151 – Taming the Madman (11)
The blue deer moves slowly.
Are you expecting me to follow you?
I thought about it for a while. I couldn’t ignore the possibility that I was insane.
Anyway, we are in the grip of the circulatory system. So there was nothing to lose by following that.
In the meantime, Bibi suddenly slapped me.
Pair!
“You have to be alert. Can’t lose you I will never let that happen.”
Thank you so much for thinking of me as your own person, but this woman’s hands are a bit spicy.
Bibi pulled me by the collar and slapped me again.
Pair!
“Even if I bite it off, I will return it. Absolutely not. Never, never!”
It seems that I am also very concerned that I will turn away like the escort. The anxiety is completely understandable.
I held Bibi by the wrist and calmed her down.
“It’s okay. There will be no running out of nowhere or cutting in the air.”
“What was the problem…… What did you see?”
“There is a place you must visit.”
“… Are you trying to follow the futility?”
“Anyway, our location has been discovered, and no matter how much we avoid, we cannot escape the crow’s eye. We have to find it ourselves.”
“Yes, what you say is quite rational. I will believe it.”
Without any luggage to pack, we got up and left immediately.
Then I slowly chased after the blue deer that only I could see.
While it was raining, she made a long rope with the stem of a floating plant.
She then called me over for a moment.
“Wait and see.”
The baboon tied one end of her rope around her left wrist and the other around her own wrist.
“This is… What is it?”
“It’s to catch them so they don’t run away if they go crazy. Not only that, but even if you fall into a swamp, you wouldn’t notice if this was there.”
“… When each other’s hands are intertwined, it becomes difficult to respond in an urgent situation.”
“At that time, you just cut it off. You can make anything.”
“….”
It seems that they have prepared their own safety measures, but they don’t help much. I wondered if I could hold her hand and go, but since it seemed that Vivi would not like it that much, I just let it go.
As she continued her steps, the baboon gave me a signal by pulling her rope.
“I can feel the magic in the front.”
“Did you know how to do magic?”
“I don’t know where you are going, but it feels like a strange magic continues to flicker in front of us.”
“Are there wizards in front of me?”
“In that case, I would have known right away. It’s a strange magic. It’s right in front of us, but it doesn’t seem real.”
I wonder if they are talking about the magic power emanating from that blue deer? If that’s true, that means I’m not seeing illusions.
As I stare at Bibi’s face, she looks at me with her grumpy face.
I feel like I’m protesting that I shouldn’t even feel magic.
Are they the kind of people who can’t use magic but still have magic power?
Food Duck.
In the meantime, a crow lands on a branch. I thought something hurt in the back of my head, but there are more watchers around us.
Bibi, seeing my confused face, turns her head after me. And she was mesmerized by the flock of crows she encountered there.
“Those are….”
“Looks like you are here to run an errand for the master.”
“The master… ?”
“I am treated as the god of this land.”
“You seem to be preparing to dig up a corpse whenever you get a chance.”
“I will wait for the time when we are weak.”
There was a reason I said I shouldn’t be surprised by seeing the old woman’s head.
Because if you are surprised, embarrassed, and withdrawn in a place like this, the prank will only get worse. Just like a cat playing with its prey.
The funny thing is that those crows don’t go near the blue deer.
What is it? Where the hell is that deer taking us?
“Let’s move quickly.”
“… Okay.”
I think it went on for about 30 minutes. The number of crows increased to the point that the surroundings became black as if welcoming migratory birds. The deer still maintain their brilliance and guide us.
Bibi closed her mouth tightly as if tension was rising, and squeezed the rope around her wrist with both hands.
To-do-do-do-do.
In the meantime, I heard strange footsteps.
Me and Bibi heard this and stopped at the same time. We exchanged glances with each other. We heard at the same time So it was not hallucinations.
The sound of footsteps is not one. Like wild boars moving in herds. A heavy sound travels around.
“Ho, by any chance, the escort came to visit us.”
The grass grows tall in the swamp, and sometimes there is water mist, so you can’t see far away.
I heard the sound of footsteps again, so I immediately drew my wooden sword and cut the ropes that bound my wrists.
“It is not the sound of human footsteps.”
“… !”
Now I can hear those footsteps close by. It seems there are more than I thought. Vivi’s eyes are gradually shaking.
“Step back.”
A face with bloody veins emerges from the fog.
It was a ghoul.
After that, a group appears one after another. It’s not surprising to see ghouls in an area like Barbisia.
But the problem is that the ghouls are wearing the armor of the principality. The baboon saw her and covered her mouth with her hands.
“They are no longer knights. You mustn’t step out recklessly.”
She couldn’t open her mouth on her own. In her astonishment, her eyes widened as if they were going to pop out, and she was hardened to stone.
Kurrurr.
The blue deer disappeared at some point. Could it be that he led us into a trap? I don’t know. For now, the priority was to fight and protect her princess.
I drew out my wooden sword and stepped forward. About twenty ghouls all paid attention to me. They lost their appetite when they were human and salivated at me.
They roam around me, checking my condition. The search didn’t take long. It jumped like a tiger at me on the left and thrust its rotten teeth.
I’ve already dealt with ghouls to the point where I’m fed up with them. I immediately pierced his snout with a sword like a toothpick and planted it in the ground like a flag.
The other guys in the pack don’t flinch when I show them an example that their fears are gone.
The rest of the ghouls screamed like dogs and attacked me at the same time.
I put my hand in my back pocket and activated the bomb Cecil gave me.
This triggered a blast of frost straight from the pocket with no waiting time.
Boom!
And the ghouls that rushed at the same time. It froze hard like a dynamic statue.
I was not affected in any way by Cecil’s circulatory artifact. It repays me for absorbing my mana all the time.
As he swung the wooden sword in a semicircle, the heads of the ghouls in the radius shattered like porcelain.
Seven ghouls left. They could be handled without the use of special skills.
Kwaaak! Wow!
Now, I approached and cleaned up the ghouls myself.
From noble mtl dot com
After cleaning like that, I looked back at Bibi.
She looked desperate, as if the world had perished.
Does she think that her bodyguard has turned into ghouls? For such things, the armor was very old.
I searched the dead ghoul corpses one by one and removed the dog tags. Should I be happy? These are not the people we traveled with.
Then he approached the princess who was in a state of panic and said,
“Gerd, Phillip Shaw, Patina. Do you know them? These… If you look at their dog tags, they’re all from ten or twenty years ago. Not your escort.”
It seems that Bibi’s shock doesn’t go away easily. She slowly calmed her labored breathing, but couldn’t control her tears.
“So, then, are my knights changing like that?”
Facing the traces of a normal person at one time, I felt like my insides would turn upside down.
“I will.”
Bibi grabbed my collar and drooped. Then he said in a weeping voice.
“I… I am… What do you mean?”
“We have to survive. If Princess gives up here and collapses, there will be no one left to save them.”
“… ….”
“You will have a hard time walking now, so I will carry you.”
Bibi neither confirms nor denies anything.
She leaned on her body as I pushed her back.
She trembles her body from time to time. She said nothing.
The moment we stood up and walked out again, the blue deer reappeared and was staring at us.
What is the intention? He started to move slowly again, matching the speed of our feet.
***
After about an hour, Bibi seemed to have calmed down a bit and her breathing became more stable.
As she was being carried, she would occasionally reach out and pluck the stems of her vines, then wiggle her hands and begin weaving her rope.
Then she suddenly told me that she remembered something.
“Do you still have your dog tag?”
“Yes.”
“Can you show me?”
“It’s in my inside pocket.”
She arbitrarily put her hand on my chest and pulled out the silver dog tags to check.
“…… Yeah i remember These were the contingent that went missing eight years ago.”
“How do you know?”
“There was a high-ranking mage who visited the duchy from time to time. Maybe it was because he was so kind and gave me foreign cookies as a gift every time he came, because I was young, and when he came, I ran before anyone else. The man had come to see his father, but he hadn’t forgotten to take care of me. He was such a warm person.”
“There were no wizards among them.”
“I know. As far as I remember, the wizard was from Eternia. Once, the principality sent an escort to meet him.”
“….”
“And one day, while the wizard was on his way to the principality, there was an incident in which he evaporated along with the escort. I was young at the time, so I hadn’t heard the details. The principality was turned upside down, but it seems that it has not been found again since it has never been seen. Looking at this dog tag, I now vaguely remember it. These were competent knights dispatched for the wizard.”
“We weren’t the first.”
“Yes, if we return alive, we will mobilize the army to restore Barbisia to normal on a large scale and bury their bodies again in the principality.”
“… I’m glad you found your energy.”
“Yes, seeing you fight, I guess there is no need to be afraid. All… It is thanks to you.”
“It is an honor.”
Bibbi hesitated for a moment before continuing the conversation.
“To treat you harshly….”
“… ?”
“Oh, no.”
The good mood didn’t last long.
Then the sound of footsteps was coming for us from afar.
I put the baboon on the ground and prepared for battle again.
The ghouls soon charged us, and the battle didn’t take long.
I quickly found a dog tag from the body of the ghoul I disposed of and showed it to Vivi.
Her expression was a little strange.
“This is… It’s not like the knights of the principality are kicking.”
“… Then where do you belong?”
“The Holy Knights.”
As soon as I heard them, I had an ominous feeling. The fact that the paladins who used divine power became ghouls. It was a picture that was difficult to understand.
I couldn’t easily shake off the connection with black magic.
I can definitely feel it now. Those ghouls never met by chance. Something that rules this land must have sent us to play with it.
Things are going interestingly.
And when the situation was sorted out, the blue deer showed up without fail. The blue glow emanating from it was gradually fading.
Bibi said with weak eyes.
“If you look at the Paladins… The existence we are trying to greet seems to have power beyond imagination. Even if you give up and run away…… I will not resent you.”
“If I want to run away, I will just die.”
“….”
Bibi tugged at my arm with her determined face. She then knots her rope around her wrist. Her other end was tied around her baboon’s wrist.
“Even if I meet my end on this earth… It wouldn’t be bad with a strong man like you.”
***
The blue deer stopped at one point.
“Here is… ?”
In front of the place where the deer stopped, black smoke was thick as if a curtain had been drawn.
As if the front was blocked by glass, no smoke came out.
A section of the area was split in half.
Bibi put her hand in front of her and said.
“A barrier, a barrier. Why is this highest level barrier located in Barbisia?”
I pulled the baboon back slightly behind her.
“Wait a minute.”
The deer starts moving again. The guy put his nose close to one of the barriers and blew a breath.
Then, part of the barrier began to open.
The deer stepped aside after creating a passageway large enough for a person to enter and exit.
As if they were telling us to go in.
His blue light was almost faded now.
“The door opens as if it had been waiting for us to come. It was a signal to come in.”
Bibi had a withered voice.
“Are you ready?”
Bibi nodded slowly.
“I have entrusted everything to you for a long time.”
I grabbed Vivi’s wrist and walked inside the barrier.
While moving forward, I looked back once.
The deer was standing at the entrance, watching us.
Then the black smoke slowly stretches out its grip and begins to strangle the deer’s neck. But he doesn’t resist and just watches our last appearance. Soon after, the aisle was closed and he could no longer be seen.
What the hell was he trying to show me? We quietly went inside.
Poor deer