Vagrant or Paladin - 2
***
Clatter-clatter.
Elbridge walked along the straight road, pulling the old cart that made a strange noise.
Occasionally, the spring breeze blowing from behind would overtake the party.
As it was still early spring, the wind was cool. The people pulled their collars tight and frowned, but Elbridge even liked that wind. Did it not feel as if the wind had come to help push the cart?
The adults in the party rarely opened their mouths while walking. The road to the Holy City was not short, so they were trying to conserve their energy as much as possible.
However, the children were different.
As if they had already become friends, the children ran around the cart, shrieking amongst themselves without a hint of exhaustion. The stamina of children, trained by playing all day long, was on a different level from that of adults.
There was also just one adult who, unlike the children, was quiet, but walked with just as much vigor.
It was Elbridge. Even while pulling the heavy cart, Elbridge's steps were as light as a child's.
'Was moving my body always this enjoyable?'
Would this be the feeling of a sick person who, while waiting for the day they would die, just stared blankly at the ceiling, suddenly regaining their strength and jumping up from their bed?
No, even such a person would not be as happy as Elbridge was now. For there would be no sick person who had been bedridden for two hundred years.
The sensation of the cool wind on his skin, the sounds of birds and insects that he heard from time to time, and the musty smell of dust rising from the dirt road made Elbridge happy. Feeling the movement of his muscles was even more enjoyable.
As Elbridge strode forward, Rick came up beside him and matched his pace.
"I thought you'd be weak since you're so gaunt, but you have surprisingly good stamina."
Elbridge gave a vague excuse.
"I hear that kind of thing often."
Rick's expression was filled with goodwill towards Elbridge.
It was likely because, contrary to the initial negotiation to split the cart-pulling half and half, Elbridge had been pulling the cart almost constantly for the past few days.
Elbridge was not pulling the cart for long for Rick's sake. It was simply that moving while pulling a heavy cart was more fun than trudging along empty-handed, and at the same time, he thought it served as a moderate workout.
Of course, the condition of Elbridge's body was still close to the worst.
However, Elbridge had learned how to use his body while active as a paladin, and he had much experience moving in extreme situations.
Therefore, this level of movement was not burdensome. What could be so difficult about pulling an old but well-maintained cart and walking on a flat forest path?
While walking and talking quietly with Rick, the children, who had grown tired from playing, sat perched on the back of the cart that Elbridge was pulling.
Seeing this, Rick got angry at the children.
"Get down!"
But then, Elbridge stopped Rick.
"Just leave them be. Putting a few kids on the cart doesn't make it that much heavier."
"We still have to go for several more days, shouldn't you save your strength even a little?"
"It's worth it."
"Worth it?"
"If they have to trudge along for over ten days while watching the adults' expressions, it becomes a painful memory. But if they can run around and play as much as they want, and when they're tired, sit on the cart and look at the forest and the sky, it becomes a memory that will last a lifetime."
Hearing that story, Rick looked a little surprised.
"El. You speak as if you were a priest."
"It is the way of adults to look after and be considerate of children."
Rick looked at the children and nodded. However, Elbridge was looking not at the little kids, but at the back of Rick's head.
This was because the thought occurred to him that—while those little kids were children, to him, was Rick not also a child?
In the past, when Elbridge was a little over ten years old, the person Elbridge feared the most was the chief paladin of the Order of the Rusted Shield.
The chief paladin was a burly man in his late forties with a bushy, wire-like beard, and his voice was so thunderous and his personality so fiery that there were few in the order who did not fear him.
However, the archbishop, who was well over seventy, did not find the chief paladin burdensome.
The archbishop went beyond treating the chief paladin without reservation; at times, he even treated the chief paladin like a child. The chief paladin, too, did not seem to find the archbishop's attitude strange.
When the young Elbridge asked for the reason, the archbishop had laughed and replied.
'I've looked after that fellow since he was running around with a snotty nose. Whether he's ten or forty, in my eyes, he's a child.'
At that time, it was a story he had accepted with a simple, 'I see,' and moved on.
But now, to Elbridge, the archbishop's story came across as rather meaningful.
'If the seventy-year-old archbishop looked after the forty-something chief paladin like a child, then shouldn't I, who am well over two hundred years old, look after the sixty-something Rick like a child...'
Therefore, Elbridge looked after not only the little kids but everyone in the party.
The eight-year-old child, the twenty-year-old young woman, and even the old woman well over seventy were no exception.
When he was not pulling the cart, Elbridge would approach those unaccustomed to the long journey and offer them small bits of help.
It was not a difficult task to teach them things like how to walk so their feet hurt less, or how to adjust the position of the items in their backpacks to carry them more comfortably.
<><><>
And so, the sun set again today.
Around the time the sun hid below the mountain ridge, Rick, who had gone a little ahead by himself, returned.
"Alright, let's rest here for today."
It seemed the caravan ahead had stopped.
Rick meticulously maintained a distance from the caravan that had departed first. Just enough to benefit from them without getting on their nerves.
As the movement stopped, color finally returned to the adults' faces.
People gathered in groups of twos and threes and prepared dinner. Those who were short on food or needed something approached Rick's cart and traded, handing Rick coins.
The price of the goods Rick sold was considerably more expensive compared to the prices of goods sold in the village, but no one felt it was unfair.
"Can I eat as much today as I did yesterday?"
"Of course."
Perhaps because Elbridge had pulled the cart for longer than promised, Rick did not skimp on the ingredients when making soup to eat with Elbridge.
It was not a grand soup. It was just grain flour and jerky boiled in a pot in generous amounts. However, Elbridge was amazed every time he ate the soup.
'Was soup always this delicious?'
For the two days until he left the stone chamber where the seal was and joined up with Rick, Elbridge had moved while eating things like unripe fruit. Even that alone was a great delicacy to Elbridge.
However, a dish touched by human hands was on a different level. Especially when chewing on a salty piece of jerky amidst the thick soup, he was almost moved to tears.
Could jerky, which had gone into the soup all dried up, produce such a violent flavor?
As Elbridge continued to eat hastily, the old woman sitting across from him spoke.
"How hungry you must have been... Eat up. You have to eat a lot to put on some flesh."
"Ah, yes."
She was an old woman who sat next to Elbridge and Rick at every mealtime to have her meal.
Because she was old, it was difficult for her to carry around a lot of luggage like the other people, so she chose the way of paying Rick a little money at every mealtime to take care of her food.
The old woman was the only person in this party who spent money on every meal, and she was also the only person who had ever heard of the name of the Order of the Rusted Shield.
"Ma'am. You said you knew of the Rusted Shield Goddess?"
"Yes. When I was a little tyke, the lady of the manor in our neighborhood said she served the Rusted Shield Goddess. She said the lady's son had gone off to the battlefield..."
If it was when the old woman was that young, it was a considerable time ago.
"Have you not seen any other followers?"
"No. She was the first and the last."
"By any chance, have you heard any rumors about the Order of the Rusted Shield? For instance, that there was some kind of big incident."
"Well now. I haven't heard of any... Why do you ask?"
"I heard that about two hundred years ago, there were very many followers of the Rusted Shield Goddess. For such a large order to suddenly... No, it wasn't sudden, was it. In any case, it feels strange that such an order has vanished without a trace."
At that, the old woman replied.
"Does such a change necessarily require a big incident?"
"Pardon? What do you mean by that..."
Elbridge, who was talking with the old woman, saw the area ahead of them faintly brighten. It seemed someone had lit a torch.
At the same time, the surroundings became a little noisy.
Rick clicked his tongue.
"It seems wolves have appeared around the caravan ahead. Everyone, gather over here. If the caravan's mercenaries chase the wolves away, there's a high probability the wolves will show up here..."
The people, in the middle of their meal, hurriedly got up from their spots and gathered around Rick's cart.
A short while later, the commotion that was felt from afar subsided.
Rick took out ten torches from the cart, lit them, and then handed them to the people. There were few methods as effective as a torch for chasing away wild animals.
A little time passed after that, and pairs of yellow eyes appeared in the forest. There were seven pairs of eyes in total.
Following that, the faint, gamey smell unique to carnivorous animals, along with a low growling sound, could be heard.
"Ugh..."
The people, recalling Rick's story that wolves would not dare to approach if their numbers were large, gathered a little closer.
Rick lowered his voice.
"They'll just circle around for a bit like that and then disappear. It might be a little tense, but it's best not to show it. Animals know right away if their opponent is scared..."
The people nodded and held their torches a little higher.
However, that was not a very good choice. When they held the torches high, the wolves, which were three or four times larger than an ordinary hunting dog, became even more clearly visible.
It was certain that if wolves like that charged, they would not be able to escape with their bodies intact. The people cowered a little more.
Rick the merchant slowly waved the torch and observed the wolves in the darkness.
And a moment later, Rick discovered something a little strange.
'A wound?'
One of the wolves had a wound on its shoulder.
Seeing the uncongealed blood trickling down, it looked like a fresh wound.
Rick's brow furrowed.
'If it's a wound that just happened...'
Given the circumstances, it was highly likely that it happened when the caravan ahead became noisy.
But no matter how he thought about it, it was strange.
Wolves are clever animals. They know that it is easier and safer to find other prey than to risk tangling with a group of humans.
That is why, even if wolves discover a group of people, they do not just rashly start a fight. They are bound to keep their distance, observe for a bit, and then leave.
If it were a normal pack of wolves, they would not fight with the caravan, so there would be no reason for a wolf to get injured.
'If it were a normal pack of wolves...'
It was ominous.
Those wolves must have been injured while fighting amongst themselves for dominance, not from tangling with the caravan. It had to be that way.
If it was a wolf pack so ferocious as to attack a caravan full of men with weapons, would there be any reason for them to just pass by after seeing this group, which was mostly made up of the elderly, the weak, and women?
At that moment, Elbridge, who had been quiet, nudged Rick.
"Rick."
"What?"
"Do you know how to fight?"
Rick replied in a deliberately calm voice.
"...No. Don't worry. Those fellows, they'll back off soon enough after doing that."
"I wonder..."
Elbridge said, his gaze fixed on the wolves.
"Rick. Give me a weapon."
"Where would I have a weapon?"
"The pocketknife from earlier, the one you were peeling potatoes with."
Elbridge's words had become strangely clipped.
But this was not a situation to point out his manner of speaking.
Rick frantically fumbled through his pockets to find a weapon. Though he did not know if a pocketknife used for peeling potatoes could be called a weapon...
"Kyak!"
The moment Rick pulled the small knife out of his pocket, a shrill scream echoed.
Rick, startled, looked in the direction where the wolves had been. A huge wolf, whose shoulders would reach an adult man's chest, was kicking off the ground and charging.
At the same time, a person shot out, breaking through the dense crowd.
Rick shouted.
"El!"
The potato-peeling knife that had been in Rick's hand was now gone.
'Skinny El' could be seen lowering his posture as if to skim the ground and dashing forward. In his right hand, the potato-peeling knife was gripped.
Being brave was good, but it was a reckless act to commit relying on a single shabby pocketknife, which was nothing compared to a wolf's fangs.
Moreover, Skinny El's movements were not particularly fast. It was incomparably slow compared to knights or paladins who showed superhuman speed. At best, it was the level of an ordinary person.
Although there was still quite a distance between Skinny El and the wolf, the people could easily guess what the result would be.
Perhaps the wolf had the same thought as the people, as it leaped confidently towards the approaching Elbridge.
At that moment, Skinny El thrust his right foot far forward.
Jjeujeujeuk—
Skinny El. That is, Elbridge's right foot scraped roughly against the dirt ground.
A sudden brake was applied to the body that was running with its posture lowered as if it would fall forward. It was such a drastic and unnatural movement that it was impossible to maintain balance. The body that was about to fall forward now seemed like it would fall backward.
Next, Elbridge's left hand touched the ground. It was an unsightly posture, as if he were stuck to the floor, but Elbridge instantly regained his balance.
Elbridge was looking at the wolf in a bizarre posture, as if he were half lying on the ground.
'No, he's not looking at the wolf.'
The sharp eyes of Rick, who had a keen eye, detected a small gap between Elbridge's gaze and the wolf's movement.
Elbridge's gaze moved ahead of the wolf. Elbridge's eyes were not looking at the wolf, but were tracing the trajectory that the wolf, which had just leaped, would move along.
Elbridge's legs, which had been lowered all the way back, kicked off the ground.
Elbridge's slender body shot up towards the night sky. A little higher than the position the wolf would pass by a moment later, and slightly off to the side.
The wolf's wide-open jaws aimed for Elbridge's outstretched left arm.
However, just before being bitten by the wolf, Elbridge's left arm was quickly withdrawn, so the wolf's jaws could do nothing more than snap at the empty air.
Conversely, Elbridge's right arm, which had been thrown back, extended in a precise trajectory.
The potato-peeling knife accurately dug into the wolf's eye socket. Even this alone was an amazing feat, but that was not all.
The tip of the potato-peeling knife was pointed not downwards, but upwards. So that the blade that entered through the eye socket could scramble the wolf's brain.
However, even people with a keen eye could not notice that far.
Kudangtang—
The wolf that had leaped up powerfully went tumbling on the dirt ground covered with short grass.
Elbridge, too, was half-pushed by the wolf and fell to the ground.
"El!"
Most of the people had not properly seen what had just happened, and the few people with a keen eye could not believe the scene they had just witnessed.
It was more realistic to accept that Elbridge had collided with the wolf in mid-air and tumbled to the ground.
However, Elbridge, who had fallen to the ground, got up as if nothing had happened.
On the other hand, the wolf with the potato-peeling knife stuck in its eye socket could not get up. It just twitched briefly, its body stiff.
Elbridge pulled the potato-peeling knife from the wolf's eye socket and wiped it on the fur. All the while still staring at the other wolves.
The other wolves growled lowly and looked at Elbridge, then soon began to back away stealthily.
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