If I could be certain that the adventurers would remain safe inside this cave, then the best choice would be for me to bring information back to Baltrain and return with more reinforcements. However, that would require me to explain why I’d acted on my own, and we would need time to dispatch an official rescue party.
I did have one other hope: the search party organized by the adventurer’s guild. I wonder how far they’ve gotten... I doubted they were anywhere near the Aflatta Mountain Range yet. And frankly, I’d rendezvoused with Surena out of sheer luck, so it would be wishful thinking to expect others to follow in my footsteps and have that same luck. Knowing all this, it was better to leave the search party out of the equation. I would’ve loved for them to show up out of nowhere, though.
How many days would it take for me to descend the mountains, relay this information, get it approved, and for a party to make it all the way back here? There was absolutely no guarantee Surena’s party would still be alive by then. Surena and the man she was speaking with could maybe last for a while, but the heavily wounded adventurer wasn’t likely to make it much longer.
“Just to ask...” I began.
“Yes?”
“Do you know what makes it show up?”
“It always attacks when we approach its nest and whenever we try to leave its territory,” Surena answered. “It doesn’t make a move while we remain hidden. Again, I don’t know if it’s being prudent or cowardly...”
“So otherwise, it just watches.”
“In all likelihood. I assume it’s focused on analyzing our strength.”
“I see...”
This made sense—if it indiscriminately attacked everything that entered its territory, it could get killed by a stronger opponent. Guess it’s trying to avoid that. It really was being prudent or cowardly. For a monster strong enough to challenge Surena, it had strange tendencies.
It was particularly suspicious that it didn’t attack while we remained in shelter—that was a poor way of maintaining its territory. If there was no fear of being eaten, then other signs of life wouldn’t have vanished so cleanly.
In other words, this invisible monster was carefully observing anything that entered its territory, and it only attacked after it’d judged it could win. If it couldn’t, it would just let its target go. Maybe it had seen the adventurers as a threat to its dominance, so it had decided to kill them rather than letting them go. That was what I pictured based on this information, at least.
So, from this monster’s perspective...did it let me go because it didn’t think it could win? I doubted it. If it attacked Surena, there was no reason for it to avoid me, though perhaps it hadn’t attacked me on the way here because it’d been analyzing my strength.
“All right...” I muttered. I turned to the wounded man. “Sorry, but can you still move?”
“Yeah, somewhat... I’m Pisces Clayton, a platinum rank adventurer.”
“Oh, right. I’m Beryl Gardenant... You can say I make a living off my blade.”
“I’m not gonna pry. You chucked out all the red tape and procedures to get here, yeah?”
“Well, yeah.”
I’d spoken to the adventurer, and only after had I realized that I hadn’t even introduced myself. That’s a little shameful of me... Not that this situation calls for perfect etiquette. Anyway, in the middle of introducing myself, I’d hesitated on whether to reveal my occupation. After all, I’d thrown out all formalities to make a move on my own. I kind of wanted to avoid leaking any information.
Well, it was mostly a matter of time before word got out. Still, since I’d gone with this pretense already, I didn’t want to break it on my own. It was also true that I made a living off my blade, so I hoped he could forgive me for that.
“Anyway, take these,” I said. “Glad they didn’t go to waste.”
“Th-Thank you!”
No matter what we decided to do, staying here wasn’t an option. However, before moving on to discussing any plans, I had to hand over the potions, medical supplies, and food I’d brought. They surely had their own supplies, but they were probably low after spending several days in this cave.
“It’s not exactly top-shelf stuff, but it’s better than nothing,” I added.
“It honestly helps a lot,” Pisces said. “Even a minor wound can be pretty bad if it starts festering.”
“That’s true.”
Potions didn’t have a drastic immediate effect, but they were far better than nothing. For anything but a fatal wound, they could at least stop things from getting worse.
Also, as the famous saying goes, you can’t fight on an empty stomach. Hunger was a monster that drained stamina and willpower at a terrifying rate. All living creatures were incapable of escaping that curse. Being temporarily relieved of that made a major difference. The battlefield was quite literally a place where those who ran out of stamina and willpower collapsed. Replenishment was an absolute necessity.
“So? What’s the plan?” Pisces asked, splashing a potion over his wound and tearing into a piece of jerky.
I had an idea, but I needed everyone’s understanding and cooperation. It was a very dangerous plan, after all.
“Pisces,” I said, “can you run while carrying the other injured adventurer?”
“Can’t refuse to, even if I wanted to,” he answered. “It’ll be rough, but if it gets us back alive, I’ll do it.”
“Thanks.”
Any plan I proposed needed to include at least the possibility of getting the survivors back in one piece. Otherwise, Surena would refuse. So for now, we couldn’t consider any plans that required abandoning the heavily injured adventurer.
“Surena,” I said, “you can still fight, I assume?” I figured that was the case, given her earlier sneak attack, but it was important to make sure, especially when our next move was a matter of life and death.
“Of course. I’m not in peak condition, but I can still manage—” As she spoke, she seemed to deduce what I was thinking. “Master, you don’t mean...”
“You’ve probably got the right idea,” I said. “You and I are going to charge out of its territory while protecting Pisces.”
“Wha?!”
It would be difficult for Surena to win on her own. It would be even harder for her to do so while protecting her team. I wasn’t likely to win on my own either—in the worst case I would die in one hit if ambushed from behind. However, Surena and I together could probably pull it off.
I wasn’t going to be greedy and say we should defeat it. Our top priority was getting Surena, Pisces, the heavily wounded adventurer, and me out alive. That was never going to be achieved if we huddled together in this cave.
“It’ll probably attack us,” I said. “However, the odds of getting help while waiting here are basically nil.”
“Understood...” Surena conceded. “It’s time I steel my resolve. If the two of us can’t manage, then what hope is there?”
“I wanna say you shouldn’t drag me into this...” Pisces grumbled, “But if you trust him that much, Lysandra, I guess that’s just the way it goes.”
Not too long ago, I would’ve found Surena’s absolute trust in me to be a burden. I would’ve complained, saying it was too much responsibility for me, even if it made me happy and embarrassed. But now, I was clearly different. This change hadn’t taken place over the course of a single day but had been more of a gradual yet certain transformation. I wouldn’t allow this determination within me to fade away ever again. The day it did would surely be the day of my death—and today wasn’t that day.
“Hup...! This guy’s Pauford,” Pisces said, hefting the wounded adventurer. “We call him Pau. Remember that.”
“I won’t forget,” I told him. “Let’s do formal introductions once we’re all out of here safely.”
“Ha ha! Let’s... We’re counting on you.”
“You got it.”
Surena took a moment to replace her bandages and then drew her twin swords. “Ready when you are, Master.”
I nodded. “Let’s go.”
I couldn’t be anxious about whether I could get everyone safely out of the Afflata Mountain Range. I was spurred by a strong will—everyone was definitely going to make it. I had the strength to achieve that. Even if I had nothing to base it on, it was my duty to believe in such a future.
Okay, time to get to work and make my will a reality.