Chapter 22
No one spoke first after what had happened in an instant.
Melony frowned. Her gaze naturally shifted to Kain’s left thigh, where the arrow had struck.
Something there had been grazed by the arrow—and shattered.
“Kain.”
Only then did Melony meet Kain’s face, serious for the first time.
“Explain, Melony.”
The words she was about to say were spoken first by Glen. Both Melony and Kain turned their heads at the same time.
“Why did you protect him?”
“Does it look like I protected him to you?”
“More than enough.”
Even faced with Glen’s angry expression, Melony simply looked at him.
“How does this look like protection?”
Her voice was cold as she spoke.
“We’ve already been delayed long enough since you showed up.”
She didn’t forget to glare irritably at Glen, making him flinch.
“And you wasted even more time picking a pointless fight with Kain.”
“I—I just couldn’t understand why you’d travel with a vampire.”
“I never asked you to understand. And I’m not done talking.”
Melony stepped closer to Glen and continued flatly.
“If Kain gets injured, it slows us down. That means even more delay.”
“So you weren’t protecting me. That’s disappointing.”
She lightly ignored the gentle voice coming from beside her.
“We need to get to Muto Village quickly if we’re going back to Clovis. Isn’t that right?”
“Well… yes.”
“And after all that, you still think I was protecting him?”
“No. No, I don’t.”
As if she had expected that answer, Melony scoffed.
“Never argue with Kain in front of me again. It’s loud, childish, and irritating.”
Glen, unable to refute her even once, slumped his shoulders.
Melony spun around and faced Kain, who had been grinning at her side.
“Now it’s your turn.”
“Huh?”
“Explain.”
“What?”
“What was in your pocket.”
“Ah.”
Pretending to remember only now, even though he clearly knew—it was infuriating. The crease between Melony’s brows refused to smooth out.
“Right.”
Rummaging through his pocket, Kain dumped an empty vial and fragments onto the ground. The bottle struck by the arrow had been completely shattered.
Despite the glass shards, Kain brushed them off with his bare hands, cutting his fingertips slightly.
“You—your hand….”
“You already know.”
Shrugging, Kain looked quietly at his fingertips. Before long, the wound slowly healed.
Watching that, Glen’s face filled with disgust.
Melony, on the other hand, showed no reaction, as if she’d only just remembered.
Kain pulled something else from his other pocket. Inside it, pitch-black smoke swirled in slow circles.
“Good thing this one didn’t break.”
“And what is that now?”
“An antidote.”
“…An antidote? For the smoke I absorbed earlier?”
“That’s right.”
Melony narrowed her eyes.
She couldn’t trust Kain at all. She didn’t know what she’d absorbed, nor whether this black substance was truly an antidote.
Snatching the vial from him, Melony glared at Kain.
I’m so angry I could kill him.
She wanted to grab him by the collar and force him to explain everything, instead of this cryptic back-and-forth.
But she couldn’t.
During the short time she’d spent with Kain, she’d realized something.
Ordinary threats didn’t work on him. Only patience—coaxing him slowly—would eventually get the answers she wanted.
This is the worst.
Knowing that, Melony spoke while holding herself back as much as possible.
“So? What exactly did I absorb?”
“Nightmares.”
“And why were you carrying that?”
“When we were at Bella’s place, I was planning to slip it to you secretly.”
“To me, who sleeps lightly? You think I wouldn’t notice?”
Kain’s lips curved upward slightly. Seeing that, Melony froze.
“Looks like Bella handles powers related to dreams.”
“That’s right. I knew you’d figure it out quickly.”
Kain’s gaze shifted to Kinaz, sitting quietly on Melony’s shoulder.
“Bella put you into a deep sleep and tried to scatter nightmares. I happened to see it.”
“……”
“So I brought Kinaz with me. In other words, Kinaz was for surveillance.”
At the sound of its name, the snake lifted its head. Melony looked at it briefly, then forward again.
“Why would Bella do that to me?”
“Why do you think? Bella hates hunters.”
“But back then, she said to me—”
“No matter how much you told her that day not to kill vampires for no reason…”
Kain closed his eyes briefly, then opened them.
“She must’ve remembered how you hunted vampires before.”
“……”
“You killed countless of our kin, didn’t you?”
“You—!”
Melony blocked Glen with an outstretched arm. Her expression remained blank, but her gaze grew colder than ever.
“So? Either way, you had the nightmare, and it broke and got absorbed into me.”
“In the end, yes.”
“Then why were you holding onto it?”
“In case it came in handy someday?”
The frown on Melony’s face deepened visibly.
“What happens when that nightmare gets absorbed?”
“Ah. Guess I didn’t explain that part.”
His gentle, slow tone scraped at her nerves yet again. Taking a deep breath, Melony waited for his answer.
Kain’s gaze landed on the antidote in her hand.
“Every time you sleep, you relive the most horrific and painful memory among those the original owner had.”
“……”
“And the one who absorbs it eventually can’t sleep from the torment, until they…”
“Die, or go mad.”
“Correct.”
Melony stared at the antidote.
Do I trust this, or not?
Her most horrific memory—there was a dream from her past that still resurfaced from time to time.
To have that dream every time I sleep…
A hollow laugh escaped her.
This was the worst possible situation.
“Isn’t this your power? You’re not lying on purpose, are you?”
Right on cue, Glen voiced his suspicion—carefully watching Melony as he spoke.
She didn’t have the luxury to care. Melony shook the antidote vial. The smoke inside swayed like liquid.
“This—is it really an antidote?”
“Of course. I took the antidote from Bella too.”
Kain reached out and lightly tapped Kinaz’s head.
“It’s true, right?”
Kinaz immediately nodded up and down.
Strangely enough, Melony trusted Kinaz more than Kain. Even though Kinaz was technically Kain’s familiar and thus the same being.
“…I’ll believe it.”
“Mel, isn’t that a bit harsh? You trust Kinaz more than me?”
“Obviously.”
The moment she answered, she opened the vial and drank it.
What had looked like smoke turned into liquid the instant she swallowed it.
It had no color, no scent.
Even so, the uneasy feeling refused to fade.
“You were planning to use this on me, weren’t you?”
“Absolutely not.”
Kain denied it, but Melony couldn’t shake her suspicion. Still, she didn’t press further.
Too much time had already been wasted. They needed to hurry.
Lifting her head, Melony fixed her gaze on the faint light visible through the dense trees.
“It’ll be evening soon. Let’s move.”
As soon as Melony started walking, the two men followed behind her.
Perhaps because of her warning, Glen no longer snarled at Kain.
Kain, strolling casually, soon drew up beside Melony.
“But there’s nothing in Muto Village.”
“…What?”
“After the hunters’ purge ten years ago, Muto Village became ruins.”
Melony and Glen stopped at the same time.
“Either way, Bella said the suspicious person went to Muto Village.”
“A ruined place with nothing there?”
Thinking over Kain’s words, Melony sighed. Then she lifted her foot and kicked Kain hard in the shin.
“Ugh!”
The impact made Kain stumble, his knee buckling.
Apparently unsatisfied, Melony followed up by punching him squarely on the head.
“You knew all this and didn’t say a word?”
“That one really hurt.”
Kain collapsed onto the ground, grinning. He didn’t look hurt at all.
Only Glen, completely bewildered, stepped closer to Melony.
“Melony, what’s wrong?”
“Haah……”
Letting out a deep breath, Melony tried to kick him again, but Kain got up and dodged backward.
“He scammed me.”
From the start, Bella had fed her false information—and Kain had known it all along, pretending ignorance.
A suspicious figure heading toward ruins while searching for Immortel, the forbidden fruit.
A place where nothing existed.
“Mel.”
Though he’d clearly moved away, Kain was suddenly right in front of her.
He tapped the restraining collar around his neck with a finger. It crackled, scorching his fingertip, but Kain didn’t even twitch.
“I was forced to wear this—did you really think I’d obediently tell you the truth?”
