Chapter 63

Chapter 63

Fort Polrwin (2)

“I am confident in patrol work.”

The first to react to my voice was none other than Sierra.

[ Disciple, even so, I think your face may be a little too thick. ]

Sierra, who had brought her face close to mine, narrowed her eyes.

“You say you’re confident... No, how exactly are you confident...?”

The man holding the paper could not easily let my answer pass either, and repeated it while rubbing his chin.

“He can’t even look at a map like this. Didn’t he just come to the wrong place?”

The reaction of the other man scratching his head was not much different.

Suddenly, the beastfolk woman sitting back on the sofa pricked up her ears and rose.

“I think I figured out the answer!”

Her eyes were sparkling.

“The answer?”

“It’s probably nonsense again, since it’s Yakuna.”

“It isn’t nonsense! Listen first, you idiot!”

The beastfolk woman named Yakuna finally smacked the head of the man who had picked a fight with her.

“Urk...”

Then Yakuna shook out her hand and opened her mouth.

“We are Night Patrol Team 1.”

“Why does that...”

The man rubbing his head stared at Yakuna.

“It’s dark! Except for me, none of you can see much of anything either, right?”

“...Ooh!!”

The man let out a somewhat stupid-sounding exclamation.

“Except for me, huh...”

Yakuna was a beastfolk.

Beastfolk tended to have strong individual traits and characteristics, so it would not be especially strange if she had good night vision.

If anything, perhaps she had vision similar to mine with the “Night Vision” skill.

Then the man holding the paper let out a cough.

“Ahem, it’s not as if we cannot see at all, but it is true that visibility is poor...”

“I’m telling you, it’s fine. We just have to take them around, right? If he can’t look at the map, that means we have less to do, which is good.”

Yakuna scolded them in a frustrated tone.

In any case, they were recruits.

Because they were in a position where they had to do what they were told from above, their doubts could not last very long.

“I’m Yakuna. I’ll be counting on you for a while.”

After she stopped glaring at the men, Yakuna approached me and Kaen and introduced herself in a lively voice.

Eventually, unable to withstand her cheerfulness, the others also told us their names.

The name of the man holding the paper was Rooster, and the man who had been struck in the head by Yakuna was Buckland.

“He acts quite well.”

The Demon God worshiper had blended into the patrol team without the slightest sense of incongruity.

I thought he had not been able to infiltrate Polrwin for nothing.

At last, after everyone’s introductions ended, Kaen, who had been standing awkwardly beside me, carefully spoke.

“What do we do now?”

“We sleep.”

Rooster’s concise answer.

“Haaam... We couldn’t even sleep because you were coming.”

After that came Yakuna, yawning widely.

Buckland outright went into a room first, saying, “I’m going to sleep.”

At their actions flowing as naturally as water, Kaen let out an “Ah.”

It was extremely simple.

Since we were the “night” patrol team, we slept during the day and worked at night.

Even if I did not sleep for several days, I had the “bracelet,” so I would be fine, but since Kaen slept a lot, it seemed better for her to sleep now.

***

“Whew... Everyone ready?”

Rooster said this as he breathed out cold mist.

There was no way sleep would suddenly come during the day, so I had not slept.

My mind was clear, but it seemed Kaen had also failed to sleep, because she was tying her hair with a half-dreaming face.

Finally, Yakuna left the temporary lodging and shouted.

“Night Patrol Team 1, begin patrol!”

Like that, we slowly began moving.

On the way, a guard standing in front of the gate looked back and forth between me and the others and muttered, “Is that not Night Patrol Team 1?” in doubt, but he let it pass without saying anything.

We immediately left Polrwin and headed for the snowy mountain visible nearby.

Rooster explained that the snowy mountain was the area Patrol Team 1 was responsible for.

The North was still snowing mercilessly.

It should have been a dark night, but the skill “Night Vision” was applying well.

I felt this every time, but it was clearer than daytime.

We pushed through the snow piled thick over the road, and before long, we were able to reach the snowy mountain.

The enormous lump of ice halfway up the mountain entered my sight.

It was the lump of ice where the lich was.

When I glanced at the Demon God worshiper, he too was staring steadily at the ice.

I caught his expression of ecstasy... and slight repulsiveness, for an instant.

He seemed to think that no one else, including me, could see it.

My brow furrowed.

Of course, he could not see my frown. It was covered by the bandage.

Once we arrived at the snowy mountain, we had to begin work.

The patrol team’s work was fairly complicated.

Since a war was not being waged right now, it was not a patrol meant to obtain information about enemies.

Should I call it a patrol closer to security or rounds?

It involved checking whether there were abnormalities in the barriers installed all over the mountain and observing the movements of dangerous monsters living on the snowy mountain.

Rooster said that if one climbed to the top of the snowy mountain, there was a building made to observe the movements of the demons.

Of course, he said we would not go that far.

Such important work did not seem to be a mission entrusted to academy students who had only come for a short field trip.

We decided to split up in order to check the barriers more quickly.

Yakuna insisted on taking me with her.

When I said I could remember at least the paths I passed through, she said that meant there would be less to teach, which was her reason.

Thus, Kaen naturally ended up with Rooster and Buckland.

By chance, Kaen ended up going with the Demon God worshiper, but he was weaker than Kaen, so I was not particularly worried.

Moreover, since he had not resurrected the lich yet, nothing would happen to Kaen.

“I need to give Kaen the information too...”

I had decided where to use Kaen.

I thought a simple matter would be better than something complicated like a Demon God worshiper hiding his identity.

The place where the incident took place was a little... but would Kaen not understand?

“We are adults, after all.”

I was following Yakuna while worrying about Kaen.

Perhaps Yakuna truly had no confidence in teaching, because she did not tell me anything.

Yakuna did not take out a map either, as if she had memorized every location where the barriers were installed.

With the agile movements unique to beastfolk, she quickly climbed the snowy mountain.

I followed along at her pace.

It was not strenuous.

It was about a level I could keep up with if I reinforced my body slightly with mana.

A faint light flowed from Yakuna’s eyes as she examined our surroundings.

“Miss Yakuna, can you see well at night? From what you said during the day too...”

“Yeah, I can, but...”

Yakuna’s tail swayed as she answered me and walked.

Her animal ears and tail had black fur.

The fur looked especially soft, making me remember the sight of her neatly brushing her tail with a comb back at the lodging.

“I know beastfolk have developed particular senses or body parts. It seems your eyes are that way, Miss Yakuna.”

“They are proud eyes inherited from my parents! With these eyes, I can see in dark places without any problem.”

Yakuna turned back to look at me and smiled brightly.

Though she was clearly smiling brightly enough to show her teeth, I could not feel happiness from her face.

“Perhaps the reason she joined the Allied Forces is...”

I decided to think only that far.

It was not something I could ask about in detail, nor something I should carelessly assume.

The patrol with Yakuna consisted entirely of simply following her.

After all, I had to keep my hands off the most important work of checking the barriers.

“Good, done! You kept up so well that we finished the barriers quickly. We can rest now, can’t we?”

After finishing the check of the last barrier, Yakuna spoke in an excited voice.

Yakuna seemed to find it fascinating that I had kept up with her speed.

“There are still monsters left, are there not?”

When I asked that of the greatly excited Yakuna, she shook her hand and opened her mouth.

“The monsters are nothing special.”

***

The student named Zeto, assigned to Night Patrol Team 1, was a blind man with thick bandages around his eyes.

At first, it had been hard to understand him saying, “I am confident in patrol work.”

However, after observing him from beside him, he was certainly worthy of confidence.

I thought that perhaps Zeto possessed senses more beastlike than mine, even though I was a beastfolk.

I had eyes that could see brightly through dark night.

And Zeto, because he was blind, was unaffected by darkness.

As I found it fascinating that he kept up with my speed, one thought came to me.

“To him, whether day or night, it must always feel dark...”

It was ironic.

I could see brightly whether day or night, while he was the opposite of me.

At that moment, Zeto, who was walking beside me, opened his mouth.

“Miss Yakuna, earlier, you said it was all right to check the monsters roughly, yes...?”

“Yeah. The monsters here are slow, so they barely move around.”

I said that, coaxing Zeto.

“Since work finished quickly for once, I was going to go into a nearby cave and rest.”

Was Zeto a more meticulous type than expected?

At that moment, Zeto said something meaningful in a low voice.

“Then, by any chance... are there large-bodied monsters too?”

“Large-bodied? Ah, if you mean a big one...”

There is one called a yeti. But if you do not bother it first, it does not become violent, and...

I certainly intended to answer that way.

—Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!

If not for the sound of a yeti’s footsteps coming from far away.

The footsteps grew louder at a terribly fast speed, as if the yeti was running.

—Shing!

At last, Zeto drew his sword and swept his fingers down the blade.

Strangely enough, he held his sword in a reverse grip.

“I have to move...”

From the moment I heard the yeti’s footsteps, my body froze, and I could not move a single step from my place.

—Crash!!!

Soon, the furious yeti appeared, smashing through a nearby tree.

—Roooooar!!!

Then Zeto swung his sword at the roaring yeti.

But the sword did not reach.

He had swung his sword through the air.

“Zeto...!!!”

I barely parted my lips and shouted loudly.

Had he misjudged the distance?

Soon, the yeti, whom the sword had not reached, charged straight toward Zeto before it with terrifying speed.

“What should I do at a time like this...”

With my archery skill, I would be no match for a yeti.

I would not even scratch its thick hide.

If anything, Zeto, an academy student, should be stronger... but he had swung his sword once through empty air and remained frozen in place.

Had the realization that he had made a mistake shocked him?

If left like this, an academy student who had come for a field trip might lose his life because I had been careless.

“No...!!”

I somehow threw myself forward and shoved him aside just before the yeti’s body could collide with Zeto.

—Graaaate!!

At the same time I fell while holding Zeto, a strange sound came from the side.

It was a bizarre sound of something... being ground away.

“Ugh...”

Still on top of Zeto’s body, I immediately turned my head and looked toward where the yeti should be.

...The yeti was standing still.

But the head that should obviously have been attached to it was nowhere to be seen.

—Thud!!

Then its enormous head fell over there with a roar.

I could not understand what had happened.

Zeto, lying beneath me, calmly asked me.

“So that large-bodied monster... what did you say it was called?”

“A yeti... it was...”