“Who’s there!”
Bluoa shouted toward the obscured darkness. Instead of an answer, all that could be heard was the rustling sound of bushes in the pouring rain. They narrowed their eyes into slits, struggling to secure visibility in the sudden downpour. Rustle, rustle. The sound grew louder and finally closed in from all directions. The place, the air, everything was too dark and eerie to be just the sound of raindrops hitting the bushes.
“F-fall back, sir!”
Anya blocked Bluoa’s front and drew out Haebing. Then, without hesitation, the boy swiftly struck away a palm-sized dagger flying at them. A cold metallic sound rang out pleasantly as the dagger plopped onto the mud. Bluoa’s white horse, startled, reared up on its hind legs and nearly threw him off.
“Sir! G-get a hold of yourself!”
Bluoa was barely clinging to the white horse with a pale face. In contrast, Anya’s young mare bravely jumped around, skillfully following her master’s touch.
As if invisible darkness was thrusting sharp claws, daggers flew fiercely from all directions. Anya’s Haebing struck away the daggers like a quiet flow of water, protecting Bluoa. Anya stayed close to Bluoa and looked back at him.
“Don’t tell me… you can’t f-fight?”
With somewhat rough breathing bursting out, Anya gazed intently at Bluoa. Bluoa’s lips, which had turned pale, trembled.
“…Yes.”
A brief silence flowed between the two.
“Then… if you can’t fight, why did you f-follow me?”
Clang! Anya reflexively struck away a shuriken flying from the side as he asked. As the metal scraped, raindrops splashed onto Anya’s white, young cheek. At the boy’s instinctive and nimble movements, Bluoa’s mouth hung half open. He seemed to be in deep panic, as if he couldn’t believe Anya’s swordsmanship, or rather, as if he couldn’t believe this situation itself.
“I thought it would be a bunch of dead reindeer at most!”
Bluoa shouted in fear. He was a young heir who had not long inherited the duke’s seat, and Runfield was a long-standing granary in the south, a land that had received strict protection as an important region of the Delphium Empire since ancient times. Therefore, Runfield was a peaceful zone that had hardly experienced even small sieges throughout its long history. Of course, the most prestigious cavalry within the empire was the Runfield cavalry, but that was far removed from Bluoa, who loved women, alcohol, and art.
“Sir, calm your ex-excitement and f-focus.”
Anya escorted Bluoa while gripping Haebing toward the darkness.
“No, no. Your Highness. Focus or whatever—aren’t we already dead!”
“I don’t know who they are, but they won’t dare k-kill the Duke of Runfield.”
Unfortunately, that consolation didn’t completely calm Bluoa. If they had only intended to scare him in the first place, they wouldn’t have thrown such daggers at him! Bluoa regretted his complacency in ignoring Anya’s advice.
“Show yourselves!”
Anya shouted toward the darkness. The rain didn’t let up even as time passed. It was a pitch-black night with faint moonlight and starlight. They endured the suffocating moment, staring intensely into the darkness. Bluoa trembled slightly from the chill and fear brought by the rain.
Finally, as the dark clouds briefly cleared, they felt countless shadows rising under the revealed moonlight.
“Wh-when I give the signal, run.”
Anya muttered quietly toward Bluoa. There was no response from Bluoa as to whether he was listening. He just swallowed dry saliva while putting strength in his thighs to keep the white horse from causing a commotion like before. Faint human shapes seemed to be visible between the dense trees. But it didn’t take long for everything to become clear.
Shh, shh. An unpleasant breathing sound could be heard, then dark shadows from head to toe approached before them. There were five of them in total, all wearing helmet-like iron masks covering their entire faces. From beneath the iron masks, a continuously chilling breathing sound flowed out.
‘Who are they? Who sent them?’
Those forms had no distinctive features at all, so it was impossible to read any information about which family they belonged to, whether they were affiliated with the Imperial Palace, or whether they were just hired mercenaries.
“Reveal your identity!”
Anya shouted once more. Instead of answering, they simultaneously drew their longswords. The blades were so well-sharpened that just looking at them made one’s body turn cold. Anya glanced briefly behind him with a sidelong look. Bluoa looked half out of his mind—it was a wonder he hadn’t fainted.
‘Someone who would carelessly target even the Duke of Runfield…’
Anya recalled in turn the dukes and his brothers gathered at this Maneregia. Was it Royster after all?
Five in total. The sum of the tall masked figures was five in total.
‘If Sir Bluoa could fight, there would be a chance of winning, but… for now, the best method is.’
Anya’s eyes quickly searched for a retreat route. Fortunately, there was no one standing on the way back. In a situation where he couldn’t gauge their swordsmanship skills, the priority was to send Bluoa back to the camp first.
The black warhorses the masked figures were riding slowly walked forward. Since this was Anya’s first time actually confronting someone, his entire body tensed up stiffly. The boy breathed slowly.
‘Don’t be nervous. Think of when you trained. Calm like water, flowing.’
Finally, the masked figures picked up speed and lunged at Anya.
“Sir Bluoa! Run!”
Anya threw his body to the ground while simultaneously stabbing Haebing into the enemy’s instep. A terrible scream rang out as the man fell from the saddle. Bluoa flinched violently, then gritted his teeth.
As he began running toward the bridge, one of the masked figures turned his horse’s head. Anya picked up the dagger that had fallen to the ground and threw it at the masked figure. The dagger plunged into the leg of the warhorse the masked figure was riding. The warhorse reared wildly and dropped the masked figure to the ground.
“Don’t look back!”
Anya mounted Mil again and shouted toward Bluoa. Then he fought against them. A tense standoff came and went. Anya blocked the front and received the swords so that the black-clad men couldn’t chase after Bluoa.
However, a one-against-many confrontation couldn’t last long. The tip of a sharp longsword penetrated Anya’s shoulder. It was a chilling and goosebump-inducing pain that made him tingle from head to toe.
It was then. An unknown arrow flew from behind and pierced through the masked figure’s heart.
“…It seems running away would… hurt my pride.”
It was Bluoa. He panted, huff, huff, while pulling the bowstring taut. Once again, an arrow flew like lightning. Unfortunately, the black-clad masked figure easily cut the flying arrow in half. But a gap appeared. Anya didn’t miss that gap and bent his waist to deeply slash the masked figure’s side. A thick groan leaked through the gap in the iron mask.
“P-pride doesn’t put food on the table!”
Anya couldn’t help but find it absurd and shouted at Bluoa. Soon Bluoa answered back without backing down.
“It does for me! If you take away my pretense, there’s nothing left.”
Reindeer corpses were scattered all over the ground, making the battle increasingly difficult. The black-clad masked figures were injured but soon brushed themselves off, stood up, and looked at Anya again. They exchanged glances for a moment, then two rushed toward Bluoa and three toward Anya.
As three swords plunged in simultaneously, Anya ducked and rolled onto the ground. The arrow Bluoa shot could hit one person, but couldn’t hit another at the same time. Whether that was their intention, the masked figure who wasn’t hit by the arrow swung his longsword at Bluoa. Anya’s eyes widened in surprise in an instant.
“Damn it! Sir Bluoa!”
A critical moment. Anya ran toward Bluoa while dodging the sword flying at him again. All the situations flowed slowly as if enchanted.
And at that moment, everyone felt an eerie chill. Anya looked down at his feet. Frost began to form on the damp ground.
“……”
Someone revealed themselves from the darkness. They glided toward all the masked figures, Anya, and Bluoa alike, as if they had no feet, while shining eerily blue eyes.
“Gh… Ghouls.”
Before properly recognizing the situation, the arm of the black-clad man who had lunged at Bluoa was cut off with a thud, and blood gushed out. The longsword he was holding pathetically stuck into the muddy ground. Rough breathing poured out from inside the black iron mask, then several Ghouls instantly entangled themselves toward him. At the bloody curtain unfolding before his eyes, Bluoa vomited.
“G-get up. We must go.”
In an instant, screams and slaughter began to run rampant all around. The black-clad men were busy dealing with the sudden horde of Ghouls and no longer paid any attention to Anya and Bluoa. Anya took advantage of that chaos to run to Bluoa and support him.
“Your Highness, be careful!”
Bluoa shouted in surprise at the chilling blue gaze he met over Anya’s shoulder. Anya grimaced slightly, then spun Haebing around and gripped it in reverse. Haebing’s thin blade plunged deep into the Ghoul’s face like a skewer.
“Urgh!”
Seeing that sight, Bluoa vomited once more.
“I-I understand. But if we stay like this, we’ll be e-eaten too.”
Anya easily recalled himself from a few months ago, prostrate on the ground pouring out vomit just like Bluoa now. The boy forcibly pulled Bluoa up while whistling. Mil came running. Bluoa crawled up onto the saddle with an exhausted expression. Anya also mounted behind him while cutting down the neck of a Ghoul clinging to them. Blue blood, not red blood, splattered on Anya’s face like a tattoo.
“Suddenly… demons! Were there really demons! And this is Maneregia!”
Hiyah! Anya spurred on while listening to Bluoa’s cry. The death of the reindeer herd was not done by humans. The torn-apart corpses. This sense of déjà vu was because he had seen the same thing in Northernmost. Everyone at the camp was in danger. He had to return and inform everyone.
The horse they were riding ran toward the bridge without delay. However, they soon had to face the massive shadow standing before the bridge. A tremendous roar loud enough to shake the surrounding trees rang out nearby.
