Chapter 13 - The Traveling Merchant Lionel (2)
Lionel turned out to be a much more troublesome person than Lawrence had expected.
Despite his burly, bear-like build and rugged, masculine appearance, his mouth never stopped moving for even a moment.
"…There are always scammers trying to make a quick buck off traveling merchants like me. It's not just about haggling over prices. Some folks just outright try to rip you off. Honestly, it's just because they have no idea who they're dealing with."
This time, Lionel launched into a story about something that happened in a village somewhere.
He insisted that the idea people from the countryside are straightforward is a complete myth.
He grumbled nonstop, complaining about their hostility and how unfairly they treated a traveling merchant who just happened to pass through.
"Don't you think so? Can you believe someone tried to sell Underwolf hide for 1 silver each, and it wasn't even top quality? Does that sound reasonable to you? Even 20 copper would've been a generous offer for it."
"Is that so?"
"It's not 'is that so,' it's fact. Go ask another merchant if you don't believe me. There's no one as honest as I am. I'm basically buying at a loss."
Lionel talked so much that he was practically spitting with every word, and it never stopped.
He shook the reins in his hand wildly, as if to say, "Only someone like me could manage a life like this."
Naturally, the horse, which had been running calmly, startled in fright.
Lionel, unfazed, quickly regained control and continued speaking as if nothing had happened.
"Now, where was I?"
"You were talking about Underwolf hides."
"Ah, right, that's it. I'm glad to see you're listening carefully. Then how about we move on to Orcs this time?"
"..."
As if the robe wasn't hot enough already, having him ramble on next to me made everything even more unbearable.
After being worn down day and night for several days, I was beginning to think I'd rather just run into a monster.
Experiencing real combat would be valuable, and as Lionel had just mentioned, monsters like Underwolves were worth decent money.
Lawrence shook his head.
That was a thought he shouldn't be having.
Maybe it was because his coin pouch was getting lighter, but he was feeling more anxious than usual.
Still, once this commission was finished, he'd have a little more breathing room, so for now, he needed to keep his mind as light as possible.
In the end, after spending the entire day matching Lionel's endless chatter, Lawrence found himself nodding off while taking the night watch.
At any other time, he might have practiced magic,
but he was so mentally exhausted that he just couldn't focus.
But sometimes, don't they say that misfortune can turn into a blessing?
Thanks to dozing off, Lawrence had recovered some of his energy by the next day.
He sensed a hostile presence approaching the wagon.
"Mr. Lionel, please get inside the wagon."
"Huh—what? Okay!"
First, he had to secure the client's safety.
After ushering Lionel into the wagon, Lawrence loaded his crossbow.
The monsters targeting the wagon were goblins.
There were four in total.
Their gear was no different from the goblins he'd seen before.
It was the perfect number for Lawrence to face after such a long break from real combat. If possible, he'd try to reduce their numbers before they could get close.
He calmly took aim from atop the wagon. The moment he held his breath, the quarrel flew.
Kieeek!
With a piercing death cry, one of the goblins fell silent.
There was no time to celebrate.
He quickly loaded another quarrel and fired.
The second one.
Now there was no distance left between them.
One goblin darted forward and leapt onto the wagon.
"Fire."
A stream of flames erupted right before its eyes.
Keurk!?
Lawrence didn't miss the moment the goblin flinched.
His spear pierced straight through its chest.
A clean strike. He could feel the warmth fading from his fingertips. When he pulled out the spear, blue blood spurted out.
What about the other one? It wouldn't have been strange if it had reached them by now.
He spotted it far away, lingering near its companion who'd been felled by the quarrel.
There was no need to wonder why it hadn't come any closer. Its back was on full display—clearly, it meant to run.
It must have been terrified after seeing the other three fall in an instant.
Lawrence watched it for a moment, then lowered his spear.
This was a good opportunity. The boy stretched out both hands and spoke.
"Shadow Spear."
A spear rose from the shadows.
Proving the results of a month of practice, it took barely five seconds to complete the spell. Compared to his first cast—which had taken nearly thirty seconds—this was a tremendous improvement.
The goblin still hadn't made it off the road. Before it could escape into the forest, Lawrence finished aiming.
As he maintained the spear, a faint pain welled up in his chest.
It's fine. It wasn't enough to break his focus. Lawrence kept his eyes on the goblin until the very end, then released the Shadow Spear.
Thwip!
The Shadow Spear sliced through the air in the blink of an eye, grazing the fleeing goblin's side.
Disappointment flickered in Lawrence's eyes.
He missed.
He'd aimed carefully until the very last moment, but still hadn't landed a hit.
Should he cast it again?
No, the distance was too great.
By the time the next Shadow Spear was ready, the goblin would already be lost in the woods.
But then, something was off.
The goblin that had taken a hit to its side from the Shadow Spear had suddenly stopped moving
A moment later, the creature's side burst open. Its insides, which should have stayed within its body, poured out like water. The goblin collapsed into the pool of its own blood and lay still, unable to move anymore.
"..."
Lawrence checked the goblin that had been struck by the Shadow Spear.
A foul stench began to rise.
If the Underwolf's blood had smelled similar to that of wild beasts, goblin blood was closer to a nauseating stench like excrement.
Filthy things could be seen through the blood and organs.
But that wasn't what mattered. He focused on the wound where the Shadow Spear had grazed it.
The crude metal plate that had protected the body was utterly destroyed. It was as unrecognizable as the goblin's body. Lawrence lifted a piece of the metal plate, barely the size of a finger.
The spot where the Shadow Spear had grazed it was sharply shredded, as if it had been sliced by a saw blade.
But rather than the metal plate, the part of the body that had taken the hit directly…
Lawrence frowned. Even when he stirred through the blood, he couldn't find where the wound had been. It wasn't just grazed as if by a saw blade—it had exploded. That was a more accurate description.
All that from just a grazing hit—what destructive power. If the Shadow Spear had landed a direct hit, wouldn't the goblin's body have exploded right then and there?
That wasn't an effect I saw when I practiced on trees.
Why was that? Had I been subconsciously suppressing the power of the spell myself? Or was this the original power of the Shadow Spear in the first place? Did my magical skill suddenly improve through actual combat experience?
Or maybe… Though it sounds like a joke, maybe the stress I got from Lionel came out violently in my magic.
Seriously, I wasn't kidding—the sheer amount of talking I had to endure had left me much more stressed than I realized.
I don't know.
Right now, I just can't work out the answer. I considered casting Shadow Spear one more time while I was at it, but I stopped when I spotted Lionel already coming out of the wagon.
"Wow. Impressive. Even if it was just a goblin, I didn't expect you to take it down so cleanly," Lionel said.
"It was just a goblin, that's all," Lawrence replied.
I was lucky.
The number was just right for regaining my combat instincts.
Most of all, it helped a lot that I spotted their ambush ahead of time.
"Hmm, hmm. You know, maybe you're actually a pretty decent mercenary. And since you're still young, you've got a lot of room to grow."
"I told you, I'm not that young."
"Wahaha! Answering like that is proof you are. It's best not to get so worked up over a joke from someone older. That way, people won't look down on you. I mean that as genuine advice."
"..."
I couldn't think of a reply.
For some reason, Lionel's manner reminded me a lot of someone I knew.
The closer our journey brought us to our destination, the more frequent the monster attacks became.
Usually, it was goblins. And since goblins tended to move in packs, sometimes as few as three attacked the wagon, and sometimes as many as nearly ten swarmed us. If there were only a few, Lawrence could handle them alone, but when their numbers neared ten, that was no easy task—not by a long shot.
At most, I could pick off two with the crossbow before they got too close. Once the goblins got near, I couldn't use the Shadow Spear on them effectively. I had no choice but to fight using my spear and Fire in combination.
But surprisingly, this problem was easier to deal with than I expected.
"Are you sure you'll be alright?"
"What, you think I can't handle it? I may not look like much, but I'm Lionel the wagon driver. Do you think nothing ever happened to me after traveling all over with loads of goods, dozens or even hundreds of times? Every time, I got through it with driving skills that'd put any royal coachman to shame. Want to hear a story? There was this one time, back when I was out in the Ulbazar Swamp, dodging a downpour of Bugbears…"
"I understand. Then I'll leave the wagon to you, Mr. Lionel."
From that point on, Lionel stopped trying to hide inside the wagon. He'd seen my skills firsthand and finally trusted me.
That alone made it a lot easier to get through any tough spot. For all my worries, it was Lionel who drove the wagon. Once the horses got moving, it took the goblins twice as long to catch up to us, and in that time, I could take them down one by one.
I didn't use the Shadow Spear at all. It wasn't that I didn't trust Lionel, but I had a feeling things would get a lot more complicated if he found out I was a mage.
Besides, it was tricky to use in the first place. Magic from a stationary wagon was completely different from casting while the wagon was rattling along.
If it had been a simple, fast-casting spell like Fire or Shadow, maybe it would've been different. But Shadow Spear, which needed to take the shape of a spear, kept getting disrupted whenever I lost focus.
Let's be honest. That's right—I wanted to use it, but simply couldn't. Fortunately, I had plenty of quarrels, and the spear I picked up at the blacksmith worked flawlessly.
Facing goblins wasn't especially dangerous. And casting Fire at the right moments helped a lot.
After all, who wouldn't panic when flames suddenly burst out in front of them?
That goes for monsters, too. In fact, Fire wasn't just good for scaring them—it became even more powerful when it actually hit their bodies.
Now that I think about it, I remember hearing once that burning to death is the most excruciating way to die.
Of course, getting that kind of destructive power from Fire would normally take incredible concentration, but that's not the point.
The fear of fire is instinctive. Even just leaving a burn could make the enemy hesitate and shrink back.
Thanks to that, Fire improved noticeably throughout this job.
It was nothing like just practicing in the woods. Maybe it was that constant awareness that one wrong move could mean death? Whatever the case, using magic in a real battle let me feel my skills improving by leaps and bounds.
Usually, since I fought from the rear of the wagon, I didn't have to worry about Lionel watching me.
Once I vented all my built-up stress on the monsters, the journey finally started to feel a bit fun.
On the tenth day since we left Redanthus Village, I began to notice the scenery gradually changing.
The forest grew denser.
Depending on the path, ancient trees blocked out so much of the sky that almost no sunlight managed to filter through.
Sometimes it felt like something was watching me from within the woods, and the bugs started appearing more and more often.
Lionel crushed an ant crawling on the Coachman's Seat with his finger.
"In about five more days, we should arrive."
"We're almost there, then."
"Normally, we'd have gotten there even sooner. But something's off with this delivery—I've run into way more monsters along the way than usual."
"If we have to face monsters anyway, isn't it better to get it over with as soon as possible? It's always wise to eliminate the source of trouble early."
As the journey dragged on, I started to regret that my robe didn't have a hood.
I lost count of how many times bugs had dropped right onto my head.
Once we got to Horos Village, it might be worth checking if I could at least get a hood tailored.
Lionel asked, "You okay with all these bugs?"
"I'm used to it. I've seen more than enough of them since I was a kid."
"You sure are tough. I can't stand bugs—especially spiders… Did you know? Around here, there's something called a Forest Spider. Once you see one for yourself, you'll probably be just as sick of them as I am."
Lionel shuddered, as if just thinking about it gave him the chills.
"You're talking about Forest Spiders?"
Lawrence quickly followed up.
It never hurts to learn more.
Most importantly, it's the monster we'll soon be facing.
I did get some information from the Mercenary Guild, but nothing beats hearing directly from someone who's actually encountered them.
Even a little detail could help. If I could pick up any useful tips, that would be enough.
"Think about it. Spiders that are already hideous just to look at—now imagine they're bigger than a person. Seriously, there are no words. No words at all. Who in their right mind would fight a monster like that?"
A look that triggers a gut-level disgust.
That's what the guild receptionist had mentioned, too.
"Are they really that revolting?"
"Words don't do it justice. Whatever you're imagining, this monster is worse. I'm telling you, after you see one for the first time, you won't be able to eat. There's a reason most of the guild staff in Horos Village are men, you know."
"What?"
"Those things are so horrifying they haunt even grown men's nightmares. Imagine how much worse it would be for women. They couldn't even function at work, so now it's just a bunch of rough-looking guys running the place."
"..."
"For merchants like me, trying to make a profit, I guess that makes it the land of opportunity. But honestly, it's not somewhere I'd ever want to visit."
Lionel shook his head, as if just thinking about it made his skin crawl.
If that's true, maybe I should be afraid. Lawrence's expression darkened at such a vivid description.
Had I underestimated this commission?
Was it really the right decision to head to Horos Village?