Vermillion

Jessica had just finished eating and she put down her spoon, yelling excitedly, “Grandpa!”

“Ooh~ Jessica~, full of energy today, as usual?” His usual kind old man smile was replaced with a rare, overly careless broad grin. “Grandpa’s here~,” he said as he covered her forehead with kisses.

Bennett’s beard seemed to tickle Jessica making her giggle and yell playfully. Cronen and Tina smiled quietly, watching the two of them.

However, even in this gentle atmosphere, Danny wore a dry, fake looking smile. It made a strong impression on Kei.

“Now, Jessica. Since you’re all full, go play with your friends.”

“What about you, Grandpa?”

“We’ll play together later. For now I have to talk with this young man.”

“Hmm~… Okay.”

She was surprisingly understanding. She jumped out of her chair and scurried outside.

“…She’s such a cute granddaughter.”

“She certainly is,” Bennett nodded vigorously and grunted in approval.

Tina quickly cleared the table. She then used water she’d boiled in advance to pour everyone a cup of tea before excusing herself. “I’ll go wash the dishes.”

Only the men remained. The gentle, happy atmosphere naturally turned tense.

“Now then, Kei-dono. How are your wounds?” Bennett inquired as he sat down across from Kei.

“Much better now. Tina just treated me to a delicious meal and it seems that Anka treated my wound here,” he said, rubbing his injured cheek, recalling the pain.

“I’m glad to hear it. Her special salve works wonders. However, it certainly can’t compare to your potions.”

“I’ll have to thank her later then… Oh, village leader, I heard from Tina that you’ve even made arrangements for my equipment to be repaired,” Kei looked over at Cronen as he spoke.

Bennett smiled, “It would have been a shame to leave blood on such magnificent armor. I asked our village craftsman to take care of its maintenance, I apologize if it was presumptuous of me.”

“Not at all, I appreciate the help. Thank you.”

“It was my pleasure. We should help each other out in troubled times… Ah, how about we also have your leather chest piece repaired later, too?” Bennett graciously offered.

Bennett didn’t seem to have any ill intentions, so Kei forced a smile. “About that… I had something I wanted to talk about.”

“Oh, I see.” Bennett hit his palm with his fist as if he’d just remembered something, but it looked scripted, as if he’d entirely antic.i.p.ated this. “Does it have to do with the bandits from yesterday? You were too exhausted for me to ask for details last night.”

“I apologize.”

“Don’t worry about it. Please let us hear what happened.”

“Of course.”

Kei told Bennett and the others of what happened after he left the village. How he’d spurred Mikazuki to the campsite that he and Aileen were first attacked at, attacked the thieves, and how he wiped them all out in exchange for Mikazuki’s life.

“Wiped out…” Bennett mused over Kei’s words. To not only win a fight against that many, but to entirely annihilate them was an unbelievable story. However, just by looking at Kei, it was obvious from the amount of blood that he had killed a number of people.

“I see. I understand… That place is near the Rocky Mountain, correct?”

“Yes.”

“And what of their bodies?”

“I just left them. It looked like they had some valuable things, but I didn’t have time to grab anything.”

Danny and Bennett’s eyes sparkled and they involuntarily grinned for a moment after hearing that. Kei understood what direction this conversation was taking.

“In that case, we should most definitely go and retrieve their things, shouldn’t we?”

“…Yes, probably. I’ll guide you there.”

“Good, however, Kei-dono, you’re probably tired from your fight last night. We should let you rest peacefully today.”

“Yes, since we know that it was around the Rocky Mountain, there’s no need for you to come help out yourself,” Danny continued Bennett’s thoughts.

“My horse is still there too, so I’d like to go so I can mourn properly.” Now they wouldn’t be able to tell him not to come.

“I see. Well, if that’s the case…”

“Oh my, then we’ll be relying on you to guide us, Kei-dono.”

“Of course.  I’ve caused plenty of trouble for the village; I feel obligated to do at least this much.”

Everyone laughed merrily together before dispersing to prepare for the recovery.

Cronen went off to gather helpers. Kei visited the village craftsman to pick up his armor and equipment.

“…’I’ve caused plenty of trouble for the village.’ Humph. You can say that again,” grumbled Bennett as he followed Danny to his house.

Danny shrugged his shoulders slightly, “I don’t know, he might really just want to mourn his horse, father.”

“Who knows…”

He may have spent many years happily with his horse, however Danny couldn’t take Kei’s reason at face value.

“Well, at any rate, I don’t expect he’s up to anything.”

“Agreed.” Bennett smiled bitterly, though it appeared just a little too forced. Unlike common bandits, the Ignaz should have had reasonably good quality equipment. He thought about deceiving Kei for one or possibly two swords, but it wouldn’t be an easy feat.

“What happens will happen. Just get what you can, Danny.”

“I know. I’ll bring a cart, father.”

Father and son snickered together. Their bodies were different, but their faces certainly looked the same.

†                      †                      †

Kei went to retrieve his leather chest piece from the village leather worker, but instead received his helmet, bracers, and greaves before returning to the village leader’s house.

When he stopped by for his Dragon Stinger, he saw the old leather worker admiring the bow. The leather worker eagerly asked, “What sort of sinew does this bow use?”

Kei answered honestly, “It uses the membrane of a wyvern’s wing.”

The craftsman burst into laughter and nodded many times as if Kei’s answer should have been obvious. “I’ve never seen the likes of it!” shouted the craftsman, apparently amused. He didn’t seem to believe Kei.

However after that, when the craftsman handled Kei’s leather set made from green salamander skin, he treated it carefully with nervous hands.

Kei chuckled to himself, to frighten someone they need to have some sense of reality it seems. The craftsman must have thought it was too absurd.

By the way, green salamanders were high level, large reptilian monsters that live deep in forests. If someone ran into one solo, the best option would be to run away.

They had a deep blue-ish green skin, as their name suggested, and could reach a body length of seven meters once fully grown; the incomparable kings of the forest.

Their maneuverability was a point that deserved special mention. Despite appearing slow-witted due to their freakishly large bodies, they were very fast runners in the woods. It went without saying, but if a tree could support their weight, they could even climb it and move around that way. At the very least, they weren’t something that Kei would be able to keep up with on foot.

Their tough skin protected them from most attacks and their thick muscle protected them from impact damage. Everything about them was dangerous. They had large arms, sharp claws, a long, serrated tail, and pointed teeth. However, their most dangerous quality was their ma.s.sive size. No matter how strong the player, if a green salamander rammed them or leaned its weight on them, they would suffer instant death. In addition, they secreted poison containing a blood thinning agent from the gaps in their teeth, so if bitten, a player would not be able to stop the bleeding and would die. However, due to the size of their mouths it was more common to be ripped to shreds before the poison could take effect.

At any rate, unlike wyverns, the green salamanders lived even in areas close to human habitations, so they were more commonly recognized as a threat. Although, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call them ground-crawling dragons; they possessed that much power.

It wasn’t impossible to hunt them as long as the player set traps on the terrain, because once they began chasing their prey, they did so with reckless abandon. In the game, it became relatively popular among high level players to kill them for raw defensive materials. Although hunting them was possible, even carefully prepared parties often suffered accidental deaths.

Back then it would’ve be fine to end it with a laugh, but as the rear guard, Kei wouldn’t want to challenge one of them now that it was reality.

“Kei-dono, I see that you’re back.” Neither Danny nor Cronen had returned to the house yet. Bennett was alone with a ledger spread open on the table.

“Yeah. I’ve left my leather chest piece with the craftsman for now.”

“All right… Your chain mail is also quite impressive,” Bennett said in admiration of Kei’s outfit of bracers, greaves, helmet, and chain mail.

Now that the blood had been cleaned off his chain mail, it appeared even more splendid.
“This chain mail has saved my life many times.” Kei rubbed the cold material, causing a pleasant metallic jingle.

“By the way, while everyone is still preparing I would like to check up on Aileen. Is that okay?”

“Why of course! Follow me.” Bennett got up out of his chair with a grunt.

Kei followed Bennett through a door on the far side of this room. The room had bookshelves filled with scrolls and books. There was also an ornamental wooden chest. Spread out on the floor was a rug of a soft green hue, and a much higher quality bed than in Cronen’s house.

Atop the bed lay the sleeping beauty.

She calmly breathed in and out, in and out. She looked like she was sleeping peacefully. Her hair, usually kept in a ponytail, lay unbound around her like golden threads. Someone must have changed her out of her dirty black clothes into the thin, clean, white clothes she wore now. Her complexion was no longer pale and there were no hints of pain. With the calm sunlight peeking into the room it almost looked like a beautiful painting.

“Aileen.”

Kei walked up to the bedside and then knelt, stroking her head. She looked like she stirred slightly, but that may have just been a delusion brought by Kei’s desire for her to wake up again.

“This morning, I heard her mumbling something,” a delicate voice suddenly said.

Startled, Kei looked across the bed and saw a girl quietly standing there.

She was beautiful. Her body curved gorgeously. Her glossy, flaxen colored hair was kept trim and her skin was so white that one wouldn’t think she was from an agricultural village. Her nose ran in a gracefully straight line. A gentle smile spread across her face. A beauty mark was beneath her gentle and seductive eyes. Perhaps that’s why she was so beautiful, but some part of her slender figure gave off a feeling of melancholy.

“It was a foreign tongue, so I could not understand what she said…” the woman elaborated apologetically. She looked at Kei, who stood there silently, and politely said, “…I’m sorry for the late introduction. I am Cynthia, Danny’s wife.”

“O-oh. I’m Kei. Nice to meet you,” Kei regained his composure and returned her greeting clumsily.

Cynthia giggled quietly.