Chapter 23: Those Who Use the Road

In the days after the southern fence was expanded, people gradually began coming and going from Rue Village more often.

Mark’s family traveled back and forth along the road to bring the belongings they’d left behind, and a merchant other than Heinz stayed in the village once. It wasn’t as though someone arrived every day, but seeing people and packhorses on the narrow road leading south was no longer as unusual as it had once been.

That morning, I was resting outside the newly expanded fence.

Inside the village, Mark and his son were preparing to leave for work. They’d decided where to build their house, but apparently couldn’t spare the labor to focus on that alone yet. They intended to work on it little by little while continuing their usual tasks.

As I watched Lina and Mia walk away talking about something, I heard a horse breathing heavily on the southern road.

A packhorse was climbing toward the village.

I didn’t recognize the man leading it.

Several pieces of cargo remained on the horse’s back. However, one side’s rope had been retied awkwardly, leaving a conspicuous empty space.

The man stopped for an instant when he saw me, then immediately headed for the village entrance.

“Call someone.”

He said it before even catching his breath.

A villager near the entrance called the chief, and Dario soon arrived too.

“What happened?”

“I had some of my goods taken on the road below.”

The man patted the packhorse’s side.

“There were three of them. They stopped me where the road narrows and said I had to pay if I wanted to pass.”

The chief’s expression hardened.

“Whose authority did they claim to be collecting money under?”

“They didn’t give a name. They wouldn’t answer when I asked. They only said that if I didn’t have money, I should leave some cargo.”

“Did you resist?”

“I couldn’t risk them injuring the horse. I handed over one sack.”

The man looked bitterly at the empty space among his goods.

“Merchandise?”

“Yes.”

The chief didn’t fire off any more detailed questions.

Three men.

A narrow place on the road leading south.

They didn’t seem to be collecting money with anyone’s permission.

They’d allowed the man to pass after he gave them one sack.

That was about all they knew for now.

“Have they been there before?” Dario asked.

“It was my first time seeing them. Though I don’t use this road very often.”

“Are you hurt?”

“No.”

“The horse?”

“It’s fine.”

That, at least, was good.

I listened from a short distance away.

This was different from when bandits attacked the village.

No one had come to assault Rue.

But the fact remained that this man had arrived here with one less sack on his horse.

“Did you come to trade today?” the chief asked.

“That was my plan.”

“Then rest the horse first. We’ll give it water.”

“Thanks.”

The man led the packhorse a little way from the entrance.

I moved even farther away so I wouldn’t frighten it unnecessarily.

Before noon, the villagers were looking over some of the small goods and salt the man had brought.

I heard what the stolen cargo had contained, but neither the chief nor Dario rushed off to capture the three men.

Even if they knew the place, the men might not still be there.

They might flee into the forest if pursued.

More importantly, if several villagers went out onto the road, the village’s work would stop instead.

No one told me to go either.

Sometime after noon, bells sounded on the southern road again.

“Hey!”

This time, I knew who it was from his voice alone.

Heinz climbed toward us, leading a packhorse.

Perhaps the horse had grown accustomed to me. It showed some reluctance, but didn’t stop.

“What’s wrong? Everyone’s looked awfully tense since this morning.”

Heinz noticed before he even unloaded his cargo.

“A merchant arrived after someone took goods from him on the road,” Dario answered.

“They took money?”

“One of his loads, to be precise.”

The merchant who’d arrived that morning came closer.

He didn’t seem to know Heinz, but when Heinz heard what had happened, his reaction was that of a merchant.

“Where?”

The man described the general location.

The smile vanished from Heinz’s face.

“I passed through there too.”

“Was anyone there?”

“Not when I went through.”

It wouldn’t have been strange for them to hide at a different time.

“Have you heard of anything similar lately?”

“Not yet.”

Heinz answered while checking the ropes on his packhorse.

“But if they’re really settling in there, it’ll be trouble.”

“Because you’ll have a problem if they take your goods too?” the chief asked.

“Obviously. But not only that.”

Heinz looked up.

“If I have to pay extra every time I come here, I’ll have to recover that cost somewhere. Some people won’t want to use a road where their goods are stolen every trip.”

The chief fell silent.

“Besides, whenever someone climbs to Rue Village, they may carry charcoal back down. From their point of view, people pass through with cargo both coming and going.”

“You’re saying they have a reason to target this road now?” Dario asked.

“I’m saying they might. Don’t decide what the three men are before we know who they are.”

“I know.”

Still, there was no doubt that more cargo was moving along this road than before.

If Heinz had been its only user, waiting in ambush wouldn’t yield much.

Now other merchants came, sometimes two packhorses climbed in one day, and they descended carrying charcoal from the village.

It wouldn’t be strange if someone had noticed.

“Even so, we can’t have someone from the village standing watch there all the time,” the chief said.

“I’m not asking you to.”

Heinz answered immediately.

“I’d be in trouble too if this turned into Rue Village being responsible for guarding the entire road.”

“Then what do we do?”

“Don’t travel alone.”

The merchant who’d arrived that morning looked at Heinz.

“What do you mean?”

“I’m going down tomorrow. What about you?”

“If I can sell my goods here, I planned to return too.”

“Then we’ll go down together.”

Heinz said it simply.

“Two men and two packhorses won’t be as easy for a group of three to approach as one man alone.”

“What if they appear?”

“Then we’ll decide whether to protect the cargo or run. I didn’t come here to fight.”

That was practical.

Dario joined in.

“If the place is close to the village, I’ll go with you that far.”

The chief turned.

“Are you planning to leave the village empty?”

“It’ll only be me. I can shift my morning work a little.”

“You can’t do that every time.”

“I didn’t say I would. First, we’ll see whether anyone is really using that place.”

Heinz looked at me.

“What about Val?”

I turned my head toward him.

“Are we taking him?”

“No,” the chief answered.

“If we start making him patrol the road too, there’ll be no knowing where his duty ends.”

I agreed.

Even when I flew around the village, I couldn’t stay in the air forever.

“But he may notice if something happens while he’s near the village,” Dario said.

“That’s enough.”

The discussion went no further.

They didn’t send a messenger running to the manor.

They didn’t know who the three men were or whether anyone else had suffered losses.

They decided only that the two merchants using the same road would descend together the next morning, with Dario accompanying them partway.

The next morning, Heinz and the other merchant each brought a packhorse to the village entrance.

Heinz’s horse also carried charcoal from the village.

The other horse still carried the goods that hadn’t sold.

Dario had his bow.

“Is Val really not coming?” Heinz looked at me.

I remained lying outside the fence.

“I told you he wasn’t,” Dario answered.

“I know, but I’d feel safer with him behind us.”

“The horses wouldn’t.”

“That’s true too.”

The two packhorses started south.

Dario walked beside them.

I watched the three men leave.

I didn’t follow.

Even so, I was curious.

As I listened to the sounds of work inside the village, I turned my head toward the southern road several times.

After a while, I made a single short flight.

It wasn’t to go looking for them.

It was my usual check of the area around the village.

I circled close to the fence without straying far south.

I couldn’t see anyone on the road.

I didn’t pursue it any farther and quickly returned to the ground.

Dario came back alone before noon.

“Were they there?” Lina was the first to ask.

“Not the people.”

Dario drank some water.

“But a thin rope had been stretched across the road.”

The chief approached.

“A rope?”

“A little below waist height. It could’ve been dangerous if someone made a horse run into it.”

“And the three men?”

“I didn’t see them.”

Dario set down his bow.

“There were signs that people had stood beside the road several times. It matches the place the merchant described this morning.”

“Did you follow them?”

“Of course not. I’d look like an idiot if I went into the forest and couldn’t find my way back.”

Apparently, he’d removed only the rope.

Heinz and the other merchant hadn’t stopped there and continued south.

“Then we can probably treat that merchant’s story as true,” the chief said.

“At the very least, someone had prepared to block the road.”

“That’s enough.”

That afternoon, another man climbed the southern road alone.

He had no packhorse.

Although startled by the sight of me, he stopped at the entrance when told to and explained his business without complaint.

“I’m not a merchant. I’ve brought something for someone here.”

Who he was delivering it to and what it contained had nothing to do with me.

But when the chief asked about the road, the man thought for a moment.

“I passed two merchants along the way.”

“Anyone else?”

“I didn’t see anyone.”

“No one tried to stop you?”

“No.”

Had the men hidden because several people were traveling together that morning?

Or had they merely moved somewhere else by chance?

We didn’t know.

Even so, one more thing changed that day.

In the evening, when the man prepared to leave the village, a villager called to him.

“You’re going down now?”

“Yes.”

“Can’t you wait until tomorrow morning?”

“Why?”

“Someone had goods taken on the road yesterday. If you aren’t in a hurry, you shouldn’t go alone.”

The man’s expression changed.

“Really?”

“If you want to stay in the village, ask the chief. We can’t decide for him.”

The chief, who’d heard them, sighed.

“Someone else staying the night?”

“I’ll go if you don’t want me here.”

“Do you have food?”

“Enough for myself.”

“Then one night only. As with the last people who stayed, don’t wander around without permission.”

The man bowed.

“That helps.”

As a result, he spent the night in the village.

The next morning, another man had business that took him south from Rue.

The two left together.

No one had ordered them.

No one had written it down as a rule.

People had simply begun to think that two were better than one on the road.

Several days later, when Heinz appeared again, he was accompanied by another man he’d met along the way.

“I spread the word below too,” he said while resting the packhorse. “If you’re climbing to Rue Village, avoid coming alone if you can.”

“Don’t bring even more people here for no reason,” the chief said.

“I’m not leading a crowd up. I’m just telling people headed in the same direction to walk together.”

“The three men?”

“I didn’t see them.”

“The rope?”

“It wasn’t there.”

It seemed to have remained gone after Dario removed it.

Even so, no one decided the road was safe again.

They asked people arriving at the village entrance about conditions on the southern road.

If several people were going down at the same time, they traveled together.

On some days, someone from the village could accompany them a short distance. When that wasn’t possible, it wasn’t possible.

No one told me to patrol every day either.

For some time afterward, no further report came of goods being taken at the same place.

We didn’t even know whether the three men had disappeared or moved elsewhere.

One morning, I stretched my wings outside the fence.

At the southern entrance, Heinz stood with his packhorse, talking to two men I didn’t know.

A villager joined them a little later.

The four began walking in the same direction.

They had two packhorses.

Four humans.

The road was too narrow to walk side by side, so they formed a single line and entered the trees.

I watched them from where I was.

Once, only one merchant and one horse had used that road.

Now several people matched their pace and walked together.

The man at the rear looked back at the village. When he noticed me, he raised one hand.

I lifted my head slightly in return.

Before long, the sound of the packhorses’ bells receded and vanished beyond the trees.