episode_0022

“Velichier.”

The gray wolf called his name as if rebuking him, and the silver wolf turned his gaze to her. For a while, the silver wolf’s violet eyes and the gray wolf’s turquoise eyes stared at each other. Silence fell, and the faint sound of water flowing, as if a river was flowing far away, filled the air. The silver wolf was the first to break the gaze.

“The Chieftain is waiting.”

He left those words and walked away, the sound of him wading through the water-filled ground growing fainter.

“Really, stubborn as ever.”

The gray wolf sighed at his retreating figure and began to follow him. Asher wanted to say something, but didn’t have the courage to speak in such an ambiguous atmosphere. As he trudged through the water-filled forest path, using the wolf’s back as support, he felt as if he were sailing on a lake rather than walking through a forest. He wondered how much it must have rained for the forest to be so flooded, but that thought soon vanished with a scream-like resonance.

“You’ve come.”

When the moonlight, which had gradually grown stronger through the gaps in the trees that were slowly distancing themselves from the dense forest of trees, fully illuminated the forest. The old wolf and the place where he was sitting came into view.

“Eras, the test you will face is simple.”

He stood above some kind of cave. He didn’t know how many caves there were in this area, but Asher felt that the cave was more out of place than any cave he had seen here. The cave seemed to be situated in a vacant lot, with no trees in the vicinity. A huge mouth protruding from the ground, as if half of a giant rock had been cut away and dug inside, devoured the water that filled the forest, and he shivered. The faint sound of water that had been heard from afar like the sound of a river was the sound of the cave swallowing water. Now, closer to the cave, the sound of water was beyond a flowing sound, echoing inside the cave like a scream. Asher felt like he knew what he would say next.

“Pass through this cave.”

Under the chilling moonlight, the old wolf, his blue eyes shining brightly, declared above the cave, its dark mouth seeming to devour everything on earth. It felt like he was being told to die, and his body trembled. It was unexpectedly the silver wolf’s voice that calmed him down.

“Do not worry. If you are truly worthy of passing the test, a guide will appear and lead you.”

And then Belka’s image came to mind. Asher had almost ran away from the unexpectedly terrifying test, but she had clearly warned him that their test would be dangerous. Nevertheless, he had come this far of his own will. It was he who had said he would take the test despite Belka’s attempts to stop him. Therefore, he really didn’t want to give up the test in front of that old wolf and return to Belka. Even though he felt the fear of dying in the sight of the cave incessantly drinking in the swollen water into the darkness, he couldn’t back down. Rather, he was walking slowly but surely towards the cave.

He still didn’t know why. He just wanted to face her more confidently, so that no one would think it strange that he and the girl were together. He carefully touched the wall of the cave and went inside, and the night, which was already dark, became extremely dark. He carefully turned around and saw the light, but that was not a place to return to. Nor was it a place he could return to.

“The current is too strong.”

The cave seemed to lead downwards, sloping downwards. That was why it was swallowing the water that had risen to his knees without difficulty. The floor of the cave was slippery. The only reason he hadn’t been swept away by the current in this situation was because he was holding onto the uneven walls. Even that was barely holding on and couldn’t last much longer. He slowly descended, holding onto the uneven walls to avoid being swept away by the current, but the end of the cave was not in sight. The darkness, where no light entered, even took away his sense of time. His hands and arms, which had been holding onto the walls, had reached their limit, and were trembling against his will.

“Agh!”

However, all of Asher’s efforts to avoid being swept away by the current were in vain, as a small rock that had rolled in with the current struck his leg, which was submerged in the water, and it was all for naught. He lost his grip on the wall due to the pain. He felt that moment in slow motion, but the result was inevitable.

“Ubuup!!”

Even though the water wasn’t that deep, he couldn’t get out of the water. Because it had happened so suddenly, he couldn’t even prepare to take a deep breath, so he had no choice but to close his eyes tightly and be swept away by the water. Just as his mind was becoming more and more confused because he couldn’t breathe. Asher noticed that the current that had been carrying him away suddenly weakened and the depth of the water decreased. The current, which had been strong enough to carry him away, could no longer carry him away.

“Puha!”

He barely raised his head out of the water and realized that there was light here. Expecting that he might have passed through the cave, he opened his eyes, and a disappointing sight came into view. He was still inside the cave. The source of the light was just a hole in the ceiling of the cave, letting in moonlight. The ceiling was really high, and of course there was no way he could get out through there. Relying on the moonlight that leaked in, he found a dry spot in the cave where the water, which had definitely become shallow, didn’t reach, and he lay down to rest a little.

“Haa, haa, ugh, there’s no place that doesn’t hurt.”

He was aching all over from being tossed around in the water. Fortunately, he didn’t see any wounds that were bleeding. Asher, who was exhausted, wanted to lie down and fall asleep, but he had to take off his wet clothes and dry them separately. He couldn’t sleep in wet clothes. He spread his clothes out to dry well, and then lay down again on the dry ground. The cave floor, without even the animal skins that the wolves had spread out, was very hard and uncomfortable, but he couldn’t overcome his fatigue and fell into a deep sleep. Without noticing the suspicious figures slowly approaching him.

Meanwhile, for the wolves who had sent Asher down into the cave.

“To think he would truly undertake the test.”

The old wolf muttered, turning his head to one side of the forest.

“I wouldn’t think you would have pushed Eras to take the test.”

“I am not entitled to stop Asher from making his own choices.”

There, a girl was standing in a muddy place, not caring that her clothes were getting wet from the water and rain. Her flower-like red hair, tied on both sides, was wet with rain, and her snow-white skin, like white porcelain, added to her mournfulness with a pale light in the cold water and air. The water-soaked dress and white clothes hung limply, as if showing the girl’s mood. Then, the old wolf’s gaze turned to the mask that the girl wore on one side of her head.

“A mask. Come to think of it, that Eras also seemed to have one. Was it made for you?”

“Yeah, but now it seems like even that intention has been distorted.”

“Sometimes the unpleasant smell coming from Eras’ village was because of that.”

The old wolf glared at the mask as if it were his enemy, as if he wanted to break it right away, but he just glared at it and didn’t really want to break it. The girl seemed to feel his gaze and touched the mask she was wearing, looking at him with golden eyes.

“Do you still resent him?”

At the girl’s question, the old wolf finally took his eyes off the mask she was wearing.

“How can I not resent him? That Eras is the one who ruined my mission.”

His heavy voice contained as many complex emotions as the years he had lived.

“It’s not your fault. Just as filling the gap does not change the fact that it is a gap. It was something that was going to happen eventually, and it just happened to be your time.”

The old wolf, upon hearing the girl’s words, quietly met her eyes.

“You are overly kind.”

“…I’m not.”

“What better proof of your kindness is there than the fact that an existence like you is talking to us?”

The girl tried to say something more, but the old wolf spoke first.

“Velichier, Hillis. We have a long way to go. Take that one and head to the exit first.”

The wolves took the girl and left the place, leaving only the old wolf watching the dark cave that Asher had entered.

Asher drowsily opened his eyes, listening to the trickling water. He didn’t know why. The moonlight coming in through the gaps in the cave and the faint sensation told him that he hadn’t slept long. The very short sleep, in which he couldn’t even dream, was not enough to blow away all the accumulated fatigue, but the chilling sensation that permeated even in his sleep forcibly woke him up. Not a single breeze blew in the cave, but perhaps because his body had already been soaked from being swept away by the water. If not, maybe it was because of the cold stone floor. Or maybe it was because he had fallen asleep naked. He couldn’t stand the constant cold and got up.

“If the test was like this, I should have brought some food or leather to cover myself and sleep.”

Even as he grumbled, he knew that if he had brought those things, they would have been swept away or ruined by the water when he was swept away by the current. He was resting on dry ground like this now, but he had been swept away by the current a considerable distance from the entrance. It was hard to withstand the current even with an unencumbered body, but if he had had luggage, he would have been swept away by the current even earlier. He might have died then. The effort he had made to avoid being swept away was not entirely meaningless.

“Let’s put on some clothes first.”

It was obvious that his clothes would still be wet, but it felt quite awkward to be naked in a place like this that wasn’t even his house. He had never taken off his clothes and wandered around, even if it was just for a moment while changing clothes. As he looked around to find the clothes he had taken off, he felt a strange sense of unease.

“Was there something like this here?”

It looked like a pile of sand or a rock. Several of these objects, all different sizes, were gathered around the place where he was. They looked like simple rocks no matter how he looked at them, but he didn’t know why he felt like something that hadn’t been here had suddenly appeared. But since rocks couldn’t move on their own, Asher thought it was just his imagination. He had been swept away by the current earlier, so he had barely taken off his clothes and fallen asleep. He hadn’t seen his surroundings properly, so he thought he just hadn’t seen them.

“It’s still wet, as expected.”

He found his clothes, but as expected, they were still wet and damp. He couldn’t light a fire, and the wind didn’t blow in this place, so he didn’t know when his clothes would dry. Just because this place was safe didn’t mean he could stay here until his clothes dried. He might not be able to pass the test or get out of the cave. He hurriedly picked up his top, and the coldness of the wet clothes stuck to his skin.

“Ugh, it’s cold.”

The clothes that had been spread out on the cave floor were so cold that he felt less cold when he was naked, but he couldn’t not wear them. If he didn’t wear clothes, he would get unnecessary injuries and increase the amount of unnecessary luggage. Barely getting used to the cold clothes, he was about to pick up his next piece of clothing when he noticed something strange.

“Did I put something like a rock on my clothes?”

The sand-colored rocks that were gathered nearby occupied a small portion of his other clothes. Feeling the unease he had been feeling getting even bigger at the sight of the rocks pressing down on his clothes, he carefully picked up his clothes.

“Huh?”

Crack, the rock opened its mouth. What had clearly been just a pile of sand revealed its mouth. Inside, he saw something that was clearly from a living creature, along with something like a melted human hand. At the sight of the unrealistic figure, he just made a dazed sound and dropped his clothes, and that was fortunate. Something like a melted human hand snatched the clothes he had been holding and dragged them into the rock’s mouth. It was really only a moment, and if he hadn’t dropped his clothes, his hand might have been caught by it. But the rock’s actions didn’t stop there.

The thing that had eaten his clothes was moving, enough for him to know that it was chewing. Only then did Asher have to admit that it wasn’t something like a rock. As it began to move to digest the clothes, mistaking them for food, the true form of what had appeared to be a pile of sand or a rock was finally revealed. It looked like a strangely mutated fish. The four flippers, completely the same color as its body, were stepping on the ground like legs, and its swollen skin, without even scales, and its heavy, rock-like body made him think of a toad rather than a fish.

-Gurgle, gurgle.

Even its cry was like a toad’s, but it wasn’t something he could call a toad. It had flippers that it was using like feet. It was very ugly and looked like it couldn’t even swim, but it vaguely had the form of a fish. That didn’t mean he could call it a fish either. Right now, they were clearly out of the water, camouflaging themselves like rocks, no matter when they had been here. As if they had been waiting for prey to approach. Why hadn’t he realized it? The chilling sensation that had woken him up even though he hadn’t slept much wasn’t just the cold.

It was a warning from his instincts. It was a warning that if he had continued to sleep, he would have been eaten by these things. As he realized that fact, he was reminded of the tongue like a melted human hand that he had seen the moment it had opened its mouth. He could clearly feel cold sweat running down the back of his neck even on his wet skin. He hadn’t been mistaken that the rocks around him had suddenly appeared when he woke up. The rock-like things surrounding him were not rocks at all, but the disguised forms of these things. He was now surrounded by something that was neither fish nor toad.

They had probably gathered to eat him while he was asleep. Probably, the reason they had been camouflaged as rocks was so that they wouldn’t be noticed by their prey, him. Now that he knew that, Asher was able to see the facts that he hadn’t seen until now. They were definitely standing still, but he could hear them in places where his vision didn’t reach.

“….”

-Splish, splash.

-Swish, swish.

That wasn’t the sound of water flowing. There was no way water would splash as something walked around, and there was no sound of stones being scratched. When he swallowed hard with tension and turned around, he could see the rocks that had definitely come closer. Some were half submerged in the water, and some had already come close to him. And the one that had swallowed his clothes was spitting them out, realizing that they were not just food.

-Gurgle, ptooey!

But the clothes that it had been chewing were already tattered as if they had been hacked by something sharp, and some of them were melted. If he were to be eaten by these things, Asher couldn’t help but think that his future would be worse than those clothes. The moment he took a step back. A sudden tingling pain stabbed his ankle.

“Agh!”

Surprised by the pain, he looked down at his feet and saw something relatively small biting his ankle. Maybe it was able to move faster because it was young and small. He tried to hit it and hastily remove it, but red liquid flowed down his ankle. And the metallic smell that stung the tip of his nose. And when he turned back, feeling a chilling sensation. The things that had been surrounding Asher were all opening their eyes. Then, the sound of cracking as their mouths opened all at once. Their mouths were larger than one would expect for things of that size. He could even sense a determination to swallow even things larger than their own body.

-Grrr.

-Gurgle, gurgle.

Inside, there was a reddish-pink tongue like a melted human hand, glistening with saliva. He had never seen it before, but was the skin under human skin really like that? They didn’t seem to have any intention of letting Asher go, and their mouths, which looked bigger than his head, were open, and the tongue like a melted human hand was pointing at him. The sight of them seemed like the dead were reaching out their hands through their mouths, making it even more terrifying. Soon, their patience ran out, and one by one, they began to rush at him, but no matter how he looked around, he couldn’t see a way out.

Melted human hands reached out one by one, followed by their mouths full of darkness. Thinking about being surrounded and eaten by those things made him think only dark thoughts. In the end, just as the hands were about to grab him, a mask that had fallen nearby was kicked by his foot. When he saw the small cross that the girl had drawn on the plain white mask, he suddenly came to his senses.