Chapter 201 – Reunion (2)
Ratel stripped the two unconscious knights of their armor and outer garments, then tied them up with the equally unconscious priest.
Since nothing good would come of their being discovered before he finished his business, he did not forget to gag them either.
He rose, intending to dump them in an unused storeroom, and spotted Jing nearby, dealing with the two men they had knocked unconscious earlier.
“You look remarkably practiced at this. I suppose it’s because your wanted posters have already circulated before.”
Jing gave a bitter smile at his compliment.
“Don’t tease me. If Dito discovers that I’m alive, wanted posters bearing your face will also circulate throughout the empire.”
That would be somewhat troublesome.
Already feeling annoyed by something that had yet to happen, Ratel turned his head and met the eyes of the family still sitting on the ground and staring at him.
From the way the parents desperately hid their young son behind them, he could tell what they thought of the strangers who had suddenly appeared and defeated the priest and knights.
“Which do you think would be better: pretending you saw nothing and quietly running away, or screaming, being knocked unconscious, and getting left in the street?”
Offering them a choice was Ratel’s idea of kindness, but it only heightened their fear.
Jing belatedly stepped between the pitiful family and Ratel.
“We happened to overhear your circumstances. It seems it will be difficult for you to continue living in Haire, so why don’t you take this and leave?”
Jing pulled a small pouch from his pocket and offered it to the couple.
However, they hesitated, unable to readily accept Jing’s goodwill.
It was obvious that they were wondering whether they should listen to someone who had beaten a priest unconscious, so Jing awkwardly raised the corners of his mouth.
“Very well, I’ll leave this here. But I’d appreciate it if you didn’t scream. We have absolutely no desire to harm innocent civilians.”
Jing placed the pouch on the ground and gestured to Ratel with his eyes.
Seeing that the family was noticeably more relieved than when he had spoken to them, Ratel obediently stepped back.
The sight of them rejecting the priest’s proposal and choosing to live with their child had left quite a strong impression on Ratel as well, and he had no particular desire to threaten them now.
“P-please, hurry! We’ll be in serious trouble if people come!”
Lia, who had been keeping watch, called out in a small, anxious voice.
“Let’s go. Judging by the atmosphere, they seem too frightened of us to cause a commotion anyway.”
Even if they screamed, that could be dealt with when it happened.
Having no desire to kill those who had refused the priests’ proposal, Ratel simply turned away and headed toward Lia.
“Thank you...!”
When he turned toward the faint voice behind him, the child was already in his parents’ arms as they hurried away.
Feeling something strange, Ratel watched their retreating figures for a moment before following Jing again.
* * *
Jing tried to squeeze himself into the armor they had taken from the knights but soon gave up. He put on the gauntlets and vambraces, then concealed the rest beneath a cloak.
Ratel likewise wore only the gauntlets and a cloak, but unlike Jing, it was not because the armor did not fit. He simply could not be bothered.
“Y-you think you’ll get away with this?! You had better be prepared to give up your lives after doing something like this!”
Meanwhile, the priest who had regained consciousness began throwing a tremendous fit.
Ratel approached him to test the effectiveness of his newly acquired gauntlets, then stopped for a moment.
“......”
“......W-what is it? If you untie me now....”
“What’s your name?”
“What?”
The priest was bewildered when Ratel, who had approached with such a menacing air, suddenly asked for his name.
Thinking that the priest was unlikely to answer willingly, Ratel grabbed him by the collar and hauled him up.
The priest’s mouth fell open at the barbaric treatment he was experiencing for the first time in his life.
“I asked you your name.”
Ratel repeated the question.
“J-Jes!”
“Say it clearly. Is it Jejes or Jes?”
“Jes! It’s Jes!”
Having obtained his name, Ratel punched him with his gauntleted fist.
“It feels as though he’ll die no matter what I do, so knocking him unconscious is actually rather difficult.”
Ratel lowered the limp man to the floor.
Jing looked down at the priest, who had been knocked unconscious again before he could even scream, and remarked bluntly,
“Just remember that isn’t what those were originally made for.”
“Does their original purpose matter as long as they’re used well? This was probably a more appropriate use than letting those idiots wear them merely as decoration.”
Jing looked down at the four knights who had failed to wake even while the priest was screaming at the top of his lungs.
Then he cautiously studied Ratel’s expression.
“We did end up involving a few more people than originally intended, but I don’t think the plan has gone too far off course. No one suddenly deserted halfway through, and we aren’t being pursued yet.”
“Exactly. We also weren’t attacked by monsters while wandering around searching for someone who disappeared, so it would be fair to call this perfect.”
Lia quickly chimed in after Jing spoke.
“I can’t tell whether you two are talking to each other or saying this for my benefit.”
When Ratel narrowed his eyes and questioned them, Jing and Lia shook their heads together as though they had arranged it beforehand.
“Goodness, of course not. It can’t be helped if you happened to overhear us, though.”
“That’s right. It can’t be helped if you heard us. If you did, we might as well add that it would be wonderful if you were just a little more careful from now on.”
Ratel regarded the alliance between the two normal people with a crooked look before giving a small nod.
Fearing that too great a reaction to this monumental progress might backfire, Lia changed the subject.
“Anyway, I’m nervous. I think I’ll freeze completely if priests or knights stop us. I’m worried.”
“No one is expecting an outstanding performance from you.”
Lia decided to interpret that as Ratel’s attempt at encouragement.
“Understood. I’ll just stand there without looking unnatural.”
“There’s no need to be too nervous. We only have to hold out for three hours. We merely need to endure until the offerings are transported to the imperial palace.”
Jing, who at least knew an ordinary way to encourage someone, spoke reassuringly.
And so, the three advanced with slightly less solemnity than the situation warranted.
* * *
The three silently followed the path leading to a two-story structure attached to the temple’s main building.
As they passed knights and people who appeared to be servants, the solemnity that had briefly vanished from among them returned.
More precisely, it was solemnity created by Jing’s stiff expression and Lia’s extreme nervousness.
Fortunately, no one stopped the two knights as they followed Lia, who walked ahead with her head lowered like a criminal.
At last, after passing all the people and reaching the warehouse, they saw a long row of freight wagons and workers methodically loading sacks onto them.
“......There’s an incredible amount.”
Lia murmured with her mouth hanging open at the enormous scale.
Ratel agreed with Lia’s amazement.
Even the freight wagons being loaded with sacks full of food and money were so extravagant that they were almost blinding.
“Move them, quickly! We must depart within the hour! We cannot be even slightly late!”
A man in priestly robes could be seen urgently issuing orders.
At his roar, the servants carrying the sacks quickened their pace.
Jing and Ratel stepped forward, intending to blend naturally into the chaotic scene.
“Wait. What are you lot doing? I haven’t seen your faces before.”
However, they apparently did not look as natural as they had hoped, because two knights immediately stopped them.
“We were delayed while fetching what is to be loaded onto the last wagon.”
Despite the rather hostile question, Ratel answered calmly.
The two men’s hostility faltered at the mention of the last wagon.
“I wasn’t told that anything else was coming.”
At their suspicious expressions, Lia lowered her head as deeply as possible and nervously shifted her eyes.
Just as Jing opened his mouth to say something, Ratel spoke first.
“Priest Jes sent us. You may confirm it if you wish.”
At the mention of Jes’ name, the tension immediately left their faces.
“Where is Priest Jes?”
“After ordering us to load this woman onto the last wagon, he went back inside.”
Ratel answered the man’s question without hesitation.
Had Priest Jes—who was likely still unconscious and locked inside a cramped cleaning closet—heard this, he might have coughed up blood from sheer injustice.
As though suddenly remembering something, the other knight tapped the shoulder of the colleague who had asked where Priest Jes was.
“Didn’t he leave earlier, saying he would meet the families that had failed to provide their offerings?”
“Then that must be...”
The two looked down at Lia, whose head remained bowed.
“They said it was a son with a limp and his parents, so this one must be the mother.”
Although she had suddenly become a married woman with a child, Lia did not mind.
Trying to summon the image of a mother she had read about in books, she raised her head with tears in her eyes.
“M-my son has trouble with his leg, so he won’t be able to work properly. I’ll work hard in his place, so please, just don’t drive us out of Haire...!”
Lia staggered toward them as she pleaded.
Frowning at her wholehearted performance, the two knights shoved Lia back when she tried to grab their arms.
Jing caught her as she stumbled backward and nearly fell.
“What are you doing over there?! Didn’t you hear that we’re in a hurry? Stop wasting time and get moving!”
At that moment, the priest who noticed them standing idle shouted.
“Damn it. Hurry up and move that before we’re scolded again.”
Jing sighed as he watched the two knights depart, their suspicions dispelled.
“Miss Lia, are you all right?”
“Yes, I’m fine. Still, everyone truly seems incredibly busy when we come at this hour. It’s exactly as Ran said.”
“That means we need to move quickly as well, so get up.”
Ratel answered while taking his eyes off the two departing knights.
Ratel and Jing helped Lia to her feet and headed toward the rearmost wagon in the clustered line of vehicles.
“By the way, Ratel, you really are fearless. I was so nervous earlier that I could barely speak, but you spoke so shamelessly…. I mean, confidently.”
Jing nodded at Lia’s hastily revised wording.
“Indeed. I already knew that you were shameless…. I mean, confident, but even I was nearly fooled earlier.”
This time, Jing’s correction had clearly been deliberate. Ratel kept his gaze fixed on Jing’s profile as he answered.
“Everything is proceeding exactly as that man said it would. What is there to be nervous about?”
Although using Priest Jes had been Ratel’s own decision, everything else had unfolded precisely as Ran had explained.
At around this time, the temple would prepare to transport offerings to the castle where the imperial family lived. They only needed to say that they had brought someone to be loaded onto the last wagon. The departure time always varied, but they should act when the fewest priests and knights were present.
Although everything Ran had told them had proven correct, Jing and Lia exchanged glances, surprised that Ratel was acknowledging it so readily.
“If you have something to say, use words. Stop talking with your eyes.”
“We’re only surprised that you developed such trust in Ran so suddenly. It is far too abrupt.”
Lia nodded at Jing’s answer.
It was not as though Ratel himself did not realize how suddenly his attitude had changed.
However, he had no intention of personally repeating the absurd claim that Ran had come from another world.
After all, even he had not completely cast aside his doubts yet.
Furthermore, deciding whom to tell about his identity was that man’s own concern.
Ratel looked at Jing, who still believed Ran was an imperial prince.
He looked curious about what Ratel and Ran had discussed in Lucha Village, but he had yet to ask about it directly.
“Is there something you wish to say?”
“No.”
Feeling strangely uneasy, Ratel turned his head away.
“That seems to be the very last one.”
They had already reached the end of the wagon procession.
Its exterior looked no different from that of the other wagons, but there were no servants diligently carrying sacks in and out of it.
Lia swallowed nervously at the rigid expressions of the silent knights guarding the area.
“From this point onward, let us all be careful. Don’t do anything that might attract attention.”
Nodding at Jing’s whisper, she left Jing and Ratel behind and opened the cargo compartment’s door.
She was greeted by the gazes of those seated inside, all desperately trying to conceal their anxiety.
Hoping that every one of them would survive, Lia found a place and sat down.
* * *
Did those three board the wagon safely?
Thinking about the three who should currently be at the temple in Haire, I ran my tongue over the flesh inside my mouth that Rea had beaten bloody.
Things on this end seem to be unfolding as I expected.
We safely reached the werewolves’ stronghold, and we met Archi as well.
“Let go of me! I said, let me go!!!”
Beside me, as I reflected with satisfaction on my situation, Adol passed by with Mona gripping the back of his neck.
Even if he struggled until he exhausted himself and collapsed, he probably would not accomplish much.
How could a mere little brat possibly defeat those enormous werewolves?
“Archi, I apologize. I will take him away and have him beaten.”
As soon as Adol and Mona left the tent, Rea knelt on one knee before Archi and bowed her head.
Unfortunately, Adol’s decisive strike had failed to harm so much as a single hair on Archi’s body.
Before Adol could even complete a proper attack, Archi kicked him in the stomach and sent him flying.
By the time Adol tried to rise again, Mona—who had shoved me aside—had already seized him by the collar.
“Forget the beating. Just starve him for two days. Young ones only become obedient once their bellies are empty.”
Speaking in a low, unhurried voice as though nothing had happened, Archi turned his gaze toward me.
His black eyes stared as though they would pierce straight through me, but I did not avoid his unsettling gaze.
Just as I thought I saw a ripple pass through Archi’s eyes, he spoke again.
“Then is that the human who broke the curse and emerged from the cave?”
Without taking his eyes off me, he asked Rea.
“Yes. He is a highly suspicious human. He appears to be quite close to the one who just left.”
“I’m closer to him than a complete stranger would be, but we’re not that close.”
Besides, there’s someone in here who’s far closer to him than I am.
Apparently displeased with my answer, Rea glared at me.
“Don’t make me laugh. Then why did you stop Mona and me earlier?”
I shrugged at her harsh question.
“Because it wasn’t your place to interfere.”
A rift between father and son should be mended by the father and son themselves.
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