Vakhan wolves were monstrous wolves that lived in the Samar Rainforest and possessed startling agility for their large size. On top of that, they even had poisonous glands that secreted paralytic venom on the inside curve of their long claws.
First scratching their prey with their claws and then tearing into it once it stopped moving was the preferred hunting method of these Vakhan wolves.
The natives of this rainforest knew how to tame monsters. That went for the Garung tribe as well. These Vakhan wolves, which had received training from the moment they were born, had no inhibition against carrying the tribal warriors on their backs.
These tamed Vakhan Wolves were easily able to race through the complex forest terrain like it was a flat plain, before lunging at the tribal warriors’ prey and sinking in their claws and fangs.
When the wolves charged at him, Eugene stood up on his rock. The wolf running at the head of the pack leapt into the air and threw itself at Eugene. It first attacked him with its claws rather than its fangs.
Slash!
A spray of blood fell from the air. A stone column had burst up from the ground and pierced right through the wolf’s body. The wolf let out an agonized cry, but the warrior who had been riding on top of the dying wolf just kicked off of its back and leapt towards Eugene.
“Kiyaaah!” Letting out a shrill cry, the warrior thrust his spear at Eugene.
Eugene still had yet to pull out a weapon. He reached out with just his bare hands and caught hold of the spear in mid-air. Pulling on the spear with one hand, he slammed his other fist into the native’s face before they even had time to let out another cry. Eugene’s fist made the warrior’s whole face cave in with just one blow.
Ignoring the now sprawled-out warrior, Eugene grasped his stolen spear in both hands. The blade of the spear was glistening, but it wasn’t the gleam of metal. The spearhead had been coated with the Vakhan’s Wolves’ paralyzing venom. With a smirk, Eugene jumped down from the boulder.
The wolves were no longer charging at him and had instead come to a halt.
Boom!
The stone column collapsed back into the dirt, sending the wolf it had impaled sprawling onto the ground. Although the wolf was still barely breathing, it wasn’t far from death.
“A wizard?”
Among the warriors, it seemed that there was another one who knew how to speak the common language. He narrowed his eyes and glared at Eugene.
The warrior barked out, “You. Garung’s warrior. Killed him.”
“I’m pretty sure he’s still alive, though.” Eugene pointed out.
This was the truth. Although his face had pretty much collapsed inward, the native was still alive. While letting out indecipherable groans, the downed man was writhing on the ground.
“No. You killed him. He no fight any more,” the warrior spat out in his slurred common language as he shot glances at the other warriors.
The warriors who had been riding on the backs of their wolves started to dismount onto the ground. Eugene felt the mana in the air begin to fluctuate.
Just because they were tribal warriors, the Garung Tribe weren’t opponents that he could take lightly. These tribal warriors possessed enough skill that they were even able to assault the lavish escorts hired by the wealthy merchants and nobles who visited Samar.
Woo…
Ahwooooo…
An ominous sound blew through the forest. The ground began to tremble. The warriors lowered their bodies as they tensed their muscles.
Eugene glanced down at the ground.
‘So they’re using spirits of the earth,’ he realized.
The natives of Samar were adept at both shamanism and spirit magic. With how close they were to the dense forest where they were born and raised, it was almost like they were loved by the forest itself.
This was a disadvantage for Eugene. Trying to prod any initial movement out of the earth using magic was a very tiring affair. However, the earth was much more responsive to the persuasion of the spirits than it was to having magic cast on it.
‘...No, this isn’t just an earth spirit.’ Eugene corrected himself.
There was something else mixed into it. Something that wasn’t quite mana…. Eugene’s lips twisted into a frown.
“It has a nasty taste to it,” Eugene grunted.
This feeling was somewhat similar to black magic, but the essence of it was different. These tribal warriors weren’t using demonic power like a demonfolk or a black wizard would.
They were using the power of shamanism.
The wolves’ bodies suddenly drooped, as the monsters’ souls left their bodies and entered the warriors’. The warriors trembled, and the ominous noise grew even louder.
While spitting out the nasty taste in his mouth, Eugene readied his spear.
Bang!
The warriors kicked off the ground. Their movements seemed to be a blend of both human and monster. It had already been disgusting enough sensing the monsters’ souls overlay the warriors’, but their movements caused Eguene to recall some unpleasant memories.
They resembled the Death Knight created by placing the soul of a lycanthrope into Hamel’s corpse.
Boom!
The air itself was torn apart as the spear that Eugene threw ripped one of the attacking warriors into shreds.
* * *
When Eugene returned to the riverside, Narissa was folding the clothes instead of Kristina.
“Why are you making her do that?” Eugene questioned Kristina.
“I’m not making her do anything,” Kristina protested. “She said that she wanted to repay the favor, and she started working all on her own.”
“Even if she started working on her own, then you could have just told her that she didn’t need to do it.”
“She volunteered out of her own free will because she wanted to repay our help; if I told her to stop, that would just leave Lady Narissa feeling awkward.”
Kristina was sitting in the chair that Eugene had left by the riverside. She scanned Eugene’s spotless appearance before smiling softly.
“So which tribe was it?” Kristina asked.
“The Garung,” Eugene replied.
Narissa’s shoulders trembled as she listened in on the conversation between them.
“The Garung are not some small tribe. Did you make sure to kill all of them?” Kristina checked.
“What, did you think I would only kill some of them? Or do you think that I should have just warned them of how strong I am and told them they should give up on chasing the elf if they didn’t want to die?” Eugene asked with a snort of amusement.
“They probably wouldn’t have listened to the warning even if you did,” Kristina sighed.
“Probably not,” Eugene agreed.
Eugene didn’t find any enjoyment taking care of such pointless and tiresome affairs either. If at all possible, he had wanted to solve this issue without getting into a conflict. However, the native warriors weren’t the type of opponent who could be so easily persuaded. If Eugene had told them that he’d be willing to pay what the elf could have brought them on the market, they would surely have insisted on taking all the money that Eugene had as their price for letting the elf go free.
“Well, it’s not like we're planning on staying here forever. So, what did she say?” Eugene asked.
Kristina returned his question. “Why don’t you ask her yourself?”
“She’s too afraid to even make eye contact with me,” Eugene pointed out.
“That’s probably because an elf’s ears can be a bit too keen for their own good,” Kristina said with a smile as rose from her seat.
Standing up at the same time, Narissa repeatedly bowed her head to Eugene as she apologized to Eugene, “I-I’m-I’m sorry, your great and fearsome lordship. I-I’m just so overwhelmed. I’m so, so sorry, my ears picked up things that they shouldn’t have….”
“What does she mean by ‘things that they shouldn’t have’? Did I say anything important while I was over there?” Eugene mumbled to himself as he headed over to the tent.
This large tent was an artifact that had been modified for added convenience, using magic. A simple press on a button affixed to the central pole had the tent folding neatly on itself.
Although it was still bulky, that wasn’t any issue for Eugene. He stuck the whole tent inside of his cloak and turned to look at Narissa.
“So, what exactly did you hear?” Eugene asked her.
Narissa stammered. “S-screams, and… people begging for their lives….”
—P-please, spare me.
—You were striking all sorts of poses earlier while acting cool and pretending to be strong. What’s with you suddenly begging for your life? So uncool.
—I… I am a warrior of the Garung tribe. If I don’t return. They’ll… they’ll send pursuers. Moreover, our comrades aren’t far away.
—Even if do spare you, they’ll still be sending pursuers. I stole away your prey, after all. So if I kill you now, that just means there’ll be one less person coming after me. So wouldn’t you say that it would be better for me to just kill you now? Don’t you agree?
“I… because of me… I’m so sorry for troubling you,” Narissa apologized.
“It’s really more annoying than troubling. Also, did you ever ask us for help? When you came floating down the river, I’m the one who pulled you out of my own volition, and I killed those guys because I wanted to, you didn’t even ask me to do so,” Eugene insisted as he tucked the clothes that Narissa had folded into his cloak.
Kristina spoke up. “Will you be carrying her, Sir Eugene?”
“Carrying her? What kind of nonsense are you saying all of a…,” Eugene trailed off as his eyes turned to Narissa. He suddenly recalled that her left foot had been amputated.
Narissa’s shoulders hunched as she felt Eugene’s gaze rest on her and she stood up by herself.
“I-I’ll be fine,” she claimed. “I can run well even with just one leg. I-if I find a useful branch along the way, I can use it as a crutch. So please… please don’t….”
“Please this, please that, can you please stop with all those damned pleases?” Eugene sighed in exasperation.
Narissa sobbed. “Uh… uwah… I-I’m sorry….”
“No I’m sorry, but please, can you also stop saying sorry all the time as well?” Eugene grumbled with some embarrassment as he summoned a wind spirit.
When a gust of wind suddenly caused her to start floating, Narissa panicked and started thrashing in midair.
“Tell me if you need to go to the bathroom while we’re traveling,” Eugene instructed her. “Don’t piss yourself while pointlessly trying to hold it in.”
“Y-yes,” Narissa replied as she gulped down her shock.
As an elf, she also knew how to perform a bit of spirit summoning.
Howevers, elves as a race usually tended to allow their innate talents to lie fallow due to their peace-oriented natures. Although she had already lived for a long span of a hundred and thirty years, Narissa’s spirit summoning magic was only slightly above the level of a beginner in the art.
Elves were just such a race. They lived for a long time indeed, but they spent most of that time chirping with the wild birds of the forest and caring for the flowers and trees.
Even so, with how long they lived, an elven archwizard who had lived for hundreds of years was strong enough to make a human archwizard look ridiculous in comparison.
“Ummm… Sir Eugene… do you mind telling me… how old you are?” Narissa asked hesitantly.
“If you convert it into elf years, I’m around two hundred,” Eugene answered her.
Narissa was lost for a moment, “Huh…? Um… Ah! Yes, I see. That’s truly amazing. Even though you’re not that old, to be able to freely control the spirits like this… and you’re even strong enough to terrify those fearsome warriors… I-I truly admire you.”
Narissa’s trembling had settled a little as she stared at Eugene with admiring eyes. Kristina, who noticed this look, snorted and shook her head.
“First she said that you have a face that’s so impressive and amazing that even an elf can’t compare to you… and now she’s saying that she admires you? It feels like you might be hearing more compliments today than you’ve heard in the rest of your life,” Kristina noted.
Eugene disagreed. “Not really? I think I’ve heard a lot of compliments like that, ever since I was young. I’ve also been told a few times that I have quite the handsome face.”
In his past life, with Hamel’s face, he’d never once been told anything like that, but after he was reincarnated with this face, he truly had heard those compliments a few times before. Even for Eugene himself, when he was looking at his reflection in a mirror or in a body of water, there were times when he had that kind of thought. ‘What a handsome bastard.’
Kristina suddenly jolted. “Hold on, Sir Eugene, you aren’t thinking of abandoning her midway just because she might be a burden, are you? I refuse to believe that your personality is that screwed-up.”
Eugene snorted. “If I was going to throw her away, I wouldn’t have picked her up in the first place. Besides, this makes for a good pretext, doesn’t it? We’re just protecting a traveling elf and guiding them to the elven village. No matter how fierce the guardian who protects the village is reputed to be, he probably won’t reject his own people.”
At this reply, Narissa swallowed a sigh of relief.
Eugene suddenly turned to her. “But anyways, Narissa.”
Narissa yelped, “Y-yes!”
“Did you come here looking for the elven sanctuary that is said to lie at the foot of the World Tree?” Eugene asked.
“That was one reason, but… I also thought that it would be easier to live in hiding in a rainforest rather than in a city. I-I wouldn’t need to worry about the Demonic Disease either…,” Narissa faltered.
Eugene eyed her. “But it doesn’t look like you’ve caught the Demonic Disease. Have you?”
“Uh, no… I haven’t caught it yet, but who knows when it might happen,” Narissa mumbled as her chin fell to her chest.
The Demonic Disease was a disease that only afflicted the elves. The reason why Sienna, who had been living peacefully within the elven sanctuary, had ended up going out into the world was because of the Demonic Disease.
It was now rare for any elf to catch the Demonic Disease, but three hundred years ago, back when all five Demon Kings were still alive, countless elves had contracted the Demonic Disease and perished. The elves living in the sanctuary were no exception to this.
As such, Sienna had set out from the elven sanctuary. Her mission was to slay all five Demon Kings, and prevent any more elves from being afflicted with the Demonic Disease.
“...The Demonic Disease is an incurable illness,” Kristina muttered. “Even with the light of divine magic, it is impossible to treat the Demonic Disease. Even the Demon King of Incarceration has been left with no choice but to evade responsibility for it, calling the Demonic Disease an ‘unavoidable illness.’”
“Well, that makes sense. In order to get rid of the Demonic Disease, all the Demon Kings and demonfolk would have to commit suicide,” Eugene gave a repressed response before turning towards Narissa. “Were your parents also born outside of the rainforest?”
“Yes…,” Narissa cautiously admitted.
This meant that she wouldn’t be of any help in finding the place. He held back the urge to say this out loud, but Eugene still couldn’t help but think this to himself.
* * *
Ujicha was a senior warrior of the Garung tribe. He was a towering giant that closely resembled a stone statue. His cleanly shaved head and muscular body were absolutely covered in scars and tattoos.
Filled with cold rage, Ujicha turned to look at his surroundings and voiced his conclusion. “It was a one-sided slaughter.”
He had no choice but to judge the battle that had taken place here as such. The tribe’s warriors and the Vakahan Wolves, they had all been one-sidedly slaughtered. Ujicha slowly walked through the battlefield, examining the corpses.
Soon, Ujicha’s eyes lit up. Although the corpses had already been lying there for a few days and had been damaged by monsters feeding on them, the wounds they had suffered could still be made out clearly, mostly because of the variety of blows that had been delivered.
A few had been killed by a fist, some slashed by a sword, some others had been stabbed with a spear, others blown to pieces as if they had been within range of an explosion, and still others looked like they had been grabbed by some huge monster and crushed to death.
However, unlike the traces that had been left on the corpses, the set of footprints that remained imprinted in the ground indicated that there had only been one opponent.
“So this was all done by one person,” Ujicha mumbled.
Ujicha wasn’t the only one to have come to this conclusion. A man wearing a large shirt that easily allowed the wind to blow across his skin came on over and stood at Ujicha’s side.
The man spoke, “So then, these brave warriors of the Garung Tribe… they truly couldn’t beat just one person and even had their prey stolen from them?”
“So it seems,” Ujicha conceded.
The veins on Ujicha’s bald head were throbbing in anger. He glared at the man beside him and growled out in a ferocious voice, “I will hunt him down and return with the prey.”
“Of course you will.” The man nodded. “Can’t you see how excited our young master had become after being told that you’ll be giving him that elf as a gift?”
“If he wants elves, there are others we can give him,” Ujicha grunted. “The slave market should be opening again soon. One or two elves should probably be put up for sale this time as well.”
It wasn’t just the Garung tribe who would be participating in this slave market, several other neighbouring tribes would also be attending. This market, which was held twice a year, traded in tribal criminals who had been sentenced to slavery, tamed monsters, and foreigners who had also been enslaved.
It wasn’t just the natives of Samar who attended this market — foreign nobles and merchants who had developed close ties to a tribe could also find their way there. That said, their main purpose for visiting wasn’t to purchase slaves, but rather to take in this rare spectacle of an event that only took place twice a year.
“No no, other elves won’t do. Our young master… well… he has slightly unusual tastes. He’s obsessed with elves who have had a body part amputated,” the man admitted with a shrug and a look of embarrassment. “You get what I’m saying right? He’s got a bit of an… amputee fetish? Something along those lines. He likes it when they’re missing a limb, or even just an eye….”
“If that’s what he wants, then I can just cut them up for him,” Ujicha offered.
“No no, I’m telling you that just won’t do. If that could work, don’t you think that I would have thought of it already? The young master says that he can’t get excited by such artificial measures. He needs to know that they were already missing a limb before he gets his hands on them,” the man explained. “Of course, that one-legged elf probably wasn’t born with just one leg, but the young master insists that he wants an elf whose foot was cut off, not an elf whose foot was cut off because of him.”
“So he’s just crazy then.” Ujicha snorted in disgust. He had no desire to understand the young noble’s twisted tastes.
The man continued, “Furthermore, if you want an elf from the market, you still need to pay for them, right? Why waste our money on that? When we can just catch that one-legged elf for free.”
“Bron. Don’t rush me,” Ujicha growled.
“I’m not rushing you… did it sound like I was? Well then, I guess I’ll let you go about it your own way,” Bron mumbled as he kicked one of the corpses. “That aside… his skills must be pretty impressive. My first impression is that he doesn’t seem to come from a knightly background. Could he be a mercenary? But what reason could a mercenary have to come all the way here just to wander in the forest on his own?”
“He must be a hunter[1],” Ujicha guessed.
“For him to have entered this deep into the forest all on his own, he must not be an ordinary hunter,” Bron muttered to himself.
“It’s been two days since they were killed. We can still catch up to him,” Ujicha stated firmly as he ground his teeth in suppressed rage.
“That’s good, the trip has been getting a bit boring. Let’s go after him together,” Bron proposed. “Ah, it won’t be just the two of us, right? It may have been just one guy who killed all your warriors, but he might still have companions.”
“Are you scared?” taunted Ujicha.
“Haha! Me, one of Shimuin’s Twelve Finest, scared?” Bron chuckled as he pounded Ujicha on the shoulder.
Once he had calmed down, Bron nonetheless reminded Ujicha, “It’s still better to be on the cautious side.”
1. The raw uses the same word for hunter to describe these slavers, so they may be assuming that Eugene has taken Narissa as his slave. ☜
