Chapter 5.
"No matter how fast Denburg is, he can"t be that fast when he just became an adult. The speed you"re talking about means he’s within the top three in the village."
"You underestimate Denburg too much. Unlike Brother, Denburg is already among the top of the village in terms of speed."
Hestia and Gallahad were surprised by Gawain’s words.
"That means Denburg is faster than Gawain?"
Gawain’s speed was among the top three in the village while Gallahad was more in the middle to bottom rank. Under such circ.u.mstances, it was inevitable that Gawain"s words held more weight.
"No. There"s nothing to worry about in the forest. It"s only in the village that Denburg can catch up to me. The warriors are faster in the forest."
Hestia felt relieved and asked Gallahad, "What do you think?"
"—Gawain’s conjecture is definitely more credible than mine."
Hestia nodded. "Then, leaving a hundred warriors aside, fourteen hundred people will proceed to follow the route of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs."
Hestia then began to explain the full operation.
-o-
It had been about six hours since I left the route on the map. If Hestia’s plan was as I predicted, the first batch of pursuers would soon arrive at the second campsite, the point I veered from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ route.
According to my predictions, the pursuers would number around fourteen to sixteen hundred. About eleven to twelve hundred of those would be from the guard division that comprised of all kinds of fighters from the village. Three hundred to four hundred would be those warriors that hunted for food in the forest. If there were any other personnel, it would be around a dozen or so diplomats acting as guides for the routes on the map.
It was a relief that the ministry was not created with fighting in mind. Most members there were either veterans experienced in combat or trade, relatively weak women, geeks curious about the outside world, and magicians seeking contact with outside magic. As such, since there weren’t a lot of members that were physically strong or had the skills of a pursuer, I did not feel threatened much even if they were to partic.i.p.ate in the pursuit.
Even the guards, who made up the largest composition of people in the pursuit squad, were not much of a threat except for their large number. Although people born in the village learned how to hunt from an early age, they did not focus on it upon reaching adulthood. Usually, their skills were only enough to catch a wild boar or deer to be served on the dinner table.
Of course, the wild boars and deer living in the vicinity of the village located in Demon’s Territory were no ordinary wild boars and deer. There were plenty of these that could kill an ogre in one bite.
It truly could not be a less peaceful village. The most problematic group was the warrior force led by Gawain. With an overall size of five hundred, it was only one third the size of the security guards. However, if they were to fight in the forest rather than the village, the warriors could annihilate the entire guard division with only half their strength.
Due to this, I put the most effort into excluding the warriors from the pursuit as much as possible. First of all, hunting forty demons was to reduce the number of warriors. Demons were dangerous creatures while alive, but they were even more dangerous when dead. The blood of demons was composed of poison. When their body started to decompose after dying, the poison would begin to evaporate. So when a demon died, its surroundings became a perfect land of death. In other words, it was difficult to dispose of dead bodies of demons. Many warriors had to be dispatched to extract or purify its poison as well as for collecting its by-products before the corpses started to rot. Well, although dangerous, body parts of demons were used for precious magic catalysts as well as materials for weapons. A single tooth could be sold for an astronomical price.
I didn’t feel really sorry since if I were to convert the demons I caught into money, it would become an astronomical sum. The reason the letter was revealed early was in part to dispose of the demons before they started to decompose, so I did not feel any guilt either.
Anyway, because of this, the number of warriors that would be excluded from the pursuit should number at least a hundred or maybe even a hundred and twenty. The number could be even higher if I were lucky.
In addition, around a hundred warriors should have been left behind in the village to find my trails. In other words, the number of warriors I had to deal with should be less than two hundred and eighty, which was almost half the original number.
If I were Hestia, I would have split the pursuit squad into five groups. Groups 1 and 2 would consist of the fastest people in the village to chase after me on the route drawn on the map. Even if they weren’t able to catch me, considering the fact that I might have left the forest, they could disperse themselves into the surrounding and leave an ambush.
Group 3 would be composed of warriors left in the village to find my trails. If another group found my trail, this group would immediately regroup with Group 4.
Group 4 would search for my tracks around the area where they would a.s.sume I left the route on the map.
Group 5 would comprise of security guards, they would be reserved to surround me in case my tracks were found.
It was very likely that Hestia’s plan would be similar to what I had predicted. In two or three more hours, the warriors would find my track. No matter how hard I tried to cover my tracks, I couldn’t avoid the eyes of experts who had spent their whole lives hunting in and out of the forest and the village.
On the map, my current location was about as far from the second campsite as the distance between the village and the second campsite.
So was it about 500 kilometers from the village?
According to this calculation, if I were to ignore the huge rift between the next faraway village and the forest, I was about 800 kilometers away from the next village beyond the forest.
After finis.h.i.+ng the rough estimation, I hastened my pace further.
-o-
By the time nine hours had pa.s.sed since the pursuit squad went to catch Denburg, the sun had already set and the surroundings were illuminated by magic lamps.
In the beginning, Doomstone had placed a table at the entrance of the village and acted as a commander, using hawks for communication. However, worried about Hestia, who was one of the weakest people in the village, he then suggested using his room in the village hall as the headquarter of the pursuit squadron.
Thanks to this, Hestia was now sitting comfortably on the reception sofa in the room, drinking tea and staring at the map from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
"Hestia, your body is weak, so why don"t you go home and rest?"
At her father"s consideration, Hestia replied with a smile, "No. It"s okay. Although I"m the weakest in the village, according to the letter Uncle sent from the empire’s military, I’m still similar to a great general from the empire."
"Hahahaha, no matter how weak those people from outside the village are, could someone with a position as high as a great general possibly be that weak? Your uncle probably exaggerated it. Hahaha."
Hestia responded with a smile back as Doomstone’s hands started to get weak from laughter.
"Hohoho, right? The letter also says that it’s hard to eat because their spoon is so weak it bends every time he picks it up."
"Hahaha, the spoon bends? How could something made out of adamantium bend?"
"Hoho, that"s true. Oh! Can"t Father bend it?"
"Well, it"s possible if I apply some force. I don’t really do it though. Hahaha."
While chatting, Doomstone asked Hestia with a slightly dejected look. "Will we be able to catch Denburg?"
Perhaps he was just talking to himself, but Hestia deliberately smiled brightly. "Father, who am I? I’m your eldest daughter. I"ll make sure to catch him and have him follow your footsteps.”
"Yes, hearing it from someone smarter than anyone else, it gives me strength."
Doomstone smiled brightly just like Hestia.
"Once Denburg gets caught, I will slap him enough times to compensate for your work, so don"t worry."
Hestia thought that perhaps this would be worse than being punished by flogging outside the village. Still, she felt it was a reasonable punishment considering Denburg had caused herself and a lot of people in the village to suffer. Even if one were to get hit a lot, it was just being unable to sit down properly for a while and spending one’s time lying down on the stomach.
"Yes, please hit him a lot." Hestia poured more tea into the empty teacup while wearing a smile that would make Denburg think she was a devil.
At that moment, someone opened the door and shouted.
"Village Head! Commander! We got a message saying that traces of the youngest master have been found!"
"What!" Doomstone rose excitedly.
"Father, calm down. We haven"t caught him yet."
"Hmm, hmm. I see."
Hestia calmed Doomstone down and asked the runner, "So where did they find his tracks?"
"Yes, they said they found tracks at the second campsite."
The second campsite?
The second campsite was one of the most frequently visited locations for officials going out of the village. If it were as Gawain had said, and Denburg crossed that much distance in such a short period of time, it was a good location to deviate from the original route with all the tracks from the officials hiding his trail.
"Is it possible that they were tracks from the officials?"
Hestia had to be prepared for any possible situation.
"No. The track goes all the way to places where officials don’t go and apparently it goes even further."
"That is a relief."
“So how should I respond to the question of whether they should keep pursuing during the night?"
"For now, stop the pursuit and tell them to preserve their strength at the campsite."
However, Doomstone disputed Hestia’s decision. "Wouldn’t it be better to pursue?"
"No. Even if the members of the pursuit squad are strong warriors, the forest is dangerous during the night.” Hestia sighed and said, "Also, our opponent is Denburg. Even if the pursuit continued all night, there is a high possibility that we won’t be able to catch him by tomorrow which would lead to a long-term pursuit. Right now, it’s better to conserve our strength.”
"Okay."
Doomstone seemed disappointed, but he couldn"t do anything about it either.
"Then, I will pa.s.s the order to conserve our strength at the campsite and move out when dawn breaks."
"Yes, please. Oh, while you"re on your way, please tell the people searching around the village to come back and rest."
"Yes, I will."
Silence reigned once the runner had departed. Hestia stared at the map again while drinking another cup of tea.
The second campsite was where Denburg had deviated from the route. It was about 300 kilometers in terms of distance. No matter how much the route was paved, compared to the inside of the village, it was still very b.u.mpy and one would have to make very high jumps over the tree roots.
If he crossed a route like that in only three to four hours, no matter how rough the rest of the forest was, he would have crossed another 300 kilometers by now. The direction was the problem. According to his predicted route, he would definitely try to distance himself from the route on the map and also move to bypa.s.s the rift.