CHAPTER 5
THE EMPIRE OF VOLAKIA
1
Subaru quietly inhaled, hearing an arrogant and overbearing laugh.
There was no way Subaru would fail to recognize the haughty man who had given him directions when he’d been separated from Rem back at the meadow, the same man who had given him that knife. Because of the face covering, it was hard to say for sure, but his voice and attitude were exactly as Subaru remembered them. And the fact that he knew Subaru’s name was also proof it was the same person.
“ ”
Subaru had been sleeping on the bare ground inside a wooden cage, and his entire body was battered and bruised, so apparently, he had managed to stay alive.
He had brought Todd and the other soldiers into the jungle, used his miasma to lure out a demon beast, and then used the opportunity when they were being attacked to escape…
“And then I…”
“From what I heard, you triggered a trap while wandering in the jungle. The villagers were making a fuss about a person getting caught in a trap set for a beast.”
“Trap… Village…?”
Subaru swiveled his aching head and looked outside the cage.
The cage he was enclosed in was far rougher in make than the metal cells he had seen in the army camp. It looked simple, or perhaps like it had been built in a rush.
And outside, in the distance, he could see a cluster of tall trees, and an open patch of ground that had been created by clearing the space between those trees—to Subaru, it felt almost like the village in the Sanctuary.
The Sanctuary was a village built deep in the Cremaldi Forest. However, unlike the Sanctuary, which had buildings like houses and a church despite being in a forest, this village could generously be described as a bunch of log houses. It was mostly a collection of primitive lean-tos.
Seeing that, the words came to Subaru’s lips.
“The Shudrak?”
“Oh—you know of them? Well, judging by your unsightly appearance, you have surely borne quite a number of burdens in a single day. Did you find the woman from whom you were separated?”
“…Yeah, thanks to you.”
As the masked man questioned him, Subaru let out a deep breath.
The man was acting composed, but given that he was also inside a cell, he was in the same position as Subaru—the odds of him being an important member of the village who just happened to like being inside the same cell as village prisoners was incredibly low.
Subaru had just been imprisoned in the imperial army camp, and now he was a prisoner here.
But that wasn’t all.
“…This is… My shoulder and back?”
Touching himself in both places, he could tell from the painfully tight feeling that something was staunching the flow of blood. And the pungent smell in his nose seemed medicinal, like an antiseptic, or something along those lines.
The man snorted.
“If you hadn’t received any care, you would have simply died on the spot. They were probably troubled about how best to deal with you, just as I was.”
“Where does your composure come from…?”
“If I had to say, from my spirit. I should ask you how long you intend to continue your shameful performances, Subaru Natsuki.”
“That’s…”
Subaru had been about to say “none of your business,” but then gritted his teeth at the pain from his wounds.
He had received the bare minimum amount of care required to keep him from dying—but not anything to make his wounds close faster or to deal with the pain. It was definitely inferior to the medical care he had received in the army’s camp.
Thinking back to the camp, though, Subaru realized he needed to get back to that camp as soon as possible.
“Crap… How long has it been since I was brought here?!”
“…Around two hours, I suppose. And that was already quite the kindness on my part. Had I felt no reservations, I would have awakened you soone—”
“Why didn’t you wake me up sooner?!”
The man’s eyes narrowed as Subaru’s trembling knee hit the ground.
From the man’s perspective, it was an absurd argument. Subaru had been carried in covered in wounds and on the verge of death. His having allowed Subaru two hours of sleep had been because he’d judged it a danger to Subaru’s life not to have him rest.
And in truth, everything hurt. In particular, the gash on his back, near his shoulder blade—the wound from the knife Todd had thrown in that last moment—really hurt.
Thinking back, Subaru had received that knife from the masked man, so running into the man again with that wound in his back was an odd twist of fate.
Either way, though…
“Rem’s still in the imperial army’s camp… I have to get back before the soldiers who ran into the demon beast in the jungle do…”
He was sure it wouldn’t be long before they would get out of the jungle and report back to camp.
Jamal and the others had prioritized dealing with the demon beast once it had broken through their lines, but Todd had prioritized killing Subaru. He’d most likely realized that Subaru had drawn the demon beast in and had attempted to execute Subaru immediately before he had a chance to summon a second one. Subaru couldn’t afford to make light of the man’s decisiveness and judgment.
And yet…
“I’m stuck here…!”
“…I see. Presumably, this ‘Rem’ is the woman you were searching for? After you left me, you apparently experienced quite a lot of adversity. There are imperial soldiers outside the jungle?”
“Yeah, that’s right! We were caught! I had to put on an act in order to escape…but I couldn’t bring Rem with me. So…”
“And that is the reason for your desperation? That makes sense. I thought your expression seemed like you were accustomed to imprisonment.”
“What are you talking about?! And aren’t you—”
—trapped here, too, like me?
Even if he owed the man, Subaru had still been about to shout at him because he did not have any composure to spare. However, realizing he was being rash, Subaru then stopped himself.
“ ”
While he was focused on his argument with the masked man, he felt another gaze cutting into him from the side.
Turning around, he saw two lights peering through the gaps in the cage. As the picture came into focus, he realized they were a pair of green eyes. And the owner of those eyes, seeing him turn around, blinked.
“Ah—he noticed.”
“Wha…?”
“Uu has to tell Mii.”
The eyes disappeared.
“Wait!” Subaru quickly tried to call them back, but he was not fast enough.
But by the time he’d grabbed onto the branches, they had left, running off without looking back.
“That was…”
“A Shudrak girl. A curious one, I imagine. When I was alone, she peered in several times as well. It was rather grating to listen to her tell me to take off my mask and show my face…”
“ ”
Apparently annoyed by the girl who’d been peeking at them, the man grumbled, crossing his arms.
Unfortunately, Subaru was not in a state of mind where he could respond to that sort of complaint. His attention had been stolen by the young girl who’d run away.
She was maybe around ten years old, with dark skin. She had white clothes wrapped around her body that covered little but were easy to move in, clothes that probably suited this sort of subtropical climate.
Her hair was in what looked like a bob cut, and the way the tips of her hair were a pinkish color was probably the result of dyeing it. The roots of her hair were black, which matched what Todd had mentioned about the Shudrak having black hair.
But it was not her appearance that shocked him, because it was not his first time seeing her.
“She’s…”
She was the girl who’d killed him.
She was the one who had hit him with the poison arrow that had sealed his fate.
When the jungle had been burned because of what he’d said, she had fled the area where the flames were spreading and glared at Subaru with eyes filled with hatred. That girl…
The dots connected in Subaru’s mind.
The reason she’d had so much hatred in her eyes was because she was getting revenge for her land and her comrades being put to the torch.
“What happened? You’ve calmed down, as if someone poured a bucket of water over you.”
“…Ah.”
Leaning his head against one of the branches, Subaru bit his lip.
The man was sitting where he had been from the start, observing Subaru’s emotional rollercoaster. Subaru looked away, feeling miserable beneath his gaze.
“You are an elusive man. Either way, though, spare me the shouting. There are enough annoyances here, even in silence. You will only waste your energy. And even if you don’t shout…”
“If I don’t shout…?”
“They will come to speak to you. Look.”
The man jerked his chin to the side. Subaru turned to look in the direction he’d indicated, and his eyes widened.
Gradually, flames began to light the darkness—the flames of torches. Several figures appeared and approached the jail cell.
Walking in the lead was a tall, muscular woman. The tips of her black hair were dyed red, she had white patterns painted over her dark skin, and there was a powerful sense of purpose in her green eyes.
There was a group of maybe ten others with her, and the girl from before was hiding behind her. They were all women.
“ ”
Subaru was overwhelmed by the oppressive mood.
The group had a wild air about them, unlike the Lugunica knights or the Volakian soldiers from earlier. There was a beauty to them, like a pack of wild beasts held together by instinct.
They gave the impression of a band that was built around a core philosophy of acting on instinct, rather than reason or logic. That was the feeling Subaru got as he watched them walk up. Then, stopping before the cage where he was being held, they—the Shudrak—looked at the two men inside it.
“So you’re awake. Tell us who you are. Both of you.”
Her demand lumped Subaru and the masked man together.
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