Chapter 258
For Cellinne, praise from those around her was natural.
Though some people were jealous of her beauty, far more people cherished and loved her.
But for that very reason, Cellinne had rarely complimented others' appearances.
That was because when the mirror contained the greatest beauty she acknowledged,
There was no need to seek her own aesthetics in others.
However, she couldn't suppress her impulse at this moment.
Because the person in the valley water over there was,
"Adonis...!"
Damn it, exactly her type.
* What kind of nis?
Before he could think carefully about what he had just heard, the pink-haired woman suddenly jumped into the valley.
-Splash!
Why, why was she coming here?
He hesitated and stepped back, but the woman grabbing his shoulder was faster.
The force was so strong he couldn't escape, almost making him cry out in pain.
The woman grabbed his chin and turned it this way and that, stared at him intently for a while, then screamed in a very pretty voice.
"It's Adonis, completely Adonis!"
"What?"
"Crazy! Totally crazy! Bailies, let's take this kid with us."
Kidnapping? At the ominous atmosphere, he covered his chest with both hands and looked at the man still standing in the grass.
The man was running one leather-gloved hand down his face.
"...Are people animals? To just pick up and take? What was the prince thinking when he took in this lunatic, damn..."
"Look at this! White body! Slender arms! Round eyes! His hair is quite damaged but still his fluffy brown eyes are moistly wet while his red hair sparkles like ranunculus under the sunlight with water droplets decorating it and no matter how you look at it he has an innocent atmosphere this is totally a forest fairy!"
"Woman. Do you remember who we're chasing right now?"
"Of course, of course, and we were just about to go back anyway."
"But you want to go back with a lost kid?"
"Yes!"
"Crazy bitch. I'll tell that person to cut your neck instead."
"Ahhhhh, let's take him, let's take him! This area is dangerous with lots of bandits and robbers anyway!"
"What does that have to do with anything?"
"That person needs to show mercy to the kingdom's people. Think about it, if this kid goes down to a village later and says he met the prince's party but they abandoned him and just left - how embarrassing would that be for that person?"
"You fucking, only at times like this do you use your brain well?"
"It's unusual for Bailies to compliment me, isn't it?"
The woman laughed triumphantly.
What was all this about?
He looked back and forth between the two people and asked.
"That person?"
"...Come to think of it, woman, if you hadn't said that, we could have just left."
"Oh my. But I already said it? It's spilled water? Can't scoop it back up? Then we have to take this kid? It's already over, right?"
The man called Bailies seemed to be thinking whether to kill the woman here and go, or kill him and go, with a murderous expression.
Then finally, with an annoyed face, he let out a long sigh and turned his back.
The woman looked back at him with a bright face.
"Hey, this place is a bit dangerous. I don't know how you ended up here, but anyway, I'll take you to a safe place. Just trust your big sister."
"Th-thank you...?"
"More importantly, where are your clothes? Big sister will pick them up for you."
Clothes, he never had any to begin with.
He had been in a natural state since coming out of the cave, so he thought for a moment about what to say.
Come to think of it, he thought he had heard something about bandits and robbers earlier.
"Someone stole my clothes."
"What! Which bastard!"
"Someone I don't know. They ran away too fast so I couldn't see their face."
When he made up an excuse, the woman patted his shoulder sympathetically.
"If big sister meets that person later, I'll beat them until their butt explodes. You trust big sister, right?"
What would explode?
"No, you don't need to..."
"Then you're saying you don't have clothes right now. I don't happen to have spare clothes either, which is troublesome. ...Ah, right, right. Then that would work."
The woman rattled off what she wanted to say by herself, then went splashing back toward the valley.
Then she approached the man called Bailies who was standing with his back turned and tapped his shoulder.
What was she trying to do?
He wondered if that man had clothes or something, when suddenly.
-Riiiiip!
"Can I borrow this?"
"Ahhhhhhh! You bastard!"
The woman tore the man's cloak in one go.
Looking at the man pouring out curses enough to faint at seeing his cloak torn in half in an instant,
And the woman who didn't care and jumped back into the valley water to put the torn half-cloak on him, he became serious.
Should he really follow these people?
*
The woman's name was Cellinne, and she said she made money by dancing.
The man was Bailies. He said he was formerly from a mercenary group. It was a moment when his rough speech finally made sense.
The two people had completely opposite personalities,
Cellinne was a kind my-way type, and Bailies, though he acted rough, was the type who thought about his relationships.
"Then what were you two doing here?"
"There was a slightly dangerous person, so we were in the middle of chasing them away. Probably a robber or something like that?"
"What about that 'that person' story from earlier?"
"That's! ...a secret!"
For calling it a secret, hadn't she already said quite a lot?
Bailies walking ahead seemed to think the same, as he kept quietly reciting curses.
But thanks to Cellinne, he learned a few facts.
This was a small country called Aquilonia, and the current political situation was so chaotic that even in these mountain valleys, worrying about public safety was natural.
And that the 'that person' they spoke of was someone of very high status.
They had introduced themselves as a dancer and former mercenary respectively, but then there would be no need for them to travel together.
Either there was an employer with quite unique tastes,
Or these people were lying to him.
It was probably one of the two. Either way, it wouldn't matter to him.
He had collected minimum information about Aquilonia, so this was enough.
The important problems for him right now were Aphoom-Zhah's existence and Eibon.
The last time he saw Eibon in Shub-Niggurath's cave, she was vomiting blood, unable to fully accept Aphoom-Zhah's power.
-Eibon, there's no one outside now. If not now, it can't be done. Do it now!
-I'm sorry, Yesung. I will definitely keep what you said. I promise.
The frost and ice that filled the cave.
The spell she shouted while leaving Aphoom-Zhah behind.
-[Be sober-minded, be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith!]
The spell she had shouted like a scream while sealing the god that was distracted by him as prey, as Aphoom-Zhah's believer, still rang vividly in his ears.
At that point, he had already half-merged with Shub-Niggurath and there was no way to save him.
Being sealed together like that was probably fine.
The problem was that he had been released.
If he had been released, there was a high possibility that Shub-Niggurath would also be released soon.
But no matter how much time had passed,
A seal that even borrowed Aphoom-Zhah's power couldn't have been broken by just one person.
So for something like this to happen, specific conditions had to be met.
First was the death of the caster. Second was Aphoom-Zhah's weakening.
...There would be a lot to find out before Shub-Niggurath awakened.
He clenched and unclenched his still completely lifeless hands to examine them.
The pain of his body regenerating while melting was gone now,
But nonetheless, his hands were still trembling slightly.
As if he had post-torture aftereffects.
When his thoughts reached that point, he could only let out a hollow laugh.
"Did you think of something funny?"
"Ah, no. Just for a moment. But can you really take me to a safe village?"
"Of course. Just trust big sister. If I just knew where your family lives, I could even go there?"
Thinking about it repeatedly, he was an orphan at this point in time.
"No. I can't impose on you that much. I don't even know the village name. If you just escort me to somewhere decent, I'll go alone."
"Aww. How good and admirable."
Not every village had a name. In mountain valleys without visitors, villages without names were common.
So answering only this much would be right.
Cellinne began making groaning sounds and saying things like 'How did such a pretty kid end up flowing here?'
A bit burdensome.
He carefully went down the mountain with Bailies while being cautious of Cellinne, who seemed ready to devour people.
The campsite the two people had made wasn't that far.
While Cellinne was doing her utmost to entice him, saying they would give him meals and a place to sleep,
Bailies spoke without even looking at him.
"I don't care what you do when you go. But you'll meet one person first."
"Are you talking to me?"
"Would I be talking to that woman? Listen well. Kneel the moment you meet that person. Don't raise your head and keep your eyes down. And speak politely. Don't talk back to things you're not asked."
"Why?"
"Questions like that just now aren't allowed either, just do it."
It was quite a coercive command.
The more this happened, the more his curiosity grew, but for now it would be best to endure since there was nothing good about being disliked.
The campsite they arrived at while pondering Bailies' words had three small tents.
The tents were gathered around a campfire in the center,
And from one of them, a person with short, neatly trimmed black hair came out and discovered them.
Cellinne shouted brightly.
"Evana-!"
The person called Evana was a woman who gave off a quiet and calm atmosphere.
Her short, neatly cut hair stopped near her neck, and she wore a long cord around her neck with something like glasses hanging at the end.
She greeted Cellinne while glancing at him.
"Have both of you returned from the tracking mission? Is that person behind you perhaps...?"
"No, no. That kid just got lost so we're helping. We missed the target."
"Really? I thought you'd catch them this time, so I prepared plenty of hemostatic agents. What a waste."
Evana only nodded to him before going into the tent.
Cellinne excitedly dragged him over there.
"Come here, you need to put on new clothes, right? How fortunate that we have disguise clothes. They might be a bit small for you, but try them on anyway."
"R-right now?"
"Yeah, are you going to stay looking like that?"
True. He couldn't keep wearing just one cloak torn from Bailies.
Cellinne seemed to share a tent with Evana.
Inside were two sleeping areas with multiple layers on the floor, and luggage bags on one side.
Cellinne opened the largest bag and began rummaging through crumpled clothes.
"Not this one, not this one either, is it this one? Eh, these are clothes for performances. Ah! Here it is. Adonis, come here."
His name wasn't Adonis, but he obediently went to Cellinne's side.
She held a loose shirt up to him, then frowned deeply while looking back and forth between him and the clothes.
"...There are prettier ones, should I find those for you?"
"It's fine. I like this one too."
"If this were near a city, I would have immediately bought lots of pretty clothes for you to wear. So disappointing."
"Can't I just wear this?"
"I'm sure there were cuter clothes but I can't find them. Where did I put them? Evana! Did you happen to see those yellow pants?"
"No, no. I'll wear this. Please let me wear this. It's my lifelong wish."
Bright yellow pants - he had never heard of such terrible clothes.
He persuaded Cellinne and finally got to wear ordinary clothes.
Moreover, seeing that he was barefoot, Cellinne left the tent and brought back shoes.
He could hear curses that were definitely Bailies' from outside, but she said it was fine to just wear them.
Rolling up the generous gray sleeves and putting on slightly loose pants, it was very comfortable for activities.
The shoes seemed a bit big, but at least they weren't small.
Finally, Cellinne said his hair should look 'cute' and carefully braided it,
But somehow her touch seemed desperate, so he couldn't stop her either.
After getting properly dressed like that, she guided him to another tent.
Bailies stood in front of it with an uncomfortable expression.
His gaze went to the boots he was wearing, but he pretended not to notice.
Bailies quietly spoke to the person inside the tent.
"Cellinne brought a lost kid. He'll be accompanying us briefly, but I brought him to introduce."
"......"
No sound came from inside, but Bailies slightly opened the tent entrance and looked at him.
He gestured at him. It felt like 'remember.'
What had he said earlier? When you go in, keep your eyes down, kneel, and shut your mouth?
There must be quite a high-ranking person. Could it be someone from the royal family?
Recalling Bailies' teachings, as soon as he entered the tent, he knelt on one knee and bowed his head.
He didn't know who the person in front was, but anyway, being careful couldn't hurt.
While thinking that, he heard a voice.
"-You."
Huh. What was this?
A familiar uneasiness crept up.
It couldn't be. After parting so disastrously, it couldn't be.
He tried to rationalize while raising his head.
The precious unfilial son Yurik was glaring at him as if to devour him.