Chapter 163 – Fragile (1/2)

Letting the remnants of the defeated demon army pass, Gengu and Malfas traverse the wastelands while keeping a distance so that they don’t catch up with them. Gengu wondered whether they will deviate towards another direction sooner or later, but, no matter how much time passes, they follow the same path.

“What’s this about? Are those guys possibly heading towards the slums…?” (Gengu)

They don’t have an aura as if they are about to head into battle from now on, however it’s not entirely impossible that they changed their target to the beastmen living in the slums after having lost to the humans.

“Gengu-san…” (Malfas)

Looking at Malfas who watches him uneasily, Gengu decides to change their planned route towards advancing through the forests as much as possible.

I’m afraid of the possibility of being attacked by other beastmen, but if it’s just running away, we will manage somehow.

“We will enter the forest. It might get difficult, but we haven’t any other choice but to hurry in order to inform Reni.” (Gengu)

“Got it.” (Malfas)

Closing in on the demon group a bit, he confirmed that they are definitely heading in the direction of Swordland. The two of them got off the path quietly and went into the forest.

Once they have entered a depth where Gengu judges that they aren’t visible by the demons, they advance at a quick pace.

“Hifumi is currently in the human cities. As you could see from him following us, that person travels quickly as well. He won’t hesitate to go towards a battlefield. If he sees the demons coming to attack, he will likely repel them quickly… maybe those demons were actually repelled by Hifumi.” (Gengu)

Listening to Gengu’s talk, Malfas fell into silence.

Malfas somehow manages to accompany Gengu who is fast on his feet as should be expected of a wolf beastman. After listening to Gengu’s predictions, Malfas, who pondered about it while running to an extent that it’s more than enough, opened his mouth as he is following Gengu,

“Do the demons still intend to fight against the humans?” (Malfas)

“If I ponder about what they are planning… I’ve no idea. They might have learned their lesson this time. Likewise they might attack once again after having finished their preparations. Or…” (Gengu)

The worst possibility of Gengu’s predictions is that they could come to the conclusion to bolster their insufficient numbers, compared to the humans, by having the beastmen obey to them as subordinates. If the destination of the of the demon soldiers we saw just now is Swordland as expected, and if they are planning to attack that place, their target will likely be the beastmen living in that city.

“Unfortunately my head can’t process things so far ahead. Since I’ve always left the thinking part to others, there’s no other option but to spend our time on preparing as much as possible so that we are able to fight.” (Gengu)

“Reni-san and the others don’t have any intention to fight with anyone, I think?” (Malfas)

Gengu snorted due to Malfas’ remark.

“There are parts where I want to say… ‘not like I would know’, but there’s one thing that’s definite.” (Gengu)

Gengu stops and looks at Malfas’ face.

“Reni-san won’t emotionally choose an option that seems like it’ll expose her comrades to danger. If there’s nothing she has to protect by all means or no way to definitely win, she won’t drag her comrades into an unreasonable battle, I’m sure.” (Gengu)

At the time when Gengu became a slave, the leader of the village had decided to fight. As a result of that, half of his friends had been pointlessly killed and the remaining survivors had all been turned into slaves. Though he had just recently heard of it, but half of his friends that had been turned into slaves have already died.

If their leader was someone capable of making decisions like Reni, he might have at least considered to retreat temporarily to reorganize.

No, if we had been a group that decided its leader by judging their accomplishments and not just a savage group that settles on a leader simply going by their strength…

After half-heartedly getting to know Reni’s methods, this popped up in Gengu’s head many times, but, as it’s something that can’t be helped even if he broods over it now after such long time, he pushed back those thoughts inside his memories.

“Anyway, for now we have to hurry to return to the slums… Hide!” (Gengu)

He grabs the luggage Malfas is carrying and forcibly pulls it behind a tree.

After telling Malfas to conceal himself, Gengu silently checked their front from within the shade of the tree. It looked as if several figures of people moved about.

“I don’t know what kind of beastmen live around here, but I pray that they are a gentle lot…” (Gengu)

He watches fixedly for several seconds. Gengu felt relieved when he saw the ears of a rabbit atop a distant thicket. If it’s a rabbit beastman, they probably won’t come attacking us all of a sudden. If it’s a human, it’s quite unlikely for them to have brought along a rabbit beastman that has no combat strength despite having entered a forest in the wastelands area.

“Stand up, Malfas. It’s a rabbit-san.” (Gengu)

Gengu quickly picked up his dropped luggage and, once Malfas had also fixed all the luggage that had been thrown into disarray due to him lying down, they approached the rabbit ears.

The face that appeared after roughly pushing its way through the grass with a rustling was that of Helen. Leading several beastmen, she draws nears to in front of Gengu at a fast pace.

“… Gengu-san?” (Helen)

“Helen-san!? What are you doing in this place!?” (Gengu)

“That’s my line. Haven’t you gone to meet Hifumi-san? Did you get lost?” (Helen)

Gengu burst out in laughter due to Helen’s joke, but Malfas had a bitter expression.

“Your numbers have decreased as well… What did actually happen?” (Helen)

“It’s a long story ~ssu”, Gengu explained as simple as possible that Viine and Puuse remained in the human country and about Malfas’ relationship with Hifumi.

Hearing that, Helen looks curious and says 「Puuse-san, too, eh…?」 Since Helen knows that Puuse herself only went there with the intention of accompanying Viine, she never expected her to actually stay behind, too.

“I just went on patrol to check the surrounding area and to search for food, but you are just right in time.” (Helen)

“In what way?” (Gengu)

“That is, you know…” (Helen)

After Helen mumbled under hear breath as if it was difficult to say while fiddling with one of her long ears with her fingers, she said “I have to tell you, don’t I?” and continued,

“Since the demons came to attack us, we abandoned the slums with everyone and entered the forest. And so we built a simple village ahead of here.” (Helen)

It took a bit time until Gengu understood what Helen had told him. That’s because he didn’t actually expect Reni to completely realize the evacuation he had pondered about until some time ago.

“So, a little problem has cropped up…” (Helen)

“It’s about them not wanting to return to the forest after all, isn’t it?” (Gengu)

Helen shakes her head at Gengu’s question.

Even her ears that are slowly shaking looked somewhat dejected.