“Noooo!”
Emariya clung to Kanga, burying her face.
Irika, held by Demba, widened her eyes as she looked at Sutesaburo’s head dangling in midair.
“A head? Is this Sutesaburo?”
“Yes, it is.”
The calmness in Demba’s voice brought Irika back to her senses. She looked at his face.
His expression hadn’t changed at all. It was as if he was looking at a mere stone.
She glanced at Kanga’s face. His mouth was slightly curved.
He was smiling.
“It reminds me of the Oronma tribe,” Kanga sneered. “A head shield. It’s been a while since I’ve seen one.”
Demba nonchalantly added, “Indeed.”
“Why are both of you so calm? It’s a human head!” Emariya asked, her voice still half-shrieking.
“Yes, it is. So what?” Kanga replied, showing his white teeth. Emariya, thrown off guard, looked back and forth between Demba and Kanga.
“In the place we came from, headhunting wasn’t uncommon. While we Mahis didn’t do it, some tribes would display their enemies’ heads to demoralize them. I thought it might have a similar meaning here.”
Demba said this while still looking at the head. He poked it with a stick, and Sutesaburo’s resentful face, eyes rolled back, swayed idiotically.
Demba continued, “They’re not to be underestimated. If we had fallen for the first trap, that would have been fine for them. If not, they calculated that we would hesitate to move forward, laying a second trap.”
He pointed with his chin to where Irika had stood.
“They must have known we could see the hollow from there.”
Irika looked down at her feet. The stakes still protruded from the ground.
Kanga glanced up at the trees. “It’s probably a similar setup to the arrow trap. If we’d stepped into the hollow, we’d be skewered.”
Irika shuddered.
“But—it’s strange,” Emariya, regaining some composure, still clung to Kanga’s collar. “Why is Sutesaburo’s head, which we left far behind, ahead of us?”
Everyone fell silent.
Demba glanced around. “That’s true. We walked a single path. No one overtook us, and we didn’t feel anyone pass. Did it fly through the air?”
He said without a hint of humor.
They all looked at the shadowed mountain illuminated by moonlight.
“We must run through the mountain,” Demba concluded. “So, ‘Hikokuro of the Monkeys.'”
“The reason the path diverted towards the mountain is clear. They were going ahead of us.”
“They moved faster than us through the mountain. I can’t guess how, but they’re no ordinary opponents.”
Irika looked at Demba. “And…Sutesaburo. The enemy saw everything between him and us. They didn’t help him.”
“They planned to use him as a pawn from the beginning.”
“Yes. And after we were gone—”
She stopped speaking.
“We can’t go any further tonight. We have to spend the night here,” Demba muttered.
In the end, the four of them sat in a circle in the hollow and awaited dawn.
As dawn painted the eastern horizon red, the sunlight filtered through the low, dense trees, turning the wilderness scarlet.
Irika opened her eyes.
She realized she had leaned her head against Demba’s shoulder and quickly moved away.
She looked at his face. His dark face had deep-set eyes that were open, glancing at her.
Irika’s cheeks reddened slightly. “Were you awake?”
Demba gave a small nod.
Emariya, who had been clinging to Kanga’s back, opened her eyes.
She glanced sideways.
She frowned at Sutesaburo’s head, still hanging in the same spot as the previous night.
Kanga stood up and stretched.
“Shall we get going?”
They were about a mile north of the outskirts of Shinotsu Village.
They walked through the wilderness, slightly away from the northwest side of the path and closer to the mountain, to avoid traps.
They were confident they hadn’t strayed off course.
Losing one’s direction in the African wilderness meant death. Those who couldn’t grasp their exact position had no right to live there.
Demba, at the front, walked carefully, dragging his spear close to the ground. Irika followed behind him.
Emariya and Kanga walked a bit further back. Demba’s careful trap-checking slowed their pace.
Demba glanced back. “Do you know how much further to our destination?”
Irika looked north.
“At this pace…maybe another two and a half days.”
Demba only slightly nodded.
The group walked on, biting the dough Emariya had brought.
For a while, they walked in silence.
After about another mile, the mountain slope approached on their left.
The Ishikari River, which had been far to the west, now meandered northward, drawing closer from the right.
They heard the sound of water trickling from the slope on their left.
“Water,” Emariya’s face brightened. “It’s the Tobetsu Mountain. There’s a lot of water here. We should reach the Chiraiotsu Village after about another mile.”
Demba glanced at Kanga.
“Possibility of poison?” Kanga muttered.
“It’s unlikely in flowing water.”
“True.”
Soon, a small stream about two feet wide appeared before them, leading to a broad marshland on the right.
The clear water sparkled under the sun, its gentle flow creating a refreshing sound.
As Emariya bent down to bring her face to the water, Kanga grabbed her shoulder.
“Wait until Demba checks it.”
Emariya jerked back.