Beast Slayer Online: Initialization
Copyright© 2026 by CaffeinatedTales
Chapter 196: Hunger Inside Castle Town
Kotaro was a rather ... well.
Lannor was not the sort who enjoyed gossiping about other people’s looks, but the man’s face could only be described as shifty.
Especially because he had apparently tried to imitate some lord he had once seen, cultivating a sparse pair of drooping mustaches on either side of his upper lip.
There was little samurai dignity to be found there. If anything, it made him look even more crafty.
Yet as he guided Lannor toward Hirata Estate, he proved remarkably warmhearted.
Halfway there, he even pulled out several rough dumplings made from wild vegetables and coarse grains and offered them to Lannor. When they were politely declined, he merely nodded and put them away. There was a straightforward honesty to the man that contrasted sharply with his appearance.
Lannor could tell that part of the reason Kotaro and the others accompanied him was to keep an eye on him.
That was only natural.
Even after arriving mere hours ago, Lannor had already felt the tension hanging over the region.
A handful of farmers who were not even proper soldiers had spotted a stranger near a Sculptor’s Idol and immediately charged him in a fit of hot-blooded panic. That alone was enough to show how close the local people were to breaking under the pressure.
Along the road leading toward Hirata Estate, Lannor also noticed numerous traces of military transport.
The roads near Dragonspring River remained damp. Heavy wagon ruts had sunk deep into the earth, left by carts carrying substantial loads of equipment.
With a witcher’s tracking senses, he judged those marks to be at least three days old, yet they remained sharply visible.
He made no attempt to guess what weapons had been transported.
When he first arrived in Arya’s world, he had assumed it was merely an ordinary medieval realm without magic. Later he learned there were dragons.
He had no intention of making careless assumptions again.
After roughly three kilometers, Kotaro led him to an area where the land beside Dragonspring River gradually flattened.
The country called Ashina truly was, as Kotaro had claimed, a mountain realm.
Even along the riverbanks, steep cliffs and sudden drops were everywhere. Hardy pines jutted from the stone faces, their roots clinging to sheer rock. Some looked sturdy enough to support a person.
The thought made Lannor chuckle and shake his head.
Those pines were growing ten or twenty meters above the ground with no visible support, six or seven stories high by his reckoning.
Anyone running and jumping through those trees was either suicidal or extraordinarily capable.
Even he would likely break a dozen bones if he fell from that height. An Aard Sign might soften the impact somewhat, but not enough.
“My lord, we’ve arrived!”
Kotaro’s relieved voice broke into Lannor’s wandering thoughts.
Looking up, he saw that Dragonspring River widened here, creating something like a small alluvial plain. A sizable estate occupied the center of it.
The architecture was unmistakably Eastern.
Yet even from this distance, it was difficult to see anything within.
Whoever had designed the estate had clearly done so with war in mind. The main buildings stood on elevated foundations higher than the surrounding terrain, preventing outsiders from gauging the estate’s true layout and strength.
The estate itself sat on the opposite side of the river, connected by a large wooden bridge.
Manors built during troubled times often served both civilian and military purposes. As a result, this bridge lacked the cramped elegance often associated with Japanese architecture.
Instead, it was broad enough for more than a dozen people to walk abreast, projecting a sense of strength.
“This is Hirata Estate, my lord.”
Only a handful of people crossed the bridge. Most wore anxious expressions.