The Unwanted Undead Adventurer: Volume 5 Page 13

  “I did. Last time we met, you mentioned you were looking for your sister. I believe you said her name was Rina Rogue.”

  “Ah, yes. Did you find her?”

  Idoles drew closer to me. It almost looked like he was about to grab me by the collar and shake me, but he kept calm. His face, however, could not have been closer. His handsome mug approached with such force it made me jump.

  “Yes, probably.”

  “Probably? What does that mean?”

  “The Rina I know told me her last name is Rupaage.”

  “I see, that is a different name. Did you not find her, then? What compelled you to investigate her in the first place?”

  Her name was different because she had every intention to hide her identity, so she wouldn’t want to reveal that when asked under normal circumstances. The fact I knew who she was must have seemed unnatural. Idoles squinted at me but didn’t seem that distrustful. I decided to be honest.

  “I didn’t investigate anything. She told me when I asked her. I’m an adventurer from this city, and she’s the only Rina I know. I mentioned you when I was chatting with her recently, and she said you were her brother.”

  “Is that right?” Idoles asked, relieved. “My apologies for thinking you suspicious.”

  “That’s fine, everyone worries about their family. Don’t feel bad,” I said.

  “This may be rude, but you are much more amiable than you look,” Idoles replied, confused.

  Maybe that was true. I didn’t think so, but I came to him purely out of goodwill on this occasion, so I knew why it looked that way.

  “I’m just normal. So, I have a message for you from Rina.” I told him her desired meeting time.

  “That would be a bad time. I must soon return to the capital for a while, but perhaps another time. May you deliver a message to Rina for me? I can pay you,” he offered.

  “I’m happy to do it for free. I owe Rina one anyway,” I said. Without her, I wouldn’t still be around. I could leave his message on the message board or whatever else he wanted.

  “You owe her? Hm, I would like to hear the story behind that, but I can wait to ask her. Please see to it you tell her, then,” Idoles instructed. He told me the next time he would be in Maalt and the place he would be waiting and then left.

  The appointed time was about a month from now. I didn’t think knights got so many breaks, but maybe they had more free time than I expected. I didn’t know, but I headed off to the guild to leave the message for Rina. I knew where her inn was, but when we met at the market, she said she would be exploring a dungeon later. This was the surest way for her to receive it.

  Chapter 4: The Journey

  “Anything left to do? Have you forgotten anything?”

  Lorraine stood at the entrance to her house early in the morning and asked me as if she were my mother. I remembered all the business I had wrapped up over the last few days, including delivering Dragon Blood Blossoms to Laura and relaying Idoles’s message to Rina. Everything was taken care of. Probably. The problem when it came to forgetting things was you forgot them. Maybe there was something I wouldn’t remember no matter how hard I tried. That was worrisome, but if I couldn’t remember, it must not have been that important.

  “Well, I don’t think so. If there is, I’ll think about it when we get back home,” I said, repeating what so many forgetful men had said before.

  Lorraine looked fed up. “At least put the slightest effort into remembering. But it’s not like we’ll be gone forever, I suppose. That’s fine, let’s get going,” she said and opened the door.

  It was time to travel to my hometown of Hathara.

  ◆◇◆◇◆

  Maalt was far from the center of the country, but it was still big enough to be called a city. Nothing compared to the capital, of course, but a fair number of travelers passed through it. Many carriages were halted near the gate to Maalt, their coachmen shouting from their seats. A good amount of people wanted to get on the carriages, paying the coachmen en masse. It was a lively sight.

  Most of them were heading to cities in the west. Each section of the station had carriages that went to different cities, so once you got used to the place, it wasn’t hard to find what you were looking for. The coachmen yelled only so those who didn’t live in Maalt could more easily find them. Lorraine and I had nothing to do with that thriving scene, going instead to an area of almost dead silence.

  “Is this it?” Lorraine asked when we stopped at a carriage.

  “Yeah,” I replied and nodded. “It always makes me anxious, though. I can’t believe this thing can make it to Hathara.” I had ridden it there plenty of times, but every time I saw it, I worried all over again. Where most carriages were drawn by horse, this one used a giant tortoise. Horses were the stereotypical animal employed by carriages, but other animals could be used as well. It was still mostly horses, but depending on the route and the speed required, there were sometimes better options.

  After horse-drawn carriages, the next most common were dragon carriages, which used an animal similar in shape to a horse but was actually related to drakes. They were faster than horses, had more stamina, and didn’t fear monsters. However, more than one horse could be used at once, and they were easier to handle thanks to being less powerful. Overall, horses were still more convenient, so these drake creatures were used only when speed was of the utmost importance. They were also too expensive for commoners; they were meant more for nobles and knights.

  This carriage, however, used an animal called a giant tortoise. They were stronger than horses, but they were also slower. The trade-off was their extreme durability. They could hide in their shells if any monsters attacked, so they were often used for dangerous or mountainous roads. The route to Hathara wasn’t as well-maintained as the road to the west, and it was much steeper, so giant tortoises were ideal. Regardless, it was hard to see them as anything but a huge tortoise. You would think it’d take over a century to reach my hometown. In reality, though they were somewhat slower than horses, they walked fast enough. Their legs were longer than that of a normal tortoise, giving them a mildly amusing appearance.

  “It always makes it there, right? Then why worry? Now, where’s the coachman? Oh, there he is,” Lorraine said, spotting an old man.

  While all the coachmen were shouting in the previous section, this one was smoking a pipe and reclining against his carriage. He didn’t seem enthusiastic at all, but I could understand that. There was little point in shouting out to people heading east. There were only so many, and most of them were also in the transportation business, so it was a waste of energy.

  “Old man, we want a ride to Hathara. What do you charge?” Lorraine asked.

  The old man looked up. “Five silver coins. You’ll get lunch, but if you want more food than that, get it from the towns we stop at on the way. We’ll go when more people arrive, so wait around till then,” he said.

  It was hard to say if five silver coins was cheap or not, but Hathara was just about the final stop. Considering it took about a week to get there and lunch was included, it was likely on the cheaper side. The westbound carriages were even cheaper. More people traveled west, so they had more passengers. Plus, they had a paved road to tread, so it took less time to travel the same distance compared to eastbound carriages. It was inconvenient to live in the middle of nowhere in more ways than one, so I seldom returned home. I had no money, and walking back would be brutal.

  “Then one gold coin should cover both of us. Here you are,” Lorraine said and paid right away. I took out five silver coins to give to Lorraine, but she stopped me. “Pay me when we get home. I don’t need more coins to carry around,” she insisted. She acted more manly than I did. Maybe I was just effeminate. I felt bad, but I could just do what she asked and pay her on the way back. That, or I could pay for our meals in town.

  The fun of journeys was to eat delicacies you could only get abroad. There was often the typical peasant food, but sometimes y
ou found something special that the locals thought nothing of but turned out to be incredibly rare cuisine. Examples included great winter frog eggs and fried curtis mants, a type of killer mantis. Both were delicious, but they looked terrifying to eat. They would probably be available at the towns along the way, so I could make Lorraine try them.

  “Now I guess we wait. I’m looking forward to this,” Lorraine said.

  “Yeah, me too,” I agreed.

  What was Lorraine going to say about these delicacies? Maybe it would be cruel to have her eat them. She was from the city, so they could be rough for her. I imagined it as we waited for people to arrive.

  ◆◇◆◇◆

  “It’s time to go. Get on,” the coachman said after a number of passengers gathered.

  We got in the back and looked at the others around us. Including us, there were six passengers in all. I didn’t know if that was a lot or a little. There was a young girl with a middle-aged man, an old married couple, and that was it. The old couple could have been a pair of amazing mages, but I didn’t sense the least bit of mana, so they probably weren’t. That or they were so monstrously powerful they could hide all their mana, but again, not likely.

  Given where we were going, though, the coachman at least must have had some combat talent. Monsters seldom appeared on paths created by humans, but it did happen. Monsters weren’t the only danger on the road either. There were thieves too, so we would have to fend them off if it came down to it. We couldn’t make old people and young girls fight. Lorraine was young, I supposed, but she was a skilled adventurer and mage. Making her fight was fine.

  The coachman sat in his seat with a whip in hand. When he struck the tortoise’s shell, it woke up and began to lumber forward. It was painfully slow, but only until it left the city.

  “This is my first time on a tortoise carriage. I’m surprised it’s so fast,” Lorraine said, a bit impressed.

  I looked out from beneath the canopy and saw the scenery scrolling by at a considerable pace. It was certainly faster than running by foot. I popped my head out of the driver’s side to check out the giant tortoise, and its legs moved at a brisker pace than any tortoise I had ever seen. It was slow to start, but it accelerated to a decent speed. Their horsepower was the reason they were valued. They were also mild-mannered and could take a beating. Still, they could bear to be a little faster.

  “This is as far as we go for the day. Sorry you’ll have to camp outside, but we’re far from any town. There aren’t many monsters around, so it should be safe,” the coachman said and stopped the carriage.

  Of the passengers, only Lorraine looked shocked. “I see, so this is what it’s like for rural people,” she remarked insultingly.

  I admit I was somewhat annoyed by what she said, but, at the same time, I could see where she was coming from. The road to the west had only half a day’s travel between each town. This would never happen on the way to a big city, but we were on a road to the countryside, so the first day of travel always ended like this. They could have built more small villages on the way, but the ones that existed here decades ago were destroyed by monsters. The monsters in question were slain at the time, but the survivors didn’t want to live in the area anymore, so they moved either to Maalt or further west. This land had been left uninhabited ever since.

  Memories of that disaster had faded over time, so someone could take the initiative to start up a new village, but people like that only appeared so often. It wasn’t easy.

  “You’ve done plenty of camping, haven’t you?” I asked Lorraine.

  “I guess so. You dragged me around and made me learn to camp back in the day, so there’s that,” she replied.

  It almost sounded like she was holding a grudge, but it was a joke, of course. I did actually drag her around though. Lorraine couldn’t do anything back then. Now she was brilliant and adept at everything, but at the time she didn’t even know how to gather wood to start a fire. She knew some spells but had never thought about how to use them in everyday life. That was why she couldn’t camp on her own, but now she was handy to have around.

  “Mr. Coachman, should we cook dinner?” Lorraine asked.

  “We’ve got some dried meat, but you can do that if you want,” he answered.

  “Then we will. For three bronze coins, we can make something for you too.”

  “Hm, then do that, if you don’t mind,” he said and handed Lorraine the coins. She asked the same of the other passengers and collected their money.

  “Let’s get cooking, Rentt,” she instructed.

  Before we had left town, we bought up a fair amount of food. It was a bit marked up in price, but it was no serious loss for us. I pulled food and a cooking pot out of my magic bag and began to prepare while Lorraine drew a magic circle on the ground. Then she cast a brief spell and conjured fire. The other passengers looked on with fascination.

  Mages weren’t hard to come by if you looked for them, but they seldom revealed their magic to others. Spells for use in daily life in particular wouldn’t usually be used while camping, as it could be a waste of mana. But Lorraine had a lot of mana, and her magic circles were as simplified as possible, so they were efficient enough they hardly cost energy. At least, I assumed so. I didn’t know that much about Lorraine’s magic, so there was a lot I couldn’t say for certain. Whatever the case, this was easy for her. The magic circle itself used elementary knowledge, but it looked beautifully crafted. If I learned from Lorraine, I could do the same eventually. Presumably.

  When I had to camp on my own, I would start a bonfire without a magic circle. Usually I did it by casting a spell on a piece of tinder, but it consumed too much mana to keep the fire going, especially back when I didn’t have much mana to begin with. Lorraine’s method was more common among adventurers due to the importance of conserving mana.

  Anyway, while I was thinking about all this, we finished preparing to cook. I put the ingredients in the pot and told Lorraine to cast a spell. It caused the ground to rise up and take the form of a hearth. I set the pot on top of it, and then Lorraine used magic to fill it with water. I could have done the same, but I feared I might accidentally overflow the pot, so I left it to Lorraine again. She inserted the exact amount of water we needed, checked the contents of the pot, and closed the lid. Once it finished boiling, we would have a hastily produced but fairly tasty stew. You could hardly call this cooking if you got it at a restaurant in town, but while camping, it was a decent feast.

  Some time later, we took off the lid and let out the steam, along with a nice aroma. The father and daughter, the old couple, and the coachman all watched with anticipation. We handed out bowls of stew, along with ham and cheese sandwiches on rye bread.

  “All right, shall we eat?” Lorraine asked, and we all dug in.

  The old couple prayed before they began, but I couldn’t hear what they said. It was probably a prayer from some regional religion. When you’re away from civilization, you see villages with all sorts of strange gods. I didn’t criticize them for it, or think much of it beyond remarking on how deep their faith must have been. I didn’t even know what god the shrine in my village was meant for.

  The stew was favorably received, so much so the group was willing to pay for our meals the rest of the way to our destination. That was what we bought all the food for in the first place, so it was fine by us. My magic bag had enough space to fit a giant tarasque, so storing a week’s worth of food for six people was simple.

  When dinner ended, the time to watch for monsters had come. The area was relatively safe, but it wasn’t devoid of threats. Watchmen were necessary. There was only one coachman in this case, so the passengers with the most stamina would have to take turns standing guard. That meant me, Lorraine, and the middle-aged man. Honestly, I was the most fit for the job thanks to my lack of a need for sleep, but I couldn’t point out I was undead, so the coachman and the rest of us switched places periodically. First was the coachman, then the middle-aged man, the
n Lorraine, and lastly me. I slept just a tiny bit during the coachman’s turn and stayed up the rest of the time. Lorraine and I chatted around the campfire until something caught our attention.

  “I think we have uninvited guests,” Lorraine whispered.

  I sensed someone in the woods behind us.

  ◆◇◆◇◆

  We stared at the forest until we knew what they were.

  “They don’t seem to be people. More like the remains of people,” Lorraine muttered sympathetically.

  “A few decades of death doesn’t mean much to the undead. Maybe if you’re the sort that needs to consume something to live like I do, but not these ones.”

  “Right.”

  They were zombies.

  ◆◇◆◇◆

  Lorraine and I observed the putrid walking corpses. They had tattered clothes, bamboo spears, and hoes. These monsters were called zombies, and they were another type of undead. They differed from me in that I was a vampire and required the energy derived from blood to survive, but zombies had no such limits. Perhaps in exchange, zombies tended to be brittle and weak.

  That being said, they were still a great threat to ordinary humans. Scholars believed living creatures avoided placing too much stress on their bodies by structurally preventing themselves from exerting their full strength, but zombies were already dead. Their bodies could move and stretch in otherwise impossible ways. Their heads spun all the way around, and their limbs flailed as if they had no joints. These attributes could even make them a surprising nuisance for adventurers.

  However, the biggest reason to avoid them was their stench and their filthy bodies. They often carried diseases. It would be fine if they wandered around at random, but we couldn’t let them near the camp. They had to be defeated right away. Lorraine and I were quick to come to the same conclusion. That left the question of how to beat them.

  “Will magic work?” I asked Lorraine.

  “Well, probably. You’ll get contaminated if you fight them, so this looks like a job for me,” she said.