CH 49

The village was surrounded by a wooden fence as tall as Luisen. It was rare to see such wonderful woodwork in such remote mountains.

“Does this region usually have a lot of monsters?”

“No. Since we’re in the midst of high mountains and deep valleys, there are many large beasts–the walls were built high for those. As for monsters…we occasionally saw some goblins.”

Luisen waited outside with the robbers as Carlton went ahead and scouted inside the village walls.

The village was deathly quiet. As Carlton had guessed, the monster swarm had already left.  At the mercenary’s signal, Luisen and the robbers followed him into the village.

The place was in shambles–akin to ruins. Agricultural tools and other bits and bobs were scattered along the roads; they could see broken houses and dried blood stains here and there. Crying, the robbers hurried to find their own homes, and Carlton and Luisen were left to examine the ruined settlement together.

“Sir Carlton, here.” Luisen pointed at the wooden door of some building. There were traces of several scratches made with sharp claws on the wood frame. As the residents closed the door to hide inside, the monsters must have scratched at it to break it down.

Following that, the two found footprints left by four-legged beasts, teeth marks, and something that appeared to be fur.

“These all seem like direwolf tracks, right?” Luisen asked.

“Yes. It seems like they belong to a direwolf. From the state of the blood spilled on the ground, I’m certain that it’s been at least ten days, as the robbers have said.”

“…Ten days… That’s seven days before I was attacked. Do you think this was done by the same group that attacked me?”

“If there aren’t two groups of direwolves… It would mean the monsters that attacked this town and my Duke must be the same group…”

Luisen and Carlton may have moved a fair distance as they winded around the mountain–in terms of distance alone, the place where Luisen was attacked and this village were not too far away. In that time, the direwolves could definitely have crossed that distance.

Moreover, it was uncommon to see monsters that obeyed human orders. It would be reasonable to assume that the two attacks were conducted by the same group of monsters.

“But ten days ago Ruger was with me in the castle. It couldn’t have been him who had brought the direwolves into this village.”

“If not Ruger, maybe a collaborator?”

“That’s possible.”

Looking at these circumstances, it was highly likely that Ruger was in some sort of criminal posse.

Ruger had been busy–out of his mind–with packing for his master. Had he been in touch with his posse then, readying for an attack on himself?

“No wonder he looked so harried,” Luisen muttered. That damn son of a bitch. After doing all that, he dared to whine to his master about how tired he was? The flames of ire blazed within Luisen.

Carlton patted Luisen on the shoulder. Afterwards, the young lord released a long breath and swallowed his anger. Suddenly, the robbers came running back to them; they were spouting gibberish with dazed expressions, as if they had been possessed by a ghost.

“Speak clearly! What is it?” Carlton asked.

“Nothing. There’s absolutely nothing.”

“What?” Carlton was annoyed, threatening to punish them if they continued to speak nonsense.

The robbers shrieked and paled. “There’s bloodstains, but no one’s around!”

“Since monsters have appeared, all the survivors must have run away.”

“No, it’s not that… We can’t even see the dead folks. So…” While the two robbers who had arrived before could only speak gibberish, their companion, following close behind, cried. “The corpses! We can’t see any corpses!”

“What are you talking about?” Luisen inquired.

The robbers hurried and crowded around the young lord and the mercenary. “We don’t know what’s going on. There’s nothing! There should be some people–there should at least be corpses left behind…!”

After the monsters attacked, they did not return to the village. Therefore, the bodies of the dead villagers should have remained. However, there were only scattered blood stains. The robbers were shocked no bodies were left behind.

“Couldn’t someone have cleared the corpses away? There could have been other survivors,” Luisen raised a counter argument.

The men were easily persuaded by the young lord’s illogical statement because they wished to believe there were other living villagers. “I-Is that so?”

“That could be possible!” The men said brightly.

As he watched the scene, Carlton muttered in a low tone that only Luisen could hear, “I don’t believe the villagers would have been responsible for cleaning up. There’s no signs of the bodies being moved.”

Carlton had already noticed strange inconsistencies with what the robbers had found.

“How do you know?” Luisen asked.

“If a villager were to come back and move the body, there should be drag marks on the ground or long trails of blood. But, nothing like that exists.”

“Then?”

“At the very least, they certainly wouldn’t have gotten up and walked away on their own two feet.”

“Hmm…”

They must have been bitten and taken away or eaten–cruel things that Luisen didn’t want to imagine. The young lord grew pale.

As soon as he saw that, Carlton thought to change the subject. There was nothing good about staying in a village that had seen such strange happenings. “It doesn’t seem like there’s anything else to see here. Let’s get going. We should find a place to stay before sunset.”

At Carlton’s urging, Luisen looked over the ruined village once more. Though the place was small and poor, he could see it was a home that was cultivated with care and tenderness. Thus, this village’s tragedy hit the young lord with more melancholy.

​​”…Understood.” Luisen felt pity and sympathy for the disaster that had befallen this village, but there was nothing he could do immediately. If direwolves had passed through this place, then they could come back at any time, after all. Not only were the two being chased, but Luisen could hardly help anyone without Carlton.

“If you know anything, please let me know. My parents were killed by those bastards. Wouldn’t anyone like to know who their enemies are?” The robbers cautiously made a request as Carlton and Luisen were talking. In one night, they had lost their homes, neighbors, and families; they would definitely wonder what was happening. They had no choice but to wander around the area because they had no capabilities, but they had never, not even once, felt comfortable with what had happened.

Looking at how earnest they were, Luisen choked with guilt. ‘If I were their target, then they should only have attacked me. Why attack an innocent village?’

“We don’t know anything either. Even if we knew, it’s better for you to stay ignorant as well,” Carlton replied firmly. His words may have been harsh, but there was wisdom sprinkled there. This matter was intertwined with the Great Lord of the south and the unidentified forces aiming for him. These enemies clearly had extraordinary power and had been gunning for Luisen for many years; there was no way the culprit would be an ordinary person.

Carlton and Luisen both knew that knowledge of their identity alone would forge a motive to kill them.

Instead, Luisen apologized sincerely, “I’m sorry I can’t tell you more. Please don’t worry too much. More than that, what will you do now? Are you going to continue to stay in these mountains?”

“…We’ll have to leave. Maybe due to those monsters, the animal populations and greenery in these mountains have dried up… we have no way to make a living here.”

“Is there any place you can go?”

“…There isn’t,” the robbers replied, embarrassed.

Luisen wasn’t a stranger to having nowhere to go. How terrible must it feel to lose your home, one that you’ve had for decades, and be left with nothing? Even though the young lord was almost robbed, Luisen couldn’t help but give them some advice–he was too anxious to ignore them. “Go west from here and you’ll come upon a field. If you walk about two weeks south, you’ll arrive at a village. The population there has declined quite considerably recently, so they’ll accept you all.”

While Luisen was studying his duchy, he had found a village that was suffering from a shortage of manpower. The young lord also taught them about the Buried Old Hags. Now if they could sate their hunger, they wouldn’t commit robbery anymore.

This amount of information wasn’t much for Luisen, but the robbers didn’t think of it so casually. They bowed over and over, thanking him. “Thank you, my lord, thank you!”

For those wandering around roads without a purpose, it felt very meaningful just to have a destination. Moreover, this information was guaranteed by Luisen, someone that anyone could tell was a nobleman at a surface glance.

Since Luisen had played the role of a good cop, Carlton then stepped up. “What you’ve seen here should never be told to anyone. If any of this is disclosed…”

Carlton tapped his knife, reminding them to keep their mouths closed. Luisen’s advice and Carlton’s warning made the robbers feel just the right balance of appreciation and fear, making them even more determined to be cautious.

The men gave Luisen and Carlton their parting farewells and left their village behind. They had steely resolve, as they had already lived hard lives.

The young lord and the mercenary also resumed their journey. Soon the sun set, and they found a place to stay. The two sat beside a bonfire as they burned some Buried Old Hags. Even though they had a fire, once again, they simply had the same old roots.

The two filled their stomachs and organized the things they had brought from the village. Afterwards, they laid a blanket on the floor and arranged their sleeping positions. Lying side by side, Luisen stared blankly at the sky. He couldn’t sleep because, when he closed his eyes, images of the village flooded his mind.

The young lord tossed and turned. Because they were lying next to each other, Carlton’s face filled his view. There were dark bags under his eyes, and a scraggly beard was growing in. Though it wasn’t usually an appealing look, such a rough, messy, wanderer’s look suited Carlton’s masculinity. The mercenary’s eyes were closed, but Luisen could see the man’s eyes moving underneath his eyelids.