「Ugh, what happened to me?」
Whoosh, a gust of wind shook my body and I woke up. I put my hands over my face, and tried to wake my body up.
I looked around the inside of my wagon.
「This is…oh yeah! The drug!」
Thinking back about what had happened, I tried to get out of the wagon, but the things I wanted weren't there any longer.
「Ah, ah! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Those bastaaaaaards!」
Gone, gone, gone!
The wagons with my things, gone!
I looked around, and the only thing remaining was the wagon I had slept in, and the horses connected to the wagon.
「Damn, damn, damn,damn,damn,damn,damn,!!! Aghghhh!! Damn all this crap happening to me nowwwww!!」
No idea about what happened, or how, or what was happening now, no ability to know what's going on, but one thing I knew, that all my money had been taken.
Not one penny left.
That horrific phrase clung to the back of my mind.
「Agahh! Ah! No, noooo!!」
And the darkness outside permeating everything.
What time is it? It felt like I took a road deeper and deeper into the thick blackness by mistake.
「Uhhh…what is this? Why? Why did this happen to me?」
Even after trying to shake it off over and over, the darkness remained, almost laughing at me, and then…
「No, I'm okay. I…can still make it from here!」
Grip, I squeezed the bag that was around my neck.
This may have been the reason that I lived.
That sweet flowery smell. Someone used a magical poison, and tried to take my life.
And also, the money in this bag is enough to easily start a new company I can make money from.
Just relax, just think about getting to the imperial city alive.
「Phew, huff, for me to have to drive the wagon myself…」
I got my senses back after breathing deeply, and hurried onto the driver's seat.
I didn't have any experience as a driver, but it didn't seem like it took a lot of knowledge. Maybe I should have jumped on a horse instead of riding a cart, but that seemed more dangerous than riding this wagon.
「Let's go you horses!」
「『『Winnnnyyy!?』』」
I let my instincts take over as I hit the horses harder than I should have and the horses ran off again.
I rode down the path with the rumbling sound of the wagon and a feeling like I had escaped.
I looked around me as I rode, and I could see the moon shine here and there.
「Tch, I was thinking of getting farther from the town before I rested, but now I should run until I get to the next boarding town.」
There was no question if I could keep pushing these horses and this wagon too.
Because I had slept, and the anger that consumed me, I had no feeling of drowsiness whatsoever.
I did have a warm feeling of being drunk from that drug, as I whipped the horses again.
Just then.
「『『Kweeeeehhhh!』』」
「What? A group of magic monsters?」
The horses cried right before a bunch of monsters jumped onto the road.
They had the special water-colored, transparent body.
「『『Heeeheeeeeen!』』」
「S…slime! Why here?」
The horses stopped moving, and the wagon stopped as well.
However, I didn't have time to answer the question I asked.
「『Buhheeeeen? Heen!』」「『Heheeeen?!』」
「Stop, wait, dammit!」
Without being able to do a thing, the group of slimes attacked the horses.
With the horses still connected to the wagon they couldn't move and their bodies were quickly surrounded by the slime's bodies.
Fwussshhhhh, the sound of melting meat and smoke.
I went to jump off the driver's seat and ran off into the woods.
Slimes were different from magic beasts like garms, goblins, and orcs.
They had no sense of a full stomach.
After they consumed all the horses from the wagon, they would come after me.
Anyway, I should get away as far as I can for now.
However, bad luck just seemed to have come for me in waves.
「『Gyupiraaah!』」
「Another slime?!」
I thought that this was the end of the line, and I now ran straight away from the new slime.
「Eek, eek, damn, damn! Dammit all!」
Frustration, anger, confusion, misgivings, trouble, irritation.
All of these emotions welled up in me as I screamed while running through the constantly rustling trees and shrubs within the forest.
「Ah, ang…ah, I'm, I'm, the Grond…trading company's…head, why the…」
How long did I run anyway?
I hid myself behind a tree until the monsters approached again and then took off once I heard them coming.
Doing that over and over, I was now chased deep into the forest.
Because of my lack of exercise, I couldn't catch my breath, and my legs were aching.
「Dammit! Why the…hell…」
And again, I put my back to a tree, and hid myself.
Slimes were way slower than what I heard in stories. If you run away from them, there's no way they can catch up to you.
Because the forest wasn't too deep, and since the moon lit most of the forest up, I could get away pretty easily.
However, there were a lot of magic beasts in the forest, and I didn't know how the others knew how to pursue me, because every time I turned back, they were still at my heels.
「『Bigggiiiiiihh!』」
「WhaaA? Why another slime!?」
However, there was no time to rest before another slime found me.
「Eek, eek, eek, eek!」
As soon as the slimes felt far away, I found another tree to hide behind to catch my breath.
「Huff, wheeze, huff, wheeze.」
(What now? I can't keep doing this…)
As soon as I got just enough rest to breathe again, the hurrying and fear started all over again.
I really regretted plunging into the woods like this without thinking.
The woods was the magic beasts' territory. Even if I ran, it would have been easier to run down the old road than into the forest.
「That smoke…an adventurer?」
As I looked up in the sky, I could see a plume of smoke rising up from the woods.
A gift from God!
I stood up like a bolt and began running!.
「『Bigggiiiiiihh!』」
「Another slime!?」
This time I ran directly toward the smoke.
Run, run, run.
And I finally entered into a clearing in the forest.
(If…if I can just get there.)
I moved my legs as quickly as I could directly toward my target.
「Help, help meeeee…huh?!」
The scene that I burst out into, was one that words simply couldn't describe.
The first thing I saw was a large hole with many burning buckets of fire.
They were all arranged around the hole, and they flickered as they crackled and released smoke.
What the fireilluminated were the many dead bodies.
Their faces were covered in anguish and terror as their bodies were filled with small pikes.
These bodies were hung upside down with their blood having covered them and the ground below.
The place reeked of blood as the many dead bodies remained as they were.
Almost like an unrealistic climax of someone's horrible fetish.
「Wha? What the…Huh?」
「…hey! Who were you planning to be saved by? Huh?」
「?!」
I heard my heart hit the bottom of my stomach with the sound of that low, echoing voice.
I strongly turned to see who it was, and it was a man with an emotionless smile having one sword extended.
「Remember, there's no one here left to save you.」
「W…waiiiitttt?!」
The sword was swung down and stuck through my chest.
☆
「gyaaaahhh, my head, guwaaaah, what the hell, I, you, adventurer? No, they said they drove you away, why? Where's Fegner? The contract with the imperial and emperor that lets me avoid taxes,…no no no, I ran from the imperial…gaahraaahhahhh?!」
Grond was screaming in front of me.
The [Eight-Eye See-Through Sword]stabbed through him brought back all of his memories, as they disappeared into the air.
「Ah, huff, pant」
Grond held onto his head while falling to his knees.
「…」
「Bastard…What, have you done to me…why am I like this?」
Grond stared at me while grinding his teeth so loudly that I could hear them.
「Answer me! Adventureeeeeeeer!」
His angry cry echoed unnaturally into the silent woods.
「Agh, uggggh…」
Grond's eyes looked up at me, and even in his confused look, it disappeared once he saw the hostility in my face.
「Welcome, welcome back, Groooond! I've wanted to see you, so, so, so, so long! Over and over and over and over I wanted to seeeee you!!」
I wanted to see him, to meet him.
Couldn't help it, couldn't help it.
「Ahah hah hah hah hah! Again and again and again and again and again I saw you in my dreams! I tried to hurry and hurry and hurry and hurry and hurry and see you again! And now I do, NOW I GET TO SEE YOU! AHAH HAH HAH HAH HAH!」
Kill you, Kill You, KILL YOU!
「Don't laugh at me, dammit, adventurerrrrr!!」
「How could I see you without laughing?! How long do you think I've waited for this?! I can't hold back anymore! I want to see you dance on my stage here! So let's dance, dance, dance dancedancedance!」
That's because, now,
「—in the depths of your despair, you will go crazy and die.」
Because I'll laugh at you with my best smile.