Chapter 99 - Don't Mess with Moles Carelessly (1)

Got looked at the hole that had suddenly appeared and could not help letting out a hollow voice.

"What the hell is this..."

He truly had not expected it at all.

He had never imagined that an ordinary-looking mole would create a situation like this.

The idea of luring it out with barley had been good, and Vlad's judgment in darting out like lightning to snatch up the mole had been good as well.

But he had truly never imagined that the ground would cave in the instant Vlad grabbed the mole.

"... Was I not supposed to catch it?"

Vlad had been dragged into the pitch-black darkness as if something had snatched him away.

And just like that, Vlad vanished before Got's eyes, leaving behind only a single short scream.

"Boss! You okay!"

Only then coming back to his senses, Got shouted loudly toward the hole Vlad had been sucked into, but all that came back was the empty sound of the wind.

Left alone with Noir beneath the black night, Got could only panic, at a loss for what to do.

* * *

"Ugh..."

As soon as the seemingly endless fall came to an end, Vlad drew his sword and glared all around.

"Where the hell is this?"

Since the ground had collapsed and pulled him in, he knew this had to be underground.

"I'm asking where the hell this is, you bastard!"

SQUEEEEAK!

Vlad grabbed the mole and shook it as if taking out his anger, but the thing wriggling in his hand was hardly going to answer in human speech.

It was surely the root cause of this whole situation, but the reason he still could not treat it carelessly was probably because it was still glowing even in the darkness.

"If only you weren't some damn spirit-like thing."

Though Vlad grumbled with his mouth, his movements were quick as he raised his aura and tried to adapt his eyes to the pitch-black darkness.

His experience in Soara, where he had been active more at night than by day, was helping him at times like this.

SQUEAK?

"Shut up."

The mole seemed startled when it felt Vlad's aura and let out a sound, but all it received in return was a cold reply.

Unlike Vlad's cold reply, however, the mole was feeling no small amount of relief.

Because the moment the aura flowed, it sensed the blessings of spirits from his armor and amber.

"Nothing in this world is easy."

After securing his vision to some extent through his aura, the first thing Vlad did was check the hole he had tumbled down through, but no matter how he looked, climbing back up that way seemed hopeless.

'Hmm.'

The next thing he did was examine where he was standing now.

His vision was not perfectly secured, but by using even the sensations at the tips of his fingers and toes, Vlad realized he was standing in some kind of passage.

A passage large enough that even he, a human, could stand in it if he bent his waist just a little.

It was strangely wide for something made by tiny-bodied moles.

'First, I need to get out.'

In any case, the thing wriggling in his hand right now had gone outside and stolen barley, so there had to be a way for him to leave as well.

Vlad wet the tip of his finger with saliva and checked to see if any air was flowing.

"There is."

There was a faint wind he could feel.

Whether small or large, it was proof that there was definitely a hole leading outside.

"If I can't get out of here by today, you're tomorrow's breakfast."

SQUEEEEEAK...

After threatening the mole just in case, Vlad began walking in the direction he had found.

Vlad's blue eyes, glowing even in the darkness, began to find the path.

* * *

"What am I supposed to do about this..."

After shouting toward the hole until his throat nearly burst, Got realized this was no longer something he could solve on his own.

Whether they had to dig out the hole before him or find another path, he would need more people first.

SNORT!

"Huh?"

Just as he hurriedly grabbed the reins and was about to go down to the village, Got realized he was instead being pulled along by Noir's movements.

"Where are you going? Hey, where are you going?"

Noir, who had been silently looking down into the hole Vlad had fallen into, began stepping not toward the village but into the dark forest, as if saying it was this way.

It was as though he knew where Vlad was.

"... This is driving me crazy."

Got was flustered because Noir would not move as he wanted, but he at least knew this was not the kind of creature to act this way for no reason.

After all, he knew very well that this was a horse even barbarians considered sacred, and that sometimes it looked smarter than a person.

"Fine. Let's go."

The voice was not the only thing connected to Vlad's world.

Noir, too, had once shared a world through the boundary that touched it, and so he could sense Vlad moving underground.

At times, animals were sharper to react than people.

"... But they said there was a strange sound."

As Got entered the dark forest, one story the villagers had told suddenly came to mind.

On the day the girl disappeared, a few villagers said they had heard a bizarre cry coming from the forest.

They said it was a sound they had never heard before, neither human nor beast, yet it had made their hair stand on end.

* * *

"... This feels like wood."

Walking through the darkness with the glowing mole in his hand, Vlad realized the floor he was walking on was not dirt.

Since he had clearly been sucked underground, what he was stepping on should have been a dirt floor.

But what now filled the floor was not soft earth, but something that felt like hard tree roots.

Like tree roots that had dried out completely.

'I'll know once I get out.'

He was alone, making his way through a narrow, dark tunnel, but Vlad did not lose his composure.

It was partly because of his bold nature, but also because the situation was still better than when he had crawled through rat holes in Soara.

And the fact that the wind was gradually growing closer was enough to give Vlad a small bit of hope.

SQUEAK! SQUEAK.

The closer the wind grew and the fresher the air became, the more a smile formed on Vlad's face, but the glowing mole he held only thrashed harder.

"What the hell are you unhappy about?"

SQUEEEEAK!

It seemed to be saying something while spreading both arms wide, but their innate species were different to begin with, so there was no way their words would get through.

Maybe if the voice were here now, it might at least have translated for him.

"Let's get out first."

Problems had to be solved one at a time.

Whether the mole thrashed or not, the first problem he had to prioritize was getting out of this place.

Unless he wanted to spend his whole life wandering underground tunnels, that was.

'Hmm?'

Just as he began to feel certain he was gradually heading outside, a strange sound reached Vlad's ears.

THUNK! THUNK!

It sounded as though something were striking hard against something else.

Listening to the unidentified sound, Vlad quietly gauged its direction and distance.

Judging by the way it echoed, it seemed to be coming from outside, not from the tunnel he was in.

"Quiet."

Squeak.

The glowing mole grew obedient on its own even before Vlad's words had fully fallen.

Vlad quickly stuffed the mole into a pocket inside his armor, then held his sword in both hands and began carefully moving forward.

THUNK! THUNK!

The farther he advanced, the louder the sound grew, until he could even feel the vibration through the tree roots beneath his feet.

Judging by how even clumps of earth from the ceiling were breaking loose and falling, though he could not be sure, it seemed something was being struck down with terrifying force.

'I see it.'

After wandering through the unknown sound and vibration, Vlad finally found a small shaft of moonlight shining down in the middle of the passage.

When he approached it, the ceiling there was open wide enough for one person to pass through, and tonight's moon was shining through it.

'Good.'

Now that he had found a definite path, there was no reason to hesitate.

Vlad put away his sword, carefully leaped up, and began crawling toward the moonlight.

The glowing mole also seemed to have fully grasped the situation at least for now, because it only curled up inside Vlad's clothes.

THUNK!

As Vlad crawled upward, digging his fingers into the crumbling clods of earth in the ceiling, he held his breath as the sound of something cutting through the air grew clearer the higher he climbed.

He had no idea what it was, but it seemed he would need to steel himself somewhat if he wanted to get out of here.

'There really isn't a single easy thing. Not one.'

But even if he regretted it now, there was nothing he could do.

Because even if he had known this would happen, he would still have reached out toward the mole.

Having steeled himself, Vlad took a deep breath and put strength into the tips of his fingers.

'Hup!'

And so, with firm resolve, he poked his head out toward the outside.

With only his head sticking out, Vlad looked just like the mole he had captured.

Yet however comical he looked, the judgment itself had been excellent.

'... What the hell is that?'

The sight beneath the moonlight was beautiful enough.

A mass of moss spread wide like grass on a blue plain.

And in the middle of that mass stood a single tree with its head raised.

Like the Heinal tree that had stood atop the hill, like the maple tree he had seen in Alicia's amber, it was an oak that looked extraordinary at a glance.

THUNK!

GRAAAAAH!

And before that oak was a being swinging an axe with savage ferocity.

It stood on two feet, but it was too large to be called human, and the monster was screaming endlessly as it hacked at the oak with the axe in its hands.

The mole had not been curled up quietly.

It had been trembling inside Vlad's clothes.

Because it had known that the unidentified monster before him was here.

'Damn it...'

Having grasped the situation, Vlad quickly lowered his head and began thinking about what to do.

The most important thing would be identifying friend and foe.

He did not know why the unidentified monster was hacking at the tree, but if it had nothing to do with him, there was no need to deal with it.

"..."

Vlad poked his head out once more, and this time, he closed his left eye and looked at the tree and the monster through his world.

There, he saw the oak screaming and the monster that seemed to be wrapped in a black shadow.

'It's yellow.'

And the remnant of the voice left in Vlad's world was showing him that the tree now screaming had a yellow light.

It was the same color of light as the mole suspected to be a spirit.

'So you were driven out of here.'

Feeling the mole trembling inside his clothes, Vlad let out a small sigh.

He did not know the exact reason, but it seemed the creature had been chased out by that crazed monster and pushed all the way to the village.

"... Guess I have to do it."

Squeak?

There had been an accident, but one way or another, he had found the spirit's main sanctuary.

Although someone seemed to have arrived first, Vlad was every bit as urgent, so it should be all right to ask them to give way first.

"Phew."

The essence of killing in a single blow lay in surprise.

With his swift feet, he should be able to achieve that surprise in the form of an ambush.

Vlad slowly began to bring his own world to mind through his deep breathing.

Through the thickly rising aura, he enhanced his leg strength with Lamund's body-hardening technique and placed the remnant of the voice into his sword.

And he placed his own world, which had not yet gained a color, into his eyes.

THUUUNK!

GRAAAAAH!

'Now!'

The moment the monster struck the tree and raised its axe with a roar.

From within the tiny hole, a white bolt of lightning burst out with a charge like an explosion.

Graah?

Squeeeak!

At an angle the monster had not expected, and at a speed even the glowing mole had not anticipated.

"Hraaap!"

Vlad's strike, completing its surprise through a sharpness that pierced the opening, rushed quickly toward the monster.

SLASH.

Vlad's sword, dyed white, was cutting through the monster's neck before it could even turn its eyes.

It was a sword carrying the all-out blow of a knight who could now stand on his own.

The head rolled away.

The body collapsed.

And a single oak stopped its pained screaming and looked at Vlad as if startled.

Beneath Vlad's sword, there was a moonlit landscape where everything had gone silent.

"You fucking..."

But Vlad, who had created that silence, merely hurriedly raised his sword again.

Vlad's world, which had not yet decided on a color, began surging roughly toward his sword.

He had cut it, yet he had not cut it down.

Because the neck he had cut had, in truth, been completely meaningless.

"It's you things again."

Together with Vlad's growling voice, the collapsed body of the monster began to rise once more.

As if the head that had flown off into the distance did not matter at all.

A massive body, and a cut surface that had already closed over smoothly despite being severed.

Because it was not a monster active in the North, Vlad did not know it, but in the central region, people called this monster a troll with both fear and awe.

GRAAAAAAAH!

A great roar began to ring out from the head that had been rolling on the ground.

It was the chilling roar the villagers had heard.