Knight on a White Horse

 

The horse (magical language: horse) is a legendary creature resembling a great-antlered deer without antlers.

They are said to be innately fond of people, perceptive of their intentions, and swift as the wind.

— Excerpted from A Museum of Fantastical Creatures

 

"Phew, all done!"

"Good work. Food's ready."

"I could really go for a bath…"

I called out to Rin and the others as they wiped away their sweat, and Yuuka muttered that offhandedly.

At their feet lay a mountain of corpses. Monster carcasses, easily over a hundred of them. Even those two looked considerably worn out.

"Sorry for leaving it all to you."

Chryse's magic wasn't suited for combat, and the magic Nina and I used was too flashy; it risked drawing the attention of dragons. My Magic Bullet in particular came with Gilta's personal guarantee that a single shot would give me away, human form and suppressed dragon aura or not.

"There's no way I can see all of these off properly…"

Chryse murmured as she picked her way among the corpses. She could see the monsters' souls ascending toward the sky. She never shied away from killing, whether in hunting or in defense, but she always took care to send the souls of the dead on their way so they wouldn't lose their path. Ideally we'd bury the bodies too, but with this many, even a full day wouldn't suffice.

"… There are far more than we'd ever see near our village."

"Yeah. And not just more of them. They're stronger and bigger, too."

Yuuka replied to a frowning Nina. From where I'd been watching, she'd looked as effortless as always, but if she said so, it must have been true. The sheer number alone was undeniable.

Encountering a swarm of over a hundred monsters near Scarlet was exceedingly rare. Unless they'd built nests deep in caves or forests and gone unnoticed, they were always culled before their numbers could grow that large.

But the farther we traveled from Scarlet, the more monsters we encountered. The pattern was unmistakable.

"They probably just can't keep up with the culling out here," Chryse remarked as she ladled out wild rabbit and herb soup. We carried preserved rations, but between our accomplished hunter and our child of the forest, we'd never once gone wanting for a meal. It almost felt like a return to the age of hunting and gathering, and I could even afford to feel nostalgic about it.

"… Mm, this is delicious."

"Ehehe, thank you!"

Chryse beamed shyly, clutching the ladle, but there was no soup in front of her. Her body was physically dead; she couldn't digest or absorb food even if she ate it.

She could technically eat, but the food would simply rot in her stomach if left there. Dealing with it meant cutting open her abdomen and extracting the chewed-up meal from her organs.

We'd felt bad about being the only ones eating when she was the one who'd prepared the food, so we'd asked her to try it once. It was unanimously decided that we would never do that again.

Instead, she claimed, by savoring the food she'd made, we let her relive the flavors through our souls. Whether that was true, I couldn't say, since we only had her word for it. But at the very least, eating with genuine enjoyment made Chryse happy.

Chewing thoroughly and savoring every bite was the one thing we could do for her.

Not that it required any conscious effort. Chryse's cooking was simply delicious. The soup brimmed with the wholesome flavors of wild herbs and rabbit, its depth of taste hard to believe when salt was the only seasoning.

A bite of the meat revealed a mild, chicken-like flavor. Tender yet still toothsome, with none of the stringiness or gaminess you might expect.

Small nuts scattered throughout lent a pleasant crunch, adding just the right accent.

"… Hm?"

We were all engrossed in the soup when Yuuka suddenly looked up. In the next instant she was wolfing down the rest of hers, setting the bowl on the ground as she rose to her feet.

"A scream."

No sooner had the words left her mouth than she took off like the wind. I hadn't heard a thing. Had Nina?

I glanced over, only to find the elven beauty wearing a look that plainly read, "Did you hear anything?" So Nina hadn't caught it either.

"I'll go check it out too."

"Wait, I'm coming with you. Nina, Chryse, watch the supplies."

Rin stood and transformed into a white horse in the blink of an eye, taking me onto her back. I snatched up my staff and clung to her neck.

"Hold on tight!"

The moment she spoke, white wings burst from her shoulders with a whoosh, and she launched into a low-altitude gallop. Her speed was, quite literally, like the wind.

"… There!"

We spotted Yuuka almost immediately. Or rather, we spotted the monsters she was fighting.

"Trolls!"

In Norwegian folklore, trolls are a type of fairy. They're usually depicted as shaggy giants, though sometimes as dwarves, said to shapeshift into any form and regenerate from any wound.

The monsters I'd given that name had no such powers. They were nothing more than large ogres standing about three meters tall. In that sense, the girl whose back I was currently riding bore far more resemblance to a real troll than they did.

"Mentorrr, we're going straight in!"

"R-right!"

She called out right as that thought crossed my mind, and I hurriedly nodded.

They might not have had any shapeshifting abilities, but the blows from those massive frames were incomparably more dangerous than anything a goblin could muster.

"Activate!"

The moment I spoke the incantation, lines of light raced along my staff. I swung with everything I had, borrowing Rin's momentum to bring it crashing down. That alone sent the trolls' enormous bodies bouncing away like balls.

Compared to sorcery that interfered with the external world, like spirit sorcery, enchantment sorcery that reinforced physical matter was far harder to detect. And my staff, charged with everything I could pour into it, was practically a weapon in its own right.

A staff with no blade required neither reflexes nor technique. Block or dodge, it didn't matter. The magical force wreathing it would blast everything away regardless. Brute force magic at its finest.

"Nice one, big bro!"

Before the trolls I'd sent flying could pick themselves up, a red wind swept through. Yuuka, who had devoted herself to shielding the woman the trolls were attacking, switched to the offensive.

"Are you all right?"

Leaving the finishing blows to Yuuka, I dismounted from Rin and extended a hand to the silver-haired woman on the ground. But she didn't seem to notice my outstretched hand at all. She simply stared up at me, mouth agape.

"What's the matter?"

She didn't appear to have any major injuries, but her refusal to stand could mean she'd hurt herself somewhere. Perhaps I should bring her to Nina for treatment.

As I was mulling that over, she spoke.

"… Men… tor…?"

That was what she called me.