Chapter 42 - Moonless Night (2)

Death worm.

One of the remnants of a fallen dragon.

A monster that usually burrowed through the earth and only showed its body aboveground when it occasionally came up to breathe.

Unlike their huge and hideous appearance, their main diet was minerals underground or the earth energy that rose from fertile soil.

"Something is wrong! Death worms are not carnivorous by nature!"

But the scene unfolding below was moving in a way completely different from common knowledge.

WHINNY!

KRAAAAGH!

The wild horses scattered in every direction under the death worm's attack.

The pitiful screams the horses let out were swallowed together with sticky blood.

The slick body of the death worm, dyed crimson with blood, looked eerie.

"... Everyone, mount up!"

After watching the situation and making his judgment, Rutiger shouted loudly to the knights.

Whether the situation before his eyes defied common sense or not was not what mattered.

What mattered was that those who had to be in place were in place, and that they did what had to be done.

That was the duty of those who had been given a mission.

"Protect the pilgrims! We must rescue them!"

No sooner had Rutiger finished speaking than the knights moved swiftly, and Vlad quickly climbed onto the cart as well.

"Forward!"

"Advance! Follow Lord Rutiger!"

At Rutiger's command, the knights of Bayezid kicked off from the green hill and began charging down.

Toward the hellish scene below, dyed red with the blood of wild horses.

To save the pilgrims, who were panicking without knowing what to do.

Over the quiet green grassland, the cries of the death worm and the pounding of the knights' hooves rang out in a chaotic mix.

For this moment, which he had not known would ever truly come, Peter had sent his son here.

The arrangements of the Family Head, who had prepared for even the slightest possibility, were shining at this moment like the Bayezid flag held high atop its pole.

"... It's a young one! An individual that hasn't been long born!"

Even while riding at full speed, Dorothea was absorbed in observing the death worm.

She was someone who understood exactly what her role was.

"Its size too, and its skin hasn't hardened yet!"

At Dorothea's report, which sounded almost like a scream, Rutiger turned his head and looked at the death worm.

The death worm, still ceaselessly chewing and swallowing the carcasses of the horses, was smaller than expected, just as she had said, and above all, it had smooth pink skin.

It was a young individual in which the death worm's trait of having a hard outer shell had not yet manifested.

"..."

While Rutiger confirmed the situation as he rode, Vlad was also observing the scene below from atop the endlessly rattling cart.

The only difference from Dorothea was that the boy was looking not at the death worm, but at the herd of wild horses fleeing with screams.

[I can sense the presence of spirits. They are not ordinary horses.]

'Spirits...'

The white snake he had seen in Deirmar.

The being that had sent him its blessing came to Vlad's mind.

[I will lend you my world.]

"All right."

The boy's low reply was swallowed by the noisy creaking of the cart.

"Hoo..."

The boy lowered his posture as if in prayer and closed his right eye.

'...!'

And with his left eye, he opened the World of voices.

WHINNY!

A world of vivid colors.

The World of voices, which seemed to have a hundred more colors than the boy's world, was reflecting the horses.

The herd of wild horses was being eaten, trampled, and brought down.

From the neighing horses, he could see white smoke swirling like mist.

'What is that?'

Glittering white smoke.

But it was so faint that it could not form a shape and scattered away.

For reasons he did not know, Vlad felt sorry for it.

[Look at the black one.]

'...'

Following the voice's advice, Vlad looked at the pitch-black horse that had just met his eyes.

It seemed to be the leader of the herd, running endlessly around the area and drawing the death worm's attention.

But even with its pitiful movements, the death worm did not give it so much as a glance and only lusted after the sweet meat.

Because the scene seemed to overlap with the sight from a certain day, Vlad ended up biting his lip.

'A horn?'

When he shifted his gaze as the voice had said, there was indeed something Vlad could see.

To the other horses, it was only a faint mist, but on that one alone, it existed as a single shape.

[It seems those horses have unicorn blood mixed in.]

A white horn.

In the very center of the all-black creature's forehead, a white horn sat as if floating like the moon.

From the boy's armor as he stared at the faint horn, the scent of lemon from that day wafted.

* * *

'What is that?'

For an instant, something caught Dorothea's eye as she rode.

Something glittering on the young death worm's forehead.

From there, a strange energy that only a mage could sense was flowing out.

The young death worm was reacting to it.

"Lord Rutiger! The death worm is turning its head!"

"The pilgrims! It's looking at the pilgrims!"

"... Damn it!"

A sudden situation.

Only a short time had been given.

Rutiger's black eyes flashed with a sharp light.

"Dorothea! What is the death worm reacting to?"

As the one carrying out the mission and the leader of the group, Rutiger was a man obligated to make the best judgment.

"D-Death worms have no eyes or ears! They only use vibrations in the ground..."

"Devise a way to lure that thing, Dorothea!"

Rutiger quickly split the group of knights in two with a hand gesture, then charged toward the death worm with only a small number of knights.

"You two, get down! There aren't enough horses!"

At the knights' shout, Portly and Vlad quickly gave up their means of transport.

It was an obvious judgment.

For the pilgrims moving in silence, there would be no way to escape this situation without the knights' help.

But the death worm, which had a speed that had even caught the wild horses, would not easily release a target once it had fixed on it.

Rutiger had to solve two problems at once.

KRAAAAGH!

The young death worm, which had been savoring the horses' carcasses, tilted its body toward the pilgrims along with the thing glittering on its forehead.

The fleeing wild horses and the pilgrims in front of them.

Everything the death worm wanted, or that someone wanted, was up ahead.

KRAAAAGH!

With a ferocious roar, the death worm leaped toward the pilgrims.

"Damn it! Why!"

"Run!"

Why would the death worm, which had been devouring the wild horses just moments ago, suddenly show interest in the pilgrims up ahead?

But right now, resolving the situation was more urgent than analyzing the result.

"Draw its attention!"

The knights rushed at the death worm according to Rutiger's instruction.

While the knights mingled with the herd of wild horses and struggled to stop the death worm's advance, Rutiger quietly burned with rage.

Common sense had been overturned, and the situation was flowing in a bizarre direction.

If so, there had to be an artificial problem that had created this situation.

"How dare you, on my father's land..."

Bayezid, the renowned house of the North.

The knight who had fully inherited that blood closed his left eye.

* * *

In the distance, the knights who had reached the group of pilgrims could be seen, but as expected, there did not seem to be enough horses for everyone to move at once.

"This is bad!"

"..."

Having lost their horses and cart, Vlad and Portly were protecting Dorothea while watching the situation from atop the hill.

"Blondie and fatty! I told you to block the wind!"

Dorothea's shrill voice flew at them from right behind them as soon as they moved even a little.

That was only natural, since she was now sitting on the ground and making an inscription that could lure the death worm, just as Rutiger had told her.

"Vibration, vibration, what color was the inscription technique for vibration..."

Small bottles spread out on the ground as if poured there.

They were small bottles filled with things like paint, as if a painter had prepared to paint.

Dorothea moved them this way and that as she prepared her magic.

Every time her quietly murmuring lips trembled, every time her careful fingers touched the bottles, the small bottles lying on the ground sparkled and found their proper colors.

BOOOOM!

'What the hell!'

A wave of scorching heat rushed toward Vlad's face as he had been watching her prepare.

A savage heat felt from far away.

A fiercely condensed flash of flame was burning the air around it together with the death worm.

"That's Lord Rutiger!"

At that intense force that reached all the way here, Portly unconsciously raised one hand high, but Vlad merely stood with his mouth open at the force that seemed as if it would burn even his world away.

It was a world whose level was clearly different from his own.

[Shallow. He wasn't properly prepared.]

But although the young death worm did not yet have a tough outer shell, it withstood the attack with its tenacious durability.

KRAAAAGH!

RUMBLE...

Even after Rutiger's fierce blow, it only let out a single scream and hurriedly dug into the ground.

If there was any achievement, it was that he had at least managed to inflict a small wound because it was a young one.

[... This has become difficult. No matter how outstanding a knight may be, there is nothing he can do against an enemy underground.]

It seemed the single blow Rutiger had just unleashed had not been enough to incapacitate the death worm in one strike.

A brief silence.

And stillness.

In that situation where there was not a single thing moving on this vast plain.

RUMBLE... CRACK.

Suddenly, the ground shook and began to split little by little.

The slowly spreading crack was heading toward.

"Damn it!"

"Follow it!"

The place where the pilgrims were.

And at the same time, the place where the wild horses that had fled were panting in exhaustion.

"Dorothea..."

"What!"

"I think you need to hurry."

Watching the situation from the high hill, Vlad realized that Rutiger's hard fight alone would not resolve this crisis.

"I'm almost done!"

"If you're almost done, then give it to me for now."

Vlad turned his head and looked back.

"I told you to wait!"

There stood Dorothea, dipping her tail in a strange-colored paint and carving an inscription onto a piece of paper.

"... You use your tail?"

"This is the beastfolk's unique method!"

For the boy, who had never seen a mage cast magic before, it was a scene he could only accept as it was.

"Done!"

As if she had finally completed it, Dorothea lifted a piece of paper the size of her palm.

The inscription caught in the sunlight flashed for an instant, then regained its color.

"You just need to give this to Lord Rutiger. To use it, rub the paper against the target or cut it with the target. With something like a sword, for example."

[Too late.]

But the crack made by the death worm was already stretching in a straight line toward the place where the pilgrims were.

In the distance, the movements of the wild horse herd trying to flee and the knights carrying the priests were becoming urgent.

"I think it's too late..."

"Take my horse and go!"

At Dorothea's words, Vlad turned his head and looked at Portly.

"I-I'll... I'll try!"

Dorothea was exhausted from hastily carving the inscription, and Vlad could not ride a horse.

In this situation, the only person who could deliver this paper to Rutiger was Portly.

[Even on horseback, it will be too late. You must not think a death worm underground moves at the same speed as one aboveground.]

"... Even if we go now, I think it'll be too late."

Dorothea had done her best, but the time given to her had been far too short.

So she could not be blamed.

"Then what do we do!"

Dorothea, sitting collapsed on the ground, trembled with blue lips.

"..."

Vlad knew.

There was only one way to get this paper to Rutiger, who was chasing the death worm, in time.

"I'll go."

"You can't ride a horse."

Vlad wet his lips with his tongue and moved his feet.

Toward the exact opposite direction from the one the knights had gone down.

CLACK—CLATTER.

Pebbles kicked by the tip of his foot rolled endlessly down below.

It was not a cliff, but the hill looked terrifyingly steep to descend blindly.

It was a steep hill that could never be descended on horseback.

"There's no other way. It can't be helped."

Even when Vlad had been a pickpocket as a child, he had never once been caught.

He had been naturally quick, but he also knew very well.

"If I go down here, I'll reach them in time."

That the fastest path to a target was a straight line.

Not a single guard had ever caught Vlad when he fled by breaking through paths, climbing over walls, and cutting across shops.

And it would be the same now.

"This is practically a cliff!"

"Put in a good word for me with the knights later."

The blond boy snatched up Dorothea's inscription as if taking it by force.

"I really didn't refuse those peanuts that day on purpose."

No sooner had the words left his mouth than the boy's blond hair swayed toward the dizzying hill.

"Hey!"

Dorothea leaned over the hill to look for Vlad, who had disappeared as if he had dropped out of sight.

"Uh..."

There, she saw the boy running down the steep slope as if he had wings.

"... They said he was born with it."

The best prospect the Bayezid Family was watching and sponsoring.

In the blond boy's hand, the inscription Dorothea had made was shining white.

* * *

[Slowly! Slowly! Put strength into your toes!]

"You're so loud, it's actually making it harder to focus!"

Holding Dorothea's inscription, Vlad was weaving his way down the nearly vertical hill.

Through the movements he had risked his life to learn as a boy who might die tomorrow if he did not eat today.

'I didn't really need to step forward like this.'

To begin with, Rutiger was someone in opposition to Joseph over the position of Family Head.

On top of that, all the knights here were elites who ranked among the best even within the Bayezid Family, so there was no need for him, a mere squire, to go this far.

But Vlad wanted to do this.

First, he wanted to get one over on Rutiger's knights, who looked down on him and Joseph.

Second, it was because of the pitch-black creature that had struggled to protect its herd from the attack of the death worm, which was like a disaster.

'For an animal, it sure knows how to mess with a person's heart.'

Vlad knew very well.

What it felt like when a vast world beyond his power shattered his nest.

The helplessness of that day was like a wound lodged deep inside the boy's soul.

The boy, who hated being nothing, defended his current actions to himself that way as he ran down the hill.

"Ugh!"

Was it because he had let his thoughts wander for a moment?

Because his foot slipped slightly, Vlad slid on the steep slope.

[Curl up!]

"Agh! Agh!"

The boy rolled down the hill with screams.

But even though he was rolling violently over the rough ground and slamming into piles of stones, Vlad was strangely not receiving much of an impact.

If the boy had opened his left eye and looked through the World of voices, he would have known that his armor was now shining white.

The blessing of the white snake was protecting the boy.

"..."

And below the hill, there was someone watching in his place the sparkle the boy could not see.

The pitch-black creature that had panted with ragged breaths as it ran endlessly to save its herd.

In that horse's eyes, the boy was shining white.

A white-shining star.

A single star burning itself white as it fell down the hillside.

In the world of the horse with the pitch-black color, that was how the boy appeared.

A white star was plunging toward the moonless night.