Chapter 48
I ran through the forest.
Elena carried Phila on her back while Varie led the way, dealing with the monsters.
They moved away from the Monster Wave, but monsters that had likewise strayed from its path chased after the women with crazed eyes.
Phila raised her staff.
Still riding on Elena's back, she chanted a spell.
"Explode!"
Red magic unleashed its power among the monsters.
The monsters were swept away by the intense explosion.
A few pieces of monster remains fell at Elena's feet, and even from quite a distance, the shockwave pushed against her back.
"It's around here!"
Elena shouted after surveying the terrain.
Along with it, a horrid smell brushed against the tip of her nose.
The foul stench of rotting entrails filled the air.
The corpses of monsters such as wolves, orcs, and trolls lay strewn across the ground.
Following with her eyes the corpses swept away by the traces of Uncle's sword aura, she saw bloodstains and scraps of corpses stretching in a long line across the grass.
It formed a single line.
The monster remains formed a line, as though the monsters that had chased them had been cut down one after another while fleeing, and at the end of that line, they came face-to-face with a familiar sight.
"Do monsters like this appear during a Monster Wave?"
Varie spotted a giant wolf.
A giant wolf with part of its head cut away.
Elena's pupils trembled violently.
It was the monster that had led the pack that had driven her into a corner.
'Uncle won.'
He had done all of that by himself.
The number of monsters they had found so far alone was enough to make her wonder whether Uncle could still have any stamina left, but the traces he had left behind continued farther inward.
The ranks of the corpses rose the farther they followed Uncle's traces.
From wolves to orcs.
From orcs to trolls.
From trolls to Iron-Armored Boars.
Even the Iron-Armored Boar's steel armor had been split apart like paper.
And ogres.
"Eck did this?"
Varie unconsciously swallowed as she looked at the ogre's corpse, split in half.
"How many A-ranks are there?"
Besides the giant wolf and the ogres, A-rank monsters were mixed in among the lower-rank monsters.
"Impressive."
Varie's voice held a note of awe.
How many knights could do something like this?
Though Varie had been scrutinizing the wounds Eck had left on the monsters,
"E-explode!"
A thunderous boom erupted behind them.
Hot air and a shockwave slammed into their backs.
The fierce light of magic condensed at the tip of Phila's staff and exploded, sending flying the monsters that had discovered the women and were flaring their nostrils.
"Why is the doll in a monster's hand...?"
Light flared from Phila's body as she unleashed explosive magic once more.
"Boom!!!"
Light burst in the middle of the forest.
The trees were swept away as well, and nothing remained at the center of the blast.
Destructive power surged like a volcano.
With an ear-splitting rupture, dust covered the sky, and shattered monster remains poured down like rain.
It was overwhelming destructive power.
Varie widened her eyes and broke out in a cold sweat at the power of the explosive magic.
"Eck, Eck is in danger! The thing he said he would use in an emergency is in a monster's hands! If we don't find him quickly, he'll really be in danger!"
Phila's face was covered in cold sweat and tears.
Her usual cringing, timid appearance was nowhere to be seen.
She desperately wanted to rescue Eck.
"We don't have time to waste here, but the trail becomes messy from this point on."
The monster corpses trail off in the middle, and the footprints scatter in every direction.
That was why Varie could not immediately run ahead.
"If I'd known, I would've brought along a hunter."
"Sir, I think it might be that way!"
Elena, who had been examining the trail with an eagle eye, pointed in one direction.
Snake tracks were etched into the ground there.
The snake tracks gouging the ground were unusually thick. They were large enough to belong to a snake that could swallow a horse whole. There were several snake monsters of that size.
Even Varie had to summon her courage to take a step in that direction.
"Uncle must be where the stronger monsters are! If Uncle is in danger, he has to be over there!"
"I see. Let's go."
Varie wrapped mana around her sword and ran along the snake tracks.
Before long, the colors of the forest began to change grotesquely.
The green leaves and brown earth had all faded to gray, losing their vitality.
At the center lay the corpse of an overwhelmingly massive creature.
A giant snake with its head cut off.
It was a Basilisk.
Blood poured from the severed neck and formed a pool.
Everything around it was gray.
A frog monster turned to stone in a pose as though it had been caught mid-leap, a bat monster with its wings spread, and even an orc that had hardened without knowing what had happened.
They had all turned to stone.
Varie's entire body broke out in goosebumps, and she raised an arm to block Elena's approach.
Phila went pale and shouted as well.
"B-Basilisk poison. Don't touch it! C-cloth! I read about it in a book—you have to wet a cloth and cover your respiratory passages!"
Phila hurriedly took water and handkerchiefs from inside her clothes and handed them to the other two.
Covering her mouth and nose with a handkerchief, Varie stared at the monster with disbelieving eyes.
"The Basilisk... is dead?"
That Basilisk?
Her mouth fell halfway open.
It was a monster at the very top of the A-rank. The manuals explicitly stated that even if a knight order intervened, its vicious petrifying poison would inevitably cause casualties.
That monster lay dead with its head cut off.
"Eck, were you this powerful?"
Unable to tell whether it was awe or shock, Varie muttered as she searched for Eck around the Basilisk.
Just then, as the three of them searched the area,
Beyond the Basilisk,
they saw a place where monsters had gathered in a circle.
Orcs, goblins, and a pack of wolves glared murderously at something. They had surrounded someone in a spot untouched by the petrifying poison.
Through a gap between the monsters, a cloak of a familiar color caught their eyes.
A goblin threw a stone it had picked up from the ground.
It flew along a parabola.
It struck the head of a human-shaped figure with its back against a tree.
At that moment, the sound of the last thread of reason snapping cleanly in two rang out.
Bright blue mana tangled together explosively as Elena shot forward.
The mana dwelling in her sword surged violently upward.
"Move!!!"
A storm swept through the area.
Sword aura that tore through space wiped out dozens of monsters in an instant.
As the wall of monsters collapsed, Elena came face-to-face with the person collapsed in front of the tree.
It was Uncle.
"Uncle!!!"
Elena ran to Uncle.
Uncle did not move at all.
His body was cold.
He did not appear to be breathing.
His bloodless face was peaceful, as though he had fallen asleep forever.
"N-no..."
Elena shook Uncle's chest.
"U-Uncle, you can't fall asleep here."
She shook him and tried to wake him, but
"Uncle? Uncle!"
There was no response.
Thick tears fell one after another.
It felt as though the world were crumbling.
The back that had saved her, guided her, patted her head, and protected her by standing between her and the monsters was being crushed.
With trembling hands, she grabbed Uncle's body and shook him.
"U-Uncle. Please open your eyes. Please..."
Her voice cracked horribly.
She buried her face in his chest and pleaded.
'Liar.'
He couldn't be dead.
He couldn't have died after fighting this much.
You said you'd retire and live comfortably.
You said you'd make me take care of you while you lived comfortably.
Was all of that a lie?
"Uncle... sob..."
This was a lie.
"...."
Just then, Varie ran over, removed her glove, and pressed her fingers deeply against Eck's neck.
She held her breath and focused on the sensation at her fingertips.
Her eyes flashed sharply.
"Don't cry."
Varie let out a sigh of relief.
"He's alive."
Elena raised her head.
With her face covered in tears and snot, she stared blankly up at Varie.
"The poison paralyzed his entire body. His breathing and pulse have merely become extremely shallow. His life isn't in danger."
Varie saw the petrifying poison on Eck's clothes, stripped them off him, and carried him on her back.
"I-I'll carry him."
"Don't. This isn't the time to argue about that. You carry Phila."
"Huff... huff... E-Eck?"
Phila, who had barely made it there while avoiding the petrifying poison, saw him on Varie's back and went from worried to relieved, then back to worried again.
"U-uh... yes! S-Sir, please take good care of Uncle!"
"Heh. All right. Leave him to me."
Elena, too, understood the situation calmly and carried Phila on her back.
"Kree?"
"Kwararar?"
Monsters that had strayed from the Monster Wave caught the scent of women and began appearing one after another.
Varie took the lead, raising the sword in one hand to open a path.
***
Two days passed.
It took a full two days for the effects of the petrifying poison to completely wear off.
The sensation in my fingertips was still prickling.
Thanks to the antidote Phila had brought, I seemed unlikely to suffer any lasting aftereffects, but since no one knew what other effects the Basilisk's poison might have, they forcibly laid me in bed and made me recuperate.
As I lay in bed, alarm bells rang outside the window.
Ding-! Ding-! Ding-!
It was a signal that the battle on the walls was continuing.
Whenever a powerful monster attacked the walls, the alarm bells rang urgently.
But the bells, which had rung dozens of times a day, had fallen to five or six times yesterday. That probably meant the situation had stabilized rather than worsened.
The door opened.
"Uncle, I'm here."
Elena entered dressed in armor.
She had dirt and dried blood smeared here and there, but she did not appear to be injured.
Elena split her time between shifts on the walls and came to see me whenever she could.
She looked more exhausted with every passing day, but her eyes always gleamed with vitality.
Breathing heavily, she gulped down the water prepared in the house.
"How are you feeling today? Is there any discomfort? Even something minor is fine."
"I'm better than yesterday thanks to you."
"Hehe. Then I'll wash you now."
Elena wet a towel and wiped my bare upper body. The heat from detoxifying the poison made me sweat profusely, and she scrubbed me down with the towel.
As Elena wiped me down, I heard about the state of the battle.
Since the clans had prepared for an emergency in advance, they formed up and responded the moment news of the Monster Wave arrived.
Potions were plentiful, and so was equipment.
Most importantly, thanks to the nobles confronting the Monster Wave with their knights in tow, the casualties were nearly nonexistent compared to the scale of the battle.
Elena clenched her fist.
"Everyone says it would've been a real disaster if Lady Lisette hadn't warned the guild in advance. They said Lady Lisette was the one who called in the knights, too."
"Yeah."
I felt relieved.
Even while I was laid out, the groundwork I had prepared in advance was working as planned.
"Uncle."
Elena looked up at me.
"Did Lady Lisette tell you to entrust the dungeon survey mission to me, too?"
"Well, more or less."
I nodded vaguely.
"Why are you asking?"
"Hehe. I guess Uncle really is someone who does amazing things. Taking care of someone like you makes me feel like I've become amazing, too."
"Stop buttering me up."
After changing me into fresh clothes, Elena finished tidying up.
Ding-! Ding-! Ding-!
"Ah, I have to go now."
Elena picked up the sword standing beside the door.
"I'll be back soon."
When I looked out the window, I saw Elena's back as she headed toward the walls.
Noticing my gaze, Elena turned around and waved vigorously.
"That girl, does she already think I'm an old man?"
Elena disappeared from view, and as the alarm bells stopped, the room grew quiet.
As I deeply inhaled the air of the quiet room, an ominous voice tickled my ear.