ISGJV 63

Chapter 63

Chapter 10. At the End of This Road

Dudududu—!!

The sound of the carriage racing over the rough ground rang out urgently.

The sound of hooves striking the earth. The violent snorting of the horses, as if they might collapse at any moment.

And above all, an ominous sound was chasing after us.

—Kaaahhh—!!!!

A shriek that seemed to tear the sky apart felt as if it would grab the back of my neck.

Above the roof of the carriage, which had been brutally ripped apart, a murderous shadow fell.

Claws as sharp as blades lunged straight for me.

Edmund pressed down on my head at the last possible moment and shouted.

“Danger, Cassia!”

“!!!”

My already short-cut hair was sliced again.

It wasn’t a deep wound, but my scalp was torn enough for a few drops of blood to splatter.

That was how close it had been.

Dududududu—!!!!

When I fell flat onto the floor of the carriage, the urgent, violent vibrations pounded through my entire body.

When I finally managed to open my eyes—

Edmund had already pushed himself up and was drawing up his mana again.

Cohen’s signet ring emitted a red light and wrapped around Edmund’s body.

It was amplifying his mana.

It was a sight I had grown sick of seeing over the past few days since we crossed the border of the Lamberto territory.

Edmund spat out a harsh curse and shouted.

“…Get lost!”

Pyuht—!

Several mana arrows fired by Edmund flew toward the winged monster that had attacked us.

Puffak!

Its wings were torn apart in an instant, and the flying monster crashed to the ground.

At once, the ground monsters that had been swarming after the carriage rushed toward their fallen kin.

Terrible screams and the sounds of fighting faded into the distance.

Only then did I clearly grasp our situation.

‘Get a grip. Get a grip, Seo Haena!’

We hadn’t been chased by monsters from the moment we entered the Lamberto territory.

But the farther north we went, the closer we got to Lamberto Castle, the more frequently monsters appeared.

And in the end, it had come to this—being hunted down.

I muttered, forcing myself not to bite my nails.

“Will Willes and the nanny be okay?”

When the monsters began to swarm excessively, the two of them had volunteered to split off from us on horseback.

Edmund answered with a forced smile.

“They’ll be fine. Willes is a much better magician than I am.”

But he couldn’t hide the shadow lingering in his voice, nor the anxious trembling of the muscles in his face.

In truth, both of us already knew.

‘They volunteered to be the bait.’

Would it really be possible to meet the two of them alive again?

There was only one thing I could rely on.

‘At least in the original story, Willes survives until Edmund comes of age.’

He doesn’t die to monsters—he dies later in the story, by Edmund’s own hands when Edmund goes berserk.

‘Though I’ve twisted so many things that I’m no longer sure that future is guaranteed.’

Still, I tried hard to shake off my anxiety.

A weakened heart wouldn’t help at all in a situation this desperate.

‘Anyway, in the original story, Willes and Edmund escaped the villa and went to the Lamberto territory. They must have gone through a similar process.’

Even then, Willes survived.

And if the nanny is with Willes, she will be safe as well.

Let’s believe that.

And instead of worrying, let’s do what I can right now.

I forced myself to focus and checked on Juto, who was groaning beside me.

“Are you okay, Juto?”

“It hurts. It hurts, Cassia.”

The child, who had been badly injured fighting the monsters, whimpered and burrowed into my arms.

“Don’t worry. I’ll treat you.”

Thankfully, in the pouch on my belt were emergency medicines that Willes had prepared just in case.

“This powder here is a hemostatic agent, and this purple leaf is called Kashacho—it has a mild anesthetic effect. This pill is an antidote that works against most poisons unless they’re extremely strong. The ointment for wound treatment is in that small container over there.”

Throughout the journey, Willes had gathered or purchased various herbs and materials and prepared emergency medicine.

There was nothing as effective as the potion Edmund had once used to treat my foot, but—

As emergency supplies, they were more than sufficient.

‘Let’s start with what I can do.’

I cleaned Juto’s largest wound with strong alcohol and sprinkled the hemostatic powder over it.

Then I tore my sleeve to make a temporary bandage and began wrapping the wound.

With the carriage shaking so violently, even wrapping a bandage wasn’t easy.

After a hard struggle, I finished dressing Juto’s wound, placed the anesthetic herb in his mouth, and looked up at Edmund.

“Are you okay, Edmund? You’re not hurt anywhere?”

“…You don’t need to worry.”

Only then did I see Edmund, who had been visibly shaken, finally relax a little.

‘Right. Anxiety is contagious.’

We didn’t have the luxury to sit around anxiously.

I was going to survive.

And I had to keep both of these children alive.

‘The force that dragged me into this world wouldn’t want me and Edmund to die here, right?!’

Then some divine power would pop out of nowhere and save us!

Believing that, I steeled my resolve.

But no matter how much I strengthened my resolve, I—someone without any special or powerful abilities—couldn’t overturn the situation by willpower alone.

After that, we were still being chased by monsters.

‘Think. Think. Find a way for all of us to survive.’

I thought until my head hurt, recalling everything I knew from the original story.

Before I knew it, the sun was beginning to set. The surroundings were sinking into a red sunset.

‘Night is coming.’

The time when monsters become even more rampant.

The first time we encountered truly threatening monsters in the Lamberto territory had also been at night.

At first, thanks to Willes’s and Edmund’s magic, we had been able to deal with them without much trouble.

But soon, the number of monsters overwhelmed us—and that was how we ended up like this.

I carefully reconsidered all the information I had gathered about monsters so far.

‘Monsters generally have poor eyesight, are sensitive to sound and the smell of blood, and are weak to light.’

Thanks to that, while the sun was still up, this was the time with the fewest monsters.

Once darkness fell, it would truly become the monsters’ time.

We had to escape this predicament before then.

Otherwise, we really would end up as the monsters’ next meal.

‘They have poor eyesight and are weak to light, but that doesn’t mean they can see things without light.’

So then—let’s change how we think.

Soon, darkness would blanket everything.

What would happen if, in the middle of that, a huge fire broke out in one place?

And what if that fire ran while making a tremendous noise?

That light would frighten the monsters, but it would also stimulate them just as much.

They would be able to see it and hear it from very far away.

‘They’ll gather toward the light. Like moths.’

A carriage couldn’t possibly be quiet. And the road was getting rougher by the minute.

‘We’ll have to abandon the carriage anyway.’

If that was the case, it was better to abandon it in the most useful way possible.

The conclusion came quickly.

I grabbed Edmund and asked.

“Can you use a spell to soften the impact on the three of us?”

“To some extent.”

I nodded and looked through the luggage inside the carriage.

This carriage had been used by slave traders posing as a traveling troupe.

They traveled all over the continent, so they carried almost everything one might need in their carriage.

Among the items they had selected and loaded was exactly what I wanted.

‘The strong alcohol I found earlier, branches coated thickly with resin—and flint.’

Fortunately, in ‘Cassia’s’ memories, there was knowledge of how to use flint.

After asking Edmund to prepare his magic in advance, I splashed the strong alcohol all around the carriage.

As evenly as possible.

‘So the carriage itself can act like moving firewood!’

I didn’t forget to splash it over my body, Edmund’s, and Juto’s as well.

Especially near our wounds—to completely cover the smell.

Juto and Edmund looked puzzled, but instead of stopping me, they helped so the alcohol would soak in well. Even if they didn’t fully understand, it seemed they saw hope in the fact that I was coming up with something.

I brought Juto’s alcohol-soaked wound close to his nose and asked.

“Can you smell blood?”

The child shook his head.

“No.”

With that much confirmed, it was worth taking a gamble.

‘Now, once the sun fully sets…’

The sun was sinking toward the west.

Darkness was closing in from all sides.

At this point—

‘Fire will be visible from everywhere nearby.’

I used the flint to light the resin-coated branch.

Whoosh!

Without much difficulty, a small torch was made.

I raised the torch high so it would be clearly visible in the dimming surroundings.

Then I asked Juto, whose senses were far sharper than mine.

“Juto. Can you hear them? Are the nearby monsters reacting to the fire?”

Juto, whose pain seemed to have eased somewhat thanks to the anesthetic herb, tilted his head and listened.

“…Yes. I hear them. Sounds. Little by little. Far away. They’re scared. But they’ll chase it.”

I could tell.

That reaction would only grow stronger.

Enough to draw in every monster in the area.

‘Good!’

While there was still some light left from the sunset, I waited for the moment when our carriage entered a deep shadow.

‘Now!’

Careful not to let the torch catch on our bodies or clothes, I brought it close to the carriage.

Whoosh—!!

The alcohol was so strong that the fire spread to the carriage instantly.

At the same time, I wrapped both arms around Edmund and Juto—

And jumped straight out of the carriage!