Chapter 16 - The Weeping Woman (2)

There were men moving along a white, snow-covered road.

The roughly twenty men were all carrying vicious-looking weapons, walking with sharp eyes as they kept watch in every direction.

"Can he be trusted?"

Jager, seated on his horse, quietly asked Vlad, who was walking beside him.

"He can't be trusted. He's a swindler."

"Hmm."

Vlad answered while looking at the mercenary walking at the very front.

There was Got, glancing back again and again to look at Vlad with resentful eyes.

His aggrieved gaze seemed to ask how Vlad could repay his goodwill like this.

"He can't be trusted, but at least he's not out of his mind."

"And he is the only witness."

After receiving the report that Sir Roderick had gone missing, Joseph halted all preparations to return and organized a search party to find the missing man.

"Perhaps this might be an opportunity."

The weight carried by a missing mercenary and a missing knight of the family was different.

This was an incident that would cast serious doubt on Joseph's ability, and one that might even earn him a severe reprimand.

Yet Joseph did not panic, even though the incident had happened under his responsibility.

"Finding an unusual development like this may be more profitable than some paltry subjugation results."

A man who did not lose his composure even in the face of a sudden accident, and who moved to find opportunity even in a moment of crisis.

That was the kind of man Joseph of the Bayezid Family was.

"Black hair..."

Jager was deeply uneasy at the report that the men who had gone missing all had the same hair color as Joseph, his lord.

"It is suspicious, no matter how you look at it."

"Still, it can't be helped."

Jager's foremost duty was always to protect Joseph, but this time there was no helping it.

Now that Sir Roderick had gone missing, someone stronger than him had to step forward to settle the situation, and though they could not be certain, they also had to account for the existence of the woman said to have called Roderick out.

If so, among the personnel currently present, the only one who could handle all of that was Jager, a knight who could wield aura.

"There are three knights left at the encampment. Is there really any need to worry so much?"

"Because not one of them is worth a damn."

"Should I have stayed behind, then?"

"They'd still be better than you."

"..."

Jager's judgment was probably right.

Vlad had only taken up the sword in earnest a little over a month ago, so it was only natural that knights who had handled proper swordsmanship for well over ten years would be far better than him.

Only someone like Vordan, who had bought his knighthood with money, would have worse skills than Vlad.

But Vlad had no reason to be disappointed by Jager's ruthless assessment.

After all, if a person named Vlad truly had such miserable skill, they would not have brought him along with the search party now.

"I-It's up ahead."

Got, who had been leading the search party at the very front, pointed somewhere with a trembling hand.

A place where traces of the subjugation force's camp still remained.

There, at the place where Got had stood night watch and where Roderick had gone missing, the search party began to keep watch around them.

"You searched the forest and found not even a trace?"

"Y-Yes. That's right. Even a mercenary who used to be a hunter searched it, but there wasn't a single footprint."

With the chain of command left hanging in Roderick's absence, the one who had at least searched for him briefly and brought the subjugation force back was Roderick's squire.

"I did my best, but..."

It had been a decent initial response, but that was the limit of what he could do.

The reason Got had been able to desert the subjugation force and return to the encampment faster than anyone else was also thanks to the squire's loose command.

"Good."

Jager swept his sharp gaze over the surroundings and tied the horse he had ridden to a nearby stake.

From now on, they had to go into the mountain themselves.

"From now on, form groups of three and search the surroundings. Spread out only as far as you can keep each other in sight."

"Yes, sir!"

The grave situation of a missing knight, a commander named Jager, and Vlad, who had the mercenaries under control.

Though they were nothing more than mercenaries gathered from all over, right now they were moving briskly, like well-trained soldiers.

"You two are coming with me."

The men gathered in groups of three.

Among them, those going with Jager were Vlad, his squire, and Got, the only witness to the incident.

"Boss. How could you do this to me? A person, a person shouldn't do this."

"... I'll make it up to you later."

"This is fraud. Fraud that exploited a person's goodwill."

Got was speaking in a quiet voice because he was mindful of Jager, but his voice was gradually filling with resentment.

"I said I'm sorry."

Vlad was being reproached for swindling a swindler, but his eyes were sharply chasing someone's tracks.

To be honest, he was not even listening to Got.

"Do you see anything?"

"... No."

He was diligently looking for suspicious traces, but the snow-covered mountain path gave Vlad nothing.

"Useless."

"I'm from the city."

"How do you find someone in the back alleys when they go missing?"

"First, we grab anyone and beat them."

"... Truly useless."

For Vlad, who had lived in the city all his life, it could not be helped.

He knew how to start a fire, but he had never learned tracking skills like finding traces.

Jager looked at Vlad and sighed, thinking there would be a lot to teach him.

"The sun will set soon."

Jager looked at the sun sinking lower and confirmed that they did not have much time left to search.

The place where the search party was now was half a day's walk from the encampment.

Taking that into account, they had departed before sunrise, but the sun was bound to set quickly in the mountains.

"Hm?"

As Jager was wondering when they should stop searching, something entered his eyes.

A frozen river.

Beyond it, a forest was visible.

"Did you search beyond that river?"

"As far as I know, we did not cross the river, Sir Knight."

"..."

At Got's answer, Jager thought.

'We won't be able to find him here.'

In the forest that had already been searched once, there were no footprints, let alone traces of battle.

If they were going to find Roderick, at least it would not be here.

And the same went for the unidentified woman whose head alone had supposedly floated around.

To find them, they needed somewhere at least farther than here, and somewhere that had never been searched.

"We cross the river."

Jager controlled the mercenaries with a short whistle, then pointed to the river with a gesture and ordered them to gather there.

"It's not completely frozen."

"It's the tail end of winter. And it's been warm lately."

Jager reached the river with the mercenaries and confirmed that the river they had to cross was not perfectly frozen.

"Still, we should be able to cross."

"If we spread out, it seems possible."

Though it made ominous cracking sounds each time they set foot on it, it seemed able to support the weight of an adult man well enough.

"The men from here to here cross first."

Worried that the ice might break, Jager decided to divide the men up and send them across the river.

"Ugh..."

"What's wrong?"

Vlad looked at Got, who was groaning behind him.

Got's face turned deathly pale as he watched the mercenaries slowly cross the river.

"I've got a bad feeling, a bad feeling..."

"You're not just scared?"

"Of course I'm scared too! I'm not like impressive people like you, Boss."

Got nervously bit his nails and spoke to Vlad.

"You need good instincts to make money in anything."

"Sure. To swindle people, you'd need good instincts."

"... Anyway, yes, my gut is telling me we shouldn't cross that river."

"Then why don't you try persuading Sir Jager? Tell him you have a bad feeling, so we shouldn't cross."

"..."

Vlad forcibly grabbed Got and held him in place as he tried to slink away, saying it did not feel right.

"I don't know much about gut feelings, but if I had to predict, if you ran away from here, you wouldn't die nicely. The only witness running straight from the scene of the incident? Even I would catch you and beat answers out of you."

"Then why did you keep me here!"

"Then why did you see a ghost? Is it my fault you saw a ghost?"

Looking at Vlad as he answered shamelessly, Got could only twist his lips.

"Next!"

When the mercenaries chosen first crossed safely, Jager led the remaining men toward the river.

CRACK!

"Boss, Boss! This could break, right?"

"Of course. If you say one more word, I'll break it myself and shove you in."

"Hnnngh..."

When Vlad had first met him, Got had dared try to swindle him, so Vlad had thought him a bold bastard, but he seemed more cowardly than expected.

"You're a grown man, so why are you so damn scared!"

Because Got kept backing away and refusing to move forward, Vlad was naturally falling farther from the group as he dragged him along.

Even when the second group crossing reached the middle of the river, Got and Vlad were still loitering near the edge.

"Eek! I can't! I can't go!"

"There's a limit to how much I'll put up with. Get up right now, you son of a..."

"Eeeek! Gaaaaah!"

Vlad had been about to shout at Got, who had gone so far as to lie flat on the ice, but instead, he was the one who got cut off.

Got screamed at Vlad with a face gone deathly pale.

Looking closely, there even seemed to be foam gathering at his mouth.

"B-Boss! Underneath! Underneath!"

"I told you it won't break! Do you want to take a hit, pass out, and then cross?"

"No, under, under the river, there's a c..."

Vlad was about to burst into anger as he watched Got now start to completely lose his mind.

But before that, Got barely caught his breath and shouted what he wanted to say.

"A corpse! I'm telling you there's a corpse!"

"What?"

Only then understanding Got's stammered words, Vlad looked down at the ice beneath his feet.

Beneath the dark riverbed, where even the fish seemed frozen.

BLOOP.

A small bubble rose.

"...?"

And beneath it, something was slowly floating upward.

"Oh, fuck."

No, several somethings.

Things drawing closer and closer with pale shapes.

They were opening their mouths wide and stretching out white hands.

"Sir Jager!"

Jager, who was in the middle of crossing the river, turned his head toward his squire desperately calling him from far behind.

"They're still back there?"

Just as he was about to shout something, wondering if they were slacking off.

"Something is coming up from under the river!"

"... What?"

At last, they reached the surface.

BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG!

Things that had crawled up from a dark, cold place.

CRAAAAACK!

They began hammering wildly at the ice that divided the world of the living from the world of the dead.

Asking to be let out of here.

Saying this place was too cold.

"Aaaaaah!"

"The ice is splitting!"

"Corpses! There are corpses under the river!"

GRAB!

"...!"

Jager felt something that had risen from beneath the river seize his ankle.

It was an unbearably chilling sensation.

GRAAAAH!

Jager looked down at his feet and was horrified.

It was a corpse.

And a man's corpse with black hair at that.

"Goddamn it!"

They had quietly risen from deep within the river and fooled even Jager's senses as a knight.

Along with the mercenaries' pitiful screams, the ice covering the river was cracking apart.

"Save me!"

"Don't pull me! Aaaaaah!"

They were things that did not breathe, things that had been trapped in a place far too cold.

GRAAAAH!

That was why they reached out all the more desperately.

Toward those who breathed warm air.

"Cross the river, quickly!"

Jager swiftly drew his sword, cut away the thing holding him, and shouted loudly.

"Right now!"

While Jager was shouting up ahead for the mercenaries to cross the river, there was someone beside Vlad screaming at the top of his lungs.

"Aah! Aah! Boss!"

"Shit!"

Corpses had surged up from the riverbed before they knew it.

"Hup!"

Vlad struck away the hands reaching toward him with his sword and grabbed Got, who was still sprawled on the ice, by the back of the neck.

"Son of a...!"

["Don't panic! Decide which direction you're going before you move!"]

Following the voice's advice, Vlad quickly assessed his surroundings.

'I can't go forward!'

Then there was only one direction he could move.

Having chosen his direction, Vlad began dragging Got with one hand and fiercely swinging his sword with the other as he retreated back the way they had come.

The white clouds of breath Vlad exhaled began to grow larger and larger.

"Get up, you bastard!"

"Aaaaaah!"

Cracking ice.

A collapsing river.

And those screaming helplessly upon it.

That was the last scene the red sun saw as it sank beyond the mountain.

Night was slowly approaching behind the backs of the search party struggling to cross the river.

Night, and darkness.

Those were not things permitted to the living.