Grimgal of Ashes and Illusion - Volume 12 - Chapter 4

4. If You’re Going to Travel, Do It Like a Gentleman

Setting all of that aside, Haruhiro and the party were heading more or less towards the east.

If they continued east, they knew they would hit the sea. If they followed the coast south from there, eventually they’d reach the free city of Vele. There were people who came and went between Vele and Alterna. If they joined up with a caravan, or took a job as bodyguards, they could return to Alterna.

It was a rough plan, but it was something. This was enemy land, far from the domain of the human race. There were no maps, so there was no way to plan things out precisely.

While procuring food and potable water, they headed east. They were on a mountain path, or rather a mountain where there were no paths to be found. It just wasn’t possible to go due east, and north was out of the question, so they headed on a more or less southwards course.

But the mountains were crazy.

This area would most like be considered part of the Kuaron Mountains. However, the mountains weren’t that high. It was like an uninterrupted line of thousand-meter class mountains and several-hundred-meter class mountains.

That was the tricky part. The ups and down were intense. When the slopes were steep, it could be hard to climb or descend quickly, or outright impossible to do so at all. Even after zigzagging along for more than ten kilometers, they might only have moved a few kilometers in horizontal distance. That sort of thing was a regular occurrence.

Even so, the land was finally starting to level out. And when they first saw the shining surface of the water stretching from east to south, as far as the eye could see, Kuzaku let out a whoop and jumped into the air, shouting, “That’s the sea, isn’t it?!”

Haruhiro understood how he felt. He was happy, too. He wasn’t about to start whooping, though.

Suddenly, he was fired up.

Still, haste would only make waste, so it was best not to pick up the pace. One of Haruhiro’s all too few virtues was his ability to maintain control of himself at times like this. There was no idiot here to tell him, You’re such a buzzkill! That’s what makes you no fun, you trash! So he’d hold in that desire, repress it, and move forward slowly but surely.

“Hey, hey!” Just ten meters up ahead, Yume was up on top of a small, rounded hill, waving both her arms. “Do you think we can stop to eat here? The wind’s blowin’ reeeal hard, and it feels purrrrfect!”

Dusk was approaching. Even if they hadn’t been rushing, Yume was pretty energetic considering they had been walking nonstop for about half a day.

“I’d think the food would be the same no matter where we ate it...” Setora seemed exasperated, but she briskly walked over and began preparing for meal time just in front of the hill. “You there, loyal dog. Start a fire.”

“’Kay.” Kuzaku responded immediately, but once he started setting up the fire, he paused.

“...Wait, loyal dog?” He tilted his head to the side. “At the very least, I don’t recall being your dog, Setora-san. Not me. Do something about the way you address me, ’kay?”

“I cannot, ’kay?”

“Don’t imitate me...”

“Then shut up, and do as you’re told. I am busy. Don’t interrupt me, loyal dog.”

“Ugh, it makes me want to just start barking...”

If you have to bark, then bark, my friend, Haruhiro called out to his loyal dog in his heart, then turned a subtle glance towards Merry.

Was something up, or was it a coincidence? Merry was looking Haruhiro’s way as well. Because of that, their eyes met.

Now, what to do?

If he were a traveling gentleman, he ought to say, Oh, why, hello! What a coincidence this is! Ha ha ha! However, Haruhiro was not a gentleman traveler. Or rather, what was a gentleman traveler?

Haruhiro and Merry were staring into one another’s eyes. However, ultimately, that was the only thing that was happening, and there was no special meaning behind it. If Merry turned her eyes away like nothing had happened, Haruhiro would have thought nothing of it. It was likely the same for Merry.

Probably, at least? Haruhiro wasn’t Merry, so he couldn’t say for certain. That was why, no matter what, he didn’t want her to think, Oh, am I being avoided, maybe? There was no way he would avoid her, now was there? Geez.

Merry might have been thinking the same way, and it was making it hard to be the first to look away. In case she was, Haruhiro would work up the courage to be first. No, but he didn’t want to create a misunderstanding.

Shihoru was slowly working her way up the hill. Haruhiro could see her out of the corner of his eye.

Hold on, hold on! Hey! Say something here! Shihoru! Come on. Like, “What are you doing?” or “What’s up?” or something. If you’d just say anything, give me a chance to respond, I could say, “Huh, what?” and get out of this stalemate.

Why were they being left alone? Could it be they were being shunned? Everyone was secretly conspiring against them? Haruhiro and Merry were being pushed out? Left out? No way. That couldn’t be it, right? Nuh uh. Not a chance.

“Noooo?” Yume let out a sound.

Nice one, Yume. I can play this off as it catching my attention, Haruhiro thought, and actually did that.

Yume cocked her head to the side, looking down at her feet. “Hurrrm? Just now, somethin’...”

“Eek!” Shihoru who was still mid-climb, let out a little scream.

Kuzaku jumped back. “Shihoru-san?! What’s wroooooooong?!”

“Wha...” Setora said, looking up at the hill.

Haruhiro looked, too. Was it... a hill? It might not have been. At the very least, it was no ordinary hill. The truly hill-like hill, the one everyone expects when they hear the word “hill,” doesn’t move, right?

“Meow, meow, meooow...” Yume was stumbling around on top of the hill. Or rather, was she trying to catch her balance so as not to fall down?

The grass-covered hill, which was maybe ten to fifteen meters across, and around ten meters high, was stirring.

“Eeeek...” Shihoru was clinging on to the bumpy slope, letting out a distressed wail. She was halfway up, so that put her at about five meters off the ground.

“Hey, jump down, mage!” Setora shouted.

At Setora’s feet, Kiichi with his gray fur standing on end was hissing and baring his fangs.

“I-It’s one thing to say that, but...” Shihoru burst out.

“Hurry it up! That hill is alive! Hunter, you get down while you still can, too!”

“Hungh!” Yume, always quick to act, immediately began racing down the hill.

Shihoru was looking down, hesitant.

“What do you mean, the hill’s alive?” Haruhiro shook his head to clear it. “No, now’s not the time. Shihoru, Setora’s right! Kuzaku, catch Shihoru!”

“Woof!” Kuzaku called.

“And now he’s barking...”

“It just happened, okay?! Shihoru-san! Come on, it’s going to be all right! I’ll catch you!”

Kuzaku got right beneath Shihoru and spread his arms wide.

The hill was alive. What did that mean? It wasn’t just stirring; it was changing its form, too. From the start, even if it was somewhat bumpy, it had been a rounded hill on the whole. But not now. Now it bulged out in some places, and in others, it pulled back in. In response to that, like a little landslide, the dirt and grass that was rooted in those spots came tumbling down loudly.

“Shihoru!” Merry pressed her.

Immediately afterwards, maybe finally having made up her mind, Shihoru took off from the slope. The place she had been standing a moment before caved in, so it was a close call.

Kuzaku caught Shihoru.

“Get back!” Haruhiro backed away himself as he gave the order. He hadn’t meant to pull back himself, but he did it despite himself.

The hill was alive. Was this what that meant? The hill was in the process of standing up.

Naturally, hills didn’t stand up. If it was a normal hill, no, even an abnormal hill, it really shouldn’t have been standing up. That meant it wasn’t a hill to begin with. It was a creature.

There it had been, bent over, likely for a very, very long time. Exposed to wind and rain, and covered in dirt and dust, eventually plants had taken root. In the end, it had been reduced to a hill-like state.

“It’s big,” Merry mumbled.

Yeah. I know, right?

It first knelt, then half rose, and was attempting to stand upright, but its back was hunched like an old person’s, and it couldn’t get its torso up that well. There were still copious amounts of dirt and grass clinging to it. In spots, it even looked to have become one with the grass and dirt. Had the grass put down roots into its skin, maybe?

But it was human. Well, humanoid. Its body was shaped like Haruhiro’s or anyone else in the party’s. There was a massive size difference, though. Because looking at it, even with its back hunched, it had to be over fifteen meters, maybe even twenty meters tall, right?

“I’ve heard of these,” Setora said. “It’s a forest giant.”

At some point, Setora had brought Kiichi and was standing at Haruhiro’s side. When Haruhiro looked at the side of her face, Setora sidestepped away, for some reason.

“They are a type of giant race, and I have heard that they can live for hundreds of years, sleeping like beasts in hibernation... I never thought they actually existed, though.”

“Ah, wah, wah, wah, wah!” Kuzaku was running this way, still carrying Shihoru.

Haruhiro’s eyes went wide. “Ah! Hold on, Ku—”

The forest giant reached out its arm, seeming to fall as it did.

Kuzaku. It was aiming for Kuzaku.

Huh? What, what, what? If it caught him, what would it do? Eat him, or something? Was it feeling a little peckish after its long sleep?

“Wahhhhhhhhhhhhh!” Kuzaku wailed as he pumped his legs for all they were worth.

Shihoru clung to Kuzaku, shrieking, “Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!”

Haruhiro wanted to save them. But his opponent was too large. He couldn’t stop a thing like that, no matter what he tried. Even so, he’d have to do something. That was because Kuzaku and Shihoru were his precious comrades, and Haruhiro was the leader.

But if he were to be fully honest, Haruhiro’s thinking was completely frozen, up at the point where he was thinking only, Isn’t this kind of impossible? At this point, Haruhiro was no more than a bystander.

“Delm, hel, en, balk, zel, arve!”

Chanting. It was a spell.

Not Shihoru. It was Merry.

Merry chanted a spell, and activated magic. It was the Blast Spell of Arve Magic. An explosion rose from the face of the forest giant. The forest giant stumbled. It looked like it might fall... no, it was actually falling. Its massive body tilted forward, and it kept going until it slammed into the ground.

Kuzaku and Shihoru were okay. It had been a pretty risky situation, but they’d somehow managed not to get snatched by the forest giant.

Haruhiro waved his arms. “Everyone, run!”

Setora and Kiichi took off. Yume looked like she was planning to take off in another direction temporarily, then catch up with the group later. Kuzaku was coming along with Shihoru in his arms.

“Merry?!” Haruhiro shouted.

When he looked over, Merry had a hand pressed to her forehead, her eyes shut, and was gritting her teeth. She looked to be in pain.

When he rushed over and put a hand on her shoulder, Merry replied, “Yeah. I’m fine,” but she didn’t look it one bit.

If it weren’t a situation like this, he’d want her to lie down and have a rest, or at least sit down and drink some water. Unfortunately, that wasn’t an option now. The forest giant wasn’t unharmed, but it was trying to get up.

Haruhiro took Merry by the hand. Her hand was cold. When he gripped it tight, she gripped back.

The two took off running in silence.