Lord of Disease (JP-GL) 432

432: Discovery

I was dreaming. The Barghests were playing with me, licking my face…

“Mmm… stop it, you… guys…?”

I was really being licked on the cheek.

I opened my eyes and sat up, and the Barghests jumped back.

“…You found me.”

I couldn’t help but smile. I opened my arms to welcome them and hugged them.

It was almost dawn. The Dark Forest, with its morning mist, was cold, even for early summer, and even with the magical effect of my flight suit, my body was chilled. The heat from under their black fur seeped into me, and I began to warm up.

“Ah, you’re so warm.”

I used to be afraid of the Black Hound Barghests. Because I had only known their scary side. Because they were a creature I didn’t know, a creature that was just scary.

But not anymore.

One Barghest became two, and then three… and as I was about to doze off, buried in their fur, a ‘fourth’ came. To be precise, a fourth and a person.

In the dawn forest, where the rain had stopped, a single wraith—a Greater Wraith—was running, as if to overtake the Barghest that was leading the way.

Her pale, translucent, dark green robe fluttered, and she found me.

She had found me.

“—Aithys!”

It was not her usual, aloof, composed face, nor her happy, smiling face, nor the gentle face with which she looked at her partner, as if she were the most precious thing in the world, nor the innocent face she had when she was playing with the Barghests.

Her expression, as she desperately called my name, was a little strange—and very happy, and I stood up and waved, smiling.

“Hey. —Is Leaf alright?”

“…You!”

She hugged me and cursed me, her voice choked with tears. She had noticed the bandage on my ankle, so her touch was gentle, for all her force.

“Leaf came back, alright! But he didn’t have a saddle… Do you know how worried I was… if you, too, Aithys, were to… on a mission… I…”

Eithys—my twin brother—had died under her command.

“…Ah, sorry.”

I didn’t say any more and patted her back.

We were prepared to die. —That was how it was. Eithys was an assassin, which was rare for a beastman, and I was a griffin rider. And yet, since we had been born a beastman, we were all equally ‘warriors.’

To live for our comrades, and to die for our comrades.

That was the way of the beastmen. The form of pride that Eithys and I had chosen.

But I couldn’t explain that well to her, who was not a beastman, and I stroked her pale, translucent black hair, as if to soothe her.

“I’m alright, okay?”

But the arms that were hugging me tightened. As if to confirm my existence. Her body was trembling a little, and her voice, too, was trembling.

“Why are you so calm…”

“Because I believed.”

“You were injured, weren’t you? Even if it wasn’t a fatal wound, if you couldn’t move… there was no guarantee that you would be found right away…”

“I believed that you would find me.”

She fell silent. And the trembling of her body stopped… and she hugged me again, tightly.

“…Can I talk now?”

I could feel my ears twitch at the low voice.

“Lathus-sama!”

She, who had been hugging me, now stood beside me, supporting me. The Lord of Disease, and Lathus-sama, and Liz—a luxurious search party.

Lathus-sama looked at me with his golden wolf eyes.

“I’m glad you’re safe. …What happened?”

“Ah, well… I was attacked by a flock of wild griffins… their territory seems to have changed. It’s dangerous, so the flight route I took this time can’t be used anymore.”

The eyes of the Lord of Disease, who was supporting me, glinted with a dangerous light, befitting her name.

“A griffin… attacked our Aithys? …This is a level where I wouldn’t hesitate to change the ecosystem.”

“No, our. …I have a feeling we’ve agreed on something for the first time.”

“…Wait, for the first time?”

“Stop with the dangerous remarks. And besides, Lathus-sama, please stop her.”

Lathus-sama’s eyes narrowed, and he spat.

“…I have no intention of forgiving the one who hurt you.”

My heart pounded at the unexpected words. But.

“No, so… I’m sorry for worrying you, but we griffin riders fly with that kind of a resolve. We steal the chicks from their parents and fly in this sky. …Don’t say anything about hurting a wild griffin, even as a joke.”

The two of them looked down.

“…I’m sorry.”

“…Sorry.”

Liz said, as if impressed.

“To silence two supreme commanders with a sound argument… you’ve really grown.”

“…I’ll become an adult, a little. After I’ve experienced ‘actual combat.’”

I had not yet killed anyone. I had experience hunting. And I had combat experience—yes. But that was as a griffin rider. A carrier, not a warrior.

That was why there were not many who wanted to be one. Even though there were tens of thousands who wanted to be a warrior.

And yet, what was truly needed from now on was probably—not a warrior. We had to find a place to dedicate our pride and our honor, other than the battlefield. Warriors would be needed for the defense of the settlements and for hunting, and that would continue to be an honorable and proud profession.

…But the era where it was a matter of course for every adult beastman to become a warrior was surely over.