Chapter 541:
Here? Or Not Here?
THE THREE MEN laughed.
“Well said, Ivy. When I saw the platoon captain at the gate, I was almost in awe.”
From the look on Fische’s face, he was clearly amazed at the captain’s stupidity, but that was understandable. Most people in his position would know better than to do something like that before things went public. What he did was as good as waving a flag and yelling, “Hello! Where are my dead gatekeepers I’m going to frame you for murdering?”
“When there’s no voice of reason in the room, your actions just get dumber and dumber,” Zinal said.
Fische nodded. “This is what happens when you surround yourself with yes-men. Well, feeble people bring things like this on themselves.”
Feeble, huh? Yeah, that is the impression I get from these people. I feel sorry for the poor villagers who have people of that caliber in every top position.
“Well, it’s only a matter of time before they’ll get overbearing. Our buddy has already taken off for the next village over.”
By “our buddy,” he must mean their secret friend in Okanke Village. Wait, no, their public friend… I guess I can just say “their friend.”
“That was quick,” my father remarked.
Zinal smiled. “Well, we told our friend the village was in imminent peril, so I’m sure that got the ball rolling quickly.”
They sure seem to have a lot of trust in this friend of theirs. How odd.
Poke.
“Oh!”
I felt a push on my back and turned around to see Snakey staring at me. Then I remembered that they were supposed to show us something today.
“Sorry, buddy. Can you still take us to that thing you wanted us to see?” I asked.
Snakey nodded, then lowered its head. That was the signal for me to hop on its back, but I wasn’t sure how far away this place was.
“Is the place you’re going to take us far away?” I asked.
Snakey shook its downturned head no, meaning it wasn’t that far.
“We can just walk, then. Let’s go.”
Zinal looked alarmed by my announcement. Oh, did you want to ride on Snakey’s back? But we’re too close to the village for that to be safe. We don’t want villagers seeing us.
“Oh! Right, we’re actually very close to Okanke Village, aren’t we?” Zinal said, though he was clearly let down.
“Zinal…” Fische sighed tiredly.
I smiled. The disappointment in Zinal’s eyes was obvious. He really wanted to ride on Snakey.
Snakey took the lead, followed by my slimes and myself, with my father, Fische, and Zinal bringing up the rear. After a while, I realized we were walking toward the giant cliff. Apparently, that was the place they wanted to show us.
“That’s huge,” Zinal said.
“Sure is,” Fische nodded as he found our spot on the map.
“Think there’s a cave?” I asked.
“Probably,” my father answered as we looked for the mouth of one. Since it was a giant cliff, we assumed there would probably be several caves, but we couldn’t find a single one.
“Not finding anything,” my father remarked.
“Really? But this cliff is so big…” Fische looked up from his map and scanned the cliff area. “Yeah, you’re right. There’s nothing. Not even a sign of a cave.”
So I guess that means cave entrances always have signs that they’re there. I wonder what that looks like? I’d kind of like to see it.
“I think it’s that way,” Zinal said.
I looked over to see the serpent slithering alongside the cliff. Where was it going? I looked up at the cliff, searching for a cave mouth as we walked.
But wow…this cliff really is enormous. We’ve been walking a long time, and I still don’t even see the edge of it. I don’t see any mouths of caves, either.
“When we came to this cliff, I mistakenly thought it would have caves inside,” I sighed.
Had Snakey just brought us to a cliff without a cave?
“No, most cliffs do have caves, no matter how big or small,” Zinal assured me. “So it’s very unusual for a cliff this size not to have one…”
I sensed a little confusion in Zinal’s voice, so I assumed that meant this cliff was quite the rarity. After all, even the cliff the serpents climbed up at a right angle had had a cave inside.
“Is this the place?”
My father looked around where Snakey stopped. We had assumed it was escorting us to a cave, since we were traveling around the perimeter, but we were wrong. No matter how hard we examined the cliff, we found no cave entrance. A glance at the forest opposite it was even more baffling—we couldn’t see the serpent’s reason for bringing us through such an unremarkable forest. My father seemed just as baffled as me; when our eyes met, he quietly shook his head.
“So, um…what is this place?” Zinal asked.
Snakey’s head tilted, which made me a little nervous. Why the look of confusion, when Snakey was the one who brought us here?
“Pu! Pu, puuu.”
I looked over to see Sora staring intently at the cliff.
“What is it?”
Sensing something was off, I headed over to Sora and followed the slime’s gaze. It was looking at a boulder not unlike the others around it. I reached out and touched the rock, and its coldness seeped through my skin. It was unmistakably a rock, both in sight and in touch.
“Pu, puuu.”
Mrrrow.
Ciel sniffed the spot on the rock where I touched it, then scratched it lightly with its front paws.
“Ciel, you’ll dull your claws,” I said.
The rock must have been tough, because Ciel hardly made a scratch on it. Still, there seemed to be something there. I touched it again, tracing a wider circle… Nothing. Feeling a shadow loom overhead, I looked up to see Snakey peering down at me.
“Is this the place?” I asked.
Snakey and my creatures tilted their heads at me.
Uhhh, I’m wrong again? Come on, guys, I’m not a mind reader.
“It doesn’t usually feel this anticlimactic…”
I nodded at my father in agreement. Zinal and Fische touched the spot that the monsters had reacted to.
“But there’s nothing here, right?” Zinal asked.
Fische nodded. Everyone agreed there was nothing there, but the way the monsters were reacting told us there was something significant about this spot. Yet, whenever we asked them, they would just look at us funny.
…Yeah, I’ve got nothing. This makes no sense.
“What do we do now?” my father asked.
The others fell into thought. This was the spot the serpents wanted to show us. And when we asked them if this was the right place, they gave us funny looks…but this was definitely the spot. Yet there was nothing here.
“……”
Huh?
Did I just hear a voice?
I looked around, but nothing was any different. Was I just imagining things?
“……, ……”
No, I definitely heard something. But what was it?
“What’s up?” My father eyed me with concern while my eyes darted to and fro.
“I thought I heard something…”
Zinal and Fische looked at me, then took a bewildered look around. Their reactions felt a little strange to me.
“Wait, can’t you guys hear it? A voice clearly said—”
“please…”
It was quiet, but I definitely heard it this time. Somebody was nearby.
“Ivy?”
“I heard a voice say please. Somebody’s near us.”
I touched the rock again, but nothing changed. Was it coming from the forest, then?
“Please…hear…”
Please hear…what? Is somebody trying to give us a message?
“Please…hear?” I said out loud.
“Is that what you heard?” my father asked.
I nodded.
“We’ll check the forest. Stay here.”
Zinal and Fische disappeared into the trees. We were quite deep in the forest, and the magic energy here was thick. If it was a monster, it must have been a very powerful one. I knew Fische and Zinal were strong fighters, but I was a little worried.
“Think they’ll be okay?” I asked. “I sense a really powerful monster nearby…”
I couldn’t see it, but I could sense its aura, and it was very aware of us.
“They’ll be fine. They’re both really strong fighters,” my father assured me.
Mrrrow.
Almost immediately after I heard Ciel’s voice, the creature was bounding into the trees.
“Oh! Think Ciel’s going with them?”
“Looks like it. And with Ciel protecting them, I know they’ll be safe.”
“Yeah.”
That definitely did put my mind at ease. I sensed the powerful magic energy rushing into the distance at an impressive speed. Wait a minute…
“I don’t think Ciel went to Zinal and Fische… It’s chasing the monster instead?”
Behind the swiftly rushing magic energy was a faint magic aura. That was Ciel’s magic. Once the monster got a certain distance from us, I sensed Ciel changing targets and chasing after it.
My father smiled. “Yeah, I think you’re right. I can feel a disturbance in the forest.”
Just then, the trees of the forest shook violently, and I could hear roaring voices coming from all directions.
“Please…hear…”
Oh, there it is again! Please, hear… Is it “please hear my message”? Is this voice calling somebody?