episode_0059

It was a very large prey.

It might have been the largest beast in this forest.

“It’s a bear.”

Louis muttered softly.

The huge black bear had its head buried in the ground.

For some reason, it looked like the ground was being dug up and turned over.

Louis drew his pistol with trembling hands.

And he aimed at the bear.

‘Don’t run away.’

Catch a bear.

It was a better game than deer.

My hands are shaking. My gun is shaking.

‘I’m going to catch that guy, stuff him, and display him in the castle lobby.’

I hold the bear in my trembling hands, thinking about the glory I felt when I caught it.

Take a deep breath. Stay calm.

Don’t shoot yet.

A black bear won’t die just because you put a lead bullet in its butt.

If you don’t want to deal with a black bear that’s been shot and is angry, you have to aim for the head.

That was the only way to finish it in one go.

Now the black bear was not showing his weakness.

It was just digging and turning over the ground, exposing its huge, furry back.

Louis is ready to burst into bloom.

The moment the bear realized Louis’ presence and turned around, he immediately pulled the trigger, intending to pierce the bastard’s skull.

“Son!”

The Duchess cries out.

He must have been shocked when he saw the black bear.

Because it was an extremely dangerous situation.

‘Now just turn your head.’

The black bear, hearing the Duchess’s cries, finally raises its head from where it had been lying on the ground.

It was just as Louis had hoped.

“Uh.”

But Louis couldn’t pull the trigger rashly.

It was heterogeneous. The movement itself was strange.

A normal wild bear would have quickly turned its head and roared, charged, or stood up on two feet to threaten.

But this bear didn’t do that.

Slowly the bear’s head turns.

“… Horn?”

This subtly calm bear had horns.

A huge black bear with antlers on its head.

I’ve never heard of it before.

The horned bear turns completely around to look at Louis.

The bear’s two eyes were higher than Louis’s, even though it was on all fours.

“Ah, that… .”

Louis slowly lowered his gun. He wasn’t worth killing. He felt like he shouldn’t shoot.

It felt like I was aiming a gun at a statue of a goddess.

A feeling of being disrespectful to something holy and sacred.

however.

“Louis!”

As soon as the Duchess broke through the bushes and appeared in the bright sunlight of the clearing.

“Fuck.”

Louis pulled the trigger he had been aiming at.

I couldn’t let my mother take away my ‘prey’ again.

I didn’t want to appear compromising in front of the giant beast.

I was also confident that I could kill that horned bear with this one blow.

It even crossed my mind that all this talk of divinity and holiness was just a way to cover up my own weaknesses.

In a short period of time, the result of all these judgments was an explosion.

bang-

A tingling recoil shook my right half. My wrists stung. My vision was briefly obscured by thick gunpowder smoke.

It’s walking again.

“Ah. Oh no!”

This time I missed the mark again.

The bullet flew beautifully, grazing the bear’s left horn.

“What the heck…! I can’t even hit something that big!”

Today, Louis’ shooting was not going well. As if by some magic, the bullets he fired just barely missed their target.

The bear with the broken horn tip turns its head. The black bear’s face, which at first glance seemed calm and rational, becomes distorted.

The mouth opens wide and the fearsome teeth flash sharply. Blood vessels appear in the yellow eyes.

Kwaaah——

It was a cry of rage. A horrible, heart-chilling low sound shook Louis’ body.

“Ugh.”

The bear crouched menacingly.

“Son! Be careful!”

He runs forward with his body stretched out like a dragon.

Kwaaah——

A black bear runs towards Louis, screaming in terrible rage and trying to tear his entire body apart.

‘Ah, here it comes.’

Death is coming.

however.

Rather, my mind became calm.

It might have been a comfortable moment because it was the moment before death.

It’s not that I gave up. I think quickly, with a calm head.

Here again Louis had to make a decision.

‘It’s impossible to escape at this speed.’

The horse’s head was already facing forward and it seemed difficult to escape the bear because it had not accelerated.

I had no choice but to fight that bear.

‘You have to choose between a gun or a sword.’

Should I pull out my gun and aim for that defenseless forehead, or should I be lucky with my sword?

It wasn’t that difficult of a problem.

Louis’ specialty, which he was always confident in.

I chose swordsmanship.

Srrrrung—

Louis drew his sword with a graceful movement.

At the same time, a horned black bear leaps.

Covers Louis and Gunma.

A body as gigantic as that is astonishingly massive and rushes towards Louis.

‘If that was a man-to-man fight, that would be a really weak attack.’

It was a reckless attack that exposed all of the bear’s weaknesses. Louis was more calm than ever when facing the bear.

The fear of death awakens Louis’ whole body. His mind becomes sharp.

So he clearly saw what he should aim for.

Like when you grabbed a punk’s shoulder in the red-light district.

“Now!”

Louis swung his beloved sword.

Aim for the bear’s neck.

Kwaaah——

I cut it.

My blood is boiling.

The bear lets out a terrible scream.

It was a strange crying sound, as if several people were singing in unison.

The tip of Louis’ sword pierced the bear’s neck.

At the same time,

A horned bear with a pierced neck swings its forepaws.

“Ugh… !”

A huge foreleg strikes the horse’s neck.

The horse’s neck is bent in a strange way.

A neck bent at an awkward angle, large eyes that lose focus.

It’s instant death.

I felt confident.

The steed that was struck by a blow to the foreleg died instantly.

Kwaaah——

The black bear, which broke the horse’s neck, then tried to strike Louis a second time.

Staggering.

The grass is turned over and the dust is flying.

“Ugh!”

Staggering past Louis—past him.

He just falls to the floor with a thud.

At the same time, the horse Louis is riding also falls over.

“Eww… !”

Louis had no chance to escape from his horse.

In this way, one of Louis’s legs gets trapped under the massive body of the steed.

“Ahh… Ugh… !”

A sharp pain struck. My left leg felt like it was going to fall apart.

“Louis!!”

The Duchess is astonished, dismounts from her horse, and runs towards Louis.

“Mother.”

The woman takes Louis’ hand as he is trampled by the horse.

“Louis, son… This, maybe, what should I do?”

The Duchess fidgets and examines Louis’ body.

Louis looks at the Duchess with a proud expression.

“Mom, I caught a bear! And a huge bear with horns!”

“Are your feet okay? Can you take this out?”

Louis was simply thrilled. The mere fact that he had hunted a bear filled his whole body with energy. Not even the pain of having one foot crushed by his steed could dampen his joy.

“Just hold on for a moment, son.”

The Duchess pushes the huge steed while yelping.

It didn’t move at all.

“Oh my, what should I do?”

The Duchess looks as if she is about to burst into tears.

The hunting competition and the succession plan were all meaningless if Louis was injured. That’s how precious Louis was to the Duchess.

My heart was breaking.

“Why did you do something so reckless, you should have run away right away.”

“If that were the case, I wouldn’t have caught the bear.”

“What does the bear care about you getting hurt like this, huh?”

Tears flow from the Duchess’ large eyes.

‘Ah… Even when my mother cries, she looks beautiful.’

It was refreshing.

It was a problem that wouldn’t be solved if I just kept crying like this.

Louis calmly suggests a solution on behalf of his mentally unstable mother.

“Oh, Mom! How about you go out into the forest and ask for help? I’m fine… !”

“Okay, I’ll quickly go and call for help! Don’t cry until then and wait!”

“Your mother.”

The Duchess keeps wiping her tears with the back of her hand.

He takes the huge deer off his horse, lightens its weight, and then mounts the horse.

The Duchess, drenched in sweat and tears, looked terrible. She was the epitome of insanity. That made her even more beautiful.

‘If only Mother could bring the soldiers like this…’

“Ugh.”

The leg that was crushed by the horse hurt a little, but there was no bleeding.

It was painful that the horse Roland lent me died, but thanks to it, he was able to achieve great things.

‘Bear hunting on your first try… and a bear with horns at that!’

It was a huge success. It was a given that I would join the interception force.

Louis was thrilled to have accomplished something that even his father could not.

A rosy future was drawn.

“Then you should just stay still, okay? Okay? Mom will be back soon.”

“Yes, yes, I understand. Mom, my feet are like this, so there’s nowhere to go.”

The moment the Duchess was about to leave the open space on horseback.

Keruk—

There was a strange sound.

The Duchess stops talking.

“Huh?”

I couldn’t help but doubt my ears.

Once you hear it, you can’t get confused.

There was only one creature in this world that made such an unholy cry.

It was the cry of a terrible creature that insulted the world just by existing.

The Duchess and Louis’ eyes met. They were filled with shock.

“Mother.”

“Ah, son.”

And their gazes turn towards the place where the sound came from.

In the middle of an empty lot.

In the ground where a horned bear had just been rummaging, a hole big enough for a person to fit through was dug.

From there, a green creature pokes its head out.

Kerruruk—

It makes an unholy noise.

“Goblin… !”

“Hey, how did I get here…!”

It was clearly a creation of an evil spirit that should have been beyond the stone wall.

They were beings who shouldn’t be here.

“Keeruk! It’s a girl! Keeruk!”

A sinister smile on his green face, his erect penis poking out as if it were going to pierce his pants.