Chapter 42
By the time the carriage carrying Noah, Regina, and Snow left Hoern territory, night had already fallen. Cooper, who had been smoking at the carriage station until late, got up and spat. Another day wasted.
“Tch. If only that bastard Jayden hadn’t stolen my customer…”
Had he known the young woman would readily offer ten silver coins for a trip to just the next town, he wouldn’t have ignored her question.
“Damn it, my luck is rotten.”
He was the old coachman who had dismissed Regina’s question. Remembering Jayden, the young coachman who had excitedly driven off after receiving ten silver coins from Regina, Cooper kicked over a chair in the waiting room in irritation.
-Crash!
The chair fell backwards with a loud clatter, and Cooper felt satisfied imagining it was Jayden tumbling after being punched.
“That’s right! If you don’t have luck, you make your own!”
Just then, Cooper had a brilliant idea. He had always been annoyed by Jayden’s fake friendliness and constant sucking up. He kicked the fallen chair into a corner and hurried outside.
“I’ll beat that bastard to a pulp and take his silver.”
There were unwritten rules in this business. When a customer came, the younger drivers were supposed to defer to their elders. Jayden had broken that rule first, so wasn’t it time to teach him the harsh realities of the trade?
“Heheh, didn’t he say he was going to Quellin territory…?”
Grinning and showing his yellowed teeth, Cooper headed for a tavern frequented by unsavory characters. He often visited the place, as these men would do dirty work for a few coins.
The ten silver coins soon to be in his possession weren’t a huge sum, but Cooper was willing to invest about five of them to teach Jayden a lesson.
“No, wait. Maybe I could even stage a carriage accident.”
If he beat Jayden to a pulp and stole all the jewelry from that young woman who looked wealthy, he’d surely end up with much more than ten silver coins.
He would have likely carried out his plan.
-Thud
“Huh?”
If not for the small doll that suddenly appeared at his feet.
“What’s this? A black doll?”
The black doll that had suddenly fallen at his feet was completely pitch black. It had a featureless black face with no eyes, nose, or mouth, and an entirely black body. Cooper curiously kicked it lightly, then stepped on it as he passed.
The coal-black thing somehow seemed ominous.
“Cooper.”
“What?”
Just then, he heard a voice calling him from behind. Startled, he turned around, but there was no one there.
“…?”
Cooper hunched his shoulders. He was sure he’d heard a voice calling him. But he was alone on the darkened street.
“Ugh, creepy!”
Suddenly unnerved by the darkness, Cooper forced himself to speak loudly and quickened his pace. He must have been hearing things due to fatigue.
“Cooper.”
Cooper stopped in his tracks. It was definitely a voice calling his name. And this time, it sounded much closer.
“W-what? Damn it, what is it? Who’s there?!”
He whirled around to look behind him, but again saw no one.
“Stop messing around and come out! Come out before I kill you!”
He shouted at the top of his lungs, but only his own voice echoed along the street.
After yelling and looking around for a while without finding anyone, he cursed and started walking quickly.
Someone was clearly playing a prank on him. Cooper muttered continuously that he would definitely kill whoever it was if he found them.
As he began to see people in the distance on the main road, Cooper unconsciously relaxed. So when something bumped against his foot, he only belatedly looked down.
“What’s this? It’s that doll from before.”
It was the same doll he had just seen. The one without eyes, nose, or mouth. No, this time it had a mouth. A clear curved line was visible in the center of its face, unlike before. That mouth opened and called Cooper’s name.
“Cooper.”
“Huh? It just said my name…”
“You’ve answered three times.”
In an instant, eyes and a nose appeared on the doll’s face. It looked up at Cooper, smiled sweetly, then opened its mouth wide. As Cooper stumbled backwards with an “Uh,” the doll’s greatly enlarged mouth swallowed him headfirst.
The doll’s body, which had been as small as a palm, swelled round. With a “whoosh,” its belly sagged downwards with Cooper’s weight. It tried to toddle forward, but unable to move easily due to the weight, it suddenly curled into a ball.
-Crunch, grind…
The sound of something hard being twisted came from inside as the large ball compressed itself smaller. After a while of pressing inward, the ball seemed satisfied once it had reduced its size somewhat, and began to bounce and move.
After bouncing through the darkness for some time, it rolled into an alley. It only stopped when it reached the feet of a blonde boy standing there. Asel bent down to pick up the ball.
“Abigail, eat this for now at least. Since it was caught after calling its name three times, it should contain more life force than just consuming it directly.”
“Oh, Asel. I’m sorry. I suddenly got so hungry…”
Asel held out the small ball to Abigail, who was crouched in a corner of the alley. Abigail, her already pale face even whiter from hunger, took it with trembling hands.
“What’s there to be sorry about? It’s just our shitty situation, having to live such an inefficient life.”
“Asel, I told you to fix your language. I don’t like that rough way of talking.”
“Is my way of talking the issue right now? Stop talking and just eat that already.”
As Asel nodded towards the black ball, Abigail nodded weakly. She forced herself to eat the human life force absorbed into the ball, then suddenly started crying.
“If only the King hadn’t abandoned us, we wouldn’t be living such a miserable life…”
Asel didn’t respond to her words, but looked up at the darkened sky.
“Asel, do you think it’s true that the King took his own life? Did he really make that decision and leave us behind? …Did he know we’d be left to live a life worse than parasites?”
“…Who knows.”
Only the King would know that.
Answering inwardly, Asel leaned against the wall beside Abigail to wait for her to recover. They had lost track of Noah’s group because they had to hurriedly catch a human when Abigail suddenly felt extreme hunger, but it didn’t really matter.
“Stop thinking and rest for a while, Abby.”
Because to him, nothing was more important than Abigail.
* * *
Quellin territory was north of Hoern. Though it snowed less frequently, the temperature was lower than in Hoern, so as soon as you breathed in, icy cold air filled your mouth.
“Brr, it’s cold.”
Snow, who had jumped down from the carriage, shook himself once then quickly climbed onto Regina’s shoulder. He then tucked himself into the hood attached to her coat.
“Wow, you can see your breath. Is it possible for there to be such a big temperature difference when it’s only a day’s journey away?”
“Hoern is in a bit of a basin and surrounded by mountains, so it’s warmer. In contrast, Quellin is mostly flatland. So the wind blows strongly, making it feel even colder.”
The young coachman, Jayden, who was preparing to return, answered Regina’s question.
“I see.”
“Oh, and just a moment. Oof, here, take this luggage. You both seem to have such light bags, so I packed some things for you.”
“What? No, that’s not necessary…”
Despite Regina’s protests, Jayden handed over a heavy bag. It was filled with essentials for cold regions, including fur boots, hats, lanterns, dried travel food, and blankets.
“And here’s the remaining money.”
“What? No, this is my gift to you, you don’t need to return it.”
Jayden took out only one silver coin from the leather pouch and put the rest back in before handing it to Regina. As she waved her hands, refusing to take it, he put on a serious expression and spoke in a lecturing tone.
“Honestly, I was tempted to keep this money too, but you seem about the same age as my little sister, so I’ll let it slide this time. But you shouldn’t spend money so carelessly in the future, okay? If you spend like that on a whim, you’ll easily become a target for bad people, and you never know when you might run out of money on a journey.”
Saying this, he placed the money pouch on Regina’s palm with a plop. Snow, watching from inside Regina’s hat, yawned and muttered.
“That worked out well, Regina. He met a sucker like you and saved some money. The world sure has a lot of suckers. Or do suckers attract other suckers?”
“Be quiet, Snow.”
“What?”
As Regina clenched her fist and shook it behind her head, Snow quickly batted it away with his front paw. Seeing Jayden’s puzzled expression at this exchange, Regina laughed it off, saying it was nothing.
“Thank you so much. But at the time, I really wanted to express my sincere gratitude. Thanks to you, I was able to catch up with the person I was looking for without losing them.”
“No, it’s nothing.”
When Regina thanked him again, Jayden blushed in embarrassment.
Meanwhile, Noah, who had been watching their interaction while leaning against the carriage with his arms crossed, picked up the luggage from the ground and started walking, feeling like dawn would break at this rate.
“…I’m going ahead.”
“What? No, Mr. Noah, wait a moment!”
Startled, Regina turned her head, then looked back at Jayden to say goodbye.
“Well then, we’ll be going. Thank you!”
“Yes, travel safely.”
Jayden watched Regina hurry after Noah, then began preparing to leave. As he did so, he saw her turn back in the distance and wave broadly once more. He burst out laughing and waved back.
“May the road be smooth for the young traveler.”
After offering this brief blessing, he climbed back into his carriage. Dawn seemed to be breaking, as a faint but bright light began to gradually color the sky beyond the horizon.
