Chapter 29 Carriage

A ruined carriage sat abandoned in the bushes.

Its body had been built from some kind of reddish-brown wood, hard-grained and warm in color. A coat of clear lacquer still covered the surface, giving it an unusual sheen beneath the forest light.

Openwork circular windows had been carved into both sides of the carriage and now stood half-open.

Through them, beneath the sunlight filtering between the branches overhead, the group could faintly make out the empty interior.

The roof curved slightly like the ridge of a house.

Wooden eaves extended from either side, their surfaces carved with intricate patterns.

Unfortunately, some external force had damaged them so badly that the original designs were no longer recognizable.

“This is it!”

Hai’an stood some distance away in the clearing, excitement flickering across his face.

“This traditional style… simple, but refined. It’s exactly like the wooden token!”

He gripped the pitch-black token tightly.

For the first time since they entered the forest, it felt as though the truth might actually be within reach.

Xia Nan stood beside him without saying a word.

His expression remained calm.

Inside, his thoughts were anything but.

Xia Nan had never been much of a history enthusiast.

Most of the facts he had spent day after day memorizing from textbooks as a student had long since been beaten out of him by years of dull, exhausting work.

He could not look at a piece of craftsmanship and identify its approximate era from a few details of material and design.

Even so…

The moment he saw the carriage, he felt the same thing he had felt when looking at the wooden token.

Central Continent.

The style was unmistakable.

At least to him.

“Wait. Something’s wrong!”

While the others were still staring at the carriage and letting their imaginations run wild, Larry suddenly blurted out the obvious.

“How could there be a carriage in the Misty Forest? Look around! There are trees everywhere. How did it even get in here?”

Everyone snapped back to reality.

He was right.

The Misty Forest was filled with dangerous monsters.

The ground was almost completely covered in dense, stubborn bushes and thorny growth, and towering trees crowded every direction.

Even experienced adventuring parties usually had to pick their way through on foot, slowly and carefully.

Forget whether a carriage could physically make it through the terrain.

If some absurdly skilled driver really had managed to force one this deep into the forest, the noise alone would have attracted every monster within several hundred yards.

“And look…”

Hai’an’s excitement cooled as he began noticing the same problem.

He pointed toward the ground, brows drawing together.

“There aren’t any wheel tracks.”

He stared at the carriage.

“It’s almost like it dropped out of thin air.”

Wood had stayed close beside Hai’an ever since they arrived, silent as a shadow.

Now he spoke.

“Ordinary wood decays quickly under the corrosive effects of the mana in the Misty Forest.”

He studied the carriage.

“This isn’t enchanted material. There’s little dust on it, and there are still signs that it was used recently.”

His conclusion was simple.

“This carriage hasn’t been here long.”

Hai’an’s frown deepened.

“That makes even less sense. If it only arrived recently, how could there be no traces anywhere around it?”

The carriage was empty.

There was nowhere inside for a monster to hide.

They had also checked the surrounding bushes and tall grass and found nothing dangerous.

Only then did the group cautiously move closer.

The entire carriage looked as though an owlbear had smashed into it from the side.

It was badly damaged.

Even so, a few surviving details hinted at just how fine and luxurious it had once been.

Delicate openwork lanterns still hung beneath the wooden eaves.

Inside the windows were soft, smooth curtains embroidered with elegant, understated patterns.

“Ah!”

A sharp cry suddenly cut through the clearing.

It was stifled almost immediately.

Xia Nan was already wound tight from the constant pressure of traveling through the Misty Forest.

The sound nearly made his heart leap out of his chest.

He whipped his head around with a frown.

At the edge of the group, Doris had one hand pressed tightly over her mouth.

Her other hand pointed toward the darkness beneath the carriage shaft.

“Sc… scorpions!”

Larry immediately stepped in front of her.

Apparently, he intended to perform the classic heroic rescue.

Then he followed Doris’s finger with his eyes.

The flesh on both sides of his face trembled.

“Shrr… shrr…”

It sounded like countless grains of sand spilling across the ground.

That was the first thing Xia Nan heard.

A strange, unsettling hiss made from countless tiny, sharp noises layered together.

Then…

Something black began pouring out from beneath the carriage.

A stream.

No.

A tide.

Countless pitch-black scorpions, each about the size of a finger joint, came surging from the shadows.

“Shit!”

A chill shot from Xia Nan’s tailbone straight to the top of his skull.

He jumped backward on instinct and raised his decapitating longsword across his chest.

Hai’an reacted even faster.

Silver hair flashed as the half-elf took several quick steps backward and disappeared into the tall grass behind him.

As an archer whose main weapon was a bow, creating distance the instant a fight began was exactly what he should do.

Larry’s reaction, however, was more surprising.

His face had gone white.

His retreat was clumsy enough that he nearly tripped over a branch, stumbling several steps before regaining his balance.

Even then, he kept Doris behind him.

He did not abandon her and run.

In the blink of an eye, Wood was the only person still standing near the carriage.

Xia Nan stared at that solitary figure.

Then he gritted his teeth and stepped forward again.

Retreat had been pure instinct.

The body moved away from danger before the mind even caught up.

But Xia Nan might have been a newcomer, not an idiot.

A heartbeat later, he remembered his role in the party.

Close combat.

Front line.

So he went back.

He was not going to fall apart when it actually mattered.

The cold ridges of the sword hilt pressed into his palm.

Even so, his scalp tingled.

He had a fine-grade longsword from the smithy.

A healing potion with miraculous effects sat in his pack.

Expensive, durable leather armor covered his body.

His stamina was still good.

If twenty goblins surrounded him right now, Xia Nan was confident he could carve his way in and out of the group.

But these?

He stared at the carpet of black scorpions pouring across the ground.

What was he supposed to do, stab them one by one?

At that moment, Wood suddenly raised a hand.

Stay back.

Xia Nan stopped.

Wood reached into the pouch he carried close to his body and pulled out a small brown earthenware jar.

Then he hurled it.

Crash!

The jar shattered against the ground.

A thick, dull black liquid splashed across the dirt, mixed with clouds of murky powder.

A tiny spark followed.

Whoosh!

Heat slammed outward.

Orange-red firelight flared across Xia Nan’s eyes.

Flames erupted in an instant.

The entire swarm vanished beneath them.

So did the carriage.

The sudden blaze seemed to awaken some primal terror buried deep inside the insects.

The dense black tide immediately broke apart, scattering into countless smaller streams that fled into the surrounding bushes and grass.

Crack.

Shells burst beneath the heat.

A foul, scorched stink filled the air.

“Where did so many scorpions come from? They almost scared me to death!”

Larry’s face was still pale, and cold sweat covered his forehead.

Hai’an gradually emerged from the grass as well.

A wooden arrow was already nocked against his bowstring, and his expression had gone grave.

Xia Nan’s heart was still pounding.

He slowly let out a breath and lowered his sword.

Thank goodness there was at least one real professional in the party.

Wood even carried something that worked like a Molotov cocktail.

Without it, Xia Nan genuinely had no idea how they would have dealt with that many tiny insects.

He glanced at the last of the swarm disappearing into the bushes.

A thought immediately occurred to him.

[Does Rivervale Town sell throwable items like this?]

He should buy a few after he returned.

Something like that could be incredibly useful on future missions.

And if no one sold them…

Well.

Maybe Xia Nan could reproduce a rough version using the increasingly fuzzy memories from his previous life.

[A bottle, alcohol, something flammable for a wick… What else was there?]

He shook his head.

Now was not the time to wander down that path.

He looked back toward the flames.

After scattering the insects, the fire kept spreading through the grass.

It grew larger by the second.

The instincts and values Xia Nan had carried over from a modern civilized society made him deeply uncomfortable at the sight.

This was how wildfires started.

This was the kind of thing that could swallow an entire forest.

Before he really thought about it, he asked, “This fire… isn’t going to be a problem, right?”

It was just a passing question.

He did not expect anyone to answer.

Surprisingly, Wood did.

Ever since Xia Nan joined the party, the man had kept him at arm’s length.

Now, for once, his answer was serious and complete.

“The Misty Forest is saturated with mana. Ordinary flames almost never grow into large fires here.”

He looked toward the spreading blaze.

“It might look as though it’s getting bigger, but it’ll only burn the nearby brush and weeds. It probably won’t even reach a single tree before it goes out on its own.”

Apparently, Xia Nan stepping forward when the danger appeared had earned him at least a little respect.

A little.

They had only known each other for a few hours.

After answering, Wood did not continue the conversation.

Instead, he walked closer to the flames.

He bent down, pinched the end of a fleeing scorpion’s tail between two fingers, and lifted it from the ground.

The creature raised its pincers in warning.

Wood studied it.

Then he frowned.

“What is it, Wood? Did you notice something?”

The acrid burnt smell in the air was clearly bothering Hai’an.

He lowered his bow as he spoke.

“Young Master…”

Wood’s eyes remained on the scorpion.

“Something about this place really isn’t right.”

The Misty Forest was vast beyond measure.

Its mana-rich environment supported countless kinds of life.

Even the most experienced adventurer would never dare claim to recognize every monster living within it.

And that was before considering ordinary animals, which often developed numerous strange subspecies under unusual environmental conditions.

So the fact that Wood had never seen this kind of scorpion before did not bother him by itself.

What bothered him was everything else.

He stared at the black scorpion hanging from his fingers.

Its pincers remained raised.

Its body remained tense.

A warning posture.

And for reasons Wood could not fully explain, he suddenly felt as though their group had already been caught in some enormous invisible whirlpool.

They were sinking deeper into it with every step.

Wood suddenly turned his head.

Hai’an was watching him with concern.

For one brief, disorienting instant, that face overlapped with another figure from many years ago.

The person who had pulled Wood out of a slum filled with sewage and garbage.

The same familiar silver-gray eyes.

The same smooth, shining silver-white hair.

Wood opened his mouth.

Countless words passed through his mind.

In the end, only one dry sentence came out.

“We should avoid this area for now, Young Master.”

He released a breath.

“It’s time to make camp.”

…

…

Darkness came quickly in the forest.

Sometimes, it looked as though there was still plenty of daylight left.

Sunlight would continue filtering through the gaps in the canopy, and it seemed perfectly reasonable to keep walking a little longer.

Then you would take a few more steps.

And suddenly, night was there.

Wood had judged the timing almost perfectly.

By the time Xia Nan and the others had clumsily arranged their sleeping bags, gathered branches from the forest, stacked them together, and coaxed a campfire to life with flint, the bright sky had already faded into dusk.

Crackle.

The flames burned steadily.

Orange-red light flickered in Hai’an’s clear eyes.

He sat beside the fire, absently rubbing the pitch-black wooden token between his fingers.

His expression was distant.

Wood had already finished setting warning lines and traps around the camp.

When he noticed Hai’an’s mood, he hesitated.

Then he spoke.

“Young Master, you know it was the lady of the house who gave me a second life.”

Hai’an did not respond.

Wood continued carefully.

“Although the lady of the house… when you were still very young, I spent many years with the Wycliffe family.”

He paused.

“Forgive me for speaking plainly, but the piece of wood in your hand is not in the high elf style. The lady of the house, back then…”

“Shut up!”

Hai’an’s voice snapped across the fire.

His emotions flared so violently that the fingers gripping the wooden token turned white.

For a moment, the entire camp went still.

Then Hai’an seemed to realize what he had done.

His expression settled almost immediately.

“I’m sorry.”

His voice returned to its usual gentle calm.

But his gaze remained fixed on the flames.

Wood said nothing more.

He lowered his head.

Just as he always had, he sat quietly in the half-elf’s shadow.

Silence filled the camp.

Only the muted crackle of burning wood remained.

On the other side of the fire, Xia Nan continued polishing his longsword without looking up.

The ears that had subtly been listening relaxed again.

He had no interest in getting tangled up in someone else’s family affairs.

Still, they were traveling in the same party.

Hai’an and Wood were not deliberately hiding the conversation.

If Xia Nan happened to learn something in passing, that was hardly his fault.

And truthfully…

He was a little curious.

Larry was impulsive and easy to read.

Hai’an was not.

The half-elf was clearly more thoughtful, and judging by the way the others treated him, his background was probably much higher as well.

Yet he had entered the outer reaches of the Misty Forest with only one guard, even if that guard was a class holder, to search for an unknown target.

There had to be more to the story.

Xia Nan himself had only dared enter alone because he already knew where the Glowgarlic Vine grew.

Its location was practically at the outermost edge of the outer reaches.

The danger was minimal.

The round trip took only about a day and a half.

He had traveled the route before.

And the mission deadline had been tight.

Without all those factors, he would never have come in alone.

Since the conversation by the fire did not reveal anything else, Xia Nan stopped paying attention.

Dusk sank deeper around them.

Even the thin mist seemed to have grown lazy, drifting slowly through the trees.

Doris was apparently still badly shaken by the scorpions.

Larry sat near her, murmuring quiet words of comfort too softly for Xia Nan to make out.

Hai’an and Wood remained beside the campfire, surrounded by smoke and silence.

Xia Nan sat alone against a tree in the corner, eyes lowered, his iron-gray longsword resting across his arms.

After all the twists and turns of the day, it finally seemed as though things might end quietly.

Unfortunately…

For an adventurer who lived on the edge of a blade, peace had a bad habit of coming with a post-credits scene.

You always had to be ready for one more “surprise.”