Episode 258. contact (1)
It is said that creatures come into contact with the Supreme Being only twice in their lives.
At birth and at death.
Did you say that God appears and gives life at the moment life begins, and appears again at the moment of death and takes that life away?
I know this because I was born and died once, but there is no such thing.
In other words, it is unlikely that ordinary humans will encounter God.
But I think we meet quite often.
Of course, this is never a good thing.
“The vessel of power has become much more massive than before.”
I am so moved that I don’t know what to do when you give such a glorious compliment to this miserable being.
I don’t know if this will be reciprocated, but following my instinct, I naturally took out Kayram and pointed the blade at him.
“Do you see me as your enemy?”
“At least they don’t see me as an ally.”
Sabulom, god of sand.
He is the one who tried to kill me 7 years ago at the Nodeli Ruins using Set, who was in a state of The Absolute Coma.
It makes no sense to look at it positively now.
“There is still life in the eyes.”
“Then, is there a reason to look favorably on a god who first shook his fist without any explanation before meeting him?”
Sabulom slowly lifted his chin and raised the corners of his mouth.
“Rest assured. Even though it’s not Spain, I have no intention of making this a place for you.”
“I guess you didn’t think it could be a place for that body?”
It seems like he was stimulated by my provocation.
His arms, spread wide open, were suddenly clenched into fists in both hands.
“There is no other reason why I took over this unintelligent body. Just to protect my territory. Just as you too are trying to protect your beings from Rummendel. That’s why I’ve never taken anyone’s side. “It was like that before and it will be like that again in the future.”
The moment Rummendel was mentioned, my eyes widened involuntarily.
Why did such a neutral person come here?
“So, I will warn you, heir. “Do not make my current neutral boundaries unclear.”
With his warning, a sandstorm escaped from his body.
“Unless you want this sand to block your vision.”
All I could do was snort.
“However, in some cases, it may be the other way around.”
“… … ?”
“Which one it will be is up to you.”
However, the last words were strangely annoying.
In some cases, it could be the other way around?
So does that mean you can help me?
The more I come into contact with them, the more I feel that they are a people that I already knew but did not know.
After saying those words, Sabulom smiled and lowered his head.
Then after a while,
The boy, who had returned to his original fool prince, shouted with a dazed look on his face.
“Ah-oh! “This damned god appears all the time?”
Then he looked at me again and asked quietly.
“How are you, Sian? To soothe this sad feeling, let’s spar once… … !”
I left the place without looking back.
* * *
The eventful day ended and the next morning dawned.
Lunav, who had been concentrating all night on lifting the barrier, succeeded in lifting it only when dawn broke.
Accordingly, the tour group immediately reorganized a search party to track Duke Berthe and Eshel.
“Why don’t you close your eyes for a moment? Is it okay to move like this without resting? … .”
“I know my body best. “Don’t worry, you can move around enough.”
Schurz asked worriedly, but Runab firmly denied it.
Contrary to what I thought would be fatigue from working all night, her eyelids did not droop one bit.
Rather, my eyes burned as I was so caught up in the excitement of entering a new, unknown area.
The tour group inspected the border gate again.
As the final inspection continued, Resimus, who felt uneasy, looked at Arin and whispered.
“The princess. “Do you really need to go?”
“Of course, right? “We can’t delay this any longer since we don’t know when the reinforcements we requested from the castle will arrive.”
“However, our forces are too weak to explore this unknown area where some danger may lurk.”
The knights on the front lines who were originally supposed to protect the traveling party from demonic beasts have now become enemies.
“If it doesn’t work out, how about just waiting outside, princess? “We will go there just by ourselves.”
“I am the general manager leading this tour group. You are not protecting me, I am keeping my duty to protect you. “If you live, I live, and if you die, I die too.”
Arin expressed her strong will to never back down.
Everyone here is a person who risked their precious lives for us.
How could you be in a safe place alone with people like that in front of you?
As a princess, I couldn’t do such an irresponsible thing.
Resimus also did not object further to Arin’s firm intention.
With the final inspection completed and the only thing left to do was to leave, Arin stepped forward.
Of course, there was no sign of Xian.
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Since it seemed like it would follow me from somewhere I couldn’t see anyway, I decided not to pay much attention to it.
“There is an unknown danger lurking in front of us that we are facing now.”
Instead, he asked the final question to the tour group.
“So, before I go off to battle, I will speak here for the last time. If you don’t want to go on a mission, please stop here right now. “I won’t stop you.”
At that moment, there was a lot of tension in the room.
However, that atmosphere only lasted for a moment, and the entire tour group responded with intense eyes that said they would never stop.
After confirming their intentions, Arin clenched her fists and swore.
“We will protect you all in the name of Arin Sebellus, princess of the Usif Empire!”
The morale of the tour group soared in an instant, and they confidently stepped into the front lines.
“… … .”
Could the atmosphere change so much just by stepping through one door?
If I were to express the current atmosphere in one word,
“It’s desolate.”
It was bleak and dreary.
Ten years ago, when Arin first came with Emperor Dione, the atmosphere was not like this.
Let alone any sign of human presence, there was not even a trace of a small creature like a bug.
The tour group followed the connected road and headed to the rear camp where the frontline soldiers’ positions were located.
“doesn’t exist!”
“It’s not even here!”
“It’s all the same!”
The knights who were searching the camp all crossed their arms and gave a negative signal.
The rear camp, which should always be busy preparing for the appearance of the devil, was empty.
I searched everywhere to find any traces that might remain, but I couldn’t find anything special.
“I think we were planning to abandon the rear camp from the beginning.”
“No matter what, you’re giving up your position… … .”
Although I expected it to some extent, the shock I actually encountered was greater than I expected.
“What do you want to do, princess?”
If there are no troops in the rear camp, there is only one place left.
“I’m heading to the front line camp.”
It was a camp located at the forefront of the front line.
The tour group moved immediately without delay.
“This place was more boring than I thought?”
Set, who had been expecting a fierce battle with the demonic beast, let out an exclamation of disappointment.
“It’s still too early to let down your guard. “Because you never know when and where something will come out.”
Looking at that set, Lunav let out a bitter voice.
“no. At least I don’t feel any danger around here. “Otherwise, there’s no way my body would be stretched out like this.”
Lunav also agreed to that statement to some extent.
I’ve been reading the surrounding flow since a while ago, wondering if there might be a trap, but I haven’t felt anything special yet.
As if nothing had ever happened in the first place.
That’s how we arrived at the forward camp.
Arin naturally felt anxious due to the empty feeling she felt from the entrance.
The tour team immediately started searching, but the situation was no different from the rear camp.
This place too was empty.
‘You even abandoned the camp?’
At this point, I began to think that it was beyond questionable and absurd.
Where on earth did the duke and knights go, abandoning these two positions that they must defend?
‘No way really… ?’
“There’s something over here!”
The knights who finally found the trace hurriedly shouted in the middle of the camp, and the tour group hurriedly headed to the location.
Lastly, it was Duke Berthe’s barracks where the search was continuing.
The conditions here were not much different from those of other barracks.
There were no documents or records to follow, but something left alone on an empty desk caught everyone’s attention.
“This?”
No matter how you look at it, it was something that would not be suitable for this frontline area.
“It looks like a pendant?”
It was a pendant worn by women as jewelry.
It was a pendant that was not old or unsightly, but had an attractive atmosphere.
“Why is this here?”
“do not touch!”
Lunav immediately stopped Arin from touching her out of curiosity.
Lunav took three steps back from everyone and faced the pendant alone.
“The pendant has a strange energy.”
“W-Is there some kind of magic?”
“no. I don’t feel any magic. instead… … .”
The entire tour group held their breath and waited for Runav’s answer.
“It has the power to stimulate some inner emotions.”
“Inner feelings?”
“yes. “It’s such a force that if you keep looking at it, you’ll be deceived without even realizing it.”
Arin’s eyes widened at the word deception.
“Then that pendant was used by dukes and knights… … ?”
“Nothing is certain yet. “It’s just that he wanted to give it to us as a gift, so he didn’t openly leave this pendant to us.”
The only pendant left in the camp where all traces have disappeared.
Unless you were an idiot, you could have sensed something suspicious.
Runab soon manifested mana in her hands and carefully grasped the pendant with those hands.
“Can I keep this?”
Arin gave permission.
As soon as she gave permission, Lunav put the pendant in her pocket.
Although I found a suspicious pendant, in the end I didn’t get any other results.
Facing unexpected difficulties, the tour group immediately entered into an emergency meeting.
“I don’t see a single bug, let alone a monster or a person. “Are there any other camps besides this one?”
“These are the last two positions officially reported to the empire.”
“Then isn’t it possible that there are camps elsewhere that haven’t been reported?”
It was quite a possibility.
“Of course you can. but… … .”
But Arin thought.
If we assume there are other positions besides these two camps, they will definitely not be inside this frontline area.
“Duke Berthe told me. The Eshel we are looking for is not in Beliath right now… … .”
They said it wasn’t even in this empire or anywhere on this continent.
Arin was sure that there must be some hint in those words.
“All members of the tour group. From now on, we will move to Lemea Canyon.”
The moment the canyon was mentioned, the pupils of some knights shook significantly.
“This is our final border where we can find traces of those who disappeared. If you can’t find it there, Duke Berthe, the knights, and even Eshel, who we were looking for from the beginning… … .”
Arin hesitated slightly, unable to continue speaking right away.
“We will consider them all dead.”
No one objected to that firm decision.
The moment we all came out to the barracks to cross the front line and head to a new destination called Lemea Gorge,
“… … !”
The entire tour group stopped in unison, as if they were piecing together something.
As soon as I stopped walking, my heart began to beat violently, and parts of my body began to tremble.
Have you ever felt this way in your life?
There wasn’t.
I can guarantee you that no one could have done it.
An unidentifiable feeling that causes negative and hopeless emotions to well up throughout the body simply by standing there.
A few people who could barely control their minds soon turned their heads to one side.
“It’s near the camp entrance… … .”
The energy of a living being detected for the first time since crossing the border gate.
However, the creature was feeling a negative and hopeless energy that could not be explained in words.
The knights all drew their swords and looked in that direction.
-jump-jump-jump-jump-jump-jump-jump-jump-jump-bump
The sound of someone’s footsteps coming through the chilly wind.
Something unknown was approaching the tour group.
The tour group neither approached nor retreated.
With my vigilance raised to the limit, I slowly faced the unknown being that was getting closer.
Finally, an unknown being appears,
The moment all members of the tour group encountered that presence,
“… … !”
Unknown fear and fear enveloped their entire bodies.
It wasn’t a person.
At least it wasn’t a magic beast.
A being that appears to have a human form, but also has other body parts that humans do not have.
In a children’s book commonly circulating around the continent, a race with that form is referred to as such.
“Demon?”
(Continued in the next part)
fantasy,
