Biggest thanks for Ace-Triad for fixing my SPAG problems, and Angel Wraith for beta-reading... and picked out a pretty major plot hole in the original draft of this chapter.
As always, I will blabber some more in my end note.
The moon breaks through the cloud as it starts to shine its dim light down from the night sky, casting the undead filled field in the middle of the thick forest into a much more sinister glow. What had looked eccentric, even a bit goofy under the glorious incandescent sun now takes a much more ominous appearance in its absence.
Thankfully, the only drawback for the eerie atmosphere is the mild discomfort it caused. As the masters of the undead creature was more than accommodating, even generous in their support for the Shield Hero. In addition to the usual wildness surviving gears and traveling ration, they also provided a suit of exotic looking bone armor for both Naofumi and Oersted, and a fairly comfortable leather armor set for Mein herself.
The bones are dark gray in coloration, and at least on par with castle forged steel in their defense rating and durability. Apparently, they are special bones that've been seeped in strong, dark magic for a long time. While it makes both Naofumi and Oersted stand out even from a distance with their new, dark knight-like looks, they are much more durable compared to the standard mail of the guards. Which is a definite improvement over the common guardsman's mail they wore when they were escaping from the capital. Something tells the princess that the Three Heroes' Church would also approve of the new look both Naofumi and Sir Oersted had adopted. It's probably much easier to sell the idea of him being an outer god worshiping and summoning heretic if he's dressed in intimidating dark armor made of bones.
With the three of them already imprisoned and their faces likely recorded by the church, there's really not much point in going for disguise anymore, as their wanted posters are surely flying all over the nation by now. So the higher grade armor is a welcome change. Although their best chance to escape with their lives is still staying far away from civilization and possible pursuers, which is where their guides come in.
Chapter 107: Slender the Mountain Top
Yukari did end up making the roster in the end. She is the one who'll guide their group through Whiterun County and into the northern part of Melromarc. In addition, she can also conjure up, and command some low level undead creatures like the carcasses or bones of small animals. It might sound useless, but they can make for excellent scouts and sentries to inform their group of dangers around them. Mein still has some reservation about the impulsive, and energetic girl might lead them right towards Balafon to look for her elder brother, but she has to admit Yukari wasn't a bad choice as long as she takes Naofumi's safety seriously.
Once they leave Whiterun County, Ren (the highwayman, not the Sword Hero) and Nora will take over the role of their guide through the northern province and across Griffin's Spine. A shame Porter himself isn't going with them, since he needs to stay behind to help protect Lord Balgruuf's family, but they should suffice. They were born and raised in Reichnott County, and have been climbing the mountain range of the northern border as early as they learned to walk. Their traveling banditry (wandering refugee) days gave them as good a grasp of the northern land as some of the northern rangers. Once again, they'll get the job done, as long as they take Naofumi's wellbeing into consideration.
"Don't let Nora walk all over you, Ren. Keeping the Shield Hero alive is more important than impressing your childhood friend." Porter rests a hand on Ren's shoulder. The twitch from his giant mustache and the corner of his eyes suggest he's making a jest rather than giving a serious warning.
"I understand, Professor Porter." The highwayman stops checking through his pocket and gives Porter a nod. While his expression is as serious as ever, Mein doesn't have as much confidence in his conviction as he's showing. As the old saying goes, 'heroes have the legendary weapons, but the missus has the leash on the heroes.'
"You worry too much, Professor Porter." By contrast, the orange haired hellion clearly wasn't as concerned about Three Heroes' Church's threat as her friend. She puts the shaft of her warhammer behind her neck, horizontal on her shoulders. "We drove those lackeys back when we rescued that Balgruuf guy's family. They aren't anything special. I'll whack those church assholes good if they dare to show their faces again.
"Oh, really?" Mein feels annoyed at the flippant attitude of the refugee turned bandit from Reichnott county. When Bellatrix LeStrange does it, it's kind of charming since she clearly has the power to back up her confidence. By contrast, the princess isn't so sure about this former bandit's ability to protect them from the elite from Three Heroes' Church. "Because I remember how easily I handled you when you were trying to rob us. You don't have the skill, or strength to get cocky around the church templars."
"Bitch, you got off lucky. I wasn't ready at that time. I was starving. And it was your lackey who took me down." The hellion gives Mein an annoyed glare, making some excuses about her loss. As if she'll have any difficulties bring the fight to a close once she disarmed the former bandit. "I'll wipe the floor with you now."
"Care to put your words to the test?"
"Please, let's not fight among ourselves." Naofumi quickly stands between Mein and Nora, much to the princess' shame. She doesn't mind humbling the arrogant former bandit one more time if it drives her point home. "We are working together now. It doesn't make sense if we whack at each other. Plus we'll waste valuable time if one of you gets seriously hurt.
"Fine. So long as Miss Hammerhead here doesn't go around looking for trouble. If not, I'd be happy to serve her another humble pie." Nora blows her tongue at Mein. The hellion is about as annoying an ally as her enemy. Not too different from a certain gluttonous devil bird, for that matter. Speaking of which… "You think Consevatie is going to make a stop at Balafon, Master Naofumi? That's pretty much the last stop before he turns east towards his father's land."
"That guy was full of himself. I doubt he would want to stay in a village recently trashed by that giant plant monster we accidently let loose." Once again, both of them look away from each other thinking back on the arguably the first big disaster they had a hand in causing (Inquisitor Emon almost murdering the entire Lute village doesn't count, because that's the Bow Hero's fault). "Anyways, if he wants to stay somewhere to rest, I think it makes more sense he'd stay in the big city."
The fugitive princess nods her head at Naofumi's wisdom. It does make more sense that Consevatie the young would surround himself in luxury bought with his daddy's coins. Trumpet isn't exactly the pinnacle of extravagance due to Midgardian culture's emphasis on living simple, hard lives. But it still carries much more amenity than the farming village of Balafon. It's a relief that they wouldn't have to content themselves with both the church knights, and House Consevatie's sworn men even if they are discovered.
"Don't worry, I'll make sure to guide them as far away from Balafon as possible." Yukari puts a hand on her chest, promising everyone present that she takes the life of the Shield Hero more seriously than her worry for her elder brother.
The fugitive princess is very worried. It's barely a day after they resumed their journey north through the rest of Whiterun County to escape into the northern border province. And they already hit a brick wall. A little distance from them, Yukari has her left hand raised above her head as she drops into a half crouch on the ground. She is clearly telling everyone to stop their trekking, which everyone, even the hellion Nora obliged since the raccoon demi-human is their metaphorical eyes and ears.
Mein walks around to get a better look at the apprentice necromancer. Careful not to make much noise. The raccoon girl's eyes are closed and her face is grim in concentration, the fingers on her right hand rises, and then falls in what seems to be a gesture in counting. This can't be a good sign. Yukari didn't make everyone wait for long for an explanation. "My skeleton rats about A thousand paces or so ahead of us are feeling movement of upright, bipedal creatures. Two in a group. There's about… maybe a group every hundred to two hundred paces or so? They are walking around, like they are looking for something."
"Patrols. A heavy one at that. Like they are actively searching for something they know the rough location of." Ren narrows his eyes at Yukari's admittedly pretty generic description. "Fit their pattern. Our group used to run and hide away from them after we got thrown out of our home. We'd have been caught too, if not for Professor Porter."
"Yeah. Those bootlickers wanted to catch us and throw us into the mining camp those bastard Schnees turned out home into." Nora nods her head along while baring her teeth. At the moment, her rage makes her look much more animalistic than Yukari despite the hellion's lack of animal-like ears on her head. "And then it's about 'bring us to justice' when we help ourselves with some of the things from the people we find on the road."
Privately, the princess thinks the second reason Nora is whining about is pretty deserved by these former bandits. If someone breaks the law, they get punished unless their family is rich, or powerful enough to get them out of trouble. That's just the way things work. But she's not too keen on picking a fight with the orange haired hellion when a heavy patrol is very close to them. It might alert these church goons of their locations. She casts her sight to Yukari, wondering if the demi-human girl is trying to misguide them to find information about her brother. "That sounds like a lot of people. Almost too many for whoever is in charge of Balafon to be sent out. Did we get too close to Balafon?"
"Can you give a better description of who is searching ahead? I mean, it might not be the Three Heroes' Church, or their goons, right?" Naofumi is clearly trying to be positive as he asks for clarification. Although his grim looking face suggests even he doesn't believe in what he's asking.
"No, I can't. I'm not able to exactly 'see' through my undead familiars, like my own eyes. The sense of the unliving, at least the low tier ones I control doesn't work that way. I can 'feel' a sense of what's going on around them, but I can't see any specific details." Yukari gives a quick, gentle shake of her head before lowering her face in concentration again. "I guess it's possible they aren't affiliated with the Three Heroes' Church, and are adventurers working on some big scale quest…?"
"Where exactly are we compared to Balafon's location?" The princess is inspired by Yukari's answer to ask a question of her own. "Are we north of Balafon? With an undead ancient Thunder Lizard directly north of Balafon, maybe they are setting up a defense perimeter for it?"
"Huh… didn't think of it this way." Yukari raises her head and opens her eyes. She looks around for a little, frowns as she walks closer to some bushes and trees. She runs her fingers alongside a large tree, pulling down a branch to take a good look of it before shaking her head again. "No. We are definitely still on the southern side of Balafon. Deku trees don't grow north of our village."
Well… this answer definitely rules out the possibility that they are preparing for an undead outbreak from the north.
"I don't get it. We should still be at least half a day's travel from my home village." Yukari closed her eyes, a frown appeared on her face. "We'd be climbing over the mountains if we tried to go north any further from Balafon. We should have been safe and away from those church people here. But they are almost on top of us… and they just moved closer to us."
"That's true. A patrol around a village half a day away is excessive for a village. Ludicrous, even." Sir Oersted nods his agreement even as he pulls out his sword. He speaks in hushed whispers. "Unless they are expecting someone to attack them. And we know it's not the giant undead monster to the north."
"No. Not expecting someone to attack them. They must have been looking for us." Naofumi blinks his eyes, seemingly caught up to something as he turns to her. "You said that a slave seal could be used to track you, Mein? What if that Consevatie guy was tracking you this whole time, and he just hasn't bothered to come at you because he knows where you are all the time, and assumed he could do something else first? He would have caught onto you suddenly 'disappeared' when we had the LeStrange family change your owner to me."
"And he would have a rough sense of where I was last at. Somewhere in Whiterun County around Trumpet. And more, he knows we are going north, which means we'll be around Balafon because that's the easiest route to go into the northern province without having to climb literal mountains. Damn it! I should have expected this!" The princess fights the urge to slap her own head at this belated realization. She can't afford to keep underestimating the young Consevatie just because the son of Lord Grima acts like an arrogant idiot all the time. That's what got them captured outside the capital in the first place. And they would have fallen into his vile grasp again if it wasn't for Yukari being here with them, warning them in advance.
Well, technically they don't know if the ones that set a patrol perimeter around Balafon much more than needed (unless they are in a way and expected to be attacked) are from Three Heroe Church or not. Because Yukari can't exactly see through the non-existing eyes of her undead creatures, only has a vague sense of what they are feeling. But since they already know that the Three Heroes' Church has taken 'stewardship' of the entire Whiterun County after chasing away Count Balgruuf and installing his youngest boy son, there's really no other possible candidates. While it's technically possible for some noble houses that see Three Heroes' Church's action as encroaching on the right of nobility and kicking them out, it's not likely to happen without signs of devastation around the land.
"Let them come! I'll smash all of their heads o- Mmmph~!" Nora pulls the warhammer off her back and gets into a fighting stance. Her overexaggerated bravado didn't survive long when her friend quickly covers her mouth and pulls her back down on the ground.
"We can't fight them heads on, Nora! If they are having this many people searching for the Shield Hero, they probably have some way to summon more reinforcements. They'll just call more men and surround us, even if we kill this entire group." Ren's reply makes Mein feel a bit conflicted. On the one hand, it's good that the highwayman is taking the Shield Hero's safety seriously unlike his friend. On the other hand… he is casually talking about murder of loyal vassals of her nation. Granted, they are loyal to the Three Heroes' Church that's currently trying to kill her. But surely some of them are simply manipulated and used by Cromwell, the young Consevatie and their band of sycophants?
"Can we go back?" Naofumi immediately turns to his guides and escort, trying to decide the best way to proceed.
"If our enemy mobilized everything they had stationed in a village to look for us, they'd likely have done the same for all their troops stationed in a big city like Trumpet. If we go back, there's a good chance we'll get pincered from both sides." Oersted's reply makes the Shield Hero scrunches up his nose. This is terrible news, but perhaps it should have been expected.
"Then we'll loop around, and try to lose them. Follow me." Yukari opens her eyes and grabs Naofumi's wrist. She quickly runs and pulls the Shield Hero alongside her towards the mountain to their right. Mein and Oersted pick up their paces to follow the raccoon girl. From her peripheral vision, the princess can see Ren is also pulling Nora alongside him.
It doesn't take too long for them to start going uphills, even having to use their hands alongside feet when their climb becomes more vertical. Thankfully, rolls or durable rope is one of the survival gears the LeStrange family generously provided them. So they tied it around their waist, as they prepared to start their arduous effort to loop around their likely pursuers by climbing up the mountain. Ren takes the point, with him being the most agile of their group. The highwayman looks back to them as he presses his hands on the rocky cliff. "When climbing up, make sure you have a firm grasp of three of your limbs, before moving your fourth limb."
Mein lost her footing a couple of times when she became impatient. Same goes for Yukari when she seems distracted. Thankfully the rest of their group served as their literal lifeline, stopping the two of them from tumbling to their death down below. The whole ascend took forever, and the princess' arms and legs are starting to grow numb. Thankfully, she gets a hand from Ren and Naofumi who pulls her up to the top, and Mein realizes that she made it to the top of the mountain they were trying to scale to avoid the patrol. She flips onto her back, letting out some deep, long and labored breaths as she closes her eyes and rests.
"I'm not sensing anyone around us here on the top. We should be safe for now." Yukari's reassurance is music to Mein's ears. She almost wanted to fall asleep right on top of the mountain, to regain her strength before they inevitably need to continue their journey once again. But the princess knows that they can't truly stop and rest with the lackeys of the Three Heroes' Church closing in on them.
"Can we bypass Balafon, if we stay on the mountain?" The voice of Naofumi finds its way into Mein's ears. He sounds more winded than usual, having to take a pause in the middle of his sentence. Not hard to imagine why when he's wearing the heaviest armor. But all the stamina training he did before clearly made him fare better than the princess herself.
"Yes, but it'll be a much more perilous journey if we go through the mountain all the way. There's no road to walk on. Hell, there'll be places where we can't even walk, and have to climb horizontally. And we could tumble down anytime if we aren't careful with our footing." Yukari's answer makes Mein want to cry out in frustration. The climb to reach this plateau is already frustrating enough. "I don't even want to know what might happen to us once the night falls again. We definitely aren't traveling without sunlight."
"Can you still send your undead familiars down while we stay at top?" Oersted makes a suggestion. "Maybe we can find a safe place to descend down. Once we know it's safe."
"Yes, I'm still controlling my familiars right now. And there's definitely still a search party down by the foot of the mountain. Let's take a short rest and eat something before continuing." Yukari's suggestion gets a wave of agreement from their group.
The food itself is dry and cold, since they obviously can't make a fire and cook with so many people below searching for them. All it takes is one of the church goons looking up, and they'll be spotted, and surrounded by enemies. Still, the ration did serve its purpose of helping everyone regain their energy.
Everyone ate their meal in complete silence. Even loudmouthed Nora, or rambling Yukari. In spite of their personality quirks, both the apprentice of the LeStrange and the former bandit know the difficulties ahead of them.
"I'll go first, but I need Ms. Yukari to guide me." Ren finished chewing, and swallowing the last bit of his food. He wipes his mouth, and carefully stands up to half height. The height of their location gives them an advantage over their pursuers. As they can literally look over their enemies by simply looking down below their feet. But They also need to be careful with their movement, as their height makes them easier to spot by their enemies below as well.
Yukari didn't overexaggerate the difficulties they would face. The way they tread before was in no way easy, since they had to avoid the actual road and stick to wild land. But they mostly have to be careful of roots, undergrowth, and some uneven terrain in terms of obstacles below their feet. With some occasional monsters trying to eat them, or dodging their heads and body away from some overgrown plants thrown into the mix. Now they are faced with all of this, and have to constantly fear the very ground they walk on giving away beneath them with moving mounds of dirt, or rolling rocks. With the additional stress of not causing an actual landslide. Needless to say, their speed slowed down to a crawl in addition to taking a much more roundabout path. By the time the sun starts to sink below the horizon, Mein isn't sure that they made any additional distance towards the border since they climbed atop the mountain.
It wouldn't have been so bad if all they lost was half, to one day's time looping around if they managed to lose their potential pursuers. But according to Yukari, she can still feel a substantial amount of patrol presence below them. Which means all this additional time and effort they spent looping around atop of the mountain like a headless baby filorial bird didn't improve their situation at all. In fact, it might have made everything worse since they wouldn't be able to move much once the sun fully sets. They obviously can't make use of any light sources themselves to illuminate the way they are walking, since it would give their position away to the search party below. And walking on this difficult terrain without a clear light source is a recipe for disaster. So now, they are pretty much surrounded by their potential enemy from below, and they may have nowhere to run once the sun rises on another day.
"I don't want to walk anymore! Let them come, I say." Nora unceremoniously drops her behind onto a large boulder near the edge of the cliff, apparently refusing to move another more step. Mein can't believe someone actually gave up their journey before she did. Then again, the hellion didn't get them captured back outside the capital. Her elbow set on her legs, hands propping up her pouting face. Her complaining sounds like she's trying to find some reason to make herself feel better. "It'll be as difficult for them to climb up this blasted mountain as it was for us. And we'll just kick some rocks down to have them drop like stones. Well, I can't wait to kill more of these church boys."
"Be reasonable, Nora. We aren't trying to get ourselves killed." Ren stops his steps in front of their group. He carefully walks backwards from the front of their group towards his friend. "Don't sit on the edge even if you want to rest for tonight."
"And what's that going to do? Having me fall doWWW-AH!" The orange haired girl's whining turned into a scream as the rock below her did exactly that: rolling down the side of the mountain, carrying herself down with it too.
Mein immediately feels the pull of the rope around her waist, trying to drag herself down as well just like that time Yukari lost her footing. She responded quicker than last time, immediately lowering her body towards the ground and planting her feet as best as she could while grabbing the rope with her hands. The others in their group do the same, doing their best to pull the former refuge turned bandit up. Worse still, she can feel the ground below her trembling as she calls out to the group. "Landslide!"
Despite being a mage, Mein herself isn't anymore equipped to deal with this situation as any of the others in her group. She has no affinity to earth elements, nor air elements. So she can't use her magic to fortify the ground they stand on, or create ice to freeze up the crumbling dirt and rocks. Facing a possible natural disaster, her lost status or magic prowess is no help and she's reduced to praying to the Chief God, Saint Brimir or whatever other gods and ascended saints of their pantheon for a divine intervention.
The princess can feel her feet, and by extension her entire body slowly losing balance as the very ground she stands on rumbles more and more. Thankfully, the gods seemed to listen to her prayers and answered with an intervention instead of a joke this time as the tremor slowly died down. Not too long after, Nora managed to climb her way up the edge of the cliff. Ren quickly jogs forward to pull his friend up. "Look at what you did, Nora! Let's just hope those below didn't notice us on top, and just assumed this to be a natural disaster."
"I don't think we'll be this lucky. The highlands of the north can be unstable, but they don't usually have this kind of tremor on its own." Yukari's answer makes Mein nod her head. That was one of the tactics her father, and Uncle Aldrecht employed against the Siltvelt invaders, of course: harassing their supply lines with skirmishers to draw in their main force in search of the Melromarc freedom fighters, and then the two of them collapse a mountain on top of their numerical superior foe's head to bury them all alive. "We need to move again, probably have to through the night, before the church is onto us."
The raccoon girl's suggestion makes everyone's face look like they are forced to swallow something dirty. "Wouldn't it be very dangerous to us if we move through the night?"
"Yes, but we have no choice. But the church could search us throughout the night now they have an idea where we might be thanks to that tremor. They don't have to hide themselves from- ah… AHHH!" The raccoon girl's eyes suddenly grow round as a plate as she stares behind where Mein is standing, as his half cut-off sentence suddenly breaks into a terrified squeak.
Something's behind us! Half a month of on the run, encountering strange things such as the ash monster north of Gallia city prepared the princess for her nerves. She immediately ignites a bundle of fire in her hand and pivots on her feet, ready to throw it into the face… or whatever the monstrosity that's no doubt behind her. The only problem is she found nothing, nothing but thin air between her and the overgrowing plants a bit further away. Mein looks around her, and finds that everyone in their group did pretty much the same as her, looking around with weapons, or their own school of magic gathered in their hands. Ready to defend themselves from a more immediate threat than the search party at the foot of the mountain.
"What? What did you see, Yukari? Was there some monster in that forest?" Naofumi has a glowing ball of white light between his hands. His eyes scan around them, before casting towards the thick growth in the distance. Mein agrees with the Shield Hero. Considering Yukari being an apprentice necromancer, a profession NOT for the faint of the hearts, whatever she saw must have been quite grotesque to unnerve her like that. If she wasn't too worried about giving the church more evidence of where they are, she might have thrown the fireball into the forest to light it up alongside whatever monstrosity that no doubt lurked inside.
Well… that, and the fear of death via burning, or suffocation. They don't have a lot of room to run away once she starts a forest fire on top of the perilous mountain.
"I… I think I saw some very slender thing moving in that forest. Almost like a person, but much thinner and taller. Maybe with some tentacles, or maybe living vines growing from its back." The raccoon girl shuts her eyes as she rubs her belly. She takes a few deep breaths, trying to calm herself down. From her description, whatever monster she spotted doesn't sound very intimidating or disgusting. But the more Mein lets her own imagination wander, the more uncanny the image of a very slender, human looking thing with possible vines growing out of its back starts to feel. She hopes she doesn't encounter the thing described by Yukari, at least it can be killed by her fire.
"Oh, great. Why not!?" The Shield Hero throws up his hand into the air, clearly fed up with whatever is happening around him. "Whatever god created this world is clearly a pop culture reference whore. We already have Skyrim nobles and Harry Potter characters… from fanfiction tropes running around. Why not add The Slenderman too!?"
"I have no idea what you are talking about, Shield Hero. But maybe it was just my imagination. Whatever I think I saw, it's clearly no longer there anymore." Yukari points her finger at the forest in the distance. Sure enough, there are nothing but branches and shadows waving around under the orange light of the setting sun. "I was probably just paranoid after we nearly fell down in a landslide and saw things."
"Either way, we are not getting into that forest if we can help it." The princess crosses her arms in front of her chest, putting an end to their latest round of excitement. "We wasted enough time. Come on, let's forge ahead."
The sun finally set, and the silver moon slowly climbed up into the sky. Providing a meager amount of illumination alongside the stars. It made their attempt at traversing the mountain even more difficult than before, just as Yukari warned. This night also looks particularly dark for some reason. Not quite to the point of the old Siltvelt saying 'you can't even see your fingers on your hand', but close. Unfortunately, they really don't have much choice by now.
"Wait up, let me see something." Yukari's voice comes in front of Mein. The princess squints her eyes. The apprentice necromancer might be holding up her hand, but Mein isn't too sure. "Yeah. The people searching below are definitely closing in on the mountain."
"Bah! I could have told you that." Nora's voice sounds rather irritated. Mein squints her eyes again, and thinks the hellion is pointing down at what's probably the edge of the mountain. "Just look down from the cliff yourself."
The princess can't tell if the former refuge turned bandit is incredibly brave, or lacks more brain than even the Spear Hero. To think she got close to the edge of the mountain again just to look down, at night when she can't be sure where the edge of the mountain is and how dangerous it might have been, after she already nearly fell down and caused a landslide that gave the search party their general location… Which makes it even sadder that she actually gets enticed by Nora's suggestion to look down the edge of the mountain herself.
The princess carefully lowers herself and puts her hand on the ground, carefully nudging closer to the side of the mountain till her sight manages to peek over the dark ground and sees an even darker abyss below her. But sure enough, she can see sources of light below, either from the torches or possible magical means for the church goons as they lined up against the mountain. Probably trying to make their way up.
"We'd better continue." Mein feels Naofumi's hand on her shoulder. She gives a nod to the Shield Hero she wasn't sure that he saw, as she slowly backs away and resumes their careful trek forward. It's even harder to tell how much time has passed since they can barely see anything, but she imagined it wasn't long till she felt more than seeing Ren and Yukari stop in front of her. "We have to go into the forest. It's too dangerous to walk out in the open ahead. We'd be climbing the side of the cliff if we tried."
To be honest, Mein isn't sure climbing on the side of the mountain is less dangerous than going into the forest with that possible monster Yukari described. And even before she supposedly saw something, there was a reason why they avoided going into dense vegetation despite the better concealment they would provide. It's harder to see what kind of terrain is below their feet, or just ahead of them when their vision is blocked by thick plant life. They might be literally walking off a cliff before they even saw it.
"Give me your hammer, Nora. I'll use the shaft to point and poke ahead." Mein feels someone pushing back against her, and knows that Ren is trying to get to where his friend is standing.
"No, let me go alongside you two." The princess pulls out her star wand, and changes it into the form of a long magical staff instead. "It's too awkward if you hold the hammer on its head. And you might get the head stuck on something and drop the hammer down if you hold it by the shaft. Even if I drop my star wand, it'll just fly right back in my hand."
"Yeah! You aren't losing my hammer. I'd rather roll down the mountain myself!" Mein gets the image of Nora tightly hugging her weapon. She shakes her head at the hellion's exaggerated drama, as she carefully walks alongside Yukari and slowly pokes the tip of her staff out, using it to feel the ground at the end. They continue their journey, slowly pushing through the thick vegetation as they try to make their way to hopefully lose their pursuers.
"Do we know where we are going, Yukari?" Naofumi's question makes Mein tense up again. Even if Yukari grew up on this part of the woods, there's no way she had climbed up on this kind of mountain. Or at the very least running on top of it during the night. Sure, she never saw her brother's, and by extension her own parents in the short time they stayed in Balafon. But surely, the girl isn't that suicidal even if she decided to apprentice under a pair of necromancers?
After a brief pause, Yukari finally lets out the answer Mein had been fearing. "I really don't at this point. But it's not like we can just stay where we were, and let ourselves get surrounded by all those people below."
"Yeah. I thought so. Great, now this is really starting to feel like the plot of a found footage horror movie…" The Shield Hero mumbles to himself some more nonsense as they slowly make their way through the forest. The air around them is tenser than it had ever been. The princess is actually glad of his rambling this time, as the sound of Naofumi's voice makes her mind less focused on the possible monster they are dealing with. "By the way, about that monster you saw earlier before the sun set. Is there some kind of legend, or I suppose tales about monsters hiding in the forest? Maybe it'll give us an idea about what we are dealing with here."
"Oh, yeah. There's all sorts of ghost, or monster stories. Most are used by mothers to scare their children into behaving, and not get into the woods. Some are told by adventurers in the tavern, or around a campfire." The raccoon girl actually sounds excited with her voice becoming more animated rather than dull and somber like before. The princess could picture her skipping beats with her feet, which is no doubt a very bad idea considering where they are walking along. "But if you ask something more than tall tales, like an actual monster with a quest handed out by the guild? Not that I'm aware of. Not since the embalmer turned out to be real. And he was finally killed by the Three Heroes' Church's Battle Saint Janne D'arc a few years back."
"The embalmer?" The Shield Hero makes a brief, confused sounding pause before continuing. "That… sounds more like some kind of deranged serial killer more than a monster."
"He was a murderer, and a necromancer who turns the victims of his kill into undead thralls. Some people even believed that he was a demon." Ren's voice sounded more grim than his usually calm self. "The man was a blacksmith working the forge in one of the capitals. I heard he even did some work for the Three Heroes' Church. Hiding right under their nose this whole time, till he's finally brought down. Bad times that was. I imagine."
"That's… interesting. But not really what I was getting at. Something that might give us a clue what that monster you saw earlier was." And just like that, the conversation is brought right back to the supposed monster Yukari witnessed earlier. "Tell me some of those old wife's tales. Maybe there's something similar to what you saw?"
"Not I could think of… maybe it could be some kind of giant spider monster, like an Acromantula Faubley's Hero Academy kept around? They could certainly make a nest here in the mountain forest… I never heard anyone see something like it though." Yukari rambles away, before she finally brings herself back with a clap of her hands. "ANYWAYS! Monster tales from the midwives! My favorite is the he-monster and the she-monster. Supposedly came from another world to steal our children. The he-monster wields a giant scythe, and the she-monster collects and hoards gems."
"Oh, please~! Everyone knows the He monster and She monster is inspired by the Hurricane Harpy from Griffin's Spine mountain. Even down to the 'she's not our own world' part." Once again, Mein feels someone pushing against her, this time from her back as Nora said with a boastful voice. "They say she lives among the griffons, and is the mother of the griffin kings. She can fan up a wind so strong, it even blows heroes like you right off your feet."
"Hey! Watch where you are going! You want to push me down a cliff?" Mein digs her heels into the ground, as she tries to keep her balance and not to stumble. She lets out a hiss to the back, warning Nora not to get too touchy and push someone off the edge of the mountain. The princess even gives a shove back to Nora to prove a point. At least Mein hopes the body she is pushing against was Nora, or else she just endangered someone for no good reason.
"Yeah. Control yourself for once, Nora. We really don't have room to fuck around. You already made a mess back with that boulder." Even Nora's friend Ren sounds more than annoyed, rather than exasperated at the hellion by this point.
"Aww… not you too, Ren!" The former bandit whines, and Mein gets the sense she's pouting in the darkness. But to Nora's very miniscule credit, she does seem to behave afterwards.
"Oersted? Are you still here? You've been quiet this entire time. Let's do a role call just to make sure the monster didn't take anybody." Behind Mein, Naofumi makes a suggestion that definitely sounds good to her.
"I'm here, Lord Shield Hero." The young knight quickly answers.
"I'm still here too, Master Naofumi." The princess raises her arm above her head, even if she knows that the group has a hard time seeing her.
"I'm still here too, so is my friend Nora." Ren's reserved voice comes out a little from Mein's left side.
"YEAH! There's no way you'd miss me!" Nora's loud voice almost echoes in the dark forest, to the point Mein starts to worry that even their pursuers from the church had heard her.
"That's good. I'm still here too, by the way." The Shield Hero gives his reply as he calls out to the last member of their group. "You still there, Yukari? You've been quiet since Nora interrupted you. Yukari?"
Only silence answered the Shield Hero back. At least, until Ren said something. "I was tied right with Yukari next to me… and I just found out my rope has been cut. I don't know where Yukari is."
Omake: Dread of the Young Vicar Part 4
Vittorio immediately throws both the lightning and fire he gathered in his hands towards the charging form of the fallen battle saint one after another. He isn't confident that these two quickly gathered spells would stop the giant, but hopes it buys him enough time to prepare more complex and powerful attacks. As much for Roger's overall crudeness to both his personality and fighting style, the man truly was deserving of the title of Romalia's battle master for his strength. That was the reason why Vittorio was willing to tolerate him for all this time.
The fallen battle saint didn't stop for a second. He picked up a man with each of his side on the path of his rampage, didn't care if they were loyal to him, or mutinied against him and held them up as his literal meat shields. With two screams, one's body turned into something resembling darkened charcoal, the other got half of his body burned to ash. Roger dropped both cadaver onto the ground, and picked up more men around him as he tossed them right at Vittorio himself. "Have a little taste of your own potion, bitch boy!"
"Protect His Excellency!" Julio takes a step over in front of Vittorio. The head inquisitor digs his heels in and braces himself. He manages to bat both flying men away before their screaming forms reach the vicar, even if his feet definitely wobbled by the end. The Lord Inquisitor of Romalia doesn't look like it due to his face and body look more like a pretty boy one find on the Street of the Silk than a hardened fighter, but he IS still one of the strongest fighters of among the ranks of the Three Heroes' Church (not only limit to Romalia branch… or even the nation of Melromarc). And it's not only because of his talent as an animal whisperer.
Speaking of his unique talent, Julio forms a ring with his index and thumb and puts his fingers to his lips. He makes a loud whistle as he regains his footing. For a short moment, nothing seems to happen. That is the sound of snarling and roaring grows ever closer as a horde of raptors and filorials pour their way through the men fighting each other to get to Roger of Ajax.
For someone else, the sight of dozen upon dozens, probably over a hundred of filorial birds and raptors running, leaping, and crawling their way over at them is enough to have them turn around and flee (not that they would get far, since both monsters are faster than most human runners), or shaking in their pants. But not Roger of Ajax, of course. Whatever one can rightfully accuse the brute, he is not a coward. He waves around his hammer like fists, and proceeds to punch and kick the stampeding monsters away from him, all the wild letting out more roars. "What's wrong, you little fuck boy? Too afraid to face me down one on one, like a real man?"
Julio didn't rise to Roger's taunt. He didn't even dignify the brute's screaming with any response, choosing to instead dutifully stand guard in front of Vittorio, striking down any possible assailant of the vicar when one of Roger's lackeys gets too close to them. With one of his most faithful and skilled servants guarding him, the vicar closes his eyes and focuses his mind. He'll need to throw his most powerful attack if he wants to beat back the renegade battle saint.
The screech and roar of the filorials and raptor begin to die down, suggesting that Roger of Ajax had gone through most, if not all of the monsters summoned by Julio. Once again, the shaking ground and loud howling confirms Vittorio's guess. "You think you'll be safe hiding with your fuck buddy, pussy boy? Come over, and meet your maker!"
"I won't let you harm his excellency! Your rampage stops here, Roger of Ajax!" The sight of a musclebound giant charging straight at someone is no doubt a terrifying sight, but Julio meets the challenge head on judging from his determined voice. The sound of metal clanking against armored fists soon begins to echo in Vittorio's ears, and the sound starts to slowly but progressively get closer to him.
His high inquisitor is powerful, and a skilled swordsman to boot, but Julio is fighting at a disadvantage when trying to protect him. His inquisitor can't use his superior agility as an advantage to dodge around Roger, and is forced into a frontal clash with the giant in every swing. His faithful servant would falter before leaving himself in danger, and it wouldn't be too long. Roger of Ajax would not show Julio any mercy, just like he didn't show it to anyone else. Thankfully, the vicar can feel the power filling his body. The gods have finally smiled upon him.
Vittorio opens his eyes, and sees Julio being pushed down on one knee by Roger of Ajax's fist over his head. The brute smears down on the inquisitor. "Kneeling in front of my feet. This look fits you, bitch boy. Any last words?"
"Rot in hell, swine."
"[Sword Lady's Grave Dance]." Vittorio's vision suddenly swims in blood red as he unleashes the miracle he's been focusing on all this time. Most miracles tend to take the regal color of white, or gold to exemplify the Chief God's divinity, but not the miracles directly linked to his most faithful servant, Lady of the Sword. Giant blades with the color of blood, each one as tall as hundred years old trees split the earth and sprouted out under the feet of the renegade battle saint. Like a macabre blossom of flowers.
The blades of the Lady's miracle split Roger's armor, making deep gushes on his bulging muscles while it pushes him away from Julio, letting the inquisitor back away and catch his ragged breath. More miracle blades continue rising up from the ground, tearing the rioting forces asunder alongside the traitor who started the whole mutiny. Vittorio is keenly aware those that chose to fight against Roger of Ajax are also caught in his attack, just like their guilty, traitorous former compatriot, and he is killing the people who would ensure his safety while he is amongst his biggest competing branch of faith. But bringing the fallen battle saint down, and using it to try and cultivate favor from the Shield Hero is the top priority. He utters a silent prayer for all the innocent souls lost, thanks to Roger's betrayal.
By the time his attack ceased, most of the men fighting were now lying on the ground. Not all of them are lucky enough to keep their body whole. Those who were lucky to survive looked around, very much unsure of what to do now most of their allies, and enemies are gone.
"You think this is over?! You sneaky little pussy boy!" Roger of Ajax suddenly roses up from under the mountain of bodies. His already furious face looks more grotesque as blood and gore trails down his scar covered body. He charges towards Vittorio again, but this time he is blocked by a giant sword that's big enough to be a door.
"Roger of Ajax, stand down and await your judgment for trying to assault His Excellency." The cold voice of Lord Commander Cloud utters a single ultimatum to the renegade, fallen battle saint.
End Note:
While my preferred horror had always been existential horror, this chapter ended up being more inspired by the indie horror games post Slenderman, if me literally namedropping him wasn't enough of an indication.
In this chapter, we see Naofumi's past kindness pay dividend again when people he helped willingly helped him back in return. Which is a very centural theme I want to show in this story in particular. While most people wants life to have easy answers, there's very rarely have clearly defined 'right' and 'wrong' choices (obviously some choices are better, and some are just flat out wrong). Where Naofumi's act of kindness caused major negative consequences to himself and to people around him, it's also the same kindness that got him help in his darkest hours.
Also in case anyone was wondering. [Sword Lady's Grave Dance] is a play on [Grave Lord's Sword Dance]. But obviously it's a miracle that's tied to Goddess Raphtalia instead of Nito the First Dead.
Guest review time. It's going to be extra ranty this time, so for those who don't care about why I'm so annoyed at Goblin Slayer or current state of Japanese WN/LN at large, skip it.
To Guest:
You have to excuse me for not remember every conversation with every annonimous guy I met on internet. But I can't remember when I said Goblin Slayer have no depth. Because everything could have depth if you are willing to met it halfway or more. Bayformer could have depth. Disney Wars could have depth. Go watch MovieBob's old video when he defend [The Last Jedi], where he tried to portray that movie as being totally faithful to George Lucas' vision, and it absolutely loved the Star Wars fanbase, it's absolutely wild borderline on being gaslighting.
Or my personal favorite, I think the original Webnovel of Rising of the Shield Hero has more depth than the Lightnovel rewrite. The last case being I always seen WN of Rising as a villain's journey/origin story kind of story where an initially kind guy gets broken by an uncaring world and the constant emotional cuddling of his cheerleaders and people who are manipulating him (the queen did to Naofumi what the king did to Motoyasu, obviously having better result since Naofumi is Alenko's imaginary dream pet husbando). Naofumi ascending to literal godhood at the end of WN isn't him becoming a better god where he put the world back in order. It is him finally completing a cycle where he took over the role of an evil god from Medea (although he is more ignorant and callously evil as opposed to Medea being intentionally malicious evil).
So yes. Goblin Slayer do have quote unquote, 'depth' as everything does.
The reason I can't stand it myself is because I consider its writing to be pretentious, as in it tried to present itself as having much more depth than it actually does. Same as Rising of the Shield Hero, for that matter. Although to Goblin Slayer's credit, it's both better written than Rising, and better consistently writing. Because the author of Goblin Slayer's writer sticked to a simple 'want to have their cake and fuck it too' premise (Goblins are iredeemably evil) as opposed to Alenko bending over backwards and twist their body 360 degrees constantly, resulting in a lot of self-contradiction in the story that made most of the story a lump of plot void (it doesn't count as plot 'holes' anymore when it's taken over most of the story).
To give a specific explanation on why I consider Goblin Slayer to be pretentious (both the story and the titular character), it manufactored a problem for their titular character to solve almost from the start: The initial arc where the main character is introduced, the story itself, not me, deliberately called his action to be compared to that of a deranged child killer. Only to turn around and go 'all the children he killed? literally every single one of them is iredeemably evil and deserved death wholesale. So no, the main character is being totally justified in committing this heinous act'. This is a prime case where the author thrown in a very mature and dark subject, only to handwave it away to not only excuse the main character's action, but actively worship it.
And no, this wasn't a case where the author is just showing priestess being hopelessly naive. Because later it's called back in the Goblin King mini-arc when we see it from the goblin king's perspective how other adventurers who are stronger than Goblin Slayer die pointlessly to goblin because they shown mercy. It's a case where the author putting the main character on a pedastal to be admired, for doing what the story itself framed (let along what would be considered in real life) as a dispicable action. The whole invoking mature, and dark subject not for sparking a discussion about possible fault of the main character, but to explicitly justify and validate them doesn't make it more mature, it actually made both the story and the character more juvenile.
And if you doubt this is a case where the author is intentionally trying to portray the main character as a dark but edgy badass to be admired on, the story immediately goes into literal character worship territory right after where it's stated through narration word of god, that the Goblin Slayer is so special, not even gods' action can affect, him and he actually derail gods' action. You really can't get more character worship than that.
This kind of constant character validation in Japanese WN/LN (or more specifically, Pop culture in general) is one of my major petpeeves. Which is why I absolutely refuse to met Goblin Slayer even halfway despite it being objectively better written than Rising of the Shield Hero. If you don't mind it and willing to met it halfway and have fun, even felt thought provoking from reading it. You do you. But I'm not willing to.