There was a cave-like area formed by a series of overlapping rocks on the banks of the river near the outside of the village.
A small cave that only a small child would be able to enter.
As I made my way forward, I thought that if Sofia were to hide, it would be there where she used to go to take shelter from the rain.
And sure enough, when I arrived at my destination, my eyes could clearly see a familiar silhouette, even though it was the middle of the night.
“Heeey!!!”
I saw Sofia, the girl crouching with her head in her hands, and I called out to her.
Her whole body was shaking, and I turned to her.
But I heard no response.
She appeared to be covering both ears with her hands, as if she was trying not to hear the sounds around her as much as possible.
“Hm…”
So I racked my brains a little and decided to mince the words I was going to use and decided to use words that Sofia might respond to.
“Hey, that runaway girl right there!”
“I-I’m not a runaway! …Huh? Julius?”
“Yeah. I was the reason why you’re out here right now, so I’m just taking you back home.”
“Take me home…?”
When I answered nonchalantly, she peeled her eyes away, as if she couldn’t believe it.
“There are a lot of monsters here, you know that right?! Like a lot of them!”
“Yeah, it seems like it.”
Sofia’s expression twinkled as if she was taken aback when I replied casually, this time with a crackle.
I didn’t express it in words, but I knew there was something she wanted to imply with her constantly changing expressions.
“If you’re thinking about the goblins, I can take them down. I didn’t kill it, but I impaired one on my way here.”
“…Y- You shouldn’t lie like that, Julius.”
It was known that even the “hunters” like the dads in the village were having a hard time with the goblins.
Her words came out one after another, all of which encouraged her opinion of denial, as if to think that I was only joking despite encountering goblins.
“I’m not lying, what I just said was true…”
While looking around restlessly, she wondered if there was anything she could do to prove her right.
I wasn’t trying to be boastful by any means.
But as much as I wanted to prove my point to get her out of here, I realized that the cave Sofia was currently hiding in was in full view from the outside.
She hid here because she probably thought it was safe, but in a place where you could see the entirety of the inside from the outside, you could hardly call it safe by any standard.
I wanted to leave this place as soon as possible, but I’d rather wait it out until the morning and catch my breath, rather than run aimlessly, considering we’re two helpless children.
Sofia was sure to voice her opinion, and because I had anticipated this, I needed proof to shut her down.
And then, suddenly…
I noticed a bloodstain on the tip of the stick I was holding.
Because the tip had been bent down, there was a slightly sharp point on it. Perhaps that part had partially penetrated through the goblin’s skin.
“Err… Look!”
I then show Sofia the bloodstained tip of the stick.
Reddish-black, the color of blood unique to the monsters.
Fortunately, I only had one encounter with a goblin and I guess I was lucky that I was able to reach this place without being attacked by any other goblins.
“Do you believe me now?”
I slightly distanced the stick from Sofia, so that the sharp part won’t hit her.
She stared intently at the bloodstains, and at the same time, her nose twitched.
“ E-Ehh… Are you serious? You really defeated a goblin, Julius? …Ah— It reeks so bad. Uuuh… I shouldn’t have smelled it.”
She pinched her nose as hard as she could and contorted her face at the stench that had clung to the piece of stick, as though she couldn’t stand it.
“Does it smell that bad?”
While Sofia was writhing with her nose pinched, I moved the tip closer to my nose to confirm the smell I had not noticed until now.
“UWA— It stinks!!!”
There was a strange odor wafting through the air so foul that I could not help but cringe.
“But say, how come you’re unharmed at this moment? Oh, no, it’s not like I wanted something to happen to you or something! It’s just that I often hear that monsters are sensitive to the smell of blood…”
Monsters are sensitive to the smell of blood.
That was a story that was as factual as anyone knew.
“Maybe I just got lucky—”
My thinking paused.
You could say that my world had slowed down.
And from then on, I was trapped in a whirlpool of thoughts.
***
Reaper Scans
***
I was lucky.
I had not paid attention to it until now, but I thought it was ridiculously comical.
Once I had doubts, I was finished.
The feelings of uncertainty that surfaced bubbled up endlessly.
The unpleasant screeching that I had been hearing so loudly since the battle now cannot be heard.
The goblins should be flooding near us by now, but it even seems like their presence has faded away.
Why? How?
Doubts led to more doubts, a creeping feeling in my spine, and a sudden thirst hit my throat.
“It’s just that I often hear that monsters are sensitive to the smell of blood…”
Sofia’s voice, which had shaken my eardrums a few moments before, was partially cut there only to rewind a little bit after.
…It was blood, the smell of blood.
I didn’t know why, but the presence of goblins had diminished since the smell of blood started wafting around me.
What would normally be rather thick, somehow became thinner.
That was the reason.
When I thought about it, I was struck by a sudden thirst, and at the same time, one word came to my mind.
“Ogre.”
The answer I finally arrived at, in a voice devoid of emotion, trembled in my throat as I try to voice it out.
Monsters had no intelligence. They had no sense of reason, either.
If so, what did monsters live according to?
The answer was… their INSTINCT.
We followed our instincts as a species.
It was instinct to bow down to the strong
It was also instinctive to step aside, to wait, and to obey.
My sense of alarm went off, constantly echoing throughout my brain.
Just… what if the reason the goblins were gone wasn’t luck, but the ogre was after me because of the smell?
I didn’t know why, but I could hear the sound of missing pieces of the puzzle snapping into place.
“This is bad—”
With this thought, I turned my back on Sofia, who was still cowering in the cave, and hurriedly looked back behind me.
What I saw was…
“Grra— Aaahhhhh…”
There laid a monster.
A monster with a body so strong that it could not be compared to that of a human being.
There was not the slightest sign of the goblins that I had felt just a few minutes before.
“When did he get here—?”
An aura of strength that overwhelmed the surroundings engulfed the place, leaving me in a state of agitation.
“…No. He was… at my tail all this time…”
I had caught wind of rumors that monsters of higher ranks tended to be exceptionally intelligent.
The ogre with bloodshot eyes had me in its sights.
Why?
Because I stomped on one of his kind just earlier.
“…Give me a goddamn break.”
I can win.
Blindingly aware of the ogre’s tactics, I revised my assessment of him to be somewhat higher.
Red, bloated muscles.
A rusty greatsword that would have been taller than I am.
And above all, unlike the goblin with a vile smile on his face, the ogre had not the slightest intention of underestimating me.
“Sofia.”
I called out the name of my childhood friend who, like myself, gasped at the sight of the ogre, precisely because we had determined that the ogre was still in a wait-and-see stage.
Perhaps the goblins had taken shelter in a place much further away than here to avoid being caught in the storm of the ogre.
“I think there won’t be any goblins around here at this moment, so, run.”
“W-What about you?!”
The ogre couldn’t understand human language, but I think he somehow, instinctively sensed what we were up to… running away.
And that was probably why the ogre, which was supposed to be watching us, let out a furious scream.
“Me?”
I had already decided what I’d do by the time I had resolved myself into going here.
“That’s a given.”
Compared to the big sword that showed its presence, despite rusting, my short, light piece of stick was rather unreliable.
I couldn’t help but laugh at the situation I found myself in.
“We met rather early… but, oh well.”
It may be too late, but there was no such thing as too early.
I told myself this and then turned to the snarling ogre and Sofia as if to threaten them.
“At any rate, there has to be someone to take on this ogre, right? Hell to ‘Slaying the Stars’ if I get defeated in a place like this. I won’t lose.”
“B-But—”
Nevertheless, Sofia was not willing to back down.
Whether the ogre would chase after his escaping prey or if he’d let her go to take me on was beyond my thought right now.
What I was certain about was that he wasn’t willing to wait anymore.
“GAAAH—!”
His mouth opened with a snap, and the sharp, fang-like canine teeth peeked out.
“GGGAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!”
His mighty scream cut through the darkness of the night, laying a merciless devastation before it.
——
——
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