Volume 6 - CH 4.3

「……」

Dimitar, who was walking in the shallow stream with a splish-splash towards the foot of the mountain, stopped walking suddenly and surveyed his surroundings.

Although he wasn’t able to confirm it, the moon must have moved to the west considerably. It was probably about three hours to dawn. The impatient morning mist was enshrouding the inside of the mountain where the visibility was already poor, and it was starting to curl around the two people’s feet.

「What’s the matter?」

Valeria, who was being carried on Dimitar’s back, raised a puzzled voice because his feet had stopped.

「…It was a bad decision, huh」

「Eh?」

「The matter of bringing you along」

Letting out a murmur, Dimitar lowered Valeria on the spot.

「W, what do you mean?」

「There’s something out there」

「Something, you say… is it a wolf or something?」

「Though I don’t know what kinds of fierce animals live in this mountain, there probably aren’t any wolves or bears that use perfume」

「T, then, don’t tell me—?」

Looking at the profile of Dimitar whose nose had twitched, a look of nervousness flitted across Valeria’s face now, although it was too late.

「…We’ve been surrounded already」

Dimitar frowned and regretted bitterly. He was angry with himself for not realising that they had been surrounded until he sniffed out the faint scent of perfume. Of course, the other party was probably all experts who possessed abilities corresponding to that, but even if that was taken away, Dimitar’s pride was hurt considerably.

「People who are deep in the mountains like this, a, are they bandits? Or are they a caravan crossing the mountains, which you said just now—」

「It’d still have been better if they were bandits」

「Better, you say… eh? You said not “it’d still have been better if they were a caravan” but “it’d still have been better if they were bandits”!?」

Although he had no definite basis, Dimitar had an intuition that the other party wasn’t ordinary bandits. The main prey of the bandits who made frequent appearances in this area were caravans that were transporting prohibited goods from Bigelow and couldn’t enter Romarikku via honest routes. Given that they were prohibited goods, the earnings would be big if they were sold off.

Therefore, they shouldn’t have the time to go to the trouble of surrounding travellers who weren’t carrying any particular baggage—for example, the current Dimitar’s party who must have also appeared so—and making a surprise attack on them.

That being the case, it wasn’t the case that they mistook Dimitar’s party for a caravan or something. From the beginning, they were trying to attack the two people with clear intention once they had grasped their identities. As a matter of fact, Dimitar was sensing a bloodlust directed from the other side of the darkness to the extent of it being painful.

「…Damn」

Dimitar clicked his tongue, seemingly annoyed, and pulled Jagielka out.

Perhaps they might have been followed after slipping out of the guest house. Despite lecturing Valeria, who had spoken selfishly, about this and that, he didn’t realise that they were being followed at all. He was furiously angry at his own lack of foresight.

Suddenly, several streaks of light flashed, rending the darkness.

「!」

Valeria, whose shoulders had trembled with a start, thrust her right hand out with a reflex speed that was astonishing for her. Brilliant red phosphorescence passed through the back of her hand from her fingertips and drew a magic crestHieratika, and then it created a strong invisible shield in front of the two people.

「Ya!」

A jarring “Gain!” noise resounded, and the countless flame arrows were smashed up in front of the “Iron Wall”Rampart.

At almost the same time, when Dimitar brandished Jagielka and cast “Double Power”Force, he intercepted the figure of a person, who had torn off the branches and leaves of the tree and come down from above his head.

「Guha—」

The man, who was practically cut in two with a single stroke of his sword, was blown off, scattering fresh blood. Although it was a gruesome death, it probably wasn’t seen by Valeria.

When Dimitar grasped Valeria’s hand, he jumped from the boulder along the mountain stream to the trunk of a tree, then accelerated further and went down the mountain.

Two men leapt out before their eyes. With black curved swords, which had great curvature and were rarely seen in Ahmad, in their hands, they came attacking in order to block the path of Dimitar’s party.

「…They’re southern people, huh」

Dimitar, who had guessed that the men were people from Bigelow by their crescent-moon-like swords and their skin colour, carried Valeria in his arms and jumped nimbly.

「Hi!?」

Dimitar protected Valeria, who had swallowed her scream, at his back and parried the blow the man on the right had unleashed with his metal greave, and at the same time, he mercilessly kicked the face of the man on the left. It wasn’t a very pleasant sensation, but he couldn’t ask too much in these circumstances.

「Good grief, if I knew that it’ll become like this, I’d have prepared Gacha Pink’s umbrella in advance…!」

Although he had defeated the enemies in front for the time being, he knew from the signs of presence that there were several enemies running side by side on the other side of the forest of trees. To make matters worse, according to what he had understood from the first blow, there were people who could use magic—perhaps he should call it sorceryFata Malefica if the other party was barbarian believers—mixed in within this enemy group. They were extremely troublesome enemies.

「Ha!」

While being carried on Dimitar’s shoulder, Valeria shot “Fire Bullet”Blast in all directions. The arrows of red light flew in succession and pushed the curtain of darkness in their surroundings aside, illuminating the figures of the countless men within it for just an instant.

「…There are a lot of them」

Just by making a visual confirmation quickly, there were more than ten people. Dimitar’s eyes ran left and right, and then he spoke to Valeria.

「For the time being, fire more」

「He?」

「It’s impossible to aim and hit them anyway. You might as well deal a flashy shot to the rear. It’s better to reduce their numbers even a little」

「U, un!」

When Valeria swung her slender arm, a flame brighter than the one from just now poured out like a torrent and enveloped the men who were hot on her heels.

Just before the redness could fade, Dimitar saw a figure of a tall and thin person jumping out from within the darkness on the right.