Chapter 12: Chapter 12

Passing through Solod Castle, the gateway that demarcated the border between Libert and Pendia, did not require any particularly special procedures.

In the first place, since the relationship between the two kingdoms was not especially hostile, the strategic value of this castle lay in controlling monsters crossing over rather than defending against an invasion from the Kingdom of Pendia.

However, instead of passing straight through the gate, Roden went inside the castle, took a room at an inn, and unpacked their luggage.

Shan looked around the large inn he was seeing for the first time like a country bumpkin.

“It’s huge……”

There were quite a few patrons in the inn, most of whom appeared to be armed mercenaries.

They seemed to be people heading over from Pendia after hearing news of the war in Libert.

After eating an early dinner at the pub-cum-restaurant on the first floor, Shan and Roden headed to the shops inside the castle to take care of business before sunset.

Serving as a trading city between the two kingdoms, the castle possessed places suitable for trading goods.

“What are you going to buy?”

“I couldn’t get proper gear while wandering through half-baked villages all this time, but I should take this opportunity to buy at least a set of armor. At the very least, it would be better if we dressed properly.”

Right now, Shan was wearing clothes handed down to him by the people of the Altoan Troupe.

His original clothes had been torn by Feonil’s spear and drenched in blood, making them unwearable.

Naturally, as there were no children like him in the troupe (conversely, the dwarf Boldot’s clothes were far too small) the garments were way too large and baggy, making it necessary to dress in new clothes this time.

It would also be good to buy a few extra sets to change into if they got splattered with blood or torn.

At any rate, since it would take several days to reach a large city even after crossing into Pendia, they had to resupply before then.

In truth, had it not been for the clash with Feonil, this was a matter that should have been taken care of back in Bito City.

After wandering around several places, Shan managed to obtain clothes that fit reasonably well, gloves and shoes made of fine leather, and a hat to block the sunlight.

He also purchased arrows and a spear of suitable length.

Finally, returning to the inn, they called a barber, and Shan entrusted his hair to someone else for the first time in his life.

After trimming his shaggy hair (which had grown roughly down to his shoulder blades) short to just below the back of his head, washing it with soap, applying oil, and slicking it back, it took on quite a decent appearance.

If his previous appearance was that of a vagrant following a dignified knight, he now looked like a young squire.

As Shan admired the sight in a somewhat blurry mirror, Roden, standing behind him, also smiled and nodded.

“You look much better like this.”

Even if Shan was not a peerless beauty, for someone who had lived roughly, his features were reasonably neat and his teeth were even.

His large eyes with slightly drooping corners gave him an appearance reminiscent of a gentle puppy, which was somewhat lacking for a warrior, but given how formidable his inner strength was, wouldn’t that be fine?

“Having someone else cut my hair feels really strange.”

“How did you do it before?”

“I just roughly chopped it with a random blade.”

Indeed, that messy hair of his was hard to explain otherwise.

Whenever he heard snippets of such a dark past, Roden felt a tightness in his chest and let out a heavy breath.

“From now on, ask a barber like this. It’s much easier.”

“Come to think of it, how do you manage, Roden? You can’t use blades.”

“Don’t worry, I have my own ways of taking care of it.”

Curious, Shan kept questioning him, so Roden demonstrated how he trimmed his own hair and beard using scissors with dulled tips.

Watching him deftly cut and groom places he couldn’t even see was impressive.

Was it thanks to arriving early and resting deeply at a good lodging to recharge their energy?

The next morning, when they passed completely through the gate with refreshed bodies, Roden wore an expression relieved of much of his worry.

“Whew, Pendia at last! How I missed the scent of my homeland.”

Shan did not ask how the smell could possibly change after crossing merely a single castle gate.

It was the result of having finally developed at least a tiny bit of tact while traveling with Roden.

However, that afternoon, around the time the sun began to set and their next stopping point was not far off, Shan also came to realize just how different this land was from Libert.

“Roden.”

“What is it?”

“There’s something ahead.”

They were attempting to approach covertly in their own way, but they could not conceal the noise of pushing through the bushes, their footsteps, or the pungent fishy stench of water.

As Shan drew his sword and pointed, the creatures realized they had been exposed and burst out with screeching cackles.

“……Water ghouls!”

Roden yelled in surprise and picked up the flail mounted on the side of his horse.

They had pale skin, mossy green hair, sharp teeth, and claws, looking like hideous, twisted monkeys.

They seemed to be creatures that had crawled out from the surrounding marshlands.

Dismounting immediately from his horse, Shan cleanly severed the neck of one lunging water ghoul with his sword and pierced the chest of a second with a thrust.

The creatures’ skin was wrinkled and tough enough to withstand ordinary blades, but Shan’s sword sliced through its targets smoothly like cheese without catching.

Unlike normal creatures, the water ghoul’s blood was an extraordinarily alien pale blue.

Having dealt with the two lunging beasts in an instant, Shan glanced sideways just in time to see the body of another water ghoul get crushed and sent flying with a loud boom.

Roden had struck the one leaping at him with his flail from below, scooping it upward.

“How dare you!”

Come to think of it, this was the first time Shan had seen Roden fight properly.

Unlike Shan, Roden had not dismounted; holding the reins with his free hand, he lightly urged his horse forward, chased down a fleeing creature, and brought his flail crashing down.

With its skull crushed, the creature collapsed onto the ground without even letting out a scream.

Having dispatched four of them in an instant, the two or three remaining ones that were gauging the situation nearby quickly fled into the thicket.

After standing on guard for a moment without any reaction for about a minute, the two finally relaxed their shoulders.

“Whew, I didn’t want to feel like I was back in my homeland this way.”

“I only heard about it, but there really are a lot of monsters. How do other people live in a place like this?”

He wondered if ordinary people who had never learned how to fight properly could withstand such monsters.

The speed at which the water ghouls had lunged earlier was on par with typical wild beasts, handled reasonably only because it was them.

Roden’s answer to that was quite simple.

“That’s why people who don’t know how to fight don’t carelessly wander outside. Well, honestly, isn’t Libert pretty much the same? It’s just bandits or wild beasts instead of monsters.”

Saying so, Roden taught Shan how to pull out a water ghoul’s teeth.

Peculiarly, their entire set of teeth was connected from the roots, so by slitting the jaw and upper lip with a blade, tearing it sideways, and pulling, one could easily extract the teeth.

“By the way, aren’t you afraid of teeth and claws, Roden? Sharp things are just like blades.”

“As long as it’s not made of metal, it’s fine. I don’t know why that is either…… Anyway, try not to skip collecting water ghoul teeth. They are quite valuable as alchemy materials. Quite apart from that, carrying them around serves as proof in itself.”

“Proof?”

“Proof that we aren’t just fools walking around carrying respectable weapons.”

Pendia was originally the eastern borderland of the ancient Arman Empire, serving as a shield to protect the empire from monsters pouring out of the Demonic Realm.

Influenced by that legacy, even in modern times, the people of this region revered individual prowess in combat and placed high value on hunting monsters.

It was not merely a matter of honor, but closely tied to improving their living environment.

Shan realized that truth only after entering a small village surrounded by a wooden palisade with a population of about one to two hundred people shortly thereafter.

The people who came out to greet the visitors wore surprised expressions upon seeing the teeth hanging proudly beside the saddle.

“Oh, could those be……?”

“They are the teeth of water ghouls we encountered in front of the village. Troublesome creatures.”

“As a matter of fact, a young man who went to gather firewood a while ago was dragged off by them…… I really don’t know how to express my gratitude.”

Expressing his gratitude repeatedly, the village chief offered his own house as lodging to Shan and Roden in reward.

The horses also neighed in high spirits as they ate feed mixed with soybeans instead of chewing grass in the field.

However, unlike the village chief who treated them hospitably, Shan did not like at all how the villagers whispered while looking at his faintly glowing eyes.

At this rate, wasn’t it hardly any different from when he was in Libert?

When Shan brought up this point, Roden said with an embarrassed expression.

“It can’t be helped. As I told you before, the Old Faith is dominant in western Pendia. Still, they won’t try to openly trample on you like in Libert. For one thing, that’s illegal.”

As he said, even if the villagers looked at Shan with somewhat dissatisfied glanced, they did not spout contemptuous remarks right to his face.

Though there was also a possibility it was simply because of the sword at his waist and the water ghoul teeth he brought along.

*

Staying for a day at the village chief’s house, the two continued moving east, and further east.

Indeed, as rumored, Pendia truly deserved its reputation as a land of monsters.

Just as foxes, wild boars, deer, and wolves inhabited every other mountain in Shan’s original homeland of Libert, monsters could be seen just as easily as animals in this land.

From the water ghouls they first encountered, to scrawny lesser vampires bearing their fangs, to ghouls controlled by tiny insects that ate through a corpse’s brain and raised it……

Fortunately, however, monsters did not always blindly pounce on humans the moment they saw them.

Those that were not particularly violent in nature or starving sometimes passed by indifferently even after spotting the two, and in such cases, they did not bother wasting energy either.

In particular, widespread creatures like goblins grew intimidated just by looking at Roden’s massive build, not daring to attack.

If Shan had been traveling alone, he probably would have had to shed blood fighting them twice an hour.

On the third day after leaving Solod Castle, the two entered a fairly large city with a population that seemed to easily exceed several thousand.

This place, like other settlements in Pendia, was enclosed by outer walls; perhaps due to a shortage of good stone nearby, only the lower section was stone, while the upper section was made of wood.

“This is Obilos City. By now, we’ve covered more than half the way to the capital.”

“Already?”

“The capital of Pendia is located relatively to the west within the kingdom.”

The reason, naturally, was that the Demonic Realm, the source of monsters, lay to the east.

If the capital were in the east, should a powerful monster appear, it would strike the capital directly.

While bribing the gatekeeper with a silver coin and passing through the city gate, Shan noticed a unique pattern engraved on the inside of the gate, with a shining gem embedded in the center.

“Roden, Roden.”

“What is it?”

“What is that?”

“That…… Ah, a magic circle and a mana stone?”

Murmuring that Shan wouldn’t have seen one before, Roden immediately explained.

“I heard mages use them when casting magic on objects. I don’t know much either, but since it’s on the castle wall, it probably makes it sturdier. In the Kingdom of Pendia, any castle with some size has one attached to every gate.”

Those mana stones mostly came from hunting monsters near the Demonic Realm; thus, while the Kingdom of Pendia mainly enchanted its castle gates, other countries (which looked down on mages and had an unstable supply of mana stones) consecrated theirs through the power of priests.

He added that unless they were exceptionally small and poor, all the cities and castles they had passed through had such measures in place.

“If there were no such things, some giant monster might break down the gate and barge in. Or skilled knights might smash it open with a mounted lance charge.”

“Aha.”

Come to think of it, that was truly the case.

With power that ripped and tore flesh at the slightest graze, blasting more than ten soldiers away into lumps of meat, it would easily break down an ordinary wooden gate.

While walking with his hands on the reins after dismounting (horseback riding was forbidden inside the city) another surprising sight caught Shan’s eyes.

‘An Altoan?’

A woman with curved horns like a ram’s on her head walked casually back and forth along the street.

Surprisingly, the other people around did not send her looked of contempt or vigilance.

A reaction just like when any other ordinary person passed by, without even caring if such a being existed……

As they walked a bit further, Shan could see that all sorts of Altoans were present throughout the city.

Sometimes laborers, sometimes barkers, sometimes even blacksmiths.

The sight of his kinsmen living mingled together no differently from ordinary people was just as shocking as when he had first seen the troupe made of Altoans.

“There really are a lot of Altoans here.”

“Compared to other countries, that’s certainly true. Even then, this is still the west; the place where real numbers of Altoans live is the eastern region. If you go there, probably one out of every twenty passersby will be an Altoan.”

That there were no knights among Altoans despite such numbers meant that the barrier to ascending to the upper class was far firmer than met the eye.

Mid-conversation, Shan realized that for some reason, Roden was passing by several quite decent-looking inns.

The place where Roden stopped a moment later was a mansion situated deeper inside the city.

“Where is this?”

Having never even seen such a large and fine building before, Shan wore an overwhelmed expression as he looked at the high perimeter wall and the statues atop it.

“An acquaintance’s home. It’ll be more comfortable to stay here than an inn. Besides, we can check up on local affairs that we couldn’t hear about while traveling.”

When Roden knocked firmly on the door, a man who looked like a servant peeked his head out shortly after.

Seeing Roden’s terrifying appearance at a glance, the servant flinched and spoke.

“Who are you?”

“Tell Mr. Poave that Roden Weavers has arrived.”

“Weavers…… W-Wait just a moment, please!”

Hearing Roden’s family name, the servant was startled and disappeared inside.

And about a minute later, a middle-aged man who looked to have thrown on his clothes in a hurry rushed out almost at a roll.

He addressed Roden with a title Shan had not anticipated at all.

“Young Master! Where on earth did you go, and why are you returning only now?!”

“Wandering around is a young man’s specialty anyway, Uncle.”

Roden offered the man, who appeared to be the master of the house, an innocent smile fitting his age and acted playfully brazen.

At that sight, the man wore a helpless expression before breaking into laughter.

“Do you know how worried the Master has been since Young Master disappeared? Even now, I receive a letter every three days asking me to contact him if I find Young Master.”

“Please tell the other uncles I’m sorry as well.”

“Not at all, considering the grace we received from the Master, there is nothing for us to feel sorry about. More importantly……”

Only then, as his excitement settled and his vision cleared, did the master of the house shift his gaze to Shan standing behind Roden.

Noticing this, Roden shrugged his shoulders.

“Come to think of it, I haven’t introduced you two. Shan? This is Mr. Poave Colognia. He is the man who holds a tight grip on the gem trade here in Obilos City.”

“You flatter me. I am merely running a small jeweler’s shop thanks to the Master’s grace.”

Showing a humble attitude, Poave cast a curious look toward Shan.

“And this is Shan, the friend who made me give up my dream of becoming a knight.”

“Made you give up your dream of becoming a knight?”

As a right-hand man of Callion, the kingdom’s greatest jeweler, Poave knew full well how deeply Callion’s son Roden had longed for the knightly class.

Had he not even run away from home, declaring he would return after becoming a splendid knight?

Yet, for someone who had caused him to abandon such a dream, there was no ill will felt in Roden’s eyes as he looked at Shan.

Puzzled only for a moment, the three decided to head inside the house to have a proper conversation first.

There were many eyes around, and keeping guests standing in front of the door in the first place was contrary to etiquette.

Stepping inside the main gate, Shan opened his mouth wide at the sight of the mansion that had been obscured by the perimeter wall.

“Wow……”

The first thing to catch his eye was the exterior fitted with dozens of glass windows, which ordinary houses replaced with wood.

The walls were constructed of finely trimmed, smooth stone and wood.

It was easy to understand why Roden had chosen to stay here rather than at an inn.

Entering the reception room inside the mansion, which was just as splendid as the exterior, a cup of tea was placed before each of them.

This, too, was served by a neatly dressed maid, making it seem as though they were practically nobility.

Looking around while blowing on the hot liquid before sipping, Shan’s face crumpled terribly.

“It’s bitter.”

“Get used to the taste by drinking things like this from now on. A certain degree of refinement is required of a knight, though you don’t need to go as far as the nobles.”

Seeing Roden take care of Shan like an older brother with a large age gap, Poave’s curiosity grew even greater.

Having no intention of keeping it hidden, Roden lightly savored his tea while relaying what had happened to him.

Self-loathing over his own terrible constitution, anger, and the resulting runaway from home.

And the story of a monstrous boy he encountered in a countryside village of a neighboring country after a reckless journey……

At the story of a boy who had not even received proper combat training slaughtering over a dozen elite mercenaries by himself, Poave opened his mouth wide without realizing it.

By the time the tale reached how he had traded blows with Feonil of the Black Spear and survived with only injuries, Poave’s eyes lost focus entirely for a moment.

That expression of his closely resembled Shan’s face when he was astonished upon seeing the mansion moments ago.

“G-Good heavens, Goddess…… Even so, that’s……”

“It’s hard to believe without seeing it with your own eyes, right? I was the same. But while living together, I came to realize it. That such unreasonable talent actually exists in this world.”

Roden expressed his opinion without hesitation.

That by the time Shan reached adulthood, even Marquis Abel, the Lord Protector and strongest knight of the Kingdom of Pendia, would be no match for him.

That the opportunity to sponsor the childhood of the most powerful knight in history had arrived right before their eyes.

In truth, Roden himself had never actually seen Shan achieve the aforementioned feats with his own eyes either.

Having heard the entire story, Poave showed a half-doubting expression.

“If I had heard this from anyone else, I would have dismissed them as stark mad, but since it comes from Young Master, I cannot possibly brush it off lightly……”

“Once we return to the capital, I plan to introduce him to my father as well. After all, supporting him properly is beyond my ability alone.”

Armor, weapons, and a fine warhorse were essential for a knight.

Ordinary items aside, enchanted or consecrated gear were items Roden could never afford with his pocket money.

Furthermore, what Shan needed right now even more than equipment was education.

He needed to train as a knight under a proper master to master fighting spirit, as well as learn the etiquette and culture of high society.

Building connections with promising prospective knights and nobles was an added bonus.

To become a knight as an Altoan, overwhelming skill went without saying, but various other factors were also necessary.

Quietly groaning a low “Hmm,” Poave listened to the story and spoke.

“Of course I believe Young Master’s words, but I do not know how the Master will react. As you know, he is someone who does not easily believe what he has not seen with his own eyes.”

“I heard it often since childhood. ‘Judge everything proactively yourself. Never leave your thinking to others……’”

Roden quoted his father’s motto and faintly knit his brows.

He had thought of a few ways to convince his father, who was rather stubborn on such matters, but had not yet made up his mind.

Just then, Shan, who had been quietly sipping his tea and listening to the conversation, opened his mouth.

“Is there any strong monster nearby by any chance?”

“A strong monster…… you say?”

Was it because he was Roden’s guest? Poave used honorific language toward Shan, who was younger than his own son.

“Yes. Something that will make Roden’s father think, ‘Wow, what an incredible fellow! There’s no way I can’t support a kid like this!’ when he sees it.”

“Shan, that’s……”

“Roden said it earlier. People in Pendia respect you if you hunt a strong monster and present proof. I want to receive respect from Roden’s father, not charity.”

Shan said so, opening his large green eyes clearly as he looked at Roden.

Quietly watching the two of them, Poave burst out laughing.

‘He doesn’t just have a talent for fighting…… He’s a child with clear principles. Extraordinary.’

Inferring from Roden’s explanation and his behavior until moments ago, he was a boy from the absolute bottom of life (one who had lived without receiving any proper education) yet he possessed a surprisingly mature and proactive attitude.

An ordinary child would have relied on Roden, who was like a guardian in this situation, believing he would figure things out on his own.

And coincidentally, there happened to be a troublesome matter in this city that perfectly met Shan’s request.

Organizing his thoughts for a moment, Poave voiced it aloud.

“As it happens, a certain monster has been causing trouble around the city lately. Have you by any chance heard of a troll?”