98

The evening of the day I spoke with Aileen.

In the pouring rain, a messenger drove his horse like a madman.

It wasn’t night yet, but the rain had dimmed the light, turning the ride dangerously reckless.

“Get out of the way! Out of the way!”

“Whoa!”

Even inside the village, the messenger pulled at the reins and raced straight for the mansion.

“What’s the matter?”

“It’s urgent news! I must see the lord!”

“Wait a moment. First, dismount and prove your identity…”

Despite the guard’s attempt to stop him, the messenger shouted through the gate.

“The lord! Urgent news!”

“This fellow really…”

It was then that one of the guards on duty suddenly twisted his face.

—Clank

“Open the gate.”

Hamel stepped out of the mansion wearing a hood.

Seeing Hamel himself come out, soaked by the rain, the guards froze and opened the gate on command.

Only then did the messenger leap from his horse and drop to his knees.

“I wish to see the protector of Haidern.”

“I know your face.”

Hamel said calmly.

The messenger had been one of the retainers who guarded the caravan when Benjamin traveled from Sorn.

When Hamel saw him running urgently toward the mansion, he came straight outside.

“This doesn’t look like an ordinary matter.”

“Yes. This.”

The messenger produced a dispatch carefully kept in his bosom and handed it over.

Hamel opened it carefully to keep it from getting wet, and his expression slowly hardened at what he read.

“This is…”

“A murder case.”

The dispatch was from Benjamin, sent urgently from Haidern’s port.

“Four adult men were killed and two boys went missing… Is that definite?”

“Yes. There are quite a few witnesses. They say the thing that killed the men looked like a dragon.”

—Twitch

Hamel’s eyelid twitched.

Of course, the half-dragon Hamel sought could not have appeared here in Haidern; if it had, it wouldn’t have ended in such a small commotion.

‘But if it’s related to a dragon…’

Hamel’s hesitation didn’t last long.

“Could you fetch the horses?”

“Yes, sir!”

The guard hurried off toward the stables.

It was, after all, an incident within his domain. There was nothing pressing that couldn’t wait; he could go personally.

Just as Hamel thought that.

“Hey. Where are you going?”

Ono rode through the gate and called, mounting his horse.

“Where have you been, Ono?”

Ono answered with a sour expression.

“Who are you kidding? Weren’t I sent to train the soldiers in exorcism technique because you told me to?”

“Good. Come along.”

“…Where suddenly?”

At that moment the guard returned with the horses.

Hamel quickly climbed onto one.

“The port. Something happened there.”

“Why drag me into that… Fine. Let’s just depart.”

Ono, now used to Hamel, gave up and turned his horse’s head.

Early evening, rain falling, the two horses ran toward the port.

The port village of Haidern.

The recent incident had left the village tense.

Though it was early evening, people had already shut their doors and the streets were empty.

Only the muted sound of booted feet from guards patrolling with torches echoed faintly.

Two guards walked along the foggy shoreline.

“The air feels heavy.”

“Stay alert.”

The hunter from the Blue Mane tribe lowered his voice.

The young soldier shrugged.

“Oh, what could happen? There are dozens of soldiers who’d rush over at a shout.”

“…”

The hunter sighed quietly, and at that moment—

“Hey, you there.”

At the voice from the fog, the two soldiers immediately raised their weapons.

“…Who are you?”

As if to answer, the fog slowly parted and a man appeared.

He wore flamboyant clothes and jewelry. With a relaxed expression he shrugged and said,

“It would take a while to explain who I am. More importantly, I heard a woman’s voice over there.”

“…A woman’s voice?”

The young soldier knit his brows and subtly tightened his spear.

The gentleman nodded.

“Yes, it sounded like a call for help… I couldn’t possibly go alone, it’s too frightening.”

“Huh? Where is that?”

The young soldier, surprised, answered hastily.

The hunter-born guard felt uneasy but, wary of the gentleman, said,

“Lead the way.”

“Very well.”

The gentleman, showing his back as if defenseless, sauntered into the fog.

He didn’t look afraid at all.

Feeling something off, the soldier increased his vigilance.

How far had they gone? The shoreline of jagged rocks and fine sand came into view.

And then.

“Help… me…”

A faint woman’s voice came from the cliff side, just as the gentleman had said.

Following the voice, they found a woman wedged in a crevice between the rocks.

And that woman—

“Gasp.”

The young soldier involuntarily swallowed at the sight. Even from a distance she was astonishingly beautiful. Could a goddess from myth look like that?

“I- I’ll get you out right away!”

The young soldier hurried toward her.

Meanwhile the hunter-born guard again felt something strange.

‘If there were such a beauty, rumors would have spread throughout that small port.’

And why would such a woman be on the shoreline on a rainy evening?

On guard, the hunter slowly nocked an arrow, ready to fire at any moment.

The young soldier, running up, asked the woman without suspicion, “I’m here to rescue you. What’s wrong?”

“I think I’m stuck in the rocks…”

At her pale, on-the-brink-of-fainting expression, the soldier rushed to support her.

For a moment the young soldier felt something was off. The crevice was far too wide. Her lower body wasn’t visible, but it wasn’t the kind of gap that would prevent her from coming out.

Could her leg be trapped in the rock?

As that thought crossed his mind—

The hunter-born guard shouted urgently, “Stand back, rookie! Something’s wrong…”

“Thank you. I was very hungry.”

“Huh?”

The moment the young soldier tilted his head in confusion—

—Snatch

The woman shot up like lightning, seized the young soldier about five paces away, and dragged him into a burrow.

“…!”

The soldier couldn’t even loose the nocked arrow in such suddenness; he gritted his teeth.

A distant, fading scream echoed from within the burrow—horrible and cruel: the young soldier’s ragged cry.

‘That’s… already too late.’

Going into that burrow alone to save him would be madness. The hunter-born guard’s judgment was quick; they needed backup.

He quickly turned his body—but there stood a man with a strange expression.

“Oh my, did something go wrong?”

The gentleman who had called to them stood right behind the soldier. Come to think of it, when had they lost sight of this man? It felt like being watched.

The soldier spoke in a composed voice. “This place is dangerous. Come with us.”

He was not a fool; surely the gentleman was in league with them. Contrary to his words, the soldier drew the string of his nocked arrow and aimed it at the gentleman’s chest.

“Oh, you’re concerned for me—how kind of you.”

He met the gentleman’s gaze. Nothing else. Yet inexplicably his body stiffened, unable to move a finger.

The gentleman approached the immobile soldier, gently removed the arrow from the string, and said, “But why hand such an ugly thing to me?”

—Clack clack clack

The guard could not answer; he only chattered his teeth and trembled. How had they not noticed, even with such a monster right before them?

At the monstrous horror that took their breath away, the guard couldn’t even blink.

The gentleman squinted and murmured, still smiling, “Liars must be punished.”

From behind came the sound of sand sliding and something creeping.

Now that he noticed, the young soldier’s screams had stopped some time ago. He wanted to look back, but couldn’t. Cold sweat drenched his back. He instinctively knew that now it was his turn.

The gentleman looked at the soldier’s back and muttered, “You went to the trouble of bringing prey—how could you let it escape like this?”

“Sorry. I got a little excited seeing a man to my taste.”

A sweet, tempting woman’s voice replied—definitely the voice of the beauty who had called for help earlier.

The woman slowly approached from behind the soldier and whispered, “On the other hand, this one… is too old and ugly. I wouldn’t put him in my collection, let alone touch him.”

“Then do as you usually do.”

“Yes, I suppose so. Are there no handsome people in this village?”

The woman stroked the soldier’s cheek. Her touch was cold as a corpse; the guard shivered.

At that moment something climbed from the woman’s arm onto the guard’s body.

—Sssssslither

It coiled like a vine and crawled from her arm to his neck. It was a hair-thin thread-snake.

“P-please, spare me.”

Only then did the guard open his mouth, trembling.

The Lamia yawned and asked with a bored expression, “Why should I?”

“I have a wife at home. A small child as well…”

“…Is that so?”

For a moment Lamia seemed intrigued and leaned close to the soldier’s face. She grabbed his chin to steady it and asked, “Then I’ll ask you one question.”

“Yes, yes.”

“Who do you think is the most beautiful in the world?”

The soldier hesitated, then stammered, “Y-you are.”

“Oh, really?”

Lamia smiled brightly at the soldier’s words, nodded, patted his head approvingly and said, “I like that. I’ll spare you.”

“…Thank you.”

He wasn’t sure if he’d truly survived.

Just as the soldier breathed a sigh of relief, the gentleman watching the woman sighed deeply and said coldly, “Please, I beg you take this seriously. He has wagered everything in this east.”

“Well, the Apostle is there, so isn’t that natural?”

The gentleman clicked his tongue and shook his head at the woman’s question. “No. If some fool in the north hadn’t messed things up, we wouldn’t resort to such extreme measures. But now… there isn’t much choice.”

“Hmm, but why choose such a secluded place?”

The woman tilted her head as if puzzled.

The gentleman looked beyond the fog with a stiff expression. “There is a dangerous person in this domain. You must bind his gaze and his steps as much as possible.”

“If the Apostle says so… sounds interesting. We’ll do our best.”

The woman replied as if it didn’t matter.

North? That person? The Apostle? The soldier had no idea what they were talking about. His full attention remained on the snake coiled on his body.

But the direction the snake was heading was strange.

“W-wait. Didn’t you say you’d spare me?”

“I said I’ll spare you?”

Lamia curled the corner of her mouth into a fishy smile. The thread-snake crawling up his neck slowly thrust its head toward the soldier’s ear.

“Ah. No! Please. Please have mercy…”

The soldier screamed, his face drained white. The gentleman looking down at him was icy and indifferent, as if observing a stone.

—Ssssss

The sound of the thread-snake in his ear grew louder until the soldier’s eardrum tore and a thin red stream ran down his ear.

A scream more terrible than the young soldier’s earlier cry rang out. The empty shore echoed with it for a long time, but no one heard.

Not even the one who screamed.