034. Aslan of the Western Mountains (1)
On the western side of the continent, there is a rugged mountain range that extends from north to south.
This long mountain range, which begins at the border between the Kingdom of Flanders and the Principality of Assean, passes through Rohan and continues north, becoming increasingly taller and steeper until it becomes the border of the Demon Land, where sea creatures inhabit.
In the past, it had various names such as the White Eagle Mountains and the Blade Mountains, but now people on the continent simply call this entire huge mountain range the ‘Western Mountains.’
At the beginning of the western mountain range, near the border of the Kingdom of Flanders, there was a small slash-and-burn village that was only a few years old. It was a small village founded by a small number of Flemish people who lost their hometown during the war with the Duchy of Carthage and hid in the mountains.
However, with the recent influx of refugees from Rohan, the village population suddenly grew to close to a hundred people. It goes without saying that the housing, material, and food shortages worsened.
It was an instant for a small slash-and-burn village to be transformed into a den of bandits.
One of the reasons was that most of the new refugees who came in were former bandits who had committed banditry in Rohan and were driven out by the punitive force.
Aslan, who had not had much fun after going out hunting and was coming down with several rabbits caught in a trap, noticed an unfamiliar cart standing in the village vacant lot again today.
‘It’s a little smaller than usual… … .’
Aslan asked the man who happened to be standing next to him.
“What did you rob this time?”
“I do not know. “I guess it’s a peddler going from Assen to Flanders.”
“Oh really… . What are you all trying to do? How many times has it been this month already? “What if Grand Duke Asin organizes a punitive force?”
Aslan frowned and the man shrugged his shoulders.
“Well, what do you think? It doesn’t seem like a proper top, and who cares? “I heard it was an easy case without an escort?”
From what I heard, it seemed like the search party was a group of peddlers who happened to find them while traveling around the mountain.
Loading a wagon with sacks of food and three prisoners and taking two low-level mercenaries with him, they were sneaking along an old trade route that was not often used by merchants these days.
As soon as the merchants and mercenaries encountered the bandits, they abandoned their carts and ran away.
“There was a prisoner?”
Aslan asked back, puzzled.
Why would a peddler take a prisoner across the border?
“All three of them received capital punishment. Sometimes you buy them at a bargain price in Carthage. “They put them in a rock salt mine and make them dig up rocks until they die.”
Carthage’s rock salt mines are the worst. It would be better for them to just die here.
After saying that, the man shook his head and left.
Sure enough, three people are dragged down from the cart following the food sack.
One had burns all over his body and his face was distorted beyond recognition, and the other had one of his eye sockets sunken and all his fingers cut off. Aslan unconsciously frowned at the terrible appearance of the two.
The last man to get off looked relatively healthy on the outside, but he could see a black brand on the back of his head exposed above his loose robe. Just by looking at a part of it, it was clear that it was a terrible stigma earned after being tried by the Inquisitor.
Mark of the devil worshiper.
In a sense, he was the prisoner who received the worst punishment of the three.
The three were transported to the chief’s quarters.
It looks like they will first check his history and then kill him. Aslan thought so and turned away from the clearing.
Aslan is an orphan boy from Rohan. Not knowing the faces of his parents, he has been living in a gang of thieves in Rohan since his childhood.
I didn’t even know my exact age. Based on what I have picked up from the bandits, I can only guess that he is no older than 16.
Aslan was a boy who stood out among the rough and uneducated bandits. He had a naturally calm temperament and was quick-witted and quick to learn.
I learned various fighting techniques shown by a member of the bandit group as if it were fun, and while helping a hunter-turned-thief with his work, I also learned how to set traps.
A thief who was part of the village guard but ran away after being falsely accused even taught him the basic Auror techniques.
Within the bandit group, there were a few people who were unlucky enough to encounter the bandit group, but were saved thanks to their useful skills. People like the apothecary Seymour and the low-ranking priest Gustav.
Although they basically had an antipathy toward the bandits, they showed a relatively soft attitude toward young Aslan. Soon, I learned how to read and dig up herbs from them.
Soon, despite his young age, Aslan became a force to be reckoned with within the bandits.
This was both luck and misfortune for him. While he was able to enjoy a relatively stable life as a helpless orphan who was prone to being abused or exploited, the opportunity to completely wash his hands of the bandits became increasingly distant.
-I hope someday you can get out of here and live a proper life.
It was something that Seymour and Gustav always urged, but Aslan had completely given up on that possibility.
When a large-scale punitive force swept through the western mountain range in Rohan, Aslan, who happened to go to see the trap that had been set, survived with his own life. However, the bandit group he was a member of had all been wiped out.
The punitive force carried out the subjugation brutally without a single exception, and Seymour and Gustav, who were forcibly taken in, also lost their lives in the process. Aslan, who was a member of a band of thieves and had a small bounty on his head, had no place in Rohan.
He continued south along the western mountain range to avoid the punitive force, and was eventually pushed to the border of Flanders.
In the slash-and-burn village where Aslan settled, members of other thieves who fled first had already settled down.
Jerome, who is now the head of the village, was also a thief from Rohan.
Among the thieves who escaped, he was the one who led the largest number of his comrades and headed south early, succeeding in establishing his own power.
At first, Jerome was not very pleased with young Aslan, but as he soon learned of his various talents, he began to like him more and more. The frequency of visiting Aslan for various reasons gradually increased.
From making hangover remedies or simple medicine to organizing a list of stolen items, there were a lot of tasks that would be difficult to solve unless you were Aslan. And among them, identifying Auror users was also included.
I was preparing my heart that I might find him sooner or later, but as expected, the leader’s henchman called Aslan.
When he arrived at Jerome’s residence, two corpses were already being carried out. He was the same prisoner with burns and missing fingers that we saw earlier.
Aslan frowned for a moment at the miserable sight of his face being completely crushed, and then walked into the hut.
“Those two guys even had their tongues cut out. “It’s just making loud noises and I don’t understand why it should be kept alive.”
When Jerome looked at Aslan’s face, he explained something without even asking with an annoyed look on his face. Since they were not in a healthy state to work anyway, their death would have been a natural process.
Jerome was a cruel man. He had great strength to match his long physique, and even if he got on his nerves even a little, his fists would immediately come out.
His hand habits were so bad that his wife was beaten and her arms were crippled, and his son was thrown away at a young age and became a cripple.
Perhaps it was Jerome who crushed the faces of the two prisoners earlier. Aslan’s eyes naturally turned to the third prisoner standing in front of Jerome.
He was in better condition than expected. It looks like he couldn’t avoid getting hit, seeing as there was blood around his mouth that wasn’t there before, but that’s really an example of him taking matters into his own hands.
Jerome said to Aslan, pointing at the prisoner with the tip of his chin.
“This person is said to be an apothecary. He was originally a priest, but he was accused of being a heretic and put on trial for researching plagues.”
In short, he is someone who is useful to the slash-and-burn village. The probability of the third prisoner surviving increased dramatically.
“Check if this guy is a trained Auror user.”
Jerome’s eyes as he said that were extremely cold, contrary to his impatient temper.
Although he has recently been fearlessly raiding the upper part of Asean trade, Jerome was a man capable of basic caution. Even though he is a prisoner with such a terrible stigma, the possibility that he is a spy sent from Ascein or Flanders is not completely ruled out.
Aslan approached the prisoner and examined him carefully. He was taller than he looked, and his slim body in loose robes made him look like a typical priest. He didn’t look frail, but it was a bit difficult to see that he had had any professional physical training.
Above all, it felt as if the flow of aurors around him had almost stopped. It was usually a characteristic of people who were extremely weak or bedridden.
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“I am not an Auror user. “In fact, even for a living person, his auror is excessively weak.”
Jerome nodded.
“Well, wouldn’t it be weirder if the body of the guy who went through the Heresy Trial was normal?”
Thinking that the business was over, he tried to turn around, but the next words stopped him.
“You should take him around and check whether his knowledge is really at a useful level.”
Ah, Aslan hesitated for a moment without answering. Because I wasn’t that reluctant.
Jerome’s words to take him with him meant that Aslan should take care of everything from food to sleeping. There is no time limit, and if the prisoner escapes, the responsibility falls entirely on Aslan.
“hmm… … .”
While he was hesitating to answer, a sharp voice came from inside the hut.
“Why are you doing such a troublesome thing? “Just kill me, father.”
Limping, limping. A nervous-looking boy limped toward them. This was his son, Cayenne, who could not walk properly after being thrown by Jerome when he was young.
Unlike Jerome, who had a proud physique, the boy who frequently suffered violence had a stooped posture and a rather small physique. However, his cruel nature was exactly like him, and Cayenne’s face was always distorted with anger towards those around him.
Even now, the fierce three-hundred eyes scanning the prisoner are glaring with malice.
“Why do we need two pharmacists? “There is this guy.”
He said, pointing at Aslan with the tip of his chin.
“Pharmacists are valuable human resources. Cayenne.”
joy. The boy snorted at Jerome’s answer.
“Ah, father. Try thinking. Have we been taking off the top a bit lately? Even so, I’m dying of worry about Grand Duke Assin’s reaction, but an apothecary who suits our tastes just happened to appear?”
“hmm… … .”
“Do I want to use this because it feels uncomfortable? Why take the risk of keeping that guy alive?”
“He was tried for heresy and even received a stigma. Could it be that he was a spy sent by Asein?”
“But why does he look fine to me? What’s even weirder?”
“That’s for me to think about, not for you to worry about.”
“Oh, let’s just kill him. “It’s simple, right?”
“noisy. Get out before you get hit.”
The nervous argument between the father and son gave Aslan a headache.
Cayenne: First of all, that guy was a guy who wanted to kill everyone. The same thing happened to Jerome, but Cayenne seemed to be getting a bit upset as he kept being stubborn.
While the third party is in such trouble, the prisoner, whose life is in jeopardy, just watches the two father and son bicker.
Didn’t you just watch two prisoners get beaten to death by Jerome? He certainly didn’t know that he was acting like that because of his treatment, but he was a calm person who didn’t show excessive changes in his emotions.
Anyway, if I stay here like this, the person who has the best chance of living is going to die from a pissed off Jerome. Aslan made up his mind and spoke to Jerome.
“Well then, I will take the interest.”
Jerome gestures with his hands without even looking in this direction with an annoyed look on his face.
Aslan hurried out of the hut, dragging the hem of the robe of the prisoner, who was still standing blankly.
fantasy,
