Chapter 18
Even without seeing it with her own eyes, it wasn’t hard to guess what was happening.
“Aaaah, aaaaagh!”
Bongpiju’s desperate screams rang out in succession.
“Please, save me, please! Please, save me!”
Erica’s small body flinched with each scream.
Every time she did, Sebastian tightened his arms around her shoulders.
Carefully, he began stepping back, trying to move Erica as far away as possible from the horrific scene unfolding.
“Cover your ears.”
His low, firm voice commanded.
“Y-Young Lord…”
Erica, trembling in his embrace, looked up at him.
Her large eyes were brimming with tears, ready to fall at any moment.
But Sebastian couldn’t look at her face.
The situation unfolding ahead was too grave for him to take his eyes off it, not even for a moment.
Yet, as if he understood her fear without needing to see it, he urged her again with a firmer grip:
“Hurry.”
His low, commanding tone anchored Erica’s wavering heart.
“…Yes.”
Erica squeezed her eyes shut and covered her ears with her small hands.
With that, Sebastian took a few more careful steps back, leading Erica toward Milrod.
“Do we have any left?” Sebastian asked.
“Plenty,” Milrod replied.
Being in Sebastian’s arms, Erica could still hear their conversation clearly.
“Ugh, these types are a real headache,” one knight complained.
“Yeah. They don’t even give you the satisfaction of a clean kill,” another muttered.
Sebastian responded flatly, “The one before was too easy. Might as well have been bait.”
What kind of monster was it exactly?
Erica felt a brief surge of curiosity.
But Bongpiju’s relentless, horrifying screams quickly crushed any desire to look, making her body tremble as she firmly kept her hands over her ears.
As she pressed harder, the conversation became muffled.
“…hard to save…”
“…secure the perimeter first, then…”
“Alright, let’s do that.”
Sebastian’s voice cut through, hard as steel.
“What matters most is safety. Don’t let it touch you. I’ll be back soon, so stand by.”
“Yes, sir.”
Sebastian led Erica back to the ducal carriage.
He lifted her lightly and set her inside, instructing:
“Close the door like before and stay still. Everything will be fine.”
Erica nodded, and Sebastian immediately closed the door, turning to rejoin his men.
Just then, a knight who had been checking the rear returned to his post.
“What’s the size of the second Rift?” Sebastian asked.
“Smaller than the last.”
“Good. Handle it.”
At Sebastian’s curt order, the knights steeled themselves and began to engage the monster.
Meanwhile, Bongpiju appeared to have fainted from the pain she was in.
Unlike the first monster, which had a rocky appearance, the second one was more like a thick, viscous liquid.
Against a creature like that, close combat was disadvantageous.
It couldn’t be pierced or slashed, making it nearly impossible to inflict damage.
Worse, any contact would immediately cause skin to melt.
It was an enemy that would only drain their strength for little gain.
The best approach was to attack it from a distance.
Shooting fire-tipped arrows was the ideal method to burn it away, but with Bongpiju effectively held hostage, they couldn’t use that tactic.
“Can the head maid of the Marquis’ household… be saved?” one knight asked another, grimacing.
The situation was clearly grim.
Both of Bongpiju’s legs had already melted down to the bone.
Only her thighs and upper body remained intact.
Sebastian gestured toward Bongpiju with an indifferent expression.
“Is she alive?”
“For now, yes, but… there’s honestly no hope.”
Sebastian pressed his lips together tightly.
After a moment of thought, he made his decision.
“For now, we won’t use fire.”
Milrod and the knights looked shocked by the unexpected decision.
They could only assume it was for Erica’s sake.
But an order was an order.
The knights steadied their breathing and adjusted their formation.
“This will be a hassle,” one of them grumbled briefly, but no one said it was impossible.
In this case, the best option was to close the Rift first.
Once a Rift was sealed, the monsters lost their strength rapidly.
The knights split into pairs.
The mindless, gluttonous monster focused only on devouring humans, paying little attention to the knights’ movements.
Led by Milrod, the knights approached the Rift and threw something inside.
Just like with the first Rift, the swirling vortex began to flicker and eventually vanished, returning the ground to normal.
Milrod nodded toward Sebastian, signaling the next phase.
Two knights moved quickly, lifting Bongpiju’s unconscious body by her armpits to pull her away.
The moment they created enough distance, other knights prepared fire and set the monster ablaze.
“Guuuh, guuuurgh!”
The creature writhed but could not escape the flames.
With a foul stench and black smoke, its body quickly burned from the edges inward.
Thanks to sealing the Rift first, the monster was unable to resist and disintegrated completely without even leaving ashes behind.
“Situation clear.”
Finally, the knights relaxed their shoulders, letting out long breaths.
“Thankfully, the Rift was small, and it was a low-tier monster,” Milrod said.
Sebastian nodded in agreement.
“Young Lord… you need to see this,” a knight who had been tending to Bongpiju called out with a troubled expression.
“The head maid… has passed.”
“…Tch.”
The blood loss and shock had been too severe.
Sebastian rubbed his temple, looking genuinely troubled.
Milrod swallowed a heavy sigh, his face grim.
“Shall I tell her?”
“…No. I’ll do it.”
Sebastian let out another deep sigh and turned toward the carriage.
In the meantime, a blanket was draped over Bongpiju’s body.
The carriage door opened, and Erica stepped down, her face pale as paper.
Her legs seemed too weak to support her, and after stumbling several times, Sebastian had to catch her to keep her steady.
* * *
Erica’s eyes were red, looking as if she would cry at any moment, but in the end, no tears fell.
The knights, respecting her wishes, had pulled the blanket down only to her collarbone and no further.
Taking a trembling breath and closing her eyes tightly, Erica nodded, and at Sebastian’s signal, the blanket was pulled back up to cover Bongpiju’s face completely.
“…Can we bury her nearby?”
If it had been a knight, the body would have been returned to their family in the duchy, but Bongpiju did not fall into that category.
At the same time, it wasn’t right to send only her body back to the capital.
Erica’s request was reasonable, and as Sebastian silently gave permission, the knights of the Acklif Duchy stepped forward.
They immediately began digging a grave.
It wasn’t a formal burial, but it was the least they could do to show respect.
“Young Miss, what should we do with the head maid’s belongings?”
“I will check them.”
While the knights dug, Erica decided to select the burial items to be buried with Bongpiju.
She headed toward the Marquis’ carriage with Milrod.
Although Erica’s belongings had been moved to the ducal carriage, Bongpiju’s belongings were still inside the marquis’ carriage.
“I’ll look through them myself.”
Asking Milrod to stand guard, Erica climbed into the carriage alone.
Though it had only been a few days, she realized how cramped this carriage felt compared to the ducal carriage she had grown used to.
Taking a short breath, Erica steeled herself and began looking around.
Her eyes fell on a luggage bag stored under the seat.
It was, of course, Bongpiju’s.
“Let’s find it quickly.”
The burial items were just an excuse.
There was something Erica absolutely had to find in Bongpiju’s belongings.
The bag, nearly half her size, was slightly bigger than her own luggage.
With effort, Erica dragged it to the center and opened it.
She began pulling out clothes and miscellaneous items one by one.
Finally, at the very bottom, she felt something hard.
‘…Found it.’
