Chapter 16

When the villagers had fallen asleep, a few shops hung lanterns that glowed with fire.

Most of them were taverns, from which the voices of drunk patrons could be heard leaking out.

In the shadows, Zou was there.

He was wearing the tattered work clothes that would stand out in this world, but in this village with little light, he was not noticed.

Thinking to himself that this was his first infiltration into a human settlement, Zou began to peek into the taverns one by one.

The next day after escorting Akari, Zou found her staggering at the very edge of the Great Thorned Land Spider's territory.

It was easy to guess that she had come down from the mountain alone, navigating through the territory of the Great Thorned Land Spider with heightened senses, but why she was in such a state.

Zou, who had just finished hunting burrowing rabbits and was returning to the cave, rushed over, and Akari fainted.

Literally a rabbit that burrows through stone, but more importantly, he handed the prey to Yuki and picked up Akari.

After being laid down in the cave, Akari woke up after a while and began to speak, her words spilling out in a trickle.

Still, the information was not much.

When she descended the mountain, the village at the foot was dyed red with hostile reactions.

Since there was no smoke rising from the village, no cries or commotion, it was clear that it was not a monster attack or a rampage of magical beasts.

Upon closer inspection of the village's reaction, not everything was red; only the gatekeeper, the Hunter's Guild branch, the mayor's house, and shops and inns were red, not all the villagers' homes.

Zou listened silently to this.

When Akari finally finished speaking, she covered her face with her hands, overwhelmed by the emotions welling up.

She could not suppress her sobs.

She was afraid of the red transformation of people beyond her control. The fear of seeing the enemy reactions change day by day after escaping from the summoned academy was terrifying.

And now it was the village. Although she was not close to everyone, the village that had been strong and kind until the other day was now dyed red. There was an uncontrollable fear and sadness.

"Well, it's a good opportunity. I'll go check it out."

Akari rubbed her eyes and looked up.

"…Do you have any ID?"

"There's no way I do."

"You won't be able to get in. I'm sorry for causing trouble here, but I should be fine if I go back to Rolana."

"What if Rolana is red too?"

"…"

Akari was speechless at Zou's blunt words.

After a few more exchanges, Zou entrusted Akari to Yuki and went down the mountain.

He descended when the sun was directly overhead and arrived at the village at the foot of the mountain around midnight. Although he had come a long way from when he was in Japan, he was not fully aware of it because his point of comparison was Yuki.

The physical adaptation to being summoned to the snowy mountains and the monk-like days spent in the snowy mountains for about 580 days had begun to put him outside the realm of ordinary people in this world.

Bathed in the blue moonlight, it looked like an old fortress.

Zou confirmed the surroundings while feeling a sense of intimidation.

The village was surrounded by a moat and an earthen wall.

The moat, though without water, was wide enough for small boats to pass, and the earthen wall was about as tall as an ordinary person.

The traces of repairs here and there made it reminiscent of a seasoned warrior.

However, that was all.

There might be surveillance or alert magic, but Akari had explained that such things were not likely to be in a village.

There were magic barriers and alert magic, but most of them were autonomous magic kept secret by the state. Recently, more general-purpose barriers and alert magic with significantly reduced effectiveness had begun to be sold, but they were very expensive.

Without relying on barriers, all the Dorgans could fight.

It was the pride of the Dorgans, who had been fighting monsters and magical beasts since ancient times.

The Dorgan Council would often shout this loudly, but everyone knew it was just a facade.

The truth was simply that there was no money.

The lack of a barrier in the capital was a matter of national pride, so it was somehow secured, but there was no money to buy barriers for the outlying areas.

Zou easily infiltrated the village.

He had climbed up using earth spirit magic to create a small foothold.

Since it was a moat and an earthen wall designed to repel monsters and magical beasts, it was inevitable that it could not repel Zou's infiltration.

Following Akari's instructions, Zou began to search for a tavern.

Maxime had been drinking all night since Akari went missing.

As a result of political negotiations, Akari was lent to Dorgan, and he could not stop it.

He took a forced leave and escorted Akari to the village of Sarehad at the foot of the Alerdoria Mountains, but she never returned after going hunting.

He regretted not entrusting her to a noble hunter, but it was too late.

How many times had he thought of going to look for her himself.

Maxime finished his umpteenth cheap distilled drink and slammed the bottle on the table.

Compared to the giant race, which was twice the size of a human, the bottle looked incredibly small.

It was clear that he was still holding back, but the sparse customers did not dare to get involved with the agitated giant.

At almost the same time as the sound of the bottle being slammed, a crumpled piece of paper slid in front of Maxime.

Maxime reached for it.

But the piece of paper was quickly snatched away.

"You got something interesting there, don't you?"

The man who glared silently at Maxime flinched slightly.

He was one of the noble hunter's lackeys. A thug-like man, but these men were always keeping an eye on Maxime.

"…Heh heh, don't take it personally."

The thug read the piece of paper but shook his head.

"Looks like a prostitute's invitation… but I have to report everything, or I'll be in trouble."

Waving the piece of paper with his fingers, the thug fled from the tavern.

"Shit!"

With a loud thud, Maxime's fist sent the bottle flying.

Maxime stood up, put a few bills on the table, and left the tavern.

The tavern was left with the silence of a typhoon passing through.

When Maxime returned to the inn, he received the key at the entrance and entered the room, sitting on the bed without turning on the light.

"…Are you one of the underground people?"

In the pitch-black room, Maxime whispered.

"You wouldn't believe me if I said no, would you?"

A casual voice echoed.

"Just out of curiosity, why did you believe me?"

"The handwriting of the shadow letters is the same as Akari's. Even the incomprehensible characters."

"Ah, I see. Then—"

"Hold it. I believe it's Akari's, but I can't trust someone who uses dark spirit magic in the middle of the village. Show yourself."

Zou was using dark spirit magic to blend into the night.

The capabilities of dark spirit magic were to blend into the darkness and manipulate shadows. It could not materialize the darkness or shadows for attacks, storage, or curses.

It literally controlled 'darkness and shadows.'

Because of this nature, it was useless for ordinary people, and on the contrary, it was often used by criminals, thieves, and assassins, giving it a bad image. As Maxime said, it was easy to be seen as an underground person.

And Zou had used dark spirit magic to communicate with Maxime at the tavern.

He had slid in a seemingly ordinary public prostitute's invitation using wind spirit magic, and at the same time, used the shadow to project words on the table.

As expected, even if he noticed the letter visually or the presence of the wind spirit, the thin presence of the dark spirit magic used at night was not detected.

If he canceled the shadow as soon as Maxime stood up, there would be no evidence left.

All that was left was to follow Maxime to the inn.

By actually observing Maxime's situation at the tavern, he saved the trouble of searching for the inn and avoided being attacked by Maxime in the room by using the roundabout method of shadow letters.

But it ended up making him suspicious, and this world was quite complicated.

Zou thought this as he dispersed the darkness he had wrapped himself in.