"Wilbur, hey, Wilbur, wait a minute, I say!"
The not-so-warm afternoon sun in early spring lengthened his shadow. The panting young man pulling the wooden cart shouted loudly to his friend in front of him.
This is the south of the humid west coast of Morbigas, only a few kilometers away from Avenella, and its borders and population are only slightly better than those of the Krant Kingdom over there.
As a sign of the completion of the southern protrusion of the Tambur Mountains, heading south after crossing the Dange Canyon, the south of the west coast of Mobigas is as vast as the Prosper Plain in the north. The only difference is two points: first: ——This place is much more chaotic than Sivalier, with a large number of large and small kingdoms filling the left and right sides; and secondly, due to many reasons such as flooding of precipitation and the transfer of the Galil River underground, it is mostly a wetland landscape.
In early spring, the water vapor overflowing from the nearby swamps and wetlands often causes the local residents' clothes to be dried outside to have an unbearable sour smell - but then again, for them who only take a bath once every ten days and a half. In other words, even if there is no such damp breath, the body is still smelly.
So the people have actually been used to all this for a long time. Maybe the princes and nobles living in Archibald's Palace will frown their lustful brows because of the humidity that lingers all day long, or maybe not, who Got it.
In short, under the bright sunshine that stretched the shadow around 13 o'clock, the blond young man born in the unknown village of the Krant Kingdom weakly shouted this to his man with the same color hair, and then finally stopped due to fatigue. He stood down, placing his hands on his knees and breathing heavily.
"So you won't help me?" Sweat soaked his clothes and dirty hair, flowing from his forehead to the tip of his nose and dripping to the ground. He complained to his friend, and Wilbur in front finally turned around at this time.
"It's your own fault, Baker." Wilbur, who was supposed to be the one to blame, felt even more resentful for some reason. He strode over and pointed at the wet wooden flatbed pulled by Baker. The object spat and said: "I'm not here for this damn thing!"
"Not for this damn dirt!" Wilbur roared loudly, pacing back and forth and rubbing his hair anxiously.
"Man... these are fine clays. You don't know. You don't even need clinker to make pottery with them, and they can be shaped into shapes -"
"Give! Me! Him! Mom! Shut! Mouth!" Wilbur raised his voice to cover up Baker's words. While speaking, he kicked the flatbed truck hard with his feet. Baker was so frightened by him that he shrank aside. , but didn’t dare to say anything.
"I don't care what's going on with you, mason, but I'm not here for this damn thing!" he shouted, pointing at Baker's nose. The breeze blew through the tall reeds around him and swayed slightly. The unique smell was introduced into the nostrils of the two people. If they were not used to it, they would feel quite uncomfortable.
"I came here with you only because you said you found gold there, remember, gold." Wilbur raised his hands hysterically and shouted: "Gold! Instead of this mud, we were looking for a whole It’s been a whole morning and look what I’ve found! Mud, nothing but mud!”
"Oh my god, if I go back like this, I will be killed!!" He tightly grasped his dark brown hair and stamped his feet vigorously, while the submissive Baker on the side said cautiously: "Maybe you Go have a nice talk with Yeager so he can relax some more-" "Shut up! Damn it!"
Wilbur was like a powder keg that was about to light up. He was jumping furiously: "Today is the day, my innocent friend, today is the day! He will not do any more relaxation. If I can't If I pay back the twenty silver coins, he will definitely kill me!"
"So you should never have gambled in the first place—"
"God, let me take a breath. Are you still preaching at this time? We must find the damn gold, if you, my dear friend." Wilbur put his hands on Baker's shoulders : "If you don't want to see my beautiful head fall to the ground, help me find the gold quickly."
"This is not just me, my friend, after getting them, you can also have a bigger furnace, a better flatbed truck, and even a carriage."
"Then you will be known throughout Clant, the great mason Baker Lightford, and everyone will be vying to buy your pots, my friend." Wilbur He said with a smile, and Baker imagined the scene he described, and nodded with excitement on his face.
"So?" Wilbur pointed to the hand-drawn cart behind him that was full of red clay, and Baker hesitated for a moment, pulled it aside, and then poured out all the clay in the cart.
"This is my friend. Let's go. We still have a pile of gold waiting." Wilbur urged again and again. Baker, who still had a look of reluctance on his face, sighed, then turned around and pulled Qingqing Qingqing away. Many flatbed trucks moved forward.
The reeds swayed, and several little egrets with long pointed beaks were disturbed by the two men's actions and flew up from the side with a snap. The reeds as tall as one person swayed and entered again from what could be considered a "road". Among the reeds, the two men's tattered leather boots were covered in a ball of wet mud.
The soft soil made the movement of the flatbed truck even more difficult. Coupled with the weakness of his feet, Baker gritted his teeth and pulled desperately. Wilbur in front didn't even have the slightest intention of helping. He just looked around in anticipation of what Baker would say. The black puddle appeared in front of me quickly.
Under the bright sunshine, two young men covered in mud worked hard to push through the thick reeds and move forward. Small creatures such as crabs and frogs on the swamp ground fled in all directions due to the movement, and burrowed under the rocks and branches. .
"Huh...huh..." The smell of hot and humid water mixed with the smell of sweat and mud invaded the nasal cavity. The muddy linen that clung to the body due to sweat and body temperature made people feel... It was sticky and hot, and the soles of the leather boots, which were simply sewn together with hemp thread, had begun to crack due to long-term walking. Coupled with a day's fatigue, Baker gritted his teeth and tried hard to pull the wooden cart, but he also felt that he was About to fall.
"Man, walk faster." Wilbur, who was much more relaxed than him in the front, used his clean right hand to take out the dry food that was crushed and cooked with grains and wrapped together, and took a big bite. While chewing, he pushed aside the reeds with the dry branch he held in his left hand.
"Huh..." Baker, who felt thirsty and tired, took a long breath again, and when he inhaled the air again, the young man clearly noticed something different.
'Sniff sniff. ’ He stopped, twitching the tip of his earth-covered nose, and then frowned because of the familiar smell. It gradually relaxed as the memory emerged, and finally expanded to the point where his entire face became gave an excited smile.
"Hey, Wilbur! Wilbur!" Baker's fatigue was swept away, he jumped up directly on the spot and waved his whole right hand towards his friend.
"What's wrong, man?" The young man in front turned his head, and he shouted loudly: "This way! This way! I smell that black puddle, man!"
Baker shouted, and he keenly captured the unique smell under the scorching afternoon sun. It was this unique smell that attracted him to the place when he was looking for clay last time. In the middle of the puddle, something was emitting a sparkling golden light.
"This way! This way!" Baker ran towards the left following the strange smell. Behind him, Wilbur, because of the temptation of gold, threw away the grains and dry food and ran towards here with all his strength, holding branches. .
The two young men pushed aside the reeds arrogantly and drove the flat wooden cart over the top. The wheels bent the reeds and left deep marks on the moist soil, accompanied by messy sounds of different shades. The footprints extended all the way to the end of the reeds.
"Pa--" The dry branches that were thrown down hard broke the last reed and scattered it. Wilbur, who finally walked out, saw the black puddle that Baker mentioned at the first sight.
"Awesome my man! It's true hahaha!" There was some kind of metal shining in the center of the puddle as big as a pond as he said. Wilbur shouted with joy and headed towards there. He ran, but Baker, who was desperately trying to keep up behind him, loudly and eagerly stopped him at this moment.
"No! Stop, Wilbur, stop!" The young man's words stopped his friend who was about to wade into the water. Wilbur turned his head and looked at him with confusion, while Baker pointed at Someone yelled from somewhere nearby: "Look there!"
he said, and Wilbur turned his head again, and then noticed the remains of a buffalo on the edge of the black puddle.
"This thing can eat people!" Baker breathed a sigh of relief, and Wilbur noticed that his foot was directly stuck when he stepped on it. He was startled, and then took a few steps back. stopped.
"I think this is the pond that the old man in the village said can eat people." Baker put the flatbed truck next to him, and Wilbur became anxious again: "Then what should we do? We have no way to reach it. Get it!”
He said that the thing with only a corner exposed in the center of the pond was almost certainly gold, but it was several meters away from them, and they could not wade through the water. The two could only stare here.
"It's okay, I've made preparations, man." Baker smiled, then picked up a whole bundle of hemp rope from the side of the flatbed truck.
"Nice job!" Apparently he was well prepared this time. The two of them took off the hemp rope, then tied a knot neatly with their hands and feet, then took aim and swung it up.
"Wha--" The thick hemp rope was thrown out when the rotation accelerated to the extreme. Baker deliberately made the noose large so that it covered a considerable range, so when it fell, it easily framed the target. Among them.
"Great!" Wilbur raised his fist energetically, and then he and Baker pulled the hemp rope back vigorously.
The tar-like substance in the thick black puddle made their movements quite laborious. Fortunately, the gold surfaced for some unknown reason and the two of them managed to reach it after dragging it for a short distance.
"This is so - damn - heavy -" The strong resistance made both of them blush. They stepped on the ground and pulled desperately. The gold reflecting the sun slowly approached the two of them, the charming The brilliance made them generate a burst of strength out of thin air.
Little by little, little by little, the black puddle was shaking, the gold was getting closer and closer, and the strength they used became stronger and stronger.
"Success--" When they finally got close to the end of the puddle, Wilbur increased his strength and pulled it up with the shout, and it was at this time that the two finally understood why. That’s why it takes so much effort.
"Oh my God!" Baker let go of the rope and sat down on the ground, screaming loudly. As the gold nugget was pulled up, there was a dark, dry corpse with rusty rings. The piece of armor and the helmet still on it looked like Raman's. The corpse's mouth was wide open, showing an expression of extreme pain, and even when he was about to die, he was still trying hard to lift the piece of gold out of the water. .
"Hey, what are you afraid of? Man, this is just a dead man." Wilbur opened the opponent's dry palm with excitement and took out the piece of gold covered with black tar. Until then, they had See clearly that it looks like a carefully carved badge.
"Oh, this thing is worth at least thirty or forty thousand dannos!" Wilbur couldn't stop smiling as he swayed it back and forth. Then he turned his attention to the corpse again and found several pieces full of it in the belt. Something that looks like a leather bag.
"These are all-" He squatted down and pulled them off, then opened them covered with sticky tar and found a lot of golden coins inside.
"Oh my God!" It was as if someone had cast a fixed spell. The smile on Wilbur's face could not be restrained no matter what. Beck, who was suspicious at the side, was a little frightened, but at his urging, he also ran over to help remove the body. I took off the money bags and put them on the flatbed truck.
"Find some soil to cover it." Wilbur said this. Baker understood that he was trying to cover up others' eyes, so he hurriedly started to act, but the moment he lowered his body, something in the reeds caught his eye.
"Oh my God!" Baker sat down on the ground again, and Wilbur, who was beside him, felt that he was making too much fuss and sighed and raised his head helplessly. Someone was following their movements. He came over to the huge creature that had been lurking for a while, and poked out its body covered with dark blue scales from among the reeds.
"Crocodile..." Wilbur swallowed. The crocodile's head alone was as big as a person. The smelly smell of this crocodile invaded their bodies. Beck's feet immediately became weak and he could not crawl. He couldn't get up, and Wilbur beside him couldn't move either.
Deinosuchus, which lives in the southern wetlands, is the most famous carnivore on the west coast of Morbigas. With a length of more than ten meters and an astonishing size, their menu even includes the equally ferocious dragon lizard. Even a heavily armed heavy knight would be hard-pressed to kill a Deinosuchus one-on-one, let alone two ordinary civilians with nothing.
It probably alerted it when it broke into the reeds before and it just followed it all the way, Wilbur thought in his heart. Deinosuchus is a lurking ambush predator, so just be careful to avoid them. There won't be too many problems in daily life in the territory, but it's obviously not the time to think about this now. This huge crocodile happened to appear on top of the carriage loaded with gold coins. In front of it was Baker, who was slumped on the ground and shaking in fear. , if Wilbur wants to pull the car, he will definitely become a target——
Baker looked at him, his eyes were full of tears and his whole body was shaking——
Wilbur looked away——
Then he turned around, took big steps and started running away——
"No -" Baker's scream behind him stopped abruptly, but a tiny human was not enough to fill the belly of this crocodile. Wilbur gritted his teeth and ran as fast as he could. He could feel that the crocodile was about to Behind him, he could only run like crazy. At this moment, he ran out along the trail and saw two people, one large and one small, riding horses right in front of him.
'I'm sorry -' The hesitation in Wilbur's heart was overcome by a strong sense of survival half a second after it appeared. He ran straight towards the two men, hoping to use them as crocodile food for himself. some time--
The two horses began to become restless, and because of the movement, the younger of the two, a young girl with white hair, also turned her head to look here.
Wilbur lowered his head and did not dare to look directly into the girl's pure eyes, but in the next second, a voice overcame the whistling wind in his ears and the heavy muffled sound of the crocodile twisting and advancing behind him and reached his heart. .
It was a common language spoken by a calm baritone. The accent was indistinguishable, and the content was only two simple words.
"Get down."
"Ah——!" Wilbur didn't realize what the other party meant for a moment, but his right foot kicked a stone, causing the gold badge in his pocket to run out, and the young man tried to grab it. At the same time, the whole person fell hard forward. The hand he stretched out diagonally upward missed the metal badge by a hair, and then there was another silver light like lightning, just like that " "Wha—" A sound came straight from the top of his head—straight—and violently blasted towards the rear with the force of thunder—
But it wasn't lightning.
It was the blade of a dazzling sword. With the powerful strength of the tall swordsman, who was mostly from the north, he accurately grasped the moment when he fell and swung a powerful sword.
The trajectory of the swing is simple and ordinary, and any swordsman with a little training can perform such an attack smoothly.
It was so simple that Wilbur felt like he could use it easily.
But.
unstoppable.
The broken air seemed to announce that anything that blocked the sword's path would be torn into pieces.
Standing tall on the earth, the tall swordsman looked extremely small in front of the giant crocodile weighing several tons, but it was incredible.
Give people an unshakable impression.
"Wh--" The sound of the big sword swung through the air reached its peak, and the tip of the sword, which was an object capable of transmitting the force completely, hit the crocodile's scales exactly one third of the way back.
What happened after that can only be described as Mars hitting the Earth——
"Bang-bang-bang-"
"Click——"
"boom--!!"
Henry twisted his wrist at the last moment. In terms of conventional swordsmanship, his blow could be said to be quite a failure, because his blade line was so crooked that he hit it with the spine of the sword.
But this was intentional on his part.
Of course the sage could swing a smooth sword in an ordinary way, but the several-ton Deinosuchus was rushing towards this direction. Even if it split open the opponent's mouth, its powerful inertia could kill these three and two horses. , so he aimed at the tip of the crocodile's nose from the beginning and then used force to twist his wrist and deflect its entire center of gravity, causing the Deinosuchus to fall hard to the ground.
"Bang boom——!"
The huge and heavy crocodile, which had shoveled up a lot of soil, fell down just a few steps away from its food. And Henry raised his big sword, stabilized his center of gravity with the typical swordsmanship 'Bull Style', took a deep breath, and accurately penetrated the crocodile's neck with his sword, and then followed it up with a brutal uppercut. Tear open its soft sides——
Blood spurted out wildly, and the Deinosuchus, whose thick carotid artery was severed, twisted its body and soon lost its life.
"Huh -" Mira on the horse breathed a sigh of relief. Both of them looked at the dirty young man who was in shock on the ground, but they didn't say anything. The sage got on his horse, and then the two of them rushed towards their destination again.
Wilbur, who had been panting for a long time, stood up again and stood there for a long time. Looking at his friend with only half of his body left next to the black puddle from a distance, he sighed.
"What on earth have I done...me?"
The dull sound of horse hooves gradually faded away. Looking at the bright sunshine in the afternoon, he sighed softly.
