As the sound of rainfall became intense, the rain that hit Yuu’s skin that was sticking out a bit from his grey overcoat also became stronger.
Covering himself from the head down with an overcoat as a replacement for a raincoat, Yuu was sitting on top of the caravan’s wagon.
He did so because if it was from here, he would be able to survey the surroundings.
The people of the merchant troupe were in the middle of sleeping in either the wagons or in the tents and Yuu was gazing out to see if there were any disasters while paying attention to presences in the surroundings.
Yuu, who was originally unskillful in sensing presences, made full use of his sense of sight and sense of hearing, which towered above the rest when compared to normal people, and was vigilant of the surroundings.
Just as he did three years ago, Yuu freely used his sense of sight and sense of hearing and took up to being on night watch.
(Still, it sure is amazing. This is a heavy rain that could be enough to belong to a typhoon or something.)
With the overcoat already being unable to do anything but keep Yuu’s field of vision being wet, his whole body was soaking wet.
Even while his whole body was soaked, Yuu single-mindedly worked hard to be vigilant of the surroundings.
And then, after who knows how many minutes or how many hours had passed, he abruptly noticed an oddity.
(What’s that? ……I can hear a strange sound mixed in with the sound of the rain.)
That was a sound that a person normally shouldn’t have caught on to. Even for the beasts that live in the forest, it was a type of sound that they might or might not have noticed.
But it might just be some kind of mistake.
Just as he thought of that possibility as being likely,
(……It’s, something’s foosteps.)
*Basha* (Splash). There was the sound of a puddle being stepped in.
(Is it a beast? If that’s the case, it’s be best to just take it down but……)
Yuu, who was standing on his knees on top of the wagon, made his posture as low as possible while turning his eyes towards the forest.
He hadn’t noticed where the sound of the puddle being stepped on had come from. Therefore, he didn’t know where they would come from.
(If it’s a type of bandit……it’ll turn into something troublesome.)
Reaching his hand out to the pouch attached to his waist behind him, he held some throwing knives in his hand.
He took a stance where he could immediately throw them if need be.
And then, while he was in that stance, although it was muffled due to muddy ground but still unable to be completely erased, footsteps could be heard coming from the surroundings. They were gradually getting closer.
(We’re surrounded!? Moreover……what a number of them!)
As the footsteps were gradually getting louder, he was also surprised by the number of footsteps.
If they were four-legged beasts, there would be ten of them. If it were to be converted to people, the footsteps of no less than about twenty people could be heard coming.
The owners of the footsteps were clearly aiming for this caravan.
They were slowly approaching while surrounding it.
The moment that he considered waking up Bernadette and the merchants, there was a unique 「Giriri」 sound of the bowstring of a bow being drawn.
(So they’re thieves!)