Chapter 430:
Why They’re Scared
“IT WAS THE GUILD MASTER who ordered me to go on the business trip to the capital. I was supposed to work as a bodyguard and dig up some classified info. When I went to deliver that info, Matorry was standing beside him—that was when he introduced her as his wife. But when I told him the intel was sensitive and his wife needed to go outside, he wouldn’t listen. She showed no signs of complying, either. I thought they were both clearly acting bonkers, so I went straight to the watch station after I left the guild master’s study.”
Yeah, you definitely shouldn’t give sensitive intelligence to someone not on the list—even if it’s the wife of somebody who is. It’s only natural that Nalgath and his party would think something was odd. But something doesn’t add up. Why didn’t Matorry leave? It would have only taken ten to twenty minutes to deliver the intelligence briefing. It wouldn’t be hard to leave for that short a time…unless she couldn’t leave for some reason? But if the mastermind knew Nalgath and his men were coming back, they would have tried to cover their tracks, right? Why would they act in such an obviously suspicious way?
“Did your business trip at the capital go as planned?” my father asked.
Juggy smiled sarcastically. “Well, it was supposed to take a year, but one thing led to another, and it ended after just three months.”
A year-long job got shortened to three months? Oh, then the mastermind couldn’t cover their tracks because Piarre got back earlier than he was supposed to!
“Okay, so that’s how you were able to notice the guild master was acting strange.”
To Matorry, it was the worst thing that could have happened, but what about the guild master? In any case, the mastermind sure is playing the long game. Matorry approached the guild master three whole years ago. The plot must have already been in motion by then. Why did they take so much time to get things off the ground? Was it to profit off Hataka? To take over the village? It looks like they could have succeeded with either plan, but once you bring a summoning circle into the equation, it’s only a matter of time before things start falling apart. That also goes for the person casting it. If you use a summoning circle too long, you eventually destroy yourself. Didn’t they know about the dangers of those things? I really don’t think that’s possible. They know all sorts of ways to use summoning circles, so they must be experts. That means they were well aware of the danger, yet they used a summoning circle anyway. Matorry needed to do it, even though it meant putting herself at greater risk.
I suddenly sensed a hand reaching for my face and squeezed my eyes shut.
“If the wind changes, you’ll stay like that forever,” my father teased, poking the deep crease on my frowning brow. I clamped a hand over my forehead to hide it and glared up at my father. “Way to ruin such a cute face.”
A little warning, please? Now I’m embarrassed. I turned slightly away from him and softened my brow. It’s okay. I don’t think I got a permanent wrinkle from that.
“They’ve come out of the cave.” Juggy stopped in his tracks and looked around. Nalgath and the others also scanned our surroundings, their faces stiff with apprehension.
“Oh! Are those sharmy?” At the top of the trees where I was looking, there were a few of the creatures I’d seen in the cave. I was able to make out four or five of them, but there was something different about them today.
“Yeah. It’s faint, but I do sense their aura.”
“Me, too.”
Arly’s and Piarre’s faces filled with relief as they looked at the sharmy. There was indeed an aura I’d never sensed before. Did it belong to the sharmy?
“Being able to read auras must be nice. I can’t do that,” my father murmured.
“You can’t read auras, Mr. Druid?” Nalgath looked at him in shock. My father smiled sheepishly and shook his head.
“Their faces look a bit different,” Juggy said, staring at the sharmy. And indeed, their faces were docile now, completely unlike the menacing looks they’d given us back in the cave. Had they gone back to normal when the summoning circle’s spell was broken?
“Is this what sharmy are supposed to be like?” my father asked.
Nalgath and his men shook their heads. “They’ve been friendly with Hataka’s people for many generations. They’ve never been this untrusting.” After a moment’s hesitation, Nalgath slowly reached up toward the sharmy. He wasn’t close enough to actually touch them, but they opened their mouths wide and hissed when he reached out to them.
“Wow… I feel gutted…” Nalgath hung his head a little as the sharmy hissed at him. I remembered how the villagers were also sad that they hadn’t seen the sharmy this spring. It went to show just how strong the ties were between Hataka’s people and the sharmy.
“We have to check their cave. You okay?” Juggy quietly asked Nalgath.
“I’ll be fine. Let’s go.”
We headed for the cave, keeping a cautious eye out for the sharmy as we went.
“Wow, a lot of them came outside,” my father remarked. Sure enough, I could see sharmy peeking out from all the trees. Quite a few of them must have come out of the cave.
“It’ll be much easier to search their cave now,” Piarre said, casting a happy glance at the sharmy. Even though they weren’t acting like their normal selves, he was just happy to see them again. The people of Hataka truly did love the sharmy.
“But don’t you think they’re a little too scared of us?” Juggy asked, perplexed.
“Maybe they know it was somebody from Hataka who cast the spell on them?” Piarre suggested.
“I dunno, but it makes me really sad,” Juggy said gloomily. If the sharmy did know somebody from the village had cursed them, they might not be able to rebuild their old relationship.
The cave came into view, so we stopped for a moment. There were countless sharmy in front of it.
“Let’s watch them for a bit before we go inside.”
Since there were sharmy in the trees, it would be pointless for us to try and hide, so we looked at the cave from where we stood. As I watched, Ciel rubbed its body against me. I looked down to see it was smiling and purring. Aha!
“Maybe Ciel is the reason why the sharmy are scared?”
Why hadn’t I thought of something so obvious? Ciel had been walking alongside us the whole time, so the sharmy would have gotten a good look at it.
“Oh!” The members of Cobalt all looked at Ciel and froze. They must not have thought of it, either.
“Ciel’s become so normal to us that we forgot it’s a universally feared high-level monster,” Arly said. “And from the way it growled menacingly at the sharmy yesterday, of course they’re terrified of it.”
I looked at the sharmy. Now that I knew they were scared, it was easy to see that it was Ciel they were wary of. It suddenly made me feel quite guilty.
“We should finish the job and get away from the cave as soon as possible,” Nalgath said.
“Good idea. Nalgath, is everything ready?” Druid asked.
“Yeah. What are you doing, Mr. Druid? Ivy, I want you to stand by outside. There’s no telling what’s in there.”
I nodded. “Got it. Be careful.”
“Okay, Juggy, you’re on guard.”
So they assigned Juggy to stand around with me… I hate that I can’t tell them I’ll be fine on my own. Maybe I should have waited back in the village after all…
Mrrrow?
“Is Ciel coming with you?” I asked.
Nalgath shook his head. “As far as we can tell, the sharmy are free from the spell, so I’d rather have it stand by outside with you, Ivy.”
Mrrrow.
“I’d like to join you in the cave. That okay?” my father asked Nalgath.
He nodded. “You know a lot more than we do, Mr. Druid, so we’d appreciate that.”
Nalgath took the lead as the party walked into the cave. The sharmy by the entrance stood up and kept a wary eye on us.
“Ciel, let’s just wait quietly right here, okay?” I stood as still as possible; I felt bad scaring the sharmy any more than we already had.
Mrrrow.
“By the way, where are your slimes? Did they stay behind today?” Juggy asked me curiously.
“They’re asleep in their bag. They’re tired after all their hard work yesterday.”
“Oh, okay. Sorry we overworked them.”
“Not at all, sir. They really enjoyed themselves.”
“Well, I’m glad they feel that way because I really do feel like we asked too much of them.”
From the way they were acting yesterday, they didn’t feel at all like they’d been working too hard. They were in very high spirits, after all.
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