The name’s Torne Krieger. Everyone here in Cardiff just calls me “that old-timer gatekeeper,” though.
If somebody says “that old-timer,” you think Torne, and if they say Torne, you think “oh, that old-timer.”
Hmph!
I’d been living in this town for a long time, and this was the biggest incident since its founding: the arrival of a bergbear.
Four years ago, there was a big panic when some wolves snuck into town. But the men of Cardiff got some help in from Donius, so we wiped them out pretty quickly. Well, I say “we,” but we didn’t do much. It was mostly that girl and her lightning.
We needed to be a whole lot more vigilant this time around, though. Wolf-type monsters may be weak, but they’re dangerous. It’s because they’re weak, really; they form packs, and that makes them more trouble.
A bergbear was different, though. Those things never formed packs, because they were strong.
It was enough of a terror that it’d take a whole party of C-rank adventurers to bring one down.
Let me put it this way: I’m one of the strongest guys in town, and I’m just below D-rank. You see? Yeah. That’s the problem.
Apparently the bergbear was spotted near the northeast entrance to the forest, off in the thicket alongside the highway.
...Hey, hold on, that’s only 400 meltortes away, isn’t it?
It wasn’t long before an order came down to close up the gates 2 hors ahead of schedule.
This was sure to be an all-nighter, what with watching the gate and dealing with the merchants who were just passing through. Damn, I couldn’t make time earlier, but I still should’ve gotten in a meal at Derek’s place...
Derek and I have a history — him and that flashy gold hair of his. We’d been pals since back when he made his living down in the mine. Never would’ve thought back then that he’d end up winning over Sola... I’m his friend, so of course I was happy for him, but I couldn’t help feeling like he’d gotten away with the better wife. My missus was on the chubby side, like a slime or something... Well, even so, she was a good, charming woman in her own way.
Ah, speak of the devil. Here comes that flashy-haired father and daughter now. Derek was coming right up to me.
Normally he’d either be in bed or chowing down on his pub snacks at this time of night. And he should’ve been done stocking up, too. It sure was rare, catching a glimpse of him outside this late in the day.
Jeez, the moonlight really was making that blond hair of theirs stand out.
He had his daughter Annie with him and... who was that? Whoever it is, they sure are in a hurry...
“Hey, what’s going on, Derek? Annie, and Logg...? What’s up? What are the kids doing with you?”
“Torne, two kids went outside the town walls. Yuuta and Ana.”
“Please... tell me this is a joke, Derek...”
My mind went blank when I heard Derek’s words. He’d never lie about something that serious, so I knew right away that he wasn’t kidding around.
...Even so, considering what he was saying, I couldn’t help but flare up at him.
“But the gate was closed! Nobody left!”
“They apparently used the irrigation gate. Logg heard them say so.”
W-What...?!
“Damn it!! Konobo, go get everyone from the station! And some oil! We’re mounting a search!!” I called out to my young trainee.
Come to think of it, the irrigation gate was the last place we checked when locking up. They must’ve slipped out before we got around to it!
Still, it should’ve been 3 or 4 hors now since we did our first check. Damn, they may be pretty far out by now...
...This is no time to be standing around thinking.
...Rooooooar...
That was... the bergbear...
“Stop...! Just please make it stop... I haven’t even had a drink today...”
This was a nightmare.
“...The search has been called off.”
“Tell me why,” Derek demanded.
“We’d need to use fire for the search.”
“What’s the matter with that?”
“If we were just talking wolves or something, they’d run from the flames. But this thing’s different. Fire would just attract him. We’d end up getting eaten before we could ever find Yuuta and Ana, without a doubt.”
“But...”
“So that’s reason enough?!” Anti shouted, butting into the conversation.
“That’s a good enough reason?! There’s two kids! We know they’re out there, and we’re just going to leave the gate closed and go on like nothing’s wrong?!! Old-timer! You’re a gatekeeper, aren’t you?! Are you really okay with this?!” There were tears in her eyes as she yelled.
She’d grown up to be real earnest, just like her pa.
But even so, I was a gatekeeper. I had to be willing to harden my heart and make tough choices for the sake of everyone living here.
And so, I laid things out. How the bergbear would find the town if we used torches. And the fact that if it ever found out a place had food, it’d hunker down there.
At any rate, when morning came, it’d be sure to see the gate and at least some of the people flowing in and out...
“So... so that’s enough to—”
“What do you intend to do?” Derek cut in.
“Searching the forest would just provoke it. Besides, we’re weaklings. If we ran into it, we’d just get eaten. We’ll send an envoy to Donius. That roar just now came from the small mountain in the depths of the forest. It should still be far enough from the highway that we can slip by it.”
It had wandered towards the northwest part of the forest since we spotted it...
Now might be our chance to send out a messenger without it noticing the entrance to town...
“Will we be able to send out a search when morning comes?”
“...That’d be difficult. The best armor we’ve got in this town is two partial bits of orc leather armor. I can’t tell my subordinates to head off towards the threat of certain death. We’ll just have to pray that Yuuta and Ana can stay hidden until an adventurer arrives from Donius.”
Even I thought I should be ashamed for saying that.
I’ve served as a gatekeeper for so long, protecting this town. For me to say all we can do is pray...
What a disgustingly pathetic, cowardly excuse...
I am a weakling.
Derek must’ve picked up on my frustration, as it wasn’t long before he called out, “Anti, Logg, go back home.”
“But...!”
“Go back!”
Ann seemed to want to say something, but when she saw the look on Derek’s face, she took Logg and left.
“Derek, I’m sorry. I...”
“Torne, I trust your ability as a gatekeeper. You’re the reason that nobody died on that day four years ago. You led the wolves away and set up an evacuation route. And you made sure everyone knew how to stay hidden. Everybody in this town is grateful to you.”
“...”
“There are some things... we just can’t control...”
Derek was close to Ana and Yuuta. They’d grown up alongside Anti since they were babies, and they were practically siblings.
They were like family to him. Damn it... damn it...!
“I’m sorry...”
“Let’s send someone to Donius...”
I was powerless. Back when I was a youngster still aiming to be an adventurer, I traveled all over. All I found, though, was failure. To be honest, I may have just been running away from it all when I came to this town.
But even someone like me, whose dreams had come crashing down, had still learned things along the way. And still had people he wanted to protect...
“Torne...”
“What is it, Derek?”
A man my age should know better than to let himself get this wrapped up in his own pity.
I needed to hurry up and decide who to send to Donius.
It was then that Derek pointed and said, “Look, over there...”
“It’s... burning...?!”
I could see a fire in the center of the small mountain. The sight of it, shining out through the dark of night, made me want to break down in tears.
We’d been discussing the threat of a forest fire for a while now. Everyone knew that around here, the higher up you went, the drier everything got. That was true not only of the trees, but also of fallen branches and leaves. Our neck of the woods was moss-covered and damper than the surrounding areas, but it wouldn’t be strange at all for a fire to break out on the mountain up above us at any time.
There was a plan to fell the trees surrounding town, but all the moss actually worked to our detriment there. It made it easy to slip, for one thing. For another, it provided plenty of water for saplings, so it wouldn’t be long before new trees sprang up. And as you went further in, you ran the risk of running into wolves and goblins. All that made felling the trees a tricky prospect.
“But still, why did it have to be today of all days...?”
“Torne... Yuuta had a Fire magic stone on him for backup.”
“So that was what started it...?! But that’s...”
“Yeah, it’s right in the center. That’s pretty far off... I heard Yuuta had been saying he’d defeat the bergbear.”
“That damn fool...”