Chapter 273 - Defense (3)

Hans Aullock.

The man I would henceforth remember as Hans J.

"H-Hans...?!"

"Hans...?"

The moment he revealed his name, Raven and Aynar flinched beside me and fixed their eyes on us.

They both knew what the name Hans meant to me.

"... I-Is something wrong?"

Hans J looked flustered by the sudden attention.

I gripped my thigh hard.

'Not now. Hold it in.'

I wanted to smash his skull right now and turn him into a nameless corpse.

That urge dominated my thoughts.

But...

I squeezed harder.

There was no proof yet that he was the traitor. All I had was suspicion.

Even if I explained how ominous the name Hans was, Patzran and Ersina wouldn't accept it. For now, they still considered him a companion.

So...

"No, nothing's wrong."

I wouldn't take any action for the moment.

Even if he was the traitor, if he had any sense, wouldn't he just keep his mouth shut and lie low until he could return to the city?

I decided observing him came first.

"Hmm? It certainly didn't seem that way..."

"I said nothing's wrong."

"Hmm, if you say so..."

Hans J rubbed his chin uneasily.

I did feel a little bad, as though we were ostracizing him, but...

"So, are you going to leave my hand hanging here—"

Even so, a handshake was crossing the line.

"Ah, Patzran! Finished talking?"

I looked away from Hans J and changed the subject. As it happened, those two seemed to have just finished their conversation.

"More or less. From what I've heard, it seems Draus really was from that place... I'd always thought there was something a little odd about him."

"I see."

"So, what will you do with this man?"

"Keep him with us for now."

"Understood."

Surprisingly, Patzran had no objections to how I was handling Nevarche.

These people had nearly killed him too.

Was he respecting the boundary because he considered the man my spoils?

"Anyway, could everyone gather around?"

Once the initial reunion was more or less over, Raven called everyone together. Then she and I laid out the situation.

"The waves are blocking the sea routes, so we can't escape the island. And for some reason, monsters keep appearing."

"About those monsters. They seem to be getting stronger. A Siren Queen even appeared just now."

"Yes. Whatever this phenomenon on the island is, we seem to be caught up in something serious. With that in mind, Mr. Patzran, do you know anything about it?"

Patzran waited a moment before speaking.

"... You seem to have some idea already, so I'll be honest. This is precisely why we came to the island."

Apparently, regardless of what the other members knew, he at least had heard a few things from their leader, Draus.

"I don't know the details myself... But I was told we only need to hold out until sunrise two days from now."

"Thankfully, that means this won't go on forever."

Raven then offered two options.

"The first is to find somewhere easy to defend and hold out for two days."

"And the second?"

"We search the island for our companions. Our team still hasn't found Misha, and Mr. Patzran's team hasn't found their archer, right? If they're both stranded alone, they'll be in greater danger as time passes."

I couldn't help chuckling at Raven's words.

Why even call it two options if she was going to put it like that?

"Well, what would you like to do?"

"Find our companions, obviously."

I answered without a moment's hesitation, and Patzran was no different.

"Even I managed to escape safely. Helga must have gotten away too. We have to rescue her."

We would search the island and find our companions first.

Just as we'd all but settled on that course of action, Hans J's eyes darted around and he joined the conversation.

"A vote! Why don't we put it to a vote?"

I could hardly believe it.

Sure, his name was Hans, but still.

He was saying that in this atmosphere?

"Ahem, perhaps someone is against it but simply hasn't been able to speak up."

"Fair enough. Let's vote. Raise your hand if you think we should find our companions."

Without wasting any time, I held the vote immediately. Once everyone else raised their hands, Hans J glanced around and raised his last.

"That settles it, then."

Barbarian democracy was unbeatable.

* * *

TRUDGE, TRUDGE.

I was clearing a path at a fairly brisk pace.

Eight people followed behind me: everyone in our clan except Misha; our temporary allies, Patzran, Ersina, and Hans J; and our strategic prisoner, Nevarche Greenhop.

'At least we've gathered eight fighters.'

Assuming Misha and the female archer from Patzran's team joined us, we could probably clear this somehow.

Having a priestess made a huge difference.

Without her, things would have looked truly hopeless.

"Misha! Answer if you can hear us! Misha!"

"Heina!"

After leaving the shore, we focused on finding our companions somewhere on the island.

It wasn't easy.

The island itself wasn't all that large, but...

CRUNCH! CRUNCH!

KABOOOOM!

Monsters were now appearing by the dozens wherever we went, slowing our progress.

By this point, we were practically standing still and doing nothing but fighting.

「You have defeated a Sea Giant. EXP +5.」

「You have defeated a Naga Archer. EXP +5.」

「You have defeated a Palpus's Serpent...」

「...」

The change had begun thirty minutes ago.

The grades of the monsters appearing had risen sharply. Even a party of eight was struggling to push through.

"..."

"..."

The mood had indeed grown darker.

No one had said it aloud first, but the reason for their gloom was obvious.

"With this many monsters..."

They must have been thinking that our separated companions couldn't possibly be all right. Even if Misha and the archer had been lucky enough to meet and join forces, the two of them couldn't withstand monster waves like these.

But what was I supposed to do about that?

"VEHELLLAAAAAA!"

Ignoring the grim conditions, I put even more strength into clearing the way. Even if I had to swing my mace several times just to advance a few steps, that was no reason to stand still.

I hadn't confirmed anything yet.

So...

CRUNCH! CRUNCH! CRUNCH!

I kept moving forward.

POP!

Blood burst out.

"..."

My struggling companions breathed raggedly.

SLASH! SHUNK!

The sickening sounds of flesh being sliced as weapons cut through monster hides and pierced their organs. Amid that noise, I heard someone mutter.

"... I-Isn't it time we stopped?"

It was Hans J.

"Why isn't anyone saying anything? Y-You don't want to be the bad guy, is that it? But y-you all know!"

I stopped in my tracks without realizing it.

Even now, monsters were charging at me from the front, drool dripping from their mouths, but...

"Know what?"

I turned my back on them and walked toward him.

"Spell it out. Before I get the wrong idea."

"Think logically! Don't you realize it's already too late?"

Right, so he was the clever mage, was he?

Perfect timing, actually.

I'd wanted to snap his neck since we met. Spouting this bullshit in front of a barbarian would be justification enough.

So...

"Ghk!"

I grabbed him by the throat.

"M-Mr. Jandel!"

Raven screamed beside me.

Patzran, who had been fighting beside me on the front line, also abandoned the monsters and rushed toward me.

"What the hell are you doing?!"

Perhaps because I'd laid hands on his companion, he no longer bothered addressing me politely.

And at the sight of that...

"Take another step and I'll kill you."

Aynar assumed a fighting stance and blocked his way.

Erwin reacted similarly.

She moved silently.

She said nothing and continued firing arrows at the monsters. But at some point, she'd positioned herself behind the priestess.

She probably intended to kill the priestess first if a fight broke out.

"E-Everyone, stop!"

Raven shouted in outright panic.

"Jandel, get a grip."

Mister Bear tried to stop me while shoving monsters back with his large crossbow. All of this had happened in the mere three seconds since I grabbed the mage's throat.

'Fuck.'

What was I doing?

This wasn't like me.

THUD.

I loosened my grip on his throat and threw Hans J to the ground. My sudden outburst had already broken our front line, and monsters were starting to pour in.

"Sorry. I lost my temper for a moment."

"... We'll discuss this later."

As I returned to the front line, Patzran stood beside me and fought the monsters without another word.

"Whew..."

That put an end to the atmosphere of imminent infighting.

But things were different now, and they couldn't go back to the way they had been.

"..."

"..."

We fought together while remaining wary of one another.

That slowed our progress even further.

Well, at least Hans had shut his mouth.

'Misha...'

For me, needing to find Misha as soon as possible, this was bad news.

'Damn it.'

We were searching the island at an ant's crawling pace when it happened.

"M-Mister! A body!"

We found the remains of someone we'd been searching for.

* * *

My heart sank the moment I saw the body.

My vision grew distant, and my mind went black. But before long, that feeling turned to relief.

Because it wasn't Misha.

"Heina...!"

The woman who served as the archer on Patzran's team.

Patzran, who had been clearing the way beside me, rushed toward her terribly mangled form.

Then...

"Damn it!"

After checking her breathing, he slammed his fist into the ground.

At that moment, a pure white pulse spread from the center of our formation.

「Lairin Ersina has cast [Proclamation: Destruction of Evil].」

[Proclamation: Destruction of Evil], one of a priestess's core skills, could be considered a kind of barrier.

It couldn't stop people, but for as long as it lasted, monsters could never cross it.

["SKREEEE!"]

Simply put, we were safe for the time being.

So I lowered my shield and approached a corpse too.

Not the archer's.

There was another body.

"Who is this?"

I dragged the bewildered Nevarche over and asked him. He answered that it was his companion.

That left me feeling dazed too.

'What the hell... happened here?'

I could understand the archer being dead.

But I couldn't understand why this man's corpse was right beside hers.

"Raven, cause of death?"

"There are too many bite marks to be certain. But... from what I can see, the stab wound in his abdomen was probably fatal."

Right. Just as I'd thought.

"A sword wound..."

Heina was an archer.

Yet he'd been stabbed to death with a sword?

That simply didn't add up.

"What about the woman? Can you tell exactly what killed her?"

"I don't know. Her body's in even worse shape..."

"What's your best guess, then?"

"... For one thing, there are wounds from enormous claws tearing into her. But that's a little strange too. We haven't seen any monsters that could leave marks like these. It's as if a large monster ripped her apart..."

"Any monsters come to mind?"

"The marks share a pattern of three claws, with deeper wounds at the tips. You usually see that pattern in injuries caused by birdlike monsters, such as wyverns."

"I see."

The situation was becoming even more troublesome.

"So it couldn't have been monsters after all."

"No... probably not."

Raven nodded in agreement.

After all, the corpses had been stripped of all their equipment.

"Patzran, does the woman still have her subspace storage?"

"No. Someone took it."

There were now two possibilities.

Either there were other explorers on the island we didn't know about.

Or...

'There was infighting on Noark's side too.'

SMACK!

I slapped Nevarche, who looked as though he'd lost his mind.

"Get a grip. I have questions for you."

"..."

"Any idea who did this?"

"Camilla and Belverson. It must have been those two bastards."

"More detail."

Nevarche then told me that the man named Belverson used a sword, while the woman, Camilla, commanded a summoned drake.

"But why would they hurt your companion too?"

"I-I don't know either. Maybe they wanted the treasure. Perhaps Lady Reinweils fell to them too..."

No, I didn't have time to nurse his mental state.

"Tell me about the treasure."

I grabbed his hair to hold his head still and made him repeat the part I'd skimmed over earlier.

There wasn't much substance to it.

"All I know is that it's something passed down for generations in the family of Noark's lord. Ah, ah! There's also a legend that whoever obtains it can change history!"

Change history?

Was it something that powerful?

Since it was a legend, I should probably take half of it with a grain of salt.

'Anyway, it's definitely important enough for them to send a woman like Amelia to retrieve it.'

That seemed like sufficient motive.

Hadn't Noark's people left for the outside world?

Making one big score, laundering their identities, and living in the city wouldn't have been a bad option.

"Mr. Aullock, please take care of Heina."

"Ah, leave it to me..."

Hans J cast a preservation spell on the archer's body. Once he placed her in subspace, the recovery of her remains was complete.

"... Jandel, what now?"

Like a true explorer, Patzran pulled himself together in a short time and asked about our next move.

But I couldn't say anything.

"Will we keep searching for your companion?"

I knew I couldn't be like this, but the words simply wouldn't come.

"We still have some strength left, but the situation will only get worse."

Of course, I understood that intellectually.

Our forced march was draining our stamina. On top of that, we had to watch out for those two bastards, Camilla and Belverson.

Finding a defensible position now and conserving our strength was unquestionably the right choice.

But...

'Then what about Misha? What is she supposed to do...?'

I kept finding myself unable to make rational decisions.

'Maybe this is why...'

The thought suddenly struck me.

Perhaps Misha had pushed me away that day because she'd known this would happen.

If our relationship had deepened that day, I wouldn't even have been capable of thinking this way. I'd surely still be running wild, swept away by my emotions.

Just like when I'd snapped earlier.

"Mr. Jandel..."

I took a deep breath and let it out.

Then I slowly looked around.

Raven, Erwin, Aynar, Mister Bear.

My precious companions, not just Misha, were looking at me with concern in their eyes.

It was time to make a decision as their leader.

"Everyone, lower your weapons. We'll rest for as long as the barrier lasts."

It felt as though my stomach was rotting away.