SWNOVELXO 7
7
Before going up to the room after returning to the inn, Arpel suddenly realized why the employee who handed him the room key had given him a strange look.
‘Um, perhaps… you’re not a nobleman, are you?’
It was the same expression the woman who had guided him to the request had worn.
Though he newly realized the reason for the glances sizing him up and the subtly cautious attitudes, he let it pass. It wouldn’t be a problem anyway, as they would be leaving this inn after today.
Since it was their last day staying at this inn, Arpel ordered some rather expensive and delicious food to feed the child to his heart’s content. The face that seemed to have lost a bit of weight from crying and losing sleep at night had regained its plumpness after repeatedly being comforted to sleep at night and fed delicious food during the day.
‘Cute.’
At some point, Arpel had begun to think this quite naturally.
He repeatedly poked Rohan’s chubby cheeks with a careful touch as the child’s eyes fluttered, seemingly sleepy. Arpel’s cold face, which didn’t change expression when dealing with others, softened unconsciously when looking at Rohan.
Lying on his side watching Rohan fall asleep, as soon as there was any sign of a nightmare, Arpel would pull him into an embrace and pat him. Pressing his finger to smooth out the furrowed brow was an added touch.
The relaxed senses from this peaceful moment were suddenly heightened when a couple of presences climbed the stairs and lingered in front of the room.
He had found it strange from the moment they clumsily tried to muffle their footsteps coming up the stairs, but it seemed they were finally going to make their move. Arpel got up from his spot, holding Rohan in his arms, and silently approached the door.
Rattle. Rattle.
A small noise came from the doorknob, as if someone was trying to forcibly open the door from outside. Judging by how quietly they were working, quiet enough that an ordinary person wouldn’t wake up, it seemed they were quite skilled at this.
“…Gasp!”
Finally, the lock was undone, and the door opened carefully with a creaking noise. Beyond it were the faces of people Arpel had briefly seen while dining downstairs.
They were among those who had been particularly watchful. He had felt uneasy about them, and it seemed they indeed had intentions of stealing money for a big score.
When they discovered Arpel standing right in front of the door without making a sound, the two people who had planned to quietly rob the room and leave were shocked.
Without any sign of agitation, as if he had been expecting them, Arpel’s cold purple eyes were so clear they could pierce through the darkness in the corridor, and the two felt a chill from them.
Unable to withstand the pressure, the man standing in front collapsed to the ground.
At that noise, Rohan, nestled in Arpel’s arms, stirred. Arpel’s eyes then gleamed with a strange light.
“I’ll kill you if you wake him.”
The sincerity melting deeply into those words made the man cover his mouth tightly with both hands, trying to suppress even his gasping breath.
Although it was meant to tell them to leave immediately, when the frightened guys didn’t move, Arpel clicked his tongue.
He understood why they had come to the room. There were quite a few people who assumed he was a nobleman just by his appearance, so they probably thought they could make a decent profit if they just quietly took valuable items.
Slowly stroking the back of Rohan’s head, who had just stirred briefly before falling back into deep sleep, Arpel nodded.
At the same time, shadows undulated, crawling across the darkened floor and climbing up the bodies of the two motionless people. Mouths about to scream at the unbelievable sight were firmly shut.
“Get out.”
Their terrified expressions were vivid. The man who had collapsed in front seemed to have experienced fear beyond his threshold, as his eyes were rolled back. The two staggering men, controlled by the shadows that had taken over their bodies, disappeared down the stairs.
Arpel, who had been quietly monitoring their presence without any sign of agitation, only withdrew the shadows and closed the door after driving the two out of the inn.
Next time, we should find a place with better security.
***
As soon as morning came, Arpel and Rohan had a quick breakfast and immediately left the inn. Although the area around the lord’s castle would have better security than this place, lacking confidence that what had happened once wouldn’t happen again, Arpel bought an inexpensive robe that could hide their faces.
Carrying Rohan in his arms, Arpel arrived in a few hours by running a distance that would take an ordinary person about a day to walk.
Indeed, the village with the inn and the lord’s castle were not that far apart. The distance itself seemed similar to that of the small village with the clinic, but unlike then when there were few people around, there were quite a lot of people passing by here.
This village was bustling with people and had excellent security. After confirming the patrol teams moving around here and there with a glance, Arpel stroked Rohan’s head as the child looked around various parts of the village with sparkling eyes.
“There are so many people!”
“This is near the lord’s castle.”
For Rohan, who was born and raised in a village in the forest, this must be his first time in such a place. Seeing his cheeks flush with excitement made Arpel feel good.
The commercial district seemed quite developed, with people buying and selling goods on stalls everywhere. Worried about losing hold of the child’s hand due to passing people, Arpel gripped it just tight enough not to hurt and turned his head at a sweet smell he suddenly noticed.
His gaze fell on a fruit shop. The displayed fruits looked quite appetizing. Rohan, who had naturally turned his gaze in the direction Arpel was looking, gulped.
“Two of these, please.”
“That’ll be 1 silver!”
The price was reasonable.
A yellow fruit resembling a mango was held in Arpel’s hand. Sensing that Rohan wanted to touch it himself, Arpel placed it in his hand, noticing how particularly small his face looked. The fruit was quite large, probably due to its good quality, about the size of Rohan’s head.
It was cute how his eyes sparkled looking at the fruit as big as his head, clearly thinking he wanted to eat it quickly.
“Shall we get an inn and eat the fruit?”
“Yes!”
His head nodded up and down very enthusiastically.
Not long after, they found a decent inn. Since it was on a street where a patrol had just passed, unless someone had a death wish, there shouldn’t be any disturbances.
When Arpel requested a room while keeping his face hidden with the robe, unlike before, suspicious glances followed, but he didn’t mind. His mind was fully occupied with the thought of quickly feeding the fruit in his hand to Rohan.
Only after borrowing a knife from a kind cook and cutting the fruit into bite-sized pieces did a piece full of juice finally enter Rohan’s mouth.
The child’s face looked happy as he munched on the fruit.
“Aren’t you going to eat, Arpel…?”
“I’ll eat too.”
A tiny hand put down the piece of fruit it was eating and offered a new piece. It was a pose with the arm stretched high to feed by hand. Arpel, who had been blankly looking down at the child for a moment, slowly lowered his head.
“It’s delicious.”
“Hehe.”
The piece of fruit that had been on the small fork quickly disappeared into Arpel’s mouth. Arpel’s eyes formed a slight curve. As a bonus, Rohan’s face turned pink as he watched with round eyes.
***
It was the next day when they headed to the mountain area where the client was said to be. Although they could have met yesterday since they arrived in the village before sunset, Arpel allowed the child to have a short rest instead.
While it was true that getting to the temple sooner was better, he didn’t want to force a march that would exhaust Rohan. It seems there was also a personal wish mixed in for this time together to last a bit longer.
Although it was in the mountains, the path wasn’t treacherous, probably because it was a frequently used route. Arpel had worried that Rohan might struggle climbing the mountain, but Rohan walked vigorously as if he was used to such paths. Occasionally, he would run ahead and make gestures of waiting for Arpel. Somehow, Arpel felt his heart flutter every time Rohan turned to look at him.
The breeding facility in the mountains showed signs of considerable investment. The property was extensive, and even at a glance, there seemed to be many types and numbers of animals being raised.
“Who, who are you?”
When Arpel lightly rang the bell at the entrance, a middle-aged man, sweating profusely as if he had been working, hurriedly came out. Arpel handed the request paper to the man, whose eyes held a hint of wariness. The man’s eyes quickly widened as he silently received it.
“Ah, please come in!”
The man, who had instantly changed his attitude, guided them inside.
The story about dealing with the lord’s castle seemed to be true; the building attached to the breeding facility looked ordinary from the outside, but the interior was quite luxuriously decorated. It seemed to be the result of considerable effort to meet the high standards of the nobility.
The sofa, which reached below the legs, felt soft. Rohan, sitting beside him, kept stroking the texture of the sofa, seemingly fascinated by the soft feel.
The man who brought tea and sat across from them kept eyeing Arpel as if expecting something. Unable to miss that gaze, Arpel looked at the man quizzically for a moment before taking out his mercenary badge.
“A, A-rank…! I didn’t recognize such an esteemed person!”
“Is it alright to have the child with me?”
“Oh my, as long as you resolve the request well, what could be difficult?”
The man carefully asked how long it usually takes to handle a request…
Instead of giving an exact timeframe, Arpel demanded a thorough explanation. The man then dabbed the sweat on his slightly balding head with a handkerchief and began to speak.
“First, my name is Seid. I’ve been breeding animals here for over 20 years, and I’m in the business of supplying high-quality meat to the lord’s castle.”
What followed was similar to what was written on the request form. More precisely, it was like a slightly more detailed explanation of it.
The strange phenomena started occurring about 3 weeks ago.
Seid said that when he arrived at the breeding facility in the morning as usual to start the day by cleaning animal waste and feeding them, he witnessed the corpse of an animal that had been brutally killed. He added that it was quite unsettling because if it had been killed by a wild animal attack, there should have been broken fences somewhere, but there wasn’t even a trace.