Chapter 31
Elves stand out a great deal in the human world.
If I mingle among a crowd of people out and about, I can sometimes unexpectedly disappear into it, but most people who see me up close are surprised at first, or look at me as though I'm something unusual.
It's not that I particularly dislike it.
Standing out doesn't always work against me, but there are plenty of times when it works in my favor.
For example, becoming the subject of rumors right away makes it difficult to act secretly, but conversely, precisely because I stand out, things sometimes move on their own even when I don't take any active steps.
Some people avoid conspicuous strangers, but others go out of their way to be kind to someone just because they're unusual.
Yes, it all depends on how the dice happen to fall.
So, which way would the dice fall this time?
The letter arrived on my fourth day in Saurote.
Its contents were an apology for a quarrel caused by a misunderstanding, along with an invitation.
The sender was the aforementioned Laret Trading Company, which operated under the Toritorine family.
In short, they wanted me to visit the company so they could apologize for the trouble with the sailors.
Among the trading companies under the Toritorine family, Laret was a hardline company that would stop at nothing for profit.
There were rumors that it engaged in pirate-like activities when it went out to sea.
Nine times out of ten, this summons was probably meant to win me over at this stage, but depending on how the conversation went, it could turn into a trap.
Naturally, I ignored the summons from Laret.
After all, even if they had business with me, I had no business with them.
Rather than receive a merchant's perfunctory apology, what mattered more to me right now was stuffing myself with the seafood Doryze caught and Grand cooked.
But perhaps it was because I'd ignored their invitation like that.
On the night of the fifth day, I took a walk to settle my stomach after leaving Grand's shop, and when I came to gaze out over the dark sea from the beach, I found myself surrounded by several armed men.
The men surrounding me drew their swords without so much as a word.
They had no intention of merely threatening me; they meant to quickly turn the foolish outsider who had come to a beach at night into fish food.
If this had been in town, they might have settled for intimidation, but they had chosen swift elimination because such a perfect opportunity had presented itself.
They must have thought that if they all attacked at once, one of their blades would reach me before I could hit them with a mass of water.
But of course, I'd set this up to lure them in.
Someone had been watching me ever since the day of my altercation with the sailors at the harbor.
The watcher was quite skilled and had concealed their presence well among the people, but the wind spirit had told me they were there.
So, with the letter from the other day in mind, I went without drinking tonight and deliberately put on a careless act.
I hadn't expected them to take the bait so cleanly and resort to such a heavy-handed approach, though.
Was it simply rashness, because I looked that threatening to them, or because they had underestimated me?
Only the watcher who mattered wasn't among the men surrounding me.
That gaze remained fixed on me even now, and while Laret was one thing, I couldn't afford to let my guard down where the watcher personally was concerned.
Without saying a word, the men rushed at me all at once with their swords.
The blades glinting in the moonlight were cutlasses—curved-bladed shipboard swords.
They were weapons favored by sailors, with short blades that made them easy to wield in cramped places such as aboard a ship.
In other words, they weren't exactly the best weapons for a battle on a wide-open beach.
If I leaped far backward to evade a slash, I'd end up at the water's edge, where the waves were washing in.
There'd be no escape behind me.
But running had never been part of my plan.
"Earth spirit."
I murmured to the spirit at my feet, then drew my sword, stepped forward, and swung.
For someone unaccustomed to it, the beach at the water's edge was the worst possible footing.
But anyone accustomed to it moved from the outset expecting the sand to catch their feet.
That was why their movements would fall apart if the footing suddenly hardened until it was like stone paving.
Then my sword swept through them with Kaeha's Yosogi-style swordsmanship—a technique whose cutting power was likely second to none.
There were five men surrounding me, and I swung my sword three times.
Yet with those three swings, every cutlass the men held broke halfway down and became a useless toy.
I didn't know who had made them, but they were remarkably shoddy weapons.
They had probably been used without proper maintenance, too.
The cutlasses broke without even resisting, as if they had chosen death for themselves.
They may have been wary of attacks with masses of water, but they had never imagined being counterattacked with a sword.
I couldn't match Kaeha, but I could swing a sword reasonably well.
The men, now weaponless, panicked. Rather than attack or flee, they froze for an instant.
Well, whatever they did, the outcome would have been the same.
"Earth spirit, one more time, please."
Hearing my voice, the earth spirit instantly dug holes beneath the men's feet and sent them tumbling in.
I checked the faces of the five men buried up to their necks in sand, but recognized none of them.
I searched for the watcher's presence again, but it had already disappeared.
The wind spirit told me that the watcher had fled toward town almost as soon as I'd engaged the men.
An idea for a prank came to me, and I made a third request of the earth spirit.
If anyone came to rescue the buried men, I asked the earth spirit to drop them into holes in the same way and bury them up to their necks in sand.
Now then, how many more people could I catch?
I had no intention of killing them, so before the tide changed, I'd call Doryze or someone else over and have the men properly captured. But since they'd pointed weapons at me, they could stay frightened for a while.