Madan no Ou to Vanadis - Volume 17 - Chapter 2.2

Tigre woke up to noise sounding like the howling of beasts. His hand reached for the Black Bow which he had placed nearby. Because he had extinguished the lamp before going to sleep, he was currently wrapped up in darkness, but he didn’t make any attempts to get the illumination going again. First he had to know what was going on.

Groping around, he grabbed the Black Bow and a quiver. However, at that moment, Tigre sensed a minuscule flow of 『Power』 from the bow, trying to tell him something.

──Is it related to the noise outside?

With his tension heightened, Tigre walked up to the door, just to hear another howl. But, now he could also hear something being broken and someone screaming.

“Don’t tell me…a demon?”

He couldn’t believe that his bow would warn him if bandits or wild animals were behind this disturbance. Cautiously opening the door, Tigre peeked outside, and was immediately confronted with a bizarre spectacle.

Several bluish flames with the height of an adult were flickering in the darkness, furiously floating about. There were around ten of them in total. On top of that, the screams of women and children reached him from the houses in the village.

──What the heck are these things?

Despite feeling dumbfounded, Tigre immediately pulled himself together. Once he strained his eyes, taking a good look at the surroundings, he spotted something like a black figure among the blue flames. That something, which looked humanoid, was clad in the blue flames. Tigre felt an indescribable eeriness from it. This feeling resembled the one he experienced when he confronted non-human beings such as Torbalan and Vodyanoy.

──So the Black Bow was trying to inform me about these things, huh?

Tigre concluded them to be monsters 1 Monsters that were attacking this village.

Flames rose from one of the houses, apparently under attack by the blue flame monsters. The small, wooden house was about to be completely wrapped up by a mix of red and blue flames.

Tigre rushed out of the storehouse, dashing towards the house from where he could hear screaming. Two monsters noticed him, hurrying in his direction. One of them closed the distance while running on all four like an animal.

“Who are you?” Tigre yelled after stopping and taking a breath.

The monsters didn’t reply.

He swiftly nocked two arrows on his Black Bow. The distance between him and his adversaries had already shrunken down to less than fifty alsin. As he had suspected moments ago, both monsters looked like blue human torches.

After drawing the bow string to the limit, he immediately released the arrows. The first arrow hit the right shoulder of one monster, the second buried itself in the thigh of the other. If they had been human, they’d have lost their balance and fallen over, or stopped because of the pain. But, the monsters merely shook their bodies lightly, and continued heading for Tigre while snarling in a weird tongue.

Tigre widened his eyes, realizing that they weren’t ordinary opponents. While he pulled new arrows from his quiver, the quadrupedal monster kicked off the ground, leaping at him. Its jumping power was reminiscent of a wolf, despite it undoubtedly having the physique of a human.

He evaded its ramming attack by throwing himself on the ground in a hurry. Gaining some distance by rolling, he shot an arrow at his attacker while keeping the other monster in sight at the corner of his eyes. His target toppled over after having its head penetrated by his arrow.

The other monster drew close to Tigre, snapping at him. Instinctively sensing the danger, Tigre kicked its leg, using the recoil to roll further across the ground. Then he nocked another arrow.

He couldn’t draw the string as much as he wanted to, but the arrow, fired from close distance, stabbed the monster’s left eye. At the same time, the arm mowed down by the monster cut through the air, buzzing.

Tigre got up, retreated, and then fired another arrow. Having its nape pierced, the monster whimpered shortly, shook violently, and heavily flopped down after tilting to the side.

The youth walked up to the monster while nocking a new arrow. The blue fire engulfing the monster was slowly getting smaller, but it didn’t seem like it’d fade anytime soon.

Taking a closer look, Tigre swallowed his breath. It was the same man who had called out to David when Tigre had entered the village in the evening. It was even wearing the same clothes.

“What’s going on…?”

His Black Bow hadn’t reacted in any way when Tigre encountered the man earlier. Tigre wondered whether the man still hadn’t been a monster at that time.

──Do humans suddenly turn into monsters? Then again, many unusual phenomenons took place in the capital.

When he lifted his face, scanning the village, a weird atmosphere was obviously enshrouding the whole place. As if anything and everything would be remade into something else.

──Is this what it means for the world to change?

Suddenly he heard jarring brays. It came from the area around the other monster he had brought down. Once he turned his eyes in the direction of the laughter, he saw palm-sized midgets manifesting from the shadow of the monster’s corpse. They wore triangle hats, had long and narrow ears, and ill-will twinkled in their eyes. As soon as Tigre pointed his bow in their direction, the midgets hurriedly hid behind the corpse.

A blue flame flickered at the corner of his eyes. Tigre’s face warped. The other monsters had let their rage free reign while he had been fighting the two monsters.

If I enhance the Black Bow’s power, I might be able to blow away the flame monsters in the distance altogether. But, if I were to do that, I’d inevitably damage the buildings and hurt the villagers.

Tigre turned his feet towards David and Lena’s house. He decided that he had to get them to run away after explaining the situation. If possible he also wanted them to tell the other villagers to escape. The things Tigre could do by himself were limited.

He started to run, but came to a grinding halt after not even having taken ten steps. The door to David’s home was wide open, a man engulfed in blue flames standing in the doorway. It was David. He carried Lena in his hands while holding something like a dark red rope in his mouth. That rope extended from the abdomen of his bloodstained daughter.

Lena’s eyes were hollow, having lost all their light. Traces of blood were visible at the corners of her mouth. She was already dead. Tigre stared at her father in shock. Just a few hours ago he had been a great father only thinking about the best for his daughter. And now this.

Tigre set up his bow, but didn’t nock an arrow. He pulled the bowstring while pouring his anger and grief into his fingers. Sensing the will of its user, the 『Power』 took the shape of an arrow. It wasn’t anything you’d call powerful. The arrow soared through the air without getting affected by the wind at all, and embedded itself between David’s eyebrows. David fell backwards, still embracing Lena.

Tigre walked up to father and daughter with an expression full of sadness, and knelt down next to David. Checking from close-by, he was still wearing gloves and covering his neck with a cloth, just as Tigre had expected. While staying on guard, Tigre carefully removed one of David’s gloves.

──I see.

Bluish pockmarks blemished the back of David’s hand. He suspected that these pockmarks must have transformed the villagers into blue flame monsters.

Tigre exhaled lightly, gently lowering Lena’s eyelids. Then he tightly grasped his bow, and stood up. Turning around, he perceived that the number of dancing blue flames had grown in comparison to before. He guessed that the people, who had hidden their pockmarks like David had, had turned into monsters. The number of screams reaching his ears had clearly increased as well.

──I must save as many people as I can… Though I wonder whether I’ll be able to do so. Within this darkness and chaos.

David and Lena, who had known Tigre’s identity, were dead. It was quite perceivable that the villagers would immediately attack a strange, young traveler like him. And yet Tigre hardened his resolve to do what had to be done. Even if he’d be suspected and hated, the youth couldn’t turn a blind eye on the tragedy occurring in front of his eyes.

“Everyone who’s still alive, run outside the village! You have to escape!”

Tigre breathed in deeply, before loudly shouting with the wish to save as many people as possible fully occupying his mind. He was telling them to evacuate the village to avoid shooting someone by mistake. Of course he had taken into account that his yelling would draw the monsters’ attention.

And just as predicted, several blue flames headed his way. Setting his aim on one of them, Tigre allowed the bowstring to whir.

◆◇◆

As dawn broke, Tigre leaned against the fence surrounding the village, quietly observing the faint sun rays pouring onto the houses and streets. Exhaustion had deeply edged itself onto his face. The scenery filling his visual field could be summed up with one word: gruesome. Corpses were scattered all over the place, and several houses had turned into ruins over the night. Thanks to the villagers who had transformed into monsters. Several houses were still smoldering, flames licking and smoke billowing. The survivors were mud-caked as they extinguished the raging fires by destroying walls with farm tools.

Three middle-aged men stood next to Tigre. Each of them was shouldering a farming tool such as hoes and spades, facing Tigre with scrutinizing, wary looks.

Tigre had continued to fight the monsters while urging the villagers to run away all night long. The battle came to an end before the first sun rays crawled across the horizon, but until the sky began to brighten, the youth hadn’t been able to ease his tension, and the villagers, who had followed his advice to take refuge, had stayed away from the village.

Just now Tigre had finished explaining the circumstances to the villagers who finally made their way back.

“Come to think of it, I heard David mention that he’d let a young traveler stay over.” A single villager growled.

Tigre’s face twisted faintly. Fortunately, it seemed like David had informed the other villagers about Tigre’s presence. Without that, things might have become a lot more complicated.

“Folks said that this guy protected the villagers from the guys who went crazy, and told them to run away.” Another villager spat out in annoyance.

His discontent wasn’t directed at Tigre, but the situation itself. This mess wasn’t something he could swallow just because it was visible right in front of his face. Obviously, as people who had been friends and acquaintances until yesterday had suddenly turned into monsters, slaughtering and devouring other villagers.

“Does that mean similar things are happening in the capital as well?” The third villager checked back with Tigre, doubt coloring his voice.

Tigre only nodded in silence. He was aware that it was irrational, but he could also understand their feelings. From their point of view, the other villagers were killed by unknown strangers. Even if those villagers had actually transformed into monsters. It was only reasonable for them to be unable to come to terms with that.

By listening to their conversation, Tigre also learned that 20 villagers had turned into monsters and that there were 50 casualties in total. Since the village’s population apparently was below 150 to begin with, it meant that roughly half of the village’s population had died within a single night.

──I wonder whether they’ll be able to last the winter.

He didn’t ask the villagers since he knew that it’d just invite their wrath and scorn, but Tigre was worried anyway. Tigre couldn’t tell just how much of an emotional shock they had suffered. But on the other hand, he couldn’t think of what he should tell them either.

Close to noon, a single villager walked up to in front of Tigre. An old, bald man with a characteristic white beard covering his jaw. Going by the respect the other villagers showed him, he appeared to be one of the village’s influential people.

After wrapping up the greeting with a simple nod, the man immediately got down to business.

“Could I have you leave the village at once?”

“As you wish.” Tigre obediently confirmed since he had already expected as much. However, he added a request, “Would you be kind enough to bring my horse and things out of the village then? Also, if you have some arrows left over, I’ll gladly take them off you. If not, even just arrowheads would do…”

Tigre had run out of arrows during the battle. In this regard, his situation had actually worsened in comparison to before his stay at the village. He had to obtain some arrows at all costs.

The elderly man looked at Tigre flabbergasted, obviously not having expected this, “Spell me surprised. I had counted on you complaining about this treatment.”

Originally it’d be proper to send off Tigre, who had saved many villagers, with words of gratitude. And yet, he not only didn’t hear a single word of thanks from the villagers, but instead was suspected and monitored, just to be thrown out of the village in the end. The old man probably believed that it’d have been very justified for Tigre to resent them for such behavior.

However, Tigre shook his head. His response was based on the assumption what he’d have done if the same had happened at his birth-town Celesta or some other village within Alsace, namely, some traveler of unknown origin slaughtering the villagers – even if out of necessity. Tigre himself might have been able to thank the stranger, but probably not while smiling.

“Understood. We’ll prepare as many arrows as we can spare.” The man promised Tigre.

Afterwards Tigre spent around half a koku outside the village waiting. His horse was safe, and his luggage had been placed behind his saddle. The quiver tied to the saddle contained 20 arrows. The old man had scraped them together after persuading the villagers.

“Thank you very much.” Tigre bowed to the old man who had come outside the village.

It wasn’t as though the man had done so to see Tigre off. Rather, he wanted to make sure that Tigre really left the village and its vicinity. Thus, his reply was cold and curt.

“Hurry up and be gone. We’ve got enough other things to do.”

Some feeling of guilt might have been included in that blunt dismissal. But, it was also true that they were busy. They had to bury their dead and treat their wounded. Moreover, they had to carefully check the bodies of the surviving villagers for pockmarks, and strictly isolate those afflicted – which was probably the task they hated the most.

At the end, Tigre offered a silent prayer to the gods for David and Lena’s souls to rest in peace, and departed from the village. He was very grateful towards his horse for carrying him along without minding his mood. After all, he might have heavily dragged his feet if he had to walk by himself right now.

──No matter the reason for making Tir Na Fal descend, I cannot forgive Ganelon for this.

Tigre had met David and Lena only yesterday, but he had definitely shared some friendly conversations with the two.

His body felt sluggish from exhaustion, and thus he decided that he should take a break after distancing himself from the village. However, Tigre’s head was filled with anger, which showed no hints of abating. He felt like he wouldn’t be satisfied until he slammed those furious emotions into Ganelon’s face.

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————— End of Part 2 —————