novelraw Chapter 96 : Nothing Has Changed Here
Chapter 96 : Nothing Has Changed Here
Chapter 96: Nothing Has Changed Here
The bear’s hide was as soft as fur.
Clinging to its fluffy, warm back, he pushed through the snowstorm for three days.
Following the man, Robin learned a few things.
His name was Sigbard.
Unbelievably, there seemed to be a village in this snowy mountain range.
A village of people who called themselves the Barbarian tribe.
Sigbard was taking Robin to that village.
“Grrr.”
The white bear tapped Sigbard’s shoulder with a paw and growled.
When Sigbard tossed raw meat from his bundle, it slipped straight into the bear’s mouth.
The meat had been monster flesh.
Two days earlier, a beast-type monster had appeared before Robin.
It looked similar to a bear, but it had six legs and a tail as long as its body.
Sigbard had beaten that monster to death with his bare hands.
That day, the two men and the bear had eaten their fill.
At first, Robin felt repulsed, but to satisfy his hunger, he closed his eyes and swallowed it.
He had not found it difficult to guess that the meat Sigbard handed him in the cave had been monster flesh.
As if it were routine, Sigbard dismantled the monster’s corpse and carefully gathered everything.
“Is that the village Sigbard mentioned?”
“Shuh.”
Homes surrounded by wooden palisades were spewing smoke in the distance.
‘We survived.’
Up close, the village looked decent.
He had not expected much from land so barren and buried in snow, but it was larger than he thought.
Someone guarding the front of the village like a city gate spotted Sigbard and walked over.
‘The people here are all over two meters tall by default.’
The two Barbarians acting as guards spread their palms toward Sigbard.
Even without understanding their language, the meaning was obvious.
They were saying he could not enter the village.
Sigbard pointed at Robin and spoke in the Barbarian tongue.
Several heated exchanges followed between them.
‘Sigbard must be banned from entering, and he’s trying to get me inside anyway…….’
Sigbard even held out meat as he spoke, but he was ultimately refused.
When Sigbard trudged back, his head was hanging low.
Robin grabbed Sigbard’s shoulder.
“It’s okay.”
Sigbard looked dejected, as if he had committed a crime.
When Robin patted his shoulder, the white bear also tried to comfort Sigbard.
Perhaps his sincerity came through, because Sigbard lifted his head and started walking.
The place he arrived at was a hut slightly removed from the village.
‘Is this Sigbard’s home.’
The spacious hut had everything necessary for someone to live.
That was how his cohabitation with a Barbarian began.
Sigbard often left the hut.
When Robin woke up in the morning, Sigbard grilled meat and went outside.
Once he went out, he only returned around sunset.
Sometimes he brought back meat that could have been from monsters or beasts, and sometimes he returned empty-handed.
The white bear was no longer around the hut.
After Robin began staying at Sigbard’s place, it became hard to see the bear.
‘The leg bone seems roughly set, but the pain isn’t going away.’
Thanks to Sigbard’s care, Robin’s body recovered quickly.
The herbs Sigbard applied had outstanding healing effects even compared to those Robin knew.
Once his safety was assured, Robin’s mind grew complicated.
He had no way of knowing what had happened to the war or whether those left behind were safe, which left him stifled.
Above all, it weighed on his heart that he could not attend the funerals of the dead.
The depression outweighed the joy of having mastered fighting spirit.
Whenever that happened, Sigbard led Robin outside the hut.
He showed him the aurora spread across the night sky like a curtain and bumped his fists together.
It was no small comfort.
A week had passed since he had fallen into the snowy mountains.
Robin was able to stand up and walk on his own.
He tried to follow Sigbard, but Sigbard dissuaded him.
Because he wanted to return to the Domain of Count Wilcock as soon as possible, Robin secretly followed Sigbard.
He soon realized why Sigbard had stopped him.
Descending the snowy mountains in his current condition was close to suicide.
The monsters lurking throughout the rugged mountain range and the cold were more than Robin could handle.
After returning to the hut, Robin obediently focused on recuperating.
A month passed.
Robin’s body fully recovered.
Living with the Barbarian, he became able to communicate at a basic level.
Sigbard also grew somewhat accustomed to the Imperial common tongue.
“Food.”
“Thank you, as always.”
After finishing breakfast, Robin followed Sigbard.
It was partly to help with Sigbard’s hunting and partly to familiarize himself with the surrounding terrain.
Thick fur clothing and snow boots suited for walking on snowfields.
Wrapped up from head to toe, Robin looked no different from a small Barbarian.
Sigbard went around the village.
It was the opposite direction from where he had found Robin.
After walking for quite some time, they came upon a steep downhill path leading to a cliff.
“Robin, sit.”
Following Sigbard as he plopped down in place, Robin sat as well.
Sigbard did not take his eyes off the cliff.
Even if he asked, he would not get a proper answer, so Robin waited silently.
Before long, Sigbard stood up.
“It’s here.”
A beast-type monster appeared from below the cliff.
It was not difficult to guess how it had climbed up a cliff shaped like a sheer drop.
If one got caught by those sharp claws, there would be nothing left to collect, not even bones.
Sigbard cracked his knuckles.
“Grrrrr…….”
Sigbard stood at a height of 2.5 meters.
The monster was bigger than him.
Even so, Sigbard approached it without hesitation.
When the monster spread its jaws wide, dozens of sharp teeth were revealed.
The monster charged as if it were about to swallow a person whole.
“Huup.”
Sigbard thrust his fist toward the monster’s gaping mouth.
It looked as though it would go straight inside, but he bent his waist and drove it into the creature’s jaw hinge.
Thud.
With a single punch, the monster’s head snapped upward.
Sigbard did not miss that opening.
Toward the monster, whose head was rattled and whose senses were gone, he swung his fists without restraint.
After landing repeated blows to its snout and torso, the monster breathed its last.
“That’s amazing.”
Setting aside sheer strength, it was astonishing that he caught a monster with his bare hands.
There were martial artists who fought using their bodies as weapons, but they were hard to find in reality.
With a single mistake, a hand could be torn off.
“More coming.”
Sigbard pointed toward the cliff.
One, two…….
Ten monsters formed a pack and snarled at Sigbard.
“Robin, help.”
“Got it.”
Robin drew his sword.
It had been roughed up and was less sharp than before, but it was fine.
A sword wrapped in fighting spirit became sharper than any blade.
“Grrr.”
Robin lightly leapt and cut off a monster’s head.
It was his first hunt together with Sigbard.
Blood droplets were scattered indiscriminately across the ground blanketed in white snow.
Among the monster corpses strewn about, Sigbard dismantled the largest one.
Watching closely, Robin helped with the dismemberment.
“Robin, good.”
“I’m not bad at hunting either.”
“Learned?”
“Yes. I learned when I was young. From a very strong mercenary.”
“Good.”
“…I can never see him again, though.”
Thanks to Robin’s help, the dismemberment went much more smoothly.
He tried to dismantle the remaining monsters, but Sigbard stopped him.
He gathered the corpses together and shoved them straight over the cliff.
“You worked hard to catch them—aren’t they a waste?”
“Greed bad.”
The corpses fell what looked like a hundred meters and burst with a wet splat.
Robin immediately realized why Sigbard had pushed the bodies away.
Countless monsters gathered near the exploded remains.
Creatures with no qualms about eating their own kind chewed and swallowed the scattered flesh.
“Are you farming monsters or something?”
Sigbard pointed beyond the cliff.
“Danger.”
All Robin could see where he pointed was a field of white snow.
Robin let it go, assuming there was a reason.
From what he had observed, Sigbard was clever.
Although they had not shared many conversations, he had learned the Imperial common tongue to a childlike level.
All the daily necessities in his hut were things Sigbard had made himself.
Robin was amazed that he maintained this level of living in an environment cut off from the outside world.
“Is today’s hunt over?”
“Hunt over.”
He placed chunks of cut meat on top of a hide.
Monster hide was extremely tough and did not tear no matter how much it was dragged along the ground.
Sigbard skillfully tied up the hide.
Carrying a bundle the size of an adult man, he started walking.
“If it’s heavy, tell me. I’ll carry it.”
“Not heavy.”
Along the way, he cut the meat into four pieces and tossed them aside.
A white bear appeared and took the meat.
That was Sigbard’s way of currying favor with the bear.
By the time they arrived, dragging the meat behind them, there was still time before sunset.
“Sigbard, I’ll take a quick look around.”
Sigbard nodded.
Daytime in the snowy mountains ended quickly.
Robin walked around, retracing his memories.
Passing roads he had been on several times, he expanded the map in his head.
This place, which he could only assume was the northern mountain range of Runeberg, was relatively flat for mountainous terrain.
There were slopes, but they were gentle, and with the large number of monsters, it was a place where one could live by hunting.
Since he would have to go down the mountain as soon as he was ready, he headed downward.
“…Is this possible?”
What Robin encountered after descending for a long time was a cliff.
A precipice similar to the place where he had gone hunting with Sigbard.
No matter where he looked, there was no visible path downward.
Considering the Barbarians’ physical abilities, climbing down like rock climbing might not be impossible, but…….
“There has to be a proper path somewhere.”
Robin walked along the cliff.
Looking down made him dizzy from the sheer difference in height.
Below, dozens of beast-type monsters roamed in packs.
Even if he somehow made it down, breaking through those monsters alone would not be easy.
After walking along it for an hour with no end in sight, he turned back.
If he returned now, the timing would be just right.
‘What if I end up trapped here?’
He had already wasted too much time.
Having failed to show himself for over a month, no one could argue if he were declared dead in the war.
Imelda was surely worried.
As he wandered through stray thoughts and mapped out future plans, something approached from beyond the cliff.
Beneath what looked like a dot was a fist-sized object trailing down like a thread.
Because it was far away, he thought it was a flying monster, but as it drew closer, it was astonishingly a person.
Robin watched its identity with his mouth agape.
“Ghk. Ngh.”
A woman walked through the air with a thick rope slung over her shoulder.
A person walking through empty space made no sense, but what made even less sense was the massive sled hanging from the rope.
It was a plain wagon focused on practicality, with only the wheels replaced by sled runners.
“Ngh. Nnghhhhh!”
The closer she came to Robin, the clearer the woman’s expression became.
Her face was flushed as if it would burst, and the veins on her forehead bulged prominently.
“What in the world is this…….”
Boom.
The woman, whose entire body expressed hardship, set the sled down beside Robin.
Even then, she dragged it another ten or so meters to ensure it would not fall off the precipice before finally stepping onto the ground.
“Huff. Huff. Huff.”
Despite being a snowy mountain where one could freeze to death, the sleeveless woman was steaming all over.
She looked like a kettle of boiling water.
Just as Robin stepped closer to speak, there was the sound of a door flinging open.
When he saw the man who stepped down from the sled, Robin could not continue speaking.
The man glanced around and said,
“Nothing has changed here.”
“H-how…….”
The man’s eyes met Robin’s.
The man, limping on his left leg as he stood before Robin, opened his mouth.
“It’s been a while. Have you been well?”
“Boss Burt……?”
Burt gave a small grin as he looked at Robin.