Chapter 33
I was so startled that I immediately scanned my surroundings.
That’s when I made eye contact with a guard standing inside the watchtower.
A brief silence fell between us.
I’m screwed.
“Hey. You weren’t here just a moment ago. Where did you come from?” his eyes seemed to ask.
The guard was holding a bow and an arrow that looked terrifyingly sharp.
If I get hit by that, I’ll die before Kaizen does.
Keeping calm, I slowly raised both hands and spoke.
“I am a foreigner. I come. Work. Mine.”
“……”
Right before we left, the village chief had told us that the Volcano Village was recruiting mine labourers.
What was strange was that they specifically wanted foreigners, not citizens of the kingdom. I didn’t know why.
So I pretended to struggle with the kingdom’s language and rolled my eyes around clumsily.
The guard narrowed his eyes and examined us.
I blinked innocently as hard as I could. When I did, his hand, which had been moving toward his quiver, stopped.
Did it work?
Several tense seconds passed.
Then, slowly, the wary look disappeared from his face.
“Are the beastman and the man next to you also applicants for my work?”
“Yeah. Boss. Where? I need. Interview.”
When I answered casually, Hamma and Kaizen’s faces turned awkward beside me.
What?
Better than getting caught, right?
After inspecting us a moment longer, the guard finally dropped his guard completely and gestured with his hand.
“Follow me.”
I was just starting to feel relieved that it had gone so smoothly.
“Wait.”
The guard turned toward Kaizen, who had been quietly following behind us.
At the moment I saw his gaze land on the sword sheath hidden between the backpacks, my heart dropped.
“You said you came to work in the mine. Then why are you carrying a weapon?”
“……”
I quickly bumped Kaizen on the side so the guard wouldn’t see.
It was a message: if you can’t act, just stay quiet.
Thankfully, he seemed to understand and stiffened, shutting his mouth.
“Come to think of it… I’ve seen that face somewhere before. Are you from the kingdom?”
The guard slowly scanned Kaizen from head to toe.
No!
Thinking his identity might be exposed if this continued, I stepped in front.
“He can’t talk.”
“Hmm… I swear I’ve seen him somewhere.”
But the guard wasn’t listening to me anymore.
He frowned and studied Kaizen more closely.
At that moment, a gust of wind suddenly blew through.
Along with it, a single sheet of paper flew toward us.
Everyone’s gaze gathered on it.
And then…
“……”
“……”
On the paper lying on the ground was Kaizen’s face…
The guard’s eyes widened in shock.
He looked back and forth between the paper and Kaizen, then pointed at him while spitting as he shouted.
“You— you are…! Damn it!”
Damn it.
Why is Kaizen’s face on that thing?
And why is it a wanted poster?
Pressing my fingers to my forehead, I turned around.
“Guys. Let’s run. Now.”
We ran like mad.
On the way, I had to struggle just to stop Kaizen, who kept insisting we should just kill them instead of running.
We finally reached deep into the mountains surrounding Volcano Village.
After running without stopping, we managed to shake off the guards’ pursuit.
“Huff… huff… I can’t… I can’t breathe…”
Hamma panted, his face pale as he gasped for air.
Despite running just as much, Kaizen’s expression hadn’t changed at all.
Once his breathing settled a little, Hamma looked like he was about to cry.
“Now what do we do…? The guard saw the hero’s face. Sneaking into Volcano Village is basically impossible now. No, seriously—why is the Hero’s face even on that poster?”
At some point, Hamma picked up the wanted poster and sighed as he pointed to it.
I was wondering about that myself.
I glanced at Kaizen.
He was lost in thought, wearing an unreadable expression.
“I guess… We’ll find out once we get into the village.”
“But we can’t get into the village now, that’s the problem…!”
What do we do? Simple. Go in through the mines.
Most of Volcano Village’s mines led directly into the village.
But of course, I couldn’t just say that out loud.
I knew it because I’d played Tales World, but Hamma didn’t.
“Sigh… There are only ten days left. What if it resets again?”
Grumbling, Hamma plopped down on the ground.
Kaizen had been sitting on a rock in deep thought since earlier.
Since things had turned out like this, I figured we might as well eat, so I walked over to him.
“Kaizen. What are you doing?”
Kaizen slowly lifted his head. His blue-grey eyes quietly met mine.
He furrowed his brows as if organising his thoughts, then slowly opened his mouth.
“That guard earlier.”
“The guard?”
“Something about him felt off.”
“What part?”
Instead of answering, he silently looked down at my feet.
Thinking there might be something there, I lowered my gaze too, but I couldn’t find anything unusual.
When I looked confused, Kaizen pointed there and spoke calmly.
“Doesn’t your shadow move along with your body when you move?”
What an obvious thing to say.
The sun was setting, and my shadow stretched long across the ground. I nodded while looking at it.
“Yeah. Of course. It’s my shadow.”
“When that guard shot the arrow at us, his shadow moved separately.”
“What? Are you serious?”
Hamma, who’d been listening nearby, perked his ears up and widened his eyes.
“A shadow moving separately? That’s impossible! T-That can’t be real, right? Maybe Hero-nim just saw it wrong…!”
“Do you think I’m like you, lying every time I open my mouth? My eyesight works perfectly fine.”
“Hey! When have I lied every time I opened my mouth? You’re really—!”
Hamma was just about to start jumping around again.
That’s when Kaizen suddenly drew his sword from its sheath.
“Hiiiik”
Startled, Hamma immediately distanced himself from Kaizen.
“W-Why… why did you suddenly—!”
He flattened his ears, hiding behind me and tightly grabbing my hand. He was so scared it was almost cute.
Trying not to laugh, I calmed him down and walked toward Kaizen.
“What’s wrong? What is it?”
Kaizen didn’t answer and instead looked around sharply.
After confirming no one was visible, he started walking decisively toward a large rock wall.
“Kaizen.”
“I can feel a presence nearby.”
His blue-grey eyes were coldly fixed on the rock wall.
I followed his gaze and moved toward it as well.
It just looks like a normal rock wall…?
Just as I was thinking that, Kaizen swung his sword at the rock wall.
And then—
KWAANG—!
With a deafening noise, the rock wall shattered into pieces.
“……?”
“……?”
Hamma and I stared at each other in confusion.
That worked…?
Cutting a rock with a sword?
Hamma’s jaw dropped in pure shock.
It really looked like it might fall off.
“Please stand back. The dust is thick.”
Kaizen stepped in front of me. I still hadn’t fully recovered from the shock.
After a moment, the cloudy dust from the shattered rock cleared.
And surprisingly, a passage leading somewhere appeared in its place.
“Hiiik! W-What is that? How did you know there was a path here?”
Kaizen clicked his tongue softly and said,
“Did you not hear what I said earlier? I felt a presence inside.”
Now fully alert, I hurried over to inspect the broken wall. But it was too dark to see much.
“What is this? A cave?”
Hamma, who had moved next to me, leaned in and sniffed the air inside, murmuring in amazement.
“This… I think this is mine.”
“How do you know that?”
“This humidity, this smell, this air… everything is screaming ‘mine’. Can’t you tell?”
“… How can you tell?”
Only someone as crazy about mines as you could distinguish that by smell.
