A black horse, a young donkey, and a cat (3)
The elves lost their mother, the World Tree.
The dwarves lost their eternally burning furnace, and the humans lost their shining kingdom.
Each race has lost something different, but in the end, they are all just another name for possibility.
There was a time when a single being monopolized all the possibilities in the world.
A time when the starlight that was trying to rise was collected and trapped under one’s feet.
People called that era the Age of Dragons.
And here was another race that lost its potential in those difficult times.
A race of beastmen with the ears of beasts.
They said that what they lost was ‘mystery’.
※※※※
“Knight! “Priest!”
A black horse and young donkey walking along a small path.
However, their journey, which should have been quiet, was cruelly broken by a beastman man following behind them.
“Let’s go together! I will definitely be of help!”
The man named Nibelun, whom Vlad and Jean had saved from the fire, was still following them and screaming for them to come with him.
“Why not just break my leg a little so I can’t follow you?”
“God is watching us everywhere and at all times. “Vlad.”
“That’s right. really.”
After hearing Jean’s words, Vlad scratched his head and frowned.
Even though the world of knights who dealt with swords and violence was high, there were aspects of it that resonated with him, but there were still aspects that made it difficult for him to deal with the young deacon named Jean.
“Then it’s okay to just curse and tell them not to break it, right?”
“…I guess you can look at that much.”
The elder and leader was Vlad, but the person in charge of this trip was Jean.
A person who is an object to be observed and a rule to be followed.
Although he was a child who could easily be ignored, Vlad had already decided to show respect to Jean instead of ignoring him.
“hey. Mr. Nibelun, who follows death.”
“yes. yes Sir!”
Even so, the accumulated anger doesn’t go anywhere.
Noir’s snort, as angry as Vlad’s, was brushing against Nibelun’s twitching ears.
“How long are you going to follow me around like this? “Didn’t I say no?”
The growl was fierce, but Nibelun just clasped her hands together and smiled roundly.
“Oh, don’t think it’s such a bother…”
Black robes worn out here and there.
And although he was not wearing it now, the strange mask that was still hanging on his back gave the beastman man an ominous aura just as it did when he first saw it.
“It will be useful no matter what. “Because I’m a wizard!”
“What wizard in the world gets caught by scammers and becomes a barbecue?”
Nibelun, who said he was chasing death, introduced himself as a wizard.
A wizard who chases away diseases and curses.
Vlad once again frowned as he watched Nibelun utter only words he wanted to avoid from their first meeting until now.
“Due to the nature of my magic, it needs some time to activate.”
“okay. “The more I hear about it, the less helpful it seems.”
The things he was holding were strange enough, so he could have been a wizard as he claimed.
However, if you are caught by fraudsters who are worse than bandits, then the level will be understandable.
“This is really the last warning. “If you keep chasing me, one of your legs will be broken.”
There was no need for unhelpful military members.
Moreover, if the target is someone who is not pleasant at first glance.
Vlad was still uncomfortable with the crow mask that Nibelun was wearing.
“Baron Utman!”
However, Nibelun paid no heed to Vlad’s reaction and only repeated what he had to say.
“Please just let me go inside. It may not be helpful to Vlad, but it will definitely be helpful to others.”
“…He’s just a person who only says what he wants to say.”
Vlad looked at the thick book that Nibelun was still holding dearly.
The book he was looking at while he was unconscious was full of pictures and benefits of all kinds of grasses.
Wizard Nibelun.
He was a wizard and a plague doctor.
※※※※
“Death followed you?”
“exactly. “No, that’s true.”
The beastman man, who had just woken up, still seemed dazed, but was saying that he was a person who had followed death.
“What death? “Is there death here?”
The appearance of the beast people is unfamiliar to northerners, with shabby black robes woven here and there, and even a strange-looking crow mask.
The village chief, who was standing quietly behind looking at the ominous appearance of Nibelun, began to mutter that he should have burned it then.
“you’re right. I have followed death… and as you said, death is here too. Because if we stay here, we’ll all die anyway!”
“Knight. Could you please let me burn that crazy cat? “That guy keeps putting a curse on our village!”
“The village has already been ruined. “We need to get people out as quickly as possible.”
“Please, driver!”
In the first place, Nibelun seemed like someone who would be burned at the stake even if he wasn’t a member of a group of con artists.
Maybe it was because he was out of his mind, but the words he spoke out in a hurry showed no consideration for his own well-being or the people around him.
“The land is already polluted. “It won’t just be a poor harvest.”
“…….”
The village chief is furious, saying that the fire at the stake has not yet been extinguished.
However, Nibelun seemed not to care about everything around him and just took out a map and held it out to Vlad, asking him to look at it.
“Look at this.”
“It’s getting more and more suspicious.”
The map Nibelun showed was too detailed for a single traveler to carry around.
Not only the approximate location of the road, but also the size of the village near the height of the river hill.
It was suspicious to be carried around for simple travel purposes.
“It’s a map that would be good for spies to carry around.”
However, despite Vlad’s suspicious gaze, the man named Nibelun only perked his ears and did not react in any way.
I was just waiting for Vlad’s answer.
“…What are these circles?”
“It indicates that the plague has spread.”
The detailed map was full of pitch black circles.
The circle that looked like it had been drawn by Nibelun even marked the village where Vlad and Jean were now.
“But this…”
After looking at the map for a while, Vlad noticed something strange and frowned.
“That’s right. “It’s strange, isn’t it?”
Nibelun was pointing to a place on the map, as if he was glad that Vlad had recognized him.
“If you just look at this, doesn’t it seem like the Vatican hasn’t done a proper purification?”
“…….”
The circles on the map were getting bigger, more numerous, and darker as they headed towards a certain place.
The place the circles pointed to was Moshiam, the capital of the Barony of Utman.
※※※※
It was early in the morning when the young deacon had not yet gotten out of his sleeping bag.
The dawn light began to shine from between the bonfires where the wood was burning and emitting hazy smoke.
“Look at that. “Didn’t I tell you I would be of help?”
“…You were right about the wizard.”
Vlad, who was rummaging around the cooled campfire, was answering bluntly as if he did not want to agree with Nibelun’s words.
A large circle that seems to circle around the group.
The circle that Nibelun had drawn yesterday so that he would not have to be on watch was creating strange distortions that were difficult to explain even when seen with Vlad’s closed left eye.
“But what are you going to do by going all the way to Moshiam?”
At Nibelun’s begging and Jean’s request, the group decided to go to Moshiam together.
However, Vlad knew very well that in order to get this suspicious wizard inside, he needed the guarantee of the knight himself.
“If you don’t tell me exactly, I won’t let you in.”
“Oh…”
Nibelun felt a gap in Vlad’s words and his amber eyes began to sparkle.
“Are you letting me in?”
“Tell me exactly why you want to go in.”
The Holy Knights of the Northern Orthodox Church will already be gathered in the city of Moshiam to search for any unusual beings. The reason Bishop Andrew sent his young deacons to Moshiam was because he hoped they would eventually move with them and gain experience.
“Have you not already seen it? “I am a wizard who chases away plagues and curses…”
Vlad remembered the image of Nibelun, who shouted that he must leave this village until the end, even though it was a village that tried to burn him down.
Although many people criticized Nibelun because it was a warning that went straight to the point without a proper explanation, he just repeated what he had to say without the slightest hesitation.
“Because death is there.”
And still, just like then, Nibelun was spitting out the words in his head without organizing them.
It seemed like a nature that was difficult to change.
“Why death?”
“Death is something you don’t know, right?”
I kept it in my heart, but when I let it out, it was only very fragmentary things.
Vlad was able to realize that the beastman man named Nibelun was no more skilled at speaking than himself, who lived in the back alley.
“Mystery lies in what you don’t know. Hiding into an unknown world. “We’ve been wandering around looking for it all our lives.”
“we?”
However, Nibelun answered this question with her hands, not her mouth, without any misunderstanding.
“Beast people?”
“yes yes. “We are the ones who wander around anytime, anywhere, with nowhere to go.”
What Nibelun was pointing at was his own ears twitching on top of his head.
“Please let me go into Moshiam. “There is death there, and death is something no one has ever experienced, so I really want to see it.”
“…….”
A beastman wizard who wants to find mystery and experience death.
The first sunlight of the day began to shine on the now completely extinguished bonfire.
Nibelun’s amber eyes reflected in that light retained a clear color, unlike his blurry speaking style.
-There is intelligence that a plague may soon follow a poor harvest. You must be especially careful about it.
Before leaving, Josef whispered to Vlad in a quiet voice to be careful of this.
The rumor originated from a note brought by a retired knight, Ramund, with a clumsy emblem of the Holy See engraved on it.
“…Let me tell the person in charge who will be there first. “I don’t know if it will work.”
“Oh, thank you. Sir!”
Thanks to Nibelun’s loud voice at the right time, Jean began to wake up from his small sleeping bag with a swollen face.
A black horse, a young donkey and a cat.
The three of them were now facing each other under today’s sun.
※※※※
[That thing moves with a curse. It can’t be cut with an ordinary sword.]
The sound of a young deacon’s song echoing in the foggy camp.
The voice spoke to Vlad, who was holding his breath amidst the sound.
“Then what should I do?”
[Can you use Auror now?]
“Are you kidding me?”
[Listen.]
A woman shedding black tears beyond the fog.
She was a poor woman who was crying for her child.
[To break that curse, you need an exorcist who wields the will of God, a knight with his own world, and a wizard who goes against the rules of the world.] The voice had said
.
Only these three who have solidified the world can cut off the woman’s tears from that evil being.
