༺ Beware of the Deer (2) ༻
I slowly walked behind Luna after throwing away the stone in the park. For a while, we walked in silence, before Luna pointed her finger toward someone in the marketplace.
“There! There he is! That’s him…!”
Luna whispered carefully to avoid getting caught by her target— Lapu, the swindler. That guy already knew Luna’s face, so he might run away if realized his whereabouts had been found.
It was unlike how Luna usually would act, but it was wise of her to quickly seek me instead of going after the swindler all alone.
Anyway, so that was him, huh?
Gently—
From a distance, I looked around the marketplace and watched the man wandering about in a steady gait.
Lapu, the swindler, was a middle-aged man in a cloak that was as oversized and long as the one I was wearing right now. He had a head full of light brown hair, meanwhile, his face was marred with innumerable scars and wrinkled folds.
The eye patch he wore on his left eye was slightly different from what Luna had described. He probably altered his appearance and took a new identity.
“How should we handle him? Should we attack him at the same time?”
Luna took out her silence totem from inside her raincoat.
She looked like she could no longer wait to hit that wretched man on the head with that totem of hers. Of course, it would be weird if you could act calmly while looking at the bastard swindler who scammed you of all your money.
However, the opponent was an unidentified mugger with a bounty of 50 silvers to his name. He wouldn’t be an easy opponent that you could catch by simply knocking him out and putting him down.
He might have all kinds of unimaginable tools and tricks hidden under his leather cloak.
Most hunters who wore such long clothes obviously had a lot of sneaky tools that they could use against their opponents. So, there was nothing wrong with being careful.
Other than that, we must also capture that deer that formed a gang with him. So it was better to attack him when he joined with that deer.
“Oh, who is this? Isn’t this the Samaritan fellow?”
While tailing after that swindler, someone talked to me from behind. I only had a few acquaintances in this city who would talk to me like that. That was why I immediately turned my head back, wondering who it was, when I heard that distinct female voice.
The first thing I could see after turning back was her blonde hair, tanned skin with a slightly light-reddish tone to it, and the small freckles scattered on her face.
The next thing I noticed was the copper armor with a red cape attached to her back. Finally, a set of gaiters and gauntlets could be seen protecting her limbs. She gave off the typical vibes of a rural female warrior.
I felt the sight of her blue eyes blinking rapidly to be quite familiar too.
What was her name again? Wasn’t it Renee from the Sword Maidens?
“Luna is here, too? What are you two doing? Are you out on a date?”
“I don’t have time to deal with you, go away.”
Renee was interested in us as though she had stumbled onto an interesting situation. But I didn’t have time to pay attention to her because I was on duty to catch a pair of thieves.
Moreover, that swindler, Lapu, was quick to slip into the crowd. It was to such an extent that I thought I would immediately lose his trail if I lost concentration for even a second.
In order to not let him slip away, should we just go and attack him right now? Renee just kept talking to me while I was seriously contemplating our next course of action.
“Why are you acting so cold? We’ve done a request together. Isn’t it okay to at least tell me what you’re doing?”
“We are carrying out a request. There… I’ve told you what we are doing now, so go away.”
“I see, a request? Hmm, I was wondering why you were trying to stay low and kept looking forward like that. Are you trying to catch a criminal with a bounty on their head? Then, I think it should be a request from the guards. It hasn’t been long since you were promoted to the bronze rank, but you’ve got a request from the guards’ office already! You guys are doing better than I thought.”
Wow, the way Renee was able to draw up such a conclusion, which was really close to the truth, with such a small amount of information was kind of impressive, to say the least. As expected, the intuition of a bronze-rank adventurer who went through numerous struggles was really otherworldly. Their hard work didn’t go in vain and their perceptions never failed to deliver.
“Could you please leave now that you know the truth? I’m about to lose the guy I’m chasing.”
“You’re really cold. Then good luck. I’m busy, too. I must go to the deer forest because I have a transaction to conduct.”
Luna reacted to the word “deer forest” before me.
“Deer forest? What kind of goods are you going to trade?”
“An armor I used to wear. They’re taking it off my hands for 50 silvers. I paid around 30 silver for it when I first bought it, so selling this piece of junk for 50 silvers is quite the deal.”
How could someone want to pay more for something that has been already worn and used? For some reason, this story sounded extremely familiar, like I had heard it somewhere else before, but I thought it was just a coincidence and decided to not bother with it anymore.
So we went our separate ways and continued tailing Lapu, the swindler to his destination.
Without doing anything suspicious or talking to anyone, Lapu focused on walking out of the south gate and eventually heading to the open field beyond.
We could see the deer forest beyond the open field, filled with tall and sharp trees.
**********
The deer forest was full of trees and grass. There were also a lot of bugs and birds chirping here and there, making the whole forest very loud and noisy.
“Wow, there are so many bugs around us. It’s practically worth a small fortune.”
Luna talked while looking around as if she had to make a tough decision to let go of the opportunity to make money.
She looked like she wanted to pick up some herbs and mushrooms and catch some bugs as soon as she can. Yet, since we had a mission to chase after someone, she couldn’t do that and became restless instead.
“Let’s do that later. More importantly, just what kind of animal leaves so many footprints?”
On the forest ground, many stalks of grass were trampled all over the place by many sets of footprints.
It was apparently the traces of a four-legged beast with two claws obliquely sticking from its soles, could these possibly belong to a deer?
“W-Watch out for the deer, Hassan.”
Luna’s pink twin-tailed hair was trembling intermittently, perhaps because she remembered what had happened to her before. I wasn’t sure if it was because the experience of being ripped off by the deer still remained like a trauma in her psyche.
That was not the most important thing here, anyway. The more urgent thing to do was to find where Lapu — that bastard — had disappeared ever since entering the forest.
So as I was surveying the surroundings to find out where the heck that swindler bastard had fled to, Luna spoke in an urgent tone…
“Shh, I hear something, Hassan.”
“What did you hear?”
I also followed Luna’s words and listened to the surroundings, but I could only hear the insects, birds, and— I wasn’t sure if the last noise I heard was that of a cicada or something else.
“I can’t hear anything.”
“Here, this way.”
After saying that, Luna started moving swiftly while lowering her posture. Avoiding the narrow path and slowly passing through the tree and bushes for a while, Luna finally stopped walking.
“There, he is there! He is talking to someone.”
I could see Lapu, who had been out of our sight, in the direction Luna pointed out with her fingers while we hid in the cover of the bushes.
Damn, how was she even able to hear Lapu talk from such a distance? Did entering someplace like a forest increase her physical and sensory abilities, including hearing? Was this an ability she got for being a grass-type Pokemon?
Although I had a lot of doubts about her abilities, soon, I was also leaning with my ears open to listen to what was coming out of Lapu’s mouth. I couldn’t hear well because of the bushes covering him, but Lapu was talking to someone at the moment.
“This time, it’s real. It’s a Maiden’s possession. I’m sure that your situation will improve, my friend.
Purr— Purr—
I was wondering who the fucker was speaking to. But I was only able to spot one damned deer near him. But, like, how could a person even talk to a deer?
Although there were lots and lots of crazy bastards roaming the world, this was my first time seeing a person talking in such a serious tone with an animal.
“Wait, I sense a presence. You should stay away for now.”
Lapu lowered his posture and keenly listened to his surroundings. At the same time, the deer who was talking to him went hiding behind the tall grass.
Luna and I were also on high alert as the swindler was wary of his surroundings, so we held our breaths, opting to make no sounds. Did he notice that someone was spying on him?
As expected of a Bronze-rank adventurer. I now understood how he could trick people without being caught. We better launch a surprise attack as soon as possible, but grasping the correct timing in this situation isn’t easy.
He was like a thorny hedgehog, not resting or letting go of his guard even for a split second.
“…Who’s there?”
That swindler suddenly shouted toward the tall grass.
“Are you the one who posted the transaction notice on the guild market?”
Out of nowhere, a maiden with freckles and a familiar voice appeared from behind the grass and spoke to Lapu.
“Yes, are you the female warrior?”
“Yeah. You want to buy the armor, right?”
Damn, it was really Renee. Renee did say that she was going to conduct some deal in the deer forest but I didn’t expect it to be with that swindler.
“Is the armor you’re wearing for sale? Can you confirm that this is something you have frequently worn in the past?”
“Yeah, it’s definitely what I used to wear and use on a regular basis. I think I used it for about a year already.”
“Then your mana must have permeated all over the armor. It’s not a waste of 50 silvers then.”
“Old man, you sound like a damn pervert. I would’ve chopped you down right now if you weren’t going to pay me. Then give me the money first.”
“I’ll get the goods first and give you the money later.”
“What, you don’t trust me?”
“It seems that we can’t trust each other. Then how about this? I’ll put the silver bag full of coins on this stone and you take off your armor and put it over that rock. On the count of three, we both will run towards our items of interest. Deal?”
What kind of deal was that?
Hearing this was enough to tip me off. It was clearly a fraud.
Having played all kinds of video games from an early age, I was familiar with all types of phishing and fraud schemes, this suspicious transaction method was alarming all my honed instincts.
“All right.”
Renee readily accepted the offer and began taking off her armor in a swift move.
Her sweaty cotton T-shirt hidden under the armor and the shorts that were barely covering her smooth and plump buttocks were fully revealed before my eyes. My pupils stretched wide open at this somewhat erotic scene.
“D-Don’t look…!”
Luna covered my eyes so I couldn’t witness the scene of the female warrior undressing. Just as I was about to ask her what the hell she was on about, something unexpected happened.
“What is this… A deer?”
“Run, run!”
“Wait, shit, you fucking bastard! Why don’t you stop right there?!“
With a loud howl, rough movements began to spread in all directions, and the sounds of bushes and branches breaking abounded the open space.
“Shit, stop there!”
Renee’s bewildered voice was heard between the grasses. I took off Luna’s hand, covering my eyes, and immediately stood up.
“Shit, let’s go after them!”
If I knew this would happen, I should have just attacked from the get-go. I then heard Renee’s screeching voice after running for a while.
“D-Damn it…He is really fast. The hell…”
I finally found Renee resting with her arms on a tree while gasping for air.
“What are you guys doing here? Why are you even here?”
“We came after the swindler. Where did he run to?”
“Shit, is he that swindler? That damn deer went to the left, and that human bastard went to the right. Bastards! They better pray that I don’t catch them.”
Renee shouted furiously with her sword drawn. Luna then suggested to Renee in an urgent voice.
“Renee! You chase after the deer! That man is ours!”
“Shit, no. I’m going to beat that bastard with my own hands. You guys follow the deer!”
Then Renee got back on her feet and started running in the direction where Lapu had fled to.
It didn’t matter where we went because eventually, we had to catch both the deer and the man.
“Luna, then let’s hurry up and go!”
Luna and I were heading in the direction the deer had run off to.
“Footprints! There are footprints here!”
I could see what appeared to be fresh deer footprints in the direction Luna pointed towards.
Damn you, deer bastard! I inwardly swore to kill that fucking deer and make its leather into a quality quilt for Luna’s cabin. I pulled out my sword with such thoughts in mind.
Drrr…
Drrr…
Suddenly, deer with unnatural scarlet eyes and disordered antlers popped out of nowhere. Wait, they were surrounding us?
Above all, holy damn, just what kind of fucking deer had such scary long Dracula-like fangs?
They looked like huge elks with antlers galloping above their heads. Their eyes were even more horrifying as they looked like those of predators that wanted to rip off my flesh rather than the innocent eyes of a herbivore.
They were drooling too. With their long heads and antlers combined, they were way over my height and of a huge size overall. Their muscles also seemed very sturdy, and in a way, they looked like kangaroos running on four feet.
“L-Luna, what are they eating? They look so hungry.”
“Deer from this forest can eat anything.“
“Do you know how to talk to deer? You know, something like the voodoo stuff you usually do.”
“How can I talk to a deer? Hassan, sometimes you talk about weird things in the most serious of ways.”
The f-fuck!?
Just when I began feeling immense shame after being scolded by Luna…
“But shall I try? I improved a lot recently, so maybe I can pull it off.”
Tap. Tap.
After saying that, Luna approached the around ten-something deer while trembling hard in fear. She soon put her fingers on her head, making a shape like antlers, and began doing some strange imitations.
“Hurrr, purrr, purrrr.”
Plop— Plop—
One of the deer saw that and approached Luna. Damn, was it really working? Was interspecies communication possible in this world? While I was thinking about that…
Hurrrrrrr!
“Gyaak!”
The deer swung its huge antlers and crashed into Luna with what seemed like the force of a literal truck!
Shwoop—
Luna flew due to that ruthless strike and hung on a tall branch as if she was a wet laundry caught on a clothesline.
“L-Luna!”
“Eeek”
“These fucking bold bastards, I will give you a reason to fear humans!”
Just like that, my anger rose to the top of my head like a boiling volcano ready for eruption. I immediately drew my sword and shouted at the top of my lungs.
“Come here, you fake vegan bastards, I’ll kill the first one who comes at me!”
Right after I finished that vigorous shout.
Plop— Plop— Plop—
All the fucking deer started running toward me while pointing their antlers forward at the same time.
“Damn it, come one by one, you fuckers!!”
The plural of deer is also deer so it might feel confusing to some folks but that’s just how it is. Believe me, it’s confusing for me too. English can be so weird sometimes…
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