Chapter 28 – Part 2
Translator: AnnieVanCookie
Editor: Ryunakama
It was a day just like any other. They took a mission to exterminate some goblins that had appeared near a certain village, just as usual. And just as usual, after dealing with the goblins and forcing them to retreat, the villagers would show their gratitude and shower them with rewards, and that would be the end of it.
To Sierra, who’s been making a name for herself as an adventurer, and who’s also been fighting together with Whirlwind, twenty or thirty goblins pose no problem at all.
So, they should be able to complete this request safely and without any trouble, as long as they aren’t careless and don’t fall victim of any unfortunate accident.
However…
「Jack, Aeryl, Gilbane, Rahjin!!」
Jack is a particularly muscular man, completely bald and sporting a thick, grizzled moustache. His arms are as thick as logs, and he uses a large steel warhammer to smash his enemies.
Aeryl is a warrior who handles the dual daggers as if they were part of his own hands. He makes his opponents’ blood dance and bloom when fighting.
Gilbane manipulates powerful Spirit Magic which Sierra yet does not possess, and has saved the party from countless crises with it. He has also comforted the party’s pain and sorrow in many a cold night thanks to his poetry and his skillful way of playing the koto.
Rahjin is a great swordsman who is able to clear away the dark clouds of fear and despair with his bright smile. He’s the leader of the party and Sierra’s love interest.
Despite having been tied to each other with ropes so they would not stray far from each other, Sierra has been separated from her friends in the middle of this shapeless mist which feels like being inside the stomach of some evil creature. Through the mist, she could occasionally hear the clash of swords, the roar of a beast, and the sound of something being torn apart, turning Sierra from the full-fledged adventurer who has experienced many battles back into a lonely, helpless girl.
Sierra continues to look for her friends, like a small child who has been separated from her parents. Or rather, just like the day she escaped from a burning castle to live another day.
She can’t escape from the mist like this. Her legs are tired, her lungs worn out, her voice is too withered to call for her friends, and she’s so hungry that she could drop dead.
Before long, nothing but bones will remain of Sierra’s slender body and her lovely face, but her spirit might still be determined in searching for her friends in this mist.
「G… Guys!? Where are you!? Don’t leave me alone!」
And it is not just loneliness that Sierra fears above all. She finally found what she feared the most inside that mist, which they got into while chasing after a goblin.
Why did she find it? Why was such a thing in that place? No, wait, that’s wrong. Why did she remember it? Why did she think about it?
She had forgotten, she was trying to forget. Even being lost forever in this mist as a wandering soul is a sweeter relief than remembering that thing.
The storm of negative emotions that sweeps over Sierra’s heart takes away her ability to reason, and further turns her from a lost, weeping child looking for her mother, into a powerless and minuscule presence.
「Ah…」
What comes out of Sierra’s throat is a far cry from her earlier, louder cries for help. Her feet stopped moving as well, because her shoes had started to soak into a pool of blood.
Her voice had also dropped because she had stopped so suddenly that her lungs and heart feel like they could explode at any second.
And even when one would expect Sierra’s sweat to be as hot as fire, this is not the case.
If anyone would be there to feel her sweat, they would be surprised to feel it icy cold to the touch.
And they would also feel that Sierra’s body is as cold as if she had been walking through a desolate, frozen land.
The back of her beloved Rahjin can be seen reflected faintly on Sierra’s eyes.
He’s a tall, young handsome man, of both delicate features and hard-trained muscle, and wears blue scale mail armor made from the scales of large reptiles.
In his right hand is his favorite longsword, which he has never failed to keep in good shape. It is a beautifully rare weapon, hammered ten thousand strikes by a blacksmith in Rahjin’s birthplace and blessed by a priest for seven full days.
Wielding this longsword, Rahjin has slain many wraiths, mad spirits of the deceased, and other spiritual beings.
Showing no regard for her own disgraceful behavior thus far, Sierra is about to rush over to Rahjin while sobbing frantically and with her face looking like crumpled paper.
Despite that, her legs refuse to move from where she stands, as if her legs were stuck to the ground.
Just as if Sierra’s legs were one with the ground from the start, instead of trying to move, they are trembling as if trying to grasp the situation.
Before long, from inside her skirt woven from Steel Silkworm thread, a warm liquid began dripping on Sierra’s feet, creating stains and rising steam at her feet.
Her lips are unable to produce any sound other than a stuttering murmur. Tears start pouring down from Sierra’s wide-open eyes and into her pale cheeks.
Rahjin’s feet are not stepping on the ground. This is because he is floating a few inches above it.
Rahjin’s arms are not swinging his favorite longsword. This is because there was no life left in him to swing it.
Rahjin’s body is no longer warm. This is because his hot blood, which would otherwise provide warmth to the body, has been lost.
So, why is Rahjin floating above the ground? Why is there no life left in him? Why is his young body devoid of blood?
Those three questions can be solved with a single answer.
The answer is that someone – or something – is lifting Rahjin up off the ground, holding him from his bare nape of the neck and making a dreadful sound as it sucks his life and blood away from him.
Slurp, slurp.
That’s right. Sharp fangs that looked like stakes had stabbed Rahjin’s neck, going through his skin, and piercing into his veins. From there, his assailant can drink his blood as it overflows away from his body.
What kind of magic is this?
No, that is a stupid question. Those eyes shine brightly even when submerged into fresh blood. Those fangs are made for sucking blood.
And this is the answer. Such a being exists, capable of drinking someone’s blood as if it were the finest liquor.
At that very moment Sierra’s body stopped moving as if frozen from hair to toes, Rahjin’s body dropped to the ground as if it were a puppet whose strings have been severed.
When falling, it makes a sound that resembles more of a dry and light branch falling from a dead tree and rolling into the ground, than the sound a human being would make when falling to the ground.
Two new red full moons shine high in the sky. Those full moons are looking at Sierra. Those red full moons were the eyes of the creature that is having its fill of Rahjin’s blood.
In this white mist, now tinted red with blood, Sierra’s brain is tormented by an intense pain and coldness so severe that it is as if it had been stirred with a frozen pole, and cannot do anything but think about what has happened.
The two red full moons begin to walk towards Sierra. The white mist around them tears away left and right as if making an effort to not get in its master’s way.
The red light shining from those two eyes pierce through Sierra’s brain and thoughts, and all of her thoughts banish from her head.
She doesn’t realize that at the feet of the owner of those red eyes, not only Rahjin’s, but Jack’s, Aeryl’s, and Gilbane’s bodies are scattered on the ground like trash.
She doesn’t realize that on all four of them, two holes thick enough to fit a finger in them had been opened on their necks, and that from each of those holes a trickle of blood flows down onto the ground.
But she knows that she’s going to end up just like Rahjin.
Before long, at the end of a moment which lasted an eternity, two absurdly huge, mountain-like hands gently place themselves on both of Sierra’s shoulders.
They do so with such tenderness one might confuse them for the warm hands of a father trying to comfort his crying child. However, these gigantic hands feel so cold that they could freeze Sierra to the bone just by being in contact with them.
Sierra feels two small stabs on her own neck. At that very moment, the image of her mother, father, and younger sister begins to flicker in her mind, and suddenly vanishes.
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