HTSAADK 05

A Way to Live as a Disaster-Class Knight: Episode 005

5. The Talking Crocodile

Two days after that.

We were preparing to camp at a place called Dawn Lake, located halfway to the small city of Bamertan.
Having arrived there while receiving Anselm’s extreme hospitality, who had nearly lost his life to the giant crow, I was gathering firewood for the camp preparations.
Despite Anselm’s protest that the knight needn’t handle such menial tasks, I followed Hokarn into the forest.
For reference, today’s meal duty fell to Walter. Maroon was organizing the sleeping area for the camp.

“…Sir Cedric, you seem quite familiar with camping. Seeing you know which firewood is good better than I do.”
Hokarn looked at me with an intrigued expression as I gathered wood.
I picked up fallen oak branches from the ground, bundled them with vines, and slung them over my shoulder.
“Oak is heavy and hard, and the fire lasts a long time. It has little sap, so it’s relatively easy to light even if green. It takes longer to ignite, but if you have the skill, there’s no better wood for camping.”
“You said you were originally a lumberjack, right?”
Hokarn asked while picking up oak as instructed. His expression seemed to find it hard to believe I had been a lumberjack.
I understand.
The villagers used to nag at me too, asking why I did something like lumber jacking.
Saying with that mysterious physical ability, I could occupy a respectable position even in the kingdom’s army, telling me to leave the village and travel.
Good people.
People I can’t see anymore.

“Hey, Hokarn. That’s a pine tree. Because of the sap and resin, the smoke and soot are severe. The sparks fly too.”
“Oh, sorry.”
“Nothing to be sorry about. Just saying.”

I ended up with Anselm, but the person in overall charge of this trade trip is Anselm, who suffers from anger management issues.
Hokarn is the leader-like figure of the mercenaries carrying out his orders.
I am someone who knows hierarchy, and I didn’t intend to reprimand Hokarn much.
“Feel free to speak casually. Age-wise, Hokarn, you’re seven years older than me, right?”
“Huh? No. That won’t do. If I wanted to be treated by age, I wouldn’t have even started something like mercenary work. Even if Sir Knight… no, even if Sir Cedric wishes it, speaking casually would be difficult.”
At Hokarn’s explanation in a calm tone, I nodded lightly.
What can I do if he doesn’t want to?
If I insist a bit more strongly, he might yield and drop formalities, but what meaning is there in a relationship created like that?

We gathered a reasonable amount of firewood and started walking out of the forest.
The campsite wasn’t far.
In the distance, faint traces of light scattered like fog were visible.
Perhaps they had already lit a small fire, as the light of a blazing campfire spread like dawn between the trees.
Arriving at the campsite, I saw Anselm pointing fingers at Walter, giving various instructions.
It seems his anger management issues towards Walter flared up again once I was out of sight.
Is there something mentally wrong?
Seeing it’s only towards Walter, that might not be the case, but Anselm, who noticed my arrival, widened his eyes and flinched.
“Ahem! S-Sir Knight has returned!”
“Cedric.”
“S-sorry! Sir Cedric!”
Even though I hadn’t threatened him at all, the caravan master prostrated himself flat on the ground, trembling.
Walter, who had been watching that and had just been pointed at by Anselm, let out a low sigh.
“…Really, a merchant with hardly any backbone to be found.”
I still didn’t know the reason Anselm was particularly awful only to Walter. While treating Hokarn and Maroon decently, he was constantly a bastard to Walter.
Maybe some unknown person who is Anselm’s enemy has a similar appearance to Walter.
Otherwise, there’d be no reason to bare his fangs like that every time he sees Walter.

Anyway, right after my arrival, the atmosphere at the campsite settled calmly.
Anselm, who had changed from anger-management-issues to anger-management-well-done, was helping Walter put jerky, pemmican, and mushrooms gathered from the forest into a pot.
Walter shot a look wondering why this guy was acting like this, but having adapted somewhat over the past few days, he shook his head and ignored him.
Shortly after, we were able to eat well-boiled stew and dry bread.
The stew was thick and quite salty. Warm enough to heat the insides, with ample warmth.
“…Good. Good. Excellent.”
I couldn’t hide my admiration even while eating the stew. For me, who lived a meager life in an illegal slash-and-burn village, this was a feast in itself.
It wasn’t empty praise; it was an amazing taste that wouldn’t get old even after eating it for days.
Maroon, who had been watching me, let out a stifled laugh and opened his mouth.
“When we arrive in the city, you’ll be able to taste much rarer things.”
“That’s something to look forward to. Hey, Anselm. This is a part I can expect, right?”
“Huh? Ah, of course! I’ll take you to Bamertan’s best restaurant!”
Anselm raised his voice with full enthusiasm.
Though he said that, for now, I was quite satisfied with this meat stew.
It was a stew where the flavor of wild boar jerky and the unique taste of pemmican blended well.
For reference, pemmican is a food like a traveler’s essential, made by hardening finely chopped dried vegetables, herbs, meat, and animal fat.
It’s a flaw that it’s expensive compared to jerky, but considering convenience and taste, it’s worth the price.
Even without special seasonings, just crumbling pemmican finely could maximize the stew’s flavor.

‘Even if I travel alone later, I should definitely keep pemmican.’
It hasn’t been long since I left the village, but I already feel like I’m learning many things about the world.
Especially, there was much to learn from Hokarn’s group, who are skilled low-rank mercenaries.
I learned in a short time: methods to track monster traces, the insight to choose suitable campsites, techniques for driving carriages, etc.
Though I didn’t master them completely as a cram course, they seemed like they’d be useful easily in the future.

“But this area, originally isn’t it a place where you shouldn’t camp?”
The young man who had been eating stew opened his mouth. A man wearing a one-eyed monocle, a quite high-priced item in this era.
He was Malcolm, merchant Anselm’s attendant.
His flaws were being reticent and timid, but he was quick with calculations and skilled at negotiation, so Anselm hired him with a large sum.
He scanned the lake here and there and continued speaking with a thoroughly intimidated look.
“…I… I heard ghosts appear.”
“Huh. That’s a rumor, Malcolm.”
Hokarn, who had been dipping bread in the stew, let out a hollow laugh.
Unlike Malcolm, who was thoroughly frightened, Hokarn seemed not to believe in ghosts.
An unspoken pressure not to create unnecessary tension and just stay quiet.
But I had no intention of missing such trivial tales.
It’s a world without games, dramas, or movies.
Shouldn’t there be at least these interesting stories to hear occasionally? If not even this, wouldn’t the world be too harsh for me to live in?

When I stopped Hokarn and asked Malcolm, as if waiting, Malcolm adjusted his monocle and began the story.
“Sir Hokarn may not believe it, but there are definitely ghosts here. Not just me, many caravan employees have testified to seeing ghosts here.”
“Interesting. What do the ghosts look like?”
“You… Sir Cedric probably won’t care at all… but they say it’s a figure with a squelching gait, dark plants like algae tangled densely around its body. It must be the vengeful spirits of people who drowned in the lake!”
Malcolm, who had been telling the story, raised his voice with a deathly pale face.
A thoroughly frightened appearance.
In a medieval fantasy where science isn’t developed, superstitions and paranormal phenomena had an impact enough to turn even normal people into fools.
For reference, I didn’t believe in ghosts.
Whether they exist or not, I don’t really care—that’s the accurate expression.
“W-we must flee! Seeing that recent disappearances have occurred here…”
“Malcolm, we agreed not to tell that story in front of Sir Cedric, didn’t we?”
“B-but…”

Malcolm, who started rolling his eyes restlessly, and Hokarn and his friends looking at him with pitying gazes.
Amidst that peculiar atmosphere, I finished chewing the bread I had in my mouth and lay down to sleep.
Regardless of them arguing about the ghost’s existence and verifying its truth, I was sleepy.
By the way, two days left now?
Because Anselm hurried the journey, we were moving at a fast pace. There were a few bandits we encountered along the way, but they were busy running away as soon as they saw me.
Probably that influence certainly contributed to the increased speed as well.

I woke from sleep in the early dawn. The panting breaths of Hokarn and his friends, and the breathing of Anselm and Malcolm, were audible.
I quietly got up from my place and moved my steps towards the giant lake.
The surface of Dawn Lake was still perfectly calm even now at dawn, without a single ripple. A mysterious sight where even the moon was reflected on the water’s surface as if in a mirror.
I approached the lake’s surface, then let out a stifled laugh.
“Is this why they say ghosts live here?”
A sound like the howling of a small animal was coming to my ears. It resembled a slender woman’s voice, sometimes changing to a beautiful tone like a bird’s chirping.
It was a sound created by some unknown being beneath the lake’s surface.
Probably related to the people who went missing at Dawn Lake.
That strange sound contained a power to enchant people’s minds. Of course, for me, it was just a slightly peculiar sound.
I crouched in front of the mirror-like transparent lake, quietly waiting for the being creating the sound to come.
And so, how much time passed?
The water surface created a faint vibration, and from the center of the lake, a huge wave’s ripple began to spread.

Swoosh-
Something creating wave ripples in the quiet lake was approaching, drawing a straight line of waves.
The straight wave ripple was in a V-shape like a wedge, and before I knew it, it increased speed and reached right in front of me in an instant.

Kwaak-
The moment it revealed itself above the water’s surface, I reached out and grabbed it exactly. The sensation of the thing transmitted through my fingertips.
Hard and tough dark leather, vertically slit yellow reptilian eyes like a snake’s, and a giant crocodile whose tail length alone was taller than Anselm.
The crocodile, having its nape grabbed by my hand, opened its eyes wide and opened its huge maw.
“…Son of a bitch!”
Clear human profanity.
The curious thing was that the crocodile was wearing merchant’s clothes as if human.
Though ill-fitting and almost half-torn, it was wearing clothes as if imitating a human.
Recalling the giant crow I sold to Anselm, I raised the corner of my mouth while looking at the heavy crocodile in my hand.
“I wonder how much I can get for selling this.”
“Crazy! Human! I am not an object! L-let go, human! Aaaah! What kind of strength… this monster-like bastard!”
Looking at the crocodile that started thrashing in fear, I fell into thought.
Judging by Anselm’s attitude, which has been particularly favorable to me lately, wouldn’t at least 5 gold be possible?
Thanks to the unexpected monster crocodile, my wallet was about to get a bit thicker.