6-year-old Wise Man Wants to Walk in the Shade : Chapter 14

Chapter 14 - I was the only one to notice the two strange things, and then...

We arrived at the border after two days, camping along the way.

The journey was peaceful and without any major issues.

However, I was in a very difficult situation...

"Eddie, are you okay? Are you tired? Make sure you lean on me."

The princess and I were riding a horse together.

Normally, the man would ride from behind and hold the reins, but that wasn't possible for me and the princess, who were children.

In the end, I was forced to be held by the princess from behind for the entire journey.

"I'm fine, you don't need to lean on me..."

"You can't. This horse is too big for you, Eddie."

The princess pulled me closer, and the back of my head was pressed against her chest.

The soft elasticity of her chest made my back feel firm, and I gasped.

"Whaaat?!"

"Oh, don't make a fuss. Just stay still like this."

"..."

He probably doesn't care because he's a child.

But I feel guilty as if I'm deceiving him and it makes me uneasy.

Stay calm, stay calm...

I tell myself and focus on the scenery around me to stay as calm as possible.

From now on, we'll be scouting up to about half a day from the border.

Once we cross the border, we'll be in the demon territory.

The scouting forces that the king regularly sends to this area have never crossed the border.

We have no information about what lies beyond the border, so we proceed without crossing it.

Princess Clarice and her friends also had no information about the area beyond the border.

The first problem arose when we tried to water our horses at the river near the border.

"There's something stuck here."

"Is that... a suspension bridge?"

The guards were looking at what looked like a rope and plank caught on a rock.

"The bridge must have collapsed in a storm or something."

There was no doubt that it was the remains of a suspension bridge.

But it couldn't have been caused by anything other than a storm.

Because it was upstream, the water flow itself was strong.

Despite that, the fact that a suspension bridge was stuck here made it very likely that it had been washed down quite recently.

But there was no sign of any rain recently.

As I looked at the river water, I narrowed my eyes slightly.

If it had rained heavily, the river wouldn't be this clear.

So, what other reason could a suspension bridge collapse for, other than heavy rain?

Curious, I hopped from rock to rock to retrieve the rope.

"Lord Eddie? Is something wrong?"

"Look princess. This rope is a little strange."

The rope appears to be part of a suspension bridge.

The cut end is diagonal.

"See. It looks like it was cut with a sword."

"That's true... does that mean someone purposely collapsed the bridge?"

"Well, I wonder why? Because if they did that, everyone would be in a lot of trouble, right?"

I pretended to be innocent and tilted my head.

I can't judge the situation at this point, but I want Princess Clarice and the others to be aware of the possibility that danger is approaching.

"Maybe someone is in trouble if they don't collapse this bridge?"

"...!"

Immediately after hearing my words, the princess's expression and the faces of her guards twitched.

I'm glad that I got what I wanted to say.

Princess Clarice glanced back and forth between the rope and the faces of her guards, then her expression tightened as she looked around.

"...Let's proceed while remaining vigilant."

--However, the strange occurrences didn't end there.

As I continued to move upstream, I came to a place where part of the ground had been trampled down.

Something was fishy after all.

My bad feeling only grew stronger.

It would be best to make Princess Clarice and the others aware of this as well.

"Hey guards. The earth is bumpy. Is that where a horse left a trail?"

The guards nodded at my question.

"Yeah. They must have galloped through it in a hurry."

"Wow! Wasn't this horse scared to cross the bridge?"

"Bridge?"

"Yeah. This pillar must have been a bridge, right? Look, there's a bit of rope left on the other side."

On the opposite bank where I pointed, there was what seemed to be one side of a suspension bridge.

"It looks like the suspension bridge that was stuck downstream earlier fell from here."

The princess standing next to me muttered as she looked at the other bank.

"Maybe they cut and destroyed the bridge after the horse crossed it? Why were they so mean...?"

"Mean?"

"Yeah. Because after that, even if anyone came, they couldn't cross it."

"...!"

When I led them there, the others looked startled.

"Princess... Could it be that someone being chased dropped this bridge to escape?"

"This is human territory... We can't deny the possibility that humans are being chased. Let's search."

"We'll go scout. Princess and Eddie wait here."

The three guards follow the hoof prints into the forest.

After a while, one of them returns with a pale face.

"Princess...! It's terrible!"

The guard, his face pale, yells out loud.

"What happened!?"

"In the forest... There's a corpse in the forest...!"

Previous | Index | Next