Chapter 14
The young woman with soft chestnut hair, Elenora Addis, was surprised to find a small girl standing behind the door when it opened.
“Hello?”
“Ah, hello.”
Elenora looked at the girl's flushed cheeks and slightly disheveled clothes as she answered.
Could she be the young lady Tarmin had mentioned—the one who was going to present flowers at the festival?
She asked with a polite smile.
“I'm sorry. Did I interrupt something?”
“Huh? Interrupt? …Oh, no! Not at all!”
Enya had been standing there languidly, but when she realized what Elenora meant, she flusteredly waved her hands.
“Um, Ms. Elenora, right? Please call me Enya. But it's absolutely, absolutely nothing like that! You came to see Taal, right? Just a moment!”
Enya waved her hands so frantically she looked like she might take flight.
Elenora smiled at the girl's youthful, innocent air as she hurriedly disappeared through the crack in the door.
Taal. She repeated the nickname that had come from the girl's lips.
It seemed that nickname was reserved for Enya.
Muffled shouts and curses came through the door, followed by a series of crashes.
“Taal, you idiot, why aren't you getting up?”
“No, wait, just five minutes. Please.”
“Don't talk nonsense, hurry up! Someone's waiting outside!”
The commotion died down, and a little while later Tarmin appeared outside the door, greeting her with a pale face.
“Good day, miss.”
Elenora was surprised to see Tarmin hunched over and unable to straighten up, and asked,
“Are you feeling unwell?”
“No! I just... ate a little too much.”
“I see. I'm sorry to come calling in the middle of the festival.”
“Not at all. You couldn't have come at a better time! It was so close...”
Startled by Tarmin's fervent attitude, she asked,
“What? The right time? Close?”
“It's, well, no, ahem. It's nothing.”
Watching Tarmin trail off and turn his head away, Elenora thought of the girl who'd come out earlier.
“May I ask you something?”
“Of course. Go ahead.”
“The woman who just came out—are you lovers? Or family?”
“Huh? Ah, you mean Enya? Of course not. We're friends.”
Friends?
This time, Elenora was the one taken aback by Tarmin's easygoing smile.
They didn't look alike at all, so she hadn't thought they were family; she'd expected him to say they were lovers, or not quite yet, but friends?
It was hard to imagine a pure friendship between an innocent-looking, snow-white girl and a hunter who handled traps.
What came to mind first was that Tarmin had been the guide for the hero's party.
That was also why Elenora had taken an interest in him, despite his being an ordinary hunter.
Heroes supposedly went on unimaginable adventures. Perhaps they'd met during one of them?
Even so, the girl didn't look like someone who'd spent time with those jaded adventurers.
“But what brings you here?”
Watching Tarmin ask the reason for her visit, she decided she could find out more another time, though she was a little disappointed.
“Tarmin, I'm sorry to interrupt your festival, but I need your judgment.”
“You need my judgment? I'm a hunter, you know.”
“Yes.”
As if recalling something unpleasant, Elenora frowned and said,
“I need a hunter's judgment.”
**
The owner of the shattered carriage was named Tuvok.
He'd been transporting cargo from the western city of Robay to Quaalid in the early hours of the morning.
With the Garden Festival in full swing, the three northeastern cities, including Quaalid, were consuming a tremendous amount of goods, bringing a tidy income to some diligent independent peddlers.
The traveling merchant Tuvok had hurried to make the delivery, hoping to build up his capital and settle in a decent city while he had the chance. That night, he passed near Lake Dumo and the Addis hunting grounds.
Then a huge, terrifying monster attacked. His horse was assaulted, and the carriage overturned.
The impact felt like the sky had fallen on him. Tuvok rolled across the ground several times, and when he came to, only the horse's mutilated corpse remained.
“Does Quaalid even maintain its roads? If I'd known monsters like that roamed around here, I wouldn't have come anywhere near the place!”
Tuvok was arguing with the Quaalid guards, irritably tugging at the yellow scarf around his neck.
His efforts to get compensation for his losses were pitiful, but Elenora found it hard to endure the inexplicable Western fashion of wearing scarves.
Quaalid tended to look down on anything that wasn't practical, like winter clothing, or neat, as pretentious.
Elenora stepped in for the guards, who were listening to Tuvok's pleas with indifference.
“Mr. Tuvok, I'm glad you survived an accident that could have cost you your life. However, the route you took isn't a highway—or even a road. This is a hunting ground.”
Tuvok had been struggling to argue with the taciturn guards armed with spears and swords. The moment he spotted the young lady who seemed to be in charge, he grew excited, veins bulging on his forehead.
“What? So Quaalid's done nothing wrong by letting that monster roam free?”
Elenora answered with a smile.
“Yes.”
“What outrageous nonsense! The guild won't let this stand!”
He shouted that unless they offered proper compensation, the merchants would take collective action and severely damage Quaalid's supply routes, and that she should consider what sort of reprimand she might face as the person in charge.
“To begin with, what do you mean, a hunting ground? Are you saying Quaalid releases monsters and raises them here?”
She could have listened to his whining for hours, but it was hard to endure the rank odor rising from Tuvok's body after he'd spent all day driving a carriage.
He was probably the type who considered going several days without washing to be frugal.
One of the guards read her displeasure in her expressionless face and subtly angled his spear.
Shall we remove him?
She gently shook her head.
They weren't alone at the scene of the accident.
She looked at the merchant, who was still babbling, his eyes weary.
It would be easy to pretend he'd never arrived in Quaalid, but the records of his departure from Robay would still remain.
If she took the easy way out just because it was a nuisance, she might leave herself open to attacks from all sides later.
By her siblings.
Elenora smiled brightly at Tuvok.
“Mr. Tuvok, please wait a little. We aren't even certain yet that a monster attacked you, are we?”
As she spoke, Elenora thought the idea might work quite well.
There was no monster. The horse had been injured in an unfortunate carriage accident and had to be put down.
Perhaps they could simply offer him a suitable horse and buy his silence.
"Are you checking now? Who's that young man?“
Elenora Addis answered with a bright smile.
“He's a very skilled hunter.”
The guards, understanding her intention, approached the merchant.
Startled as the men came closer, Tuvok said fearfully,
“W-what are you doing?”
“Mr. Tuvok. About that monster you said you saw...”
**
Tarmin was looking at the horse's crushed corpse.
He clicked his tongue at the horse's head, mangled beyond recognition.
“Even with a hammer, I couldn't do that.”
He wondered if a boulder had fallen from somewhere, but there wasn't a rock nearby—not even one as big as a fist.
“A person didn't do this, did they?”
“...No.”
Tarmin looked at Enya, who was examining the scene with keen interest.
Elenora had tried several times to dissuade her, saying it wasn't a pleasant sight, but Enya had insisted on coming along, too.
She'd offered the somewhat far-fetched excuse that it was a festival, but Elenora had glanced at the embarrassed Tarmin before giving her permission.
Though Enya had recently been laid low by illness and was now working as a tavern waitress, her innate attraction to incidents and adventure couldn't be helped.
She'd been born with the qualities of a hero.
If Enya hadn't been who she was, she never would have dragged Tarmin into the adventure to save the world.
The disgusting stench of blood filled the air, but Enya didn't seem bothered at all.
“Why did it leave the driver alone? Did it attack out of hunger, but learn that humans are dangerous? Fear of retaliation? Or some kind of warning?”
Unlike Enya, who was cheerfully talking through one possibility after another, Tarmin was silent.
It wasn't time for the church bells to ring yet, but they seemed to be ringing in his head already.
Part of Tarmin was telling him to get out of here at once and investigate.
The rest of him said that explaining the situation to Elenora came first.
Unaware of how anxious Tarmin was, Enya cheerfully continued her deductions.
“So, to sum it up, the culprit is strong enough to crush a horse's head. Judging by the marks left on the ground nearby and on the horse, it also has formidable claws—so sharp that simply calling them sharp hardly does them justice. It walks on two legs like a person, but used all four just before leaping at the horse.”
“Enya. Wait a second.”
He hoped to God Elenora hadn't heard.
Feeling as if the blood were draining from him, he turned around.
Elenora was talking to the merchant who'd lost his carriage and didn't seem to have heard Enya.
“Judging by how it tore into the horse meat, it isn't a monster. It's a living creature that eats and sleeps. And it's intelligent enough to recognize humans and choose not to attack them. So the conclusion is...”
Like a student who'd figured out the answer first, Enya said excitedly,
“The culprit is a therianthrope! In other words, a shapeshifter. Like a werewolf. What do you think?”
Tarmin thought of the werewolf girl he knew well.
If there was no one in the cage, it meant a hunter had work to do.
He hoped Enya's deduction was wrong.