CHAPTER 65
From the Kardun Plains, the barbarians of the west.
I had never seen them in person, but I had heard many stories about them.
They are less than human.
You must never associate with the Kardun.
They are not the same race as us.
Those from Kardun received such vicious assessments.
In fact, the list of their evil deeds was long enough to make one’s head spin.
It felt like meeting a race with a completely different set of common sense.
And now, I understood why the adventurers from the capital constantly belittled and condemned them.

“What are you talking about? Shelters are for public use.”
“No. We Kardun arrived first, so it is not public. Follow the rules.”
“Aren’t you the ones not following the rules?”
“It is the rule of the Kardun.”
The man from Kardun.
With the distinctive tattoos of his people covering his body, he looked like he had no intention of moving.
This rotten bastard.
I was getting the urge to use force.
But there was nothing to be gained from adventurers clashing with each other.
The Kardun bastards knew that, which was why they were being so brazen.

“Stop bothering us and leave.”
Who was bothering who?
There’s a limit to how much you can twist things around.
It was clear he had no intention of giving up the spot, no matter what.
In the end, I was the one who backed away.

“Should I just burn them out? If the cave fills with smoke, they’ll have no choice but to come out,” Babiyen suggested.
“It’s a good idea, but then we wouldn’t be able to go in either,” I replied, clicking my tongue.
“Horizon, is there another shelter nearby?”
“There is, but it’s a few kilometers away.”
And it was raining, to boot.
To travel that far, it would be dark by the time we arrived.

“U-Um, Harua.”
Just then, Horizon spoke up.
“I think there’s an injured person inside.”
An injured person.
The moment I heard that, my gaze returned to the cave.
It seemed Horizon had checked the inside of the cave using her shadows.

“Maybe we can use that as a bargaining chip.”
If there was an injured person, it meant they hadn’t been able to treat them yet.
“M-Maybe!” Horizon agreed, acknowledging the possibility.
Aranseol and Babiyen were quite exhausted.
I didn’t want to delay any longer.
Thanks to Paladin Commander Aigis’s steel-stamina training, I was still fine, but those two needed to rest.

When we returned to the cave, the same man glared at us.
His face said, ‘Why are you crawling back here again?’
“You have an injured person inside, don’t you?”
At my next words, the Kardun man flinched.
Just as I thought. His overly sensitive reaction was because of the injured person.
“I can heal them. In exchange, let my team rest inside.”
“...I do not trust outsiders!”
“Are you going to let your comrade die because you don’t trust an outsider?”
“Ghk.”
The Kardun man bit his lip hard.
Reading his reaction, I was certain.
The injured person’s condition was quite serious.
His eyes darted back and forth.
To hesitate this much even with an injured person… had something happened to them?
For a more forceful persuasion, I had no choice but to draw the dagger from my belt.
The Kardun man immediately went on guard, but my blade was aimed at my own wrist.
Without hesitation, I sliced my forearm.
Aranseol’s eyes widened, but my treatment was faster.
Light spread from my palm and began to heal my arm.
The moment my arm was perfectly healed, the man’s eyes grew wide.

“I am a Holy Mage. I can heal almost any injury. What we are asking for is not one-sided kindness, but an exchange. You get treatment, and we get a place to rest. It’s a deal that benefits both of us.”
The Kardun man’s eyes trembled violently.
There was no need to say more.
Now it was up to him.
After some time had passed, he bit his lip, then relaxed it.
“...Fine. I will give you a spot. I ask for the treatment first.”
He finally relented.
As soon as he made way, I gestured to the others behind me.
Aranseol was glaring at me with a somewhat angry look in her eyes, but I couldn’t help it.
We needed to rest when we needed to rest.
More importantly, thanks to the training from Aigis and Rapiel, I had built up a tolerance for pain.
They had emphasized that Holy Mages and Paladins must become indomitable warriors who know no pain.
So, something like this was trivial now.

“We’ll talk later.”
I, who live and die by Aranseol’s moods.
How sad.
“...I’ve been wondering lately, are you two dating?”
Babiyen then said something completely unnecessary.
Horizon, who seemed to have a similar thought, glanced back and forth between me and Aranseol.
“No?”

Neither Aranseol nor I had any romantic feelings for each other.
We just got along well because our interests aligned.
Aranseol, hearing the question, just blinked and said nothing.
“Well, if you say so.”

Babiyen glanced at Aranseol.
Then, with a complicated expression, she fiddled with the hair at her temple while sneaking glances at my face.
“If you two do become a thing, just let us know beforehand.”
If there’s something going on between team members, it can make things awkward for everyone else.
I wasn’t unaware of how difficult such situations could be, so I nodded for now.

As we entered, the smell of blood hit us.
Deeper inside the cave, we saw a woman slumped on the ground.
Her breathing was shallow.
Seeing the wound on her abdomen crudely bandaged, it was clear the injury was quite severe.
Besides her, there were several other people inside.
All of them had minor wounds on their bodies.
This… it didn’t look like they fought a Fantasy Species.
But now wasn’t the time to question it.

“I’ll begin the treatment.”
I sat down and unwrapped the bandage.
As I suspected, it was a sword wound.
There were signs that a blade had been thrust deep inside, twisted, and then pulled out.
No wonder they were so wary. It seemed some kind of incident had occurred.
After experiencing something like that, they would naturally be reluctant to let outsiders in.
The Kardun man, in his own way, had taken a gamble.
Before he could get any more anxious and do something rash, I immediately applied Holy Magic to the woman.
Soon, her wound began to close.
As if to prove that my recent training in Holy Magic was not in vain, the wound started to heal at a rapid pace.
An injury of this level was no longer a major problem for me.
“Huu, huu.”
A moment later, the woman’s breathing became even.
With her wound completely healed, she had fallen asleep from exhaustion.
“Ah.”
A sigh of relief escaped the Kardun man’s lips.
While I was at it, I also treated the lightly injured.
This way, they wouldn’t have any more complaints.
After treating everyone, I cleanly removed my hands.
The expression on the Kardun man’s face became much more relaxed.

“It looks like you were attacked. May I ask what happened?”
As I turned to the Kardun man, he clenched his fist as if expecting the question.
He must have known I would eventually ask.
My party members also turned to me with puzzled faces.
They had assumed it was a fight with a Fantasy Species, so it was only natural they’d be surprised to hear it was with people.
“...A few months ago, people began attacking our Kardun clan.”
A few months ago.
That was around the same time the Kardun suddenly started declaring their territory.
“...Attackers?”
“There are many. One thing is certain. We heard that our hearts are traded among them for a high price.”
Human hearts are being traded for a high price?
The moment I failed to understand what that meant, Babiyen’s brow furrowed.
She was a mage.
She might have knowledge on this subject.
“...Is someone using them as ingredients to grow their Seed?”
“Babiyen, explain.”
“Well, clans that live in harmony with nature sometimes have very sturdy Seeds. For some reason, the Kardun clan has always had hard and sturdy magic Seeds, earning them the nickname ‘Nature’s Seeds.’”
The Seed she mentioned must be the magic Seed.
“What’s the significance of them being sturdy?”
“There’s a forbidden school of black magic for mages. Among its techniques is a method to dissolve a person’s Seed and use it as fertilizer for one’s own magic Seed.”
“There are psychos who would do something that crazy?”
“That’s why it’s forbidden and considered taboo. But the world isn’t only filled with people who follow the law.”
Was there even a law in this world?
This was a world where you could get executed just for being annoying.
In any case, if that was the situation, I could understand why the Kardun suddenly started declaring their territory.
“Have you ever reported this to the Regular Army?”
“We only trust our own warriors.”
The Kardun were inherently a reclusive people.
That black mage bastard must have been targeting that specific weakness.
They probably thought that since the Kardun clan already had a bad reputation, no one would care if they were used.

“I have an acquaintance in the Regular Army. If you want, I can pass on the information.”
“No need. We will handle this ourselves.”
There’s a limit to being stubborn.
Since he insisted, I decided not to press the issue.
I had meddled enough.
“Th-Thank you.”
The Kardun adventurers expressed their gratitude to me.
Their attire was very different from that of the adventurers from the capital.
They wore armor made of stitched-together leather.
Even their swords looked handmade.
Anyone could see they were poor people who had just come to the city from the countryside.
To prey on the hearts of people like this…
This world had too many bastards who were no different from demons.
“It’s good to be suspicious of others, but not everyone is a bad person,” Aranseol said, speaking to the Kardun man.
“They exist, here and there. Even among Transferees, there are people like him.”
As Aranseol said this, she looked at me and smiled slightly.
You sly fox.
A vixen who captivates people.
Perhaps because of Aranseol’s smile, the Kardun man stared at her, mesmerized.

“Right?”
“Ahem, hem. I see.”
When Aranseol spoke again, the Kardun man flinched and cleared his throat.
So even a barbarian can recognize Aranseol’s beauty.
But why do I feel annoyed?
Suddenly, I feel more inclined towards villainy than good deeds.
“Harua, are you trying to burn a hole through her with your stare?”
Babiyen came up to me and nudged my side.
For some reason, she too was looking at me with a slightly displeased expression.
“Hmm, hmmm.”
Horizon looked back and forth between us with a deeply troubled expression.
Then, Horizon suddenly lifted her head.
The moment I noticed her reaction, I tapped Babiyen’s shoulder.
She quietly raised her staff.
Aranseol also sensed the situation and drew her sword.
Just as the Kardun man failed to understand our reaction, his ears perked up.
He, too, held his breath.
That reaction… on this team, he was the scout.
Outside.
A presence that only scouts could sense rode in on the wind and rain.
People who were deliberately silencing their steps.
They were outside the cave.