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The thing dragged one leg behind it. Its body heaved up and down an awful lot as it moved.
Was it human? It didn’t look like a goblin. It might have been an orc.
Setora pulled a burning piece of firewood from the stove, and thrust it towards whatever it was.
“It’s human!” cried Setora.
At the same time, Merry shouted, “Zombie!”
“Doesn’t matter what it is...!” Kuzaku sprang forward, his sword flashing.
Kuzaku’s sword was long and thick. It was single-edged, so you might have called it a large katana. It would have been pretty hard to control it without Kuzaku’s height and muscles.
Kuzaku’s large katana easily parted the head of the human, or zombie, or whatever it was from its shoulders.
The severed head fell to the ground and rolled next to the stove. It looked like a man’s. He was awfully gaunt, and his hair, which had grown wild, was so stiff it was hard to think it was hair.
“Eeek...!” Shihoru let out a shriek.
The severed head’s eyes and mouth were still moving.
Setora punted the severed head away.
“...That was beyond disgusting!”
“Scary!” Kuzaku was a brave man, but even he was shuddering. “This is way too scary! Zombies are—”
“There’s more coming!” Setora interrupted him to warn.
Were all of those zombies? They were shambling down the hill towards the bottom of the valley.
Merry jumped forward.
“O Light, may Lumiaris’s divine protection be upon you.”
She was going so fast it looked like she was going to tackle the zombies.
Haruhiro chased after Merry.
“Merry?!”
“Dispel...!” Merry got up close to the zombies and cast a spell.
This was literally light magic. There was a bright flash and Haruhiro was forced to close his eyes despite himself.
“Urkh...”
He quickly opened them again, and looked around. It took some time before he could see again.
There were two zombies collapsed at Merry’s feet. Motionless. Like corpses.
“They’re moving corpses, unable to rest in peace because of the NoLife King’s curse!” Merry pressed her fingers to her forehead once more, preparing to cast another spell. “O Light, may Lumiaris’s divine protection be upon you.”
“They’re coming in from all directions!” Setora shouted.
It turned into a melee.
Setora and Kiichi were protecting Shihoru, so Kuzaku swung like mad at the zombies that swarmed in, while Haruhiro cut off their heads and kicked them away or stomped them, focusing his efforts on rendering them immobile. Zombies struck by Merry’s light magic were turned into corpses, or returned to how corpses should be, but those that weren’t moved until they no longer could. Maybe the brain was still in control, because bodies that lost their head stopped moving, but their heads were still full of energy. Though the zombies’ heads couldn’t actually speak, they could still open and close their jaws. Haruhiro nearly got bitten by one of the zombie heads. If he wasn’t careful, he’d really be in danger.
Partially because of how dark it was, the battle with the zombies seemed to drag on forever.
Just when he thought there were no zombies left nearby, he’d hear more moaning from another direction. He’d hear zombies shambling down the slope. He’d hear an eerie chattering, and when he looked around, he’d find a zombie head. No matter how many times he did it, he could never get used to that awful sensation when he crushed a zombie head under his heel.
Ultimately, no one in the group was able to relax until the sky brightened, and they could see for themselves that there were no more zombies in the area.
During the battle, they noticed the zombies included non-human races, too. However, all of the bodies that Merry hadn’t hit with light magic were basically chopped to pieces, so it was hard to tell how many were human and how many had been something else.
But seriously, how many zombies had the group taken out?
It was hard to get a rough estimate. Honestly, he didn’t even want to count.
“We...” Shihoru hesitantly looked at the rest of the group. “We have to clean this up...?”
“Yeah...” Kuzaku was in an incredible state, bathed in blackened blood and chunks of flesh. “...Guess so. We... probably should clean this up, huh? I’m not sure I want to sleep here otherwise...”
“There’s something more important.” Setora was strong, to be able to say that. Though not to the same degree as Kuzaku, Setora had her fair share of blood splatter and rotten meat on her, but she seemed unfazed by it. “Were we targeted by the zombies? Or was this raid a product of coincidence?”
Merry must have been exhausted by overusing her magic. She was kneeling.
“The dead who are dominated by the No-Life King’s curse form into columns and wander aimlessly. I heard that somewhere before, but I don’t know when...”
“Then it was coincidental.” When Setora reached out her arm, Kiichi climbed up onto her shoulder and licked her cheek. “We had bad luck.”
Kuzaku hung his head, letting out a sigh.
“Just terrible luck...”
Haruhiro didn’t sigh.
He would have liked to put a positive spin on this, but that was clearly not going to be possible. He was disappointed, and wanted to complain, too. He wanted to cry his eyes out. He wanted to lash out at someone.
Well, no, not really.
Not that he wasn’t disappointed. It was just that he could handle it. Or he wanted to think he could, at least.
If he was able to think like that, then it meant his spirit wasn’t broken yet.
“I hate to do it, but let’s abandon this place.” Haruhiro did his best not to sound reluctant as he said that. “It doesn’t look like the goblins of Alterna are looking for us anymore, and we have some preserved food. I think we’re ready to move on.”


6. Light on the Plains

The terrain ahead was distinctive. It was a plateau, but not a high one. It was an incredibly broad, low plateau. As they walked through the scattered shrubs, and dry grass that was the color of wheat, the plateau still looked low. No more than a slight hill. It took them little time to climb up onto it. Beyond, there was a massive pan-like depression.
“This is the place, huh...” Haruhiro mumbled to himself.
None of his comrades said anything.
The group were standing on what would be the rim of the pan. There was a large spring at the bottom, and then two other smaller springs. The area was surrounded by a fence and moat, and there were a number of buildings inside the fence. But the fence was broken in places, and the buildings were falling apart. The scattered debris must have been part of them at one point.
The moat was filled with spring water, and there was an intact bridge over it. It looked like they could cross.
After some time, Setora spoke. “It looks deserted.”
“Looks like,” was all Haruhiro could say in response.
“No, but, uh, you know!” Kuzaku was obviously forcing himself to sound cheerful. “It doesn’t look like there was heavy fighting, right? Maybe the Frontier Army guys ran away before the enemy arrived.”
Because their dead bodies would turn into zombies, it wasn’t strange for there not to be corpses, but the way it was ruined seemed different from an attack. Though most of the buildings were damaged, there weren’t any broken weapons lying around, or arrows sticking out of them, and there were no bloodstains, or any other signs of battle.
“Do you want to go down and check it out?” Merry sounded like she’d had a hard time saying that.
“Yeah,” Haruhiro replied easily, and started descending the slope.
He didn’t need to try particularly hard to keep his calm. He’d more or less anticipated this, so he was ready for it.
He turned back, and like he expected, Shihoru seemed fine, too.
Haruhiro and Shihoru had some things in common.
They didn’t look at things too optimistically.
Try to imagine a lottery with 1/2 odds. If they played it, they assumed they were almost always going to lose. Though logic dictated otherwise, and they knew the odds were 1/2, they couldn’t help but assume, if things were 50-50, the result would be whichever was worse for them. Even with a 4/5 chance of winning, they were sure to lose. If the odds were 9/10, they’d suspect they’d somehow still miraculously find a way to lose.
Haruhiro and Shihoru were alike in that they didn’t want to rely on good fortune or on others. They were too scared to.
That’s why they were fine. They figured this was going to happen.
Here was the group’s plan:
First they would head north from the valley in the foothills, and enter the Quickwind Plains. According to Merry, if they continued north across the flat plains, they would be able to see a mountain in the west. It was called Mount Grief, and it was supposed to be a den of undead or something. Some seven or eight kilometers south of Mount Grief, the Arabakia Frontier Army had an outpost at
Lonesome Field. It was a little hard to imagine it was still intact if Alterna had fallen, but they hadn’t confirmed it yet. There was still a slim possibility.
In addition to that, if they went to the Lonesome Field Outpost, it would let them follow the Jet River to reach Riverside Iron Fortress, too. Even if the Lonesome Field Outpost was a dud, the remnants of the Frontier Army and the volunteer soldiers might have gathered at Riverside Iron Fortress.
If both of them had been taken, that was obviously the worst possible outcome, but at least their situation would be clear. It would mean they had no allies south of the Quickwind Plains. Rather than cling to optimistic hopes, it was better to learn the situation, and plan their response accordingly.
Haruhiro took a careful look around the Lonesome Field Outpost, or what was left of it.
Like he had suspected, there were no bodies, and nothing that looked like bloodstains.
This was just a guess, but the Frontier Army garrison and the volunteer soldiers must have pulled back before they were attacked. The enemy arrived after that, and they took out their frustration on the deserted buildings.
According to Merry, the outpost had once had a little marketplace, and it sold food, toiletries, arms, and equipment. It looked like those supplies had all been carried off during the retreat.
Still, there were some small gains.
In the remains of what had apparently been a Frontier Army barracks, there was some military equipment, including weapons and armor. They went through it, and some of it wasn’t bad. Merry took a warhammer, and Setora took a spear, sword, and dagger. There were backpacks, shoulder bags, and leather waterskins, too, so they decided to take what they needed.
In the market, they were able to find fabric and leather clothes. Most were old and worn, but nobody was going to complain as long as they were still wearable. The group changed out of their clothes and shoes, which were worn out and full of holes. Now that Shihoru finally had a reasonable outfit, she could say goodbye to that old cloak. They were able to collect a number of tools, including a hammer, chisel, nails, and needles, too. Haruhiro wanted some string, but they weren’t able to find any.
During the search, Haruhiro kept an eye on things outside the outpost. He worried someone might be surveilling them from a distance. But, for better or for worse, it didn’t seem that way.
The group stopped rummaging for supplies at what seemed like a good time, and they headed for Riverside Iron Fortress. His comrades’ morale hadn’t fallen. If anything, everyone seemed a little more cheerful.
From the Lonesome Field Outpost, they headed west, west, and then west some more.
The Quickwind Plains stretched for hundreds of kilometers, but with the exception of Mount Grief and the Crown Mountain far to the northeast, it was all flat, and mind-numbingly vast. There was little variation in the vegetation, so no matter how far you went, it all looked the same.
There were a number of different species of animals spread across the region. But, because it was so wide open, you could see a long way, and sounds carried easily. They saw a lot of animals at a distance, but if the group tried to approach them, they would run away. Hunting in the Quickwind Plains would probably require the clever use of traps, or chasing after their prey and cornering it as a group.
By evening, they hit the Jet River. It was a large river with a violent current, like you might expect from the name, and the far shore was so distant that it looked hazy.
The Jet River found its source somewhere in the Tenryu Mountains to the south, and Haruhiro and the others followed it upstream. Some time after the sun went down, Riverside Iron Fortress came into view.
“It looks like someone’s home,” Setora said in a tone that left him unsure if it was a joke or she was being serious.
Riverside Iron Fortress also served as a river port, so it stuck out into the Jet River a little. There were more than ten towers on the walls, and watch fires were lit all over, so they could see how impressive it looked even at night.
Haruhiro had Kuzaku and the others wait while he approached the fortress alone.
There were many groves along the riverbank. He was able to approach quite easily, hiding in the trees and bushes until he was about 50 meters from the fortress walls. It was a grassy field from there onward, and if there were guards, he was at a high risk of being spotted. There had to be lookouts. He could see silhouettes that looked like them on top of the wall.
As he was wondering, Okay, so what do I do now? he heard an Awoooooooooooooooooooo.
Wolves, huh? Or dogs. They both sounded similar, but if it was dogs, they might be trained. He was pretty sure the noise came from behind him.
As he turned to head back, Awoooooooooo, he heard the howling of a wolf or dog again.
Awooooooooooooooo.
Awooooooooooooooooooo.
Awooooooooooooooooooooooooo.
There was even a chain of howls.
They weren’t just behind him. He heard them to the east, and even from the fortress.
Even now, he could hear the dogs or wolves continuing to howl. It was like they were responding to one another.
“Have I been found...?”
Haruhiro rushed back to where his comrades were.
When he was right in front of his destination, something lunged at him from diagonally to the rear.
“...!”
Haruhiro instinctively threw himself to the ground as he drew his dagger.
He rolled, then deflected the white blade coming towards him. Deflected, retreated. Deflected.
Though it was dark, he was able to tell his enemy was not human, but it was bipedal, and could use a sword. It had a tail, too.
It looks like a dog.
A dog standing on its hind legs.
Merry had talked about them.
“A kobold, huh!”
Haruhiro easily dodged the kobold’s thrust, then got behind it. He didn’t even have time to think, Right here, before he buried his dagger in its back.
The kobold fell. It must have died almost instantaneously.
“...I saw something.”
It was some sort of gleaming line.
Was that a hallucination? Haruhiro shook his head. He didn’t have time for this.
It wasn’t wolves or dogs howling, it was kobolds.
Merry had said the kobolds were based out of the Cyrene Mines, but the goblins from Damuro had been in Alterna. It wasn’t that crazy for them to find there were kobolds in Riverside Iron Fortress, too. The goblins and kobolds both belonged to the Alliance of Kings. They were enemies of the Kingdom of Arabakia.
Haruhiro ran.
Kuzaku and the others were being attacked by a group of kobolds.
“Haruhiro?!” Setora was using her spear to keep the kobolds at bay. “You got careless! This whole area is enemy territory!”
“Sorry! I was being too naive!” Merry held her war hammer at the ready as she protected Shihoru.
“You didn’t know, so can we really blame you?!” Kuzaku swung his large katana and cut one of the kobolds down. “Yeah! Come get some...!”
“I can’t just keep being protected...!” Shihoru looked like she was planning something.
Is it that?
Is she going to do that?
“Come! Dark...!”
According to Merry, after a variety of experiences, Shihoru had stepped outside the framework she was taught at a place called the mages’ guild, and formulated a new magic. Haruhiro didn’t remember it, and he didn’t know anything about magic whatsoever, but it sounded pretty incredible. In fact, Merry even told them what Shihoru had accomplished was amazingly impressive.
Even when Merry told her, “So be more confident,” Shihoru could only muster a weak, half-hearted smile.
Haruhiro could understand how she felt. She was happy, and grateful for the encouragement, but didn’t know how to react to being told, “You were incredible.”
What mattered was what she could do now, and some glorious past she couldn’t even remember was no consolation for that.
Shihoru had asked Merry everything she could about her magic, and was experimenting to try and recreate it. It was not going well. Because Shihoru’s magic was entirely her own, Merry only knew the surface details. When the only clue she had to go on was a name, Dark, Merry felt bad, and she gave Shihoru an apologetic look.
Despite that, whenever Shihoru had time, she tried envisioning Dark, trying to make him hers. She tried to pull him out from somewhere, to knead the air into his shape, anything and everything that she could.
Shihoru must have been prepared to taste disappointment every time she tried.
Haruhiro understood that well. People like Haruhiro and Shihoru weren’t strong enough to believe, It’s okay, you can definitely do this. Instead they thought, I know I can’t do it, it’s impossible, but I will, because I have no choice.
It had to be really hard on her. If it were Haruhiro, he’d have probably given up along the way.
You’re doing great, Shihoru.
When he put it like that, it might feel like he was looking down at her, but he really did think so. It wasn’t the past Shihoru who was amazing, it was the one right here, right now.
From some other world, something opened a door not visible to the eye in front of Shihoru’s open palms, and appeared.
Black.
Deep and thick, like the darkness of night.
The long, black strings intertwined in a spiral, and took on a certain form.
Was it a person? It was small enough to fit in Shihoru’s hand.
“Go, Dark.”
When Shihoru gave the order, Dark instantly shot towards one of the kobolds.
Nnnshooooooooooo... Was that the sound of him flying, or was it Dark’s voice? Whatever the case, it sounded like nothing else.
The kobold seemed shocked, and it didn’t look like it even tried to dodge Dark. He slammed into the middle of the kobold’s chest. Right after that, he made a sudden change of trajectory. Pulling a tight turn around the first kobold, he collided with another. That kobold let out a yip, and tried to get away from Dark. But Dark drove straight forward, assailing yet another target.
Haruhiro looked at Shihoru. She was following Dark with her eyes. No, that wasn’t it. It was the opposite. Dark moved where Shihoru looked. Shihoru was controlling Dark.
Shihoru used Dark, who stood out, blacker than the dark of night, and made that distinctive nshoooooooooo which was pretty frightening, and really grated on the nerves, to terrify the kobolds and make them panic.
“Not bad, Shihoru!” Setora mercilessly impaled one of the kobolds as it ran around in confusion. Then she shouted at Haruhiro, “What are you doing, you dunce?!”
Setora was being as harsh as ever, but he couldn’t really argue back. Haruhiro grappled a kobold, slit its throat with his dagger, and then pushed it down.
“Kuzaku, Merry!”
“Yeah! Got it!”
“Okay!”
Kuzaku and Merry fiercely attacked the kobolds closest to them.
By the time Haruhiro could count from one to ten, six or seven kobolds were down.
The remaining kobolds yipped and barked as they started to run away.
Somewhere, Kiichi meowed.
“Haruhiro!” Setora pointed to the northwest. “That way! It looks like there are no enemies!”
“Let’s go, everyone!” Haruhiro sent Shihoru, Merry, and Kuzaku ahead, then brought up the rear himself. “Setora, lead the way! I’m counting on you!”
“Got it!”
He heard the kobolds howling again. Though they’d driven off the earlier group, they couldn’t relax at all just yet.
Haruhiro and the others were running pretty much as fast as they could. The pace was taking a toll on Kuzaku, who was wearing heavy armor, but he was tough, so he could keep it up for a while, even if he was winded. Shihoru seemed especially light on her feet. Was that because she’d found a pair of shoes that fit her in the Lonesome Field Outpost? Or maybe she was elated to have succeeded at calling Dark?
There didn’t seem to be any pursuers nearby, at least. Once he was sure of that, Haruhiro shouted, “Let’s rest!” to Setora up front.
Kuzaku crouched down immediately.
“...Whew. That was tough! What the hell? There were enemies! I know I half-expected there to be, but still...” Haruhiro smiled wryly.
“Only half?”
In a situation like this, only Kuzaku would still half-expect things to work out. Haruhiro had been 80, no, 90 percent sure that Riverside Iron Fortress had fallen to the enemy, too.
That’s why he wasn’t dispirited. Haruhiro was already thinking about their next move.
Where in these Quickwind Plains, which were wider than they had any right to be, were they going to head next? There were options.
“To the Wonder Hole...?” Shihoru offered hesitantly.
Haruhiro made a point of giving her a big nod.
“Yeah.”
“That’s true.” Merry let out a sigh, as if trying to shift her current frame of mind. “The Wonder Hole was a hunting ground for volunteer soldiers. It’s complex, and no one knows all the details, but there could still be a volunteer soldier base down there...”
“That’s a long shot,” Setora said, snorting. “But in this situation, we won’t get anywhere by demanding certainty, I suppose. Let’s go.
Hey.”
Even though Setora had just kneed him in the back, Kuzaku didn’t even get angry. “All right!” He jumped to his feet. “Let’s get going! I rested a bit. We’ll just have to go as far as we can. It’s not like we can go any farther than that.”
“Can’t you say anything with a little more substance?”
“Listen, I’m not the guy to look to for advanced tricks like that.”
“...Is that advanced?”
Haruhiro ignored their bantering as he looked around.
The lights of Riverside Iron Fortress were still visible in the distance. He could hear the kobolds howling, but there was no sign of them getting any closer.
During their stay in the foothills valley, they had heard most of the local geography from Merry. The Wonder Hole was northwest of the Lonesome Field Outpost. They would head back to the ruins of the outpost, then head onward from there.
Kiichi suddenly climbed up Setora to perch on her shoulder. Did he want some attention from his keeper? It didn’t look like it. Kiichi was staring towards the north.
“What is it?” Setora looked northward.
“That’s...”
It was faint, but there was something bright far to the north.
Trying not to let his emotions cloud his judgment, Haruhiro suggested, “A fire, maybe?”
“Hrmm,” Kuzaku groaned and scratched his head.
What were they to make of this? It was hard to say.
For now, they decided to proceed towards the light that they thought might be a fire.
When they had walked about a kilometer north, they realized the light was coming towards them, too.
There was someone carrying a torch or lantern, and they were on the move.
Whoever it was, they were probably only a kilometer or so away from the group, though it would be generous to call that even a rough estimate.
“Maybe they’re on our side?” Kuzaku said, smiling but not laughing.
Not even Kuzaku honestly thought that whoever it was would be an ally, which was to say, with the Frontier Army, or the volunteer soldiers. If the question was if they were friend or foe, yeah, it was probably safe to assume foe.
“Over there.” Setora pointed north-northeast, and then again to the east. “Over there, too.”
It wasn’t just one light. They were farther than the light to the north, but they could see two more from here. It might be best to assume that wasn’t all.
Setora sighed.
“Here’s hoping they’re on foot.”
I wonder about that, Haruhiro nearly said, but then stopped himself. Shihoru and Merry were silent.
The dry wind that blew across the Quickwind Plains at night sounded like a low growl. That was a strange sound for wind to make. It sounded a bit similar in tone to someone whistling, too, but he couldn’t be confident of that.
Haruhiro felt like, at times like this, he was the kind of person who waited for someone else to make the call on what to do. He wasn’t the type to actively decide things.
Despite that, according to what Merry told them, Haruhiro had been their leader.
“The north and east seem dangerous.” Even as he thought the position of leader was too heavy for him, Haruhiro told his comrades, “The Jet River and Riverside Iron Fortress are to the west of here, too, so let’s go south.”

Chapter end