My Villains Episode 206
45. Into the Fog (6)
After I accepted Heila’s offer, my party and the mercenaries prepared to move right away.
On the other hand, the merchants from the west and the men from Oressa’s tavern decided to stay here.
As they were also residents of Middle World, they were not ignorant of fighting, but compared to the skilled mercenaries, they were no different from civilians. It was madness to lead such people on a journey that would be fraught with danger.
For some reason, the fog didn’t rise inside the half-collapsed Oressa Tavern, so they planned to wait here until the fog cleared or we returned.
The problem was the charcoal maker’s family.
They also don’t have combat power, so I was thinking of leaving them at the Oressa Bar with the others…
“No!”
The one who shouted that was Alena, the daughter of the charcoal maker, who had been asleep for the past two days.
The demon-possessed girl shook off her mother’s hand and ran to me, clinging to me as if pleading.
“You cannot leave me.”
“…Alena?”
“Blackwood, you must join us.”
With a wry smile, I removed Alena and sat down in front of her.
“When are you clamoring for cursed souls, and now you’re Blackwood again?”
“I can see. A faint trace of sleep within you. I will wake you up.”
“…would it wake you up?”
“yes. You have to trust me, Blackwood.”
The eyes of the mercenaries gathered at the girl who suddenly poured out incomprehensible words. What was contained there was usually a sense of caution or displeasure.
what a natural thing
The mercenaries regard Alena as an ominous child because of the chaos at the Oressa Tavern. Some even said that the vampires appeared because of Alena.
Who is it?
“You disrespectful bitch-!”
It was our faithful crossbow, Gidon. He shouted, holding holy water in one hand and a dagger in the other.
“Where are you talking nonsense! If you don’t shut up right away, I’ll gouge out your eyeballs!”
…No matter how reluctant you are, that’s what you say to a 12-year-old.
When I narrowed my eyebrows and winked, the veteran conductor and chubby Esson held back the money.
“You idiots, let go! Isn’t that bitch trying to seduce Nari!”
Gidon foamed at the mouth and went mad, but Alena didn’t even look at him. The girl’s earnest gaze was always fixed on me.
“…Uh Alena?”
I said, scratching my eyebrows.
“Now we have to go to a very dangerous place? So you’re here with your parents”
“No. I can’t.”
Alena shook her head with a determined face.
“I won’t let you go through the ordeal alone. I hate it anymore.”
“…I think following you will be a bigger ordeal?”
“no.”
Then a gust of wind blew from somewhere.
Whoa –
I have a strange feeling….
“Sir—”
Ellen, who was standing next to her, raised her head startled and slowly looked around. Utequai, who was carrying a large backpack, also said “um” and narrowed his brows.
I, who had been squatting down and making eye contact with Alena, slowly got up in an unusual atmosphere. Then, he put his hand on Hrunting and asked Ellen.
“what’s the matter? Can you feel something?”
Ellen pursed her lips for a moment before answering.
“It smells… the smell of water.”
“Smell the water?”
At the word smell, I reflexively looked back at the bundle.
w……2”
The guy who was watching Alena with sharp eyes looked at me and tilted his head.
“Mungchi, don’t you smell something?”
“Eh, no, I don’t. It’s just straight…”
Judging from the bewildered expression, it seems that he doesn’t really feel anything.
At the conversation between me and Mungchi, Ellen shook her head in frustration.
“No, it’s not like that.”
“Isn’t it like that?”
“I don’t know. But by the way, somehow it feels familiar-”
Whoa!
The wind got a little stronger.
“Go to the castle.”
It was Alena’s voice. The girl was looking up at me with the same face as before.
“There is our aspiration.”
Winds gathered from all directions swirled around Alena. The strange
wind suddenly blew westward and pushed away the fog that had covered it.
“Uh huh—?”
“Look over there!”
Some mercenaries let out a shrill voice. It was because even after Ellen made such a fuss, the fog that had quickly filled up again was pushed away by a strange wind and stopped.
It was as if a huge tunnel had been dug through the fog…
“This.”
I instinctively realized
That this mysterious tunnel will lead us to Raven’s Cliff.
I turned to Alena with my mouth half-open. The girl was still looking at me, but somehow her focus was a bit off.
“Blackwood, we have to come together.”
After those words, Alena’s body leaned forward.
“Oh,”
I quickly reached out and picked up the girl right before she collapsed on the floor. Alena was breathing heavily, as if in a deep sleep.
what else is this
I was looking down at the dumb girl, but Ellen approached from behind and opened her mouth.
“I think I know what it is.”
“What do you think you know?”
“Just the wind. It felt familiar.”
Utequai, who had come to the side and looked at the sleeping Alena, nodded.
“me too. I also remember Phoenix.”
“….Me too?”
“right. Remember the rift Karamek opened.”
“crack? ah.”
It was then that I remembered what I had witnessed about three months ago.
A rift in the dimension opened by Akanku Karamek.
A beautiful landscape where the sea ripples on the ceiling and the sky spreads out on the floor. In that bizarre indigo world, he smelled the same water smell as now.
“The spirit realm. It is the magic of the spirit realm.”
“that’s right. This child is not inhabited by demons or ghosts.”
Ellen looked down at Alena with shining eyes.
“It’s a spirit. A very powerful spirit.”
As I and Ellen Utequai exchanged glances, a couple of charcoal-burners approached cautiously.
“Is that Nari?”
After organizing my thoughts for a while, I looked back at the couple.
“As you might have guessed, Alena seems to have been caught up in some strange fate.”
The charcoal maker’s wife opened her mouth with a face almost crying.
“What can we do?”
“……that is.”
As I scratched my eyebrows in embarrassment, Utequai took over.
“The spirit dwelling in Alena wants you to go to the castle. If you fulfill your desire there, Alena will find freedom.”
“Oh Lord.”
The woman muttered, her complexion pale, and the charlatan hugged her tightly.
“O uh”
On top of the couple’s joined hands, Utequai placed a hand the size of a pot lid. And he reassured the couple with a heavy pat.
“You have nothing to worry about. We will protect Alena.”
“Thank you, Mr. Hatanka.”
While the charcoal burner lowered her head, his wife felt something strange and asked Ute Quai.
“Wait, what do you mean? Don’t we have anything to worry about?” At the sound of her trembling voice, Utequai narrowed his eyes slightly.
“You guys wait here.”
“…yes? No, what does that mean?”
“We are only 20 people. Keep one easy. Three is difficult.”
“So you’re saying you’re only going to take Alena with you?”
Utequai nodded heavily. The charcoal burner and the couple’s faces collapsed.
It was not difficult for the charcoal maker to convince the couple.
I wonder if it would be normal parents if they willingly entrusted their daughters to people they had only met for less than a week.
I understood the feelings of the couple a thousand times, so I and Utequai continued to persuade with the best possible words. In the end, even Ellen, who was worse off, added her words.
“Your daughter is a very powerful spirit. It must be.”
“A spirit?”
“okay. Can a normal kid handle something like that? It won’t be long before your body will burst.”
As the couple’s faces turned white, Ellen crossed her arms and continued.
“So we have to go to the castle as soon as possible. Either to clear this fog or to drive out the spirit that dwells in the child.”
“Oh dear…
The couple bowed their heads at the resolute words of the renowned wizard. A large hand was placed on their shoulders.
“I am Utequa, the great warrior of Rikuwa.”
Utequai continued, looking down at the charlotte couple in turn.
“Protect Alena. in my name.”
Perhaps feeling something solid in those words, the charcoal-burning couple eventually quietly withdrew.
A day has passed since the party departed from the Oressa Tavern.
The tunnel Alena made was very wide. At first glance, the width seemed to exceed 5 to 6 meters, and the height also seemed similar.
The fog pushed away by a strange wind formed the walls and ceiling, much denser than before. It felt like walking through an aquarium or an undersea tunnel filled with white smoke.
When I looked back after enjoying the strange feeling, I could see the fog rising in the distance.
It meant that the retreat was blocked, so the mercenaries were naturally anxious. However, there are always optimistic people everywhere.
“What are you all so afraid of?”
said chubby Esson, munching on jerky.
“Anyway, all I can do behind the scenes is hit and run.”
“…but aren’t you anxious?”
At the words of the freckled Mira, Esson shrugged.
“I was anxious when I was trapped in the fog. The young ones who were next to me just a moment ago suddenly disappeared. But isn’t it now?”
As Esson said, no one had disappeared into the fog the past day.
“Maybe it’s because of this aisle.”
The pigtailed Esanna cast her gaze slightly forward.
“A girl with a spirit. It sounds like something out of a bard’s song.”
Nearby mercenaries followed Esanna’s gaze and turned their heads. Their eyes met Utequai and Alena on his shoulder.
Alena, who fell asleep right after making the passage, regained consciousness within half a day. Not as a queer girl who puts on a solitaire, but as the daughter of an ordinary charcoal maker.
When her parents were nowhere to be seen, Alena cried as if she would burst into tears any second. At that moment of crisis, it was none other than Utequai, the great warrior of the grasslands.
“Do you know ‘Suobi Tarandus’?”
“…what is that?”
“It is a monster that resembles a deer. It has huge horns that look like palms.”
“Your horns look like palms?”
“right. like this.”
Utequai bent his right hand at Alena on her shoulder.
“It had two such large horns. It is very black and can be seen from a distance.”
“Is it black?”
“Suobi Tarandus lives in a snowy meadow. It looks good in black.”
Utequai was a good storyteller.
He had a lot of experience, so the story was not dry, and he continued to speak in an easy-to-understand manner even in his poor Milanese.
“Your voice is as big as your body. If you cry once, the whole meadow will cry.”
“I think it’s scary.”
“Wrong.”
“Wrong?”
“Crying is fun. It’s not scary.”
“How are you crying?”
Utequai groaned, cleared his throat,
and made a grotesque
“Mooooong-” .
Alena was startled and burst into laughter, and the mercenaries who were examining the two met each other’s eyes with strange expressions.
Ou Tequai, who has all sorts of majestic nicknames such as ‘Red Bear,’ ‘Slammer,’ and ‘Thunder Swallowed Giant,’ seems strange to be skillfully taking care of a child.
“Puhaha, where is the monster that cries like that!”
“there is. Suobi Tarandus.”
“lie!”
“Warriors do not know lies.”
When Utequai mooed again, Alena grabbed her stomach and laughed. The giant berserker also chuckled along with the girl.
…under. Is that the inner workings of a man with three children?
I smiled and took my eyes off Utequai and Alena, then looked around the group.
“Huh”
Everyone doesn’t look bad. What was this, it was obvious.
Thanks to the passage Alena opened, I was freed from the effects of the fog, and for unknown reasons, there was no monster attack at all. It is natural to feel anxious and nervous.
Archer Cole and veteran Confearer looked at the mercenaries chatting and made disapproving faces, but I didn’t really care. I’ve been through a lot, but it’s better to talk a little bit than to have my mental breakdown due to tension.
And it’s a four-week boundary because our human radar is doing a good job.
“how is it? Is there anything wrong?”
“No.”
Mungchi spat out the words clearly and smiled.
“Moongchi, don’t you laugh like a binggu?” “Eh—”
“What is ‘eh-‘? Have a nice smile.”
At my words of laughter, Munchhi pouted his lower lip and said, “Wow.”
“……Isn’t it pretty?”
“uh?”
“Isn’t my smile pretty?”
After saying that, Moongchi lowered his gaze and touched the hem of the cape.
I’ll be thrilled with …
Without realizing it, I reached out and grabbed both of his cheeks.
“Oop-”
“Wouldn’t it be pretty? huh? Wouldn’t it be pretty?”
As he shook his soft cheeks, Mungchi laughed like an idiot, saying “heh hee” instead of showing signs of dislike.
For a while, he clung to me and secretly hugged me.
“Uh-”
To be honest, I was a little embarrassed.
Because of her childish face and memories of being a baby boar, I sometimes forget her, but she is a grown-up girl. It would be strange if a guy like that didn’t panic when he got stuck like this.
But for me, it was a bit ambiguous, and it was funny to show off your face or show off your face in surprise at the fact that you had hugged him once.
In the end, I stroked the back of the head without saying anything. Then, he buried his face in my chest and
rubbed his forehead with a low voice, saying, ‘Geuuuuu’.
“…uh”
I was about to say something at the little by little bolder skinship, but Mungchi shook his shoulders.
“Eh”
The guy seemed to have come to his senses just then, untied his hands from my waist and took a quick backward step. Then, with his face dyed red, he began to speak gibberish.
“I don’t know about Wobang. It’s Jeseong Hammi-”
I shrugged my shoulders with a calm face as I saw him flustered in embarrassment.
“What are you sorry about?” It was around the time that
I
pinched the nose of the mungchi who was at a loss for what to do with a grin.
…Somehow the back of my head is sore.
I slowly turned my head and found Ellen radiating a chilly aura as if she were wearing cold armor.
…It’s an unexpected crisis situation.
