As if lightning sparked from his fingertips, it transferred to the rat monsters, making crackling sounds as it gradually spread.
“Close your eyes. If you’re not careful, your eyesight might worsen.”
Arkan, who had approached at some point, advised while covering Kaniel’s eyes with his large hand. In the pitch-black view without a single point of light, the afterimage of the lightning he’d seen moments ago remained. This could definitely be bad for the eyes.
He’d thought this before, but it really was an incredible ability. Among magic, there did exist magic that could attack enemies in that way. However, magic couldn’t cause such long chain reactions. It would continue at most three or four times before dying down.
But what about Taeyon’s ability? The crackling sound continued to his ears. The chain reaction didn’t cease.
It was when the sound that had continued for a while stopped.
“Arkan, take your hand off. Where did you throw your manners, putting your hand on someone else’s face?”
At the sharp reprimand, Arkan was startled and took his hand off, stepping back.
“No, this was just, he kept staring as if entranced, so I thought his eyes might get hurt…”
“Don’t make excuses.”
Arkan made an expression like he was terribly wronged and about to jump, but didn’t make further excuses. He knew that no matter what he said, he’d only get scolded more. Compared to other beastkin of the Oblyad family, Taeyon was on the gentle side when it came to knightly etiquette, but even so, once you got on his nerves, he didn’t let it slide.
“I’ll correct it.”
Taeyon, who nodded, approached Kaniel and checked whether anything was on his face. And only after confirming there were no traces of dirty dust or sweat did he nod.
Until then, Kaniel recalled how Taeyon had recently reprimanded him for being improper while buttoning up to his neck, and tried to make an innocent expression as if he had no problems.
Fortunately, Taeyon didn’t point out anything to him. A soft touch that lightly tapped his cheek passed by. When he glanced up, Taeyon was looking at his own hand with a slightly puzzled face.
What could it be? Taeyon clenched and opened his hand as if gauging something, then looked at Kaniel’s face for a moment before soon turning his body toward the raccoon beastkin girl.
“Well then. May I ask some questions now?”
The girl, who had been terrified but then dumbfounded by the too-ordinary conversation, carefully nodded her head.
“Why are you in a place like this?”
“I… ran away.”
“From where?”
“From the place where people are imprisoned.”
The girl’s complexion paled as if bad memories had surfaced.
“Um… You’re a knight, right?”
“That’s right.”
“Then could you please save the people?”
“That’s why I came, so don’t worry.”
Only then did relief settle on the girl’s expression. Some color also returned to her pale face.
If they were outside, they could have let the child rest, but now was difficult. To send the child out, they’d have to send Arkan, which would reduce their fighting strength.
If it were simply a matter of defeating the monster beast, it would be fine. But if they had to rescue people while doing so, it would be difficult alone. All the more so because Kaniel’s magic had limits.
“But before that, I need to hear the story. What happened after you were kidnapped?”
At Taeyon’s question, the girl fumbled through her memories with a confused expression. After being kidnapped, the girl who woke up in a stone cave had experienced truly strange things. She wasn’t sure if this knight before her would believe it.
Still, she couldn’t stay silent.
The girl carefully opened her mouth while fumbling through her memories.
While playing hide-and-seek with her younger sibling, she was snatched by a huge rat monster. Her younger sibling was startled and tried to come out of the wooden box, so telling them to stay hidden was all of her memory before the kidnapping.
When she closed her eyes and opened them, the girl was lying in one side of a dim stone cave. Wondering if it was a dream, she was blankly blinking when it happened.
A sound like a door opening came from somewhere, then sounds of urgent movement came from around her. Inadvertently, the girl also hurriedly got up. Several beastkin were running somewhere.
Some beastkin grabbed the girl’s forearm and pulled her, so the girl also hid with them. That place was like a closet. In buildings that seemed made by carving out rock, storage spaces were also made by carving out stone like this.
‘Why are we hiding?’
She wanted to ask, but the adults’ expressions were filled with terror, so she could tell it wasn’t the time to ask questions. The girl held her breath as she was.
Tssssss…
Something was approaching with a strange sound.
Tssssss…
The girl could soon tell that the sound was the sound of a gigantic monster’s tail dragging on the floor. It gradually approached the closet.
Along with the creepy sound, the shadow of the monster that stopped abruptly cast long into the closet. The girl pressed close to the wall, turned her head, and closed her eyes.
Soon, a rat’s front paw with sparse fur snatched and dragged the girl out.
“Kyaaaah!”
Only then could the girl see the monster’s appearance. A monster beast. At first glance, she knew it was a monster beast. Because it was gigantic, the place where the whites of the eyes should be was black, and the pupils were glowing bright red.
The rat monster beast held the girl and brought its face close. There was an indescribable stench, and the claws of the front paw gripping her hurt as they pierced her body. Would she be eaten like this? The girl, gripped by fear, sobbed.
“Hu, huuu… No, no… Hyaak…!”
“Stay still.”
The place that sound came from was inside the closet. One of the beastkin watching this side with a tense face warned once more in a small voice.
“It’ll be over soon. Close your eyes.”
Did it mean she’d die soon? While sobbing, the girl closed her eyes as told. While thinking that if she was going to be eaten, she hoped it would kill her in one go.
The rat monster beast’s nose tip poked her stomach, shoulder, and neck in turn. The sniffing sound and the breath from its nose were creepy.
How much time passed like that?
The rat monster beast put the girl back down in front of the closet and disappeared.
“Are you okay?”
A squirrel beastkin with a large tail grabbed the girl and asked.
“It just sniffed you. It’s okay. It’s nothing.”
As it turned out, that strange monster beast, whenever it kidnapped a new beastkin, would definitely sniff that beastkin that day. They said hiding or avoiding was useless.
Even after that, the monster appeared in the stone cave several times, grabbed any beastkin, sniffed or examined them, and left.
Taeyon, who was listening to the girl’s story, frowned. Because it was the first time he’d heard of a monster beast acting that way. Monsters and monster beasts were all creatures that devoted all their strength to harming life.
There was no reason to gather beastkin like this and keep them imprisoned while sniffing them.
“It brought food too.”
“The monster beast brought food?”
“Yes. And the adults said that running away was useless. They said rat monsters would swarm and drive you back to that stone cave… I heard…”
It was true. Though the girl didn’t finish her words as if frightened, he could tell she was talking about being threatened by the monsters earlier. Certainly, the monsters had been driving the girl in a specific direction.
It was the first time for a monster beast that moved with a purpose other than survival or destruction. Taeyon recalled the wolf monster beast that had been on the cliff when Antod Village was invaded by monsters. That monster beast too had shown a behavioral pattern different from typical monster beasts.
Perhaps something might be happening. He hoped it wasn’t the evolution of monster beasts.
“I heard you well, little one.”
Taeyon nodded lightly and bent down.
“Now I have a favor to ask.”
“…It’s okay. I’ll guide you.”
The girl answered as if she’d been waiting. As if she knew what Taeyon would ask.
“Will you be okay?”
“Yes. Because… those people took care of me.”
The girl knew herself well. If she’d been alone there, she couldn’t have been this sane. The adults she’d met there looked after her food, comforted her when she cried, and when the rat monster beast’s hand reached for her again, they got caught instead, so she could stay spirited until now.
Although when she tried to escape, everyone showed a defeatist attitude saying it was useless, so she had no choice but to flee alone, she wanted to repay the favor if possible.
“You’re very strong, right, sir knight?”
“Why do you think so?”
“That knight gets scolded by you but can’t say anything. Only a high-ranking person among knights could do that. And I heard before that high-ranking knights are very strong.”
At that sound reasoning, Taeyon chuckled.
“That’s right. You’re smart.”
“You must save everyone.”
“Understood.”
The girl guided the group to the stone cave.
It was a stone cave in a place that looked like a dead end past winding paths. When they pushed the wall, it slid smoothly to the right, and an entrance appeared in that spot.
The first scene the group saw as they walked inside, killing their footsteps, was the scene of a rat monster beast carefully licking a man while gripping him. Sharp teeth glinted ominously between its open jaws.
As if it would chew and eat the person any moment.
Shwaek!
The short spear that flew quickly lodged in the monster beast’s forearm. The man slipped from the monster beast’s hand that momentarily lost strength. The man, a cat beastkin, landed nimbly on the floor, then immediately grasped the situation and ran to the closet on the opposite wall.
