GRP Chapter 34

Blood, hot and metallic, splattered. Mariaeks wiped the clots from her lips and eyelashes with her sleeve and opened her eyes.

The monster's severed head had rolled down to her level. It and Mariaeks—still tucked under Garthe's arm—faced each other directly. The monster blinked. It did not appear to know its neck had been cut. Finding the unblinking fish eyes uncomfortable, she quietly lifted her gaze elsewhere. The humans were shaking blood from their weapons. The battle had been resolved in the interval.

Thirty seconds ago: the sound of ice breaking as a crowd of half-human, half-fish monsters burst from the frozen lake. Salenoke had cut off the lead monster's head with one stroke of his axe, and while Mariaeks had her eyes closed against the blood that erupted from the cross-section, everything had concluded.

More frightening to Mariaeks than the humans who severed monster bodies without apparent effort was Garthe's indifference—watching it all without so much as an eyebrow twitch. Feeling her gaze, Garthe turned his head slightly and looked down at her.

"Friend?"

He really seemed like a crazy human. Why did he keep asking, each time a severed-headed god or monster appeared, whether it was a familiar face? She could not determine what the question was for.

"I don't have any friends."

"What a pity."

The man answered without particular interest and looked elsewhere.

Fshwak! The Paldoa sisters erupted from inside the lake and shot into the sky. Drenched through, they shook their heads like animals. The lake had gone red. One could guess from the color what had happened inside.

"Ugh, what day is it today. Why does everything keep crawling out?"

Ryaia muttered in irritation, wringing water from her hair. As she said, this was already the fourth attack.

"Did someone put honey out there... these scraps keep being a nuisance."

"Attacks at the fortress have been frequent lately too."

"Is something happening in Heimdrykze?"

The Paldoa sisters' eyes turned simultaneously to Mariaeks.

"Hey, Lady Mariaeks?"

The three Paldoa sisters, who had initially taken Mariaeks for a new recruit, had learned her identity sometime after and changed their form of address. From newcomer to Lady Mariaeks. It was strange that despite the honorific, their manner and the feeling they gave off hadn't shifted in any perceptible direction.

"You said you're from Heimdrykze. Must have lived nicely."

"Anything happening up there in the neighborhood? Don't keep it to yourself—good things should be shared."

"You must have heard something, even secondhand."

The Paldoa sisters, whose faces gave the impression of beings incapable of crushing a single ant, felt several times more unruly than the fierce-faced temple priests. Mariaeks looked from one to another. What was happening in Heimdrykze? The divine territory was always unchangingly the same. Quiet enough that you could hear the sound of snow falling.

"Nothing in particular..."

She didn't know the changes since she had left. Mariaeks answered tentatively, and all three sisters' brows furrowed with displeasure.

Garthe let words drop and settled the situation lightly.

"Lady Mariaeks says she has no friends. She may not know."

The three sisters' expressions shifted to something sympathetic.

"That's because you hole up in your room, Lady Mariaeks."

"Get some fresh air. Talk to people."

"Look at how pale you are. Do you even see sunlight?"

Leaving Mariaeks's indignation behind, the group moved on. Before long they reached the point Rugel had named. As expected, not a single reindeer was visible. Oze pressed his hand to the ground and informed the group.

"I can hear hoofbeats in the distance. Since they're herd animals, the probability is high that they're all somewhere nearby."

Oze's particular sensing ability—he'd said he wouldn't use it here. The reason: sleeping gods and monsters could wake from the subtle disturbance it sent out. Not particularly dangerous, but inconvenient enough that holding it in reserve was the common preference.

In the end, humans with strong divine awareness and the Paldoa sisters flew through the air to search. The reindeer had scattered into roughly ten groups of various sizes. Fortunately they weren't too widely separated—but there was a minor problem.

"...Hey, Anir. I forgot to ask before we left. How many reindeer are we looking for...?"

Salenoke's lips trembled as he asked. Garthe took out his water flask, drank, wiped his mouth, and answered brightly.

"Five thousand."

Just as everyone was about to fall into silence, Oze interjected in a cheerful voice.

"More precisely, five thousand, six hundred and seventy-three, they said."

"That's how it seemed."

Wow, our Anir... cutting off the last digits cleanly, just like cutting off monster heads... How does five thousand, six hundred and seventy-three become five thousand. What a generous margin... The warriors' eyes went hazy. Thinking about the hardship ahead, their vision went not just dim but entirely dark.

The head count wasn't the only problem.

The single attack had driven five-thousand-plus reindeer to a state of extreme agitation. Even leading one or two of them away was failing. Holding food under their noses and blowing Rugel's pipe had little effect.

"You piece of—!"

Akote, furious at a reindeer kicking and spraying snow and mud everywhere, slapped it across the head. She was immediately called over by Oze for a scolding. We shouldn't hit animals that can't speak, should we, Akote? But it started it!

The other sisters complained to Garthe as well.

"Let's bring mercenaries from the fortress. Tell them they'll get one reindeer each."

"We'll be stuck here for a month at this rate! You know we just got back, Anir!"

Garthe looked over the situation briefly and let out a short breath. White breath spread into the air, and at the same moment the condensed power inside him began to spread slowly outward. His eyes cast downward, Garthe sent his gaze somewhere far away. That moment, divine power erupted like a gust. But unlike before, no heat came with it.

Mariaeks looked in the direction the power was moving. Fire walls were rising in the distance. The flames began enclosing the surrounding area in sequence, burning along their path the way fire moves along an oil-soaked rope. The reindeer, startled by the intensely radiating energy, fled toward the opposite side—toward Garthe's group. Like driving fish with a net, the space formed by the fire walls slowly began to narrow.

A while later, the vast snowfield held dozens of humans standing helplessly, Garthe—whose complexion hadn't changed despite the power he'd expended—Mariaeks still tucked at his side, and thousands of rampaging animals.

Foam-mouthed reindeer ran circuits along the inside edge of the fire walls. The ground shook: thud-thud-thud-thud. They seemed even more agitated than during the original attack. Salenoke, the bearded one, who had taken a kick while trying to calm the reindeer, trudged back.

"We succeeded at gathering them!"

He was a remarkably positive person. Garthe surveyed the chaos and gave the order.

"Kill them all."

"Pardon?"

"I paid for the map and for the reindeer, so they're mine now. How I treat my own property is my own business."

"That's... true, but?"

"Dead ones would be easier to transport than live ones."

"Hearing it put that way, that's true."

Mariaeks stared at the humans agreeing so readily and had no words for it.

Freshly slaughtered reindeer blood contained important nutrients difficult to obtain in the barren north. Garthe knew this. But when and how one would soothe thousands of animals, and when one would finish moving them all—even if it could be done, it would take significant time. In the interim, if monsters and gods woke to the commotion or began converging, the nearby fortresses and the people in them would sustain damage. They couldn't afford losses for reindeer destined to be distributed as provisions anyway. The calculation of killing them all and using the meat was not wrong. The fact that Samthyeon had sent Garthe in the first place meant Samthyeon had done the same arithmetic.

The fire walls lowered gradually. He'd kept in mind that sustaining them too long could draw its own kind of attention. As the heat and threat diminished, the reindeer settled somewhat. Warriors with accommodating expressions picked up their blood-smeared weapons with smiles. By Mariaeks's measure, that was several times more frightening than anything else.

So death approached the reindeer with smiling faces—and something changed. Several reindeer that had been milling at the edges voluntarily moved toward the humans. Pushing through with their horns, they went further in. Toward where Garthe was. Watching this, Salenoke muttered.

"Tsk... of all the directions..."

They say animals have excellent instincts—perhaps not in all cases. Salenoke smiled with something like pity and stepped back. A young reindeer pushed through the people. Not wandering. Heading straight for Garthe. A little more. A little further. And right to the tip of someone's nose.

"......"

Right to the tip of Mariaeks's nose, to be precise. The young reindeer breathed heavily in her face. Its large, gentle eyes held moisture. An awkward standoff—then the reindeer licked her face. A smell wafted over. Then the young animal rubbed its face against hers, hard and repeatedly. Hair stuck to exactly where the tongue had passed.

"Lady Mariaeks, it seems very fond of you."

She would have liked to answer Salenoke. The situation did not permit it. First she removed the stiff hair that had entered her mouth with her fingers. In the meantime several more reindeer approached. Then tens more gathered. Warriors looked around in bewilderment, and the Paldoa sisters flew upward to escape the increasing density.

Garthe set Mariaeks down and pushed her forward. A reindeer lowered itself and caught her before she fell, then pulled her into the herd. Mariaeks watched Garthe and the humans growing smaller in the distance.

"...Huh?"

The reindeer herd surrounded her and licked and rubbed—hands and face, coat and leather boots. Head to toe, a thorough and enthusiastic coverage of tongue. Mariaeks couldn't manage a dazed sound anymore.

"...Did someone put honey out there?"

Ryaia muttered blankly. She didn't seem to notice she'd said the same thing as during the recent attacks. Garthe watched Mariaeks getting gradually soaked. The way she kept her eyes and mouth pressed tightly shut against the saliva—it was diverting.

For that reason, there was one fact she was the only one not to know. Five-thousand-plus reindeer had stopped rampaging. The reindeer stood where they were, only slowly catching their breath.

The fire still burned at the walls. In the animals' eyes—the warm and quiet peace of wanderers who had reached paradise.