“Hmm, I can’t really make out any footprints,” Yune murmured, frowning at the ground. “All these herbs make it hard to see.” She was crouched down, trying to read the ground the way Kiri had before. But with so many plants growing wild, their leaves got in the way and made it nearly impossible to even find footprints, let alone analyze them.
I scanned our surroundings, my eyes sweeping across the area. There were no signs of monsters in sight. If goblins had come through, I would have expected them to trample the flowers without a second thought. Strangely enough, the field remained untouched. The only visible traces were those left by whoever had recently gathered herbs here.
A breeze drifted past the two of us. As the purple flowers swayed, their sweet fragrance tickled my nose. These herbs were used in alchemical mixtures, but they were also prized for making perfumes. Someone else might have been coming here to harvest petals for that reason.
A pleasant wind, a beautiful sight, and a scent that wrapped around me like a gentle embrace—this was where we had completed our herb-gathering request together. The three of us.
“Let’s go back.” The words just slipped out. The breeze carried them to Yune, who finally turned to look at me.
“Oh? What about the goblins?” she asked, tilting her head.
“We can’t track them any further,” I said flatly.
Yune blinked. “No herb gathering either?”
I crossed my arms. “We haven’t confirmed it’s safe. Could you really focus on gathering while keeping watch the entire time?”
Without even pretending to consider it, Yune shook her head. Of course. We were raised in the city and inexperienced as adventurers. There was no way we could manage that.
“Kiri-o might be able to, though,” Yune pointed out. “But yes, let’s head back.”
He probably could. After all, he had been completing gathering requests solo. Caution was natural for him. When I gathered herbs, I carefully followed the methods I’d studied in books. But he could do that as well as I could and keep an eye on our surroundings for danger, even while we were walking and resting. Now that we were separated from him on this mountain, I finally understood. He had been protecting us this whole time, on all of our adventures.
“If we hurry now, we might be able to catch up to him,” I said.
Yune stifled a small laugh. “That’s impossible. Kiri-o is faster than us.”
I bit my lower lip, holding back my frustration. It was painfully obvious I wasn’t thinking rationally. I knew I was anxious because of the sense of urgency burning in my chest. I had to see him again.
I had no idea what I would say when I did... I would have to figure that out while catching up to him. But even if I couldn’t put my thoughts together, not seeing him again was not an option. The one thing I knew for certain was that this could not be the end.
That said, Yune was right. Kiri had been slowing himself down to match our pace since the very beginning. No matter how much we rushed now, we wouldn’t be able to catch even a glimpse of his back.
“He’ll be at the adventurer’s guild,” I reasoned.
Yune tilted her head. “Hmm. But what if he’s already gone home?”
Home? Where does he even live? I knew he was from the countryside, so there was a good chance he wasn’t living in a house but staying at an inn somewhere in town. He always ate at the adventurer’s guild, so maybe he was renting a room there.
But if that were the case, then where were his parents? At the very least, I had never seen them. Actually, why was he out here adventuring all on his own in the first place, when he was so cautious and afraid?
I didn’t know. And now that I had started thinking about it, the questions wouldn’t stop coming. Why had I never wondered about any of this before? How had I never thought to ask? I’d had plenty of chances while we were walking, or resting, or gathering herbs—even when we were drinking fruit juice at that stall. I could have asked at any time.
I clenched my fists. “He stands out. Someone has to know where he lives.” My knees threatened to buckle under a fresh wave of despair, but collapsing now would be far too shameful.
How foolish I had been, treating the one person who had been protecting us this entire time like a stepping stone. I even had the audacity to rant about what it meant to be comrades. Of course he had never seen us as his real companions.
I had made a terrible mistake. A rush of self-loathing swelled inside me, and I felt like I might be crushed under its weight. But I couldn’t allow that to happen, because I had to see him again.
Yune let out a small chuckle, then spoke in a teasing tone. “Wow, going that far, huh?”
I frowned. She would find this funny. That girl could be awful sometimes. Well, I had to admit that tracking down someone’s home and visiting them unannounced wasn’t exactly normal behavior.
“Yes, I am.” My voice was firm. “I need to see him again.”
Even if Yune laughed, my resolve wouldn’t waver. I turned on my heel and started retracing our steps. We had to hurry back.
I still didn’t think I was wrong about the goblins, though. Running from such weak creatures wasn’t what an adventurer should do. But, thinking back on it now, I understood why he didn’t see us as capable fighters. To ordinary people, magia was this mysterious, unknowable thing. All I had shown him was a simple detection spell, and all Yune had done was heal a blister. Sure, I had mentioned what else I could do with magia, but expecting him to treat me as a real asset based on that alone was absurd.
If I had even tried to understand his perspective, it would’ve been obvious. He had made the right call as our leader. Now that I had calmed down, thanks to Yune’s words, I could finally see that I was the one who had failed. I hadn’t put in the effort to earn his trust or confidence. Why would he rely on me if I hadn’t done any of that?
That realization hit me harder than anything else. It hurt more than the embarrassment of turning back on our first attempt because of my shoes or the humiliation of having to drink his water because I didn’t bring a canteen. It felt so much worse than the utter disgrace of giving him a pompous lecture, only to trip and nearly fall off a ledge right after.
All of those mistakes were trivial compared to this. Being inexperienced as an adventurer? That was understandable. But being born a merchant’s daughter and failing at the most basic principle of commerce? There was no excuse for that. To him, I was nothing more than a selfish, demanding customer.
I had to go back and talk to him. This time, I would do it right. I still didn’t know exactly what I needed to say. Maybe it was already too late. Even so, I couldn’t just leave things as they were.
“My lady!”
Yune’s voice was sharper than I had ever heard it before. Her shout overlapped with another sound—a guttural, inhuman shriek belonging to something between beast and man.
From the shadows of the trees, a goblin lunged into the clearing and pounced at me. It raised its club up high and swung.
I had let my guard down.
I had been too distracted, too caught up thinking about Kiri to pay attention to the danger right in front of me. If I had just stopped to think, I would have realized that the goblins tracking us must have seen our footprints lead here and turn back two days in a row. In other words, they knew this was our destination. Since they hadn’t ambushed us along the way, they had to be lying in wait here and biding their time.
I had been so sure we would win as long as we didn’t have to deal with a surprise attack. In my arrogance, I had assumed a surprise attack was impossible because we would never let our guard down.
But that was exactly what I did, and I was caught in an ambush.
I raised my wand to block the incoming blow. With my wand in hand, I had thought I would be ready to cast a spell at any time. But magia was out of the question—my wand was simply my only shield.
A loud clack rang out as the goblin’s club slammed against my wand and left a huge dent. My grip went numb, and a sharp jolt of pain shot up my arm. Cold terror flooded my veins.
What...? What’s happening?
Goblins were supposed to be weak. That was what I had always heard. No one had ever told me they could hit this hard! If that attack had struck me, my bones would be crushed, not broken.
“Get back, my lady! Eek!”
Yune tried to push between me and the goblin. But before she could reach me, two more goblins armed with shortswords burst from the undergrowth and lunged at her.
“Yune!” I screamed. “D-Damn goblins!” I raised my wand again, gathered my magia, and opened my mouth to start a chant.
The first goblin’s club swung up from below and sent my wand flying.
“Ah!” I yelped.
Our eyes met. I tore my gaze away and saw the rest of the goblin’s face: a hooked, wart-covered nose, sunken cheekbones, and jagged, yellowed fangs. It was a grotesque, green-skinned visage with lips twisted up into a sneer. The goblin’s eyes gleamed with cruel amusement in mockery of the weak. It was mocking me.
I knew, in that instant, that I was going to die.
My legs wouldn’t move. My throbbing fingers couldn’t grasp anything. My mind went completely blank, except for one last thought.
It’s going to kill me, and I’m going to die... This is the end.
“Help!” I shrieked.
The club came swinging down.
My body wouldn’t move. I couldn’t even close my eyes. All I could do was watch—
A spearhead burst through the goblin’s throat.