Immortal's Ascending Path-39
Episode-39. A Transmitter from the Mountain Pass
The rain fell for five days before finally stopping. Black clouds scattered as if fleeing, revealing the blue sky, and sunlight began to dry the land. Ulrich inhaled the damp summer air under the forest's shade.
He walked the forest path toward Icelandburg. The sun began to set before he could leave the woods. While the rest of the group prepared for camping, he searched the forest, claiming he would hunt to add to the meal.
Roberta followed him. The excuse was to hunt together, but her intention was different. As soon as the dwarf Toruhel was far enough away not to hear, she opened her mouth.
"Toruhel, he doesn't seem to know anything about it."
The 'know' was in reference to Ulrich.
"It seems so."
The dwarf had said that a human named Selim had saved his enslaved ancestors and liberated them in the distant southern mountains. But he didn't know that Selim was still alive today and that Selim was Ulrich.
This was the opposite of the fairy Yudebora finding Ulrich. The fairy in the Kuiania jungle remembered him and knew he was alive, but the dwarf's connection was broken.
Toruhel mentioned a clan that worshipped Selim more than Keme, the goddess of earth, the creator of their race. Roberta thought they must have been dwarves who knew the truth, like the fairies. As their lineage died out, the secret was forgotten.
"Aren't you upset?"
"Upset? Why do you think so?"
Ulrich continued when Roberta hesitated.
"This is better for me. It's easier to be forgotten. If I wanted to be remembered and recognized, I shouldn't have changed my name in the first place. Don't you think?"
"That's, that's true."
"Rather than that, try to guess why Toruhel came."
Why he came? She tilted her head.
"Didn't he already say why?"
She looked at Ulrich, wondering if he had come to check the crown. The dwarf had mentioned earlier that there was a problem with the crown he and his brother made, hinting that someone had tampered with it.
Each dwarf was a craftsman, taking as much pride in their work as their skill. They were a race that deeply resented anyone they didn't recognize tampering with their creations.
Moreover, the crown was modeled after the imperial crown, and he even said it was special. She thought it was natural that he was tempted by the rumors and came all the way to this distant foreign land.
"Roberta, think carefully. Are there only dwarves in the Esta-Mauneto Mountains? How many dwarves are there in the world, and why do you think they chose the Toruhel brothers of all people?"
Looking at it that way, it was true.
There were many dwarves more famous than Toruhel. Toruhel was a name she was hearing for the first time, and his hometown, the Peira Mountain Pass, was also a place name she was hearing for the first time. Even the Esta-Mauneto Mountains were only known to her through literature.
It was strange to entrust the ritual dedicating a new era's opener to an unknown dwarf.
"···It's also strange that he heard the story. I don't know where or how the person who attended the Osnober coronation met him."
"Yes, there are many stories that cannot be seen as coincidences if you dig into them."
It meant that someone had intervened.
And as far as she knew, there was only one entity that could do such a thing.
"You think the Pantheon intervened?"
"So far, those kids are the most active."
But, Ulrich said, stopping his steps.
The bushes in front of him rustled, and a deer suddenly popped out. It stood there, its wet brown fur shining, and began to graze without noticing the two of them.
He grabbed the short spear with his right hand and held it high. And he threw it. With a thud, the deer's head was pierced by the spear.
"It's too early to say for sure. As you know, there are too many kids intertwined with me. It wouldn't be strange if anyone interfered."#
When the two of them returned to Yeongji with the deer they had caught, three people greeted them: Fritz, Toruhel, and a man lying face down with a wound on his back.
Was there an attack? Roberta scanned the surroundings, but there were no traces. If a wild beast or robber had appeared, there should have been footprints or a corpse, but only one injured person was lying down, breathing heavily.
"What's going on?"
"It's a monster. They say a monster has appeared in the village ahead."
A monster?
Roberta put aside her questions for now and examined the injured man. The skin on his back was torn. There were four streaks of wounds, as if a wild beast's claws had scratched him. The wounds were not hardened, and blood mixed with sweat was flowing down, red.
"Fritz, there should be a medicine kit in my backpack. Could you check?"
"Ah, yes!"
While he was looking for the medicine kit, she moved the mana in her body while praying to Ganymea. Soon, mana gathered at the tip of her left hand, and she touched the wound with it.
The man groaned and trembled. She pressed his shoulder with her right hand to prevent him from moving. The wound touched by her left hand began to heal. As the mana at her fingertips wrapped around the wound, it erased the wound as if the wind swept away the dust.
"Is this what you're looking for?"
Fritz brought a small wooden, square box. When he opened the box, the inside was divided into several compartments, and there were glass bottles in each. Roberta picked up the one containing gray pills.
It was a medicine made in the size of a baby's fingernail. When she fed it to the wounded man with water, his complexion returned.
"T-Thank you, Priest."
Roberta modestly said that she was just doing what she had to do.
"More than that, you said this wound was inflicted by a monster? Could you explain in detail? What happened?"
"Yes… It was so sudden that I don't know the exact situation. I just heard screams early in the morning, so when I came out, a monster was rampaging in the village."
He recalled that the villagers were hunted down without a chance to resist. He said that the reason he was alive was because he happened to be on the outskirts of the village and had been running away all day.
"What did the monster look like? And how many were there?"
"It looked like a wolf, but it was bigger and had horn-like things on its head and body. The number… I don't know. I had the feeling that there were many, but I didn't have the time to count them one by one…"
He lowered his head powerlessly and wiped his face with his hands.
'Bigger than a wolf, has horns, and hunts in packs, huh.'
Several monsters came to mind.
But as far as she knew, there was no Demon Realm nearby. For monsters to appear, the Demon Realm had to be nearby, but this place was right in front of the capital of the Osnober Kingdom, Icelandburg. There was no way a Demon Realm could be created near the capital.
If monsters really appeared, they had to come all the way from a distant Demon Realm. But how? Could a group bold enough to attack a village not be defeated along the way?
'Even if the effects of the civil war still remain, it's unlikely.'
An incomprehensible anxiety welled up.
"What are you going to do?"
Toruhel asked.
He was asking whether they would go right away or go after spending the night.
'It's going to be night soon.'
She looked at the sky. The sunset was setting.
If she asked the residents how long it would take to get to the village from here, they would answer that it would take at least half a day even on horseback. She would arrive at dawn. Finding a place where monsters are likely to be at dawn? It was a dangerous thing to do. But she hesitated for a moment and then looked up at Ulrich.
It was a gaze asking what he thought. He nodded.
"Let's go right away."
"Are you okay? If you go now, you'll arrive in the middle of the night."
"That's right. But if we go now, we have a chance to find survivors or monsters. If we arrive in the morning, neither will be left."
Roberta followed Ulrich and got on her horse.#
After riding for a long time, they arrived at the village.
The time was, as expected, deep at night. As soon as Ulrich's group arrived at the entrance of the village, they witnessed the corpses of people who appeared to be residents. All of them were collapsed, facing outside the village.
Ulrich got off his horse and examined the corpses. There was not a single intact corpse. They were full of traces of being bitten, torn, and stabbed. It was obvious to anyone that they were not traces caused by weapons.
"It's a typical monster attack."
Roberta inwardly agreed with Toruhel's mutter. She had often seen such scenes when she chased monsters outside the Demon Realm.
"Ugh…"
Fritz groaned.
The group each took out their weapons, held them, and entered the village.
Although it was nighttime, the moonlight shone, so the scenery of the village was clear. It was not a small village. It was not a city, but it was large for a village. There were also multi-story buildings, and the walls were built high on the outskirts of the village.
Monsters attacked such a place? Even if they formed a group, it would not be easy, but they did it. There was only death inside the village.
"Why is this happening…"
She looked at the man who accompanied the four of them. He was probably the only surviving villager. He made a painful expression as he looked at his hometown, which had lost its life, then covered his face with both hands and sat down.
"It's strange. There are traces of monsters, but there are no monsters."
Toruhel frowned as he looked at the corpses. As he said, the surroundings were full of corpses, but there were no monsters among them. Only people, and the existence that drove them to death was vague.
"Did they move to another place?"
Fritz asked.
"Well, I don't think they would have moved so quickly."
"Then shall we look inside the houses? You never know."
At that time, Ulrich started walking away from the group.
"Where are you going?"
Roberta asked.
"I have something to check."
He told Roberta and the other four to check the surrounding houses, and then entered another building alone.
"······."
The inside of the houses was more horrific than the outside.
The corpses scattered outside were in the form of being hunted, but the corpses scattered inside were in the form of being eaten. They couldn't have attacked the village for fun.
Naturally, they had to fill their stomachs after hunting. What the group saw was the trace of that.
"Damn it, that's why I hate monsters."
Toruhel sighed and examined the corpses that were left uneaten. It seemed like it hadn't been long since they had become like this, and the saliva was still wet. He gestured for Roberta to look at it.
"It seems they are still in the village."
"For them, it's a feast of food. It would be a shame to leave right away. Everyone be careful. You never know where they'll pop out from."
And then, there was a loud crash.
"What is it?"
The four people hurriedly came out of the house. The commotion came from the building across the street. It was a two-story building, and it was where Ulrich had entered alone, away from the group.
The sound of things falling, colliding, and breaking came from upstairs. The four people rushed into the wide-open door. But the moment they stepped on the stairs, the commotion stopped abruptly.
"Ul… Armin-nim?"
Fritz called out cautiously as he climbed the stairs.
"Come down."
Then the answer came back.
Following that, there was the sound of footsteps and a dragging sound. Ulrich appeared in front of the four people climbing the stairs. His upper body was soaked red.
"Are you okay?"
Toruhel widened his eyes.
He was worried, thinking that the blood was Ulrich's.
Instead of answering, Ulrich raised both hands and showed what he was holding. It was the culprit who hunted this village, resembling a wolf but with horns.
One of the monsters held in his right and left hands was only a head, and the other was intact but had its neck bent and its tongue sticking out. He came down the stairs and threw the two corpses on the floor.
"It was a Canipus."
Roberta clicked her tongue as she looked at the monster's corpse.
It was a monster commonly seen in several Demon Realms.
As she said, its appearance was similar to a wolf, but it had horns and thorns all over its head and body, and its adult body was about the waist of an adult male when standing on four legs.
But the two Canipus that Ulrich caught were slightly larger than half of the adult body. Toruhel recognized it and said.
"Looking at the size, they're babies. There can't be only two of them."
"That's right."
Roberta nodded. Because they were monsters, they were stronger than ordinary beasts, but looking at the size of the village, there would have been more than two of them, as he said. It was not at a level that the village self-defense force could not handle.
"Besides, Canipus are monsters with strong maternal instincts. I have never seen only babies separated from the group. Maybe around here—"
She suddenly stopped talking. A sound was heard. There were only five people alive in the village. Also, they were all standing still in one place, so it wasn't theirs.
It was the sound of a herd of beasts, a derogatory term for monsters, approaching.
"Geez, it's noisy."
Toruhel took the double-edged ax off his shoulder and held it with both hands.
"···Ganymea."
Roberta put the mana of her body into the blade. The blade faintly glowed. Fritz took a long breath to calm his mind and stood next to Roberta. The frightened survivor hid behind them.
Ulrich held nothing in his hands. He was just silently looking beyond the door of the house. In the moonlight shining on the street, bright yellow eyes twinkled; there were dozens of them. With a growling cry, they bared their teeth.