Chapter 28

Chapter 28

The lights of the Keepers were getting closer and closer. The hunting dogs sticking their noses to the floor were closing on them.

‘Come out.’

Simon took out a skeleton from the subspace. He gave it an order to stop and made it lie down on the grass.

“Cami, this way.”

Simon grabbed Camibarez’ trembling wrist and lowered his posture. After the lantern light passed them once, he ran, taking her towards a huge rock behind a tree.

He then took out a new skeleton from the subspace and made it lie down. Currently, Simon was able to control up to two skeletons.

‘I need to make use of everything I can.’

Simon picked up the stones on the floor and placed them into the subspace. He glanced around diligently to put as much situational information in his head as possible.

Information such as how many Keepers there were, how many of them were carrying lanterns, the weapon used, the breed of the hunting dog, the habits, the terrain features, the direction of the wind, the sound of the river flowing.

The dogs were still searching for now as Simon was upwind, but they never knew when or how the direction of the wind would change.

Now was the time to decide.

‘Now!’

Simon opened his eyes. The skeleton, lying under the tree, stood up and started running.

“That way!”

The Keepers responded immediately and the hunting dogs barked loudly, following the skeleton.

“Only half chase! The other half, keep moving forward!”

“The other dogs are still sniffing!”

As expected of a hunting expert, they didn’t fall for the trick the first time. This time, Simon made the skeleton crouching on the rock run.

“That’s the real one!”

“Get him!”

The Keepers and hunters rushed to the side.

“Cami, run!”

That was the time. Simon and Camibarez, hiding behind the rock, turned their backs and ran.

‘We couldn’t completely get them off our trail. There are some on us!’

Simon looked back while running away. Some of the Keepers were chasing after them.

“Hang in there, Cami!”

“Yes!”

Woof! Woof!

The hunting dogs who caught the smell approached through the grass. No matter how fast a person was, they couldn’t run faster than a dog.

“Cami! Spray blood magic in the direction the dogs are coming from. Anything will do!”

“Got it!”

Camibarez cast dark magic while running. Fresh blood gushed out of the small magic circle that bloomed on the tip of her index finger.

She twisted her waist and swung her arms back. Blood mixed with jet-black flew along with the wind and wet the grass.

Woof! Woof woof woof!

Grrrrrrr!

The smell of vampire blood was strong enough to be used as a material for high-end perfumes.

The dogs were excited by the strong scent of blood and started raging through the grass. During this time, Simon and Camibarez increased their speed and widened the distance.

Thump! Thump!

His heart raced like crazy because of the nervousness. He was a bit worried about Camibarez’s stamina, but she too was running as fast as she could and followed Simon.

“Over there!”

The lantern’s light flashed over Simon and Camibarez’ backs once.

At the same time, the sound of the bowstring being pulled taut was heard.

Thunk!

Thud!

As the arrows flew out of nowhere and hit the ground, Camibarez let out a short scream.

“Th-They really shot us! What should we do?”

“It’s fine.”

Replied Simon calmly.

They saw our uniforms. There’s no way the servants would hurt Kizen students.”

As Simon said, the arrows were being shot far from the direction the two were running. It was prominent that they were firing a warning shot.

“Those bastards……!”

“Stop! I told you to stop!”

Would you stop if it were you? Simon grinned and pulled the imaginary lever.

Pow!

A subspace opened from the floor, and the stones placed in earlier were poured out with maximum power. It was just a stone, but the Keepers running stopped, worried that it was dark magic.

“Cami! This way!”

“Yes!”

Thanks to Simon’s wits, they earned a little more time.

It seems that they ran haphazardly without any sense of direction, but in fact, Simon followed the sound of water. They finally reached the valley.

‘Oh no.’

But of all the places, a cliff was there. A valley was flowing with a rippling sound below the distant cliff and the distance to the other side of the cliff was quite long.

“Cami, do you remember that leaping technique you learned in Combat Magic? Can you use it?”

With a pale face, she screwed her eyes shut and shook her head.

She was one of two people who couldn’t jump over the cliff in the Combat Magic class.

Woof! Woof!

But there was no time to hesitate. Even now, the barking of dogs and the lights of the lanterns was getting closer and closer.

“Simon, I’m fine.”

Camibarez made a bitter smile and pushed Simon’s chest away.

“Please go ahead. I won’t spill anything about you, Simon, even if I get cau—”

“Please excuse me.”

Simon, who approached like lightning and picked her up, turned before running through the grass.

‘The feeling of stepping on the jet-black!!’

Pooooooooow!

Black smoke exploded from his tip of feet, and Simon flew through the sky.

* * *

Translator – Ramen

Proofreader – Artethrax

* * *

A cliff below, a large rising full moon above.

The cold headwind and the thrill of having nothing under your two legs.

Feeling a perfect sensation for a moment, Simon’s body descended.

Sliiiiide!

He landed on the opposite side of the hill with a short gap, scratching the floor.

Simon quickly ran down the ramp of the hill and put Camibarez down. Both of them pressed their bodies as close as possible to the floor.

“Where are they?”

“They disappeared!”

A lantern light could be seen moving back and forth above their heads. The light that had been scanning the surroundings thoroughly for a few minutes soon disappeared.

“Let’s try going that way.”

“Move! They probably didn’t run that far!”

Woof! Woof! Woof!

The lights and the barking of the dogs went farther away, and soon, the presence of people disappeared completely. Simon could finally let out a sigh of relief.

“Phewww…… Cami, Are you alright?”

Somehow, Camibarez had a completely blank face. Then, when she met her eyes with Simon, tears began to well up in her eyes.

“What’s wrong? Are you hurt anywhere……?”

“I thought I really was going to be caught. Thank you. Thank you for saving me!”

Soon, she burst out crying. Simon patted her on the shoulder without saying anything.

‘She said she’s fine being caught even though she’s this afraid?’

He could see a little bit of what kind of person she was.

Camibarez calmed down after some time. The two got up and brushed off the dirt from their uniforms.

“Let’s return. We’ll have to walk around a bit to avoid the Keepers. Is that okay?”

“Yeah.”

The two walked back into the dark forest.

They decided not to turn on the lantern out of worry of being caught by monsters or Keepers.

At least the moon in the sky was bright.

About an hour had passed since they walked through the forest like that.

‘……And where the hell are we?’

As they walked frantically, it seemed that they had gone deeper into the forest than they had expected.

The surrounding area was so spooky that it made him wonder if there was something like this in the forest. The trees that grew taller covered the night sky with their dense leaves, and eyes that could’ve been beast or monster kept on appearing and disappearing.

Their shoulders twitched at the frightening cries and their nerves were on edge.

As if it would’ve been better to just go to the Keepers, there was something in the midnight forest that stimulated the primordial fear of humans.

Camibarez, a vampire, was also so frightened that she was looking around while slightly holding onto Simon’s sleeve.

‘I’m sure I have the map in my head, but even I don’t know where this place is.’

‘Have I been possessed by a ghost?’

No matter how much they walked, it felt as if they were going in circles.

‘We’re exhausted and we’re getting colder and colder. What should I do?’

“……Simon.”

Said Camibarez, face pale.

“Can’t you hear something?”

“Screams of an owl?”

“No.”

She leaned closer to Simon and spoke in a voice drenched in fear.

“A sound of… a person……”

Simon closed his mouth and focused his hearing.

Certainly.

It was vague, but audible.

It was unclear if it was just a wild beast, a monster, or a human, but an indistinguishable voice could be heard repeatedly.

“Let’s try going.”

He heard that there were people who lived in the forest of Roke Island. If it was a person, they might be able to seek help. The two nodded and moved forward in search of that voice.

“#$#@%@^@.”

As he walked, he concentrated on his ears. Little, little by little, the voice could be made out.

“@$%@^ pity us.”

“$i+ remove the fat, @%#$^ almighty @$@% mother.”

The voice was cold, monotonous, and dry.

“$++@^ We worship you, oh holy @%@$$^.”

What kind of language was this?

When he was focusing on the voice while frowning…

“……Simon.”

Simon was surprised.

Camibarez had tears streaming down her face, drenched in fear, and still, the corners of her mouth were trembling while raised, which made her appearance a bit eerie.

“What’s wrong, Cami?”

“……Run.”

“#$^$#*# Glory to none other than mother @#!@#$^”

“……We need to run.”

“Run? What does that mean all of a sudden?”

“Uuh. Agh. Ahh. Aghhhhu……!”

She began to have seizures and floundered around. Simon grabbed her and ran to the opposite side of where the voice could be heard.

But the voice just kept getting closer.

“@#$@# have mercy. Forgive the sins of the world #@$%@#.”

Simon, who was frantically walking through the bushes, finally arrived at the source of the voice.

He could see an altar.

Someone in a long gray robe was on the ground.

Their arms were on the ground, palms facing the sky.

Above the altar, unidentified objects and the internal organs of a beast were hung, and below it, a beast writhing with a dagger stabbed in its chest was offered as a sacrifice. All around it was colored red by the dripping blood.

And, in the center of the altar, there was something big lying there.

Simon knew what it was, but he couldn’t believe it. Something that should never be on Roke Island.

Something that should never be in Kizen.

A cross.

It was a cross. Why was a cross here?

A naked woman was hung on the cross in a grotesque figure, thorn vines covering her body.

The one who was prostrating under the altar lifted their upper body, recited the prayer, bowed down their body to the floor again, and raised their palms to the sky.

Simon felt his blood all over his body run cold.

‘……A priest!’

A priest in Kizen.

It was kneeling, bowing, and reciting prayers in the territory of Kizen.

‘We need to run.’

They saw things they shouldn’t have.

It’d be over if they got caught.

Seeing this scene, Camibarez couldn’t move out of sheer terror. Fortunately, she covered her mouth with both hands, so the sound didn’t leak.

At that moment, when Simon wrapped his arms around her shoulders and was about to return…

Rustle.

There was a sound as the grass on the ground was trampled on. The movement of the praying priest came to a halt.

“……”

“……”

While feeling his throat going dry, Simon slowly turned his head to look back.

The priest was staring at Simon’s side while standing.

The light in their eyes seemed to gleam in the darkness formed from their robe.

Simon placed strength in his legs.

“Run!”