Chapter 10
“Grrr!”
The werewolf leaped straight at Diarin.
To a monster that had been stripped of everything except its instinct as a predator, Diarin was prey that was far too vulnerable—and far too tempting.
Just before its steel-like fangs could tear into her delicate neck—
Slash.
The werewolf was split cleanly in half, still in the middle of its charge.
Before the fierce gleam in its eyes could even return to its proper place, and before the werewolf could comprehend its own death, red wings stretched out from Diarin’s back like a monster and swallowed the werewolf in one bite.
It happened in an instant.
The werewolf’s corpse was completely erased from the world.
〈This werewolf appears to have been the leader of the pack. Its amount of mana was far greater than the others.〉
Lor, who had cleanly devoured the corpse, spoke.
At that moment, Diarin hurriedly pulled a handkerchief from inside her clothes.
Hack!
Diarin spat blood onto the ground and quickly wiped her mouth with the handkerchief.
“Young Lady! Lady Conclister!”
With truly frightening speed, Sir Ramde came riding after her. Finding her this quickly on such a dark mountain road was an impressive feat in itself.
I heard he won the knightly tournament held a few days ago.
I did not think he was originally such an exceptional knight. How strange.
Then again, he survived beneath the Water Gate Stone, so perhaps his skills improved considerably.
Ramde jumped down from his horse as though he had been shot from a bow.
In an instant, he was standing in front of Diarin.
“Are you all right? Are you injured anywhere? The monsters kept blocking the road, so I—”
“I’m fine. The werewolf dragged me all the way here and then disappeared over there.”
“Phew…… Thank goodness.”
A deep sigh of relief escaped him.
It seemed Ramde had hacked his way through countless monsters on his way here, because his appearance was a complete mess.
His thick, fluffy crimson hair, reminiscent of a brown bear and exactly the same color as his eyes, was also completely disheveled by the wind.
Well, if you only looked at his appearance……
Ramde almost looked like someone who had been kidnapped and then released.
Despite looking like that, Ramde carefully circled around the carriage, inspecting the area.
“Sir Knight! Sir Knight!”
“I’m over here! I’m here!”
A group carrying torches appeared in the darkness.
Ramde used an emergency magical artifact to reflect the light back toward them, then, without lowering his guard, turned his gaze toward Diarin.
At that moment, Ramde’s eyes widened.
Diarin, who had been staring toward the forest, suppressed a cough and quietly spat out blood.
She did it with the ease of someone who had coughed up blood hundreds, even thousands, of times.
But what shocked Ramde even more was the calmness on Diarin’s face.
Just how often had she vomited blood for her to be that unfazed?
……Could it be that Young Lady is suffering from a serious illness?
Was that why she had given him a written pledge saying it was all right for him to kill her?
If that’s the case, then all this time, I……
Had he been showing murderous intent toward and treating so carelessly a frail lady who was living on borrowed time?
Ramde, a knight to the very marrow of his bones, found his mind thrown into complete chaos in an instant.
His pride as a knight crumbled, and he could not even bring himself to look Diarin directly in the eye.
