21 - Marquis Maron
Episode 21
"Selbon is a border town belonging to the Holt Kingdom. The Order people were in a medium-sized city half a day away before they came to Selbon. So, the place we should go this time isn't Holt, but the Nieve Kingdom."
"Why?"
"I heard they're on bad terms these days. A merchant told me that last winter, Holt men went into the Nieve mountains and caught all the precious Snowbeasts."
"Those bastards."
"So, the Nieve border guards captured and tortured all the people from Holt without warning."
"Even innocent people? Those bastards."
"That's why we should go to Nieve."
Fatima, as an innkeeper, was quite knowledgeable about rumors. It was hard to believe that she was someone who wasn't interested in worldly affairs.
If Selbon weren't a rural mountain village, she could have made a magazine out of hearsay if she were a city innkeeper.
I know why Nieve was so angry at Holt around this time. This was the background of an episode in the original work.
The wife of a March of the Holt Kingdom would bring in Snowbeast hides from Nieve every winter and sell them as luxury goods. When her husband, who was caught cheating, was in danger of getting divorced, he ordered the hunters to catch a lot of Snowbeasts that his wife liked.
It was something the lord ordered while throwing a wad of gold coins. The hunters immediately invaded another country and became poachers. As the Snowbeast population plummeted, Nieve dispatched an investigation team.
"Wouldn't you be angry if a border March who's like an enemy was massacring precious Snowbeasts from another country because he was afraid of getting beaten by his wife?"
"Lord… how do you know that? You don't even leave this remote place."
"I have ways of knowing everything."
I enjoyed the admiring gaze Fatima sent me and slung my luggage over my shoulder.
"Shall we depart?"
"Let's go! Let's go, Reikart!"
The three-person airborne squad consisting of me, Reikart, and Fatima set off for the Nieve Kingdom.
Since we had to break through in a completely different direction this time, we moved along the most road-like path possible.
My will not to build a road hadn't wavered, but I was slightly relieved and less wary after seeing that Eugene and the Order knights couldn't enter the Contaminated Zone even a step.
"Should we buy a Snowbeast fur coat while we're there? I heard it's so warm. It said so in the book."
"Lord, do you know how expensive that is? Even nobles only give it to their mistresses or daughters, not their wives."
"I have a lot of money. Right, Reikart?"
"Hayley has nothing but money."
As if to prove that I was rich, Reikart reached into his luggage and showed Fatima a jewel.
"These things roll around like pebbles."
"Ah…."
Fatima looked back and forth between the jewel and me with her mouth open.
Then she started a storm of nagging.
"Don't show it to just anyone. Got it? You can't sell it to just anyone either. Go to a jeweler with a 3 Kingdoms official certificate, get it properly appraised, and then go to the bank and exchange it for paper money…."
"Do you think I'm an idiot too?"
"You seem too naive, Lord!"
Wow, Hayley.
The villainess of the century is hearing things like that.
Know that it's all thanks to me.
The journey was peaceful. Since my abilities had been upgraded, I could manage the Contamination for about two people without holding hands. In the forest that had entered summer, the sound of orioles singing….
"A bird!"
Reikart ran quickly. To catch it in the air before it came down to the ground and became Contaminated, speed was essential.
But perhaps because the protagonist's presence was too great, the birds quickly flew far away.
Reikart, who was climbing a tree like a martial arts movie protagonist, let out a hollow sigh on the branch.
I have to catch something.
I can eat Magical Energy while going, but you two have to eat something.
That's how the first night came. We lit a bonfire on the flat ground, focusing on the two who needed to sleep, and roasted the bird that Reikart had caught with all his might.
"I'm so tired I could die…."
Fatima lay down and couldn't even think of getting up.
"How can you be so fine? I can understand Reikart, but you seem much, much weaker than me. How…."
"Originally, I was good at using my body as much as magic, and after coming in here, I got used to wandering around the rough forest, and since I eat Magical Energy, I don't get tired in this place full of Magical Energy."
"You're blessed."
"If you say that outside, you'll be caught by the Inquisitors."
"If anyone asks outside, I'll say this is a cursed forest, and everyone who goes inside dies."
I handed a well-roasted bird to Fatima, who was lying on the bare ground, saying she was so tired she could die, but only her mouth was moving.
"What about you, Lord?"
"There's not enough for you two to eat."
"Still…."
"If you're so sorry, do you want to eat Magical Energy too?"
"No way!"
Fatima jumped up and ate the bird meat. Reikart chuckled and handed her another piece of meat.
"I'll take the first watch…."
When Reikart started talking about watch duty again, I pressed his forehead and forced him to lie down.
"Who else is here in this forest besides us? Just sleep."
"There are the tainted."
"I told you they don't attack me? Ah, just sleep when I tell you to sleep. You don't listen at all. It's already midnight. We're going to move as soon as the sun rises, are you going without sleeping?"
Reikart stared at me while lying on the ground. Even when he just looks, his eyes are so fierce that it looks like he's glaring, but he was really glaring.
"What, huh! What!"
"You sleep too."
"I don't have to sleep… but I'm sleeping. Sleep!"
As I lay down and looked at the night sky, I suddenly felt like I was the mother of demons who had brought normal people and was exploiting them.
Isn't that so? In a Purified place, you have to eat and sleep like a human, but in the Contaminated Zone, you don't have to eat or sleep.
It's subtly convenient, but it was awkward in many ways.
Am I even human? Was Hayley not human in the first place? What if I suddenly become a demon one day while eating Magical Energy like this?
As I was thinking about that, the night deepened. As I listened to Fatima's snoring and looked at Reikart, his chest was rising and falling slowly.
I quietly got up and went into the dark forest.
There were the tainted.
They stared at me endlessly this time too. Some showed hostility towards Fatima and Reikart, but when I stood in front of them, they didn't move and only looked at me.
"Go back."
I ordered quietly.
"Go back, don't even think about touching them."
After I became better at handling Magical Energy, the tainted listened to my orders. Detailed orders like 'Go to such and such place by such and such time and do such and such' were impossible, but I could give orders like 'Go back' or 'Step back'.
The tainted withdrew their hostility towards Reikart and Fatima and turned their bodies. They were probably going back to the place where they had been wandering aimlessly.
I sent back all the tainted who had come close and returned to the bonfire.
But Reikart, who I thought was asleep, was sitting up and waiting for me.
"Oh my god! You scared me."
"It's what I have to do."
He seemed to think that defeating the tainted was his duty. I shook my head, saying that wasn't the case.
"We don't know who among them is a criminal who deserves to die, or a victim who was unfairly abandoned."
"As you said, they're already dead people anyway. If you worry about that one by one…."
"Think about the lumberjacks of Selbon."
When I met the lumberjacks who had lost their minds and were wandering around the border when I rescued Fatima, I started to pay attention to the tainted little by little from that day on.
"The Order mainly threw them away, right? Then there might be a lot more people who were unfairly treated than we think?"
Reikart nodded silently without arguing with me. Then he didn't sleep that day and was lost in thought alone.
