Chapter 59 – Wound Marks.

The wagons that received the signal slowed down and stopped completely shortly after.

-Kuruk, Kuruk

In the midst of the rough breathing of the overworked Hildis binnies. The coachmen gathered after seeing the condition of the wagon I was in charge of and making sure there were no casualties.

“How’s the situation?”

Donnar asks. The coachmen opened their mouths one by one.

“The wheels are a bit off. It must have been hit by hail.”
“The windows were smashed on this side. People were hurt by shards of glass. Luckily they weren’t seriously hurt.”
“First of all, the wagon had to be repaired, so it became a complete gombo.”

As a result of checking that there were no wagons or items damaged in that way, and no casualties. Damage from hail was considerable, but there were no fatalities. Considering how many cases of entering the cloud zone never returned or more than half of the people died, it was nothing but luck. After all the checks, the silent coachmen let out someone’s laughter and everyone burst into laughter.

“Pooh! What’s that on your head?!”
“Ahaha! Who cares!”

It was because of the appearance of the coachmen, who were occasionally hit by the wrong hailstones and had fist-sized hailstones stuck in their helmets. They couldn’t help laughing at how they looked as if they had been beaten and bumped. Everyone seems to be in a good mood, probably because they got out of the cloud zone safely.

“By the way, hail is also ice, isn’t it expensive?”
“It’s expensive. Even the most low-end item is usually impossible to dream of unless a wizard makes it.”

The moment someone exchanges such words. They all shut up. They could see their armor and wagons battered and crushed by hailstones here and there. If anyone sees it, it’s a look that will ask if it’s been a war.

“What are you doing!? Drive it into the empty wagon quickly before it melts!”

They needed money even to repair damaged wagons and armor. Since hail caused losses, it seems that they want to reduce the loss by selling hail. As Donnar watched as if he couldn’t stop the coachmen carrying the hailstones stuck in their helmets, which gave them a moment of laughter, he heard the voice of Geet, who drove the carriage with him.

“Well, good job. Drink this.”

What he held out was an iron water bottle. Considering that the inside is made of leather, it is quite expensive. This is a good thing to put in cold water, so I opened the lid thinking it was cold water, and it smelled sweet and tangy.

“Isn’t this wine? Where did this precious thing come from?”

What was inside was wine, not water. Wine was very expensive because it was made by fermenting expensive fruits. If you’re lucky, you’ll be able to save and save at least one low-grade item, but it’s usually something only the high-ranking class can drink. Even if it was a low-grade item, it was only possible to live with the wages of ordinary knights by tightening the belt for more than half a year. Of course, it’s a more expensive body than the water bottle that contains it.

“Kek, if I knew it was wine, I would secretly take a sip!”
“Wasn’t this yours?”
“How can I hold such an expensive item? A beautiful lady told me to deliver it.”

Then Git pointed at his back. When he saw the woman in the direction he pointed to, Donnar knew what had happened.

“Sif.”

He lowered her head, muttering her name into her burning face, knowing that her face was obscured by her cape anyway. Then, Git smiled faintly.

“So when did you become like that with the most beautiful woman in our top ranks?”
“No, that’s it.”

He wanted to dodge his question somehow, but he couldn’t deny his relationship with Sif, so he couldn’t help it.

“Is it okay to hit that hailstone? It seemed like it hit right through.”
“Are you talking back?”
“Oh little!”
“Kikik, I didn’t mind anything after being hit on the head.”

Git smiled, saying he knew everything, but as if he was looking after him, he went over with his words. He’s a look that knows full well that he pisses people off even more. I can’t even hit this one. But what he said next made Donard awkward.

“Still, I had a lot of trouble driving the wagon by myself.”
“Alone. Didn’t you drive it too?”

Hearing Git’s words, as if throwing all the balls at him, Donnar said, remembering that he also drove the wagon.

“About hailstones, it stopped me a little. But I heard from others. I heard that the crayfish attacked while I passed out?”
“What?”

Donnar couldn’t understand what he was saying.

“I fainted. Didn’t you see crayfish with me?”
“You seem to have been quite distracted too. Did you see anything wrong? I was knocked out when the first hail fell. I was hit by one wrong hailstone.”

Donar was at a loss for words when he said that he was woken up again by the impact of the hailstone when the hailstones fell a second time. He even handed him the reins while he went to assemble the ballista. There was nothing playful about him, to think that he was just lying to make fun of himself.

“Still, I was able to live thanks to you. Have a good time with Sif.”

Saying that, Git patted him on the shoulder and left. What the hell happened? If what he said was true, then who was it that he briefly handed over the reins to? Did he, who was distracted by hailstones and crayfish, really tell him to see something? After hearing Git’s words about what happened under the clouds, it felt like a strange dream. A boy’s voice came to him as he wondered if Donard was going to be that long.

“Uncle Uncle!”

Looking down at the now familiar voice, I see the children accompanying them. Although he was short in stature, a boy with blond hair and a beautiful red-haired girl who caught people’s eyes were noticed everywhere. Among them, when I thought that I had met the golden light inside the mask. He remembered what happened with the girl last night. On his own chest was still the cross of that time.

“Did you help?”

Common sense makes it impossible, but for some reason, it occurred to me that it was thanks to this girl that I safely passed through the cloud zone. The girl might have been taken aback by Donard’s random questions, but the girl shook her head as if she understood what he wanted to say.

“There’s nothing I can do. That’s why I didn’t do anything for you. It’s because he saved you. To say thank you, do it for him.”

At the same time, the girl pointed to Hildisbini, who was leading the carriage driven by Donar. He scratched his head at the way he pointed at the guy who was a little embarrassed because he ate the rabbit he had given the girl alive.

“Thank you anyway.”
“Why are you talking to me like that?”

The girl shyly avoided her gaze.

“Mister.”
“Oh, that’s right. Usher.”
“I didn’t talk to you, but why are you talking to Belka?”
“No, that’s a misunderstanding! Don’t look at me like that!”

And Donard had to face Usher, who glared suspiciously at him and hid her Belka behind her. After wasting time clearing up his misunderstanding, Donard took them to the roof of the carriage he was driving.

“Wow, what is this?”
“It’s a ballista.”

When he asked why Usher had called him, he came to ask him because he was curious about the sudden appearance of something he hadn’t seen on the carriage. He was curious from the point of view of the children.

“Anyway, I drove the wagon again without disassembling it, and it’s a mess.”

The ballista installed on the wagon is usually dismantled for storage and then assembled. Because I couldn’t afford to dismantle it again in an urgent situation, I left it as it was and went down to the coachman’s seat. I had even loaded the spear to shoot at the crayfish.

“I can’t even dismantle it like this.”
“Why?”
“Look carefully. I’ve already loaded it, but if you touch something wrong, it will be fired.”

Ballista had no choice but to leave it as it was. Instead, thanks to the opening of the door where the ballista was stored, hailstones piled up on top of the wagon. Is it possible to sell hailstones to pay for repairs? However, it seems that there will be no use of ballistas in the future, so I can just shoot them at the right place, collect them, and sell them to the smithy.

“Let’s go down now.”
“Eh, I want to see more.”
“No way, no way. Are you saying I should leave dangerous things with you even if I’m with you?”
“Yes.”

It was just when Donard swept the hailstones into the basket he had taken out of the coachman’s seat and went down the wagon first to receive the children who were about to come down.

-Puuuuu!!

I heard Hildisbini’s warning sound. His face stiffened at the sound of a trumpet blowing sound that was different from his usual cry.

“You guys should be there for now.”
“Sometimes he told me to come down quickly.”
“Stop talking and hide!”

Answering Usher’s grunts nervously, Donnar hurriedly raised his weapon and ran towards the sound of Hildisbiny’s cries. There were only two occasions when Hildisbiny let out a cry like that. It was a request for help from a fellow tribesman or human, or a signal that a natural enemy was approaching. He had driven a Hill Dis beanie for a long time, so he couldn’t have heard it wrong. When Donnar passed through the evacuees and arrived at the place where the sound came from, there were already a large crowd of coachmen.

“Isn’t that the guy from before?”

At Shalby’s words, looking where they were looking, they could see that the crayfish they thought they had shunned was rapidly approaching from under the cloud cover.

“Is he still chasing you?!”
“I’ve heard that it’s ferocious, but was it about that?”

When someone said that he was tired of it, he also agreed. I didn’t expect him to follow me so tenaciously, even though he was out of my realm, the Cloud Zone. There were stories of them relentlessly chasing their prey, but I didn’t expect it to be this much. It was notorious for a reason.

“Tsk, I’ve been hitting the bullets. I don’t think they landed properly.”

The coachmen with slings shoot the crayfish with bullets, but the crayfish ends up breaking a little, probably because the shell has dried up in the meantime. In order to do proper damage, you will have to continue sniping from long range like now, but the distance to the crayfish is already within 200m while talking. In the cloud zone, it moves similar to Hildisbini, which moves at full speed, and then slows down as it exits the place where it lived. Even so, the fact that it was fast did not change, so it seemed that they would collide sooner or later. But a bigger problem appeared.

“But I don’t see any intention to stop that!”
“Looking at it, it’s completely turned around! It looks like it’s going to crash!”

If it was another creature, it would have been better to hide in a sturdy wagon. However, crayfish is a different story. Its hard carapace and strength make it ridiculously hard for a wagon. If a guy like that crashed into a wagon with that size and speed, the outcome would be obvious. First of all, I thought of those who are the fastest among the coachmen.

“Tell Shalby and the other people to get out of the wagon! If you don’t, you could die in the wagon!”
“Okay!”

Based on the experience so far, people’s habit of taking refuge in the wagon once they hear Hildisbini’s warning sound didn’t work well this time. The crayfish were already close to them.

“What about crayfish?!”

The Hildisbinies are already exhausted and exhausted from running at full speed under the clouds. Even if you urged them to drive the wagon to avoid the crayfish, it would be difficult and the time to do so would be too late. In the end, the only way left.

“Do whatever it takes to block it! If we hit mainly on the legs, it will work somehow!”
“You’re going to stop a cavalryman from rushing at that size and speed? How’s that different from using your body to block a cavalry charge!?”
“It can’t be helped!”

I know that it is nonsense. Even the crayfish’s size and speed suggest that they would do more, and not less, than a cavalry charge. Still, they had to.

“If you don’t do this, it’s all over!”

Each of them carried a mace-like blunt weapon and a shield. There was nothing sound about the shield to block hail, but it was better than nothing. Rather, if the crayfish had tried to hunt them cautiously, it could have hunted on the contrary, breaking the shell step by step. After all, it was just one. The problem was that he was trying to crash into you and kill me. There was no time to think more. Eventually, a huge crayfish came right in front of them.

“Don’t rush to block it, aim for the legs! It’ll slow you down even a little bit!”

Fortunately, its shell did not dry out completely. One of the relatively thin legs was shattered in one stroke of the mace, causing the crayfish’s body to lean sideways.

“Swing your claw foot! Get off!”
“Keep it off!”

As if he wouldn’t stay still, he flew through the air with a shield that had been blocked by a coachman. He didn’t stop running though, so they took a risk and broke more than half of his legs.

“You have no intention of stopping this!”

Still, because of the speed with which it was running, they missed the crayfish. I chased after him, but I couldn’t help it. At that time, at the end of the direction in which the crayfish was rushing, Donnar saw someone who shouldn’t exist. I saw it.

“Sif!!”

There was a woman who promised to marry him. She must have been coming out when people said that she had to get out of the carriage. Hearing his voice and looking this way, she soon discovered the shape of a crayfish and turned white. This crayfish was rushing towards it. He ran with all his might, holding his breath to the tip of his chin, but his running speed was not enough to catch the crayfish. Sif seemed to have frozen and hardened at the sight of the crayfish that came right in front of her nose. If she stays like this, she will be lost. But there was nothing Donard could do to stop the crayfish.