Mirbo, not concerned with the wound on my shoulder at all, tapped me once again. Thanks to that, I let out another breathless cry.

"You didn"t even talk about your dream, so how do you know that I had the same dream as you?"

Mirbo was chuckling. In any case, he was laughing a bit more now from yesterday.

"That is so but I am only guessing of what dream you"ve dreamt. The words that beast had said as well."

"Uh, there was none!!"

I was going to say something to Mirbo until I"ve heard the shouts that came close to screaming from the guide. Anyhow, with the conversation that Mirbo and I had shared, I too had a rough estimate of the situation.

"It, it was surely somewhere here…."

I could see three people below the cliff flabbergasted as they wandered around the broken tree branches. They were the workers, or reporters now, that were delivering goods to Ember from Grillard. They were very perplexed. The ground that had once been covered in blood - now had only faint bloodstains remaining. The b.l.o.o.d.y ground was quite similar to the ground in his dream. The guards climbed down the cliff in great numbers. They too were extremely astonished as well. If it were a drop or two of blood from the time it was discovered in the morning to now, then it"s understandable why it might have disappeared. If they had not seen me last night in such a condition covered in  blood, they might"ve become very angry and misunderstand it as a lie.
But now, they were unable to get angry. Below the ledge, there were traces of a lot of broken and crumpled tree branches and shrubs.
They were talking in whispers wondering how large of an animal must"ve fallen through the area to be in such a state. But, if they hadn"t seen this in person, they too might"ve not had believed even if I had told them to.
It reminded me of when I had mentioned about the white-furred white monster. They looked at me with questioning gazes of "are you crazy?" as they looked down on me snorting.  d.a.m.n, no matter how you look at it, it"s going to be extremely challenging to explain my position.

"There"s a huge problem."

"There"s going to be a huge problem."

"There"s already a huge problem."

"There"s an even larger problem right now."

This was the conversation that Mirbo and I had discussed while looking down at the scene. We had no answers at all.

Probably, the bloodstains that the workers saw weren"t even half of what we saw yesterday. In other words, do we even have enough proof to explain these quickly disappearing bloodstains?
… not good. Maybe it"s going to end here…….

"Uh, Fabian-, I think you have to come to the castle with us."

I was wrong not to have been a prophet.

———————–

I was informed that we were going to stay at the castle as guests for a day.
Sheesh… …, it doesn"t feel any better saying it like this.

It was a splendid room. On the walls were antiquated chains covered in soot, a fireplace that looks extremely difficult to find as if an ancient artifact, a window the size of a palm that identifies just how blessed one is to be in this room compared to being in the cold outside, and then… …our warm straw bed for the night.

Mirbo, leaning on the wall, didn"t show much of an expression.
The dinner that I had just a moment ago - it was an amazing meal. Well, I didn"t know just how frugal the lord"s castle had practiced - but after I ate, I had stopped complaining from being worn out. It was a bit of a relief that Erent hyung went to Mother to deliver the news about my situation. It popped up in my mind of the morning when my mother hid a worrisome face after seeing the guards arrive in front of my house. Due to me staining a lot of blood on her clothes, she had worn a fresh outfit from the laundry, a white ap.r.o.n that I have not seen in a long time.

"Causing a ruckus  wherever you go, huh? Quickly come back and look after the store!"

Sigh, if only things were easier said than done. I wonder how surprised she would be after hearing how her son had become a mysterious guest of the Lord. Her life cycle would be shortened by a few days at least. Ugh, it seems that a year’s" worth of filial piety (really?) I had practiced was going to disappear like that.
However, that"s only if I was guilty. I"m innocent, but what"s with this state?!
Ah, I"m getting enraged again. Let"s be quiet until my stomach settles.
If you look at it, the same person that is innocent is quietly sitting over there.

"Mirbo."

He slightly turned his head towards me. If you think about it, it was quite a significant change. Before, whatever I had said to him when I first visited, he wasn"t one that would satisfactorily reply to me even once, but to see a response with a single word.
Is this what you call fighting side by side in a battle…

"You must retrieve  that sword."

Mirbo had stated that he travelled with that sword for 5 years. There"s no mistake that it"s an amazing item, but how frustrating must it have been for him not being able to use it. I was able to make a rough estimate of how great his affection was for the sword while carrying it around in a white cloth (it would"ve been a ha.s.sle to carry even one sword if it was me).

However, the fact that the owner of that sword was merely a merchant vendor of a general store. For some reason, I felt a bit apologetic…… but I wasn"t sure exactly who I had to apologize to.
I was certain that he had transferred the ownership of the sword. On the day after the battle, after taking a glance that I had retrieved from under the cliff, he told me to "have the sword." And after that, he started to show no interest towards the sword.
Despite him being the person that had a burnt scar on his palm after attempting to wield the sword.

"Mirbo, are you giving that sword to me?"

"To ask twice, you are quite a fool."

My judgment was clearly not mistaken. Hmm, should I try broaching a different subject? It"s already chilly, and with the way the air is, it"s only going to get colder I presume.

"That sword, you must recover it without fail."

"… Of course."

When Mirbo and I had come in front of the Lord, it was likely that the Lord was quite tired of handling the situation at hand. With a tired expression, he stated  "I"ll handle it tomorrow" causing us to be in this predicament. Why the h.e.l.l does our province work like this? Our lovely lord, then I suppose that your son will presumably be attended by another idiot as his sparring partner?
Fortunately, at least the soldiers had confiscated the sword after the lord had disappeared. If it weren"t so, at this time, the lord might"ve taken it to his treasure storage or whatever it"s called while comforting me not to worry about it.

"Uh, what"s this sword?"

A soldier who had tried to initially hold up the sword wearing a gauntlet couldn"t endure the heat and dropped the sword on the floor while simultaneously hollering in pain. The soldiers looked back at the man.

"What, what"s wrong, Yasbalt?"

"It"s extremely hot!"

Seeing Yasbalt scream like that, the soldiers had realized the fact that the perfectly normal looking iron sword possessed a strange trait. Erent hyung had with difficulty stopped the other soldiers from attempting to hold the sword at once (I had realized then that Erent hyung was the lieutenant of the guards protecting the gate). And he presented the burn mark on his hand - which wasn"t as extreme as the one on Mirbo - out to them as an example.
As a result, after the commotion had settled down, Erent hyung pa.s.sionately delivered a story somewhat intimidatingly on how this strange, unique sword can only be possessed by its rightful owner or else trouble would occur. As is often the case of people living in the mountains, our people were quite weak to superst.i.tion. Although there were a few skeptic grumbles, the majority had expressions of consent.
However, to bring the sword into prison (to now reveal this, sigh) was something that could only happen outside of reality. I had settled the matter for the time being by entrusting the sword to Erent hyung. Most likely, I will be able to retrieve it once I leave here.
… … if only it was discovered sooner that I am innocent.

"This sword, where did it really come from, Mirbo?"

Mirbo didn"t look towards me. Has he returned to his former habits?
But, not long after, he stood up and approached me.

"I guess I should tell you the story."

TL Afterword

He"s innocent I tell you, innocent~! I demand a lawyer. And the disappearance of that blood is quite mystical :O

PR Afterword

Sai101 – Judge it wasn’t me – it was the fall that killed the beast..

Translator: Calvis
Proofreader: Sai101, Kajin