Ch.37Eyes Stained Red (3)

“Everyone’s gone now. It feels a bit empty.”

“They’ll probably return around sunset. Stay put.”

“…Will the knight be alright? I feel strangely anxious.”

I briefly look at Rophena’s expression as she frowns while gazing out the window, then turn my own gaze to look outside.

The sun hanging high in the sky slowly descends, and the snow beneath it begins to sparkle like jewels. The snow piled high on the fir trees creates a scene so beautiful it looks like something straight out of a painting.

Yet as I gaze at that quiet mountain, my eyes hold a faint anxiety. My heart trembles for no reason. The tea in my cup ripples gently, and what escapes my lips is a cold sigh.

“He’ll be fine.”

It’s not directed at anyone, just a murmur to reassure myself. Rophena’s gaze briefly meets mine then disappears. It’s just a hunting festival. Not an event for catching beasts or weak monsters.

There had never been any incidents during the hunting festivals before, so this feeling must be nothing more than needless worry.

Suddenly feeling empty, I smooth my dress and realize I no longer have the handkerchief I always carry. Didn’t I give it to Evan? I gave him that handkerchief to comfort him when he seemed anxious about the hunting festival, and then I remember what he said, causing my eyes to narrow.

“Do you know what this means when you give it to me?”

I thought it was just wishing for the knight’s safety. Didn’t I deliberately avoid giving him my usual white handkerchief so it wouldn’t be stained red with blood? Perhaps his words meant something else entirely. The question that suddenly occurred to me wouldn’t easily disappear, so I turned to Rophena who was staring blankly out the window.

“Rophena, do you know what it means to give someone a handkerchief to wear on their wrist?”

“…A handkerchief? Are you planning to give one to someone?”

“No, I’m just curious.”

Wondering what I could possibly be thinking, Rophena giggled with her hand covering her mouth before finally speaking.

“It’s something you give to someone you love. Asking them to remember you forever.”

“…What?”

My eyes widen. The emotions rippling in my pupils are surprise and bewilderment. I was so shocked—perhaps more than I’d ever been in my life—that the hand holding my teacup trembled visibly. To think it was something done for someone you love—Lord Chris certainly hadn’t mentioned that to me.

“Lord Chris.”

“Well, I suppose there is such a saying.”

Despite my cold glare, he simply shrugged with a sly smile.

My brow furrows deeply. I inhaled and then exhaled with difficulty, thinking that if I got angry at him now, he would discover that I had given Evan a handkerchief.

I covered my flushed face with my hands. After wiping my heated face with both hands, I noticed Rophena looking at me with a puzzled expression and slowly moved my lips.

“…I didn’t know it had such a meaning.”

“Did you give a handkerchief to someone? Your reaction seems…”

“I did no such thing.”

The conversation ends after my cold reply. If I had known its meaning, wouldn’t I have been more careful about giving it? He must have asked me if I knew the meaning because he understood the original significance.

I pressed my throbbing temple, and my eyes closed tightly with the aching pain.

To think it’s something given to someone you love. A bitter laugh escaped at that word which seemed so unsuited to me. If he had told me the original meaning then, it would have been quite awkward. Perhaps not mentioning it was his own form of consideration.

Someone who always considers me—it constantly raises questions about whether I should keep him by my side. Should he and I really be together? A relationship formed by nothing more than knight and noble lady, yet the influence Evan Fried has had on me is quite significant.

I who never thought much of others, who even despised my own fiancé—how could I be so comfortable with someone? Whenever I think of my knight who has become as comfortable as Rophena, I sometimes find myself frowning as my heart tickles inexplicably.

Love.

It was still quite a distant word for me. I knew I wasn’t ready to give all my heart to someone and embrace them. Perhaps such a day would come someday. But not now.

If I were to fall in love, who would it be with? Suddenly those deep green eyes came to mind, and I sighed again, turning my gaze back to the window.

The Verdeng Mountains covered in white snow—looking at that still mountain should bring peace of mind. Why does my anxiety only grow the more I look at it? It was probably just needless worry. Wasn’t he the one who cut down even the dark mage? I briefly imagined him returning as always, secretly returning the handkerchief, before looking away.

The red tea in my cup looked like blood today, making me frown slightly.

#

Crack—

There was no hesitation in climbing the mountain. The loud noise I just heard, and the screams in between.

Up to this point, I could have thought it was just an attack by a beast, but the mana I sensed was clearly the darkness wielded by a dark mage.

But it was still too early to conclude there was a dark mage. This mana, much darker than the darkness I felt before, this energy that seemed to eat away at my lungs as I approached—it was on a different level from before.

Could there be more than one dark mage? Many thoughts came to mind, but my head felt dizzy with questions that kept following one after another.

Especially because of the voice behind me.

“Did you see that just now? Could it be a monster?”

“…I can’t judge accurately yet. We’re still too far to make any determinations.”

To be honest, I wish he hadn’t followed. I didn’t think Adel would be of any help anyway, so wouldn’t it be faster to go down and request support if there was something? But I couldn’t just send him away now that he had followed, so I just kept my mouth shut and moved forward.

“Haa… there’s quite a speed difference. I’m running as fast as I can!”

Then perhaps you shouldn’t have followed at all. I sighed faintly and turned my head again. If I engaged in such conversation, I might not be able to properly discover anything. I wanted to knock him unconscious and leave him somewhere, but there was no time for that now.

Breaking branches that covered my face, melting the slippery snow with mana as I ran for quite some time. As we approached the mountain peak, the source of the noise gradually became visible. The snow stained red—Adel groaned at the sight of what was clearly animal blood.

“It’s a deer. How did its stomach… get torn like that?”

After briefly looking at the deer’s body, split in two with its entrails spilled out, I realized that this was not the work of a dark mage. The body torn roughly and irregularly as if ripped apart by force, with marks on both sides as if pressed by something—these were probably traces of whatever did this to the deer.

The black giant I saw last time suddenly came to mind, but its strength would have been insufficient to tear a deer apart like this. Could it be a creation of the dark mage, or something tainted by the dark mage’s darkness?

As I was examining the traces, Adel seemed to realize something and carefully spoke.

“Aren’t these the handprints of a troll?”

“A troll, you say.”

“Three fingers… four including the thumb, so it seems like a troll. So it was a monster, not a person? But the sound was too loud for that, wasn’t it?”

I had never seen a troll myself, so I couldn’t be certain the sound came from one, but what Adel said wasn’t entirely unbelievable. Trolls—I had certainly heard stories of trolls appearing in the Verdeng Mountains.

I fingered the hilt of my sword. The characteristic of trolls was their innate regenerative ability. No matter how much I cut them with my sword, they would eventually regenerate unless I cut their heart.

If what was tainted by darkness was a troll, could I cut it down?

I shook my head. There was no need to worry about that now. I could judge after seeing the opponent and gauging its strength. What I needed now was to find out who was spreading this darkness that made it difficult even to breathe.

As I started moving toward the peak again, Adel began to follow.

#

Almost making me forget this was a snow-covered mountain, what appeared as we headed toward the peak was a dense forest filling the surroundings. In this forest of fir trees that still retained their green color, the forest floor sparkled green when occasional light filtered through.

Inside the hollow of a collapsed, rotting log was the carcass of a beast. I quietly covered my nose from the smell coming from it, which had completely lost its form as if something had voraciously torn at it.

There was no smell of decay. That meant whatever had eaten it hadn’t been gone long.

The rustling sound of fallen leaves was irritating. Would the opponent react to this sound? In this quiet forest, even the small sound of exhaling echoed back, so I needed to be careful with my movements.

“Shh.”

I raised my index finger to signal. It was somewhat strange that Adel’s complexion remained fine despite the thick mana suffocating us, but perhaps his level was too low to sense it, so concealing our presence came first.

Crack—

When I took another step forward, a huge sound that didn’t belong in this forest came from far away. The sound of a tree breaking—as far as I knew, there was only one being in this mountain that could break these massive trees. I inhaled and watched the direction the sound came from.

I could feel mana. The mana I felt from the direction of the broken tree was clearly darker than any other mana. It sucked the vitality from the forest and tainted the filtering light with shadows. A being that shouldn’t be here. In this place full of life more than anywhere else, it was a being that needed to be expelled.

But I couldn’t approach rashly. I had to judge its strength and speed accurately before moving. The reason I had directly approached the dark mage before was because I had already gauged its level by its mana. Now was incomparable to then. My breath rose to the tip of my chin. My hand holding the sword trembled slightly, so I stabbed it into the ground while looking ahead.

“Lord Roman, listen carefully. You must not move rashly. This is not an ordinary troll. It’s likely a creation of the dark mage. You absolutely must not move carelessly.”

“…I understand. But what about the dark mage?”

“Questions later, it’s coming.”

A dark shadow began to appear from behind a huge tree. A shadow that clearly didn’t belong with the trees, like twilight walking on its own, tainting the surroundings with darkness—I felt a chill run down my spine.

Boom—

The earth shook. Snow fell from the trees, revealing their green color, which immediately began to wither. The life around disappeared, revealing desolation. The snow melted, and the ground lost its vitality and began to crack.

Boom—

What was visible in the darkness where light had disappeared were those purple pupils. Like fire, those eyes burning alone seemed to contain an abyss. In its hand was an axe covered in blood, and I frowned involuntarily at the fragments of human flesh mixed in the blood.

How many people had it killed?

The fangs protruding from its mouth indicated that this being was once a troll. But its back, which should have been hunched, was straight, and its skin, which should have been green, was a deep brown, making it difficult to distinguish in the darkness.

“…That’s.”

Adel’s expression hardened. The overwhelming presence emanating from this unfamiliar being—even my hand holding the sword was trembling, so the sensation he felt must have been close to terror. The purple pupils wavered. What was reflected in them was clear fear, so I grabbed his shoulder and quietly spoke.

“I’ll go first. Don’t try to attack from the beginning. We need to understand what we’re dealing with first.”

“No, I can do it too.”

“Lord Roman. This is not a game.”

A cold gaze pierced down. I didn’t like his attitude, thinking this situation could be resolved simply by wielding a sword. This was real combat. If that axe grazed him, his body could be split instantly, killing him. In such a situation, who would take responsibility if he died by rushing in with such tension? Me, who was with him? I refused such a thing.

However, I soon smiled bitterly. Despite what I said, what I saw in his eyes was a slight competitive spirit. Saying he could do it too, trying to prove something—seeing that intention clearly reflected in his eyes, I sighed faintly before nodding and looking back at the troll.

“…Do as you wish. But if it gets difficult, you must retreat.”

“I know that much. After all, I’m an expert too.”

Soon, a blue light began to rise from his sword. The usual color of mana that people possess—whenever I saw the mana color of others, completely different from mine, I often wondered about it.

Whoosh—

But such thoughts were useless now. I cleared my mind. My focus was solely on the tip of the sword in my hand. Soon, white flames ignited on the sword, beginning to brightly illuminate a part of the forest tainted by darkness.

Boom—

Our eyes met. When those burning purple pupils met mine, I felt as if my heart was pierced by a spear and exhaled. The pressure emanating from that being made me think this would be more difficult than any opponent I had faced before, causing my muscles to contract.

I bent my knees. My muscles absorbed the air entering my lungs, drawing out the maximum strength possible. My beating heart accepted that power and sent it back throughout my body. One breath, two breaths. When the muscles in my legs tightened during that momentary breathing,

Crack—

With a force that crushed even the rocks on the ground, my body shot forward. A white light began to draw a sword path in my eyes as I looked at the troll. Right diagonal, should I aim for the muscles in the legs? When my thoughts were decided, I called Adel’s name and swung my sword toward the arm of the troll with its massive body.

“Lord Roman!”

Perhaps because I cut before the troll could react, the surprised troll flinched and pulled its body back. After briefly looking at the black smoke leaking from its open mouth, I turned to see Adel moving in the distance. If only he could move faster—I gritted my teeth at his speed, which was quite different from mine.

At that speed, he would only be a hindrance. I would have felt more at ease if I had left him behind. At that speed, it was obvious the troll would react. As I thought, the troll spotted Adel’s attack. Its shoulder muscles twitched. Its elbow bent backward, and I could only watch as its arm extended.

Even if I cut with my sword, it wasn’t an action I could block. The thick hide would only receive shallow wounds from my current sword.

“Argh!”

Thud—

I sighed at the impact sound that followed. The sound of bones breaking, blood splattering. Something flying and hitting a tree before collapsing to the ground. I squeezed my eyes shut. I had told him to move carefully, but the fortunate thing was that he probably wasn’t dead from the punch.

Growl—

My eyes meet the troll’s. Looking at my own reflection in those eyes that had lost reason and only craved blood and flesh, I somehow let out a small laugh because that image of me holding a sword looked quite knightly.

I throw the sword I was holding to the ground. It wasn’t skin that could be easily cut. If the attack had worked, it might have been different, but if this sword broke while fighting, I would be the one in trouble. What I took out from inside my clothes was a sword with only the handle remaining, and soon flames rose again. In the shadows, only the light shone brilliantly, and soon the blue blade appeared and flames began to spread.

I see a fist. I step forward, detecting the twitching of muscles. From now on, if my concentration wavers even slightly, I’ll be the one getting hurt. Elbow, shoulder, fingers. And that gaze, the movement of the waist, the play of the pelvis shows the flow of the attack. As the white flames burn brighter, those movements become clearer, and I realized I was facing those attacks head-on.

The corner of my mouth twists.

I grip the sword with both hands. I exhale rough breaths with my beating heart. Along with the swing of the axe, a red trajectory appeared in my eyes. After ducking to avoid it, I swung my sword. Flames ignite. The flames, burning more brilliantly than ever, covered my entire body, and the surrounding snow slowly began to melt.

Slash—

The troll’s body was cut by the sword and spurted blood. I thought it would regenerate quickly, but my eyes narrowed at the unexpectedly slow regeneration. Perhaps my mana had created such an effect. I step forward. Stepping on fallen leaves, breaking branches. With each step, the snow crunched underfoot. And again, the swinging sword.

White snow, as that snow was stained red with blood.

The sword drew a pure white line.