The Great Sword is not the Main Body!
Chapter 11 – Eastern Ruins (3)

Neigh—

“Stop eating…! You’ll get a stomachache!”

I grabbed the horse’s mouth as it continued to munch on the gnoll’s corpse.

The horse, visibly annoyed, started drooling and shaking its head.

“Ugh… Stop drooling!”

Snort, snort!

While I wrestled with the horse, Aileen just stood there, staring blankly, offering no help whatsoever.

“A-Aileen…! Help me out here! This is serious!”

“Why would it be serious?”

Aileen tilted her head in confusion.

“Huh…? The meat! It’s eating meat! Horses are herbivores…”

“What are you talking about, Noah?”

Aileen’s response was strange.

“Horses are naturally carnivorous. How do you think they maintain such big bodies on just grass?”

“What…? Carnivorous? For real?”

So, horses in this world eat meat? Really?

I looked back at the wriggling horse.

Snort

It nodded its head.

You… you can understand me?

“Um… sorry?” I muttered, releasing my grip on the horse’s mouth.

Snort Snort

Plop

Something splattered on my back.

Oh no…

I turned to Aileen, dreading what I thought had just happened.

“A-Aileen… did it…?”

Snicker “Y-yeah… oh—pfft! It drooled on you!” Aileen burst out laughing.

“Don’t laugh at me!”

This horse… just spat on me.

“You… you little…”

My body trembled in anger.

Neigh Snort

The horse glanced at me, snorted mockingly, and resumed chewing on the gnoll.

I want to smack it! But what if I accidentally kill it?

Ugh… Should I spit back? No, that would put me on the same level as this dumb horse…

As I stood there fuming, Aileen grabbed my wrist and lifted it.

A memory from my school days flashed in my mind. When friends would argue, and one person stepped in to hold them back, it would somehow fuel the fire even more—suddenly, everyone would start shouting, “Let me go!”

I’d always wondered why people acted like that.

But now I get it. It gives you courage! You know someone’s holding you back, so you can afford to act tough!

Hey, horse! I’m mad! Really mad!!!

“Let go of me! This… this thing…!!”

“Alright, fine. Do what you want.”

Aileen released my wrist without hesitation.

“Huh?”

I froze on the spot.

This wasn’t how it was supposed to go…

“What’s wrong? Weren’t you angry? Why aren’t you doing anything?”

“Huh…?”

“You can do whatever you want. Roast it, boil it, kill it, spare it. It’s up to you, Noah.”

Wait, what?

“U-uh… now that I think about it, if the horse gets hurt, it’ll be hard for us to continue. I’ll let it go.”

Snicker “Really? Alright, then. Come here.”

Aileen pulled a handkerchief from her pocket and waved it at me.

I walked over and turned my back to her.

“An adult shouldn’t be fighting with an animal, you know,” she mumbled as she gently wiped my back.

“I wasn’t fighting…” I muttered.

“Yeah, sure. Now, give me your hand.”

Aileen lifted my hand and began wiping the sticky drool off it.

Squeeze, squeeze

Why isn’t she letting go…?

Squeeze, squeeze

“A-Aileen…?”

“How do you even wield such a massive greatsword with these small hands?” Aileen murmured as she continued to massage my hand.

“Be careful not to get kidnapped. You’ve got a body that would make some people want to dissect you. If anyone offers you something tasty or pretends to be my friend, don’t follow them. Got it?”

“I-I know! I’m not a kid! And… dissect me? Who would…?”

Does this world have something like NASA? In this fantasy world of swords and magic?

“The Magic Tower does that. When they find someone unique, they knock them out with sleep magic and… poof.”

“Eek…!”

Startled, I squeezed Aileen’s hand tight.

“Plus, the Magic Tower is so influential that even the empire can’t touch them. Understand? If they catch you, it’s game over.”

Aileen ran her finger across her neck as if slicing it.

“Ugh…”

“Be careful. You never know where those Magic Tower guys might pop up.”

“Y-yeah…”

Am I going to get experimented on…?

I vaguely remember the Magic Tower storyline from the game, but it’s so fuzzy since it was years ago.

Was the Magic Tower always this much of a group of crazies?

Better keep a low profile just in case… I managed to go unnoticed even in Alreba, so I should be able to handle it.

“If you’re that scared, you can hold my hand. I’m immune to those kinds of spells, so I’ll be fine,” Aileen said, playfully swinging our clasped hands.

“Y-you’re immune to magic?!”

“Yup. Cool, right?”

I nodded enthusiastically.

Aileen, the perfect counter to ranged attackers, was right beside me! She really was a great… ally.

“But it’s only against curse magic, so don’t go using me as a shield, alright?”

Wait, what?

“Oh, o-of course not! What do you take me for…?”

“Hmph—You were totally planning to use me as a shield, weren’t you? Fine, I’ll trust you. So, are we holding hands or not?”

I felt the warmth of her hand in mine.

At first, I hadn’t noticed it much, but now that I was aware, it felt kind of embarrassing.

But weighing this slight embarrassment against the risk of being kidnapped…

“L-let’s keep holding hands. We have to be cautious of mages.”

“Good idea,” Aileen agreed with a nod.

“Alright, then. Lead the way, and I’ll handle any monsters that come our way.”

I thought back to Aileen’s earlier battles.

The first time she killed a gnoll, it took about 10 seconds. The next time, when we faced the larger group, it was 5 seconds, but the power was weaker. Still, her firepower was enough for me to finish off the rest, so we could just detect threats ahead and deal with them.

With the plan set, I nodded and tightened my grip on Aileen’s hand, throwing a glance at the horse.

You just wait until this mission is over.

Snort

Stupid horse.

“Let’s go, Aileen.”

I turned and began pulling Aileen along.

But she didn’t budge.

“Noah. We need to bring the horse too.”

Ugh, so annoying.

“…Right.”

***

“The sun is starting to set…” Aileen murmured, glancing up at the sky.

We’d been walking for a while, having left the previous area far behind.

We had already taken down over 20 gnolls along the way.

“So… what should we do now?” I asked, turning to her.

I could keep going without any trouble in the dark, but Aileen might struggle. Physically too.

She pondered for a moment, looking at the map, before speaking.

“We’re about halfway in.”

“Yes.”

“There’s a place nearby where we can rest. It’s a ruin, but the house is still relatively intact.”

“A house? Did you see it last time you were here?”

“Yes. It wasn’t bad. There was even a bed, though it was pretty dirty. Should we rest there until dawn?”

There was no reason to object, so I nodded.

“Alright, I’ll lead the way since I remember the route.”

“Okay.”

With that, Aileen took my hand and led me forward.

Snort

Clop, clop

As I followed Aileen, I ran my hand along the stone walls of the ruins.

The cold yet smooth surface gave me a strange sensation.

It felt like expensive stone. It reminded me of marble.

Not the rough, natural stone but something more processed, refined.

It felt nothing like the ruins I’d seen in the game.

“What are you doing, Noah?” Aileen asked, looking back at me.

“Ah… I just like how the stone feels. It’s nice to touch…”

The smooth, cool texture was oddly addictive! As I continued to stroke the stone, Aileen’s slightly somber voice cut in.

“Do you know why this village became a ruin?”

“Um… no?”

“About 20 years ago, this was a normal village. But then rumors started that it was a village of thieves, housing some of the most notorious criminals.”

“Th-thieves?”

“One day, a particularly infamous thief supposedly stole an heirloom from a very high-ranking noble and hid in this village.”

“Wow…”

“That noble was so furious that they destroyed the entire village, turning it into the ruins you see now.”

“Oh…”

“But here’s the thing… the thief never came to this village. The rumors were false.”

“W-what…?”

“Isn’t that ridiculous? They razed an innocent village based on nothing but rumors.”

Aileen gazed up at the sky.

“The incident is known as the Hablon Tragedy. This village used to be called Hablon.”

“Hablon…?”

Hablon… Hablon… That name sounds familiar, but from where?

Aileen’s face turned toward me again.

“But do you know the most important part?” she asked.

“What…?”

Ah! Because Aileen interrupted, I lost my train of thought again!

“No one was left to grieve for this village, no one to be angry. No one cared that this village was destroyed and overrun by monsters.”

Hablon… thieves… ruins… Hablon…

“But what if… there had been a survivor? What if someone from this village remained alive, someone who remembered?”

Thieves, ruins, Hablon, survivors…

Suddenly, it clicked.

“The Hablon survivor…” I muttered.

“Huh? Noah, what did you just say?”

The name of that old quest flashed in my mind.

The quest was called “The Survivor of Hablon.”

And the name of the survivor was…

Luchi. The Platinum-ranked adventurer. The one-eyed Luchi.