On the other hand, there are five men on the raft.
For the next three zanzas or so, they descended the river, which was becoming wider and wider, without being attacked by the great mouth of the Kes or the water leeches, as before. The golden chariot of Lure, the Sun God, tirelessly made its way through the mid-heaven, gradually approaching the mountains, and the scene around them remained so peaceful that it made one doubt the name of the Kesu, the River of Darkness.
On the right bank of the raft, which flows downstream, there is an unbroken line of dark-green frontier forests, and smoke suddenly rises from beyond them to announce the lives of the frontier settlers.
Long-tailed birds, ruby-red and cockatoo-colored, swoop down from the treetops and fly away with a piercing cry. A water snake twists its brown body and scurries away from the raft.
And to the left was a desolate expanse of no-man's-land of rock and desert nosferous, smeared with ash and white-brown. In many places, lichens clung to the ground in a faint grayish green, giving it a dreary hue, but the way the terrain had changed, as if it had been smeared across a mere Kesu River, left those who saw it at a loss. The people's perception of No Man's Land, where only monsters and barbarian tribes rampaged, was finally confirmed.
Beyond the desert, as far as the eye can see, there is a distant vision of a dark gray mountain range.
"The Asgarn Mountains, the roof of the world, separating the north from the frontier."
Without being asked, Istvan pointed to it and added a note.
"Quinsland, ruled by the Queen of Ice and Snow, who lives forever in the ice; the giant nation of Tarouan; the kingdom of the gods, Vanheim, ruled by the hero Baldur; and the northern tip of the world, Norn, is just over there."
No one says anything. The Red Mercenary continues to speak without any sign of displeasure.
"Still, I don't understand why Gora or the Grand Duchy of Mongol would be so obsessed with the No Man's Land of Nosferus. We used to argue about it in the mercenaries' quarters. We wondered what kind of a trick Yarn had played on us that the frontier region, divided in half by the infernal river Kes, which is inhabitable and rich in greenery, and the wilderness of Nosferus, the true frontier, should look so different.
If Yarn, with his omnipotent hand, had created a demon ward on the other side of the Kes River and a human world on this side, it would have made some sense. However, the reason that the Nosferus region had been a stronghold for the ambitions of the nations for a long time was that it was said to harbor poisonous miasma that prevented people from living there.
In stranger lore, there's this. That is to say, the only two races living in No Man's Land of Nosferus, the giant race Ragon and the dwarf race Shem, both of them are the ones that we hesitate to call human, but they were originally just ordinary humans, But as they lived in No Man's Land with strange demons, they gradually changed into what they are now. He told me that the miasma in No Man's Land has the power to turn all living things into monsters. That's why in No Man's Land and the outlying regions surrounding it live the Great Bitsu Gumaguchius of Kes, the Sandhills of Id, the Stepping Stone Flyers, the Giant Ant Digoku, and other horrible creatures that can only be called monsters themselves. I'm told they're inhabited by creatures of the Doll.
Hey, leopard head, aren't you also from around there by any chance?"
"Guin is not that kind of monster."
Remus snapped, and Linda glared at the shuffling mercenary. The leopard-headed warrior waved his sleek yellow-and-black head as if to say, "I don't understand," without anger.
"Come on, you've got to be able to remember at least one thing. I don't know if you're really as ignorant as the water snake of the Kesu River, or if there's something convenient about letting us think that."
"Red mercenary, you're an idiot."
Linda gets angry and interrupts. Istvan laughs and laughs,
"When you're angry, your eyes go from violet to almost twilight purple, like a starry sky. Why don't you keep your eyes on the water? If the big one attacks again, we'll have to kill it this time."
"Scumbag!"
Linda murmured in annoyance, then rushed back to the water. The evening was slowly approaching, and their raft had drifted past the lower reaches of the Alvon and was about to enter the territory of the castle of Twolead, at the southern end of the Mongol domain.
They ate on the raft a simple lunch of dried meat, dried fruit and vachaça fruit, which they had brought with them. Their clothes, which had been soaked earlier in the fight with the "big mouth," had become so dry after being exposed to the sun for two days on the raft that they had never been soaked before. Guin's strong, tireless hands held the pole firmly in their grasp, and kept them going.
"You're too quiet."
The Red Mercenary, who was apparently incapable of keeping his mouth shut, chewed his vachaça fruit and mumbled.
"What the hell, now?"
Linda replied irritably. Linda is constantly annoyed, exasperated and bewildered by Istvan, but strangely she seems to find something in this brazen, pushy and fearless Valakian that interests her.
"It's too quiet. How can the Kesu, the river of hell, miss us so easily? It's going to be more than just the Big Bits Gummacchius."
"Is that a hunch about the Demon Warrior?"
Linda asked teasingly. I've already heard the boast of the jolly mercenary.
"I don't care what you say, but... hey, Leopard head, you're not planning on rafting down the Kes River all night, are you?"
"Of course."
That was Guin's brief reply to his friend on the raft.
"Kes is a dark river . To be on the water after sundown, when the demons are in their element, is like committing suicide. Shortly before sunset, we pull the raft ashore, build a fire that doesn't draw too much attention, and spend the night alternating between watchers. At sunrise, we set out for the river again."
"I'd like that."
Remus shouted at her. Linda didn't shout, but secretly she was deeply satisfied, thinking how much better, more reliable and stronger a warrior our Guin was than that "demon warrior". Istvan had never even made an effort to take away Guin's command of the little party, but there was something about his lively black eyes that always seemed to secretly smile at his opponents that annoyed the Paro twins.
"I'm thinking the same thing."
Istvan didn't even seem to notice the twins' animosity,
"In any case, things will get better once we get past the dukedom of Mongol. Beyond Tureed, up to the free trade city of Paro, it's frontier land."
"It would be foolhardy to spend the night on the Nosferus side of the bank. So, for tonight and tomorrow night, we must take some risks and camp on the Mongol side of the bank," said Guin.
"Indeed."
Istvan said, looking at Guin with a sceptical look on his face. In fact, during this journey, Guin had already noticed that the Red Mercenary's eyes had been roving around him quite often. His curiosity about the leopard's head was a bit too much, but he didn't think that there was anything else that could have attracted Istvan's attention so much.
Guin raised her eyes and met his impassive gaze head on. There was the Leopard-headed, yellow, glittering eyes, and the black, glittering eyes, which seemed to have an ironic look about them.
But it was Istvan of Valacia who turned away. He made a deliberate gesture of looking at the cliffs in the direction of Mongol territory.
Suddenly, however, his face tightened.
"Hey, Guin."
His voice suddenly took on an urgent tone. Guin was at the controls of the pole, trying to turn the raft around and bring it closer to the shore, as the water was turning red with the color of the setting sun.
"Wait a minute! Someone's coming!"
"Oh, my God, that's ridiculous."
Linda grabbed Remus by the arm and held him back. Istvan looked to the side of the forest where the dusk was falling, but he was suddenly in a panic,
"No, wait a minute, wait a minute to bring the raft ashore. I'll see what's going on-- someone's coming out of the woods. There's more than a few."
"Gora soldiers!"
Linda's voice was stern. Istvan narrowed his eyes and looked at her,
"So if we're not just a bunch of settlers from around here, then we still have the blessings of Yarn... wait! The goddess Ilana rides the white horse of the wind!"
"A platoon, at least that's what it looks like."
Calm down, Guin points out.
"That's weird-- it's not the Black Knights, that armor is white!"
The Red Mercenary leaned forward against the railing, his neat face scrunched up. The others could now clearly see the figure of the group that had appeared as if it had suddenly appeared from the shadows of the small dark forest on the other side of the river.
Despite the urgency of the situation, it was a scene of strangely dreamlike beauty that met their eyes: out of the darkness beneath the trees of the forest, one by one, like wandering souls in a white daze, they emerged onto the shore, every one of them a white horseman. every white horse.
Their long white cloaks are fluttering, and the simple headgear on their heads hangs down freely. The horses, too, are all pure white, and all wear the same white harness.
"It's Gora's gear."
Guin pointed out.
"But-- that's the White Guard, that's ridiculous."
Istvan is still unconvinced.
"Why? The Black, White, Blue, Red, Yellow, and Five Great Knights of Mongol rang throughout the Middle Plains..."
"Boring stuff."
The mercenary roughly interrupted Linda's words.
"Don't meddle in things you don't know, little girl. Castle Staphorus is guarded by the Third Blackguard under Count Vernon. The castle of Alvon is guarded by the 5th Red Guards under Count Rickard, the Black and the Red guarding the frontier."
"What about white?"
"The White are the Grand Duke's bannermen who guard the main city of Torus. The captain of the White Knights is Her Highness Amneris, daughter of Grand Duke Vlad and General of the Right Sector. There is no way the White Knights would show up here, even with a platoon."
"But it's showing."
Guin said. Istvan replied with an irritated gesture.
But they had no time to dwell on the matter any longer. For they were white all over, as if they had come out of the ice and snow of Asgard, and as if to break the last hope of Guin and the others that whatever they were looking for might not be this raft, they drew near the water's edge, and the great white knight who stood at the head of them brought his hand to his mouth in the shape of a trumpet The large white knight at the head of the group brought his hand to his mouth in the shape of a trumpet and called out.
"Hey-- hey there, raft!"
Guin glances quickly at Istvan. Istvan gingerly reaches for the sword at his hip. Guin shakes his head. I'm dealing with a platoon, and it hasn't been decided yet that it intends to harm us.
"What about..."
The mercenary said in a cat-like throaty voice.
"The sun will be up soon."
"See how it comes out."
That was Guin's answer. On the shore, the white knight may have thought he was unheard, but he spoke louder and gestured with his hands,
"Hey, rafters. We're from Alvon Castle on the Mongol frontier. Tell us your name, where you're going, bring the raft to shore and answer our questions."
I invite them to come shouting.
Istvan clicked his tongue.
"You can tell me and the twins what to do, but the Leopard head and the suni-- hey, Guin, I think this guy's gonna have to make a run for it."
"No."
Guin says slowly.
"Look."
The crew of the raft looked on and gave a low groan of despair.
The white knight's party had no intention of letting the raft escape, no matter what. The whole platoon of thirty men, fanning out behind the captain, raised their crossbows and filled them with stone bullets, all of which were aimed at the raft.
"Why are you questioning us? We're just tourists. What have we done?"
Istvan raved angrily. The white-robed captain raised his whip again,
"No questions asked. I have firm orders to escort the entire raft to Castle Arvon. Bring the raft to shore or I will shoot."
"It's messed up!"
Istvan ranted.
"Guin, get out of here. Stay on the raft, you brats. The crossbow won't hit you after dark."
"Hold on tight."
Guin said without changing his voice and pushed his pole hard against the river bed to increase the speed of the raft. On the shore they were shouting for him to come back. With all his might he pushed off the rocks at the bottom of the river and the recoil sent the raft swooping up into the waves.
"Whoa!"
Istvan screamed.
"It's the Great Bitsu Gumaguchius!"
Suni screamed.
A horrible white mass of water bubbles up on the surface of the water and rushes towards the raft at a tremendous speed!
Between the cries of warning from the shore and the screams of the children on the raft, a monster of nightmares emerged from the foam.
And how big it is!
"No! No! We're losing the raft!"
The mercenary, who brandished his sword and was about to cut in half its huge, vicious mouth, screamed, fell to his knees, and clung to the raft, which was slanting in the spray of water when it was hit by the big mouth.
A huge, mouth-only monster, incomparably larger than the previous one, spits out an astonishing amount of water from its mouth and dares a second time to hit you, trying to throw the tasty bait off the raft.
Each time, the five, relying only on the railing they clung to, were swung around with tremendous force, like insects on a leaf. There was no way they could fight back; on the contrary, it was all they could do to keep their hands from slipping.
On the shore, a great commotion was taking place. The Gora soldiers, under the command of their captain, fired their crossbows at the monster in the water in an effort to save the precious prisoners who had to be brought back alive. However, because of the rampage of the "big mouth" and out of concern for the humans, they could only aim at the surrounding area to intimidate them at best.
Even the leopard-headed warrior and the demon warrior Istvan were helpless on the wave-tossed raft. Not only that, but the raft would capsize soon if it continued like this. The last thing he wants is to fall into the water and become living bait for the blind, insatiable appetite of the Big Mouth.
"Yes!"
The Leopard instantly realized it. He threw down the pole of the raft, and on the raft, which was shaking and swaying under the impact of the [big mouth] coming up from below, he grasped the railing firmly and slowly approached the edge.
He grabbed the railing with one hand and pulled out the dagger at his waist with the other. In the water, a dagger is easier to handle than a large flat sword. He quickly puts it in his mouth and throws away the pouch on his waist. The leopard's yellow eyes blazed with the determination and will of a wild beast, and he was about to let go of his numb hand when only Linda noticed and changed her color.
"Oh, my God! Guin, what are you doing?"
He screams and tries hard to crawl towards you on the swaying raft.
"No, don't! You're gonna get us killed!"
"Keep your hands to yourself, you idiot."
Guin, who had taken the sword from his mouth, shouted at him and took it back in his mouth.
Just as I was about to dive headlong into the raging, hellishly boiling water of the Big Mouth!
"Wait, Guin, look at that!"
Linda screamed.
"That's weird, that's a big mouth!"
The sacrifices saw-- and they saw!
The big mouth is in a panic!
Suddenly, the clear river water turned into a life-like jelly around the "big mouth. No - that's not it.
On top of the huge, rampaging mouth, a hideous monster swam up to it - assuming it could be called a swimmer - and wrapped itself around the "big mouth".
"It's a ringworm!"
Suddenly a voice of hope rang out in Istvan's ears.
The Ringworm of the River Kes is, as its name suggests, a hideous, primitive creature with a translucent, stubby, gelatinous body covered with millions of vaguely whitish tentacles. The jelly-like creature, which is more than five meters long at its largest, swims in the water with its short, rustling tentacles, and when it sees something moving, it comes close to it and first envelops it in its translucent jelly, no matter what it is.
In the end, no amount of struggling or flailing can shake off the Ringworm. Its millions of tentacles will tightly wrap around its prey, crushing and digesting it softly and stubbornly.
The king of the Kesu River was not even a giant "big mouth".
The [Oguchi] had begun to rampage with such ferocity that it seemed as if its attacks on the raft up to now had been nothing more than a flirtation, a joke. As the sun was setting, the surface of the water, which was illuminated in red and seemed to be a blood-colored river, was obscured by the splashing water of the Oguchi's desperate struggle.
But no matter how hard it struggled, the Ringworm could not be dislodged from its gelatinous, shaking body. The "big mouth" had turned from a hunter into something to be hunted. Driven by the blind will to live of a primordial life-form, its fangs, which had grown in profusion, violently tore through the jelly-like substance. Even so, the ringworm's body neither felt pain nor bled, but only stubbornly tried to crush the "big mouth".
"Not yet! We've got to get out of here while we still can!"
The mercenary ranted.
"No! I've lost my neck!"
Guin's cry of despair.
The screams of Linda and the others echoed over the Kes River as the setting sun cast its last rays.
The fierce battle at close range between the "big mouth" and the ringworm finally caused the raft, which had lost its pole, to overturn in the last big wave.
People's numb hands finally fell away from the railing. Suni's high-pitched scream, Linda's scream.
"You're okay!"
Once the five men were scattered on the surface of the water in pieces, they were submerged in the water, but Istvan was the first to stick out his head and spit out the water.
He was born in Valachia, a city of the sea, and was an expert swimmer. He spat out a mouthful of water and looked to the shore on the side of Mongol, where he saw the White Knights of Gora scurrying about, and the two monsters of the Kes fighting each other between him and the shore, and when he saw that the opposite shore was much nearer, he took the initiative and swam to the shore of Nosferus. He swims to the shore of Nosferus.
Finding Linda floating on the water, he put his hand around her neck and swam with her in his arms. It was fortunate that, when the raft turned over, she was lifted high into the air and blown no more than fifteen meters to the shore on the Nosferus side. Immediately, without any further trouble from the horrible creature, he crawled like a wet rat to the rocks on the shore and pulled up the unconscious little queen of Paro.
At the same moment Guin's leopard's head appeared in the waves, and he was about to swim towards them with the same decision. Before he could crawl up to the rocks, a strong hand reached out and threw Suni's small body up onto the rocks, and then he went back and helped Prince Remus to crawl up again, and then, with Istvan's help, he crawled nimbly up onto the rocks. He was on the verge of disaster. For the fearsome living gelatin, which had crushed and devoured the giant mouth without the least resistance from its ferocious fangs, was about to come after the Leopard man with its tentacles buzzing.
For a while there was nothing to speak of on the rock. Breathing hard, they slumped down on the flat rock, soaking wet.
The sun had already set and the white knights on the other side of the river were but vague shadows. And so they rode up to the shore of Nosferus.