that the man with a rough impression met their eyes.

“Found you.”

“Block them!”

As the man shouted with a pale face, some of the people stepped forward without hesitation and swung their swords. The other side also responded as if they had been waiting.

Metal and metal clashed, and a sharp sword wind cut through the tables and pierced the chairs.

Red blood splattered. It was a bloody sword fight with a strong killing intent, not just to neutralize, but to take a life.

“Those bastards, now even in the public district…!”

“Shut up and run, Darian!”

“Damn it!”

Darian, the man with a rough impression, was about to rush in in a fit of anger, but the woman next to him stopped him. It was not an opponent they could win against. The reason their comrades were fighting now was just to buy time.

The screams and the blood were all theirs. Darian, who had swallowed his anger, ran to the secret passage with his group.

“The traitors are running away! Catch them and kill them!”

The enemies had officially joined the battle. From the people who had jumped down from the broken ceiling, the characteristic metallic sound of plate armor rang out sequentially.

As far as I knew, the equipment of the Brahms guards was lighter than theirs. They were knights. However, all the marks that could identify their affiliation were erased from their armor.

‘Those guys…’

If it wasn’t a trend for free knight orders that did not belong to a family to be popular in this city, they must be related to the ones who had attacked the airship.

As I was putting together various clues in my head, Sage urged me again.

“Let’s go quickly.”

“Yes, let’s go now.”

Only then did I grab Sage and run. Of course, it was in the same direction as the ones who had just run away.

***

The secret passage was connected to the back of the inn. Just as there was a parking lot in a building, there was a stable at the back of the inn. The fugitives got on their horses one by one and ran.

It was a situation where they just pulled the reins without caring whose it was. There were horses that were docile even with a strange master on their back, but there were also horses that resisted with all their might. Naturally, the street became a mess.

But the number of people was much greater than the number of horses. In the end, the remaining people got on a carriage. A carriage while being chased. It was a choice that the chased should avoid due to the wheel tracks and the conspicuous appearance, but it was a last resort.

The opponent was a knight. They would also ride horses, so just running was not the answer. The best thing was to scatter in as many directions as possible and hope that they wouldn’t chase them.

As the whip hit their buttocks, the horses were startled and ran. The panicked citizens hurriedly made way so as not to be run over by the carriage. The carriage driven by the fugitives squeezed through the other carriages that were going at a leisurely pace and sped away.

It was a feat of driving a carriage like a motorcycle. The passengers in the back were making a clattering sound and rolling around, but it was an unavoidable damage.

“You’re a good carriage driver. For a gambling den scammer’s skill, it looks professionally learned. Which family are you from?”

“Ugh!”

The wheel that had hit a stone rattled, and the carriage shook as if it would overturn. I snatched the reins from Darian and swung them. The horses naturally turned the corner according to my instructions.

It was a feat that was not inferior to the one Darian had shown.

‘This works.’

I was impressed even though I had done it myself. I had experience handling a carriage. It was a skill that any player who had set Brahms as their starting point would learn. Once you knew how to handle a carriage, you could use it as a mobile residence.

But that was a story in a game. I had no experience of riding a horse with this body. It felt like the horses had read my intentions and had responded, rather than my horsemanship being outstanding.

‘The horses probably did respond.’

It was the same when I had jumped into the deal between the 52nd branch and Orman and had snatched the cargo. The animals had approached me first and had shown their friendliness. Now, my affinity with nature was much higher than then.

It was a number where it wouldn’t be strange for them to follow my commands, beyond just friendliness.

“Oh.”

As the carriage tilted to one side and landed stably, Sage, who was next to me, clapped her hands and cheered. Her hair was even calmly settled, as if she were not affected by inertia. She must have used magic.

On the other hand, Darian, who had barely avoided being thrown out by holding onto the railing of the driver’s seat, had his hair in a mess and his eyes wide open.

“You! You’re the henchman of those damn traitors!”

“You’re so hot-tempered. Let’s put away the swords and talk.”

“What! This is…!”

Darian froze with his sword half-drawn. The stems of the World Tree had already wrapped around his entire body like a snake.

“I have no intention of threatening your life. It’s just that you seem to have lost your temper, so I just made sure you wouldn’t move rashly. I’ll let you go if you seem ready to talk, so don’t worry.”

“You expect me to believe that in this situation?”

“If I were on the same side as the ones who attacked the gambling den, I wouldn’t be talking to you so calmly. Wouldn’t I have aimed for your life first or stopped the carriage?”

“……”

Darian agreed with my persuasion with silence. Although his eyes were still full of suspicion, the strength in his hand holding the hilt of his sword had loosened. Soon, the sword returned to its scabbard.

The World Tree immediately released its stems as if it had been waiting. He gently rubbed his wrist, which had been pressed, and said.

“You, what are you? I’ve never heard a rumor of a guy like you among the minions of the lord of this city.”

“You seem to be a person who knows the lords well. I thought you were a knight, but were you a noble by any chance?”

“……Seeing that you really don’t know me, you must not be related to those traitors.”

“I told you that from the beginning.”

Only then did Darian let go of his sharp wariness.

“I’m Allen. I’m from Gellerg City.”

“Sage Daleoper.”

“The regular flight must have arrived. An outsider…”

His skilled horsemanship, the fact that he mentioned the lord’s minions, and that he knew the schedule of the flight. At some point, his tone had also changed from that of a street thug to a dignified one.

Had he been acting to match his rough impression? Darian continued with a sigh mixed with complicated emotions.

“Okay, Allen and Sage, was it? My name is Darian. You don’t need to know which family I’m from. It’s for your own good, so don’t think I’m being heartless.”

“Is it because of those knights who are chasing you, calling you traitors?”

“Yes, this is our city’s business. It’s not good for an outsider to get involved, so hand over the reins and leave quickly.”

He had a pretty good heart. Even though he was in a tight spot, he didn’t ask for help, but rather worried about our safety. They say that a person’s true nature is revealed in an urgent situation. He was not a very hateful man.

Although I wondered if he was a person who deserved to be chased like this, it was as he said.

“We have no intention of getting deeply involved either. Just tell me one thing, and we’ll go right away.”

“What story? Ah, you mean the origin of this sword? You got involved in this commotion just for something like that?”

“It’s an important story to me.”

I had come all the way here from Gellerg City on an airship just to find one person. She had said that the traces of mana emanating from the pendant that person had made were felt from that sword. Of course, I could have just avoided the troublesome commotion and followed other traces.

But it seemed that there would be no big difference. Seeing the standardized equipment of this ‘traitor group’, it seemed that they were not just ordinarily involved. They were probably a group.

“Damn it, you’re so stubborn. This is an item made by our craftsman. This is as far as I can tell you.”

A craftsman who supplied weapons to a group called traitors. It was understandable why Darian had misunderstood when I had first asked about the origin of the weapon. He must have thought that I was trying to identify them by distinguishing the craftsmanship of the weapon craftsman.

The fact that the chasers had appeared at that moment seemed to be a terrible coincidence.

“You probably get it, right? It’s a waste of time to covet it, so if you want a weapon, go find another craftsman.”

At my gesture, Sage looked back and forth between the pendant and the sword, then nodded.

“It’s the same mana.”

“……Things have gotten twisted.”

“What?”

“I was looking for the person who made the weapon, not the weapon. It seems that the craftsman who made that weapon is the same person I’m looking for.”

Seeing the situation in the city, I didn’t think things would be easy, but they had gotten very twisted. Traitor… it was an ominous word that was hard to just dismiss.

Darian, who had a blank expression at the shocking fact, asked back.

“That can’t be. What’s the name of the person you’re looking for?”

“Simon Jackson.”

“A man? Then it’s not him. The gender is different.”

“It makes sense if it’s an alias. In the first place, when he was working as a contractor, he wore armor, so his gender was unknown.”

“A contractor? You mean those vile money-grubbers?”

“You’re making the contractor who’s listening sad.”

“Oops.”

“I’m kidding. It’s not wrong either.”

The behavior of contractors was similar regardless of the city. Gellerg City was a place that treated contractors relatively well. If a noble from the City of Iron and Blood had called a contractor a vile money-grubber, it was a pretty good evaluation.

“Anyway, I’ll have to go and check for myself whether it’s the same person or not.”

“You can’t do that. I’m sorry I answered your question, but I can’t allow you to go that far. Later, after the city has stabilized, let’s make a promise.”

“By then, the person I’m looking for will be hanging on the gallows.”

“……”

“To be honest, from an outsider’s point of view, your group seems to be at a disadvantage. Am I wrong?”

Darian bit his lip tightly.

“……Yes, you’re right. But you still can’t. I don’t even know if I’ll be able to survive right now, so I can’t head to the headquarters with a tail.”

The sound of the ground shaking.

“Then the solution is simple.”

I could see the knights on horseback chasing after us from behind.

“I’ll take care of those guys. You know what the price is, right?”

(End of Chapter)