The Uninvited Guest Of The Haunted Mansion (34)

When she flinched and looked down, the layered hem of her skirt was raggedly torn.

What had once been a thick fold hung in tatters like rags, leaving her bare leg fully exposed.

Red drops of blood dripped from the cut skin.

‘If I fall so much, I won’t even be able to pull my bones back together.’

The trees themselves were, in fact, no different from blades.

“Are you all right?”

“…Yes, I’m not badly hurt. But I need to be careful not to get scraped. The trees are really sharp.“

“Wait a moment.”

Before Serenity could finish her request, Blake dropped to one knee and leaned down.

Seeing the leg with blood dripping from it, his expression twisted.

“The wound is deep.”

“It only looks that way because it’s dark. It’s not as painful as you’d think…”

“Excuse me.”

Before Serenity could finish her sentence, Blake took off his coat and tore his shirt sleeve.
He wrapped Serenity’s leg tightly with the clean inner cloth.

“…Duke?“

“We don’t know what might spring out here, so I can’t carry you. If you can still walk, I want you to hold on like this for now. Will that be all right?”

She lifted her head and their gazes met in the air.

And Serenity thought it was strange.

Putting aside any chivalry or gentlemanly concern.

‘Is it worth wearing such a troubled expression…?’

Yet Blake’s face looked rather as if he couldn’t understand Serenity.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Because you seem far too composed.”

“Wouldn’t it be stranger to be whining over a wound like this? In a situation where you could actually die, after all.”

“Then shouldn’t you be more frightened?”

“There’s no immediate life-threatening being here, is there?”

Serenity lifted the corner of her mouth in a faint, unconcerned smile.

She’d died a few times in this urban legend already; was she supposed to panic every time?

“A normal young lady would get scared first in a situation like this. Especially one raised gently.”

“You speak as if you know women well.”

Blake flinched at her offhand reply.

For a while he just stared at Serenity without saying anything.

“…Do I seem like that?“

“The thing you just said…”

Serenity, about to answer, let out a short “ah” and waved her hand.

Only then did she realize her reaction might be interpreted differently.

“Ah, I didn’t mean it that way. Just…”

Blake made a soft, amused exhale at Serenity’s flustered words.

His head dropped again.

The hand that had paused steadied the bandage and tied it off.

“If it were jealousy, I’d almost be pleased. Who would refuse attention from someone they care about?”

She knew the Anomalous beings in this urban legend were particularly drawn to Serenity, but even so the man was of a very different sort.

Hearing what he said made it feel like an ordinary person’s sign of affection rather than an Anomalous being’s.

Even though that couldn’t be true, she was sometimes confused.

Serenity felt strange.

“Enough.”

Having finished the dressing to some extent, Blake put his jacket back on and rose.

Only after the bandage was applied did the pain become clear.

Her leg throbbed.

“Now to find an exit first…”

Screech*!*

It happened in an instant.

Before Blake could finish speaking, a sharp sound sliced the air and rang in their ears.

At the same time, Serenity’s body was yanked to the opposite side.

Blake pulled her into his arms and drew his sword.

With a rasp, something was sliced off.

Serenity’s eyes widened.

“What is…”

A black lump on the ground was writhing.

Looking closely, it wasn’t just a lump.

It was a pitch-black tree branch.

…A branch?

Cold dread.

Instinct reacted before comprehension.

She broke out in goosebumps all over.

When Serenity turned her stiff neck and slowly raised her head…

“…“

The dense trees that had been standing straight toward the sky were bowing their heads.

More precisely, they were leaning their bodies toward the two of them.

As if bending over to observe.

Serenity was sure that if trees had eyes, they’d be watching them with glossy eyeballs.

Then.

With another sharp sound cutting the wind, branches plunged down from above.

“Ugh!”

Crack, the branch slammed into the ground where Serenity had just been standing.

The branch, rooted in the earth, writhed and swallowed something.

Watching that sight in a daze, Serenity suddenly realized.

’…Blood.’

It was drinking the blood Serenity had soaked into the ground.

A flash of realization streaked through Serenity’s mind, frozen by shock.

‘It’s the painter’s influence.’

The painter painted with blood.

Among those, the favorite material for the red pigment was Serenity’s blood.

The trees in the painting resembled their creator.

They too were chasing Serenity’s blood.

Serenity snapped her gaze down at her own leg.

Blood was seeping out through the neatly tied cloth.

At the same time, a lightning revelation struck her.

‘We can’t stay here.’

And as if that were the signal, the trees bent down more and began to look at Serenity.

Blake, who must have felt similarly to Serenity, grew serious.

Having looked up at the trees, he turned his back to Serenity and motioned with his arm.

“Change of plan. Can you get on my back right now?”

Her body moved before she could answer.

Serenity wasted no time and climbed onto Blake’s back.

“I don’t have the leisure to carry you comfortably, so hold on tight and don’t fall.”

“Yes.”

As if Blake’s warning had been a prophecy, there was no time to collect themselves from the next moment.

Screech, thud!* *

A trunk aimed straight at Serenity slammed into the ground, and razor-sharp thorns rained down from all sides like a storm.

Blake carried Serenity on one arm and with the other he cut them all away.

“Duke, left!”

Serenity shouted as she saw a branch aiming at them from the darkness.

Blake narrowly avoided the reaching branch and swung his sword with one hand.

Thud*, the fallen branch twisted this way and that on the ground, then went limp.*

‘Can you call that a branch? It’s like a tentacle or something, isn’t it?’

Serenity was aghast but couldn’t put it into words.

The branches kept attacking without giving them a breath, making defense meaningless.

If Blake hadn’t been blocking them with his sword every time, Serenity might already have been skewered.

But they couldn’t keep holding out like this.

This was a forest surrounded by trees, and no matter how much the Duke exceeded human capabilities, an Anomalous being was bound to tire.

‘What to do, think, think…’

As she nervously bit her lip, Serenity’s eye caught something underfoot.

Unlike the trees standing and bowing in other directions, in one area a dense tangle of vines had proliferated.

It was so solid it seemed as if it had been placed there to block passage on purpose.

Narrowing her eyes to peer at it, Serenity gripped Blake’s shoulder hard.

“…Duke, this may sound strange, but could we try going over that way?“

After swatting away a flying branch, Blake half-turned his head and looked at the place Serenity pointed to.

“Beyond that tangle?”

“Yes, I think we can avoid it if we go that way. I just have that feeling.”

Even as she said it, Serenity thought it was absurd.

She was following an intuition, but it was a ridiculous claim.

She thought there was nothing she could say if the man scoffed at her.

‘But I really do have that feeling.’

Bang! At that moment, Blake leapt up onto a trunk that had just plunged into the ground and twisted his body.

“Hold on tight, don’t fall.”

“Yes?”

“We’re going.”

“Uh…”

Why didn’t he ask anything?

Unlike the surprised Serenity, Blake didn’t ask questions; he planted his weight on the high trunk and made a strong leap.

And he swung his sword directly at the area where the vines were layered thick.

The blue steel blade traced an arc and cut through the vines with all its might.

In an instant the split vines began to writhe, trying to close the gap again.

“Now, quickly!”

Not missing the moment, she shoved her body through the gap between the vines.