Grimgal of Ashes and Illusion - Volume 12 - Chapter 10

10. Cold Wind

North of Roronea, it quickly turned into dense forest. That said, for the first thirty to forty meters, there was an area where the trees had been cut down, leaving a grassy plain. The grass had grown thick there before, but now it was thick with stalls and shops, all of which seemed to be open for business around the clock.

Haruhiro and the group bought a change of clothes at this emergency market north of Roronea. There wasn’t a branch of the Yorozu Deposit Company, so they had little in the way of money. The selection of goods was also very “tropical,” you might say. There were a lot of very showy outfits, and it was a little hard to choose, but the party managed somehow.

The dragons were angry. Someone had done something to anger them. No matter what anyone had done before, the dragons had never shown themselves outside of flying between their nest and fishing grounds.

If someone were going to do anything to the dragons, they would have to sneak into their nests. If they were going to approach the nests, they would have to pass through the dense forest.

The forest was home to the runarukas. The runarukas might know something.

With the runaruka pirate Tsiha leading the way, Haruhiro and the group entered the forest.

From what Tsiha told them, or rather Yume’s feeling translation of it, the runarukas weren’t especially secretive, but they were reserved. Even if the party called out to them, they wouldn’t show themselves. However, if the group went to them and asked politely, there were probably some runarukas who would hear them out.

In addition, the runarukas generally woke up in the afternoon and were up all night. If the party wanted to meet them, it would actually be better to look by night.

Tsiha said it could lead the party to the village where its family lived.

Incidentally, Section Head Jimmy was elsewhere, investigating if there were any other rumors about the dragons.

Why were the dragons mad? Haruhiro had no clue, but they weren’t rampaging around blindly. But if this was revenge, it was a little weak. Intimidation then, maybe? Maybe they were showing off their incomparable power, threatening the people of Roronea over something. Didn’t it look like that?

In truth, one idea had popped into his head.

Eggs, or perhaps dragonets.

Had someone had snuck into the dragons’ nest and made off with their eggs or children?

He wasn’t familiar with dragon ecology or their abilities, so this was only his imagination, but maybe they had followed their eggs’ or children’s scent, and discovered they were being hidden in Roronea. Then, because they couldn’t speak to demand their children back, they were showing it through their actions.

He didn’t know how large dragonets were, but given how large grown dragons were, they couldn’t be small. They would probably cry or struggle, too, so eggs seemed the more likely possibility. Or perhaps the dragonets were already dead, and the parents believed they were still alive, or something.

However, was there really enough value in them to justify the risk of stealing a dragon’s egg or a dragonet?

He’d asked Jimmy, and gotten the response, “I can’t say there isn’t.”

If they were the genuine artifact, there were any number of people who would want an egg or living dragonet, or even a dragonet’s dead body.

Roronea was a town of pirates, but merchants came to trade with them, too. On those merchant or pirate ships, there were sometimes people of uncertain origins and objectives. Treasure hunters, you might call them. To give an example, explorers like Lala and Nono might do something like enter a forbidden zone like the dragon’s nest, and carry off a dragon egg or dragonet. It wasn’t impossible.

If something like that had, hypothetically, happened, it wouldn’t be strange for a couple of people to have seen or heard something. That the dragons had only attacked the port once was interesting. This was, again, only his imagination, but at that time, the culprits might have been at the No. 2 Pier. That, or aboard one of the ships stopped there. So perhaps the culprit had made a narrow escape, and was now hiding in town. Thus, the dragons had been attacking Roronea ever since, trying to threaten the culprit into returning the egg or dragonet, or else.

There was no proof, so, as has been said repeatedly, this was all strictly Haruhiro’s imagination. But someone had done something bad to the dragons. That someone was in Roronea. Or had been in Roronea, at least. Haruhiro was certain of that much.

If that person were clever, they might not have left any traces. Still, even if Haruhiro couldn’t nab that person by the tail, there might be a single hair from that tail lying somewhere.

The forest was a scary place at night, but Haruhiro’s party had experience with Darunggar and Thousand Valley, and they had Tsiha as a guide. They heard the cries of beasts or sensed their presence on a number of occasions, but nothing really happened as they walked for maybe two hours.

“Is it going to be a while yet?” Kuzaku asked.

Yume asked Tsiha, “Time? Take? Still?”

She was just breaking it into single words, wasn’t she?

“Lilmore,” Tsiha answered.

Soon they saw what looked to be a fire up ahead. A torch or something like that, most likely. When they approached it, turned out to be a bonfire, and there was one runaruka standing next to it.

Tsiha greeted the other in the language of the runarukas, and the runaruka responded.

“Come,” Tsiha said. “This way.”

Tsiha pointed past the fire and led Haruhiro and the group on. The runaruka by the fire wore clothes like Tsiha, carried a bow and arrows over its shoulder, and had a hatchet at its waist. It didn’t take its eyes off Haruhiro and the party until they had passed, but there was no particular hostility.

Still, it was strange. What was strange exactly? Haruhiro couldn’t put it into words, but something bugged him.

“Tsiha,” he called.

“Nngh?” Tsiha replied immediately.

“Do you come back to the runaruka village often?”

“No.”

“Damn.”

Haruhiro cursed despite himself, then moved fast. He drew his dagger, grappled Tsiha, and pressed it to the runaruka’s throat.

“Haru-kun?!” Yume cried.

Kuzaku looked startled. “Whuh...”

“Be on guard!” Haruhiro shouted. “Don’t move,” he warned the struggling Tsiha. “You understand, right? What I’m saying. You’ve understood all along. You’re trying to set us up, aren’t you?”

Tsiha stopped resisting, but didn’t respond.

Someone was approaching. The runaruka who had been by the fire before. It had an arrow nocked and drawn.

Setora tried to have Kiichi move quietly towards the darkness, and the runaruka loosed its arrow.

“Kih!” Kiichi cried and jumped back. He dodged the arrow by a hair’s breadth, but it was a close call.

The runaruka was readying its next arrow. That runaruka was a pretty good shot.

“We screwed up,” Setora muttered.

Indeed. They hadn’t meant to, but they’d let their guards down.

“There’s more...” was all Merry said.

Shihoru readied herself, letting out a relaxed breath.

To the front, right, and left, there were now sounds. They were deliberately choosing not to conceal their footsteps. We’re here, we’re here, they were telling the party.

When Kuzaku tried to draw his large katana, the runaruka with the bow ready shouted, “Ianna!” in a frightening voice.

“Sword, no draw,” Tsiha said in a low voice. “Shoot arrow. Poison. Die fast.”

“Kuzaku.” Haruhiro shook his head.

Kuzaku removed his hand from the hilt of his large katana.

“Are you going to kill us?” Haruhiro asked.

“Tsiha not decide.”

“Who decides?”

“Papa.”

“Your father?”

“Tsiha’s papa. Leader of Kamushika.”

“Some sort of tribal leader?” Haruhiro mused. “Then you’re the next in line to lead your tribe?”

“Have older brother.”

It turned out the leader of the runarukas who had encircled the party and caught them in this trap was that older brother.

A runarauka that looked somewhat like Tsiha, but taller, and with a sturdier build, came forward, saying something in their language.

According to Tsiha’s translation, if they kept quiet and didn’t resist, they wouldn’t be killed just yet. Furthermore, his brother was leading more than ten runarukas, and all of them were archers with their bows aimed at the party.

Haruhiro had no reason to doubt Tsiha’s words about the arrows being coated with deadly poison. For now, it looked like they would have to do as they were told.

Their hands were bound tightly behind their backs with rope, and they were led off.

Kiichi initially bared his fangs at the approaching runarukas to intimidate them, but when Setora said, “Stop, Kiichi,” he went quiet and was bound. The gray nyaa was carried by the runarukas like luggage.

Along the way, Setora mumbled things like, “They got us. I don’t know how it turned out like this...”

Then she tripped over something and pushed Haruhiro lightly.

“Ah!” she cried.

“Ianna!” one runaruka warned them.

“Sorry,” Setora apologized meekly, moving away from Haruhiro.

In probably about half an hour, they came to a place where there were the lights of many bonfires, likely a village. How many of these elevated houses, built in the treetops, were there? It was kind of hard to tell. Even during the day, they’d be hidden by the trees, so it would be hard to work out. Still, this didn’t look like it was a small village, by any means.

Many runarukas were waiting for Haruhiro and the party. Not just tens. Hundreds. There were two, three hundred of them. Looking at the size of them, it wasn’t just adults. There were children mixed in, too. The clothes they wore likely came from Roronea. From the look of things, they had adjusted them to suit their bodies.

Every runaruka had a bow and arrows suited to its size slung over its shoulder. In addition, many of them carried hatchets, knives, or curved swords.

They all had fox faces, and it was pretty hard to determine their age just from size, but it seemed like many the amount of hair they had increased with age. The small runarukas had little hair, while the ones that looked older were awfully furry.

Haruhiro and the party were made to sit in front of a large bonfire lit in the middle of the plaza.

Tsiha and the solidly built runaruka that was apparently Tsiha’s brother were talking about something. The other runarukas were scrutinizing the group from a distance.

Very few runarukas went to Roronea, meaning the rest had little contact with the outside world, so maybe humans were an unusual sight to them.

“Do you think Tsiha was trickin’ Yume and everyone all along?” Yume hung her head, clearly depressed.

“I don’t think they were out to deceive us in particular.” Even with her hands bound tight behind her, Setora was calm, sitting in a kneeling position, with her back straight. Kiichi, who was beside her, was imitating Setora’s posture, which was kind of funny. “They may have infiltrated the K&K Pirate Company for some purpose, and pretending not to understand the human language must have been more convenient for them.”

“Yume, she spent so much time talkin’ with Tsiha, and she never even noticed...”

“Nah,” Kuzaku said with a bitter laugh. “That’s not just on you, Yume-san. None of us noticed, okay? I mean, even listening to you interpret, I never thought, ‘Huh, that’s suspicious,’ or anything like that.”

“Nuuuugh,” Yume moaned. “Yume’s a real dummy...”

Suddenly, making their way through the wall of runarukas, an especially fluffy runaruka appeared, accompanied by a big one.

When the two stopped in front of Haruhiro, the whole area went quiet.

The fluffy runaruka spoke. The big runaruka interpreted.

“Humans enter forest. Runarukas not allow. You are bad humans.”

The big runaruka was slightly more fluent than Tsiha, which was a surprise.

Still, this runaruka was huge. He was taller than Kuzaku. He only wore a sleeveless vest on his upper half, but his chest had such girth that it looked like it was ready to burst. His neck, shoulders, and arms were thick, and his body was on another level from the other runarukas. He had the same fox face, but was he really a member of the same race?

“We’re not bad humans,” Haruhiro began, looking from the fluffy runaruka to the big runaruka. “Do you mind if I explain?”

Big translated the question, and Fluffy nodded.

“Speak,” Big urged him.

Haruhiro took a breath. “I’m sure you runarukas are aware the dragons are attacking Roronea. We suspect that’s because someone did something to anger them. We’re looking for whoever it was. We want to figure out what it was they did. My thinking is that that person must have entered the dragon’s nest and stolen something.”

Big whispered in Fluffy’s ear, telling him Haruhiro’s words.

Tsiha had been told them that if you say something frightening, the gewguw will come and make you sick. The runarukas likely believed that speaking about anything involving the dragons would bring in the gewguw. That was why Big was keeping his voice down so the other runarukas couldn’t hear.

Fluffy was whispering something back to Big. Big nodded, then glared at Haruhiro.

“You are bad humans. Your words call cold wind.”

One of the things about the gewguw was that, when it came, you could tell immediately because a cold wind would blow.

Maybe just talking about a taboo was enough to make Haruhiro a bad human in the eyes of the runarukas. Maybe, just maybe, was he going to get killed...?

No, the situation wasn’t that dire. This wasn’t a crisis he couldn’t get out of.

Or so he thought. It was just instinct, really.

“We’re not the bad humans,” he told them. “They’re elsewhere. Still hiding in Roronea. They did the bad thing. Is it okay to let them go?”

“That is your problem. Nothing to do with runarukas.”

“We just want you to help a little.”

“Runarukas will not get involved.”

“At this rate, the pirates will abandon Roronea. If Roronea disappears, that’ll be a problem for you people, too.”

“Long ago, there was no Roronea,” Big said. “Not a problem for runarukas.”

Big was no longer bothering to interpret everything for Fluffy. If Fluffy was something like the tribal chief, Big might be his successor. That, or Big was the chief, in other words Tsiha’s papa, and Fluffy was the elder, or the former chief who’d moved into an advisor-like position.

Whatever the case, it was hard to tell how hard to press. If Haruhiro angered Big, it was possible he would be executed on the spot. It might be better not to be too aggressive, and to beg for his life instead.

“Papa.” Tsiha stepped forward, saying something to Fluffy in the language of the runarukas.

It looked like Fluffy was Tsiha’s father, after all.

“Tsiha!” Big scolded Tsiha.

Tsiha argued back with something, then kept talking to Fluffy.

It seemed Tsiha was arguing on their behalf. Haruhiro wondered what Tsiha was trying to do, after leading them into this trap and all, but if Tsiha was going to take their side, that helped.

Go for it, Tsiha.

If talks broke down, Haruhiro and his group might, at worst, have to resort to the use of force. If that happened, neither side would get off unharmed. There were children here, so he would prefer to avoid that.

Tsiha was still arguing passionately.

Haruhiro surveyed the surrounding area. If it came to it, what would he do?

The truth was, Haruhiro had a small, razor-like blade hidden, and he could cut his ropes at any time. Before reaching this village, Setora had deliberately bumped into him and passed it to him. She likely had one of her own, too. If Haruhiro and Setora felt like it, they could free themselves from their bonds immediately.

The runarukas had bound the party’s hands, but they hadn’t bothered to disarm them. It was hard to call them cautious.

The poison arrows warranted caution, but if the party quickly jumped into the crowd, the runarukas wouldn’t be able to shoot them for fear of hitting the wrong target. There was the option of taking Chief Fluffy hostage, too. That might be the more practical solution.

If he was going to do it, it had to be by surprise, so he had to act before there was no other choice.

If Haruhiro moved, his comrades would surely react. He had no worry about that.

Tsiha was pointing at them and saying something in a violent tone.

Is it time?

Not yet?

If he screwed up, things would get really bad. That was true, but if he was overly conscious of failure, his body would tense up, and it would be difficult to exert his best efforts. He had to stop caring, to some degree. No matter what happened, he’d deal with it when it came up.

“Tuwanra, shitte!” Tsiha shouted, and the crown of runaruka onlookers roared, which worried Haruhiro a little.

“Tuwanra! Tuwanra! Tuwanra! Tuwanra!” The crowd stomped their feet and chanted that word.

They were really excited. Not good. In this situation, it was going to be hard to move.

Suddenly, the big runaruka thumped his thick chest. “Tuwanra! Clear the cold wind! I am Mwadan, first son of Papa Dutt, chief of the Kamushika! You humans, duel me, one-on-one!”

Haruhiro blinked twice. “...Huh? Duel? What?”

“Well, it’s gotta be me, I guess.” Kuzaku stood up.

The runarukas roared even louder.

“Tuwanra!”

“Tuwanra!”

“Tuwanra!”

“Tuwanra!”

“Tuwanra!”

“No, no, no.” Haruhiro was half-dazed. “Why?” he mumbled.

“Huh?” Kuzaku turned back, looking down at Haruhiro. He had a mystified look on his face. “Can’t I? The enemy’s big, so I figured it’d be me.”

“That’s not really the problem here.”

The runarukas were all fired up, and Mwadan the big runaruka was casting off his vest, clearly ready to go, and Kuzaku had a slight air of, I’ll take you! Bring it on! around him, too. It looked they were going to be having a one-on-one duel.

Seriously, why?