Chapter 15.1

Tilting my head, I pointed to the monsters clustered around some kind of center and asked, “That’s the nucleus, right?”

“Yes.”

Noah, who had been looking at the same spot as I was, nodded brightly.

Then this just might be a good thing. After all, if you get rid of the nucleus, then the rest of the monsters would disappear on their own.

But my brightened face soon crumpled.

There was a rotten smell coming from somewhere. Like the smell of a rotting corpse….

“Gurk.”

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah…”

Pinching my nose, I did my best to look composed.

Wait, corpse?

Now that I thought about it, my dad had begun telling me not to go to Grania Forest since I was about ten.

Why was that again? Right, the whole forest had become a suicide spot after a man was found hanging from a tree. It looked like he had committed suicide there.

In the first place, Grania Forest was infamous for being where people did not often visit unless they were hunters by trade. It was to the extent that some people would deliberately avoid it.

“Though monsters can form artificially through magical means, they say they can also arise naturally under the influence of negative energy.”

Like from an old abandoned temple, for instance, or a haunted house.

Recalling what was in the textbook for the next semester, I said, “Come to think of it, this is actually a suicide spot.”

As I said so, what seemed like apprehension brushed behind my back.

I shrank into myself, trying not to look towards the monsters and their smell of corpses.

Maybe because Noah knew what I was afraid of, he cast a spell in that instant.

“I’ve used stealth magic for now. They can’t see us, so we should be fine.”

What the – using such high-level magic so easily.

I was astonished at how Noah acted like nothing was out of ordinary when I momentarily stiffened.

Right in front of my nose was a firm chest. A number of buttons must have become loosened while we were moving, for I could glimpse the defined breastbone, the feast of flesh from between the white collars.

Uhhh, um. Wow.

Feeling heat rise in my face, I glanced towards the monsters for no reason.

The monsters looked like someone had randomly smushed a brush dipped in black paint onto paper. The scene in which they situated themselves even looked like an abstract painting at times. They were similar to the monster I’d seen before but still a little different.

Privately scared, I swallowed thickly.

“Don’t you think it’ll be best if we called Sir Linus and Sir Aiden over first?”

“Right.”

Noah immediately drew a magic circle on the floor. The skillfully drawn magic circle flashed with gold.

Feeling like Noah was the only one using all kinds of magic when I’d come along to help, I felt a bit embarrassed.

“It will probably take some time. So…”

“N-Noah!”

Suppressing a hiccup, I called out to Noah.

The biggest of the monsters was looking around sharply and approaching our way.

Its tentacles flew dizzyingly in the air, making hissing sounds as it came nearer.

If things went on like this, then it wouldn’t matter whether it could see us or not. We were going to be crushed to death by its tentacles!

I gulped, thinking of magical runes that I could possibly use right this instant. I was planning to use them right away if necessary.

“I’ll fight it. Can you protect the magic circle here?” Noah asked, slowly getting up with his gaze fixed on the monster.

With a tense expression, I nodded.

“Yes, please be careful.”

As soon as Noah took a few steps, the monster’s attack began.

After glancing at him a couple times worriedly, I breathed out a little sigh.

Noah would be fine.

“Hah.”

I cast a shield around the yet-inactivated magical runes and stood next to it. Still not convinced, I was only able to relax after I put a double, triple protective shield over it.

Standing next to it, I couldn’t help but express my admiration as I watched Noah fight.

“Wow…”

Cutting, tearing, slicing, and exploding—all his motions were in perfect harmony. From the operation of the magic to his control over its intensity, everything was flawlessly perfect. Golden lights flashed everywhere.

As a fellow magician, his talent was practically awe-inspiring.

I’d heard that he learned magic theory perfectly, but his practical skills were just as perfect. Huh.

I stared hard at the magical runes that were just as detailed as he was.

That’s right, my mission here was to protect these magical runes. With Noah over there, the stealth magic must have been broken long ago.

I glanced at the summoning magic circle after blasting flame magic at a few of the small approaching monsters.

It was still only vibrating in my hands, showing no signs of activating.

“Hmm.”

After watching Noah fight a little more, I hurled a magical rune towards an unusually large rock protruding from the ceiling of the cave.

The rune boomeranged back to me after it broke the boulder.

A few monsters were crushed beneath the shattered pieces of the rock, screeching before they combusted into smoke.

I grinned and rubbed my palms together.

“Success.”

I was guarding the runes while occasionally firing support to Noah when a relatively large-scale monster came my way.

Our eyes met. I say this again, it was disgusting. Goosebumps ran down my back, but I suppressed the feeling.

If I made it obvious that I found it disgusting, it might provoke the monster if it had any intelligence.

A monster of that size seemed like it would be a bit difficult for me. But I was too worried about the magic circle to break the shield, and I couldn’t draw Noah’s attention my way, since he was busy fighting off the monsters himself.

What else was there for me to do but try?

In the taut atmosphere filled with apprehension, I swallowed and drew the runes for the attack I was most confident in.