"Let me tell you something."
The dwarf spoke in a booming voice he thought he had lowered. "Baron Odin III and the others didn't come back last night. They supposedly took a sorceress along, too. They probably ran into some tough opposition.
"My apprentices said this morning that there are more soldiers patrolling our city gates. They're afraid the Jatu might launch a surprise attack, so they want to be able to shut the gates in advance."
Dick's heart tightened at that, and he began to worry about Xiya.
Whatever the would-be apprentice's attitude had been before, she had helped him a great deal.
His expression turned serious, and he nodded slightly.
The dwarf did not understand why, but gave it little thought. Most of his attention was still on Dick's armor.
"Wonderful. The sunshine today is really good. It took much less time than I expected. Look... demon hunter."
The dwarf stood up and held out Dick's leather armor to show him. "Take a look..."
The gash in the leather armor had been neatly repaired. Apart from several tightly packed rows of stitching made with special iron wire, there was no sign of damage at all.
"Thank you very much."
"Oh, no need. You paid me, so of course I'll do a proper job."
Dick took off his outer clothes, leaving only his underclothes, slipped the armor on, then packed his outer clothes into a bag.
After bidding the dwarf farewell, he soon reached the noticeboard in Odinburg.
Whatever had happened to Xiya, he had no news of her for now and could do nothing to help.
But gaining Energy Points could improve his strength, so he would do it whenever he could.
He reached the noticeboard and gave it a quick scan. There were still no demon-hunting commissions.
Dick stood there for a moment. It seemed he could only search the nearby villages.
With that thought, he headed straight for the city gate.
Before he reached it, the demon hunter's eyes had already spotted dust billowing several hundred meters outside the gate, where soldiers were hurrying toward Odinburg.
Those soldiers were the men who had marched out with Odin III.
Dick's expression shifted slightly. He hurried to the gate, just in time to see the man leading the soldiers dismount and stagger toward the entrance, clutching one shoulder.
"What happened?" Dick asked gravely.
The knight at their head was none other than Kebi.
Kebi's helmet had been lost somewhere. His face was pale, and an arrow still protruded from his right shoulder blade. The number of soldiers behind him had also dwindled considerably: there were only three or four cavalrymen, including Captain Fisher, along with a dozen or so infantrymen.
It looked as though they had encountered a major crisis, or had been defeated by the Jatu.
Dick's guess was correct. Kebi pushed aside the two soldiers at the gate who tried to support him and said, his face ashen, "We lost. My father and Miss Xiya were both captured by the Jatu."
"How is that possible? Didn't you say before that it was only a small band of Jatu?"
"Ah, we never expected these Jatu to be so cunning. The men in front were only bait. There were two more large forces behind them, about two hundred cavalry in total, who charged us from the flank. We couldn't withstand them at all.
"My father is their prisoner now. What am I going to do?
"Right, Duke Amara sent word that they captured a Jatu leader as well. We can exchange that man for my father." Kebi's eyes lit up as he spoke.
"What about Xiya?" Dick asked.
"There were two priests on their side. One had hidden himself beforehand. Xiya did restrain the priest who showed himself, and we killed him together. But there was a second one...
"I reckon that although Xiya was captured alive, because she caused the death of one of their priests..."
He did not finish, but Dick already understood the rest.
Having killed an important enemy priest, Xiya would not be spared by the Jatu.
"Are you certain she hasn't been killed yet?"
"Not yet." Kebi nodded solemnly. "One of our soldiers has studied the Jatu language. Their priest said Xiya could cast the Lightning Strike Spell, and that even among sorcerers, those who command the lightning element are extremely rare. He wants to study the structure of Xiya's body thoroughly."
"How?" Dick frowned.
"...Possibly by using various instruments to test her ability to control the magic in the air.
"If they decipher how she controls the lightning element in the air, they might be able to create new lightning spells."
"And after that?"
Kebi shook his head and said with some hesitation, "They'll probably kill her."
"If they simply kill Xiya outright, that would probably count as a good ending for her, wouldn't it?" Dick's brow furrowed slightly.
Kebi hesitated to speak, then finally nodded.
In truth, they both knew what awaited Xiya after the Jatu carried her off. As was their custom, the women they seized would certainly suffer, ultimately being violated to death.
And Xiya was a beautiful woman. Combined with her extraordinary status as a would-be sorceress, that would drive the Jatu even wilder.
"I'm going to save her," Dick said gravely.
"I think we'd be better off staying in the city. The Jatu may well take this opportunity to attack, and when that happens, you can help as a demon hunter."
"What does Odinburg's defense have to do with me? Xiya was the one who helped me, not you."
"Dick, you..."
"I said, tell me the Jatu's route. I'm going to find Xiya now."
After saying that, Dick fell silent and simply stared at Kebi.
The young man suddenly felt that the demon hunter's gaze resembled that of a large apex predator, imposing and terrifying.
The surrounding soldiers also sensed the oppressive, suffocating atmosphere. Afraid Dick might fly into a rage, they quickly gathered around Kebi, and the atmosphere instantly grew tense.
Kebi merely shook his head, stopping his men. "We were surrounded at Stony Town, to the west.
"When we fled back, the Jatu didn't pursue us far. I think Duke Amara of Ravenstern City may have cut off their retreat, which is why they didn't chase us."
"I'm not interested in those analyses. How far is this Stony Town you mentioned?"
A flash of anger crossed Kebi's face. Though demon hunters held an elevated status, they had no right to order nobles around.
But then he thought that the demon hunter before him was only so angry because he was worried about Miss Xiya, and he himself had indeed failed to protect her.
When he had set out, he had secretly sworn to protect Xiya, yet in the end he had still ruined everything.
It seemed he was the one at fault after all. At that thought, Kebi suddenly let go of his resentment over the demon hunter's rudeness.
"Two hours away. But I can't guarantee they're still there, and if those nearly two hundred cavalrymen are all there, there's nothing we can do."
"Give me your horse and point out the way."
"You're going alone?"
"Yes."
"Let me guide you. I know the way much better. If you get lost, you'll waste even more time."
Dick nodded.
Then Kebi looked at the two soldiers in front of him. "Someone, tend to my wound. A simple bandage will do."
"Yes."
With another wave of his hand, a cavalryman behind him dismounted and handed his horse over to the demon hunter.
The demon hunter swung himself straight into the saddle. After his wound had been hastily bandaged, Kebi mounted his own warhorse and led the way.
The clatter of hooves rang out, kicking up dust from the dry ground as the two slowly disappeared from everyone's sight.