[9] Chapter 2. The Desired Form (2)
Ilyas was crammed under the carriage in the blink of an eye, and when he tried to come out in a hurry, he bumped his head hard and finally stopped with tears in his eyes. In the meantime, Fernciana bent her body and glared at Ilyas under the cargo compartment.
“Don’t move and stay there.”
Ilyas tried to reach out his arm, saying “But this brother is,” but Fernciana silently thrust down the wooden sword to stop his hand and looked around while bending her body.
The murderous energy was piercing the air painfully. Black shadows began to appear on the ridge of the road on both sides. It was enough personnel to cover all the carriages of the merchant group. They outnumbered them overwhelmingly, but the merchant group showed no sign of yielding at all.
‘Is Erasil something you have to risk your life for like this?’
Although she hadn’t seen it anywhere else, wasn’t it just flower seeds, Fernciana thought as she looked at the sack, but no answer came out.
‘I shouldn’t have bought a wooden sword. Not a wooden sword, but…’
I should have bought a properly sharpened long sword!
But it was too late for regrets, and there was only a wooden sword in her hand. Fernciana turned the handle of the wooden sword and gauged how far she could respond with it. It didn’t seem like she could last that long. At times like this, running away was the best plan.
‘How far can I run with the body of a man who just got over motion sickness and a girl who probably has no exercise experience? Will they chase us?’
I didn’t plan on dying here!
Fernciana regretted a little more from the beginning. She regretted that she should have at least done the early parts as she had seen in the “dream.” At this rate, everything was so new that she didn’t know anything even if it was a time she had already gone through once in the past.
Once the clash began, it was clear that the merchant group would no longer be able to care about the two people they had taken along as a side job. Didn’t they declare from the start that they couldn’t protect them no matter what happened? Fernciana wiped the sweat from her palms and gripped the wooden sword again.
And finally, the negotiation between the merchant group and the bandit group broke down.
*
If there was one fortunate thing in the midst of misfortune, it was that because the supply wagon Fernciana and Ilyas were riding on was the one carrying Erasil, the merchant group members became desperate to protect that wagon regardless of the presence of the two, and among them, if there was one unfortunate thing, it was that because Erasil was loaded on this supply wagon, the bandits also focused on it with burning eyes.
“Have you ever been this popular in your life, Ilyas?”
“No. I can say with certainty that this is the first time.”
Ilyas, lying on the wagon floor, muttered in a despondent voice, and that voice was drowned out by the fierce swordsmanship.
At this rate, they couldn’t even run away, and if the merchant group was defeated like this, they would really be unable to predict what would happen in the future. Fernciana, adjusting her grip on the wooden sword, looked around. The people of the merchant group seemed to have learned a considerable level of self-defense techniques, but the other side was incomparably skillful as if swordsmanship was their main occupation.
Then a staggering black mask caught Fernciana’s eye. The long sword in his hand was about to fall.
“Don’t crawl out and hide well. Understand?”
Fernciana left a sincere request to Ilyas under the wagon and immediately jumped up. People’s gazes were instantly drawn to the figure of a person rising from the cargo compartment. Not missing that moment, Fernciana landed right in front of the staggering bandit and struck his head.
There was a sound like a watermelon cracking, and the man’s eyes went limp. Fernciana held her breath and snatched the long sword from the man’s hand.
The overall situation didn’t change dramatically just because one person, Fernciana, got involved, but it changed enough to hold out and stand instead of being pushed back precariously. Fernciana wielded her sword not to fight fervently against the opponent but to help the overwhelmed merchant group members and only prevent the bandits from approaching the wagon.
Even that wasn’t an easy task. The feeling of muscles being pulled as if torn from the sudden intense exercise was vivid. Unable to completely avoid the flying blades, pain demonstrated the presence of wounds as they grazed and tore. Fernciana bit her lip hard as she blocked a sword flying toward her shoulder.
‘At this rate, we’ll eventually be defeated…!’
The other side still had the advantage in numbers, and there was something to protect here. If it turned into a prolonged battle, it was also disadvantageous for them. Fernciana rolled her golden eyes to find a breakthrough, but there seemed to be no way out.
That’s when it happened.
“Wh-what?!”
The sound of something heavy cutting through the air rang out. Fernciana reflexively twisted her body and deflected the flying object. What was stuck in the ground and swaying, unable to overcome the force, was a fire arrow with its head ignited.
Fernciana widened her eyes and looked at where the fire arrow had come from. Next to a roadside tree a little behind the head of the merchant group, there was a bow in the hand of a person standing there. In the other hand, a fire arrow with its tip lit was gripped. In the time it took for Fernciana to blink, that arrow was back on the bowstring.
“Huh…?”
The arrow flew in a slightly high parabola. Fernciana raised her head and watched the arrow fly. The arrow finally stuck down on the supply wagon, bending its body.
“Gasp! Ilyas!”
After that, fire arrows flew in succession with a whoosh. Fernciana no longer hesitated and dragged Ilyas, who had been holding his aching head under the cargo compartment.
It was the very moment the supply wagon was engulfed in flames, and unknown mercenaries appeared from the rear of the merchant group.
Perhaps intending to burn all the Erasil loaded on the supply wagon and even eliminate the merchant group members, the bandits, who had been glaring with murderous eyes, began to exchange words at the sudden appearance of uninvited guests. At first, it seemed they were trying to push back the uninvited guests at once, but they seemed to have noticed the identity of those uninvited guests.
“The target has been achieved, that’s enough, retreat! Retreat!”
They gestured from the front and turned their bodies. It was a matter of moments before the group in black clothes even took care of their fallen members and disappeared from the scene.
“Put out the fire! Put out the fire!”
As Fernciana stood there dumbfounded, the merchant group members rushed in. They tried to suppress the burning supply wagon by covering it with thick blankets and cloths, but in the end, only black ashes remained. Only the shape of the wagon’s cargo compartment and front seat barely remained, but even that collapsed when Ilyas touched it with a thud.
“…”
“…”
As the merchants tended to their wounds with gloomy expressions, the uninvited guests who had saved them dismounted from their horses. They were all sturdy in stature with tanned skin. The man at the head approached the caravan leader without hesitation. The two seemed to know each other.
“Stihan! Are you safe?”
“Thanks to you, Hakan. It was really close to a big disaster. It was pitch black before my eyes.”
“I heard the caravan’s movements were exposed and rushed over, glad I arrived in time.”
“But the Erasil…”
“It’s enough that no one died.”
Fernciana carefully listened to the conversation between the caravan leader and the unfamiliar man while arranging the sword she was holding behind her back. They seemed to have already anticipated that this side would be in danger and rushed over.
Looking at their group, they all seemed to be covered in dirt on their clothes and complexion, as if a dust mark would remain if they wiped their cheeks.
‘Is that motion sickness flower seed that important?’
While it was rare and unusual, not seen anywhere outside the Ronen region, Fernciana had never heard of any use for those flower seeds other than their effect as a motion sickness medicine – she had just heard about the motion sickness story for the first time now – and if you asked if the flowers were extremely beautiful, she could assert that while they were pretty, they didn’t have a value worth risking lives for each other like this.
‘Or has some aesthetic standard changed in the few years I’ve time traveled?’
“But what do we do about this? Isn’t this all that’s left of the Erasil harvested this year? Even if we go back and try to procure it, we won’t be able to make it in time…”
The caravan leader’s assistant intervened with a face that looked like he was about to cry while the caravan leader Stihan and Hakan were talking. That’s when it happened.
“Huh? Illy? Is that you, Ilyas?”
“Haha, long time no see, Hakan?”
Fernciana opened her eyes wide and turned to look at Ilyas.