chap 12+

But the mountains were crazy.
This area would most like be considered part of the Kuaron Mountains. However, the mountains weren’t that high. It was like an uninterrupted line of thousand-meter class mountains and several-hundred-meter class mountains.
That was the tricky part. The ups and down were intense. When the slopes were steep, it could be hard to climb or descend quickly, or outright impossible to do so at all. Even after zigzagging along for more than ten kilometers, they might only have moved a few kilometers in horizontal distance. That sort of thing was a regular occurrence.
Even so, the land was finally starting to level out. And when they first saw the shining surface of the water stretching from east to south, as far as the eye could see, Kuzaku let out a whoop and jumped into the air, shouting, “That’s the sea, isn’t it?!”
Haruhiro understood how he felt. He was happy, too. He wasn’t about to start whooping, though.
Suddenly, he was fired up.
Still, haste would only make waste, so it was best not to pick up the pace. One of Haruhiro’s all too few virtues was his ability to maintain control of himself at times like this. There was no idiot here to tell him, You’re such a buzzkill! That’s what makes you no fun, you trash! So he’d hold in that desire, repress it, and move forward slowly but surely.
“Hey, hey!” Just ten meters up ahead, Yume was up on top of a small, rounded hill, waving both her arms. “Do you think we can stop to eat here? The wind’s blowin’ reeeal hard, and it feels purrrrfect!”
Dusk was approaching. Even if they hadn’t been rushing, Yume was pretty energetic considering they had been walking nonstop for about half a day.
“I’d think the food would be the same no matter where we ate it...” Setora seemed exasperated, but she briskly walked over and began preparing for meal time just in front of the hill. “You there, loyal dog. Start a fire.”
“’Kay.” Kuzaku responded immediately, but once he started setting up the fire, he paused.
“...Wait, loyal dog?” He tilted his head to the side. “At the very least, I don’t recall being your dog, Setora-san. Not me. Do something about the way you address me, ’kay?”
“I cannot, ’kay?”
“Don’t imitate me...”
“Then shut up, and do as you’re told. I am busy. Don’t interrupt me, loyal dog.”
“Ugh, it makes me want to just start barking...”
If you have to bark, then bark, my friend, Haruhiro called out to his loyal dog in his heart, then turned a subtle glance towards Merry.
Was something up, or was it a coincidence? Merry was looking Haruhiro’s way as well. Because of that, their eyes met.
Now, what to do?
If he were a traveling gentleman, he ought to say, Oh, why, hello! What a coincidence this is! Ha ha ha! However, Haruhiro was not a gentleman traveler. Or rather, what was a gentleman traveler?
Haruhiro and Merry were staring into one another’s eyes. However, ultimately, that was the only thing that was happening, and there was no special meaning behind it. If Merry turned her eyes away like nothing had happened, Haruhiro would have thought nothing of it. It was likely the same for Merry.
Probably, at least? Haruhiro wasn’t Merry, so he couldn’t say for certain. That was why, no matter what, he didn’t want her to think, Oh, am I being avoided, maybe? There was no way he would avoid her, now was there? Geez.
Merry might have been thinking the same way, and it was making it hard to be the first to look away. In case she was, Haruhiro would work up the courage to be first. No, but he didn’t want to create a misunderstanding.
Shihoru was slowly working her way up the hill. Haruhiro could see her out of the corner of his eye.
Hold on, hold on! Hey! Say something here! Shihoru! Come on. Like, “What are you doing?” or “What’s up?” or something. If you’d just say anything, give me a chance to respond, I could say, “Huh, what?” and get out of this stalemate.
Why were they being left alone? Could it be they were being shunned? Everyone was secretly conspiring against them?
Haruhiro and Merry were being pushed out? Left out? No way.
That couldn’t be it, right? Nuh uh. Not a chance.
“Noooo?” Yume let out a sound.
Nice one, Yume. I can play this off as it catching my attention, Haruhiro thought, and actually did that.
Yume cocked her head to the side, looking down at her feet.
“Hurrrm? Just now, somethin’...”
“Eek!” Shihoru who was still mid-climb, let out a little scream. Kuzaku jumped back. “Shihoru-san?! What’s wroooooooong?!” “Wha...” Setora said, looking up at the hill.
Haruhiro looked, too. Was it... a hill? It might not have been. At the very least, it was no ordinary hill. The truly hill-like hill, the one everyone expects when they hear the word “hill,” doesn’t move, right?
“Meow, meow, meooow...” Yume was stumbling around on top of the hill. Or rather, was she trying to catch her balance so as not to fall down?
The grass-covered hill, which was maybe ten to fifteen meters across, and around ten meters high, was stirring.
“Eeeek...” Shihoru was clinging on to the bumpy slope, letting out a distressed wail. She was halfway up, so that put her at about five meters off the ground.
“Hey, jump down, mage!” Setora shouted.
At Setora’s feet, Kiichi with his gray fur standing on end was hissing and baring his fangs.
“I-It’s one thing to say that, but...” Shihoru burst out.
“Hurry it up! That hill is alive! Hunter, you get down while you still can, too!”
“Hungh!” Yume, always quick to act, immediately began racing down the hill.
Shihoru was looking down, hesitant.
“What do you mean, the hill’s alive?” Haruhiro shook his head to clear it. “No, now’s not the time. Shihoru, Setora’s right!
Kuzaku, catch Shihoru!” “Woof!” Kuzaku called.
“And now he’s barking...”
“It just happened, okay?! Shihoru-san! Come on, it’s going to be all right! I’ll catch you!”
Kuzaku got right beneath Shihoru and spread his arms wide.
The hill was alive. What did that mean? It wasn’t just stirring; it was changing its form, too. From the start, even if it was somewhat bumpy, it had been a rounded hill on the whole. But not now. Now it bulged out in some places, and in others, it pulled back in. In response to that, like a little landslide, the dirt and grass that was rooted in those spots came tumbling down loudly.
“Shihoru!” Merry pressed her.
Immediately afterwards, maybe finally having made up her mind, Shihoru took off from the slope. The place she had been standing a moment before caved in, so it was a close call.
Kuzaku caught Shihoru.
“Get back!” Haruhiro backed away himself as he gave the order. He hadn’t meant to pull back himself, but he did it despite himself.
The hill was alive. Was this what that meant? The hill was in the process of standing up.
Naturally, hills didn’t stand up. If it was a normal hill, no, even an abnormal hill, it really shouldn’t have been standing up. That meant it wasn’t a hill to begin with. It was a creature.
There it had been, bent over, likely for a very, very long time. Exposed to wind and rain, and covered in dirt and dust, eventually plants had taken root. In the end, it had been reduced to a hill-like state.
“It’s big,” Merry mumbled.
Yeah. I know, right?
It first knelt, then half rose, and was attempting to stand upright, but its back was hunched like an old person’s, and it couldn’t get its torso up that well. There were still copious amounts of dirt and grass clinging to it. In spots, it even looked to have become one with the grass and dirt. Had the grass put down roots into its skin, maybe?
But it was human. Well, humanoid. Its body was shaped like Haruhiro’s or anyone else in the party’s. There was a massive size difference, though. Because looking at it, even with its back hunched, it had to be over fifteen meters, maybe even twenty meters tall, right?
“I’ve heard of these,” Setora said. “It’s a forest giant.”
At some point, Setora had brought Kiichi and was standing at Haruhiro’s side. When Haruhiro looked at the side of her face, Setora sidestepped away, for some reason.
“They are a type of giant race, and I have heard that they can live for hundreds of years, sleeping like beasts in hibernation... I never thought they actually existed, though.”
“Ah, wah, wah, wah, wah!” Kuzaku was running this way, still carrying Shihoru.
Haruhiro’s eyes went wide. “Ah! Hold on, Ku—”
The forest giant reached out its arm, seeming to fall as it did.
Kuzaku. It was aiming for Kuzaku.
Huh? What, what, what? If it caught him, what would it do? Eat him, or something? Was it feeling a little peckish after its long sleep?
“Wahhhhhhhhhhhhh!” Kuzaku wailed as he pumped his legs for all they were worth.
Shihoru clung to Kuzaku, shrieking, “Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!” Haruhiro wanted to save them. But his opponent was too large. He couldn’t stop a thing like that, no matter what he tried. Even so, he’d have to do something. That was because Kuzaku and Shihoru were his precious comrades, and Haruhiro was the leader.
But if he were to be fully honest, Haruhiro’s thinking was completely frozen, up at the point where he was thinking only, Isn’t this kind of impossible? At this point, Haruhiro was no more than a bystander.
“Delm, hel, en, balk, zel, arve!” Chanting. It was a spell.
Not Shihoru. It was Merry.
Merry chanted a spell, and activated magic. It was the Blast Spell of Arve Magic. An explosion rose from the face of the forest giant. The forest giant stumbled. It looked like it might fall... no, it was actually falling. Its massive body tilted forward, and it kept going until it slammed into the ground.
Kuzaku and Shihoru were okay. It had been a pretty risky situation, but they’d somehow managed not to get snatched by the forest giant.
Haruhiro waved his arms. “Everyone, run!”
Setora and Kiichi took off. Yume looked like she was planning to take off in another direction temporarily, then catch up with the group later. Kuzaku was coming along with Shihoru in his arms.
“Merry?!” Haruhiro shouted.
When he looked over, Merry had a hand pressed to her forehead, her eyes shut, and was gritting her teeth. She looked to be in pain.
When he rushed over and put a hand on her shoulder, Merry replied, “Yeah. I’m fine,” but she didn’t look it one bit.
If it weren’t a situation like this, he’d want her to lie down and have a rest, or at least sit down and drink some water.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t an option now. The forest giant wasn’t unharmed, but it was trying to get up.
Haruhiro took Merry by the hand. Her hand was cold. When he gripped it tight, she gripped back.
The two took off running in silence.

 
5. Youth, Power, and Guts



We went eastward, Haruhiro narrated silently. Then, along the way, southeastward.
It wasn’t all fun times. In fact, it was very rarely fun times, but it wasn’t all bad times, either. Like, in a raging storm, we’d generally come across a cave that we could take shelter in. Then the weather would clear up, and it would feel refreshing, like the whole thing had been a lie.
The food Setora makes can be really tasty, too. Kiichi gets temperamental, but he’ll nuzzle up to us, purr when petted, and be cute. There is a surprising amount of happiness that could be found lying about here and there. I just had a pretty hard time spotting it was there.
This journey has taught me things. It may not have been a bad trip.
Haruhiro went on with his internal monologue, getting up to the point of, This is how our journey ended.
“So this is the sea, huh,” Setora said quietly.
Kiichi stuck close to her feet, his raised tail swaying back and forth gently.
“It sure is the sea...” Yume narrowed her eyes and grinned. Shihoru squatted down and let out a sigh. “Whew...”
“Haruhiro.” Kuzaku was facing this way. A serious look on his face.
“What is it?”
“You mind if I shout?”
“Huh? You want to shout? Well, I don’t see a problem...”
“Right, I’m gonna shout, then.”
Kuzaku cupped his hands in front of his mouth like a trumpet, leaned back, took a deep breath, and then...
“It’s the seaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa...!”
“He sounds like an idiot,” Merry murmured.
Haruhiro agreed entirely, but he kind of understood how Kuzaku felt.
Haruhiro and the party were looking out over the sea from the final mountain peak. They had to be about three hundred meters above sea level. Once they descended this mountain, they’d be at the shore. From there, the boundless blue sea stretched out as far as the eye could see.
Haruhiro had had enough of mountains. He’d climbed up and down enough of them for one lifetime. Finally, at long last, this was the final one.
The previous day, with this last peak before their eyes, they’d deliberately chosen to camp out without ascending it fully. They’d been so excited that they’d gotten up while it was still dark out to watch the sunrise from the summit.
Ultimately, it had taken more time to ascend the summit than anticipated, so they hadn’t been able to see the moment the sun rose from beyond the horizon. But despite missing the first light, it was still a marvelous sight. If Haruhiro were inclined to poetry, he’d probably have composed a verse or two.
“...Yeah, I’ve got nothing,” he commented.
“For what?” Merry asked.
“Oh, no, nothing...”
Even as the shadows cast by the dim sky fell upon her, Merry shone in the dawn light. If he were a poet, he could sing her praises with beautiful words.
He murmured, “So pretty your mind goes blank.”
“I know, right?” Merry looked at the sea, letting out a little sigh.
Haruhiro hadn’t meant the sea, though. Nor had he meant the sun, which shone like a billion jewels were scattered over its surface. He’d been referring to Merry.
“By the way, Haru.” Setora was glaring.
“...Yes?”
“When I look at you, I occasionally—quite often, in fact—find myself frustrated to the point that I want to kill something.”
“That’s not very nice...”
“It’s not. Do be careful that I don’t kill you.”
“Um... I’d love to be careful and all, but what exactly do you want me to...”
For some reason, Kuzaku squatted down beside Shihoru, and barked like a dog. “Woof!”
Shihoru patted Kuzaku on the back, and on his head, too. Was his dogification progressing faster and faster?
This is apparently all my fault somehow. That much Haruhiro could guess. But, hey, what can I do? I’d love to do something about this indecisive personality of mine, you know? If I could change, I would, and I do try to take steps forward when I can, but it’s probably not enough. More, huh. I need to do more, huh. On the other hand, if I do take a decisive step, there’s the problem that I don’t know what will happen. Like, what influence it will have on everyone around me. I’m still the leader, you know? I can’t not think about that. There’s that to consider, so it’s not easy. It’s hard. Life is too hard...
“By the way, y’know?” Yume pointed in the direction of the sea.
“Over there, there’s somethin’ like a ship. It’s tilted, isn’t it? Or is Yume just imaginin’ that?”
No, that definitely wasn’t her imagination. How far from the beach was it? Not close, but not that far. That sailboat wasn’t sailing, so it might be fair to say it was stopped, but something was strange about it. Like Yume had said, it was clearly tilted.
“Has it run aground?” Haruhiro wondered aloud.
Whatever the case, they couldn’t make a call on it from here.
Haruhiro and the party descended the mountain towards the sea. Thinking this was the last mountain, it made him want to hum a little tune like he was on a picnic, but if they let their guards down, something would trip them up. That was what it meant to travel.
They descended the mountain in what felt like two hours, then walked for about thirty minutes and reached a grassy field overlooking a rocky beach.
The ship in question was dead ahead. Its sails were white, and the body was not aged. It didn’t look to have been abandoned to rot there a long time ago, so it might have run aground recently.
While this was an amateur analysis, that was the impression he got.
Incredibly, on the rock beach, there were people. No, he didn’t know that they were human, but there were multiple humanoid creatures. More than ten of them, sitting, standing, and roaming around.
“Maybe they’re the crew of that ship,” he murmured.
Haruhiro and the party were in a horizontal line, lying down on the ground. The people over there most likely couldn’t see them.
“Meow...” Yume squinted. Being a hunter, she had the best vision of any of them. “There’re six men... maybe? Human men, that is. Oh, there’s some non-humans, too? One might be an orc. Probably, at least. There’re kobolds, too. Oh, and a gobbie? What’s that one with the bandage wrapped around his face? Hard to tell.
There’s one girl, too... Hrmm. Is that a girl?”
If it were just humans, that would be one thing, but there were orcs, kobolds, and goblins, too. On top of that, there was one human woman mixed in with the bunch. Just what kind of group was this?
“I have heard that humans and orcs co-exist in Vele...” Setora sounded uncharacteristically uncertain.
There were too many uncertain elements. Was it better not to get involved? It was a curious sight, but curiosity had been known to kill, and a certain idiot who had once been with the party had brought a lot of trouble down on them with his.
Yeah, thought Haruhiro. Let’s not investigate it. We’ll leave quietly, and pretend we didn’t see anything.
He said, “Creep to the rear, then head south...”
Maybe creep to the rear instead of creep forward was a weird way to word it. Haruhiro was about to correct himself when Yume made a strange noise.
“Huhwah!”
“Wh-What’s wrong, Yume?”
“She’s wavin’.”
“Huh? Who is?”
“The girl... But that girl, she’s got a mustache. Do girls grow mustaches? Yume’s never grown a mustache.”
“Well, maybe it depends on the per—Wait, huh? She’s waving?”
Looking down, there most certainly was a person who looked like a girl waving in their direction. But was this one of those cases where he’d think, Who, me? and then it would turn out to be someone else? Like, was there was another of that girl’s comrades behind Haruhiro and the party, maybe?
That would be dangerous, too. Yeah. Definitely dangerous.
Haruhiro turned to check. Nope. No one there.
“Heyyyy!” the girl finally started shouting.
She was looking at them, wasn’t she?
He’d have given it a better than eighty percent chance she was. Ninety percent, maybe? It could be ninety-nine. Perhaps even one hundred.
“Heyyyy! You theeeere! Come ouuuut! If you’re enemies, we’ll kill youuuu!”
“D-Do we fight?” Kuzaku went to draw his large katana.
“Wait,” Haruhiro stopped him. If it was going to come to a fight, they should run instead. They were more than fifty meters from the group.
He was about to give the order to retreat when the mysterious bandaged man handed the girl a cylindrical object of some sort.
What was that? The girl pointed that object towards them.
“Ka-boom!”
When the girl said that, there was a ka-boom, or a bang, and a whoosh, and Haruhiro pushed himself up with his arms. Had there been an impact just now? Something had flown this way, and hit the ground with incredible force. There was smoke rising from the end of the object the girl was holding.
“No way! Is that a firearm?” Shihoru took the words out of Haruhiro’s mouth.
“Heyyyy! Come ouuuut! The next one’s going to hiiiit! It’ll hurt, tooooo! I’m one spicy sniper! Yes, indeedy! But not really, though!” The girl was babbling on and only half making sense.
“Was that... magic?” Even Setora was shocked. Kiichi was keeping low to the ground, and had begun a crawling retreat. “No,” Haruhiro said. “It’s not magic. It’s a weapon.”
Haruhiro bit his lip and licked it. A firearm. Why a firearm? No, were firearms even a thing? He’d never seen one—right? In that case, why did Haruhiro, and Shihoru for that matter, know they existed, and what they were called? Was it their memories, knowledge from before they came to Grimgar?
Whatever the case, it was a weapon that propelled a bullet with gunpowder. A firearm. Also called a gun. Like the girl said, if a bullet struck them, they wouldn’t get off lightly. Merry was here, so she could heal any wounds if they weren’t fatal, but it was fully possible for a bullet to cause instant death if it hit them in the wrong spot.
“Don’t shoot!” Haruhiro shouted and raised one hand. He rose to one knee. His comrades were still shaken, it seemed. He was sorry to be acting on his own initiative, but there was no choice.
This was a crisis situation.
“If you come out, I won’t shoooot!” The girl still had her gun at the ready. “But you aaaaall have to come out! Yes, indeed! I’m not blonde, after all! Oops, sorry! I meant bliiiiind!”
“What guarantee do we have you won’t shoot?!” Haruhiro shouted.
“Uh, I promise not toooo! Pinky sweaaaar!”
“We can’t pinky swear! Not this far away!”
“I guess noooot! But you’ll just have to trust me, I gueeeess!”
“You say to trust you, but we don’t even know who you are!”
“I don’t know you eitheeeer! That makes us even, riiiight?! Yes, indeed!”
Her way of speaking included, she was a very strange woman, but she didn’t seem to be an idiot. Would it be okay to tell her they were volunteer soldiers? This was enemy territory, after all, so it was a hard call.
“Haruhiro-kun!” Shihoru called his name.
When he looked over, Shihoru nodded.
Yeah, thought Haruhiro. She was right. There was no way to be certain about it, but these people probably didn’t belong to an organization opposed to humanity. If they did, they would have attacked the party without hesitation the moment they spotted them.
“Everyone stand.” Following Haruhiro’s order, his comrades stood, one after another.
The girl threw the gun to the bandaged mystery man, and pointed a finger in their direction. “All riiiight! Now, one of you, get over here and face meeee! I don’t care who, just bring it oooon! Yes, indeed!”
It would seem she was an even weirder woman than anticipated.
Haruhiro descended to the rock beach, facing off against the group.
The members of the group did indeed appear to be sailors. Well, not that he was an expert on sailors, but they seemed dressed for labor aboard a ship, and not just the humans but the orcs and goblins were tanned, too. They were exactly what you’d expect men of the sea to look like.
The girl was wearing a hat that rolled up on both sides and men’s clothes, and she sported a mustache. No, was it a fake mustache? More than likely, yes. Even for Haruhiro, a man, if he left his mustache to grow, it probably wouldn’t be as bushy as that.




Was she messing around?
It didn’t feel like it, though.
The girl puffed up her chest, crossed her arms, and looked at Haruhiro and the party. Her gaze was sharp. Overwhelming even. Though she was petite, she had an intensity that didn’t let them sense that.
“I am K&K’s K! M! W! Momohina! Name yourselves!” “...K&K?” Merry furrowed her brow.
Momohina’s opened her eyes wide. “Name yourselves!” she repeated.
“Hey!” the men began shouting. “She said name yourself, dumbass!”
“We’ll kill the men and screw the women if you don’t!”
“I wanna screw them anyway!”
“Now you’re just letting your desires show, asshole!”
This was awful. The girls in the group were intimidated.
Kuzaku snapped and tried to move forward.
“Tie uuuup!” Momohina shouted, and the men closed their mouths.
Haruhiro was befuddled. Tie up...?
Momohina cleared her throat. “...Oops. The correct answer was ‘shut up’! These things haaaappen. That’s all from the scene.
Indeed!”

Chapter end