Lair

After the sun had set, I grabbed my torch and weapon and slipped away from the others upstream.

When we were attacked this morning, the lizardmen had appeared from the upper course of the river. I was pretty sure that was where their lair was.

Since we’d killed a large number of lizardmen in this morning’s battle, I figured now was my chance to wipe them out before they could reproduce and multiply again.

Unfortunately, something unexpected happened.

“We’re close. There are footprints here.”

Charlotte had caught me sneaking off on my own and decided to tag along.

“This is it. This must be their resting place.”

A large waterfall awaited us at the mouth of the river. Hidden behind the waterfall was a cave.

Charlotte lit the entrance with her torch.

The cave seemed to be fairly deep, and we were unable to see all the way inside.

“Are you really planning on taking them on by yourself? With just that weapon?”

“Yeah. I wanna do what I can.”

After talking with Saburo, I told Shizuka and Chika that we’d given up on going to the castle.

As I expected, Shizuka looked relieved, but Chika complained like hell.

However, it wasn’t as if she could make the journey alone, so she eventually gave in. Thus, it was decided that our unit would stay put and set up camp by the river.

“But what if the lizardmen return? If they attack us again, we’re doomed.”

“We’ll cross that bridge when we get there. I’m gonna sleep for now. By the way, I’ve asked Ryo to be our commander. Go to him from now on if you have any questions.”

Saburo replied to Chika nonchalantly.

I hadn’t heard about the change in leadership until then.

Saburo must have been exhausted, for he immediately fell fast asleep after that.

“So? What’re we gonna do?”

“I’ll think of something by tomorrow morning.”

Chika and Shizuka looked at me anxiously, while Charlotte gazed at me, her lips curled in an unpleasant smile.

“I never would’ve thought you’d try to destroy them lair and all.”

“These monsters breed quickly, don’t they? If we wanna live here in peace, we have no choice but to wipe them out.”

“‘Live here in peace,’ huh? Mhm.”

Charlotte gave me an incredulous look, but I said nothing in reply.

“What a strange guy you are. You seem to be doing this for your friends, not yourself. How can you go to such extreme lengths even though they abandoned you?”

I felt like someone had told me something similar before.

It was probably the time I got into a fight with Eiko about Daigo.

“It doesn’t bother you if you’re made fun of, but you get mad if your friend is? Freakin’ show-off.”

I got my ass whooped by Eiko after that, and Shoko ended up carrying me to the nurse’s office.

I didn’t stand up for Daigo because I was trying to be cool. I stood up for him because I wanted to.

I didn’t try to explain myself back then, and I wasn’t going to now.

The only thing that matters is that I know what I want to do.

I’m not doing this for anybody but myself.

I took my torch from Charlotte and lit the wood chips that I’d brought with me before throwing them inside the cave.

The grass near the entrance caught fire, and the cave walls shone red.

My lone battle had begun.