Chapter : 39
If Vivian—who’d been dragged into this because of me—got even a little hurt, I knew I would never be able to forgive myself.
As that thought cooled Rahel’s blue eyes like ice, she suddenly sensed someone approaching from ahead.
Noticing it, Rahel quickly used teleportation magic and moved up into a nearby tree.
At the same time, men who looked like they were part of the kidnapper’s group appeared.
“What’s there to be here? Didn’t you just see an animal or something?”
“No, I’m sure it was a human form….”
While the men murmured among themselves, Rahel used teleportation again to move to a tree in the direction where they’d appeared.
Fighting them would waste time. Besides, there could be more ahead; there was no point in getting into a fight she could avoid.
Rahel kept teleporting from tree to tree deeper into the forest.
After going some distance, she saw another group of men. Two more men joined them from among the trees.
“Huh? What are you doing here? Where’s the hostage?”
“The good child is asleep in Dreamland. They said someone like me—a high-class asset—couldn’t be allowed to enjoy life, so bring them here.”
“What if someone else grabs the hostage in the meantime?”
“Don’t worry. A few of our guys are hiding near the cave. Even if they try, they’re like rats in a jar. We’ve got our people spread out through the forest.”
Vivian was in the cave.
Gathering that from their talk, Rahel continued teleporting through the trees toward the forest interior.
How much farther had she gone?
…!
When Rahel landed on a tree across from her target via teleportation, she suddenly felt dizzy and staggered.
Teleportation moves the whole body to another space — it requires complicated calculations and consumes a lot of mana. Even for Rahel, who had been steadily training in magic, she’d never used this much mana at once before; her body was paying the price.
She gritted her teeth.
[It’s not the princess’s fault. She did nothing wrong; she’s being treated unfairly.]
Vivian had stayed by her side even knowing it might be dangerous. She was Rahel’s only friend who’d done so.
Rahel didn’t want Vivian to regret that choice.
‘I can’t collapse here.’
Pulling herself together, Rahel prepared to use teleportation again.
But at that moment, her footing gave out as her mind wavered.
She barely regained her balance, and the leaves she stepped on rustled.
Right then, one of the men under the tree kicked off and shot up the trunk in an instant.
“I thought it was an owl.”
Rahel tried to dodge, but the man’s hand that grabbed her sleeve was faster.
“You were just a little rat, huh?”
The man yanked Rahel and threw her down from the tree.
“Ugh…!”
Rahel expelled a painful breath. The shock and pain that spread through her body stole her breath for a moment.
She had pushed herself to the limit many times during magic and sword training, but this was her first real combat.
“A brat came all the way here alone….”
The men sneered as they closed in.
Four adult men. Fear washed over her instinctively as she found herself in a clearly disadvantaged position, but when she pictured the frightened Vivian alone, that fear flipped into anger.
Rahel’s expression hardened at once.
“You either have no fear, or you’re insulting us!”
She teleported to avoid a man lunging with a sword, then immediately fired an offensive spell.
“Kraah!”
The man hit by her magic flew back and slammed into a nearby tree.
They had underestimated her, thinking she was only about ten years old. Now they were startled by a magic speed that rivaled ordinary magicians.
‘What, the magic speed of a ten-year-old…’
A sense of danger finally crept into them.
‘We shouldn’t underestimate her.’
The men tightened their grips on their swords and surged at Rahel.
Rahel had already used a lot of mana and was struggling, but if she loosened her guard even briefly a blade would come at her, so she had no choice but to fight fiercely.
Despite the odds, she quickly knocked them back one by one with magic, keeping her distance and gaining the upper hand.
But after repeating that several times, her vision began to swim. She could feel her mental limits approaching.
So far she’d only attacked enough to avoid killing them, but she couldn’t win like this. They wanted to kill her, and she didn’t want to kill them.
‘In the end, I’ll have to kill them to end this. Or…’
I’ll be killed by them.
For a child who’d long since grasped the concept of death, deciding someone else’s life or death was as terrifying as dying herself.
While Rahel hesitated, one of the men had closed in and charged at her with his sword raised.
Her heart began pounding.
‘I have to kill him.’
If she didn’t want to die.
Her wavering gaze slowly darkened with murderous intent.
A moment ago she might have teleported away and struck with some appropriate spell, but this time she didn’t dodge; she cast a powerful spell.
Then —
“Rahel! Watch out!”
A familiar voice rang out, and a huge dark shadow appeared, swallowing the man who had been about to strike Rahel.
Gulp.
Silence followed.
Rahel, staring at the scene with wide eyes, turned toward the voice. Before she could register anything else, someone ran up and flung themselves into an embrace.
“Are you okay?”
Vivian, hair all disheveled, grabbed Rahel’s cheek and checked her over.
Vivian was a little dirty, but otherwise unharmed.
Seeing Vivian so more worried about Rahel than frightened, Rahel’s tension eased and a faint laugh escaped her.
‘Who was actually kidnapped?’
When Rahel nodded to show she was fine, Vivian finally relaxed and smiled broadly.
But the joy of their reunion was short-lived.
“You monster!”
Two more men charged at the black shadow that had swallowed their comrade.
Before they could make a proper attack, they too were swallowed by the shadow, just like their companion.
The shadow, having taken three adult men, writhed.
“Ugh! Ugh!”
From inside the shadow faint male voices could still be heard, so they seemed to be alive.
‘What on earth is this…?’
Rahel watched the black shadow that had swallowed the three men with suspicion.
Vivian, who was watching the same thing, burst out angrily.
“They’re bad uncles—kill them, Kkamang!” (literally: “Blackie!” — affectionate name for the shadow)
At Vivian’s command, the shadow trembled as if responding.
At the same time, something gnawing and grotesque could be heard from inside, followed by screams.
“Aaah!”
Hearing that scream, Vivian flinched and then hastily changed her command.
“No—wait. Don’t kill them. Just break their arms and legs!”
The dark spirit obeyed Vivian’s revised order. It heaved a few more times, then spat the men back out — like someone spitting out chewed food.
As Vivian had ordered, the men lay sprawled on the ground with broken arms and legs, only able to groan and unable to move.
Having finished its task, the dark spirit shrank to the size of the children’s fists and settled on Vivian’s head.
Rahel watched the suddenly tame creature with suspicion and asked, “Vivian, what on earth is that?”
“Oh. This is a dark spirit….” Vivian started to explain casually, but when she heard the injured men groaning, she grabbed Rahel’s hand.
This wasn’t the important thing right now.
“Let’s get out of here first. We can talk—”
But before Vivian could finish, a dagger flew from somewhere.
Rahel noticed it and shoved Vivian out of the way at the last second, but she couldn’t completely avoid it.
“Ugh….”
A small cut marred Vivian’s pale cheek.
Seeing the blood on Vivian’s cheek, Rahel’s eyes, which had been as calm as a still lake, flared like blue flames.
Now she understood.
This cruel world we live in requires the resolve to kill someone in order to survive.
