Chapter 333: Night Watch Conversation and the Red Lights (1)

[A/N: My previous writing style on this one was becoming very lazy and bad, so I’m changing the writing style and giving it more work now. Hope you guys will like this writing style!]

I endured the painful stares and glared at Giacomo. He broke a branch and tossed it into the fire. He wasn’t looking at me, but he should have known I was glaring. He acted as if nothing was wrong.

"No. It ended because Lady Mel used powerful magic. It was absolutely not because this man ended it."

Floche immediately objected. Niagara chimed in with agreement. The way she spoke made it clear how much she disliked me. Not that this was new.

"You’re still disliked, I see."

Giacomo whispered to me. I gave a wry smile and shrugged. They at least cooperated at the minimum level expected of an adventurer party, so it was fine.

With the introductions finished, people began talking with those they were close to. Naturally, each group gathered with their own companions, but I was pulled into Heinz’s group of six.

They asked why the war had ended, why we were here, and other things, and I answered as they came. Heinz asked most of the questions, but at the end Fine spoke in a low voice.

"That Dule over there... is she Hiiro’s?"

At those words, everyone looked at me.

"No. Her master is in Lübeck. I borrowed her because she’s skilled."

For some reason, I received sharp looks as I answered. The six of them exhaled as if relieved. Or rather, three of them—Beata, Fine, and Rita. Beata in particular looked exaggeratedly relieved.

...Had I done something?

Or had they been relieved because I hadn’t done anything?

"By the way, what are you going to do about that dragon?"

Rita lowered her voice and glanced toward Tokisashi. Tokisashi was staring this way. Not glaring, not casually looking—just staring. Even when I met her eyes, she didn’t look away.

"For now, I’ll take her with us. That’s the agreement."

If I left her behind and Star Strike went on a rampage, the damage would apparently be severe.

"I see... I also... No, never mind."

Beata started to say something, then stopped.

"Hiiro, excuse us for a bit~."

"We’re borrowing her~."

Fine and Rita suddenly stood up, excused themselves to me, and took Beata with them.

"Don’t leave the barrier."

They didn’t need to ask me, but I still warned the three of them. Right after that, Il also stood and followed them.

That left Heinz and Ovnil. Heinz was grinning at me in an unpleasant way.

"What?"

"No, I just thought it looked interesting."

I asked, but the answer didn’t explain anything. I looked to Ovnil for clarification, but he had started maintaining his battle axe, apparently with nothing else to do. He wasn’t even looking this way.

I sighed. Heinz sighed as well.

"Hiiro, have you seriously not noticed? If that’s the case..."

"Hey, Master Hiro... Lord Hiiro!"

Just as Heinz was about to say something, Giacomo called out to me. When I looked at Heinz, he was smiling wryly for some reason.

"He’s calling you. Go."

"Ah, yeah."

I was curious what Heinz had been about to say, but he himself urged me on after being interrupted, so I headed over to Giacomo.

"Those guys are something else..."

I heard Heinz mutter under his breath, but I had no idea what he meant by "something else."

.....

Night watch duty fell to our party.

Heinz’s group and Azreto’s group were both exhausted from the fight with Tokisashi and Storm, so they couldn’t take it. Tokisashi and Storm still weren’t trustworthy. And there was no way I was going to put the client, Kacha, or Chris on watch.

That left the same rotation we’d used for the past week since leaving Lübeck: me and Regina, Giacomo and Marika, Floche and Niagara. We would take turns in pairs.

Normally Regina and I took the first shift, but because I’d fought Tokisashi earlier, the others had put us last.

...

I woke with a start.

Something I couldn’t name had pulled me out of sleep. When I opened my eyes, a girl’s face was right in front of me—neat features, still carrying a trace of youth. The moment our eyes met, her slightly upturned eyes widened.

She didn’t make a sound. Credit where it’s due.

The face pulled back. Something else lunged toward me instead. I caught it with my right hand.

"Too bad."

The voice wasn’t the girl’s. A muffled laugh followed right after.

"—! C-change of watch!"

She was keeping her voice low so she wouldn’t wake the others, but the force behind the words was clear. The girl in front of me—Floche—yanked her arm free and turned her back on me with a sharp pui.

"...Yeah. Got it."

What had she been trying to do? There hadn’t been any killing intent, so she probably hadn’t meant to kill me. Still.

"...Let’s go, Niagara."

"Kuku...! Y-yes."

Floche, back still to me, kicked Niagara in the shin. Niagara, who had been trying not to laugh, scrambled to her feet and the two of them headed for their bedrolls.

I let out a small sigh, still confused, and went to wake Regina.

"Shift change."

"Mm... Yes. Understood."

Regina woke cleanly. She rubbed her eyes once, stood, picked up the greatsword lying beside her, and followed me to the watch post.

We sat back-to-back on the stone in the center of the barrier Kacha had cast. I faced the river. Regina faced the road.

Only a half-moon was up, so the surroundings were dark. The campfire had already been put out. Fire kept ordinary beasts away, but we weren’t only worried about ordinary beasts. Light would ruin our night vision, and for bandits, demonfolk, or magic beasts it could become a beacon.

There probably weren’t any bandits on a road this desolate, but the war with the demon kingdom had only just ended. Stray demonfolk and magic beasts were still likely. I scanned the darkness carefully and focused on sensing presence. At night I couldn’t "see" the way I could during the day.

"Master Hiroyuki."

Regina spoke from behind me. She was watching the opposite side.

"What is it?"

She had never spoken to me on watch before. I turned, thinking she had spotted something, but she wasn’t staring at any one point. She kept slowly moving her head, still on guard.

"Why do they call you ’Hiiro’?"

She turned fully and asked the question out of nowhere.

"...Why, huh."

I couldn’t remember.

"You forgot?"

"...I forgot."

She sounded exasperated, but I really couldn’t recall, so I just admitted it.

"...Haa."

She looked at my face for a while, then sighed, turned forward again, and resumed watching.

I turned forward too.

Hiiro, huh. Why had they started calling me that?

...And where had I even met Heinz and the others?

I couldn’t remember that either.

While I was thinking about it, I saw a red light.

It vanished almost immediately.

Was it my imagination?

I didn’t sense any presence.

I stared hard at the spot where the light had been.

...There.

Above the river—no, on the far bank?

I kept my eyes on the red light so I wouldn’t lose it and lightly tapped Regina’s shoulder. She turned. I pointed in the direction of the light. She leaned in to look. A moment later I saw her nod from the corner of my eye. She had seen it too.

What should we do?

The red lights were probably the eyes of beasts or magic beasts. They were moving from left to right. Two lights—one pair. Then three. Four. They kept increasing.

Should I wake the others?

They didn’t seem to have noticed us yet. If I woke everyone and made noise, they would notice. The height of the eyes meant the creatures were large. The river wasn’t that wide; they could cross it quickly. If that many of them attacked at once, Regina and I alone couldn’t hold them off.

There was the barrier, though. While it held them, we could prepare.

...Was that the right call?

While I was hesitating, Regina tapped my shoulder. When I looked, she had a finger pressed to her lips.

Don’t wake anyone.

Stay still. Make no sound. Let them pass.

Eventually the red lights disappeared toward the right. We stayed frozen, watching the direction they had gone, for a long while after.

"...Hoo."

Only after more time had passed did I finally let out a breath. Beside me, Regina did the same.

"What was that?"

"I don’t know. I thought they were the eyes of beasts or something, but the position was too high..."

"So... big beasts?"

...Humans?

No. People didn’t have eyes that red. Some races might, though.

"...I don’t know. But if that’s what they were, not waking everyone might have been the right decision."

Regina hadn’t reached the conclusion that they were human either. So they probably weren’t.

If they really were that large, we would have been at a disadvantage—ah!

I almost raised my voice and hurriedly covered my mouth.

"W-what is it?"

"Tokisashi and Storm..."

I pointed at the two of them, sleeping peacefully at the edge of the barrier, away from the others. If those two were here, we probably wouldn’t fall behind mere beasts.

"...We’ll wake them next time."

Regina had reached the same conclusion.

Even so, what had those things been?