Reinhart's Side
"Please wait," the boy said as we reached the cliff.
It didn't look like there was anything around us, so I thought we were waiting
for more kills to be delivered. The boy stepped forward and placed a hand
against the bare rock, crumbling part of it away with earth magic. Apparently, it
was past there.
"Come in..."
So this was his 'home.' Indeed, it wouldn't be easy for a monster or wild
animal to break into that. The cave seemed very sturdy. On top of that, the boy
used barrier magic over the entrance once he confirmed we were all inside.
With that, it made a more than suitable place to rest. However, barrier magic
was a difficult magic to obtain. Like me, Camil also took an interest in that and
started talking to the boy as he worked.
"Is this barrier magic? That's an unusual magic to use. Is it for a camouflage
effect?"
"You can leave... any time... Don't worry."
"I see. Thanks for that..."
After he answered with a simple nod, he slipped past us with his small body
and went further into the cave.
"It looks like we made him worry needlessly."
"So it seems, Lord Reinhart."
"The kid's leaving, you two."
"Yeah, we're right behind you."
After Zeph called out to us, we went further into the cave to find a room with
neatly leveled walls, decorated in furniture made from wood and stone. Magic
stones were embedded into the wall as lights, making the interior fairly bright.
"This is..."
"It's a much better home than I was expecting."
"Injured person... lie down... here."
"Thanks. Hold on, Hughes, we're lying you down."
"O-Okay..."
"Potion... will get."
Once Hughes was lying in the bed, we watched him walk down the corridor
opposite the entrance.
"Phew, at least we can take a breather now."
"Yes. This is more than sufficient, certainly more than I expected. Hughes
should be able to rest well here."
"We'll have to thank him."
"..."
Hmm... After lowering Hughes into the bed, Zeph was looking around the
room sternly. Zeph had the most knowledge about hidden traps and stealth
among the escorts, so he was the one in charge of scouting. If he was making
such a grim expression, then...
"Zeph, is something the matter?"
"Don't you find this room odd? Not that I think it's a trap, but there's only one
set of furniture, despite the traces of someone living here for a long time."
It wouldn't be strange for a campsite to be understocked, but upon closer
inspection, the walls were covered with drawings of animals and a map of the
forest, and there were musical instruments resting in a corner of the room. It
was plain and unrefined, but it somehow felt like a child's bedroom. And like
Zeph had said, there was only enough furniture for one person. That was
indeed strange.
"Is that boy living here alone?"
"Impossible. I was surprised by how the boy could use taming magic, barrier
magic, and earth magic, but there's no way he could live in this forest alone.
There surely has to be someone else living nearby."
"It's possible he's older than he looks, too. Though he didn't seem like an
elf..."
As Camil and Jill discussed the possibilities, the boy in question appeared with
his slime and a large number of bottles.
"Potions..."
"Thank you, we will definitely repay you for this."
"No... I make them... Have lots."
Those words made everyone look between the boy and the potion bottles,
before Camil yelled in surprise first.
"You made these potions?!"
The volume of his voice made the boy flinch, but he immediately nodded his
head in assent. Camil was being a little dramatic, but the potion from earlier
was in no way inferior to those sold in the shops in town. What a mysterious
child indeed.
"Have water."
While I was thinking, the boy brought over some stone mugs filled with water.
Pieces of ice, most likely made from magic, floated in the water, chilling it to
perfection.
"Thank you."
"Thanks."
"Much appreciated."
"Thanks again."
"...Oh."
"Hmm? What is it?"
"Name... is Ryoma."
Come to think of it, we hadn't introduced ourselves yet.
"So your name is Ryoma? Apologies for the late introduction. My name is
Reinhart Jamil, Duke of the Jamil domain. Thank you for lending your assistance
in my subordinate's moment of crisis."
"D-Du...?! Please forgive my insolence!"
I tried to address the boy named Ryoma as gently as possible, but the
moment he heard my introduction, his already-stiff expression completely froze
over and he bowed his head deeply.
Although it was a little surprising how smoothly his words were suddenly
coming out...
"No, no, please be at ease. You're our savior, there's no need for you to
adjust your speech."
Judging by his reaction, he didn't know I was from a ducal house. I had him
raise his head for now, but he looked too troubled to speak any further. I didn't
think he had been rude at all...
"Umm, I'm Camil, a magician serving as Lord Reinhart's escort. It's nice to
meet you. Thank you so much for earlier, I was out of magic so I couldn't use
my healing magic. If you hadn't appeared, who knows what might have
happened to Hughes... Ah, Hughes is the injured one lying down. Also, you
really don't need to worry about how you speak. Lord Reinhart isn't the type to
get angry over the slightest thing."
Camil, who had also been watching him, spoke up too.
"He keeps people like us around, after all. Ah, I'm Zeph, the scout. Nice
meeting you, kid. And this guy here is..."
"Jill. Sorry for pointing my sword at you earlier."
"No... Natural... to be cautious."
"I'm grateful you see things that way. I'm a noble too, but I didn't find your
manners unpleasant at all. That's why, well... Lord Reinhart is a very accepting
person. You can just be yourself."
"...Thank you very much."
Zeph, and even Jill — who wasn't good with kids — spoke gently to avoid
scaring the boy, who thought for a moment before replying. The tense look on
his face eased slightly. His words were still stiff and awkward, but there was no
need to point that out.
"We're the ones being offered medicine and a place to rest. We should be
thanking you."
"No problem. But... why?"
Was he asking how Hughes had gotten his injury? Or was he asking why we
had come that far into the forest? Let's see... I'd better explain things in order.
"We were on our way back to my home in Gaunago Town, detouring around
the forest on horseback, when we were attacked by bandits."
"Bandits... hurt him?"
"No, the bandits weren't powerful enough. I only had these guys as escorts
due to short notice, so they probably thought they could overwhelm us with
numbers. Hughes was actually injured by a black bear that came out of the
forest during the battle."
"Hughes was unlucky and got attacked in the middle of another duel."
"While the victory was ours, the horses ran away and we wanted to get
Hughes to town as quickly as possible to treat his wound. That's why we gave
up on the detour and tried to go through the forest."
After the explanation from me, Jill, and Camil, the boy nodded in
understanding.
Great, that was the perfect opening for me to ask some questions myself.
"What are you doing here? You said you were hunting earlier, and it looks like
you've been living here for a long time. But to be hunting at your age, using all
those spells, and even making potions... I'm surprised."
"I learned... from grandparents. Former... adventurers."
Oh, so he had grandparents.
"Are the two of them out right now?"
Hearing that, the boy lowered his head.
"Passed away."
"I see... Sorry about that."
"It's okay. It was... three years ago."
""""Three years?!""""
"How long have you lived here alone?!"
"Three years ago, I left... village... Was outsider... everyone hated."
Was it a nativist village? That was probably the gist of it. Some places were
worse than others, but...
"Before... they died... they said... go to different town."
It was from that point that he became unsociable, wandering around while
living off the skills his grandparents had taught him until he took up residence in
this forest. Since then, he had never left this forest. If he hadn't left the forest in
three years, then he would have had zero social interaction.
His level of speech had bothered me at the start, but... I'd heard about the
rare cases where criminals imprisoned for extended periods of time lose their
language skills because of their limited interaction with others. This could be
one of the reasons for his struggling speech.
"I understand your situation. However, I don't believe you should continue to
live in the forest like this. There are strong beasts and monsters in the forest.
Even if you have the skills, it's still dangerous."
"Don't worry. I've lived here... three years."
"Still..."
"That's right! Wait a minute."
Camil suddenly interrupted, digging through his belongings to take out a small
crystal that fit in the palm of his hand.
"Here it is! This should do it."
"What... is that?"
"This is a miniature identification crystal! It's an easy way to prove your
identity and check your four highest-level skills. It'll glow red if a criminal
touches it, and blue otherwise. After that, it'll show your name, race, age, and
the four top skills. If you have any high-level combat skills, I won't oppose you."
I see, so he was going for the skill approach to make his point. Not to
mention, if we used that...
"Okay..."
The boy agreed and reached for the crystal, before pausing as though
remembering something.
"Before, bandits... They attacked, I killed... Would that be... crime?" he asked
Camil.
"If they were bandits, it shouldn't be a problem."
He seemed to accept that and touched the crystal, which then glowed with a
blue light. Killing bandits aside, this meant that he had never committed a
crime. Strictly speaking, the true function of the crystal wasn't to 'identify
criminals,' but it still provided another source of relief for us.
...?
When I looked at Camil's face, I noticed his expression had paled while
watching the crystal.
"Wh-What in the world..."
"What's wro—?!"
Jill looked over his shoulder and gasped too. When Zeph and I peered at the
crystal next, we found a rather shocking issue with his skills.
The skills that had appeared were as follows: Housekeeping 10, Mental Pain
Resistance 9, Physical Pain Resistance 8, Health 7
What were these levels?! Housekeeping was still excusable, as it was fairly
common. But his physical pain resistance, mental pain resistance, and health
were all seven or higher. Just what kind of an environment would result in
levels like this... Not to mention, if he was 11 now, that meant he had been
living here since the age of 8.
"What's... wrong?"
"U-Umm... Unfortunately, no combat skills came up..."
That's what you want to focus on?! I would have said that aloud, but one look
at Camil had me realizing the other two were reacting in the same way. We
kept communicating with our eyes, but no one wanted to break the silence.
Because pain resistance skills were only obtained by growing accustomed to
pain, one could only conclude that he had suffered pain equivalent to his level.
There were probably memories he didn't want to recall as well. Asking
questions carelessly could end up hurting him more. Considering his actions up
until now and the fact the light had glowed blue, there were still some unclear
points about him, but he didn't seem dangerous. It was better for us to leave
this discussion aside for now.
"Excuse me, may I use your toilet?"
"I need to go too."
"I'll accompany 'em."
"Toilet is at back... Lots of slimes... Don't attack."
"It's all right, I'm a former tamer myself. I won't lay a hand on your familiars."
Thus Camil was left to look after Hughes while we followed the boy...
"This is amazing..."
"Yeah... I've never seen so many slimes at once."
An immense number of slimes were freely wriggling about in the back room
and connecting corridors. They parted to make way for us on Ryoma's
command, but if they hadn't, we would have definitely stepped on a few.
"Ryoma, are all of these slimes your familiars?"
"Yes... For research."
"What kind of research?"
"Evolution... of slimes."
Now that he mentioned it, practically all of the slimes within view were more
than just normal slimes. Sticky slimes, poison slimes, and what were probably
acid slimes. There were also two other types of slimes I didn't recognize. They
must be another kind of advanced species.
Slimes were monsters that could be found anywhere. It wasn't unusual for
advanced species to be found in random locations, but there hadn't been
reports of such discoveries in this forest for years. Like Jill, this was my first time
seeing so many advanced species at once as well.
"Doing research at your young age is impressive. It's a little unfortunate that
they're all slimes, though..."
"Are slimes... bad?"
I personally believed that taming all these advanced species was a feat to be
commended. However, the general public's perception of slimes was quite low.
"This isn't the nicest way to put it, but slimes are weak even after evolving, so
they're seen as worthless. They're used by tamers and summoners as a safe
way to learn the basics, but... Most tamers will discard their slimes and move on
to the next familiar once they've learned the basics. Even when it comes to
pets, other monsters like the horned rabbit are much more popular."
"...Harsh world."
Were those the thoughts of an eleven-year-old?
"But that's just the opinion of the majority; not all tamers think that way. At
the very least, those who underestimate poison slimes and acid slimes will pay
for it. They even have more combat power than a horned rabbit."
"Slimes... very useful... Help out a lot."
I thought he would be disappointed to hear they were seen as lowly, but that
wasn't the case. He didn't seem bothered at all. That in itself wasn't a bad thing,
but children his age would normally be more active in seeking the approval of
others. His background was unclear, but he didn't seem dangerous.
If anything, he was a good kid who had helped us out in a pinch. However, he
definitely wasn't a normal child. I couldn't leave this boy alone, for many
reasons.
That was what I strongly felt...