Chapter 11 : Chapter 11
Chapter 11: Rabbits and the Bear
The girl sat by the campfire, panting for breath. Several thin scratches from the brush had appeared across her pale little face, and her clothes had gained a few extra tears as well. Fortunately, she was wearing enough layers that the wind could not seep through.
“You should be grateful that bear wasn’t hungry. Otherwise, you would never have made it back.”
Cyril drew his gaze away from the endless darkness. For some reason, even without a Rogue’s darkvision bonus, darkness did not hinder him in the slightest.
For a low-level adventurer, that was undoubtedly the most marvelous kind of beginner’s blessing one could ask for. Though Cyril was curious about it, he had no way of probing into the reason, so for now he could only enjoy the advantage.
He quietly watched Caroline. There was not much frustration on her face. On the contrary, she was staring eagerly at the sparks crackling from the bonfire...
And at the rabbit roasting over it.
In order to catch those two rabbits, Caroline had accidentally stumbled into the territory of a giant bear. Cyril had not even realized that the place had already become the domain of some massive creature, and when he finally got a good look at the enormous beast with its mottled white fur and pale blue stripes, he had broken out in a cold sweat.
It was a very typical Icehide Blue-Striped Bear. The name itself sounded laughably careless, but no one could deny that it possessed terrifying combat power.
It was thick-skinned and tough-fleshed, with exceptionally high resistance to both magic and physical attacks. Added to that were a bear’s natural strength and the slowing effect of the small freezing domain it carried around itself, making it an extremely troublesome magical beast to deal with.
This kind of bear was not native to La Rochelle. It usually appeared north of the Maitland Mountains, out on the endless ice plains. The undead often kept them in captivity to transport supplies, and they also made excellent battlefield assets.
Cyril had once spent a very long time wandering north of the Maitland Mountains, so he naturally knew this creature well...
He took out some seasoning and sprinkled it over the golden, fatty rabbit roasting over the fire. The seasoning had been freshly ground from herbs found in the bushes of the Pineleaf Forest, and it gave food a numbing, spicy, fresh, and salty flavor. It was delicious, and perfect with alcohol. Cyril had learned the recipe for this seasoning, as well as how to brew Du Berry Wine, from a dwarf. Unfortunately, that same dwarf had later been swallowed whole by a Marsh Drake, leaving no bones behind.
Firelight burned in the girl’s eyes as she stared fixedly at the rabbit meat glistening in the flames. Under the heat, the fragrance of the seasoning had been completely released, making her tip her head back and twitch her nostrils lightly, trying to inhale as much of the aroma as possible.
“Here. And next time, don’t go running off.”
Cyril did not tease her any further. He handed the rabbit to Caroline, and the girl gave a delighted cry before lowering her head and devouring it. Even when the heat and spice scalded her tongue and lips badly enough that she had to gulp in the freezing air to ease it, she still refused to stop tearing at the rabbit meat.
As for whether she had actually listened to what Cyril said...
She would probably dare to do it again next time.
Resting his chin on one hand, Cyril watched Caroline, who looked like a little wolf cub that had gone three days without a meal, but his thoughts were still on the Icehide Blue-Striped Bear.
This was their third day inside the Pineleaf Forest. They were already more than halfway through and had reached the central region of the forest. Along the way, there had been plenty of traces of magical beast activity, but all of them had been obvious enough that a slight detour was enough to keep them safe.
But this time was different.
What were the characteristics of a wild Icehide Blue-Striped Bear? These proud creatures, while hibernating, would clear away obstacles in the surrounding area, including nearby undergrowth and bushes, and would leave behind large amounts of droppings. Because their own mana carried an innate chill, those droppings remained intact and would not be destroyed by wind or snow.
Late February and early March was precisely the season when Icehide Blue-Striped Bears awoke from hibernation. If this really were a bear native to the Pineleaf Forest, then its hibernation environment clearly did not fit any of those rules...
Damn it. How had his sensitivity to clues gotten worse after transmigrating into the game?
Cyril suddenly realized something. He sprang to his feet and snatched the second rabbit—only half-eaten—from Caroline’s hands. The girl froze at once and stared longingly at the roasted rabbit in his hand, only to see him stomp out the campfire and toss the two small bundles, which had been Caroline’s responsibility, into her arms.
She reacted quickly. Hurriedly shouldering the bundles, she kicked dirt over the ground and helped Cyril cover the traces of the fire as she asked softly,
“Mr. Adrien, is a magical beast approaching?”
“Move.” Once Cyril judged that the traces had been mostly dealt with, he reached out to adjust the position of her bundle and then returned the rabbit to her. “Hold it and eat while we walk.”
After three days of traveling through the forest, Caroline’s movements were still somewhat clumsy, but she at least knew what she ought to do. She followed half a step behind Cyril, leaving him enough room to turn and react.
When she saw that Cyril had even drawn the knight’s sword, which he had hardly used more than a few times, a little seriousness finally appeared on the blacksmith’s daughter’s face as well. She had just taken out the broken sword, holding it like a dagger, when Cyril barked at her,
“Put it away. I’m afraid you’ll stab me instead.”
Silently, Caroline wrapped the broken sword back in cloth and tucked it against her chest again.
They moved quickly through the forest. Cyril stopped several times to inspect the traces left on the bushes and in the soil, and the result was every bit as bad as he had expected—
That bear was not a native beast at all. It belonged to an undead vanguard unit.
Cyril had seen this sort of undead detachment before. Though their numbers were small, they already possessed a certain degree of intelligence and were far harder to deal with than ordinary undead.
The fact that undead had appeared inside La Rochelle’s borders did not surprise Cyril in the slightest, but this timing was far earlier than he had expected.
Tarp was one of La Rochelle’s settlements closest to the Maitland Mountains. From the moment the undead crossed the mountains and took Tarp, no more than seven days had passed at most.
And yet an undead vanguard unit had already been able to penetrate as far as the outer edge of La Rochelle’s inner ring. That meant the undead were advancing into La Rochelle even faster than the history Cyril had known from the game.
Cyril was still thinking along those lines when he noticed that the muddy footprints on the ground had become terribly chaotic, flattening the bushes and stretching onward ahead of them.
He signaled for Caroline to lighten her steps, and the two of them slowed almost to a crawl as they crept forward.
From the wind came cries and the clash of metal. There even seemed to be a woman’s voice mixed in among them.
When they moved a little farther ahead, they saw firelight flashing between the trunks of the thick trees, as well as a number of white skeletons rattling as they moved.
“Mr. Adrien, someone’s being attacked by skeletons!”
Caroline had naturally seen them as well. She recognized those skeletons attacking the humans as the very same kind of monsters that had invaded Tarp and stolen away its peace. In her agitation, she even grabbed hold of Cyril’s sleeve and shook it hard, crying out in a voice she was trying desperately to suppress—
Only for a finger to touch lightly against her lips.
She looked up at him in confusion.
In the dim, hazy light, she could see only the outline of Cyril Adrien’s face. The most striking thing about him was the pair of pointed ears unique to elves, while every other color on his figure had been swallowed by the darkness, visible only in fragments when the firelight from the battle ahead happened to flare brighter.
But those deep green eyes, like still pools of water, had not been swallowed by the darkness. They were fixed on her face as though demanding the most loyal promise from her.
“Caroline, I need you to promise me something.”
“From this moment on, no matter who asks you about the undead or about magic, do not reveal the things you can do. And do not try them again, either.”
His low voice was carried into the girl’s ears by the wind, each word spreading slowly through her. Caroline looked as though she wanted to say something, but in the end she only nodded.
Cyril drew a deep breath.
All this time, he had deliberately avoided bringing up Caroline’s talent for necromancy. When the two of them were alone, Caroline was very obedient. Even if she was curious, she would not ask too many questions.
But once they came into contact with outsiders, it would be all too easy for her to let something slip.
And Cyril had no intention of letting her talent be exposed to anyone else.
Otherwise, would not the trump card he had worked so hard to rescue from the Northern Frontier end up being stolen away halfway?
“Stay here and wait for me.”
Cyril withdrew his hand. As he did, he casually patted Caroline, and the broken sword slipped neatly into his palm. The hilt rubbed against the edge of his hand, and though the sensation was a little rough, it made the weapon feel as though it were simply an extension of his own body.
The feel of it was so good that he almost wanted to whistle.
Instead, he merely spun the sword in a clean flourish, then lowered his body. With the knight’s sword in one hand and the broken blade in the other, he began creeping toward the battlefield ahead.