Carlo climbed into the carriage, with Isaac close behind him, and shut the door.
Carlo pulled open the small window at the front. "You damn dog, run! As fast as you can! You don't want to turn into a sheep turd, do you?"
Before Carlo had finished speaking, the black dog had already started running, pulling the carriage forward with a sudden lurch.
The wheels rolled over the wild grass, and the carriage jolted violently. Isaac gripped the crossbar and glanced back through the window.
The headless sheep carcass was still lying where it had fallen. Several oil lamps were burning, illuminating the small area around it.
Then he heard a sound coming from the distance...
Baa-
It sounded no different from an ordinary sheep's bleat, but out in the wilderness in the dead of night, it sent a chill through Isaac.
Baa-
Another bleat... no, many of them.
Several sheep appeared in the area illuminated by the oil lamps. At the edge of the light, they looked exactly as the first sheep had when it appeared, except they were running toward the carriage.
The flock kicked over the oil lamps along the railway, extinguishing their flames and leaving only the hazy moonlight. In the dim light, the outlines of more and more sheep emerged from the darkness.
At the center of the flock, a figure was faintly visible. It looked like a young girl, standing among the sheep and blending in with them, as though she were part of the flock herself.
The black dog ran fast, and the flock and the figure grew smaller in the distance, but they were still behind the carriage, following it.
Isaac didn't know how long the sheep could keep chasing them. He only knew they couldn't stop yet.
"Still chasing us?" Carlo didn't seem concerned about what was happening behind them.
"They are. I can't see exactly where they are." Isaac opened the revolver's cylinder and checked it. Four bullets remained. "Boss, do holy silver bullets work on Mary?"
"Holy silver works on most non-humans, but it's less effective against someone at Mary's level." Carlo raised an eyebrow. "What, you want to take it on one-on-one?"
No sooner had he spoken than the carriage jolted as though it had hit something, nearly bouncing Isaac out of his seat.
"You damn dog, watch the road." Carlo clicked his tongue.
The black dog didn't slow down in the slightest. Isaac steadied himself and looked out the window again.
This time, he saw countless points of light flickering in the distant darkness, like fireflies scattered across the wilderness. There were an astonishing number of them, and they were moving toward the carriage.
Those lights... were sheep's eyes.
Isaac couldn't count how many pairs there were. Dozens, hundreds, or even more. The points of light gathered into a mass, surging through the darkness toward them like a tide.
He could even hear the flock running, the countless hooves pounding the grass in a rumble mingled with bleats rising and falling one after another.
"Boss, they're catching up."
"Mm."
"...Are you sure we'll be all right?"
"What good will worrying do?" Carlo took out the pair of dark gold dice. "If things really go badly, we'll have to try something else."
He stood up and pushed open the roof hatch amid the jolting. The night wind rushed into the carriage, making the kerosene lamp's flame flicker wildly.
Carlo looked at Isaac. "Get up there."
Isaac was taken aback. "Up there?"
"Given the situation, we'll have to make Mary suffer a little." Carlo leaned back in his seat. "You still have four bullets, right? Try to hit Mary with all of them."
Isaac realized Carlo wanted him to get onto the roof and snipe at Mary.
He glanced at the roof hatch, then felt the carriage jolting violently beneath him. In these conditions, never mind aiming-just keeping himself from falling off would be a feat.
"It's too bumpy. I can't aim."
"If you can't aim, don't you still have the dice?" Carlo tossed them to Isaac. "Remember to throw them into the carriage."
Easy for you to say... Isaac grumbled inwardly, but he had no better option. He caught the dice, gritted his teeth, and shoved them and the revolver into his pockets. Then he stepped onto the seat, braced himself against the edge of the hatch, and pushed up with his arms until he emerged onto the roof.
The night wind hit him in the face, blowing his hair back. He heaved himself up and swung onto the edge of the hatch, then adjusted his position and lay flat on the roof.
The surface of the carriage roof was rough enough to provide some friction, but the jolting made the entire roof shake. Isaac kept his center of gravity low, pressing himself against the curve of the roof as best he could and gripping the ridge along its edge to steady himself.
Carlo's voice came from below. "Pretty nimble, aren't you? What did Lessing teach you?"
Isaac didn't answer. He looked behind them. The flock was still chasing them, closer than before, and he could make out the sheep's outlines.
They ran no differently from ordinary sheep, but their sheer numbers and speed made them a surging white wave that made his scalp prickle.
At the center of the flock, the young girl's figure flickered in and out of view. She stood among the sheep, seemingly gliding along as they parted before her and closed ranks behind her.
This wouldn't work. There was no way he could find a steady point to aim at with all the jolting.
Isaac freed his right hand and reached into his pocket, feeling for the dice. "Boss!"
Carlo's voice drifted up from below. "Can Isaac Lessing lock onto Mary the Shepherd from a jolting carriage? Check value... 20, plus a 12 agility bonus, for a final value of 32."
Isaac took a deep breath, pulled out the dice, and tossed them into the carriage without stopping to check.
The dice fell and bounced several times inside the carriage. Then, as though fixed in place, they showed the same faces throughout the bounces, indicating that the check's result had been locked in.
Carlo glanced at the result. "28. Good thing you had that agility bonus."
Hearing that the check had succeeded, Isaac breathed a sigh of relief. Then a question occurred to him.
"Success... what does that mean? I can hit her even if I fire blindly?"
"If it were a critical success, maybe you could fire a shot into the sky and still blow Mary's head off. But as things stand... I suppose you'll still have to aim yourself," Carlo said.
Isaac pulled out his revolver and braced it against the edge of the roof, pointing the muzzle at the surging white wave behind them.
The flock and the girl's figure swayed in his view with every jolt, but he found he didn't have to strain to track his target.
A strange sensation enveloped his arm, as though some force were guiding his wrist. The muzzle swayed less and less until it settled in a fixed direction. He could feel that Mary was there.
It was different from judging his aim by sight, more like an instinctive perception. Mary's figure seemed to be framed by something. He knew the target was there, and as long as he fired, the bullet would land inside that frame.
Isaac narrowed his eyes, confirming that the sensation wasn't an illusion. "Boss, I think... I've got her in my sights."
"What do you mean, you think?"
"I can feel something holding my muzzle steady, and Mary's framed in place too. As long as I fire, I should be able to hit her."
"Then what are you waiting for? You've got her in a frame and you're not shooting? Are you waiting for her to come over and invite you to eat grass?"