A Lie – Part 01
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Translator: Kell
Interlude: Black Malice
Every time the dragon flapped its wings, chilly wind battered their bodies.
The air above was colder than on the ground, and Gouda’s fingers on the reins of the dragon was gradually becoming numb. His teeth clattered, but he could not slow down.
Death was looming from behind. An unknown—therefore unassailable—threat was tirelessly pursuing them.
“I’m sorry, Heath!” Gouda whispered to the dragon. “But please hang on a little longer!”
Heath was only a young dragon. It was not used to flying for long periods of time, but it had already been flying all day, carrying two grown men and a little Beastfallen.
Gouda, who was only riding, was already exhausted. Heath clearly had it worse.
A few weeks ago, the three of them left the Kingdom of Wenias for Knox Cathedral. They had anticipated that the further north they went, the greater the risk of being attacked by demons.
They thought that with Heath’s speed they could catch up to the Knights Templar earlier, but they were now about to enter the territory where Knox Cathedral was located without spotting even the end of the knights’ column.
They were impatient. They wanted to catch up as soon as possible, so they let their guards down. They had decided that if they sensed even the slightest hint of danger, they would take a long detour, but they dismissed the thunderclouds stirring at the edge of their field of vision as “just a natural phenomenon” and plowed through the shortest distance possible.
And now they were in this mess. As if fascinated by the flying dragon, the thunderclouds followed it everywhere, its roars sounding like eerie moans. Since it did not have any physical body, they could not fight it off, and taking a break was impossible, as it followed them everywhere even when they changed course.
They could find a cave to avoid the lightning and rest, but then they would be stuck in there for the rest of their lives.
But that wasn’t all.
“Gouda!” Secrecy shouted. “Get your head down!”
Visibility was almost zero on the back of a dragon that was flying at high speed in the snow. Secrecy, a leather belt covering his eyes, used his hearing to assess the situation around him. His word could be the difference between life and death for Gouda.
As soon as Gouda ducked, he felt something graze his head, followed by a lukewarm sensation.
“What was that?!” he yelled.
“Blood, but not yours!” the priest replied.
“What the hell did you kill?!”
“How should I know?! I can’t see anything!”
Gouda wiped the blood that had dripped to his face, grateful for the warmth it provided in the terrible cold. The blood stuck to his fingers was reddish-black, with pieces of flesh still wriggling. It did not look like the remains of an ordinary creature.
Demons were not the only threat. The farther north they flew, the more strange creatures appeared on the ground and in the air—birds with fangs, giant bats the size of horses, a boar with millions of needles on its back, and what seemed to be a nondescript tree walking around on its roots and preying on animals.
If it was possible to create a “beast warrior” by merging the soul of an animal to a human being, then demons could easily create a new kind of monster if it wanted to.
“Damn it. Did they actually go through this place?!” Gouda spat. “Even with Heath, we’re having trouble!” He had to shout, or he was not sure if he could stay conscious.
“They have Zero with them!” Secrecy shouted back. “They won’t die that easily! If I knew this was going to happen, we should have brought the princess of Black Dragon Island with us!”
“I can’t let the princess go on this trip! Besides, she’s not as light as your friend!”
Lily the rat Beastfallen was clinging desperately to the priest so she wouldn’t fall off Heath’s back. The dragon could only carry two adults. Lily was light, putting her weight within the margin of error, but carrying Amnil, a grown woman, would be too much of a load.
Suddenly, Heath lost a lot of altitude.
“Damn it! He can’t go on any longer!”
“If we go down, we’ll be wiped out by lightning strikes!”
“We’re gonna fall either way! If I’m given a choice between crashing to the ground and dying from a lightning strike, I’ll choose to kill myself on the ground!”
“No!” Lily shouted. “We’re not falling! Heath found something. Over there! Let Heath fly himself!”
Gouda, who had been trying to steer clear from the main road all this time, loosened his grip on the reins. As if it had been waiting for this, Heath bobbed its head and increased its speed, heading toward the road in the distance.
“The road?” Gouda wondered. “Did he find the Knights Templar?!”
“Why now?! We’re going to drag them into this!”
Heath purred, and Lily shouted with joy. “Look! Up in the tree! It’s the witch!”
“Zero? Can you see her, Gouda?” the priest asked.
Gouda peered at the road in the distance, the snow obscuring his vision. “I don’t see any… No, wait.”
He spotted a black figure in the endless white landscape. He could tell that it was a person standing on a tall tree, which indicated that Heath had lost a significant altitude.
In a few seconds, they would crash to the ground. At the speed they were going, it would be almost like falling from high up. Heath no longer had the strength left to land carefully.
Just before the dragon plunged into the conifers, they zipped past the person on the tree.
“Great job,” the woman said. “I will take it from here.”
Her voice brushed Gouda’s ear with the ease of a tap on the shoulder, and relief flooded over him instantly.
Secrecy exhaled sharply and smiled. “I heard it. That was definitely Zero’s voice.”
Help had come. The voice held such power that it made them believe they were safe.
“Priest! Take Lily and jump!” Gouda jumped off Heath’s back.
Below them was freshly-fallen snow. Worst case, they could get buried up to their heads without any chance of climbing out.
Gouda pulled his sheathed sword from his waist and held it parallel to his body. The moment he landed, his body was buried deeper in the snow than he had expected. Clinging to the sword in his chest, he crawled out of the snow and looked for Heath, who had crashed through the trees.
“Heath!”
The dragon replied with a weak growl. Buried waist-deep in snow, Gouda ran up to Heath and leapt on its limp body.
“Heath! Great job in taking us this far. You even noticed Zero.”
“I’m afraid it’s too soon to celebrate, Dragon Slayer King,” Secrecy said.
Gouda looked up. The priest was standing on a branch with Lily under his arm, as if to say, “I would never be so sloppy as to land on the snow.”
Thunderclouds burst high above the sky. Zero must have taken care of the problem.
“Demons aren’t the only enemies,” Secrecy said. “Those monsters that look like children’s doodles ignored me and went to you guys first. It looks like they’re really hungry.”
“Why are they after me?”
“Not you, the dragon. I suppose he looks filling.”
The thought that Heath was being targeted brought strength to Gouda’s weakening heart. “I’ll show them that eating each other is a better option.”
“Count me in. He certainly looks filling, but his scales are too tough.”
Secrecy’s lighthearted joke gave Gouda a sense of relief in this horrible situation.
Something was closing in. Not something eerie like the thundercloud, but one with a physical body. One that reeked of death.
Frowning even more deeply than usual, Gouda tossed his sword’s sheath. “I don’t think I can fight properly when I’m buried up to my waist.”
“You have no other choice,” Secrecy replied. “Lily”
“I don’t sense my friends anymore,” the little Beastfallen said.
Lily was helpful on the way here. Since she could understand rats, she could not only locate water and food, but she could also search for enemies.
But as they proceeded north, the number of rats in the forests dwindled, and as they reached the point where wild animals were transformed into monsters, Lily was all alone. Without the help of countless rats, she was too powerless.
“Then stay with Heath,” the priest said. “I can’t fight while protecting you.”
“They’re coming! Get ready, Priest!”
“Yes, I can see them.”
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