Chapter 297
Two days passed . I was able to move decently since yesterday morning, but Daniela insisted that I rest a while longer, just to be sure . And she would not take no for an answer, and so I did .
However, it was thanks to that rest that I was now able to run . Yes, run .
But the problem was whether or not I could use Eyes of the God Wolf .
“Uhh…grr…”
“You cannot?”
“There’s still this piercing pain in the back of my eyes…”
Unfortunately, two days had not been enough to recover the use of that skill . It was clear why . I had used ‘God Wolf Sword Reach’ in order to kill the Queen’s Knight Goblin . That skill mostly relied on Jack of all Trades, Master of None, but it also used Eyes of the God Wolf . And the entire burden was on the brain . The pain in my optic nerves was screaming at me .
“Do not use your eyes, Asagi . ”
“I wish I didn’t have to, Daniela . But if we don’t do something, the city will be attacked . ”
“Yes, but the city will not be any safer if you allow yourself to be crushed . We may not have enough time for you to recover completely, but there is no need to walk into the flames when you are carrying a bomb . ”
“…”
That was true, of course . I couldn’t argue with her . And more than anything, I could feel that she was worried about me . And once I knew that, I was powerless . I raised my hands as a show of surrender .
“As long as you know . ”
“Got it, partner . ”
“So you must not use Eyes of the God Wolf for a while . It is useful, but also quite dangerous . Understand?”
“Ouch!”
I got flicked in the forehead . I rubbed at the sore spot which was surely turning red . Damn, that hurt .
We left the now completely empty village and headed straight to the north . It was the direction that the goblins had come from . When I thinly spread out Presence Detection in that direction, I could vaguely detect people . So we were on the right track . But then again, it was so far away that I wasn’t sure if what I was detecting was humans or monsters . Regardless, it didn’t matter, as long as we caught up to them . If they were humans, good . If they were monsters, we would kill them .
The weather was bright and warm today . It had been cloudy during the previous two days, and snowed a few times, so I had been expecting bad weather today as well . Even, the fields of snow where we had all fought in and disturbed, was flat again . So it was difficult to find any traces of Adlus and the others .
I wondered what exactly we should look for as the bright sun shone down on us . Though, the wind itself was still cold . It was a good thing we had dressed warmly .
“It will be easy to lose each other like this since we’re both wearing white . ”
“But that is a good thing . Besides, we can use Presence Detection, so it will not be a problem even if we are separated . ”
That was true . It meant that we might be able to hide from monsters if needed .
Though, there weren’t any monsters around us now . Just the vague signals up north . I suppose it was because of Adlus and the others . I wanted to believe they were killing all the monsters in their path, and leaving a safe trail for us .
Well, they had so many seasoned Adventurers with them, so goblins weren’t going to slow them down .
“But there is no guarantee that there are no other strong monsters . Perhaps something like the Queen’s Knight Goblin . ”
“I’ll have to be on the lookout then… But I hope there aren’t others . ”
“…Yes . ”
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I had told Daniela everything . The Queen’s Knight Goblin had been a reincarnated human . He wasn’t able to fight his instincts, though . But he died as a human . And so I kept his greatsword .
Daniela and I talked a lot while we rested . About the possibility of humans reincarnating as monsters . Were there others out there? Of course, many of these things didn’t have answers . Perhaps that drifting soul just happened to be human, and it just happened to enter a vessel that was a monster . Either that, or it was the Nova . The automated thought machines that the ancient elves had left .
And then there was the biggest question . The question of whether abnormally evolved beings were the result of monsters gaining a human soul and evolving . When I was living in Fhiraldo, an old man called Macbel had told me about records concerning monster research . Such books were banned, but one of them had contained the line: ‘…I tried giving highly concentrated mana to weak monsters, while most of them died, on rare occasions, they would survive…’
What if that was wrong… Of course, once I started thinking like that, it became hard to know what to believe . Regardless, it was becoming difficult to believe it completely .
“It’s hard to believe that the monsters chosen to be studied in the Royal Capital just happened to have human souls in them . ”
“Then perhaps it is both frail monsters and monsters with human souls that can become abnormally evolved beings . ”
But there was no way for us to find out . And as I was getting tired and starting to feel a little sick, we ended the conversation there . After that, we pretty much decided to let the subject drop until we encountered one again…
Of course, knowing that they were once human changed the way I saw them . So in the future, I suppose I’d have to ask, ‘Excuse me . Were you formerly a human?’ Had Beowulf and Arthur been human once? What about the Assault Kobold and the Loup-garou? Yes, there wasn’t any point in thinking about that now .
Maybe we could come to an understanding in a way that didn’t involve killing . Perhaps we could help them remember what they used to be .
But if not…well, we would have to protect our own lives .
Different thoughts moved through my mind as we walked . Then Daniela suddenly stopped . I realized that I had been walking without paying much attention to my surroundings, and frantically spun around . But Daniela hadn’t pulled out her sword or her bow . I looked at her with a puzzled expression and she chuckled .
“You have a bad habit of overthinking things, Asagi . ”
“What?”
“You were lost in thought until I stopped . Were you not?”
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So it was nothing . Daniela just wanted to let me know that I was doing it again . Well, she could have just told me directly . I was a little annoyed .
“Sorry…”
“Haha . But it is not an entirely bad thing . And I like how you always think things through . ”
“Ah . Oh…”
Now I felt bad . It was impossible not to get a little red at this unexpected treatment .
“Well, do not allow your temperature to get too high . It will hurt all the more when it gets colder . ”
“Shut up . It’s you’re fault, you know . You idiot . ”
I had a mean streak when I was embarrassed . But Daniela took no notice . It was always me who would mind .
It was partially because of such distractions that we did not catch up to Adlus and the others during that day . We rested many times during our march through the snow, and we were still in the middle of the snowfields by the time the sun started to set . We had a general idea of where they were, and Daniela knew how to navigate, so there was no chance of us getting lost . Still, walking in the middle of the night was dangerous .
“I guess that’s it for today . ”
I stopped and muttered .
“No, we should continue a little farther . I want to walk until the sun has set completely . ”
However, Daniela wanted to continue . But I didn’t think we’d reach the forest either way… .
“If we go a little farther, we might find traces of Adlus’s camp . ”
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“…Ah, right . ”
They should have passed through here as well . And in large numbers .
I had been considering waiting until the sun sets, and then making an igloo out of the snow . I could probably do it with ice magic as well, but I wanted to avoid any magic depletion if possible . And I doubted I would be able to do it all at once, anyway . After all, I was still wounded . I had to take it easy .
But perhaps Adlus and the others had done the same thing . We were just two people . But they were many . The workload could be distributed and the construction time would be much shorter .
“They are a large group, which means they will likely move slowly . Even if they kept moving until it was quite late, I doubt they would have advanced much farther than we will by nightfall . So if we keep going…”
“Right . Yes, I agree with you . ”
It was hard to imagine that they would arrive in the forest in just one day… He wouldn’t take that risk . After all, he knew we would be following after him .
“Well, if the need arises, I will use wind magic to remove the snow . So do not worry . ”
“I’ll help you . ”
I was able to use Legs of the God Wolf without a problem now . However, it was still possible that I would start feeling pain, like with my eyes . And so I only used it as part of my rehabilitation routine . I doubted that moving a little snow would affect me much . Still, this need for caution was the reason I hadn’t used Legs of the Forest Wolf for travel…
We continued to walk with occasional breaks for another two hours . Then, just as Daniela had predicted, we discovered traces of Adlus’s camp . There were igloos that were half-buried in snow, and we also found traces of a bonfire after some digging .
It had been hard to find since there was two days worth of snow covering it all . But the land was thankfully flat enough to show the differences . It would have likely been completely hidden if we arrived a day later .
I sighed with relief . We moved away some of the snow and settled in for the night . Adlus had been kind enough to close off the igloos so the snow wouldn’t get inside . And so we were able to use them and rest .
The sun during the icesnow phase descended in no time . And like during the day, there were no clouds in the night sky . It was incredibly beautiful .
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