~Chapter 22~
I started to feel uneasy.
Why… why isn’t he back yet? It feels like it’s been at least 10 minutes.
I didn’t want to shout his name and end up attracting some monster, so I just stood there frozen, staring at Maximus with wide, nervous eyes.
“Do I… need to go check?”
At my question, Maximus snorted and gently bumped his head against me.
I took a step back, startled.
Ugh, why is he not coming back? This is getting scary.
Unfortunately, I’m an impatient person, so once the 10-minute mark passed, I started to get antsy.
I clenched my teeth, grabbed my bag, and slung it over my shoulder.
I still had a few magic scrolls I could use instead of cash, so even if a monster showed up, I’d probably be fine.
With that thought, I cautiously started walking toward where Jin had gone, taking Maximus with me.
And I immediately regretted it.
“…What the hell is this?”
As I pushed past the bushes, I saw trees shattered and splattered with dark purple slime, the stench of death hanging in the air, animal corpses scattered everywhere—and Jin, smashing the skull of some weird blue skeleton with a sword, tentacles growing out of its head.
“…La—dy?”
Jin whipped his head toward me, his face pale, and yelled in shock, dark purple goo dripping from his head.
“Why are you HERE!?!”
CRACK! I could hear bones snapping loud and clear. Maximus stomped his foot hard beside me.
But I couldn’t move. I was too stunned by what I was seeing.
“Dammit, what are you doing?! Get out of here!”
My head started pounding like it was going to split open, and I collapsed to the ground, holding my forehead.
“Whoa, hey, hey! Can’t we talk this out? I mean, moving as a skeleton even after death? Isn’t that like… grave disrespect or something? Huh?!—Agh!”
Jin dodged a black tentacle swinging toward him.
SHLASH! With a sharp sound, the tentacle was sliced clean off, but the ones growing out of the skeleton’s body started squirming like worms, twitching madly before sinking into the ground.
FWIP! Jin pulled out a dagger from his belt and stabbed the ground where the tentacles disappeared, channeling aura into it.
Suddenly the ground turned black, and a huge clump of tentacles burst out of the dirt, twitching like crazy.
“Goddamn it.”
I couldn’t help but curse.
Why? Because I recognized those crazy octopus-like tentacles!
Why are those things showing up now? They’re not supposed to!
“Stop fighting it and come over here!”
I shouted at the top of my lungs. My head still felt like it was going to explode.
“Believe me, Lady, I’d love to!”
Jin rolled forward, pulled his sword from the ground, and threw it backward.
A snake-like tentacle crawling up a tree got sliced down and started flailing.
Jin swung his sword sideways again.
CRACK! The ground tore open, and more hidden tentacles started rising up.
“What even is that thing?! I’ve never seen a monster like this—”
“Just get over here, now!”
I jumped onto Maximus’s back in a panic.
That’s the final boss! Why the hell is it showing up now?! It’s not supposed to appear yet!
My brain went blank.
That monster can’t be killed by anyone except the male lead!
From what I remember, it was a monster created through Vessiel’s experiments, using powers from another world.
I guess they wanted to turn the story into some kind of apocalypse? In the end, those monsters kept growing, spreading, and nearly swallowed the whole empire.
Only right before everything was destroyed, our oh-so-great main character repented for his sins, rushed into battle, and almost died until the female lead saved him.
Sounds simple when I explain it like that, huh?
Yeah, I thought so too—until I saw it for real. This is NOT simple. This is terrifying.
“Whoa, whoa, Lady—what are you doing?!”
My brain was fried. I couldn’t even think straight.
I looked around.
The place looked completely different from where I’d just been.
Like an infected area—no life, just decay. Even a big building in the distance was covered in strange moss.
I grabbed Maximus’s reins and charged toward Jin.
“Lady!”
“Enough talking—grab my hand! Now!”
Maximus neighed and reared up wildly.
He was clearly terrified.
Can’t blame him.
“Just hurry! We can’t beat that thing—grab on before it’s too late!”
“…What?”
Jin blinked, dumbfounded, but quickly snapped to his senses, ran toward me, and jumped up after grabbing my hand.
“This was the direction we were headed, right? So just go! Lead the way!”
I clung to my bag, now in front of me, and with trembling hands pulled out a scroll.
A stealth scroll should do it. It has to.
I ripped the scroll apart. That thing cost a freaking million gold, but honestly, cheap price for staying alive.
As Jin took the reins and held them tightly, Maximus started thrashing again.
The entire path ahead was covered in that purple slime.
Fog had suddenly appeared too, making it almost impossible to see anything.
And it was the middle of the day! It was one o’clock in the afternoon, for crying out loud!
Shhhk… shhhhkkk.
Some creepy sound scratched at my ears.
“NEIIIGH—!”
Maximus couldn’t run properly and kept crying out. Jin grunted in frustration and grabbed my waist tightly.
Then he handed me the reins and held Maximus’s head still.
It looked like he might fall off any second.
“This is temporary, but I’ll have to mess with his brain using magic. He might look a little undead, so don’t freak out.”
Jin said it with total seriousness, and just like that—Maximus’s body froze.
Then his eyes started glowing red.
His breath turned icy, his legs twisted unnaturally, and he suddenly started sprinting like a machine.
I may not be the smartest person in this world, but I knew what that magic was.
It was forbidden magic.
I’d heard rumors that mages sometimes used it, but never imagined Jin, a swordsman, would use it.
“I trust you’ll keep this a secret, Lady.”
I nodded quickly. I didn’t know what was going on, but escaping came first.
> “Otherworldly monsters slithered through the capital’s sewers like maggots.
Damian smiled as he watched fools die. Nothing in this world could defeat him.
Nothing beneath his feet could escape his control—not even the twisted creatures summoned from another realm.
They, too, were helpless before him.”
That scene from the original novel popped into my head. What was I even supposed to do with that?
The male lead isn’t even 27 yet—we’re not even near the ending of the story! I figured if I just found the male lead early, we’d be safe from all the world-ending stuff.
Clearly, I was wrong.
Very wrong.
Vessiel hasn’t even teamed up with the male lead yet, and already a tentacle monster appears?
As we rode through the foggy forest, the gross black tentacles wrapped around rotting trees looked like they were waving at me, like:
“Hey~ it’s me! Your favorite nightmare~!”
Then I heard a groan from behind. I turned around, panicked.
“…Are you hurt?!”
“Shh.”
Jin covered my mouth and urged the horse to go even faster.
I could feel his back getting wet against mine.
“It’s nothing serious. Just don’t fall off. I let my guard down for a moment and got hit, but I’ll survive.”
The more we galloped down the narrow trail, the thicker the fog got.
Black goo dripped from the trees now.
Between the trees, I could see half-destroyed buildings here and there.
“…Looks like they were demolished recently.”
Jin, looking unusually serious for once, muttered.
“There was only one high-level monster in that area back there, so I think someone placed it there on purpose. But now that we’re deeper in, I don’t sense any hostility. Not sure that thing earlier even counts as a living creature.”
He tightened his grip around my waist. His nerves were showing.
