The slave caravan roamed every corner of Delfona’s port city and the surrounding area.
It was to hide their route.
After turning down road after road so many times that no one could tell where they had gone, the caravan’s wagons returned to Delfona. The winding route was difficult to trace, and it also made it look as though they had crossed into another territory. Every territory they pretended to have escaped into was a place where trade was developed, making it easy to construct a route for crossing the border.
There were not many slaves meant for export. They planned to deliberately let them hear the ship’s horn to crush any hope of escape, then move them again. If they were careful to avoid an uproar at that point, the captives would realize there was no way left to run and become obedient.
The auction was scheduled to be held in an old underground bunker in Delfona’s port city. It had been built over several decades by the previous dynasty and then abandoned, until this merchant group discovered it at the beginning of the Seven-Year War and occupied it without permission.
“Any problems with the preparations?”
A man with a cigar between his teeth asked as he blew out smoke.
His face was darkly tanned, and his sharply defined lips left a strong impression.
At his question, his subordinate knelt and answered.
“No, sir. Everything has been prepared without issue.”
“The merchandise?”
“Prepared well.”
“Good work. Go.”
The subordinate rose, bowed, and left the room.
The room was full of smoke. The cigar at the corner of the man’s mouth burned red. Watching it scatter into smoke, the man grinned.
***
Delfona’s port city was a free place.
It was one of the places many people who had left their hometowns came to, and a place where starting over felt natural. So many people gathered there that no one could keep track of who came and went, and countless travelers passed in and out. It was a place that smelled of sweat, full of massive ships docking and setting sail over and over each day, the goods pouring out from those ships, and the sturdy men carrying them.
Rough and free, with wind that tasted fiercely of salt.
“Move! I said move!”
“Ah!”
A short man with his hood pulled low hurried up onto a ship. In both hands, he carried one bulging bundle that looked as though things had been forcibly stuffed into it, and one box that seemed quite heavy. The bundle was made of terribly worn cloth, but the box looked fairly luxurious. There was a lock on it, and a faint pattern visible above it, so it seemed to be a magic item meant to protect whatever was stored inside.
A man sitting in a shop with a clear view of the ships, drinking tea, lifted his head at the commotion. Narrow purple eyes behind glass lenses studied the man boarding the ship.
The person returning from an errand pulled two maps from his coat and asked,
“Young master, is something wrong?”
“John. Doesn’t that man seem suspicious somehow?”
Click.
When the man set down his teacup, the gold buttons on his sleeves swayed.
Everyone passing by glanced at him. Anyone who started working in Delfona developed lean muscle, regardless of build. Sun-darkened skin was unavoidable in Delfona.
Yet near the shore sat a tall young man in obviously expensive clothes, with beautifully dark skin that had not come from the sun. Of course people looked. Dressed in a silk shirt that shimmered as light flowed over it and a jacket with ornate patterns, he did not belong at a dock full of seafaring men. It would have suited him better to grimace, click his tongue at the fishy smell, and hurry past.
“That man.”
When he tipped his chin, John quickly looked that way.
The man seemed to have bumped into one of the wooden crates being hauled off the ship one by one for fish sorting, and he was throwing every bit of a temper he had. Clutching the box he had nearly dropped tightly to his chest, he snapped angrily. When a fisherman clenched his fist and demanded payment for the ruined fish, the man pulled a gold coin from inside his clothes and threw it at him. Before the fisherman could even pick it up from the ground, the man pressed down on his hood to keep the sea wind from blowing it off and practically ran onto the ship. His unsteady steps made him look drunk in broad daylight.
“My apologies, Master Peruan, but what exactly seems suspicious...?”
“There will be a surprise inspection.”
Inspectors in white uniforms with blue badges had been moving around from the far side, and now they finally approached the two of them.
“Please cooperate with the inspection.”
“Young master...?”
When ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) Peruan only stared at the approaching inspectors without answering, their faces turned displeased.
The one who seemed to be their leader was about to speak when Peruan curved his eyes in a smile and quickly cut him off.
“Ah! An inspection. John, what are you doing? Hurry up and show them.”
Peruan drawled the words slowly as he scolded John.
“What? Ah, yes....”
Looking somewhat wronged, John fumbled through his coat and took out their pass. Fortunately, since he was more startled by Peruan’s behavior than by the surprise inspection itself, John looked completely natural. The inspector glanced at John’s sullen face, checked only the seal stamped on the pass, and quickly handed it back.
“Do you inspect passes often?”
“We do when suspicious people appear. This is a tolerant city where people trying to do useless things often hide.”
He was pretending to be polite, but it sounded like, So you had better not try anything either.
Peruan smiled brightly and casually answered, “The sea is wide, after all, so all sorts of people gather well enough,” then pointed at the ship that was about to depart.
“I think I saw someone suspicious. Hmm. No, never mind. There’s no particular reason to look into someone who’s leaving. I’m a real problem, being so suspicious.”
“Please tell us. That ship is still in Delfona, so we have a duty to investigate.”
The inspector’s face turned serious. Peruan dragged the silence out for quite some time, pretending to think, then described the suspicious man and added a lie that he had given the fisherman an enormous amount of gold earlier. A large pouch full of gold coins, he said.
The inspectors thanked him for his cooperation, then blew their whistles toward the ship that was about to depart.
“It would have been better if they hadn’t blown the whistles. What a shame.”
Peruan spoke as if he truly found it regrettable. John, who had been watching him leisurely sweep back his hair, opened his mouth.
“What if he wasn’t suspicious at all? And why say he gave away that much gold...? Young master, if you lie....”
“Then I’ll compensate him.”
Seeing Peruan smile as if it were nothing, John thought that this man was still a noble after all.
“But what was so suspicious about him?”
“Whew. John. You really need to develop an eye for people.”
Peruan began giving serious advice, and John regretted asking a pointless question.
***
Nothing.
Ren was nowhere. There was no sign of Ren, who should have been found along some reasonable road by now.
The communication from Geloman had also said, Not found.
If he could not be seen after that one short night, then it meant he had probably gotten a ride from someone, whether in a wagon or on a horse.
“Lord Temar. I advise we rest here for a moment.”
Kelton, who had belatedly led the knights after him, advised him politely. Charles stood far away, uncomfortable around Temar because of his own mistake.
“No.”
“...Please do not be stubborn. Rest for a little while. I’m thinking of sending half the knights with the best stamina ahead first.”
For Kelton to say that much, Temar’s condition was poor.
The idea of a Hero being in poor condition was something ordinary people could neither understand nor imagine. But Kelton had observed Heroes up close, so he understood to some degree.
Temar had traveled between Mount Geroa and Tempesto Village through the night, and there had been signs of combat as well. Of course he had to be exhausted. Normally, even heading straight to Delfona after that would not have been difficult for him, but now it seemed too much.
Facing an unfamiliar expression he had never seen even during the war, Kelton did his best to exclude personal feeling and spoke.
“You cannot continue like this.”
Cannot.
Cannot, was it?
Repeating Kelton’s words to himself, Temar lifted his head.
Kelton and the other knights stood in formation. Their faces did not look tired. If Temar said one word—understood—half of them would ride ahead again, and the other half would remain by his side.
A hollow laugh escaped him.
The fact that ordinary knights had caught up with him when he had left first, and the fact that he could not find a single trace of Ren.
It was laughable.
He was incompetent.
Without the Hero’s power, was he nothing more than a human who could not even match a knight?
“Lord Temar.”
If he offered one person as a sacrifice, would his power return?
The thought flashed by only for an instant.
Kelton flinched. For a moment, murderous intent had flickered in Temar’s dark brown eyes.
“If we had not done impossible things, the kingdom would have fallen long ago.”
Whether he understood how extreme a comparison it was or not.
Or whether Ren meant even more than that to Temar.
Temar stubbornly gripped the reins.
Why had his power weakened? Why had even his body fallen to an ordinary person’s level?
Rather than think about that, he chose to keep riding until he fell from the horse. That would be better.
In many ways.
Unfortunately, there was no one here who could stop Temar.
Breathing hard, Temar charged ahead on his own. Kelton sent a communication, then followed right behind him. Charles hurriedly caught up as well. Temar’s momentum was fierce, but his speed was not much different from that of an ordinary knight.
***
Boooooo.
The ship’s horn rang out long and loud.
“Move them, hurry! Deal with this lot!”
“Yes, sir!”
“Move the boxes first!”
“How should we move these?”
“What do you mean, how? Move them in order!”
The noise outside was chaotic.
“Are we... getting on a ship?”
Beta muttered tearfully. Kenta, who had Ren lying across his lap and was covering Ren’s face with his hand, widened his eyes.
“We escape.”
They were still in the kingdom. Maybe this was their last chance to escape.
“How?! How are we supposed to escape...? Don’t just go by yourselves. Take me too...!”
A boy who had been kneeling with his body folded low lifted his head.
“Huh...? Why aren’t you saying anything? Please, can’t you take me too? You—you’re close to one of the men from this merchant group, aren’t you? Are you a spy or something?!”
“Shut up!”
“If you—you’re the only one who gets out... I’ll curse you forever!”
“Yeah. Take us too when you escape. We’ll be useful. Right, let’s—let’s make a plan!”
Once they boarded the ship, it was over. They would never be able to return home again. Crossing a border was not especially difficult, but without a pass and identification, it was nearly impossible. Minors had no reason to have identification, and without a pass they had never been issued, or a guardian to vouch for them, they would become illegal residents the moment they crossed into another kingdom and would never be able to escape the owner who bought them. If they were sold somewhere that had old grudges against their kingdom...
What would happen was something none of them wanted to imagine.
With gaunt faces, countless pairs of innocently wide eyes turned toward Kenta—and toward the red handkerchief around his neck.
Ren flinched at the rising murmur of voices.
“You—you’ll have trouble escaping alone too, won’t you? That kid can’t even stay conscious...!”
“It’ll be hard to take a girl with you too. L-let’s work together! H-hey! You, say something too....”
“Do not touch me.”
Smack!
The tall figure with the hood pulled low sharply slapped away the child’s hand clutching the edge of their hood.
