251 – Live Food

Nagrom ties up my collapsed partner with lots of rope, tying her like a bagworm moth. She glares at Nagrom in protest.

“…Will this really be okay, I wonder?”, Yarg mutters in worry.

“I-It’s rope made to tie down a grafant. It…should be okay. She might be a demi-human,[1] but she’s ultimately human like us,” Nagrom replies, sounding like he’s trying to convince himself. I haven’t seen a grafant before, but I guess it’s some sort of monster.

Hearing Nagrom’s words, my partner puts strength into her arms. She strains against the rope. Shouldn’t be an issue, she transmits… D-don’t go trying to tear it apart yet.

“However… To drink that much morz poison, and to still be so healthy is…”

“…Her resistance to poison is a bit strong, that’s all. My father told me that by their nature, demi-humans are even harder to catch than monsters.”

My partner’s line of sight has been locked on to Yarg for a while now. Since I share her vision, I can’t see her face, but I can imagine the sullen look on her face.

Meeting her eyes, Yarg looks away slightly. It looked like he intentionally averted his eyes; he must have some feelings of guilt.

“…Nagrom-sama, if we give this demi-human as live food, isn’t there a chance the manticore could be injured? If we cause offence, we could be put upon by strange requests again.” 

“If we give her tied up, it should be fine.”

As expected, we’re going to be sacrificed to the manticore. Since he said it’s giving them requests, I can imagine it’s not attacking people indiscriminately and has requested they deliver regular sacrifices to it instead.

Oh yeah, I suppose it was a bit strange that the manticore was in the dragon-god shrine. The children I saved from there had masks on. At the time, I’d thought that all members of the Lithovar tribe wore them, but thinking back it was only ever those two and the group that came to deliver my tributes.

I can assume the masks have something to do with the dragon-god, but that doesn’t explain why those two had them… I can’t be certain, but could the masks be for the children being given as live food?

If this village has a practice of offering sacrifices to the manticore, then it’s not strange to imagine that the other village does the same. If that’s the case, then Aro…would have been a sacrifice. That would wear away at her mother. Being told that the village had decided that your child would be sacrificed to some monster.

The manticore, might see humans as a delicacy. If it were to eat them freely, a village of this scale would be emptied in no time. I can guess that’s why it’s only been eating a few children.

However, that ends today. We’ll arrive in front of the manticore, undo our [Humanisation Technique], then bite it to death.

“…gaaa”

My partner lets out a low moan through her clenched teeth… I understand your feelings, but please hold it in. Looking like he remembered something upon hearing her moan, Yarg clasps his right hand with his left.

“Yarg, should I ask someone else?”

“N-no, I was the one who brought her here after all.”

Yarg’s right hand is wrapped in bandages… Those fingers, they aren’t growing back. All that Rest can do is stop the bleeding and accelerate the natural healing process at best.

It’s awkward for both of us, so hurry up and bring us to the manticore.

Yarg steps into a deeper room and returns with a human-size sack and a round, animalian cloth mask.

Are you planning on hiding our face with that mask? That’s completely a bingo.

As Yarg moves to put the mask on her, the sound of my partner grinding her teeth rings out. He hesitates for a second, but soon resumes. With the mask on, he lies her down on the floor and pulls the sack over her.

However, what I’m worried about is the time. All we have left of [Humanisation Technique] is thirty minutes at most. If they don’t take us to the manticore right away, it’ll be a problem. If it starts to look like time is running out, I’ll need to think of a way out.

Yarg picks up the sack containing my partner and carries her outside.

On the way, I hear the sounds of people talking and walking around. However, after some time has passed, all I hear is the sound of Yarg’s footsteps. We must be getting close to the manticore, I hope.

“Hey, Tatark, it’s me.”

Yarg stops walking and calls out to someone.

“Yarg-san, that… Who is that?”

A voice comes in reply. Although he spoke respectfully, his voice is low, so I get the impression that he’s old.

“A traveller. She’s a demi-human, so her strength is fearsome, but we’ve bound her with rope.”

Finally, we’ve reached the final inspection. But it looks like we’ll be fighting the manticore without any MP. It’s unfortunate, but I think we should still be able to win just by throwing ourself at it.

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“The other children… Won’t they untie her?”

“It’s anti-monster rope. Nagrom-sama tied it as tight as he could. As weak as they are, I can’t imagine they’ll be able to undo it.”

“…That would be the case, yeah.”

Hmm? There are other sacrifices too?

As I’m pondering the implications of that, the bag is placed on the ground. Together, Yarg and Tatark start to take her out of the bag.

Finally, I can see the surroundings. In front of us, a rocky mountainside spreads out. In gaps between grey rocks, the occasional tree is sprouting.

As I’d thought, Tatark is older than Yarg. His age…is a bit hard to place, but I’d say he’s around thirty. His gaunt face, his leanness, and his poor skin makes me want to estimate him as older though.

Clearly acquainted with the area, the two of them work together to push a boulder. The boulder moves, revealing a hole beneath it.

Tarark peers into the hole and shakes his head in misery.

“As an outsider, Nagrom-sama said it’s a good job for you, but it doesn’t look like you’re suited to watch over the live food. Should I let him know?”

Yarg calls out to Tatark, who stands up straight and looks back at him.

“Th-that is not the case. Please leave it to me.”

Yarg stares at Tatark distrustfully, but soon returns to beside us. Holding us by our waist, he carries us to the hole.

“Traveller. If you would resent us, then res-”

“Peh”

My partner spits at Yargs face from point-blank range, before jumping into the hole herself.

The drop’s not far, two metres at most. With our strength, even restrained, it’s no problem.

But, partner… I’m not going to say that was bad, but…

“Hmm? Something to complain about?”

No, it’s nothing… Sorry, I should be thanking you if anything. You’ve really been holding it in. I can’t expect you to always match my thinking.

My partner looks around at the surroundings. We’re in a wide cave, the ceiling higher than the drop from the entrance in most places. It varies throughout, but it’s about 3 metres high. Though it’s bare rock as far as the eye can see, there’s lots of gaps above, letting light trickle in, so it’s not all that dark.

…In the depths of the cave, I catch sight of ten girls. They range from about six to ten years old. Judging from their appearance, I’ve no doubt they’re Lithovars. Scattered around the girls are masks. Three of the girls are still faithfully wearing theirs.

All of them are wearing dark expressions, gathered on a dirty rug in a corner of the cave. There’s no way they couldn’t have noticed us, but they hardly give any reaction at all.

“…Oi. What is this place?”

My partner calls out. After a few seconds pass, a girl in the front of them raises her head and looks at her.

“Is onee-san[2] also being offered as live food?”

“Offered? That’s wrong, I did it myself.” 

“…That so?”

My partner spits out her reply, shaking herself as she does. Her mask drops to the floor.

The girl tilts her head, but I don’t hear her say anything else.

…This isn’t going how I’d hoped. The manticore’s not here; it’s just a place to lock up live food for it.

We’re almost out of humanised time. If it was just us here, I’d like to undo it and start regenerating some MP, but with people here that’s a little hard. Should we tear off the rope and fall back for now?

…If we do that, we won’t know the manticore’s whereabouts, and if we search for it later, there’s a good chance we’ll be spotted by a miko from this village. Besides, our chance of taking it by surprise will plummet. However, the chance of it coming by in the next thirty minutes has got to be small too.

[1] The word for demi-human here is ajin, which can be a catch-all for any fantasy race like dwarves, orcs or selkies. Japanese works often include them under the umbrella of human-kind, though it implies sub-human.
[2] Onee-san: older sister/nice lady

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