Something more important than that?
“The Yanox mission…? There was such a thing?”
Cesare also reacted as if hearing this for the first time.
“The Seed of Chaos.”
The Seed of Chaos? What’s that now?
“Ppoyong~.”
Suddenly Mitche popped out and started bouncing on top of my head. Lampel stopped speaking.
“Shh. I hear Mad Crow sounds. We split up from here.”
The horses also refused to enter, perhaps smelling the thick scent of death, so Cesare and I slowly crossed the marshland on foot. Lampel said he would observe the situation from the opposite direction.
Sharp whistles could be heard between the rustling sounds of dead reeds swaying in the wind. The waves of black mana I had forgotten seemed to wrap around my entire body.
Gulp.
When I forcibly swallowed my dry saliva, my heart that started beating wildly pounded beyond my pericardium to my stomach, so it didn’t go down properly.
“You chose this. Don’t regret it.”
“Wh-wh-who’s, regretting. Ce-Ce-Cesare. Ah. Aha. Ahaha.”
“Lionel.”
When I barely lifted my foot that was sinking deep into the sticky mud and raised my head, I saw Cesare’s white hand. When I directed my gaze a bit higher, crimson eyes holding a mysterious light were fully directed at me.
Thinking he was trying to help, I tried to grab his hand, but Cesare slightly pulled his hand back. I raised my head at the prank that Cain might pull, but his expression was extremely serious.
“I’ll give you one last chance to turn back.”
“What?”
“Things might get harder than this mud field from now on. Even after this. Maybe even in the more distant future. No one knows what will happen. There might come a time when you have to stake everything. There might come a time when you want to leave everything behind, run away, and give up.”
It was somehow a meaningful statement.
“I don’t care about you loving me or whatever. Love is ultimately a surplus emotion. People are made to abandon that useless emotion first and choose survival when they get tired, collapse, and are laid bare to the ground. That’s the instinct for life in humans, and I have no intention of blaming that.”
Dry. His evaluation of the value of love was extremely rational while being dry. Well. He’s someone who uses love as a tool, so that says it all.
“But if you try to ruin my plan, the story changes.”
“……”
“Family oath or whatever, if you become an obstacle, I’ll abandon you without mercy.”
A cold and eerie energy rose in his crimson eyes. Receiving his gaze frozen like a sharp icicle directly, my face stung.
“But if you have an unchanging faith, take this hand….”
—Thwack.
Before he even finished speaking, I stretched out my arm and grabbed his hand. No, I grabbed it before those eyes froze.
“Why make it so complicated? You just need to say one thing: trust me.”
After firmly grasping his hand with strength, I pulled my foot out of the swamp. After stepping on relatively solid ground, I wiped the mud stains that splashed on Cesare’s hand with my sleeve.
“Cesare. I’m not smart, so I don’t need long explanations. Just give me orders. I trust you.”
Cesare was silent for a while. After a moment, thud—his hand landed on the side of my head. And his usual confident and leisurely tone pierced my ear.
“I’ll create a small water channel on the ground. Never step on the water channel. I won’t say it twice, so listen well. They’ll target you from the air, so run without ever looking at the sky. Humans are quite simple—if you just block their vision, you can block fear to some degree.”
Swish, swish—the hand stroking my head gradually gained strength.
“Fix your gaze only on the ground. You’ll see shadows on the ground, so just avoid them and go around in circles in the same range as much as possible.”
It was strange. The more he stroked me, the trembling of my body that had been continuous until now stopped, and a groundless peace welled up. Hearing his words made me feel like I could accomplish anything.
“Remember. As long as I’m here, they can never catch you. Got it?”
“Yeah!”
“Now, go.”
Having received his vigorous stroking, I felt a fulfilled feeling of something somewhere in my heart being filled and took a step forward.
Pushing through the large reed stalks, I called for Mitche quietly.
“Mitche. Come out now.”
“Byobyo.”
As if he had been out all along, Mitche bounced around running on top of my head. Ahead of me, things like large black shields were lined up in a row. It seemed the Mad Crows were resting with their large wings folded.
“Can you draw their attention?”
“Byo!”
“Aren’t you scared?”
“Bubu~.”
Mitche blew air from his mouth as if I was worrying about all sorts of things.
“But why are they scared when they see you?”
“Byobyobyo. Ppyobyobyo.”
Mitche answered my question enthusiastically with hand and foot gestures, but I couldn’t understand anything. As the explanation seemed to be getting longer, I quickly picked up Mitche’s back and walked forward carefully.
Between the large lumps of mana, a tearing metallic sound leaked out—piiiii, piiiii.
There’s no turning back now.
Taking a small deep breath, I cleared my throat and shouted loudly.
“Hey, you birdbrains!”
—Kkeegik, gik.
With the bizarrely moving sound of metal chunks, the black lumps slowly began to unfold their forms. With a chillingly sharp whistling sound, the eyes of the Mad Crows with fully spread wings flickered toward me.
“……!”
Dozens of black pupils along with huge mana slowly spewed out over their bodies. The fear of death I felt yesterday was assaulting me once again. My legs were about to lose strength.
“Byo!”
“Ugh! I said it hurts!”
Mitche, standing proudly on my shoulder, slapped my cheek—thwack—as if telling me to snap out of it, and I was startled and gathered my wits.
—Keeeeeek!
The Mad Crows that noticed Mitche suddenly screamed shrilly and began flapping their wings. It seemed like the signal to attack immediately was when they extended their claws.
“Mitche, you really are amazing, aren’t you?”
“Heheung~.”
“Try to draw their attention as much as possible. Cutie.”
At my words to draw attention, Mitche tilted his head then winked while pressing his finger on his cheek.
Keuk. My heart hurts.
“You need to draw their attention, not mine, you dummy! Who do you take after to be this dumb?”
When I flicked his head, Mitche grumbled and bounced in place.
“Byobyobyobyo! Ppyut ppyut!”
—Kyaaaak!
The Mad Crows that discovered the angry Mitche began going wild. Starting with that, I firmly grasped the whining Mitche in my hand, held him up as if he were a legendary sword, and ran with all my might.
The Mad Crows spread their large wings and came after me one by one. They chased fiercely as if determined to eliminate Mitche.
“Hyaaak! Run!”
“Ppyo~!”
I quickly lowered my head and started running while only looking at the ground. The ground was full of black shadows.
—Whiiing!
The magical beasts created gusts with their wings and began flying. As I ran avoiding where the wind blew strongly, I suddenly remembered the words to go around the same place.
‘I can’t deviate much from here. The key is to gather as many of them as possible in one direction.’
I blocked the front with my arm, facing the wind, and turned the direction inward. My ears felt like they would tear from going deaf with the sound of wind and the Mad Crows’ cries.
“Kkeuuuk!”
—Squelch.
Something cold touched beside the dry cracked earth.
‘Water?’
As I looked around while running quickly, indeed blue streams of water were split into a wide net shape. The water streams were quickly covering the ground, but it still seemed insufficient to cover this wide area.
‘Is Cesare planning to drown those bastards? This won’t work. I need to buy more time.’
“You damn chickens! I’ll make you half garlic seasoning, half fire chicken seasoning!”
I ran yelling until my throat burst, weaving between the water channels. My breath was running out and my lungs felt like they would tear, but I couldn’t relax for even a moment with the black waves following close behind.
Then several Mad Crows from right in front rushed at me with their mouths wide open.
“Kkuaaak!”
I immediately changed direction, but about ten Mad Crows were also chasing me from behind.
“Ueok! These birdbrains are using a pincer strategy!”
At the waves of magical beasts I felt from front and back, I quickly tied the ball of thread I had prepared to Mitche’s body and threw it diagonally.
“Go chase that!”
“Byoooo~!”
As if he never thought I would throw him away, Mitche flew looking at me with a betrayed face, and I crouched down fully and slid on the ground.
“Kkeuk!”
—Kyaak!
As expected, they urgently turned direction toward where Mitche flew, not me. Some of them even couldn’t turn and flew into each other. The ones that crashed into each other started going crazy, scratching each other with their claws.
Blood flowed from my scraped hands and feet while sliding, but I quickly got up and ran while rapidly winding the thread. Actually, this was a clever idea I came up with yesterday because Lampel dragged me around like a pet balloon.
“Ppyo!”
I could see Mitche floating in the distance, sniffling as he was being reeled in. And behind him, the Mad Crows followed persistently. Glancing at the ground, the water shadow had grown larger than before. But it was still an insufficient size to cover all of them.
‘A little faster, Cesare!’
“Mitche, hang in there a little longer! Once this is over, hyung will feed you Fieldsberries until your belly bursts!”
Still, the magical beasts that had split to both sides were now all positioned behind me, flying in one direction side by side. From then on, I ran around here and there dragging Mitche like a kite. But because I had fallen earlier and gotten injured, my leg throbbed too much.
‘I keep slowing down. I’ll get caught soon at this rate!’
I gritted my teeth and ran to the end ignoring the worsening ankle pain, but I couldn’t help gradually slowing down as my stamina ran out. Neither Cesare nor Lampel showed even a single hair. Even now, I wanted to turn toward the direction where the principality’s army would be hiding and run away.
I could request rescue if I squeezed out my remaining strength and jumped beyond the swamp. But I soon shook off that thought and decided to endure.
‘If the principality’s army intervenes, there’s no point in me joining. If the soldiers rush out, it’ll also interfere with Cesare and Lampel using magic widely. Cesare said he’d protect me somehow. Let’s run again…!’
I ran again going around in circles in the same place. Sobs burst out with the breath that filled up to my chin, and my vision became hazy, but I couldn’t stop now. Mitche was also struggling up there, blown by the breath that the magical beasts exhaled.
—Kudangtang!
“Kkuaaak!”
That’s when my vision blurred and I tripped on a rock, tumbling heavily. As the thread was pulled while I fell, Mitche also fell with a thud and was lying in front of me.
“Kkeuung…. Beubu…!”
“Mitche, are you okay? Ahheuk!”
I picked up Mitche who was covered in dirt and tried to run away again, but I couldn’t get up at all, as if my ankle was severely sprained.
—Kreureeu.
Instantly, a black and hot wind brushed past my ear.
