Chapter 17
To the Eternal Forest
Allen wore a troubled expression.
Across the round table, a priest of Radiance sat with an oily smile on his face.
“So, you want our mercenary company to escort the priest to Huntingville Village. Is that correct, Castellan?”
“You’ve left out one thing. You’ll also be searching the area surrounding Huntingville and the nearby villages. Apparently, hunters have recently begun disappearing.”
“Of course, I’m not asking the Aezk Mercenary Company to handle this alone. The Silver Wolf Mercenary Company will assist you.”
The priest slowly nodded.
“We priests bear the noble mission of spreading the teachings of Radiance throughout the world. If you help us carry out our doctrine, blessings shall surely accompany you.”
The doctrine of Radiance taught its priests to become the light and salt of the Empire.
Priests had a duty to travel even to the smallest villages, establish temples of Radiance, and spread its teachings.
“The position of village priest in Huntingville has been vacant for quite some time. Surely there are people there who yearn to receive the teachings of Radiance. I, Miley, shall gladly answer their call.”
Allen stared at the priest’s plump face. His greasy cheeks gleamed conspicuously beneath the meeting room’s lights.
As dawn broke, the priest’s carriage and the two mercenary companies escorting it passed through White Eagle Fortress.
They were the Aezk Mercenary Company and the Silver Wolf Mercenary Company.
The two captains, Allen and Robens, took the lead. Behind them, the mercenaries moved in formation around the passenger carriage and the roofless cargo wagon.
Kaspar and the Silver Wolf Company’s mage rode in the cargo wagon.
It was a courtesy extended to mages, whose combat capabilities could disproportionately affect a battle.
However, Kaspar found such preferential treatment unfamiliar and burdensome.
All the more so when he saw the other mercenaries silently trudging alongside the wagon, sweating despite the cold.
He thought it would be better to get down and walk with them.
The Silver Wolf Company’s resident mage, who appeared a few years older than him, clearly did not share that sentiment.
Clatter!
“Damn it...!”
He scowled with all his might at even the slightest jolt.
“What kind of driving is this? I’ll be lucky if my backside isn’t covered in bruises. If I’d known this would happen, I would’ve brought my personal enchanted cushion.”
The expressions of the mercenaries around them subtly hardened. The mage, however, did not stop complaining.
“First they put me in a cargo wagon without even a roof, and now this. This damned company doesn’t have an ounce of consideration. If I’d known it would be like this, I would’ve demanded more money when signing the contract.”
“What is it? Judging by those expressions, you have something you’d like to say to me.”
There was a saying among mercenaries: the moment the standard was raised, the mage was the first person they rescued.
It illustrated the status mages enjoyed within mercenary companies.
Accordingly, they were quietly given all manner of consideration and privileges.
And some had come to regard such treatment and privileges as their natural right.
“I’m freezing to death. This damned company doesn’t understand how valuable a mage is... Hmm?”
As the mage brushed the snow from his shoulder, his eyes met Kaspar’s steady gaze.
Thinking he might have stared too openly, Kaspar looked away. The mage narrowed his eyes.
“Come to think of it, we’re both mages, yet we haven’t introduced ourselves. My name is Rude. I’m a Second-Circle mage affiliated with the Flame Magic Tower.”
“I’m Kaspar Hauser.”
“Very well, Kaspar. Which Magic Tower do you belong to, and what Circle are you?”
Rude pressed him persistently.
“I... don’t have either yet.”
A smile appeared on Rude’s lips, its corners twisting slightly.
“You don’t have a Circle?”
“No.”
“You must be a book-taught mage, then. Someone who learned through books without a proper master.”
Mages were divided into two categories: the book-taught and apprentices.
Book-taught mages awakened to magic by studying books on their own.
Apprentices learned as disciples under mages officially accredited by a Magic Tower.
“Well, there’s nothing inherently wrong with that. A book-taught mage isn’t necessarily inferior to an apprentice. But Wintersteel has more Magic Towers than anywhere outside the Imperial Capital. If you came all the way here and still failed to receive a formal Circle ranking...”
The corners of Rude’s mouth rose.
“Ha! Well, a four-man mercenary company certainly sounds like the perfect place for you.”
“Thank you. I intend to appreciate my good fortune and work hard.”
It was a perfectly polite response.
But it was not the kind of response someone trying to provoke him wanted to hear.
Rude poked the tip of Kaspar’s boot with the end of his staff.
It was an exceptionally rude gesture.
Even the nearby Silver Wolf mercenaries looked startled and shot Rude warning glances, urging him to stop.
Naturally, Rude ignored them without a second thought.
“Did what I said offend you that much?”
“...?”
“If my complaints bothered you, let me make one thing clear. My demands are entirely justified.”
How had he managed to misunderstand Kaspar’s response so completely?
Still, Kaspar found himself interested in what Rude was saying. What exactly did this man, whose way of thinking was completely different from his own, want to convey?
“Justified?”
“Yes. Those who possess power have the right to demand special treatment. Do you know why?”
Rude stared at Kaspar, his expression demanding an answer.
But Kaspar had never thought about such a thing before. Naturally, an appropriate answer did not immediately come to mind.
“I’m... not sure.”
“Because we’re special.”
“Because we’re special?”
When Kaspar repeated his words, Rude nodded.
“That’s right. Every person is born with a different level of talent. Most are born with ordinary abilities and spend their entire lives crawling around like insects. But a select few are blessed with exceptional talent. People like us.”
“And that gives us a reason to receive special treatment?”
“Isn’t it obvious? Let me explain it in terms of efficiency and resource allocation. Suppose we had a meal consisting of bread and meat. Both Silver Wolf and your Aezk Company are starving and exhausted, but there is only enough food for two people. Who should eat it? The swordsmen? Or us? And don’t forget that this forest is crawling with monsters.”
Kaspar did not answer.
“You’re duller than I expected.”
Rude clicked his tongue.
“Even if one swordsman ate this meal and regained his strength, how many monsters could he kill? Three or four at most. Perhaps seven or eight if he were particularly skilled. But if I ate it, I could wipe out ten monsters. All at once.”
Rude brandished his staff boastfully.
“It’s common sense, Kaspar. The common sense of this world. In the end, who should receive limited resources? Talent, naturally. Talented people should be given priority. This isn’t discrimination or inequality. It is a rational choice—a rational choice founded on efficiency.”
He lightly tapped Kaspar’s shoulder with his staff.
“Do you understand what I’m saying now?”
Rude snorted at Kaspar’s lack of a reaction.
“Well, I suppose you aren’t talented enough to have experienced it for yourself yet.”
Just then—
“Everyone, halt!”
Allen and Robens issued the command simultaneously.
Several shattered carts lay in the middle of the forest road, with logs strewn everywhere.
They appeared to be lumberjacks’ carts.
Bloodstains were scattered throughout the area, with faint steam still rising from them.
The attack had happened only moments ago.
The mercenaries drew their weapons in unison.
At that moment, a groan reached their ears.
“Ahh... Ugh... Uhhh!”
“A pregnant woman?”
At a glance from Robens, several nearby mercenaries approached to help her.
The priest also leaned his corpulent body out the carriage window, trying to see what was happening.
At that moment, the Fallen Throne appeared before Kaspar.
[Stop them, Kaspar.]
“What?”
It was the voice of an elderly woman.
A blood-covered woman crawled out from beneath one of the carts and began dragging herself forward. Her belly was swollen.
[That isn’t a pregnant woman. Look carefully.]
Kaspar narrowed his eyes slightly. Only then did he notice it.
A long, thick strand of sticky mucus trailed from beneath her skirt.
It was spider silk.
With white snow covering everything, he had failed to notice it sooner.
If the strand alone was that thick, just how large was the spider? Was it a monster? No, wait—
The surface of the woman’s swollen belly was constantly writhing, as though something were squirming around inside it.
Her belly split wide open, and eight fur-covered legs burst out.
Her two eyes multiplied and divided, while the flesh beneath her nose split vertically down the middle.
“Eek! Radiance preserve us!”
The priest screamed in terror and disappeared back inside the carriage.
“It’s a mimic spider!”
“Stop!”
Kaspar raised his voice, which was rare for him.
Everyone stopped at once. Even the guards directly affiliated with the Church of Radiance, who had been protecting the priest, halted.
They looked back and forth between Kaspar and the pregnant woman in confusion.
Then someone shouted.
Mimic spiders hunted by freely changing the color of their bodies. After killing their prey, they stole its appearance to lure in their next victim.
The mercenaries’ faces turned pale when they realized they had walked into a monster’s trap.
Screech!
Black venom sprayed from the mouth of the spider that had disguised itself as a pregnant woman.
“Aaaaaaargh!”
The arm of the nearest mercenary melted away. Clutching it, he rolled across the snow while screaming in agony.
And that was only the beginning.
Dozens of slimy strands unfurled through the air simultaneously. Sticky threads rained down over the mercenaries’ heads.
“Argh!”
“Damn it!”
“Help me!”
Rustle, rustle, rustle!
The surrounding trees shook violently.
“Above us!”
Someone shouted, and everyone looked up.
Countless shadows hung from the snow-covered treetops. They were difficult to distinguish against the white snow, but each one was as large as an adult human.
Whoosh!
Three soldiers were wrapped in silk and hauled straight up into the trees. They desperately flailed their arms and legs, trying to grab hold of anything, but their struggles were futile.
“Aaaaaaargh!”
Horrific screams rang out overhead.
Blood and bodily fluids rained down upon them.
“Damn it! There aren’t just one or two! Block the silk with your shields! Anyone without one, get next to someone who has one! Hah!”
Allen severed a slimy strand aimed at him with his sword.
Robens shouted immediately afterward.
“Everyone, protect the carriages!”
Spiders descended from the towering trees.
Black venom sprayed from every direction, and screams erupted throughout the area.
The mercenaries struck by the venom hurriedly threw away their swords and shields, attempting to tear off their armor with their bare hands.
However, the melted leather had already fused to their skin, so the more they tried to remove it, the more agonizing it became.
The long, sticky strands suddenly snapped, and dozens of spiders landed around them in an instant.
The sight of human-sized spiders filling the entire area was horrifying enough on its own.
Members of the Silver Wolf Company began panicking, ignoring the chain of command and acting on their own.
“Hey, kill that bastard!”
“Mark! You idiot, it’s me! Get a grip, you moron!”
Their formation collapsed, leaving gaps everywhere. The mimic spiders rapidly moved their hairy legs and closed in.
Screech!
Confusion and terror engulfed the Silver Wolf Mercenary Company.
As for Aezk—
“Hah!”
Ellasen’s sword flashed at her waist. The blade left its sheath in an instant and pierced the joint of a charging spider’s front leg.
Squelch!
Sticky green fluid sprayed across the snowy ground. The spider staggered and spat black venom, but Ellasen moved faster.
She smoothly evaded it and severed the joints of its remaining legs. The spider’s body collapsed helplessly.
“Hrrngh!”
Whoom!
Beside her, Zrek’s axe produced a heavy roar.
He brought it down squarely between the eyes of a mimic spider trying to slip past him. Its face burst apart with a wet crunch.
One of its sharp forelegs shot at him in a final struggle, but Zrek skillfully twisted the haft of his axe upward and deflected it.
The mimic spider crashed to the ground with a heavy thud.
Kaspar stared in admiration.
“Zrek and I are Sword Users officially recognized by the Swordsmanship Institute. We’re different from ordinary mercenaries.”
“But at the refugee camp, you couldn’t do anything, and your arms and legs—”
“I was caught off guard back then!”
Her face turning red, Ellasen took her embarrassment out on another innocent spider. Apparently, it was quite a sore spot. Rather than cutting it apart as precisely as before, she battered it to death as though her sword were a club.
[Ask her whether being caught off guard isn’t also a reflection of her skill.]
“...”
[Why not?]
“Judging by your expression, Fallen Throne, I don’t think I should.”
A sharp sound reached his ears.
It came from Allen.
Allen said nothing.
He merely surrounded himself with dazzling arcs of sword light.
The ceaselessly flashing trajectories spread around him like a curtain, carving the approaching spiders into pieces.
“Wow.”
Robens, in particular, fought at the very front, swinging his sword with ferocious momentum.
The mimic spiders could not put up anything resembling resistance before becoming headless corpses.
He, too, possessed strength worthy of a mercenary captain.
Hiss, hiss, hiss.
Exclamations of admiration sounded around them.
He was strong. Unquestionably strong.
By the time Ellasen and Zrek had killed two or three spiders, Allen had already separated the heads from the bodies of seven.
A man who had reached the level of Sword Expert.
Even Kaspar, who knew nothing about swordsmanship, could see that Allen stood on an entirely different level from the others.
Meanwhile, the more experienced veterans of the Silver Wolf Company began mounting a counterattack of their own.
The mimic spiders appeared to falter beneath the mercenaries’ offensive, only to charge again. Perhaps drawn by the pervasive scent of blood, more and more mimic spiders continued emerging from somewhere.
Zrek’s expression gradually grew serious.
“There are starting to be a bit too many of them.”
Unpleasant sounds came from every direction as hairy legs writhed all around them.
Living up to their name, the mimic spiders blended into the snow. More than once, a venomous fang had narrowly grazed someone before they even realized a spider was there.
Squelch.
The bodily fluids spilled across the ground formed small puddles. They gradually spread until they began interfering with everyone’s footing.
“Just how many are there? I’ve never heard of these things moving around in packs of dozens!”
Ellasen looked appalled.
On the Empire’s plains, mimic spiders normally appeared alone or in pairs—three or four at most. Even that was enough to make local lords assemble bands of mercenaries.
Because of how mimic spiders hunted, wiping out a nearby village was an easy feat for them.
Yet countless mimic spiders swarmed throughout this forest.
Several of them retreated a few steps.
It was too soon to rejoice.
Their abdomens split wide open, spilling out waves of spiderlings.
They were called spiderlings, but each was as large as an adult’s fist. The sight of them scurrying forward in a rippling mass sent chills down everyone’s spines.
“Rude!”
Robens shouted.
Everyone’s gaze focused on one place.
“You’ll deafen me, Captain.”
Rude leisurely cracked the joints of his fingers.
His gaze briefly swept over Kaspar.
“Watch carefully, book-taught mage. I’ll show you what an apprentice mage is capable of.”
An arrogant smile spread broadly across his face.
“All right.”
Kaspar smiled and nodded.