Chapter 19

“A sound? What kind of sound?” Chico paused, straining his ears for a moment, then gave a dismissive shrug. “I don’t hear a damn thing.”

Just as Chico suggested, the forest beyond remained stiflingly quiet. Isaac held his breath, forcing himself to listen. In the absolute vacuum of noise, he heard it again. A faint, languid, inexplicably repulsive grinding sound.

“You truly don’t hear it? It sounds like something massive… moving with excruciating lethargy… ever so slowly…”

“…?… I haven’t the slightest idea. Hey, everyone, do any of you hear anything?”

Perhaps sensing the genuine alarm etched into Isaac’s expression, Chico lowered his voice and gestured to the others. The group went deathly quiet, listening for a long, agonizing stretch of time, only to eventually shake their heads.

“Perhaps your imagination is playing tricks on you, kid. This forest is gloomy enough to conjure phantoms. Besides, the brush in that direction is far too dense for anything of size to navigate. At best, a small mountain creature might squeeze through.”

Was he simply imagining it? Perhaps. The presence was so ephemeral he could barely confirm it was a sound at all, arriving only in fractured intervals. The moment he convinced himself he had heard it, it vanished. The moment it brushed his senses, the quiet reclaimed the woods like a tide.

But.

“…Stay here.”

Isaac stared into the depths of the forest where the shadows seemed to coagulate, and he began to push forward. Someone barked, “Hey, Isaac!” from behind him, but he merely lifted a hand in a dismissive gesture, refusing to look back. He could have continued on with the group, but something was scratching at the back of his nerves—an itch he couldn’t ignore.

It was so intense that even the three beasts hopping along in his wake mattered less than usual.

As his colleague had warned, the path was barely a trail, suitable only for the smallest of mountain creatures. Overgrown with thick, thorny brush, the way grew more claustrophobic with every step. Rough, serrated grasses whipped around his ankles, fighting his progress.

「Why would he choose this route when there is a perfectly wide, serene path just over there?」

「He always chooses the most arduous path, stubbornly shunning the cozy trail everyone else uses.」

「It is because he is fundamentally twisted.」

“You things followed me of your own volition, so why are you nagging me? Who told you to come along? Go away! Shoo, get lost!”

Even if they bothered him less than usual, they were still grating. Isaac attempted to kick at the three cats trotting beside him, but a trailing vine snagged his ankle, throwing him off balance and sending him sprawling into the dirt. As he fell, his palm scraped sharply against a jagged stone, the skin tearing open until a bead of bright, crimson blood welled up.

“Ah! Damn it, that stings like hell. Seriously, I swear I’m going to grab you lot and—”

“You were actually about to lash out at us, weren’t you? Heaven is not indifferent, boy. Divine punishment has descended upon you.”

「And just look at him—still casting blame on us for his own sheer clumsiness.」

「See? I told you. The boy is fundamentally twisted.」

If he spent even one more day with these insufferable creatures, his personality was bound to shatter beyond any hope of repair.

Isaac swallowed a groan of irritation and licked the beads of blood from his palm. Fine. It was barely a scratch; he would just apply some disinfectant from the pouch tied to his saddle once he returned. Isaac stood and turned to head back toward his companions.

Then—

His vision wavered, the world blurring as if he were staring through a violent heat haze.

It lasted only an instant. The moment he blinked, his sight snapped back to clarity.

But.

He heard absolutely nothing.

The ambient noises, the presence of his colleagues—who were only a few dozen feet away—had been scrubbed away as cleanly as if the world had been wiped clean. A thick, suffocating mist had fallen, obscuring everything beyond a few paces.

It was as if he had been physically imprisoned within the forest.

No.

Not merely as if.

Though the physical landscape appeared unchanged, an instinctive, primal horror flooded his nerves. He felt as though he had been trapped inside an invisible, inescapable fence, and the sensation crawled like spiders across every inch of his skin.

「Oh dear, it closed.」 One of the cats chattered, its tone deceptively light.

「I thought this might happen,」 another added. 「Not quite a witch, but certainly no ordinary human, wandering blindly into a barrier like that. This was inevitable.」

「When people speak of a man twisting his own fate, they mean this one,」 the third cat observed. 「By the way, who constructed this barrier? It is surprisingly well-wrought.」

「True,」 the first conceded. 「It is sloppy, but for a magic circle inscribed by a human, it is quite functional. It would earn at least mid-rank certification.」

“Wait… what the hell is this?” Isaac muttered. The three cats swiveled their heads, fixing him with enormous, glassy eyes.

「What do you mean?」 they replied in unison. 「It is a barrier.」

“I know it’s a barrier! I’m asking why it’s here! Was this your doing?”

He felt as though he remained in the same patch of forest, yet the air had shifted into an entirely different dimension. He recalled his childhood, trailing his mother through similar wards. This oppressive, strange sense of enclosure felt hauntingly familiar.

「We had no hand in this,」 the cats chimed.

「Indeed, indeed,」 the second one chirped. 「Had we crafted this barrier, it would not be this haphazard.」

「Indeed, indeed,」 the third agreed. 「For one thing, we would not have rendered it so painfully obvious to the naked eye.」

“If it was that obvious, you should have warned me!”

「We did, did we not?」 the first cat retorted. 「Why choose this path when there was a wide, quiet road just over there?」

「We cautioned him against the difficult route, and he called it nagging,」 the second noted with a flick of its tail.

God… could you please just take these beasts away?

Isaac pressed a hand to his throbbing forehead, mentally tracing the character for endure three times for each cat—nine times in total—before he unclenched his jaw.

“Fine. Just tell me how to get out of—”

STENCH

A suffocating odor washed over him, arresting his words. The scent was nauseatingly raw, a pungent, fishy reek like fresh carrion left to putrefy in the heat. It hit with such physical force that his lungs seized.

Along with the vile stench came a faint, prickly vibration against his ears. Not far off, the sharp sound of a heavy, ragged exhale followed a burst of violent exertion.

“Astonishing. I never imagined you would finish it this easily.”

The crisp, admiring voice drifted from the heart of the stench. Isaac strained his eyes, catching a glimpse of a black shadow weaving through the thick brush. It was a robe—a magician’s robe. The distinct purple embroidery at the cuffs identified the wearer as a court official.

Ten paces away stood a man drenched from head to toe in thick, black muck. As Isaac watched, he realized the tar-like sludge coating the man was not mud. It was blood and shredded entrails, pouring from the gargantuan, ox-sized carcass slumped beside him like a boulder.

It was not a mere beast.

It was a magical creature.

The tall man flicked his blade with a casual, practiced motion, shedding the clinging gore. He wiped his face with a pale hand, revealing skin as smooth as porcelain and eyes of a chilling, luminous blue.

“You are… yes. A magician contracted to Granion. Did he send you to kill me?”

The voice remained calm, devoid of inflection. Isaac stared, paralyzed. He did not need to see the blue eyes again to know the truth. The man who had vanished into this forest was standing right before him.

It was Kaiyan.

He stood drenched in the steaming blood of a freshly slaughtered magical beast.

God help me.

Isaac swallowed, unconsciously tracing a cross over his chest.