"Bow your head, Nakamura!!!!"
Crash!
"Gyaaaaaaah?!!!!!!"
Along with someone shouting from outside and the sound of a window shattering, something flew in and slammed straight into Land.
Wait, I had reflexively ducked, but that voice was...!!
"What are you doing, not coming out already, Nakamura!!!!!"
"Capris!!"
I lifted my head and looked up at the window. There stood Capris, urging me to come out with an unusually urgent expression. Damn it, I knew I could count on you, my friend...!!!
"Who is it?"
"Land is hurt!!"
"He got hit in the head!!"
"It’s Capris!! That’s Capris’s hammer!!"
"Capris is trying to take Nakamura away!! He’s keeping him all to himself!!"
"Damn it, he’s already here?!!"
I ran straight for the window and leaped out through the broken frame. Behind me, I could hear fairies swarming into the lodging through the front entrance. Land’s injury had probably thrown them off for a moment.
"You came out?!! Close it!!!!"
And taking advantage of that opening, the instant I emerged, Capris pulled out a sheet of iron and some nails from somewhere and drove them into the window at incredible speed.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
"What is this!!"
"Capris blocked the door!! The window’s sealed!!"
"Go to the front! Hurry! He’ll be taken away!"
"We have to catch Nakamura!!!"
"You bastard, Capris!!!"
"Gwahahahah!! Looks like I got one over on them! Let’s get out of here while we can!! Come on, grab on!!"
"Oh, right!!"
The fairies, distracted by Land for the moment, failed to stop Capris from sealing the window. They hurled jealous complaints as they stormed back toward the front entrance, and in the meantime I was dragged away somewhere by Capris’s hand.
"Where is he? Find him!!"
"He hasn’t left Norwich!! No one’s passed through the gate!!"
"Hurry! Move it!! Be careful!! If the lord’s patrol gets suspicious, it’ll be a pain!!"
"......Looks like this place is safe."
"......Yeah."
Where Capris dragged me was an alleyway in the back. It was dark, and by some coincidence it was tucked away in a place that didn’t stand out, so unless you really searched carefully, it would be hard to find.
Still... they were really going all out here...! Every last craftsman in the forge is looking for me, hey...!! Is it really okay for them not to sleep just for tomorrow...!!!
"Anyway..."
The gate of Norwich was, strictly speaking, not far from here. Maybe that was why so many of the forge fairies were running around in sight, but... if I could just draw their attention, I could get out through that gate and shake them off.
But the problem was that I had no way to lure them. The best bait for those guys was me, and the second-best was probably Capris, but... I was out of the question from the start, and I couldn’t exactly sell out my friend, could I?
Heh, I need to think this through a little more...
"...Hey. Nakamura."
"...Hm? What is it? Got something to say?"
"No... you need to leave Norwich, right?"
"Well, of cou..."
Before I could finish saying the obvious, my mouth shut on its own at a sudden thought.
.......What did that mean?
I felt like I’d heard a similar tone from Land before...
...No, no way. We’ve been friends for thirty years. There’s no way he’d do that, right...?
...But then again, Land had been the same.
"....Ah...?"
"Nakamura? What’s wrong?"
"Ah, no, it’s nothing... wait a second..."
No, hold on, let’s think. Capris saved me. If he meant to hurt me, he would’ve done it already with the others...
Ah, wait, could it be? Was he trying to keep me all to himself, like the other fairies said?
No, no, but he’s my friend, right? Thirty years is thirty years. He was the first one to approach me, too...!
But weren’t Land and the others the same? We were close then too...!!
.......Damn it, what do I do? Why is he asking me that?
"...."
My breathing grew ragged. My heart pounded noisily. Haah, haah... Damn it, that only made me more anxious, so I tried to look at Capris’s face.
".....Nakamura?"
.......No good. In the lodging it would be one thing, but out here it was too dark to see Capris’s face...! Damn it, if I could even see his expression, I might be able to tell something...!!
Damn it, think, Nakamura...! What answer would let me get away from Capris? What kind of face is Capris making as he looks at me right now? Think, think...! If Capris means to do me harm and I get pinned down first, it’s over. What can I use as a weapon? My bag? Yeah, a bag with all sorts of things in it should definitely work. So if Capris’s mood seems off, I should hit him with the bag first and run. But where to? There are fairies all over outside here, aren’t there?
My breathing became more and more frantic. It felt like my heartbeat was escaping my body. Cold sweat streamed down me. My hands were trembling.
Nakamura’s mind, once betrayed, charged straight ahead while believing the worst-case scenario was the truth.
"........Haaah, Nakamura."
"Damn it, he spoke to me. What do I do? Is he going to attack? What’s in his hand? A hammer? No, he already threw that before, so maybe not. Then bare hands? Yeah, that’s possible. That guy is pretty tall among the Earth clan, so if he just grabs me or clamps his hands around my throat, I won’t be able to do anything. Damn it...! My bag, where’s my bag? I need to find it fast. I definitely left it around here somewhere...!! Where is it, where is it, where the hell is it!!!!"
Nakamura’s hand flailed around. In a state of panic, he could no longer think normally, and his brain, having reduced the situation to its most extreme interpretation, accelerated only toward the idea of pushing Capris aside and running.
If this continued, it would end in disaster. Panicking and convinced that Capris meant to harm him, Nakamura would grab his bag and hurl it at Capris, then run blindly and get caught.
Yes, if Capris’s next words were not what they were.
"I’ll be the bait, so you get out through that gate."
".............Huh?"
The words were impossible to understand for a mind sliding toward extremes. Words impossible to imagine from a memory of betrayal by a comrade.
Those words woke Nakamura’s brain up.
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