Chapter Three: A Hidden Passage
“Hey, hey, Kitamura! Look!”
Kou pointed at the nearest mountain range.
“I can smell something super delicious coming from over there!”
Father had been trying to calm down Yuki. But he glanced over in the direction Kou was pointing.
“Huh? What’s over there?” he asked.
I referenced my map. It appeared to be somewhere in the south-southeastern corner of Melromarc, not too far from the border. I think that even if you crossed the mountain you would still be in Melromarc.
Sure, we could head there. Why not? I thought to myself.
Oho? When I looked closely, I thought I saw the outline of a person flickering through the trees.
“If Kou smells something, there must be something over there, right?” Father asked.
“Yeah! There’s definitely something,” Kou said, drool hanging from his beak. “And it’s not too far, right?”
“Let’s go check it out,” Father said. “It looks like we don’t need to go too deep into the mountain.”
“Woohoo!”
So Kou started pulling us toward the mountain. The carriage clattered and rattled at his intense speed. The road faded farther and farther away, and we followed something like a game trail deep into the mountain.
Father opened up the map again.
“Could it be someone’s campsite?”
“Found it!” called Kou.
Kou detached from the carriage and raced off. Father peeked outside and looked around carefully.
“Some kind of animal? Monsters?”
Then we heard a loud, sustained scream coming from Kou’s direction. But not Kou’s voice.
“Kou! Wait—wait, don’t do anything!” Father shouted, taking care to check his surroundings and then jumping out of the carriage. I followed Father’s lead and glanced around suspiciously.
“What in the—?”
Like a hunter holding his triumphantly captured game, Kou held something by his feet.
“H-help me!”
It was begging for its life. It was a . . . a mole. A talking mole.
Now that I thought about it, there had been a talking mole back in Father’s village, I say.
“Kou, let him go! That’s not a monster!” Father shouted.
“We need to confirm what it is first,” I suggested.
“Aw, man,” Kou said and reluctantly took his talons off of the mole.
“Sorry about that,” Father said, rushing from the carriage up to where Kou and the mole were. “That must’ve frightened you. Please forgive us.”
“Oh, t-thank you so much,” the mole said. “D-don’t w-worry about a thing. I was following the mountain road and could hardly see, and that’s what happens when you get lost in the mountains.”
The mole stood up. Father checked to make sure it didn’t have any injuries, and then, bowing his head, he sincerely apologized.
“You need to say you’re sorry, Kou,” Father said.
“Come on,” groaned Kou. He bowed his head.
It wasn’t quite an apology, but Father seemed more focused on talking to the mole than forcing Kou to say sorry.
“It’s nice to meet you,” Father said. “Are you a therianthrope? What are you doing here?”
In Melromarc, demi-humans and therianthropes were at the very bottom of the social ladder. When you think about how all human societies work with an upper and lower class, it’s not all that unusual.
“Ah, yes. I am a lumo. You see . . .”
Even if he was a brigand or a thief, he didn’t appear to have any weapons and looked like an ordinary villager from Siltvelt. And not a merchant or a salesperson, but more like a lumberjack or woodsman. Or maybe a palanquin bearer.
Still, I couldn’t help but sense that he was hiding something from us.
Then, from a slight distance, we heard the sound of clashing metal. The mole instantly tensed up at the sound.
“What’s that?” Father asked, looking toward the sound. The mole suddenly raced off in the same direction.
“Wait!” Father called. “Seems like there’s a lot going on here. Let’s find out.”
“Are you sure, Father?”
If we got involved in a troublesome situation, it could end up drawing attention to us and prove our very downfall, I say.
“Well, we can’t just leave here like we didn’t see anything,” he said.
“You are quite right, Father. So let’s get going already!”
I didn’t have a great feeling about all this, but Kou went back to the carriage and sent us chasing after the mole as fast as he could.
The sound of clashing metal turned out to be a battle.
“Hehehe . . . Don’t try and resist anymore! You’re just causing us trouble!”
“What is going on?”
Father looked outside the carriage again to observe the situation. A large group of people was rushing to attack a cave, with a number of moles defending it.
Keel let out a series of oinks at the sight of the battle before racing to climb down out of the carriage. Meanwhile, the mole that we had talked to previously was wildly swinging an axe, charging into the fight.
“Wait, Keel!” Father said. “It’s too dangerous to go alone!”
Father climbed down from the carriage after Keel and grabbed the mole by the shoulders, preventing him from entering the fray.
“Let me go!” he shouted, struggling to enter the battle, but Father, as the Shield Hero with impressive defensive capabilities, didn’t even blink.
“Please, let me go!” the mole cried. “I don’t mind if I get caught myself!”
Keel oinked angrily.
“Wait a second,” Father said in a quiet, threatening tone. He glared at Keel and the mole before speaking calmly. “Keel, this doesn’t have anything to do with us. We just need to figure out what’s going on first. Like you said, Keel, they’re probably slave hunters.”
His sharp, cool voice reminded me of Father from the first go-around, I say.
Keel oinked several times in response, nodding, before looking toward Lazy Pig. She was still in the carriage. She squealed loudly in response.