Chapter 263: You Have to Leave, Now |
“Ah—”
“Ah—ya—!”
When the leading knight captain abandoned his comrades and fled alone, the rest of the Kenas betrothal entourage finally snapped out of their stupor.
They screamed in terror and scattered in all directions.
Some, too slow to react, were struck by the red tide after just a few steps. Their eyes immediately went blank as they collapsed to the ground. More of the red water surged forth, covering their bodies completely.
The crimson tide greedily swirled around their corpses, even pausing its outward spread to feast on them.
Thanks to that, a few lucky ones managed to escape their doom—at least for the moment.
A few minutes earlier.
Saul and Mochi Mochi had just stepped into Ada’s dilapidated little courtyard.
“I want to confirm something,” Saul replied.
The front gate of the courtyard, still damaged from their last visit, hung askew and unrepaired.
Saul stepped into the yard and looked straight toward the room that had belonged to Ada.
Then, through the gap between the boards on the window, he saw a single eye—silver, and gleaming like a galaxy.
Mochi Mochi noticed Saul had stopped and curiously stepped around him, “What is it? An enemy?”
Saul raised his index finger in a gesture for silence.
“I’m going over to take a look. I think… I might know who it is.”
Could it be Penny and Ada? Had they come back?
No. Penny’s eyes had long since lost that starry silver glow. And with their abilities and status, it was impossible for them to still be in Grind Sail Town—unless someone was forcing them to stay.
Mochi Mochi’s thin brows lifted slightly. Could there be other wizard apprentices who came in too?
His heart grew uneasy. That’s right… the grave ritual outside is so obvious. Aside from Saul, who’s still unfamiliar with curses, any other Third Rank apprentice who saw it would be tempted to investigate.
He looked around the yard, but saw no one living and nothing out of the ordinary.
“I’ll wait outside,” he said, stepping back out of the courtyard.
Saul, keeping an eye on the diary’s reactions, didn’t object.
“Once I entered the town, I didn’t need to act together with Mochi Mochi. That guy probably goes around resolving the town’s curses on his own, drawing enemy attention… which actually makes things a lot safer for me.”
No matter what the reason is that the diary no longer issued death warnings, Saul was happy to act separately from Mochi Mochi.
Still, that eye—like a silver galaxy—had left him uneasy.
Was it another hallucination?
“Ah—ahhh—!”
A sharp, piercing scream suddenly shattered the silence between him and Mochi Mochi. The Mochi Mochi’s expression shifted, and he immediately said, “I’ll go check it out.”
He tossed Saul a gold coin.
Saul caught it and took a closer look—it was an ancient coin, barely distinguishable as such.
Both sides bore the same image: a smiling, beautiful woman’s face.
The edge of the coin was engraved with miniature magical runes.
These runes were in the common magical language Saul was most familiar with.
Rolling the coin across his fingers, Saul quickly deciphered the basic information: connection, sensing, and transmission.
It was a magical tool for communication.
“If you need me, tap your ear with the coin three times, then speak into it,” Mochi Mochi said.
Without waiting for a response, he bent his knees and kicked off the ground.
“Whoosh!”
He soared into the neighboring street.
Like a rabbit, he bounded from rooftop to rooftop, quickly closing in on the source of the scream.
Saul didn’t know what had happened over there, but he had no intention of interfering.
He turned back to Ada’s old room. The silver eye had vanished.
“Penny and Ada should’ve left already. That silver eye just now… probably an illusion. After all, Mochi Mochi said this place is cursed. It’s normal for there to be weird things that mess with his perception,” Saul tilted his chin. “Little Algae, go check it out.”
Little Algae answered immediately, darting toward the window without hesitation.
It didn’t break in, but instead sent a smaller offshoot through the cracks between the boards.
After a while, the offshoot returned and remerged with the main body.
Little Algae shook its head—nothing found.
Saul let it return and narrowed his eyes at the house. Even in semi-immersive meditation, he detected no lingering spirit or corruption.
The place was unusually clean, just like when he’d last visited.
But last time, that was because the wandering wizard here had been collecting vengeful spirits on purpose. What about this time?
Is this town’s curse also targeting spirits?
Thinking of that silver starlight eye, so much like a nightmare butterfly’s cocoon, Saul decided to go in for a closer look.
Other things he could ignore, but nightmare butterflies…
Something told him this one might be important to him.
He moved forward, a spherical barrier of magical armor forming around his body.
Even though Little Algae hadn’t found anything, Saul activated his Soul Armor spell as a precaution before approaching Ada’s old house.
The door wasn’t locked. With a light push, it creaked open with an unpleasant groan.
Saul stepped inside and made a circuit around the room, even checking the little cupboard Penny used to live in.
Whenever Ada went out, Penny would peer out from between the cupboard and the window to observe the outside world.
She could never really see anything, but it seemed like she could sense people’s presence and emotions.
That was probably her only joy during a dull childhood.
But after thoroughly searching the room, Saul still found nothing.
Was it really just a hallucination? Saul didn’t rush to leave. It’s possible.
But with his current mental strength, he shouldn’t be so easily affected by illusions. Unless the one casting them is at the level of a True Wizard.
Even with mental power on par with a True Wizard, Saul didn’t let arrogance cloud his judgment.
Still, since Penny and Ada are gone, there’s no reason to linger. Saul climb to the roof later to check for any other anomalies in the town, then… try to avoid them while looking for the residences of those two wandering apprentices.
If there’s anywhere left in this town with Grinding Sound Fruits, it would be at their place.
But just as Saul was about to step out of the house, a voice came from behind him.
“Brother Saul.”
His entire body tensed in an instant. The blood vessels on his temples were visibly throbbing.
He slowly turned around—
And saw Penny, peeking out of the cupboard, her little face adorned with a familiar, innocent smile.
Her arms were crossed and resting on the cupboard’s lower edge. She tilted her head, cheek resting on her arms, those starry eyes fixed precisely in Saul’s direction.
“Penny?” Saul didn’t make a move. Not before figuring out if this was a dangerous illusion.
“Brother Saul, you should go,” she said with that same sweet smile—down to the very curve of her lips, “Listen. The red tide is coming. If you don’t leave now… you won’t be able to.”
As if her words had flipped a switch, the moment her voice fell—
Saul suddenly heard it.
Waves crashing against rocks.
“Splash… splash… splash…”
(End of Chapter)