Chapter 23 - Departure

Kuro's Village - Village Center

"Kayae, I have to ask. Just what did you expect to happen when you snuck in that barrel?"

Simon gave the girl an exasperated sigh. She was sitting beside him on the driver's bench of the lead wagon. At the same time, the nearby villagers went over the goods and supplies they were planning on taking with them to Ebonshear. The wagon train was currently being loaded with a week's worth of food and water along with large quantities of arms and armor stripped from the mercenaries. The items had been put through a refurbishing process headed by Kurtin before their organization and careful packing.

During the exhaustive refurbishing process, any markings that might have been able to identify where they had come from had been removed. Any items that could not be repaired or adequately cleaned had been either destroyed or buried in the mass grave along with their previous owners. Some of the villagers had raised complaints about this process, claiming that it was a waste of time and would ruin some of the finer items. Their complaints were quickly silenced by a glare from Simon. It was clear to everyone present that he wasn't taking any chances on the goods being identified.

In addition to the refurbished arms and armor, 600 gold coins along with a smaller amount of copper and silver coins had been loaded onto the lead wagon with Simon. 200 coins had been collected from what had been the commander's personal stash alone while the remainder was recovered from the bodies and supplies. The large sum of currency made Kuro nervous, and he had immediately summoned Simon to collect them. Although he trusted the villagers not to steal them, but money was the root of all evil. That large sum was far too tempting to leave unguarded even in his quiet little village.

Beside him, Kayae remained silent, merely staring at the long black chain running between her feet. Simon shook his head slightly and removed the collar around her neck. This action finally caused a reaction from the girl, and she quickly tried to refasten the collar.

"I-I want to go too."

Her response prompted another sigh. Even if I leave her behind with Kuro, she's probably just going to slip away and chase after me. The thought of the small girl running barefoot through the uneven planes eventually caused him to relent. Simon shook his head and tossed the collar and chain back into the wagon before speaking, "Fine. But you must do exactly as I say immediately when I say. Do you understand?"

Kayae nodded her head and replied excitedly, "Aye!" only to receive a light slap across her face.

"Aye, what?"

The small girl looked up at him in tears and saw his cold stare before replying softly, "A-Aye, Master."

Simon smiled briefly and stroked the girl's ears before hopping off the wagon to address the caravan, "As of this moment, I am no longer Simon. I am your Master. Anyone who refuses to address me as such or forgets this fact from this point on shall be punished severely. I am not your friend. I am your owner and your Master and you WILL treat me as such. To me, you all are merely a means to an end. Do NOT forget that."

With his final speech complete and the supplies loaded, Simon promptly boarded the lead wagon and ushed the train forwards.

Gashrian Planes - Dusk - Two Days Later

The wagon train had made comparatively great progress today after reaching the main road connecting Ebonshear to the Kingdom's border outpost in the morning. The first day of the journey had been nothing short of a nightmare. As the village was not connected to the main road, the convoy was forced to travel through uneven terrain covered in wet splotches from the night before. Several wagons had become stuck in the mud, and Simon had been forced to push along with the horses to free them.

At first, he had tasked the villagers-cum-slaves with the task to keep up appearances, but it quickly became apparent that they simply didn't have the strength required to free the sunken back wheels. Generally, in this situation, one would be forced to unload the supplies to lighten the load and try again.

If the wagon still couldn't be freed even after all that, the average merchant would have to abandon the wagon and transfer what supplies they could carry onto the other wagons. They would then be forced to leave a guard behind to retrieve the wagon and supplies later with more men.

As the convoy had no guards, nor could Simon's party afford to abandon a wagon, he had instead opted to drop appearances for a moment and free the wagon himself. All of the elderly men had looked at the sight of him lifting the wagon by himself in amazement. While Kayae was quietly cheering him on from inside the lifted wagon.

"Driver, stop on the hill just off of the road over there," Simon used his free hand to point at the nearby hill while his other hand is tightly gripping a lit torch.

It's still following us.

He had noticed an odd presence out of the corner of his eye. Despite focusing on his vision numerous times, he could not catch a clear image of the presence. The enigma had started following the caravan shortly after they crossed over a small bridge five hours ago. It had kept making semi-regular appearances just out of view ever since.

"Girl, inform the other drivers to create an encirclement and light whatever torches they can find. Tell them to stake the torches into the ground outside the circle and then build a large fire in the center using whatever they can find that will burn. Go."

True to her word, Kayae nodded her head once and promptly vaulted off the side of the wagon, nibbling landing on her feet before breaking out into a dead sprint. Shortly after, the wagon train started to form a defensive circle and was surrounded by a sea of burning torches.

Now then. A sly smile spread across Simon's lips as he turned to the driver beside him and handed over a sizable black key, "Kuritn, see to the rest of the drivers. I'm going to go deal with an uninvited guest."

"Yes, Master," Kuritn bowed his head slightly before removing his own chain with the key. Then, he slowly lowered himself from the driver's seat in a much less impressive fashion than Kayae had.

---

Cricket, Cricket, Cricket.

The various sounds of nature could be heard all around him as Simon made his way quietly across the planes shrouded by darkness. Thankfully the moon was barely visible in a sky filled with dark clouds. Usually, one would struggle to even see their hand in front of their face in this pitch-black darkness. But he was far from normal.

{Felius Oculus}

A brief spike of pain appeared between Simon's eyes as he waited for a moment for the process to finish before confirming its effects.

Good.

The dark world in front of him suddenly became a sea of grass covered in a heavy bluish tint. Simon's command caused the millions of nanites within his body to rearrange his eye's internal structure on a cellular level. The process worked by breaking down the insides of one's eye and installing a tapetum while also changing the shape of his pupils to have a more cat-like appearance. It was a special command Artoria had developed just for him. According to her, the changing of the pupil's shape had no discernible effect on the eye's performance. Still, she had enjoyed his reaction the first time he had seen himself in the mirror while under its effects. Thus she decided to keep the additional effect, much to his annoyance.

Simon shook his head quietly, She really did enjoy doing whatever the hell she wanted, didn't she?

The effect would be reverted when the command was reissued. Still, due to the risk of cellular degradation, it shouldn't be used more than once in a 24-hour period. If used again, the user might be rendered temporarily blind for several minutes while the nanites frantically tried to repair the damage. In the heat of battle, something like blindness, no matter how temporary, was unacceptable, so he always tried to follow his partner's advice.

Suddenly an object appeared in his vision, dashing quickly from bush to bush, moving swiftly in the direction of the nearby wagon train. Simon smiled to himself as the object that had been stalking him came into clear view. It was a four-legged creature covered in thick mangy fur, complete with a set of piercing blue eyes that glowed brightly in contrast to the ethereal light surrounding them.

A wolf?

Simon sprang up from his hiding place in the tall grass and chased after the wolf. The furred creature turned its head in his direction and instantly increased its speed. A hint of fear was present in its eyes. The image of Simon's glowing eyes and bared teeth as he smiled could be seen reflecting on their surface.

The hunter had now become the hunted.

The wolf's frantic dash accelerated as it neared the encampment, soon the image of the blue-furred wolf came into clear view, followed closely behind by Simon's glowing eyes.

Several of the drivers grabbed flaming logs from the nearby fire as the duo breached the defensive line. Simon's body lunged forward, striking the wolf with his fist, sending it rolling across the ground as a high-pitched scream of pain escaped its open jaws. He quickly closed the distance and grabbed the wolf by the neck, clearly intending to break it before the image of Kayae's crimson hair obscured his vision.

"Simon! Stop!"

Kayae's bell-like voice echoed across the plane as she screamed loudly. Simon tilted his head to the side, still gripping the struggling wolf's neck tightly. Nearby the villagers that had grabbed the flaming logs had quietly remained standing around them in a circle, stunned by the sight in front of them. Even Kurtin who had appeared from the shadows shortly after him stood motionless and wide-eyed. Simon turned his gaze downwards and saw the flickering image of a small child struggling in his grasp between the distorted image of a blue wolf. The child's legs suddenly went limp, and the wolf's image completely disappeared, leaving only the child behind.

"What the fuck?"

Simon couldn't hide his astonishment and briefly shifted back into SML before quickly releasing his grip. The small child opened its eyes before quickly hiding behind the nearby Kayae, who was holding her arms out wide in a T pose.

"She's not a wolf! She is a Yama-inu! She's my friend!"

Several of the villagers let out audible gasps at the declaration while Simon simply stood there dumbfounded at the strange turn of events.

"A Yama what?"

"She's a Yama-inu. A type of spirit that disguises itself as a canine or a wolf."

Kayae lowered her voice and breathed a sigh of relief as Simon's face softened before turning around and hugging the shaking spirit-child tightly, "What are you doing here? I thought you stayed behind in the village!"

Suavi, the apparent Yama-inu, buried her face into Kayae's small chest with tear-filled eyes, "I-i was, b-but I saw you get shackled by that old man and beaten b-by that THING before you left." Suavi's pale blue eyes glowed brightly in Simon's direction as she stared at him, her expression a mixture of terror, disgust, and unfaltering rage.

"Y-You have to run!" Suavi shot to her feet and tried to drag Kayae off before speaking again, "You all have to run! T-That thing isn't normal. I-It's an unholy abomination!"

Simon stepped in front of the hysterical spirit and gripped her wrist with enough force one could swear they heard bones cracking, "Let go of Kayae. You're hurting her."

Suavi stared up at Simon's blank face and fell to her knees, releasing her grip as she passed out from fear. Simon caught the small girl before she completely hit the ground with his free hand and was surprised by her weight or rather, the lack of weight.

Kayae quickly grabbed one of Simon's arms and tried to pull him away from the collapsed girl.

"Simon, please! Let her go! She's just scared!"

He ignored Kayae's frantic cries and picked up the weightless spirit's body and carried her over to one of the prepared sleeping spots by the fire.

"Sorry, Kuritn. Looks like you'll have to prepare another spot for yourself."

Kuritn quickly retracted his drawn daggers and simply nodded his head before replying, "Yes, Master." and walked off towards a nearby wagon. Meanwhile, Simon tucked the unconscious Suavi into the sleeping bag before turning towards Kayae with disappointed eyes.

"Explain. Now."

All eyes in the encampment remained focused on the two figures before they disappeared behind the lead wagon's canopy.