The Margrave's 10th-Class Ne'er-do-well

༺ 𓆩  Chapter 6 — The Hunt Begins  𓆪 ༻

「Translator — Creator」

᠃ ⚘᠂ ⚘ ˚ ⚘ ᠂ ⚘ ᠃

It was a moonlit night.

‘The half-moon is giving way to a full moon.’

Isaac traced through his memories.

He remembered clearly, the evening when the priest had brought news that all the children of Black Goose village were dead. He might have forgotten everything else about that night, but he remembered the full moon vividly.

He had stood for a long time in the courtyard, listening to the faint murmurs of conversation drifting from beyond the walls, staring up at that round, brilliant moon.

'Five days at most. At shortest, perhaps two days.'

Unlike other illnesses that showed clear symptoms according to their progression, mana poisoning varied wildly from person to person, in its symptoms, incubation period, and survival time.

Whether the victim was an adult or a child.

How strong one's mana resistance was.

What condition one's body was in.

What kind of environment one lived in, and so on.

One thing was certain, when human lives hung in the balance, an optimistic outlook offered no help.

'Two days. I must finish everything within two days at the latest.'

Isaac left the road and entered the forest.

The overgrown thicket held nothing but pitch-black darkness, but thanks to light magic, illuminating his field of vision posed no difficulty.

The difficulty lay elsewhere.

“Where are you hiding...?”

The ground was buried under snow, the soil frozen stiff.

Finding the herbs he needed under those conditions was no simple task.

If he wanted to save even one more child, he had to buy time.

And to buy time, he needed those herbs. But gathering them was anything but easy.

‘Maybe I should’ve brought Hans.’

Even the help of a cat’s paw would’ve made a difference.

But then Isaac shook his head.

Hans’s help would’ve been welcome, yes, but ever since the mana explosion, an order had been issued forbidding anyone from leaving the estate. Hans, being the dutiful type, would no doubt report his movements to the head steward, and the steward would never overlook it.

Worse, trying to persuade them would only waste more time, and might even lead to tighter surveillance.

This was something he had to accomplish alone.

Isaac steeled his resolve and searched every corner of the forest.

He stumbled over stones and got scratched by trees and thorns, suffering wounds, but he paid them no mind.

Between thick rocks in shaded, damp places mossy enough for lichen to grow.

Sunny patches of ground near where clear streams flowed clean enough to drink.

The books had described these conditions as if they were obvious, but actually finding them proved truly difficult.

“Haa…”

A white puff of breath drifted from Isaac’s lips.

The moon was noticeably tilting westward.

After stubbornly scouring every terrain that matched the herbs’ growth conditions, Isaac finally managed to gather two of the necessary ingredients.

White Stoneblossoms.

And Moonring Flowers.

White Stoneblossoms were used to treat symptoms of common illness such as fever, coughing, phlegm.

While Moonring Flowers, on the other hand, granted temporary resistance to mana.

However, both effects were temporary, and they didn’t cure mana poisoning.  

They were merely a way to buy time.  

“Ugh. This should be enough, right?”  

Isaac stretched his stiff back.  

He worried his back might hunch before he even finished growing.  

Still, seeing the sack full of herbs filled him with reassurance.  

If the herbs worked on the children as the books said, then relying on what he knew, even defeating the winter spiders might not be such an impossible task.  

From afar came the sound of wild dogs barking and wolves howling.  

Wild beasts encountered at night could be as dangerous as monsters.  

Having finished his task, Isaac quickly found the road and left the forest.  

***

After walking for several more hours, Isaac finally arrived at Black Goose village.

He struggled to find the path, relying on his hazy memory.

“Young master?”

The nanny peeked her head through the door crack.

She had covered her nose and mouth with a worn cloth, showing only her eyes.

Even from just her eyes, it was clear she was flustered.

“You look tired.”

Isaac mumbled as he looked at the nanny’s face.

Ever since he had been locked in the mansion’s underground vault, her face had appeared vividly in his dreams for decades.

It hadn’t changed.

He wanted to embrace her in joy, but Isaac suppressed the emotion boiling up inside him.

This was a time to suppress feelings as much as possible.

At least until he could be certain that a mana explosion wouldn’t occur.

The more precious someone was, the more he had to keep his distance.

He couldn’t leave any room for weakness.

“Why are you here so late? Did something happen at the mansion? And what’s with your appearance? Did you fall down somewhere?”

Dark circles hung under the nanny’s eyes; her cheeks, barely visible between the cloth, were sunken.

Yet her flood of questions toward Isaac hadn’t changed a bit.

“You hadn’t shown up for a few days, so I came to check.”

“You’re coming inside?”

As Isaac tried to step into the cabin, the nanny panicked.

“Why? I can’t?”

“The doctor said it’s pneumonia. What if you catch it?”

Isaac pulled out a handkerchief from his rucksack and tied it around his mouth.

“This should do, right?”

“But still…”

Isaac gently brushed off the nanny’s hand and stepped into the house.

“Did you get permission from the master?”

“No.”

“What are you going to do!? What if you had run into bandits on the way here?”

“I didn’t.”

“It’s not just bandits! What if it had been a monster or wild animal?”

The nanny continued scolding him for a while.

She spoke with the concern of someone worrying over her own child.

She was just as Isaac remembered her. 

He almost burst out laughing but held it in.

“Enough, take this first.”

“Yes?”

Isaac handed over a sack full of herbs.

Without another word, he walked toward the bed closest to the fireplace.

The nanny’s son, Hinder, was lying there.

Bluish spots, like bruises, were scattered across his face.

Around the eyes, neck, and forehead, places where the skin was thin.

It was a definitive sign of mana poisoning.

“I’m sorry. Hinder wasn’t feeling well, so I couldn’t go to work.”

The nanny spoke with a sorrowful expression.

“What did the doctor say?”

“He comes once every three days, but there’s been no improvement.”

“I see. Hinder, Hinder. Can you hear me?”

“…Isaac?”

Hinder opened his eyes with difficulty, face twisted in pain.

‘Yeah, now I remember. That’s what he looked like. A spitting image of the nanny.’

Thick eyebrows and kind-looking eyes – he had inherited every notable feature from his mother.

Even before coming back to the past, Isaac had seen Hinder about three times.

They were the same age, but Hinder was at least a hand taller than Isaac.

He always called Isaac by name instead of “young master,” and every time, the nanny would scold him.

But this time, the nanny didn’t scold him.

She just brushed away her dry eyes and stared at her son with a complicated expression.

“Isaac, no, young master. Don’t kick my mom out. It’s because of me, because I’m sick… cough cough.”

“I won’t. She’s the only one who sneaks me treats. You just focus on getting better.”

Isaac held Hinder’s hand and stood up.

“Grind that up or mash it, then put it in a pot. Throw away the first batch of boiled water — it’s practically poison. Cool the second batch and feed it to the sick kids.”

“This… stuff?”

The nanny asked, looking puzzled as she held the sack.

“Also, are there any hunters in the village?”

Isaac nodded as he spoke.

***

The herbs proved effective.

The nanny, trusting Isaac’s words, diligently brewed the herbs from the sack and fed them to her son.

Thanks to that, Hinder’s cough temporarily subsided, and his fever dropped.

The bluish spots on his body faded slightly as well.

After confirming all of that, Isaac headed to the abandoned mine with the village hunter the nanny had introduced.

He hadn’t slept a wink all night, but he didn’t feel tired.

There was still work to be done.

“This is the abandoned mine.”

In the early dawn, Isaac followed the Black Goose hunter deep into the forest.

Despite the cold, the well-shaped path was overgrown with thick weeds.

In the middle of a dense coniferous forest, there was a small clearing.

Around the mine entrance, shrouded in heavy darkness, broken carts and rusted pickaxes and shovels were scattered.

“Thanks. I’ll take it from here.”

“Be careful. There are a lot of wolves around here. Some people have gone missing too.”

“Thanks for the warning.”

The hunter took the 1 denarion from Isaac and disappeared in the direction he had come from.

‘The start of this mine was said to be a limestone cave.’

Isaac recalled what he had read in books.

He pulled a small shovel from his rucksack, dug through the snow, and scraped away the dirt.

He selected some of the mixed grayish-white soil and tasted it.

There was a faint salty flavor.

“Ptoo.”

According to what he knew, it was calcareous soil.

The abandoned mine was likely a limestone cave, just as he had heard.

When it rains or snows, limestone dissolves and forms gaps, and underground water flows through those gaps to form caves; thanks to that, various organisms live in the cave and form an ecosystem, allowing winter spiders to secure ample prey until they become adults.

‘Now I need to get ready to enter.’

Isaac wandered around the area.

He still needed materials to subjugate the winter spiders.

Thanks to his multiple circuit pathways, he could replicate a 2nd Class fireball-like spell, but there were clear limitations.

An overly activated mana circuit could shatter the vessel.

That was the risk.

Without knowing how many Winter Spiders there were, charging in and recklessly using magic wasn’t an option. He had to thin their numbers first, then use magic only when absolutely necessary.

That meant preparation.

Winter Spiders preferred limestone caves when building their nests.

Ironically, plants that could be lethally poisonous to them were known to grow around those same areas.

Frost Belladonna.

A stem plant whose name, in the common tongue, meant “Frost Maiden.”

The name came from the old saying that fatal beauty always carried fatal poison. Its berries were typically diluted and used for anesthesia or paralysis. But for Winter Spiders, just two berries were enough to be deadly.

'It grows in cold, dry limestone soil, they said. This place is perfect.'

Of course, there was no way to make a Winter Spider eat the berries directly. Their instincts would drive them to avoid such toxins at all costs. But there was one exception, one way to make them taste the fruit without realizing it.

A method their senses could never detect.

'It's exactly as the book described.'

By noon, after investigating areas with calcareous soil, Isaac finally found the natural habitat of Frost Belladonna.  

He picked all the blue berries of the Frost Belladonna and put them into the emptied herb sack.

He also added finely broken dry leaves and branches.

Only when the sack was stuffed full did Isaac realize he had lost feeling in his fingers.

‘Should’ve brought gloves…’

Blisters had formed in spots on his fingers.

‘I really should’ve brought gloves. And this thing keeps getting in the way when I move.’

He re-tightened the runestone pouch that kept bouncing around his waist.

After tying the sack, he melted some snow to wet the handkerchief he used to cover his mouth and nose, then stored it in his rucksack to keep it from drying out.

The preparations were complete.

He carefully stepped into the mine entrance.

Thanks to light magic, securing visibility wasn’t difficult.

However, being an abandoned mine left alone for a long time, there were many hazards.

The wooden supports groaned ominously, as if ready to collapse at any moment, and collapsed shafts were visible at every fork.

‘If I die in a place like this, it’ll be a pathetic death.’

Isaac quickly moved on.

And soon, he saw a vertical shaft.

Whoooosh—!!!

Warm air rose from the dizzying abyss below.  

“That’s great.”

There was a pulley to move minerals up and down, but it was unclear whether it could support Isaac’s weight.

Besides, there was no one to operate the pulley.

Left with no choice, Isaac threw the sack down the chasm.

After several seconds, he heard it hit the bottom.

At the same time, startled bats and cave birds flapped away in a frenzy.

It was maddening.

Isaac began descending the rope ladder, whose age was impossible to determine.

Perhaps due to the wind blowing from below, or his trembling legs, the ladder kept swaying.  

“Hoo.”

After safely landing at the bottom of the vertical shaft, Isaac had to rest for a while.

‘This must be the main shaft.’

Unlike the narrow entrance, it was a wide tunnel; the air was foul.

Isaac picked up the sack and continued deeper using light magic.

‘This looks like the place.’

He saw shriveled-up corpses that looked like mummies.

Without damaging their outer skin, their bodily fluids had been drained.

Frogs, fish, swifts, nightjars, bats, and so on. 

Those corpses were now being eaten by small insects.

The deeper he went into the main shaft, the more skeletal remains he found.

So much time had passed that the bugs had devoured everything.

Among them were human remains — skulls, femurs, collarbones, ankle bones, and more.

They were likely the remains of the people the hunter had mentioned as missing.

‘It would’ve been easier if I hadn’t known…’

He had read too many anatomy books trying to heal his own body.

Now, he felt nothing but a growing unease.

The ruined Goethé Manor came to mind, along with the corpses that had filled it.

‘Focus.’

Isaac shook his head to clear his thoughts. 

Tadatak—!!!

At that moment...

A strange noise echoed through the shaft.  

Tadatak—!!!

The skittering of many legs moving in a hurry.

Isaac felt the hair on his arms stand up.

His heart pounded with tension and excitement.

Fwoosh—!!!

A ball of light floated above Isaac’s hand and quickly turned into a flickering flame.

Fwoosh—!!!

Another fireball bloomed right after.  

One hovered over Isaac’s hand, and the other circled around him via a phase-shifted barrier.

It was a type of defensive shield.

The fur of winter spiders is coated with an oil produced within their bodies to retain heat.

That’s why even a spark can make them burst into flames.

Fire was one of the things they feared the most.

Chrrrrr—!!!

Soon, a white spider, having noticed his presence, revealed itself.

It was as tall as Isaac’s waist.

‘So this is the sound I read about in the book.’

Even in this tense moment, Isaac internally marveled at how closely the real creature matched the description in the book.

Chrrrrr—!!!

A sound winter spiders make when alerting their colony to an intruder.

Clack—!!! Clack—!!!

A threatening click of their chelicerae, where venomous fangs are attached.

Everything was just like the book had said, but experiencing it firsthand was a different matter.

Still, he couldn’t afford to be impressed forever.

‘Already five—no, six. More are coming. Eight, ten, twelve…’

He could hear the winter spiders skittering from all directions.

Fortunately, they didn’t dare approach the fireball circling Isaac, but they were ready to pounce the moment he let his guard down.

The air underground was stifling and heavy, so unlike the chill aboveground.
The oxygen was thin, and the oppressive heat clung to his skin.
Every nerve in Isaac’s body stayed tense, he could become prey at any moment.

Sweat soaked through his back.
He wanted to take off his fur cloak, but there was no time for such comfort.
He wanted to act now, to set things in motion and run straight out of that abandoned mine, but he forced himself to endure.

‘Just a little farther. I have to go a bit deeper.’

Monsters possessed a far higher level of intelligence than ordinary beasts.
Some species had even developed language systems not unlike those of humans.
If he failed to end it in one strike, they would learn and the next time, they wouldn’t fall for the same trap so easily.

“Haa… haa…”

Controlling his ragged breathing, Isaac stepped carefully among spiders larger than an average man.
Before long, instinct told him he had reached the right place.

A cavern much broader than the mine tunnels.

Twenty or more fully grown Winter Spiders lifted their heads toward him.

Click—!!!

Click—!!! Click—!!! Click—!!!

The sound of their chitinous fangs clashing together was chilling, like a promise to drive their venomous fangs into him, to melt his flesh and drink his blood.

There are more than I thought.'

Isaac clicked his tongue at the sheer number of them.
Then he realized, oddly, the ceiling was too low for a chamber of this size.
At first he thought the jagged formations above were stalactites, but this wasn’t a natural cave.

It was a mine tunnel.

“............”

When he tilted his head back, Isaac froze for a moment.
The ceiling was thick with clusters of spider eggs.
Above them, another Winter Spider was busy wrapping fresh eggs in silk.

“…Ha. Looks like I’ve come to the right place.”

Isaac let out a faint, hollow laugh.
No wonder that years later, House Goethe had struggled so desperately, no matter how many allies they gathered from nearby fiefs, the Winter Spiders had kept returning in waves.
He had to cut off the source here and now.

Setting down the sack he carried, Isaac pulled a damp handkerchief from his rucksack and covered his mouth and nose.

Fwoosh—!!!

The sack caught fire, belching out thick smoke.

The hunt had begun.

END σϝ CHAPTER