Log Horizon - Volume 9 - Chapter 3.8

8 
“Sorry to be an oaf and disturb your date, but—” 
“KR?!” 
The white horse had thrust its muzzle in between them. The voice of the Summoner who’d possessed the mystical beast hakutaku broke into Leonardo and Coppélia’s conversation. 
“What is the matter?” Coppélia asked calmly. 
As Leonardo watched her, he mulled over her earlier words. “In other words, I lack a soul.” What did that mean? It made him feel as though there was something hard lodged deep in his throat. 
Even when she’d said that, there had been no pain or sadness in her voice. Leonardo’s heart felt heavy just thinking about it. 
“They’re close. It’s the gnolls.” 
“Huh?” 
However, Leonardo’s thoughts were instantly interrupted. 
“They’re marching through the ravine in the northeast,” KR said. 
His back was wet. Wiping it down with a cloth, Coppélia said, “Requesting an explanation of the situation.” 
“Well, I’ve been out doing recon, and I saw ’em with my own two eyes.” 
Did that mean KR had spent all night running across the Aorsoi wilderness? Come to think of it, Leonardo didn’t think he’d seen KR’s big white body at the entrance to the tent when he’d woken up. 
“They’re advancing down a riverbed below sheer cliffs. I don’t know what their numbers are. This body doesn’t have good night vision. Moonlight alone wasn’t enough to let me check. We’re not talking a dozen or so, though. There are five hundred of them at least.” 
“Five hundred?!” 
“At least. They’ve got those broken statuses.” 
“Meaning they’re gnolls, but they’re People of the Earth?” 
“No, not that.” 
KR’s voice was calm, and in the shadow of it, Leonardo felt ashamed. His own words had sounded rather frightened. 
“It was more like there were two types of gnolls mixed together, but… Uh… How do I put this? It’s hard to explain. Anyway, the displays seemed to have two monsters layered over each other. It was like that Person of the Earth boy, except a fusion of two monsters.” 
He was able to visualize the phenomenon. 
However, as before, the cause was beyond him. 
“A slew of gnolls, huh?” 
“Five hundred, you said?” 
When had they woken up? It was probably the faint sounds of their voices talking to KR that had pulled them out of sleep. Kanami, who’d only poked her head out of the tent, and Elias, who was looking down at her as if to reproach her for it, joined the conversation. 
Not long afterward, Chun Lu and Ju Ha also emerged from the tent. 
“Anything besides gnolls?” 
“All I saw were gnolls and gnoll subspecies of different classes. I wish I could do a more detailed recon, but in this body, I can’t summon a servant.” 
“Why…?” 
Chun Lu’s question was understandable. 
Why were they moving as a group at this time of year? It was the first thing Leonardo had thought as well. 
One possible explanation was that they were looking for food. 
Or rather, it was safe to say that gnolls’ only reasons for moving were to find food or claim territory. Their objective was to provide the main group of gnolls—the ones assembled at the ruins, the group Chun Lu’s guild had attacked—with food: That seemed to be the rational explanation. 
The Aorsoi wasteland was barren. The land was dry, and chill winds blew even in summer. Huge, deep green forests spread over the vast wilderness in places, and a wide variety of creatures lived there, but even they probably wouldn’t be enough to sustain ten thousand gnolls over a long period. 
In this wasteland, he couldn’t think of a reason for forming an army of that size other than to provide the main group with food. Small groups of a dozen or so members were a lot more efficient at surviving and hunting creatures for food. When you thought about the size of hyena or wolf packs back in the real world, this was self-evident. 
On top of that, gnolls were supposed to be monsters that gathered in dungeons and lived in groups of several hundred. They were predators that lurked in caves and ruins, killing and eating creatures that passed by— 
That’s game knowledge, though, huh? Leonardo admonished himself. This world was a game. Well, it should have been a game, but for some reason, he’d been summoned into it, body and all, and he did seem to be existing according to its laws. 
“The direction they’re heading puts them on a course for Thekkek.” 
When Ju Ha pointed this out, he heard Elias catch his breath. 
Food… 
In that sense, the village’s sheep would probably be pretty appealing. 
No, there was a possibility that they would see even the People of the Earth as food. Their habit of avoiding them certainly wasn’t rooted in goodwill. It was because they knew that, if the People of the Earth banded together and defended their village, it would be more difficult to steal sheep and other prey. 
If their forces were great enough to surround and wipe out an NPC village or town, they wouldn’t have a single reason to hesitate. 
“Are they aiming for the villages?!” 
“I don’t know if they’re actively going for them, but if they pass one, they’ll probably attack it. Look at their numbers. I seriously doubt they’d turn back.” 
Elias was bristling with anger, but KR responded coolly. 
It had already been four days since their departure from Thekkek. Since Ju Ha, a Person of the Earth, was with them, they’d traveled slowly, so they were probably about 140 kilometers away. 
If the gnolls kept marching along the ravine, it wouldn’t take them a week to reach Thekkek. 
Of course, if they felt like it, the Adventurers could get back to the village before the gnolls reached it. However, even if they got there, what could they do? 
Chun Lu and Ju Ha were probably thinking the same thing. 
A heavy, wordless silence filled the area. 
“Okay. Hup. Hup!” 
Kanami completely failed to read the atmosphere. She’d had her face stuck out of the tent, and now she wriggled and crawled the rest of the way out. Why is she crawling? Leonardo wondered, but as it turned out, she was still in her sleeping bag. She inched forward, looking like a caterpillar, then agilely hopped to her feet. Possibly because she was embarrassed (and rightly so), Kanami shucked off the sleeping bag with Elias’s help. 
Though really, if she was embarrassed, she should’ve just walked out to begin with. 
“Mm. Good. Good? Five hundred dogs. That’s good luck.” 
He had no idea what was lucky about it. Maybe it was some sort of Japanese folk tradition. As Leonardo wondered what the hell Kanami was saying, she punched a fist up into the sky. 
“Sounds like a worthy opponent to me!!” 
“Hey, moron! Don’t you dare!” 
“M-moron?! Did you just call me a moron, Croakanardo?!” 
“Uh, sorry. Perhaps I went too far.” 
Kanami was planning to pick a fight with five hundred monsters—monsters with unknown abilities, at that—and in spite of himself, Leonardo verbally smacked her upside the head. He apologized, but he really did think she was a moron. 
“Still, there’s five hundred, you know? It’ll be fun to charge in and kick ’em to pieces,” she added. 
“If you manage to kick ’em to pieces, yeah.” 
“I can do it if I really try.” 
“Like you could ever actually do it, you idiot!” 
There was a level difference here. A difference that was probably more than ten. 

Warrior classes existed to attract the enemy. They used their abilities to protect the Recovery and Magic Attack classes, and to give Weapon Attack classes like Leonardo the perfect chance to strike. 
However, when they attracted the enemy, naturally, they became the target of their attacks. In exchange for not wearing proper armor, Kanami’s class, Monk, had overwhelming evasive abilities. Most attacks from low-level gnolls probably wouldn’t even scratch her. 
That was “most,” though. 
It wasn’t a guarantee. 
On top of that, when the enemy’s numbers were vast, there was the possibility that her MP would be drained during battle. If she ran out of MP, she wouldn’t be able to use special skills. For a Warrior class, Monks had good attack power and well-balanced abilities, but these were only possible because they paid out lots of special skills rapidly, one after another. If her MP ran out, her fighting potential would drop drastically. 
With Monk evasive abilities and Kanami’s unique combat abilities, she might actually manage to drive off five hundred gnolls. Leonardo was training with the goal of surpassing her. There was hope. However, the risk was too great. 
No, risk wasn’t even the problem here. The problem was her motive. 
“And anyway…” As if laughing at Leonardo’s thoughts, Kanami grew enthusiastic, striking up a beat with her fingernails. “Five hundred is apple pie when your stomach’s all grumbly, Croakanardo.” 
“Just for the record, I’m not Croakanardo.” 
Besides, he hated girls who scarfed down apple pie like that. 
“Real Adventurers just blast their way through five hundred! Double up and do twice that.” 
“Don’t make up crap about Adventurers.” 
And Kanami wasn’t allowed to gamble. What was this “double up” business? 
“We punch clear through the enemy and then, um, what was it again? Tone-deaf grads?” 
“It is Ruined Colonnade Tonnesgrave.” 
“Yeah, that! We charge into the grave-thingy and behead the enemy!!” 
“Are you nuts?! There are more than ten thousand of ’em!!” 
Leonardo’s shoulders slumped. 
He hadn’t held out much hope of their beating even five hundred of them. What was this woman thinking? He’d thought there was just something weird about her, something odd, but no, she was flat-out crazy. 
“Weren’t you listening? They wiped out the Lelang Wolf Cavalry’s legion raid. Understand? That’s one hundred level-90 Adventurers. Wiped. Out. All right?!” 
“That’s because they fought them head-on, with no intel.” 
“Wha…?” 
“So we won’t fight. We’ll just attack and behead them. Then we run. A perfect game! We are the champions!” 
“Mo—” 
This girl had to be a moron. 
What was that stuff about “champions”? Your brain is the world champion of stupidity. 
That was probably why there were ten thousand gnolls protecting the ruins: so that sort of thing didn’t happen. They’d tried to capture them with a raid because they hadn’t been able to do it the other way. That was what Leonardo thought, but Kanami’s attitude was so cavalier that all he could do was flap his mouth uselessly. 
“So, Kanami.” 
“Hmm? What, KR?” 
“You mentioned intel.” 
“We heard quite a bit from Chun Lu, remember?” 
“Hmm. So, what sort of intel? And how are you going to use that to defeat the gnoll boss, assuming there is one?” 
“You figure that out, KR!” 
Kanami spoke decisively, with a smile so bright it almost made you think dawn had broken in the Aorsoi night. 
“?” 
“There’s literally no way he can do that, you idiot!” 
KR had gone speechless for a moment, and Leonardo hit her with a few strong words in his place. As things stood, he felt much too bad for KR, who dexterously bent his horse’s neck, snickering as if he couldn’t quite hold back. He was muttering things like, “B-bus guide. There it is, the bus gas explosion…” It was creepy. 
“Hmm. I don’t think it’s a question of being able to do it or not.” 
“Then what—?” 
“We need to go.” 
“And I’m asking you why we need to do that!” 
As Leonardo pressed her, Kanami took a few light steps on tiptoe and gave a little smile. She didn’t seem to be teasing Leonardo; it was a soft smile. 
“It’s a reason I can’t say out loud.” 
That kept Leonardo from putting the rest of what he’d been planning to say into words. 
Chun Lu and Ju Ha probably thought this was their party’s problem; they were watching, but they didn’t say anything. Leonardo and the others wouldn’t get anywhere like this. He wanted Elias and Coppélia to scold Kanami, too, but they betrayed his expectations. 
“I agree with Kanami.” 
“?!” 
“I’m not saying we should depart for the jaws of death because I have an obligation to her. You may have forgotten, but I’m an Ancient. I have a duty to protect the People of the Earth. That has been the mission of the thirteen global chivalric orders ever since they were established. It may be trite, but even so, I sense the weight of truth in it. On the pride of the fallen fairy tribe, I will not abandon the People of the Earth.” 
Come to think of it, that’s true, Leonardo remembered. 
Ever since Leonardo became their companion on this journey, he’d forgotten that Elias was an Ancient, an NPC. He wasn’t a player. He seemed to be rich in emotions, but he was basically a high-performance robot. 
The same went for the People of the Earth. 
They were only NPCs. 
That was why everything they did was so dumb. 
“What the hell are you thinking?! If it’s dangerous, you get away from it. Isn’t that obvious? You people don’t know New York; that’s why you’re spinning castles in the air like this. What happens if you do something like that? This world is weird. It’s a crazy dystopia. Adventurers aren’t invincible. There are things you can save and things you can’t, you know? The People of the Earth aren’t human. We can’t save them. Just leave them!” Leonardo shouted, spitting the words out. 
They tasted like blood. Like regret. 
“Coppélia will go, too.” 
“Why—?” 
After Coppélia responded to him, she moved her thin arms, packing her belongings into her weight-reducing bag. 
Leonardo couldn’t condone the gesture, and he caught her wrist. There was no help for Kanami and Elias. However, Coppélia served Kanami as a maid, and she had to be different. It gave Leonardo a terribly unpleasant, pathetic feeling. 
“Why? You know there’s no way to win that.” 
“Are you certain?” 
“Just think about it! Why would you do a thing like that for NPCs?!” 
“Coppélia feels that there is a chance for victory. Coppélia termed that phenomenon ‘Parallel One.’ That condition is likely to be unstable in the extreme. If Coppélia, who has no soul, approaches, the broken, copied things will rush Coppélia. Coppélia’s defensive gear has anti-spirit capabilities, and she suspects that may prove to be an effective countermeasure for Parallel One.” 
“Even if your logic’s sound, it won’t cut down the enemy’s numbers! You don’t have to sacrifice yourself, Coppélia!” 
Her deep indigo hair swayed, denying Leonardo’s words. Her large eyes reflected him like polished mirrors. 
Fixing that innocent gaze on Leonardo, Coppélia spoke. 
“Coppélia is not a player, either. A money-laundering group headquartered in China established several bots to collect capital inside the MMO. Coppélia is one of them.” 
Those quiet words pierced right through Leonardo’s cowardice and escapism.