Chapter 247 |
Splish. When that sound reached my ears, I had no choice but to stop walking. There was a limit to how much I could ignore things, and the blood and pus pooling inside my boots was impossible to overlook anymore.
So, it seemed like today’s march ended here.
Absentmindedly staring ahead as I thought that, I looked for a suitable rock. Thankfully, there was one nearby. It would serve well enough as a windbreak and chair.
Swish.
Leaning against the rock, I removed my boots. The bandages wrapped around my feet in place of socks were stained yellow and red.
However, there was no reason for me to panic. I’d expected as much the moment I chose to travel on foot wearing these boots.
If I hadn’t been lucky enough to ride horses or travel by carriage throughout my journey, I would’ve had to face this sooner. In the end, even with all the time I’d saved by going by foot, I still ended up with corns and skin rashes.
So, I calmly took off the bandages. My exposed feet were swollen and strangely misshapen, the outer and inner layers of skin peeling and puckered in blotchy lumps.
There were scabs oozing pus and blood all over them, and some of the wounds were still open, bleeding freely. These feet were, without a shadow of a doubt, a far cry from healthy-looking.
But as I’d said before, this was inevitable. It was something that was bound to happen at some point, something that was bound to happen eventually.
Even if this was the worst I’d ever seen it get, there was no need to panic. While waiting for the bandages to return to their fresh state, I applied ointment to my feet.
Twitch.
My feet, which felt hot but not painful, twitched a few times as I willed them to move.
I was quickly checking whether my nerves were still working as they should… There were no signs of purpura, so I should be able to move just fine. It seemed I didn’t need to worry about necrosis yet, either.
And that was enough for now. I suddenly recalled that baseball player who’d been hospitalized with cellulitis, but I just closed my eyes and let the thought go.
I desperately pushed away the thought that this wasn’t a condition that should be brushed off so lightly. In my situation, whether I died after getting caught by my pursuers or from complications (like sepsis), it was all the same in the end.
Once I’d finished treating my feet, I raised my head without much more thought. I doubted I could walk much farther today, so I decided just to stay here and catch my breath. I’d been so focused on running away these past few days that I hadn’t even stopped to check where I was headed.
“…Ah.”
Still. If I’d known I’d get to see a sky adorned with soft, peachy pinks, iolite blues, blazing gold, and almost achromatic ash-gray clouds tinged with indigo, I might have looked up sooner.
“I want to take a picture of this.”
This bold color palette, more daring than anything an ordinary painter would use, showed the unrivaled grandeur of nature.
Touched by this awe-inspiring sight, I widened my field of vision. Flocks of silhouetted birds flew in the distance, and a pitch-black mountain ridge stood in sharp contrast against the glowing golden horizon.
Its shadowy presence stood out against the sky so much that it almost seemed like a stage prop.
“…”
Still, that subtle dissonance wasn’t really important. I quietly soaked in the moment, deeply etching this sight I had no way of capturing into my memory.
My sleep-deprived, foggy head felt like it was finally starting to clear a little.
Kyiok, yokiyokiyok.
But just as the fog was about to settle into something hazier, the cry of a bird snapped me out of it. Was it a pursuer? The obsessive paranoia that had built up over the past few days shot thoughts through my mind, bypassing all logic. Of course, it wasn’t.
My tense nerves gradually loosened up again.
“Haah.”
I pressed my fingers against my brow, realizing how sensitive I’d become—well, who wouldn’t in my situation?—the problems I’d been putting off now trampling over what little peace I’d found for myself.
However, while it was true that I’d allowed myself to focus only on my escape, the thoughts now surfacing were issues I’d have to consider for the future.
I eventually began pondering whether someone was tailing me. Naturally, the first question was whether they were really chasing me, and if so, whether they were still chasing me even now.
If I took that a step further, the next question would be who exactly was pursuing me. For example, was it the Hero’s party following my trail, or handpicked elites dispatched by the Temple? Things like that.
But no answers came to me. Obviously. After all, I hadn’t seen the face of even a single person pursuing me. It was probably because I’d run desperately the first day, convinced I’d be at a severe disadvantage if they were on horseback.
I’d felt constantly uneasy, as if even that wasn’t enough, so I ran all night without sleeping, relying entirely on my Arcane Power for four days straight. Only after that did I feel safe enough, albeit barely, so I started taking breaks to sleep and eat a bit four days ago.
I figured if they really had been chasing me, they must’ve lost my trail.
And if they’d given up right from the start, I’d feel even more thankful. Sure, all my hard work would’ve gone to waste, but my safety was still more important than that.
“But you never know…”
Of course, that didn’t mean I could completely let my guard down. After all, I wasn’t someone with talent or experience in running away—meaning I had no idea how to fully erase my trail —nor did I have any idea how skilled professional trackers actually were, so I couldn’t help it.
There was also magic. This world had many Arcane ways of tracking.
So I could afford to relax a little, but not completely.
Leaning back on one arm, I slowly blinked. The sky, which was gradually darkening, was beginning to reveal a few bright stars.
“…It’s cold.”
Swooosh. The wild grass growing around me swayed violently in the wind.
Tak.
“…!”
A faint tapping reached my ears, which barely peeked out from beneath my hair. My eyes reflexively snapped open, but open or closed, there was only darkness around me. It seemed to be nighttime… but hadn’t the sky still been tinged with red not too long ago…? There was no way it could’ve gotten pitch-black so fast while I’d… had my… eyes…closed…
The vague theories swirling around my mind stretched longer, weighed down by my drowsiness. I kept muttering that I had to stay awake, even as fatigue made my eyelids slowly creep downward. I was so tired.
Thud.
But before long, I felt a dull thump against my clothes. No matter how tired I was, this wasn’t something I could just ignore anymore.
Eventually, my eyes opened fully, and I raised my head. Drip. With perfect timing, a large raindrop smacked the bridge of my nose.
“Damn it…”
There had been dark clouds to the northeast, but I hadn’t thought they were actually rain clouds—or headed my way. If only Deathbringer had been with me, I might’ve been able to predict this development and prepare. What a shame.
“…”
No, wait, I shouldn’t be calling it a shame.
It was my decision to leave him behind. The fact that we couldn’t keep being together was something either he or I had brought upon ourselves.
Yeah, this was an entirely fair outcome.
“…I wonder if there’s anywhere nearby to take shelter from the rain.”
I deliberately spoke out loud, trying to wake myself from the eight days’ worth of fatigue. It didn’t really help much. Exhaustion from all-nighters could only be fixed by sleep.
So I let my dazed mind be and started pulling my boots back on. My eyes felt heavy, and my hands trembled a few times, but I eventually crammed my swollen bandaged feet back into them.
Instead of sharp pain, I just felt a dull, burning heat climb up my legs.
Drip, drop.
In the meantime, the rain grew in intensity, and the wind struck me with more force. Maybe it was because I was on an open plain, but the wind felt particularly strong. Flap, flap. My three-pronged coat fluttered behind me in the deep blue air.
“…Good thing I didn’t bring Frederick.”
If I had, I wouldn’t have been able to take proper care of him. Not just today, but all the past eight days.
Taking that into consideration, it had been a smart move to leave him behind. Praising my past self’s decisions, I raised my hand. The rain had grown so heavy that I struggled to keep my eyes open. It was now pouring down my collar, even though I’d blocked it with my hands. A chill ran through my body.
But even so, wouldn’t it be much better to move than to sit around and get drenched more? I forced my heavy legs to move, cautiously inching forward.
* * *
* * *
Squelch. However, it wasn’t exactly my fault that luck wasn’t on my side.
“Hah.”
I didn’t even have the strength to curse as I pulled my foot out of the mud. It wasn’t just the rain making the ground muddy. This area was probably marshland to begin with… but it sure wasn’t this squelchy when I’d first arrived, so I didn’t know why it was like this now.
I gave my boots a few shakes to knock off the muck clinging to them.
Swish.
Going forward clearly wasn’t feasible, so I stepped back, trying to find another path. There was nothing I could do about not being able to see anything, either.
“…Would lighting a lantern give me away?”
I fiercely debated with my confused and hazy mind whether I should take out the lantern.
I knew it could reveal my position to my pursuers, but the combination of night and heavy rain made visibility more than terrible, so I didn’t really have any other choice. If I kept going like this, I’d probably die from the rain before anyone could catch me.
“Please don’t let me get caught.”
Still, with the rain falling this hard, the light probably wouldn’t spread too far. That small hope finally decided it. I hung the Arcane lantern from my belt.
The light’s range wasn’t great, only allowing me to see a bit farther than before, but it was still better than nothing. At least now I could see where I was stepping and avoid getting my feet stuck in mud again.
Whoooooosh.
The sound of heavy rain filled the silence of the night, soaking the road with a cold chill.
“…”
If I kept going like this, I was sure it would start eating away at my mental health.
I instinctively became certain of this, so I began looking for something to occupy my mind. Fortunately, I had a few topics that could achieve that.
For instance… the problems I hadn’t resolved before dozing off for a moment, like whether someone was tracking me, or just what I was even supposed to do from here on out.
At least the former was already off the table. I’d fallen asleep mid-thought, but even if I’d continued thinking about it, I wouldn’t have come up with a solution, since it wasn’t the kind of issue I could solve like that.
In contrast, the latter… was something I really had to start thinking about soon. Any excuse I had about being too mentally drained from the chase was becoming just embarrassing—though if I had to rationalize it, I could probably say something like, how coherent could a plan made by someone who’s been on edge for multiple nights in a row be?
“…How am I supposed to live from here on out?”
I intentionally spoke that line out loud, trying to break the silence somehow as I pondered over my future. However, that only made things feel even more daunting. The problem just seemed so unsolvable at this moment.
“Hah.”
For the past eight days, I’d avoided towns and cities like the plague to reduce the possibility of being caught. I hadn’t gone near them, and I’d even go in a different direction whenever I saw so much as the silhouette of a village on the horizon.
How long could I even keep this up? I couldn’t even start a decent fire. I had no survival skills like foraging and the like, so realistically speaking, how much longer could I go on like this?
…I couldn’t say when exactly, but I’d eventually have to visit a town. Basic survival aside, there was still the goal I was hoping to achieve, the whole reason I even escaped.
I mean, if I wanted to uncover the truth about my body, I needed the cooperation of others—be it knowledge they had or the memories of someone who might have known this body before. I’d definitely require someone’s help. Someone who’d almost certainly live in a town or city.
“…”
However, when I really thought about my current situation, there were two major problems.
The first problem was that I’d soon become wanted—though it wasn’t officially confirmed yet, it was almost inevitable at this point—and the second, arguably worse problem was that I possessed Demonic Energy.
In other words, there was no way I could avoid the eyes of the Temple. That’s why I’d gone to such great lengths to avoid any towns or settlements up to this point.
“Just imagining it pisses me off already…”
There were some things I had been overreacting to, but considering that just walking into a village was enough to make people of the Temple glare daggers at me, or someone could locate me from ten miles away just because my body contained Demonic Energy—mostly the Hero, but still—it wasn’t all unjustified.
It was only natural that such experiences made my imagination take seriously negative turns. I sighed, feeling quiet frustration.
“Shit…”
Seriously, though, just what was I supposed to do? It wasn’t like I could conduct any normal investigation like this. I’d get reported a hundred times over before asking a single question.
And what if, by some chance, the people with the information I needed decided I was too dangerous and did everything they could to silence me forever? How the hell was I supposed to uncover the truth like that? At this point, it didn’t even matter much whether someone was following me.
I tried imagining the worst-case scenarios, but all I got was suffocating anxiety. It wasn’t a good feeling. My frustration only deepened.
“So the Demonic Energy is the root of the problem…”
But even so, I couldn’t throw in the towel just because my situation felt hopeless. If I didn’t resolve this, any shot I had at going home would be very, very, very difficult to come by.
“Damn it.”
No, seriously, how the hell was I supposed to solve this?
I racked my brain, running my hands through my hair and tugging at it. Maybe it was because of the lack of sleep or because this problem had no solution, but nothing came to mind. At this point, it felt like it would be easier to just drown myself in a bowl of soup.
“If I had even one place where I could stay comfortably…”
But the hardest part of all this was that I didn’t have a single place where I could be comfortable or a single person I could talk to about these damn worries.
I now finally understood why people living on the run had such a hard time. I’d never once wanted to experience this myself, though.
Sssswish.
“…?”
But as I continued forward steadily, a chilling breeze brushed past my ear. It was subtly different from the wind and rain I’d been walking through up until now.
It was more than just the wind shaking the grass. Like something slipperier was quickly moving through it…
“…”
What kind of beasts wandered these kinds of plains? With that in mind, my hand instinctively went to the hilt of my sword. I couldn’t sense anything, even after spreading out my Arcane Power. Nothing. Nothing was there?
> [Whoa. It’s really Sir Knight.]
I almost drew my blade on flex at the sudden appearance of a presence. The only reason I didn’t was because I immediately recognized that voice.
The blade I’d narrowly avoided fully drawing rattled inside its scabbard.
> […Did I just narrowly avoid getting stabbed?]
“…What do you want?”
Did they think it was the only one surprised? I was seriously surprised as well!
I shoved the sword back into its sheath, pushing down the feelings about to bubble up.
> [Who are you?]
The next moment, I heard an unfamiliar voice pipe up. Its tone, loaded with contempt and disgust, instantly made my fingers stiffen.
> [Do you know that thing?]
That thing? My lips twitched at the newcomer’s choice of words. I didn’t say anything, but something clear yet unnameable still rose up my throat.
> [Yeah.]
> […Explain.]
But… getting angry here didn’t feel quite right. From how the voice spoke, this being was likely similar to the Mountain Lord—perhaps a Primordial Beast or something similar.
And for beings like that, it wouldn’t be all too strange for them to find me utterly disgusting. After all, I did possess Demonic Energy.
> [Uhm. So, you see…]
In the meantime, the Mountain Lord began to explain our connection to the voice’s owner: the events that had occurred in the Great Forest, how I’d killed the corrupted Skyflow Tiger and given its heart to the Mountain Lord, etc. While it mentioned the major points, it also threw in smaller details, like how I’d once bought it a melon to eat. I didn’t really know why it even mentioned that, though.
> [Anyway, he’s a reeeeal nice person!]
Still… I didn’t feel bad. Actually, this felt kind of nice.
I slightly softened my eyes at the sight of the Mountain Lord swinging its tail and the clear goodwill filling its words as it explained.
Seriously, this was nice.
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