⌈Reasoning the Unknown Away⌋
Under the dark and cloudy sky, the trees cast a gloomy shadow across the forest as I advanced in the direction of the screams I heard a while ago.
The smell of blood gradually began to mix with the wind, and the rumblings had quieted down. Only the sounds of my feet moving through the thicket could be heard now.
Before long, the path opened up to a road stretching in-between the forest and a ravine.
I now stood at the edge of the ravine that was about three meters deep.
A numerous amount of corpses were spread about the road and the stench of blood permeated the entire area.
In many places, chunks of earth had been blown away and a few smoldering fires were still burning here and there. An intense battle seemed to have taken place recently.
There were five large wolves feasting on the corpses strewn around this battlefield. They gnawed away at the bodies, and the unpleasant sound of bones shattering echoed throughout the area.
The five wolves had to be the surviving Haunting Wolves that we defeated some time ago, since some of them bore the injuries Ariane had inflicted upon them.
The Haunting Wolves were apparently scavengers. Once they noticed me appearing from the thicket, they raised their heads and bared their fangs at me while gradually retreating.
The unwelcoming hostility of the wolves continued for quite a while.
“Mawa!!!”
When I raised my hands in the sky and charged at full speed while shouting, my cloak fluttering in the wind, the Haunting Wolves turned tail and ran.
My loud shout was unexpectedly effective; even Ponta was surprised by it as she coiled herself around my neck, giving me a wool scarf before I even realized it.
Apologizing under Ponta’s cries of protest, I once again took in my surroundings while stroking her puffed up fur.
At the center of the bodies was a large black carriage, and the surrounding heap of bodies were knights in fine armor. They apparently tried to protect it.
The whole scene gave off the impression of a noble and their guards.
The four horses tied to the front of the carriage seemed to be dead, but there were two frightened unharnessed ones neighing and scratching at the ground with their hooves close by.
In addition, a considerable number of dead people who appeared to be bandits were scattered throughout the area, and I have yet to see anyone still breathing.
When I saw the Haunting Wolves from awhile ago, I believed that what happened here was due to Ariane’s and my own involvement, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.
I lightly jumped off the edge into the three-meter deep ravine, being sure not to step on anyone as I got a closer look.
The bodies wearing the matching armor of the guards mainly had sword and arrow wounds. Almost none of them had bite marks from the Haunting Wolves.
There were a couple bodies that had been charred black, probably as a result of magic attacks, but for the most part they were killed by human weapons.
While I was thinking such things, I turned towards the bandits that had been attacked by the Haunting Wolves. The guards had most likely been dead by the time the bandits had been attacked.
The bandit bodies next to the guards died by the sword, but most of them had bites from the Haunting Wolves. One person’s arm was torn from the shoulder while another one laid on the ground with his stomach ripped out.
There were bodies that were dressed like Shinto priests whose heads were missing, leaving behind nothing but a gruesome corpse.
While mulling over the cruelty of the world and the gods, I made my way to the carriage, avoiding the heaps of corpses as best I could.
The door of the carriage was thrown open, and a woman dressed in maid clothing had fallen out of it. The carriage was covered in blood, and a dead noble girl in a luxurious dress was laying on the floor.
The blood was soaked into her long blonde hair and trailing down her lips while her chest had a wound that was clearly caused by a sharp weapon.
Based on the position of the guards and her location in the carriage, this girl seemed to have been rather important.
Her blood was still warm and there was still color in her skin, so she couldn’t have been dead for long.