Chapter 100
I was washing my soiled body in the flowing river water.
The rotten stench of the zombies had seeped in so deeply that the sll did not vanish even after rinsing several tis.
Leaving the surging nausea behind, I looked toward the upper reaches of the river.
The distance to Luna was now just over 500m.
At this distance, I could convey my location through mana.
I waited.
Even if I wanted to go from my side, my feet felt as heavy as if they were weighted with rebar.
I sat down on a nearby rock.
“Hihiiiing!”
The neighing of a horse was heard.
Leo was riding atop a horse that appeared while creating spray on the water's surface.
He scowled as if he had seen sothing unsightly.
“You look terrible, what happened?”
“There was an incident.”
“Looks like it.”
“Where are the other kids?”
“They'll be here soon. I ca ahead to check the situation.”
“I see.”
Leo skillfully dismounted the horse and slowly approached .
Then, he observed my body while turning his head this way and that.
“You weren't bitten, right?”
The boy asked with a voice full of wariness.
I thought his behavior was cold for soone acting toward a person who had barely escaped the forest.
However, there were no hurt feelings.
He was following the ironclad rules necessary for survival, and this was actually sothing to be praised.
“As you can see.”
“I'm sorry. Soone like you understands my position, right?”
Leo wore a sheepish expression.
I almost burst out laughing.
“Being cautious is a good thing. Keep doing that in the future.”
“It's rare for you to praise .”
Leo seed awkward being alone with , as he stroked the horse and watched my reaction.
“The report?”
“I-I was organizing it in my head.”
He cleared his throat and spoke.
“Nothing much happened during the two days you were trapped in the fortress. Zombies appeared occasionally, but we handled them without any problems.”
“And Sir Vale?”
“He's safe. We cut down two raiders who were chasing him along the way.”
“Well done.”
Now it was ti to wait for the others to arrive.
While resting with my feet dipped in the water, I almost fainted several tis.
How much ti had passed?
Soone shook my shoulder and woke from my slumber.
It was Luna.
For so reason, the girl's eyes were moist.
After staring at for a mont, she opened her arms and embraced .
“……You've worked hard.”
“My clothes are dirty.”
“I know. But it's okay.”
“Alright.”
When she stepped back, my comrades were waiting in a solemn atmosphere behind her.
I shook my head to clear my mind and stood up.
“How long was I asleep?”
“About twenty minutes.”
Leo answered.
“Did you not wake imdiately when the others arrived?”
“Look at your face. You look horrible.”
I checked my face reflected on the water's surface.
As he said, it was a ss.
Dried bloodstains were stuck to my cheeks, and there were shadows around my eyes.
Depending on how one looked, I appeared like a person who had lost their soul.
“I did suffer quite a bit this ti. But as always, I simply did what had to be done.”
My comrades looked at with expressions of deep respect.
“If the mood is like this just because I'm a bit exhausted, what will you do after I'm gone?”
The students looked at each other's expressions and couldn't say anything.
In tis like these, they were undeniably young children.
“At least for , I've never imagined us without you.”
Leo said.
“Don't rely on too much, it's a burden.”
“Ough.”
Leo seed to realize that what he said was embarrassing.
The other kids giggled while looking at him.
The gloomy atmosphere brightened up a bit.
I left the laughter behind and walked forward.
“Sir Vale, are you unhurt?”
The look in Vale's eyes was no different from my comrades.
In so ways, he looked even more astonished than them.
“Shouldn't I be the one asking that question? You were in much more danger. Cyris didn't chase after us. That ans she was chasing you.”
“Yes.”
“But how did you survive? The woman I know has never once missed a target.”
“I suppose I was more excellent than her.”
When I spoke flatly, fear seeped into Vale's expression.
Cyris was the ruler of this forest.
I left it to his imagination how I, who had returned safely against her, appeared to him.
“Do you know how to drive a horse?”
“Y-Yeah.”
“That's good. Please drive the horse while we head to Stalia.”
“Do you not need to rest a bit more?”
“You don't need to worry about . I have confidence in my ntal strength, if nothing else.”
“……Understood.”
* * *
Three weeks had passed since rescuing Vale.
Joshua's group reached the vicinity of Saint Stalia.
“……I think the weather is getting hotter.”
Talleon said while wiping the sweat from his forehead.
The temperature had been rising for a few days, and it felt like sumr was approaching.
“Yeah.”
Joshua replied bluntly and focused on climbing the mountain.
He intended to head to the highest point possible.
He wanted to check the surrounding geography.
“……Hmm.”
Upon climbing the mountain, an open view ca into sight.
The most prominent thing was Saint Stalia.
It was so magnificent and huge that it didn't even compare to the hideouts they had seen so far.
“There really was an intact castle!”
Talleon was delighted.
The boy was excited at the thought of being able to live in a city soon.
“I'm sorry, but we aren't going there.”
“Huh? But we rescued Sir Vale. Won't they welco us?”
“You dummy, that's impossible.”
Gavinu chided his friend.
Talleon didn't know that Vale had been abandoned by his family.
Among the comrades, there was an atmosphere of keeping quiet about it even though they knew.
“Why?”
“……Forget it. It's better not to tell you.”
“What's that supposed to an!”
“Both of you, that's enough.”
Joshua cald the two boys down.
Then, he surveyed the surroundings and checked the objects near the castle.
A watchtower was visible.
Tiny people, like ants, were busily moving above and below the watchtower.
“There are more than I thought.”
Even outside the castle, more than twenty people were working hard on scouting.
It ant the manpower was abundant enough to deploy that many people outside.
“Surely, you aren't thinking of invading, right?”
Gavinu asked with a fearful voice.
He thought that if it were Joshua, it might actually be possible.
“I don't know how many are inside.”
Gavinu let out a sigh of relief.
He was relieved, thinking that even Joshua had things that were impossible.
“If I knew how many there were, I might have tried it.”
So that was the obstacle!
As expected, he couldn't keep up with Joshua's thinking.
“If we can't enter the castle, where do you plan to stay? Are you going to find Sir Rodwell first after all?”
“I have a guess where that man might be. There's no need to find him right away.”
“Then?”
“I'm checking for a hideout.”
“Do you an a place for us to use?”
“Yeah.”
The boys' hearts fluttered.
Camping for nearly a month was exhausting everyone in the group.
They wanted to say goodbye to the hard ground.
But more troubleso than that were the zombies.
They were everywhere, regardless of day or night.
For the past three weeks, they didn't have mories of sleeping peacefully because of those creatures.
“Sir Vale, what are your thoughts?”
Joshua looked at Vale.
Vale didn't give any answer until Joshua asked.
He just stared blankly at the castle.
“……I thought I'd never see that place again.”
“I'm not particularly curious about your impressions.”
Vale scowled.
“What a heartless brat. I returned here after almost dying. It's natural to have many emotions.”
“That doesn't help with survival.”
Vale shook his head.
After spending several weeks with the boy, he had roughly grasped his disposition.
The boy was more serious about surviving than anyone else.
To the point where it felt a bit excessive.
However, he hadn't seen any of his comrades say anything bad to Joshua.
Everyone knew.
That he was taking on the role of the villain.
“The one to survive in this godforsaken world would be soone like you.”
“I don't need your impressions of either.”
“This is a complint!”
Vale left his idle thoughts behind and focused on Joshua.
“So, what is it you're curious about?”
“I'm curious about the scale of the people in the castle.”
“It'll be nearly 600 people. Among them, nearly 100 will be combatants, and the rest are people living while handling chores in the city.”
“That was before you were kicked out of the castle, right?”
“Yeah.”
“It wouldn't be strange if there were even more now.”
Joshua continued to monitor the vicinity of the castle while sitting.
“Do you know a person nad Osmond?”
“Of course. How could I not know the na of the family's guard captain.”
“Once, he visited each knight order as an envoy. I was living in the Starlight Knights at that ti. Did they return safely?”
“As far as I know, that plan was successful. They brought the vice-captain from the Starlight Knights, and the Sunlight Knights moved their entire residence.”
Joshua furrowed his brows.
Suddenly, the incident at the conference hall flashed through his mind.
Carius.
He had co here to Stalia.
“It seems they've taken a place in the castle, but they still aren't number one in the hierarchy. Do you know why?”
“It's probably because of Sir Owain.”
Owain Ventis.
The Ventis family was a vassal family that had sworn loyalty to the Glover family.
Having lost their fief, they gave up the land and asked for help from their master, the Glover family.
“You aren't even a mber of our family, yet you know other people's family affairs very well huh.”
“I studied.”
“You can study such a thing?”
“Of course.”
“Anyway, you're right. Many vassal families besides Ventis ca to us asking for help. Many were abandoned, but the Ventis family survived. That's because of Owain's existence. In a world like this, it's not an easy thing to have a General-grade (Rank 4) knight on your side.”
Hearing the term General-grade knight made soone co to mind.
Where would Rodwell have built his house?
I had a rough idea of the place.
“From our perspective, it was more reassuring to trust those who had sworn loyalty than to entrust tasks to strangers.”
“I understand.”
Even in a disaster situation, previously established orders and relationships were full of use.
Unfortunately, his own family had no influence.
“Have you t Lady Lucille?”
“If it's the lady of the Rainwood family, I have seen her face.”
“She will help us.”
“Since you're protecting Tania, that's natural enough.”
Having finished the conversation there, they descended the mountain and headed toward the valley where their comrades were.
They were guarding the surroundings while on horseback.
“How is it?”
Adela asked.
“The castle hasn't fallen yet. There seed to be many people.”
“I see.”
“We aren't entering that place.”
Everyone seed to be in an accepting mood.
He had spoken about issues related to the castle until his mouth was sore.
“Sohow I feel sorry.”
Vale shrugged his shoulders.
He knew that he was the reason they wouldn't be welcod at the castle.
“Don't let it bother you. We're enduring it while knowing everything.”
“But isn't it for nothing that you ca all this way if you can't enter the castle?”
“Not exactly.”
Vale tilted his head.
“Follow .”
Joshua led his comrades toward the opposite side of the castle.
There, a coastline connected to the sea was visible.
“Are you planning to invade from the rear?”
Vale was suddenly frightened.
Right behind them sat the high walls of the castle.
He judged that Joshua intended to enter through here and take control of the castle.
“Huh?”
“I heard there's a way to occupy a castle overnight in war. Were you planning to test that?”
“Even so, isn't that too reckless?”
“Reckless?”
Vale felt as though he had heard an unexpected word from the boy's mouth.
Because he felt like the boy could accomplish anything.
He thought Joshua didn't know the word reckless.
“If you go in, you die.”
“Won't Lady Lucille help you out?”
“It'll just be confusing if we enter abruptly without any consultation.”
“……I suppose so.”
Joshua smiled lightly and descended to the coastline.
They had co to the sea.
Having co this far, there was only one thing left to do.
“Our hideout is there.”
He pointed across the sea with his hand.
Beyond that place lay his second hideout.
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