Chapter 55: Encounter in the Hunting Grounds

She had been walking around these lands for the longest time, hoping to get out of this place. Her sword has been rusted and chipped from excessive use, and her throwing knives were all spent and gone.

But she had come too far to give up now.

She stumbled forwards, hoping to find something that wasn’t a monster, at least. A human would be most preferable, but she wouldn’t mind finding even a demon who wouldn’t murder her at first sight. How did she even know that...?

Step forwards with her right foot – Step forwards with her left foot. It was an endless cycle like that, broken only when she needed to fight to protect herself.

Keep moving forwards, at all costs.

She didn’t know how long she had been walking for, but she eventually found two people in front of her. Her gaze fell on the girl on the right first.

Her brown hair seemed to be tied into a ponytail behind her, and she couldn’t see how long it was exactly. Her black eyes were wary of her – but after observing her, seemed to have softened into one of pity. Her short dress-like outfit was dull green in color, and she thought that it was a practical choice so that she could somewhat blend in the different forest surroundings.

And in her hands, she held a similarly colored bow – it will kill her in one shot, she immediately understood. But strangely enough, she understood that this girl was familiar... She knew that this brown-haired girl wouldn’t hurt her, not unless she had a reason to.

She felt connected with this girl for some reason...

Then her gaze moved to the boy on the left.

He had gray hair which was somewhere between the color of ash and steel. She wasn’t sure if he was some sort of elven hybrid, but his lack of pointed ears told her that he wasn’t. His dark brown eyes were indifferent – no. She understood that just as she was observing him, he was also observing her in turn. And even after seeing the state she were in, his gaze didn’t turn to one of pity for her.

... She knew he was dangerous, and that wasn’t counting the weapons he carried.

He had multiple weapons on him. The one that caught her attention the fastest was the sword sheathed on his right hip. It would cut her in half, if she didn’t dodge a strike from it. The second one was the dagger, sheathed on the opposite hip. A direct thrust from that weapon would be fatal. And the third one was the three throwing knives sheathed by his right thigh. She might be able to survive, as long as nothing vital was hit.

...

He had too many higher quality weapons for her to win in a straight fight. His sword was longer than her chipped, rusted blade, and was definitely superior in quality.

Even if she was the better fighter... He had the better weapons. And that wasn’t counting his companion as well.

This fight was a gamble she did not want to take. Again, how did she even know that?

Her instincts told her to be friendly and pitiable.

***

Tobias carefully eyed the stranger in front of him. And he immediately noted three things.

First, her face was too questionable. What exactly was this girl who seemed to have a face beautiful enough to rival a fabled princess’ face doing out here in the middle of monster infested lands?

Second, her hair. It was white, long, and was matted with blood and dirt. And it was also tangled everywhere.

... Side comment, but that’s exactly the reason why Tobias usually trimmed his hair short, in addition to the fact that it was nothing but a liability in melee combat.

Third, her body. While somewhat obscured by their flowy, white, terribly worn out, terribly bloodstained dress, he could tell that this person’s physique was thin, lithe, and... subtly strong.

... Her existence here was confusing, if nothing else.

In her hand, she held a sword which was stained and rusted with blood, and its edges were terribly chipped. For a moment, Tobias wondered if that dwarven blacksmith would get angry at this young girl for neglecting and abusing her weapon like this, before he threw away those thoughts.

Those thoughts didn’t matter. What mattered right now was the person’s intent. Why was she out here in the edges of the Bad Lands? Why was she in such a terrible state? Who exactly was she?

“Who are you?” He asked, and the strange, unidentified person turned to face him. Her face was eerily blank, and too indifferent for someone who was literally in the middle of hostile, dangerous territory.

Her mannerisms were somewhat familiar, actually...

“This one is...” She slowly spoke, before shaking her head as if they made a mistake. “I am called Sistine.”

“Why are you here?”

“Toby.” Clara said, before the stranger could reply to his question. He turned to face her, and she had a small frown on her face. “You’re being insensitive again. This girl in front of us is in a bad state, and I think you shouldn’t question her too much.”

He blinked.

“I see...” He slowly said, before giving a polite, small bow with his head. “My apologies.”

“T-that’s alright...” Sistine nervously replied, giving a small, nervous smile.

“Somehow, I think it’s just perfectly you to say that though.” Clara muttered, before she sighed and turned towards the white-haired, younger girl. “Anyways, want to go with us? We’re in a dangerous place, after all.”

“I would like that...” Sistine replied, glancing between Clara and Tobias with uncertainty. “But your companion doesn’t seem to like me too much...”

Tobias frowned. He already apologized to her. Was he really that naturally scary?

“He might seem pretty scary at times,” She replied, and he let out a small frown at her confirmation of his thoughts. Because she was correct, after all. “But he’s a good person at heart. I think he’ll allow it.”

Clara looked at him with a small, pleading gaze.

“Sir Toby... Can you please let me join you?”

Sistine also looked at him with a small, pleading gaze.

... It was troublesome how Clara wasn’t finding it suspicious that a younger girl, armed with a chipped, rusted blade is somehow out in these dangerous, monster-infested forests and is still alive. But then again, if he looked at it from a normal person’s perspective...

Wasn’t it only natural for a person to be worried about anyone who was in such a terrible state?

“... Alright.” He replied, with a small sigh to himself. “I wouldn’t mind having another person following us around.”

“Thanks, Toby!” Clara cheered, as she slipped past him. Now that they were next to each other, he noted that she was barely taller than Sistine, despite the latter looking much younger. “I’m Clara, and this is Tobias. Pleased to meet you.”

And for the shortest while, he wondered why she introduced themselves after they had already agreed to let Sistine come with them.

... Sometimes, he really didn’t know how the intricacies of human behavior worked.

“It’s nice to meet you too.” Sistine quickly warmed up to the surprisingly jovial Clara. “I am Sistine. Thank you for letting me travel with you!”

“Aww...” She drawled, before her hand quickly rose to pat the younger girl in the head. “Don’t mention it. There’s no way I’ll leave a cute girl like you out in these dangerous forests.”

“Speaking of dangerous forests,” Tobias interrupted, as he turned around. “We need to move now. You can talk while we’re walking.”

“Got it.” Clara replied.

“Yes, sir!” Sistine echoed back, somehow finding enough energy to do so despite her state.

... No matter.

And with those words, he started hiking back towards the direction of the town they resided, with the two girls with similar eye colors following close by. Their destination; Spearwall Town, as he had mentioned multiple times before.

... It was ironic, though. They didn’t have any walls made out of spears, contrary to their name. Instead, they had dug massive trenches surrounding the town, and the bottom of those trenches were lined with countless of sharp, metal spikes.

That was the reason why the town was called Spearwall. And according to rumors, all of their guards were truly proficient with spears, and capable of formations to tackle against larger monsters. They could also throw their spears with excellent accuracy and power.

... Now he wanted a spear as well.

But there were a lot of reasons why a spear didn’t become his go-to-weapon, really. Despite them being cheap, Magical Dungeons had proven that they weren’t quite as effective when he was dealing with masses of monsters.

A thrust, and a monster will get killed... But then, it would take too much time to draw it back, and to thrust it again. A sword on the other hand... aside from armored foes, a quick slash and a quick slice would be enough to disable and cripple limbs, before moving on to the next target.

And not to mention... sometimes the space was too cramped as well. So spears were a gamble, and he decided to stick with his trusty longsword instead.

Now, about the matter of his dagger. A reliable off hand weapon, capable of parrying away attacks which were between medium and heavy attacks. While his dagger wasn’t capable of parrying away anything like a greatsword or a warhammer, it was capable of parrying anything lesser than those.

And not to mention, whenever he did have to block or parry a strike with his longsword, a dagger would serve as the best counter attacking weapon –

“Tobias!” Clara yelled, and he flinched as he was suddenly drawn away from his thoughts. He quickly turned around to face her, before his gaze fell on the ground. “Sistine collapsed!”

He swiftly moved closer to them, before kneeling down next to said person. His fingers quickly moved to check her pulse, and he was rewarded by the faint, normal throb of a heartbeat. And her chest was rising – so she was still breathing.

“She’s still alive. But what happened?” He asked, looking up towards her. Her eyes were obviously concerned and worried, but his words made the panic in her eyes disappear like a winter mist dispersing when the sun rose in the sky.

“We were just talking, before she stopped and just... fainted.” She explained, her professionalism suppressing her panic earlier.

... He idly noted that it was only natural of her to do so. In a profession where panicking is a liability at best, and will get an entire party killed at worst... The capability to stay rational despite being taken by surprise was something that she learned, really.

“I see.” He nodded. And without any further words, he slipped his hand behind Sistine’s back, and hefted her upwards, before placing her over his left shoulder. His left arm looped around her waist to keep her from falling off. “Let’s keep going, then.”

“A-are you alright just carrying her like that?” Clara asked, and he idly turned to her with a questioning gaze. “I mean... Isn’t that going to drain your strength? And if you need to fight, don’t you need both hands?”

Her words definitely made sense. But...

“It’s alright.” He responded, and once again, turned back towards the direction of the town. “I know that you don’t sleep enough sometimes.” He had a strange feeling that his words made her flinch, even though he couldn’t see it happen. “... This is the least I could do for you, since you decided to accompany me in my journey.”

“... I see.” She spoke, and he glanced behind himself, only to find her smiling at him. A wispy, melancholic smile that was fleeting, but even so, she was still happy it would seem. “Thank you, then.”

“You’re welcome.”

... It would seem that silence between them was something that had developed. Maybe it was the natural tenseness of the air, or the fact that they were already comfortable with each other to the point of thinking to themselves. And while he wasn’t exactly averse to natural silence...

Some part of Tobias idly missed the days where they had a party who would talk to each other more often than not to break the silence.

The walk to the town was just as peaceful and as silent. Thankfully.

***

Sistine was feeling feverish. Her body felt heavy from exhaustion, and her eyes could barely open. Everything was a distant haze, and she could feel herself getting lifted up, before being placed on someone’s shoulder.

... Was it the girl named Clara?

No. She opened her eyes, and she saw that it was the boy named Tobias who carried her. For the shortest while, she thought that it would be more comfortable if he would carry her with both of his arms, before she realized that it was a terrible idea.

That style of carrying her would leave him terribly unprepared in case of a monster attack.

And even through her hazed, dizzy eyesight, she could see that his right arm was tense and ready to go for his sword whenever something came up.

She knew that she was already malnourished from lack of proper nutrition... but even so, if he could carry her casually with one arm and cross a lot of distance, that only told her that he was strong.

... Terribly strong, really.

For the first time, she found herself praying that there wouldn’t be anything to stop her and the new companions who decided to help her.

And somehow, it might have just worked. Because the trip was silent, stable, and safe. Nothing came out of nowhere to ambush them.

But somehow... Sistine only thought to herself that even though she was being hauled off like a sack of potatoes, she somehow thought that he was surprisingly gentle in his own way.

Contrary to what she’d come to expect, the journey wasn’t rough or bumpy. His arm wrapped around her waist to firmly secure her in place, but he never tried to touch her in an indecent way.

... How considerate. Maybe she had judged him too quickly, after all.

And eventually, through the haze-like vision that she had, she found herself looking at a ravine, which seemed deep enough because she couldn’t see what lied at the bottom. When she rubbed her eyes to clear out her vision, she wished she didn’t.

At the bottom of the ravine... were countless monster corpses, in various states of decay. And at the bottom, she could see countless spikes and jagged spears, completely stained red by blood.

Who knew how many monsters had fell in, and died to this pit of death?

But thankfully, the boy – Tobias – walked away from the ravine, and she let out a breath of relief at seeing the claw-scratched, gored dirt ground again.

... She thought that this is what they meant by that something dinger’s cat... Or was it the curiosity killed the cat idiom?

She wasn’t sure. All of her memories were distant and fleeting, her head slightly ached trying to think about it.

“Hey.” A voice rang out. She slowly blinked, before she turned her head to face the voice. It was the boy who had carried her. “You’re awake now, aren’t you?”

And in that next instance, she could only see the girl – Clara’s face. She looked at her, and gently reached out to cup her cheeks with both of her hands. The brown-haired girl flinched when she did, and looked at her with concern. “You have a terrible fever... When was the last time you even rested?”

“This one...” Sistine paused, and she began to think to herself. The only thing she remembered – was her leaving some sort of stone building from the ground, and since then... She had never stopped moving forwards. Sometimes, a monster would come to stop her, but her body froze, before her memories blanked out... only to reveal the monster in front of her, slain. “I am not sure...”

“You poor thing...” She cooed, before she gave her a strange gesture. It involved her raising her hand, and gently touching her head, while rubbing it. Sistine tilted her head to the side, and wondered what she was trying to do. Was it some sort of new way to...

... What was it that she wanted to think about again?

“So that’s why she’s terribly warm.” Tobias muttered lowly, before she felt herself being shifted. In a few moments, from his broad shoulders, she suddenly found herself facing him and the sky – and she realized after a few more moments that he decided to carry her across his arms. “If you’re feverish, maybe I should have carried you like this instead.”

Sistine stared at him for the longest while. He stared back at her with a particularly indifferent face. But somehow, she could tell that underneath, he was silently asking if there was a problem.

– Somehow, he scared her.

“... Don’t worry about me.” She finally replied, and looked away so she didn’t have to stare at those particularly scary, almost blank eyes of his. “Just do what you need to do –” She was interrupted by vicious, wet coughs, and she covered her mouth with her hand.

When her coughing fit finished, she could see that the hand she used to cover it was stained with splotches of blood, and her throat felt like she swallowed a few jagged glass shards.

And that was when she felt her consciousness fade again, and the last thing that she saw was Tobias’ stone-like face morphing to one of particular confusion, before turning slightly concerned.

She only had a single thought in mind at the sight; It was actually possible for him to feel anything other than indifference?

And that was when she felt herself getting dragged into the Abyss...

***

When the guards on the opposite side of the ravine finally lowered the wooden drawbridge – something that was sturdy, but was nowhere near as grand as Ordbridge’s metal-supported, stone-paved bridge, Tobias meticulously noted – they had all but scrambled to cross it as fast as possible.

“Why can’t we just let her drink a healing potion?!” Clara yelled, as they raced and slipped past the different people in the streets.

“She’s probably going to choke on it.” Tobias replied, as he shifted his arms so that his passenger wouldn’t hit her head against a person passing by. “And besides with the way she coughed, I think that something’s wrong with her throat. I don’t want to risk it.”

She didn’t say anything else, and only focused on running, and keeping her eyes peeled. She was searching for something – a symbol of the services of a Healer. But if not a Healer, then a Clergy. And if not a Clergy... then even eccentric Mages who happened to know a healing spell or two weren’t too bad of a choice.

“There!” She pointed out, and he could see the familiar architecture of a church.

That particular statue... From his limited knowledge of this world’s religions... He could see that this Church seemed to be devoted to the god of fire, Aestus.

The Clergy should be specialized in Fire-based Magic then, with some sub-specialization in Light-based Magic. If he remembered correctly... most elements had their own sort of healing techniques. Light tended to be the most effective in that particular department, which all (human) churches seemed to specialize, or at the very least, sub-specialize in.

... Those thoughts didn’t matter. As long as they could heal, then that’s all that mattered.

Good thing that the Church Doors were open because otherwise, Clara would have probably tried to kick those down. When she did enter the Church, she stopped sprinting at the very least, before looking around carefully.

Tobias also slowed down, and analyzed his surroundings.

First, the architecture. Definitely a church – with its arching, grandeur sense of carved, white-painted stone interior.

Second, there was a lot of long, wooden benches around, most definitely for the masses. A quick scan revealed that the back of each bench was broad enough to be used as a table of sorts. There were a few people here and there, but they seemed to be focused to themselves, and were probably praying instead of paying attention to them.

Third, there was a large table at the end of the bright red carpet, and by all accounts, it was most definitely an altar of sorts.

Fourth, there were multiple stained-glass windows, and they were set into the design of a man being burned by fire... Or more likely, a man who was surrounded by flames he conjured, rather.

... But somehow, Tobias just felt that churches were terribly exotic at best, and... straight up alien at worst.

But those thoughts, too, didn’t matter.

Clara had already gone to the nearest person sitting on one of the benches, and asked them where the clergy was. And after a short response, the person pointed at one of those strange, tiny wooden structures at one corner of the church.

With two wooden doors, and strangely enough, two curtains, Tobias couldn’t possibly figure out what the function of such structure was.

And with a subtle nod towards each other, Clara and Tobias made their way towards one of those structures, with unconscious, mysterious girl in hand.

Literally.