Chapter 76

The final evening meal with Logwin’s party came to an end, and the next day arrived.

“Haa… Haa… To think we’d be attacked even on the last day.”

Mari muttered with a voice full of exhaustion and irritation.

Though the other party members didn’t voice their agreement, their expressions showed they deeply resonated with her feelings, trying to shake off their fatigue.

The monster attacks, which had been happening every other day, didn’t spare them even on the final day, arriving as if it were the most natural thing.

Sitting in the carriage, the sudden halt, the merchant’s voice shouting about an attack, the merchant being threatened by monsters upon exiting.

And then, the battle would begin.

Only the types of monsters changed, but the scene repeated itself over and over.

The relentless attacks didn’t give them enough time to fully recover their stamina, and even though each member was skilled enough to defeat the monsters, the continuous assaults were exhausting.

Mari, Karina, and Serena sat down on the ground to rest after the battle.

“Don’t you think there are too many attacks?”

“Marisia is right. We could overlook it if it were just a few attacks, thinking there were unusually many monsters, but…”

“An attack every other day is too much! And sometimes, there’s another attack the very next day!”

“Indeed… This is too strange.”

The three, who had been sitting and venting their frustrations, soon wiped their irritated expressions and began to talk with serious faces.

It seemed they too had started to sense something odd about the continuous monster attacks, which they had initially thought were just unusually frequent.

Seeing them begin to question, I felt the right moment had come.

Now would be the time to tell them.

I hadn’t shared my suspicions with them until now.

That was because my thoughts were all personal speculations without clear evidence, and if I voiced my suspicions, it would inevitably lead to suspecting someone else in this caravan.

So, if I explained my suspicions when they had no doubts, they might feel repelled by the idea of suspecting others and oppose my opinion.

But now that they themselves were starting to feel suspicious, they might accept my suspicions with less resistance.

Thinking so, I approached the girls resting on the ground.

“Mari, Karina, Serena. I have something to tell you three.”

“Kurt?”

“Actually, yesterday…”

But before I could finish my sentence, a frantic scream came from the front of the carriage.

“Ahhh! Adventurers! Please save me!”

“That’s the merchant’s voice!”

Hearing the merchant’s scream, the three cut me off mid-sentence and ran towards where the merchant was.

It seems I was a bit late.

.

.

.

The place where the merchant and coachmen always took refuge when monsters attacked the front of the carriage.

Running there, we saw Logwin’s party surrounding the merchant with weapons drawn.

“Logwin! What’s going on here!?”

“Ah! Adventurers! Please save me! This adventurer party tried to harm me!”

“What!?”

Hearing this, Mari looked at Logwin’s party with shocked eyes.

“Th-that’s a lie, right?”

But Logwin’s party, receiving her gaze, only made troubled expressions, not denying Mari’s words.

Then Matilda, who got along best with Mari in Logwin’s party, stepped forward and spoke to Mari.

“Mari. Listen to us.”

“Why on earth would you try to harm the merchant!?”

“That’s…”

But before Matilda could say anything, the merchant looked at me and shouted in a sorrowful voice.

“It’s them! Adventurers! The adventurer party I told you about yesterday, it’s them!”

“Yesterday…?”

At the merchant’s words, everyone’s gaze turned to me.

While the attention was on me, the merchant escaped from Logwin’s party’s encirclement and ran to a safe place out of their reach.

Of course, even if it was a safe place for now, it was only a position where the skilled adventurers of Logwin’s party could catch him anytime if they wished…

But with that distance, if Logwin’s party tried anything, Mari, Karina, and Serena could react, so the merchant was effectively out of immediate danger.

Having secured his safety, the merchant looked at me and, as if appealing to the other three, spoke.

“Didn’t I tell you yesterday, adventurer? There are illegal adventurers who lure monsters to kill merchants and other adventurers, then plunder their belongings!”

“Illegal adventurers? What are you talking about?”

“Kurt. Is what he said true?”

“…Is it true?”

Hearing the merchant’s words for the first time, the three turned to me for confirmation, and I nodded, affirming the merchant’s words.

“…He did say that yesterday.”

At my words, the three opened their eyes wide in disbelief, looking alternately at the merchant and Logwin’s party.

“So, after the monster attack ended today, I thought the continuous attacks were too suspicious, so I secretly watched this adventurer party. And what do you know, they were discussing, ‘We’ll soon arrive in the city, and since no one has died, it’s not a big deal,’ and ‘In this situation, we have no choice but to kill them ourselves.’ I was so shocked I tried to seek help from you adventurers, but I got caught… If you hadn’t heard my scream and come immediately, I would have been killed for sure!”

Thus, the merchant confessed about Logwin’s party while looking at my party.

“I-I can’t believe it! Matilda. Is what the merchant said true!?”

“The merchant’s words are lies! We never plotted such a conspiracy!”

“Ha! Then how do you explain you all holding weapons and surrounding me!?”

At that, Logwin, who had been silent with a troubled expression, shouted for the first time, confronting the merchant.

“That’s because you were luring the monsters!”

“Me, luring monsters!? How on earth could I lure monsters!?”

The merchant pointed at Logwin, demanding he prove how he lured the monsters.

But Logwin, having the chance to speak, stammered and trailed off.

“Th-that’s unknown… We were just trying to interrogate you…!”

“On the contrary, isn’t it you who has the means to lure monsters!? You, the leader! Didn’t you use a technique to draw the monsters’ attention several times during the attacks!? With that technique, you could have lured the monsters towards this caravan multiple times!”

“Nonsense! My technique to provoke monsters can’t be used like that!”

“Ha! Who knows! And why would I, a merchant traveling this route, have any reason to lure monsters!? The safer the route, the more profit I make!”

The merchant pointed at Logwin again, explaining he had no motive, and Logwin could only stammer once more.

“Th-that’s because you wanted to kill us all and plunder our belongings…!”

“Even if I killed you all and plundered your belongings, how could I survive alone in this forest with monsters attacking!? That would be putting the cart before the horse!”

“…Ugh! That’s…”

Logwin, unable to provide a proper response.

Seeing this, the merchant turned to us as if everything was clear.

“See! They have the ability to lure monsters and the motive of money! They are the illegal adventurers who kill merchants and adventurers to plunder their valuables!”

“No! We didn’t do such a thing! Threatening the merchant was… just to scare him and interrogate him because he was suspicious!”

Perhaps realizing that siding with the merchant would end it here.

Logwin also looked at me, appealing his innocence.

The merchant and Logwin.

Both looked at me, pleading to believe them.

Ultimately, I realized this situation would end depending on which side I took.

Having heard both sides, I quietly closed my eyes.