The Stone of Days Chapter 21

Although I had no strength thanks to lack of food, I approached the window anyway since what he said was right. Mirbo stooped down, making me sit on his shoulders and lifting me up without difficulty. Despite not having breakfast, he didn't look tired. Not only that, his wound shouldn't have fully closed up yet… …. I'm speechless.
I looked out through the window.

"Huhuh… it's quiet?"

Since the prison was an empty bas.e.m.e.nt, the window was only high enough to reach the feet of the people on the street. But thanks to the street being slanted downwards, (if it had rained yesterday, then I really couldn't say the words "thanks") I could somewhat see the situation beyond the window. Outside of the castle rear was a backyard. Across the backyard to the rear were walls that weren't so high.
Looking at it closely, the place where Arnowalt and I had practiced with the sword wasn't far from here.

"Is no one there?"

"No one is pa.s.sing by. I wonder how much time has gone since sunrise?"

"Maybe enough time to eat breakfast seven times over."

Hearing those words in my vulnerable state coerced my stomach into launching a surprise attack on my body.
Mirbo paused before asking again.

"Can you hear anything?"

"Mm…I don't hear anything."

Then again, this is strange. Around this period, there should be servants and maids, etc. that should be sufficient time for them to come and go.
Not only that, is Arnowalt taking a rest day from his swordsmans.h.i.+p practice? Mm, if that was certainly so, you're using me as an excuse to fool around for a few more days, huh. This brat.
The backyard was undesirably empty.

"Come back down."

I threw my body down onto the sheaf of straws. Aigoo, I'm so tired. Even though I was on the top, why do I feel so tired? Mirbo, with a calm expression, was in thought for a moment. Then, he suddenly dropped down onto the floor.
So you too were… …not tired.
He had placed his ear onto the floor.

"I can't hear any footsteps at all."

Since I was lying down anyways, I directed my ear onto the floor as well. Despite having really sensitive hearing, I couldn't sense any sort of vibration.
Mirbo rose and sat down.

"I'm not sure what's wrong, but something must've happened."

It seemed so. But what could it be?
I tried to ponder intensely, however all I could think about was yesterday's breakfast of chicken soup that my mother had made, and the steak and blackberry pie the previous night. But above all, the ultimate luxury of 'goat cheese' applied on top of that slice of bread…aigoo, I shouldn't have thought about it.
As a result, for about half an hour, thinking about that kind of food, and those types of food - it's not like I even know a lot of food types. I'm just glad that I had thought up all the types of food I knew within half an hour - but instead of appeasing the hunger, it encouraged my stomach to crave for more. Finally, Mirbo opened his mouth.

"It's blood."

"Huh?"

What are you saying suddenly, blood you say? To say that you want to drink blood…shouldn't be the case…hmm, what could it be… what were the types of food made by blood again…
Ughhh, this isn't it?

"Battle? Ambush? War? Monster? Bandits?"

"It's something that we don't know exactly."

"Through what evidence?"

Mirbo, looking at me with an irritated look, uttered something absurd.

"What's the most employed position in a castle?"

"Well, there should be more servants than n.o.bles I suppose."

"Right. There should be more servants walking around before n.o.bles. Then, since we're in the castle, there should be more opportunities of them appearing than n.o.bles."

"So?"

"Among the n.o.bles and servants, there's those special people right? Not the ones that feed and dress you, but the servants that protect your life."

"Soldiers?"

He's making such a strange a.n.a.logy, this old man.

"So which type of servants can you see the most in prison?"

"It would be soldiers, of course."

"Then, the fact that they're not here means?"

"They have a task to do I suppose."

After saying that, I felt a deadly premonition so I quickly shut my mouth up. It wasn't a difficult mystery. But then, I feel like it's going to be something impossible to think about. I don't want to lead to such a conclusion.  Can't I just a.s.sume that today was the Lord's knighthood ceremony, or that they had left for a group picnic?
… … it doesn't make sense even when I think about it.
Mirbo added more.

"There should be only a few reasons why the soldiers would leave the castle unattended. And … …."

And?

"… Early in the morning, there were tumultuous footsteps ringing. Definitely, Although at that time, we didn't have a rough estimate of what that was, but I thought it was something very urgent.

Ohoh, my heart started to jump!
Mirbo's deduction was becoming clearer with those certain, concrete details.
No matter how much the Lord was apathetic to the defense of the castle, the n.o.bles' castle is indeed the n.o.bles' castle, so they wouldn't leave the castle unprotected. Criminals like us… NO, I'm not a criminal! … … anyways, the fact that the work force had all left without delivering breakfast was due to this. Or they could be currently concentrating on defending the outer castle walls… no, then there's no way it would be this quiet.
… … And we don't have such a thing as outer walls for our castle.

"It's something huge."

Those were the last words Mirbo left me with. Afterwards, he was silent for quite some time.

What is it? What is it? What could it be? What could it be?
The more I thought, the more I became uncomfortable.
If everyone had left, who exactly is going to release us? At this rate, are we going to be treated like criminals without the opportunity for us to properly give an explanation? If an incident did happen, where could it have happened? Ember village shouldn't be this quiet, right? Then?
Habiyanak, Sedenborum, Grillard, it's one of those three.
Oh, Habiyanak… … it can't be.

If something had happened, what could it be? It wasn't like we were some border frontier, or had a resentful relations.h.i.+p with another province either. If you exclude the monster from the day before yesterday, a pack of monsters that I haven't seen in my life was moving somewhere in a group, then it wouldn't have been so quiet yesterday without any sort of rumors. But, to see that all the soldiers had left their post must be something, a serious situation , a grave concern!
Ahah, my head is about to explode.
I mean, to say it precisely, due to the strange worries I had, my chest started to tighten, which started to make it hard to breathe.
I wonder what happened to my mother.

Mirbo, brace yourself if you've gotten this reasoning all wrong. As payment in worrying me this much, I'll firmly… …
No, please be wrong. Then, it would be good, and I won't quibble over what I had been worrying about.
As usual, there was no indication of a rat moving.
It was getting close to lunchtime.
I had forgotten about my hunger.

Rattle, rattle.

I hear a strange sound.

Daeng! Daeng!

What's this sound?

AHHH… AHHHHHHHK!

That's some…shrilling scream!
I quickly rose from the seat. It was dark. I rubbed my eyes. I could see the moonlight leaking through the window. Since when did I fall asleep, as if I had slept for an eternity.
Mirbo was already awake. He had quickly waved to me in the shadows.

"Over here."

Mirbo and I attached ourselves to the dark walls where there was no moonlight. My chest was thumping loudly. I was very nervous, especially having woken up after starving for the whole day.

"Shus.h.!.+"

I know. However, without me realizing, I nearly made a sound as I quickly covered my mouth with my hands. The shadow in the moonlight, sseuk - it moved.
There was something outside the window.

Churrrrr- Rattle-

A hard item was sc.r.a.ping along the ground outside the iron grating of the window. The metallic object made a sound like it had just collided with something.
Let's be calm, be calm.

… … However, neither Mirbo nor I had anything that could be called a weapon. In this prison, there was nothing that you could usefully employ as a subst.i.tute for a weapon. There was nothing but straw.
Although the shadow reflected only the legs, certainly… it wasn't the leg of a human.
Moving with half-bent knees, and the strange projection of the feet that couldn't be called shoes. But then, it was lowering its body? Is it trying to look inside?
It was that time I heard it.
Chuk - PUAHHHHK!

"Kkeeeeeeeeeeeu… …."

I froze on the spot. A long metal object stabbed through the small openings of the window - it had pierced through the body of the figure that was standing outside the window.
Hoodoodook- A dark red liquid splashed into the prison.

"Eub……."

TL Afterword

G.o.d that was so frightening and intense, whew those scenes were so good that it actually made me feel as if I was in some horror movie.

PR Afterword

Sai101: Dear Author.. Did you change the channel to a horror movie all of a sudden?

Translator: Calvis
Proofreader: Sai101, Kajin