ISGW 05

Chapter 5

Harin Goes Out into the Outside World (5)

“It’s dangerous!”

Hearing Harin’s shout, the man raised his head and looked at her.

Harin rushed between him and the wolves and struck one of the charging wolves with her spear.

“Yelp!”

One wolf was sent flying, but the other two immediately charged at her from both sides, trying to bite her.

Having grown up in a beastfolk village where wild animals frequently appeared, Harin was relatively used to dealing with them.

She lowered her body to avoid one wolf, then drove the bottom end of her spear down onto the neck of the other.

The wolf cried out after taking the blow to its neck.

The other wolves also began to back away cautiously, and it seemed they had lost their will to fight.

All three wolves turned and fled into the bushes.

After catching her breath for a while, Harin felt someone staring at her and turned to the side.

When she had shouted that it was dangerous, she had meant for him to run away.

Yet despite all her efforts, the man was still standing there blankly, as if nothing had happened.

Up close, his skin was as white as jade.

He looked to be in his mid-to-late twenties.

His features were so fine that rather than handsome, beautiful seemed like a more fitting word.

Harin was also amazed by his luxurious clothes and noble air, which were unlike anything she had ever seen before.

She stared at him with wide eyes.

“What are you?”

But his piercingly blue eyes were sharply raised, and there was not even the slightest hint of gratitude toward her for helping him.

His cold and unpleasant reaction surprised Harin again and brought her back to her senses.

“I could have handled it myself without you suddenly jumping in. I don’t know where you came from, but in short, all your effort was wasted.”

His voice was cold enough to make frost seem to fall from every word.

There was not the slightest trace of warmth in it.

Harin did not know how to respond.

She simply stood there in a daze, as if someone had hit her hard on the back of the head.

The wounds she had gotten from forcing herself to move despite being injured were throbbing with pain, and she almost found the situation ridiculous.

The moment she thought someone was in danger, her body had moved before she could even think.

It had barely been a day since she realized that even if someone was human like her, they were still strangers who had nothing to do with her.

And yet here she was, acting foolishly and getting scolded for it.

Harin lowered her head and gave a weak smile.

The man silently stared at the blue-haired woman who had suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

He had no idea where she had been rolling around before this, but she looked like a complete mess.

It was almost ridiculous that she had thrown herself into the fight without even thinking about her own condition.

Yet the person who looked like she found the whole situation ridiculous was herself.

The girl gave a dazed little laugh, then walked past him without saying anything.

“Hey. Stop right there.”

“……”

“I said stop.”

“Cheeky…”

He muttered under his breath, then quickly caught up to Harin and placed a hand on her shoulder.

Harin turned around, intending to knock his hand away.

But before she could even lower the hand she had raised, she froze in place.

Whoosh.

For an instant, she felt a warm light envelop her entire body.

And when that warmth disappeared, she no longer felt any pain.

Her swollen left foot, which had made her cry out in pain every time she walked.

The wounds covering her body from being scratched by branches.

All of them.

They had vanished as if they had never existed.

Not only had her wounds disappeared in an instant, but her exhausted body, which had felt as if it could collapse at any moment, suddenly felt astonishingly light.

Harin’s eyes widened in disbelief.

“Are you a mage?!”

“What kind of mage can use magic without casting a spell?”

“Then how did you…?”

“I am a priest.”

Harin found it strange that such a prickly and sharp-looking man, who did not seem particularly religious, would introduce himself that way.

Still, the very existence of a priest, someone she had never seen before, fascinated her.

“If you’re a priest, then which god do you serve…?”

“You’re asking which god’s priest I am while we’re in Asyria? Obviously, I’m a priest of Shyene.”

Perhaps because of his pure white hair, which reminded her of freshly fallen snow, Harin thought he somehow suited the image of a priest of Shyene, the Goddess of Ice.

“You really are stupid. I knew it from the moment you recklessly jumped in, but you don’t even know something this basic. Unless you came out of some remote village…”

He continued spitting out harsh words.

But when he noticed that Harin did not even react to the mention of a remote village and simply stared at him, he stopped.

“Did you really live in some remote village?”

“A remote village… I suppose that’s not wrong. I lived in a beastfolk village my entire life.”

“……”

“It’s a beastfolk village? But you’re human. Why?”

“I don’t know either. That’s what I wanted to find out… I finally left the village to find the parents who gave birth to me, but…”

Harin swallowed back the emotion rising in her chest.

Then she shrugged and forced a smile.

“And this is what happened.”

“……”

At those words, the man seemed to run out of even his usual harsh words.

He simply closed his mouth and stared at her.

He looked as though he had not expected that answer and did not know what to say.

No, his expression almost looked as though he was struggling to figure out how to comfort her.

His expression changed several times.

Then, as if forcing himself to say something completely out of character, he spoke in an awkward tone.

“Uh… well… I don’t know what your circumstances are, but… yeah. Hang in there. I’m sure you’ll find your parents someday. You’re still young… You must have been through a lot.”

His earlier voice had been cold enough to feel like the middle of winter, perfectly suited to him.

But now he awkwardly searched for words of comfort, creaking like a broken machine.

Harin could not help but let out a small laugh.

“You still have a long road ahead of you, so be careful… And your parents wouldn’t want you wandering around so badly injured, either. Okay? Take care of yourself first… W-what is it?!”

The man shouted in embarrassment.

Harin looked at him in confusion.

Only then did she realize that she had not actually been laughing.

She was crying.

The words were clumsy, but they were the first words of comfort she had ever heard in her life.

Seeing Harin suddenly burst into tears and simply stare blankly as they fell, the man looked completely lost.

He stood beside her awkwardly, as if he were sitting on a bed of thorns, not knowing what to do.

“I’m sorry for making you uncomfortable.”

Harin wiped the tear stains from her swollen eyes and smiled faintly.

“…And thank you.”

It felt as though the heavy weight in her heart had suddenly become lighter.

She had never imagined that a single word from a stranger could make her heart feel this warm.

Even Harin herself found this new feeling strange.

The man started to say something in response, but perhaps he could not think of the right words.

He simply looked at her with an awkward, sullen expression.

“You’re a really good person, Priest.”

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

He replied gruffly, but he did not seem particularly offended.

The fierce look in his eyes had softened considerably.

“Go on and continue your journey. I can’t really do anything for your grand journey, but if I see you again looking like you’ve been beaten half to death somewhere, I’ll at least treat your injuries.”

Harin burst out laughing at his words.

Then she walked down the forest path with light steps.

The man continued watching in her direction for a long time, until Harin disappeared from his sight.

[That was quite a show. Watching you struggle like that was pretty entertaining, too.]

“W-what?! Hamar, you bastard!”

A huge white-furred creature resembling a tiger had silently approached the man.

It was three or four times the size of an ordinary human.

The creature looked toward the direction Harin had left before speaking.

[But that little girl from earlier looked like Freya.]

“So what? The one I’m looking for is Freya. Not some girl who looks like her.”

The man grumbled, then sighed and pressed a hand against his forehead.

He looked strangely exhausted.

After standing there blankly for a while, he thought about the blue-haired girl from earlier and gave a small chuckle.

But then his face scrunched up again as he shouted.

“And how does she look like her anyway?! Freya is WAY prettier!!”

A day after parting ways with the man who had introduced himself as a priest, Harin arrived at another town.

She remembered seeing it on the map before.

It was called Britton.

It was more developed than a simple village—a commercial city where trade was flourishing.

She seemed to remember reading in a book that if you needed something, this was the place to buy it.

Harin stood in the busiest square of Britton, searching the crowds with her eyes for Asbel and Leod.

Since this city had an unusually large number of travelers from outside, Harin could see several other groups of adventurers and travelers.

In front of a blacksmith’s shop, a traveler wearing a pink robe was telling a swordsman who seemed to be her companion to try on a new suit of armor.

After paying the blacksmith, she dragged him out of the shop, and the two immediately began bickering.

“What are you doing, Linda?! I told you I can keep wearing the one I already have!”

“Your armor is completely broken, and you still want to wear it? Come on~”

“Then I’ll pay for it! How much was it just now?”

“No, it’s fine~”

Harin watched them walk down the street, bickering like that, with eyes full of envy.

Their strong sense of companionship made her feel jealous.

Elsewhere, there was a medical center.

A brown-haired man was leading one of his companions, whose hand was wrapped in a bandage, toward it.

“Jimmy, let’s get you treated first.”

“Didn’t you say we needed to get to Landmark quickly because of your father?”

“Of course your treatment comes first!”

Standing in the middle of the square, Harin stared blankly at the various travelers who had come from distant places.

It felt as though someone had struck her on the back of the head.

Perhaps her relationship with the two beastfolk wasn’t really a relationship between companions.

Right.

From the beginning, Asbel had called Harin and Leod her attendants.

Their relationship existed so they could support Asbel on her journey.

No matter how difficult it was to be alone, was it really right for Harin to rejoin Asbel and Leod?

Would being with them truly mean that she was no longer alone?

Harin’s hesitation did not last long.

A cheerful voice came from somewhere nearby.

“Hey~ Harin!”

Leod waved at Harin with a bright smile.

Harin walked toward him and Asbel with a strange expression, unsure what kind of face she should make.

“I knew it! I told you you’d be fine! That was quite a thrill, wasn’t it? Running through ten or twenty humans who were trying to kill us in the middle of the night!”

Unlike Leod, Asbel’s expression was extremely sharp.

Her fierce eyes were fixed on Harin, filled with resentment and blame.

“Hey.”

“Hm?”

“Don’t you feel sorry at all?”

What…?

Before Harin could say anything, Asbel snarled at her.

“You’ve probably figured it out yourself, haven’t you?”

“Figured out what?”

“The human attack. Why do you think so many humans suddenly came after us? It’s not like they could make money by killing us and selling our hides.”

Leod closed his mouth awkwardly, looking back and forth between Harin and Asbel.

“It was because of your damn necklace! If they didn’t come after us for that, then what else could it be?!”

“I don’t know the exact reason either, but…”

“But what?!”

Asbel glared at her fiercely.

Her pupils narrowed into thin vertical slits like those of a beast.

She looked as if she might lose her temper and threaten Harin at any moment.

Harin could not continue speaking.

She could not know for certain that it had been because of the necklace.

But she could not say it had nothing to do with the necklace, either.

“I’m… sorry…”

Harin pressed her lips tightly together.

“Keep that damn thing hidden so no one can see it! If something like this happens one more time… Attendant or not… I won’t let you off.”

Asbel turned around and walked ahead.

Harin lowered her head, unable to move.

Leod came closer and began talking to her, trying to comfort her.

“Hey~ Harin! We got here first and gathered information from all over the city, and we actually found out quite a bit. Apparently, Asura were spotted recently in a city called Rosenford. So we’re on our way there…”

Leod kept chattering beside Harin as she walked without answering.

But she was so drained that most of his words simply passed through her ears.

Britton was a very crowded city.

As Harin walked along weakly, a small man running through the crowd suddenly crashed hard into her.

“Ah! Sorry!”

With that careless apology, the small man quickly got back up and hurried away.

Harin, who had not been badly hurt by the collision, also stood up and brushed the dust off her clothes.

“It’s okay…”

Harin tried to look at the man who had bumped into her, but he was already running quickly through the crowd, apparently in a hurry to get somewhere.

“Harin…”

Leod stared at her for a moment before speaking hesitantly.

“Nothing missing, right? We’ve seen a lot of people get pickpocketed since we came here.”

Harin suddenly snapped back to reality.

The first thing she did was look down at her necklace.

Seeing that it was still around her neck, she let out a huge sigh of relief.

Then she reached for the pouch containing her money inside her clothes.

…

It was gone.

Leod looked at Harin’s shocked eyes and sighed as if he had expected this.

“Le-Leod! I have to catch that pickpocket…”

“All right. Go ahead. The inn we’re staying at is called the Blue Song Inn. Come find us there.”

Harin immediately ran in the direction the pickpocket had disappeared.

Considering what might happen, those coins were all the money she had.

She absolutely could not let them get away.