I was a bit blasé about her circumstances as I approached the restrained, plump man.
“You!” I barked. “Did you buy that girl from a slave merchant in Lightless?”
He nodded obediently, making it clear that he had no intention to resist or fight back.
“Have you got a teleporting crystal to head to Lightless?” I asked, but he only shook his head.
Well, I expected as much. If the crystals were used to simply transport the slaves, they were a one-way ticket from Lightless to Stelia. That meant there was no way to quickly return from this manor. I’d wanted to be back in Roguebert by morning, but I suppose it won’t be so easy. Carlos surely won’t let me hear the end of this...
My heart twinged with melancholy, as I wasn’t eager to return back home and get an earful. I glanced outside the window, at the cityscape dyed white by the blizzard, and the snowy mountain that seemingly pierced through the gray skies. A shadow with a pair of wings flew over the peak. Wyverns were apparently a common sight in the snowy mountains of Stelia, and elite soldiers learned to domesticate these creatures and make them their steeds.
“Hmm...” I muttered to myself.
Since there was no crystal to teleport me back to the Lightless fief, our other method was to travel by foot, which obviously would take far too long. We could travel by sea, especially since I had gotten rid of the sea monsters, and it was much faster than the route by land, but unfortunately, this option wasn’t available to me. It was no easy feat to secure a vessel, and this wasn’t my own fief. Since I was on someone else’s land, if I caused a fuss here, I’d only trouble my father.
Even if I claimed that I’d gotten rid of the ship-devouring demon of the sea, I still probably couldn’t secure a ship. Who in their right mind would listen to the babblings of a child? At the very least, if I were a citizen here, I wouldn’t trust an outsider who had appeared out of nowhere. What if I used my shadow familiar to carry us back? Surely, there was a monster large enough to carry a few people on its back. But I’m not keen on doing that either...
None of us were used to riding and steering a monster, and I didn’t want to be drenched by seawater anyway. Besides, I’d just sailed out to sea for a battle and suffered from a horrible experience, so I wasn’t keen on reliving anything like that again. But what about that wyvern? Since these monsters were used as steeds by knights, I suspected that it must be a fairly comfortable ride. It seemed simple enough to kill one and use it as my familiar. In a flash, I could make a wyvern that could fly at top speed without ever getting tired. Hmm, a decent plan if I do say so myself. I’ll go catch one.
“Yusurika,” I said, turning to her as she treated the girl. “How long will it take for you to treat her?”
“I’m terribly sorry, but a good while,” she replied. “The cuts on her throat and legs have already closed, so it will take some time for me to revert her back to her usual form.”
“I see. Then I’ll head out for a few moments.”
“Pardon? Wh-Where to, if you don’t mind me asking?” She looked at me, perplexed.
I shrugged. “I’ll go secure a ride back home. I doubt it’ll take more than an hour.”
“But, Young Master...”
She gazed worriedly at the man restrained by my Dark Hand on the floor.
“Don’t worry about it,” I replied. “Those restraints will keep even if I’m away. But if some kind of emergency occurs while I’m away, I’ll leave it up to your best judgment. I shall permit you to kill him if absolutely need be. But you must protect that girl with your life. Do I make myself clear?”
Yusurika flashed a look of resignation as she gazed into the distance with a weary smile.
“Sir Carlos has it tough, I see...” she muttered.
“What do you mean by that?” I demanded.
“Oh, nothing at all. Please, do be careful.”
“Hmph. Then I’ll leave this place to you.”
I flew out of the manor’s window as I stood on a Dark Hand. Without further adieu, I headed for the mountains where I’d spotted the shadow of a wyvern.
✶✶✶
“It...managed to get away?” I wondered.
When I’d gazed at these beasts from afar, they were just flying about, but the moment I approached this area, they vanished. I couldn’t even sense their mana, perhaps implying that they were way out of my range.
“Damn... Those lizards are astute,” I muttered.
Was it the intuition of a wild beast? Still, it was baffling that a wyvern, one of the strongest monsters out there even as a low-ranking dragon, turned tail and fled in the presence of a kid like me. My magic barrier protected me from the blizzard and snow, but it was still freezing outside, and I wasn’t dressed for these low temperatures. I wished to leave as soon as I could.
I flew around the mountain with my mana perception field in search of a wyvern. Every now and then, I’d see a wyvern flying in the distance, but the moment I so much as looked in its direction, it’d hastily fly away. My Dark Hand wasn’t quick enough to catch me up to the wyverns, and even if I flew, these beasts outsped me. Unable to hide my annoyance and impatience, I hurled a Dark Ball at a wyvern in the distance, but it dodged my attack with little trouble. And ever since then, the wyverns seemingly vanished altogether.
Damn it... You’re just lizards with wings. How dare you give me this much trouble... I considered blowing this entire mountain up, as the wyverns would leave their nest and have no choice but to take to the skies. But as I formed a massive Dark Lance above me, I shook my head quietly.