Barbarian’s Dark Fantasy Strategy Guide

Chapter 22: Knightess （1）

“Ugh…… I just can’t understand this.”

Ingrid was deep in thought. Her saber had been drawing on the ground for days. She had erased and redrawn so many times that even she could hardly recognize the shape anymore.

“I walked 10 steps forward, then 10 steps to the left, and then 10 steps to the right…… How can I be back in the same spot?”

She was aware of her poor sense of direction. But she wasn’t a fool who couldn’t even control her own body. Her basic common sense and knowledge must have been sufficiently recognized when she passed the knight’s exam.

“Alright. Now I know for sure. This fog…… is strange!”

Ingrid pointed her finger forward with a confident posture. Ahead of her, a massive curtain of fog blocked the canyon. She was quite satisfied with the conclusion she had reached after three days and nights of contemplation.

However, after careful consideration, she realized that the situation hadn’t improved. Her plan to pass through this canyon and reach Windfall was still at a standstill.

“No. I can’t give up here. Once I pass through this canyon, Windfall is just a stone’s throw away. It took me a whole month to get here, and I can’t be stopped by this strange fog. It’s impossible.”

No one could match her patience. She boldly stepped into the fog once more. She had repeated the same action hundreds, thousands of times and failed, but her will remained unbroken.

Once, and then again.

Ingrid’s body, attempting to pass through the fog, returned to its original position in less than a minute. No matter how fast she ran, no matter how she twisted and turned, she always ended up in the same place.

Eventually, her patience, as vast and deep as the sea, finally hit its limit.

“This damn fog!”

The enraged knight’s saber slashed mercilessly at the fog. The curved sword whipped through the air like a whip, creating a gust of wind. She was determined to clear the fog with sheer wind pressure.

It seemed absurd to anyone watching, but the fog was actually slowly dissipating.

‘I, I did it! Now I can go to Windfall……’

Clang!

Ingrid was startled by the sudden impact. It felt like she had hit a wall. Her saber stopped abruptly in mid-air.

A drop of cold sweat trickled down her spine.

She hadn’t considered that someone might appear from the other side of the fog. Could she have accidentally killed someone? It didn’t feel like she had cut a person, though.

Moments later, a bizarre, unidentified shadow appeared before her eyes.

“Eek! A, a ghost! Ugh!”

Perhaps it was due to the shock, or perhaps it was because she had been starving for days. The knight, who had been screaming with all her might, suddenly lost consciousness.

The man who emerged from the fog looked at the woman who had collapsed after swinging her sword wildly by herself with a puzzled expression.

‘What’s with her?’

『Well, maybe she was scared because you look so intimidating?』

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Crackle, crackle.

Sparks from the campfire danced. Khalid stirred the kindling, increasing the flames. Soon, the water placed over the fire began to boil.

“Ugh…… Uh?”

“You’re awake.”

“Who…… are you?”

The knight, awakened from her sleep, rubbed her eyes.

A sturdy man was sitting in front of the campfire.

“I’m Khalid. I’m a mercenary.”

“Ah, yes. I’m Ingrid Vallenstein, a knight of Farewell…… Um, but why am I lying here?”

“You collapsed in the canyon, so I brought you out. You didn’t wake up for half a day, so we’re camping now.”

“Ah…… I see. Thank you for saving me. Wait, what?! The canyon, then the ghost I saw through the fog?”

“I’m not a ghost, I’m a person.”

Khalid calmly tended the fire, watching the boiling water.

The shadow Ingrid had seen in the canyon was definitely not human. While she was bewildered, unsure of what was happening, she heard a whinnying sound from beside her. A horse was leisurely grazing on grass next to a tree.

“Ah……”

Only then did she realize that she had superimposed the shadows of Khalid and the horse. Her face burned with shame at the thought of a knight making such a fool of herself in front of someone else.

As she was too embarrassed to speak, Khalid spoke first.

“Want to eat together?”

“Huh?”

“It sounds like your stomach has been rumbling for a while.”

“……?!”

As the warmth of the food emanating from the boiling water brushed past her nose, her insides rumbled even louder. Her pupils dilated with embarrassment. She wished she could dig a hole and hide.

“I’m sorry, but I borrowed your belongings without asking. I needed a pot, you see.”

“Oh, no! It’s alright. By all means.”

Ingrid sat in front of the campfire at Khalid’s invitation, but she couldn’t bring herself to raise her head.

“Huh? But a pot? I don’t carry any cooking tools…… Oh my! This is my buckler!”

The knight’s small shield had somehow been transformed into a pot and was being heated over the fire. She stood up in surprise but quickly calmed down when she smelled the delicious aroma.

The smell of meat cooking in the broth was fatal to someone who hadn’t eaten for days. Ingrid hurriedly covered her mouth and sat down, barely managing to hold back her drool.

Khalid served her a bowl of soup with meat and mushrooms.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t realize it was a shield.”

“No, it’s okay. Now that you mention it, it’s starting to look like a pot to me too.”

Ingrid took the bowl of soup and sniffed it lightly. She felt a slight resistance to drinking straight from the bowl without utensils, but such formalities didn’t matter right now.

Her eyes sparkled as she slurped down the first mouthful.

“Mmm~! This is really delicious! What kind of soup is this?”

“Well, I don’t know the name either…… Ah, I think they call it shabu-shabu.”

“Shabu-shabu. I’ve never heard of it, but it must be a soup that nobles eat.”

“No, that can’t be right.”

The meat in the pot was the dried meat Khalid always carried. He had reluctantly agreed to Becky’s suggestion for a cooking method because she had complained about the fishy smell. It just so happened that he had a suitable pot.

Khalid also admitted that it was surprisingly palatable. The dried meat, rehydrated and softened in the water, became as tender as the meat he had eaten at the mansion’s banquet. It certainly felt more like a proper dish compared to the tough, dried meat.

『If only we had some dipping sauce, it would have been perfect. It was lucky that we found matsutake mushrooms in the forest. Who knew the seasoning from the dried meat and the matsutake broth would go so well together?』

‘It’s better than the food I had at the banquet.’

『That’s because you eat so blandly.』

‘But I can’t eat like this every time. It’s not efficient to use half of the dried meat for one meal.’

『There you go again with your efficiency talk. You stingy musclehead! You have plenty of money, can’t you eat well instead of saving on food? Your basal metabolic rate is so high that you’ll never gain weight even if you eat more than this.』

Khalid couldn’t understand half of what Becky was saying, but the gist of it was to eat more delicious things. However, Khalid was more wary of his mind becoming lazy than his body gaining weight, so he had no intention of changing his habits.

While Khalid and Becky were bickering, Ingrid silently finished her shabu-shabu served in her buckler.

『Look at her gobbling it down. See? Even a woman much smaller than you can eat this much.』

‘She looks like she hasn’t eaten for days.’

Ingrid finished the bowl and was about to gulp down the remaining broth in the buckler when,

“Ah.”

She felt Khalid’s gaze and turned it over, shaking out the last drops onto the ground.

『Weren’t you about to drink that just now?』

‘She must have been embarrassed.’

『There’s no need to be shy in front of a barbarian.』

Ingrid, blushing to her ears, bowed deeply to Khalid.

“Thank you, Sir Khalid. I, Ingrid Vallenstein, will definitely repay the favor you have shown me today by saving my life!”

“It was just sharing a meal. You don’t need to be so dramatic.”

“I can’t do that. Repay kindness and revenge twofold! That’s the ironclad rule of our Vallenstein family.”

“Is that so? Then you can buy me dinner twice later.”

“Th, that’s not what I meant……”

Ingrid was speechless at the simple calculation.

“Anyway, I owe you my life, so if you’re ever in danger, Sir Khalid, I’ll save you then. At least twice.”

“If you make such promises for every little thing, you’ll spend your whole life repaying favors.”

“It’s alright. That’s the duty of a knight.”

Ingrid proudly patted her breastplate. Khalid found it quite refreshing to meet a knight who valued honor and pride among the fenced-in people who were always chasing after gold.

The first night after leaving Windfall.

Khalid and Ingrid spent time together by the campfire.

“……It was a really strange fog. No matter how much I wandered around in that narrow canyon, I never hit a wall and kept returning to the same spot. Was it the same for you, Sir Khalid, on the other side?”

“Well…… yeah.”

Khalid gave a vague response.

He couldn’t explain about the Sanctuary of Mist. How could he explain a place he didn’t even understand himself?

“Anyway, I should have dispersed the fog sooner. I wasted three days like a fool.”

She believed that she had cleared the fog by swinging her sword. But it was more surprising that she had spent three days there.

“Wouldn’t it have been better to find a detour?”

“Ah, that’s…… haha.”

Ingrid laughed awkwardly.

“I’m not very good at finding my way. It took me almost a month to get to this canyon. I heard that once I pass through here, Windfall is just around the corner.”

“A month? I think you said you were a knight of Farewell earlier.”

“Yes…… that’s right.”

『It took you a month to get here from Farewell? It’s a week’s walk, three days on horseback?』

Becky was appalled. Even without navigation, Farewell and Windfall were practically on a straight path. Her sense of direction was beyond imagination.

Ingrid fidgeted with her fingers, embarrassed, as she recalled her month-long journey.

“At first, I was heading north just fine. But I chased after some bandits who were raiding a village, and when I came to my senses, I was standing in a place I didn’t recognize. I eliminated the bandits, but I got lost there.”

Ingrid scratched the back of her head and laughed sheepishly.

“After wandering in the mountains for half a month, my horse must have gotten hungry and ran away, abandoning me.”

『Oh my god……』

Becky seemed too stunned to speak. It was a wonder she had even made it to the Windfall Canyon.

It would probably be better for her well-being if she didn’t go out at all, but he couldn’t bring himself to say that.

“So, what business do you have in Windfall?”

“I heard rumors that a dangerous monster appeared! Baron Arik is also a capable vassal of Count Loyster, so I volunteered to come to his aid…… Come to think of it, Sir Khalid, you’re on your way down from Windfall, right? What’s the situation in the village like now?”

『You’re way too late……』

She said she had left about a month ago, so the rumor she heard must be about the ogre. She was incredibly late, to say the least.

“I dealt with the monster, as well as the demon that appeared afterward. Windfall is safe.”

“Ah, a demon?! Is that true! This can’t be, what have I been doing for a month……”

Ingrid collapsed forward in frustration.

“I may be late, but to have dealt with a demon in the meantime…… I guess we underestimated Windfall’s strength.”

It didn’t seem normal to send just one directionally challenged knight as reinforcements. Or perhaps her superior knew from the start that she wouldn’t arrive on time and sent her to slowly gather information.

“Who dealt with the demon? It must have been a fairly well-known mercenary band. To think there were such skilled individuals around here, I should learn their names while I’m at it.”

“I think I told you my name at the beginning.”

“Huh?”

“It’s Khalid.”

“Ah~ The Khalid Mercenary Band! I think I’ve heard of it somewhere, and I think I haven’t.”

Ingrid tilted her head, trying to recall her memory.

『Is she kidding me? Or is she really stupid?』

Her face, filled with genuine curiosity, didn’t seem like she was joking. Judging by her behavior so far, she didn’t seem like the type to play pranks either.

Khalid had no choice but to remind her of his name once again.

“It’s not a mercenary band, it’s a mercenary. Khalid is my name.”

Ingrid’s expression froze in bewilderment after hearing his answer. It took her quite a while to understand the situation.