ISGJV 65

Chapter 65

Edmund came to his senses when it was almost dawn.

Drip, drip. He felt something cold, like water droplets, fall onto his eyelids, and he suddenly woke up.

If it hadn’t been for those droplets, he might have woken up much later.

That was how wrecked his body was.

‘What… happened…?’

His body felt heavy, and he couldn’t properly move his arms or legs.

As if something were tightly binding him.

When he struggled to lift his head to check the situation, Edmund felt like his heart stopped.

Because right in front of his nose was a girl sleeping soundly, her hair a mix of colors.

‘Kassia!’

Only then did Edmund realize why it felt like he was tied up.

It was because Kassia was holding him tightly.

The moment he realized that, heat rushed to his face as if it were about to burst.

At the same time, a certain scene came to mind.

A scene he couldn’t even tell whether it was a dream or reality.

Kassia had tried to make him eat some kind of herb, but when it didn’t work, she put it into her own mouth and chewed it herself.

And then… put it into his mouth….

The boy let out a silent scream.

‘Aaaah!!!’

It was truly fortunate that he still had enough reason left not to scream out loud.

‘It—it’s a dream! It has to be a dream!’

He tried to think that way, but at the same time, an oddly vivid sensation welled up from his memories.

The bitter and fishy taste of the medicinal herb, and….

Edmund let out another silent scream, several times fiercer than before.

‘Uwaaaah!!!!’

If he had been able to make a sound, it would probably have echoed thunderously across the entire mountain range.

But the boy quickly realized that now was not the time for him to be drowning in such sweet-bitter shock.

‘First, we need to safely get to Lamberto Castle.’

Everything else could wait until after that.

Right now, Kassia was sleeping in his arms.

(In truth, the situation was closer to the opposite, but Edmund naturally ignored that.)

At first, he thought they had taken shelter in some small cave.

But that wasn’t it.

‘A hollow… between a tree trunk and its roots.’

Even though they weren’t adults, it was surprising that there was a space wide enough under the tree trunk for them to hide in.

Then, the boy wrinkled his brow as he belatedly caught an unpleasant smell that stung his nose.

‘Dog smell?’

Edmund tilted his head as he pushed away with his foot the annoying beastkin kid who was clinging to Kassia from behind.

‘No… it’s different. Worse and more unpleasant, almost like filth….’

No, to put it more bluntly, it was the particularly foul smell among animal excrement.

And Edmund quickly realized that the smell had been smeared around the outside of the tree trunk where they were hiding.

The reason was obvious.

‘To mask our scent from monsters.’

If that was the case, it was highly likely to be the droppings of a carnivorous monster.

Weak monsters wouldn’t approach if they smelled a strong one.

And doing something like this meant….

‘Kassia did it.’

It had to be the girl who was sleeping peacefully in his arms right now.

Edmund himself had passed out from mana exhaustion, and there was no way that foolish beastkin kid could have done this.

‘And the only one with this kind of wit and quick judgment is Kassia.’

The boy was filled with renewed admiration.

This girl in his arms… his wife—

(At that thought, Edmund felt his mouth go dry without realizing it.)

She was that kind of person.

Filled with an inexplicable sense of pride and fluttering excitement, Edmund leaned on Kassia’s warmth for a while.

He knew this wasn’t the situation for it, but still—no, precisely because of that—

“…Hik!”

I had fallen deeply asleep without realizing it, and then suddenly snapped awake.

‘I can’t fall asleep!’

But we had suffered so much over the past few days, and last night I had stayed awake the entire time.

So it seemed I had dozed off without noticing.

Then a low voice called out to me.

“Awake?”

A hoarse voice.

I lifted my eyes and looked up at Edmund.

His red eyes, which had regained quite a bit of clarity, were looking at me.

“Are you okay now?”

“Yeah.”

Edmund nodded.

But I couldn’t take Edmund’s “okay” at face value.

‘He’s the type who endures everything and pretends it’s nothing.’

So regardless of his answer, I checked the color of the nails on both of his ring fingers.

Thankfully, they were still a little bluish, but they had returned to something close to normal.

‘That’s a relief. I guess the Kashacho worked.’

Of course, sleeping well probably helped a lot too.

But human nature made me want to believe that my method had been more effective.

“I’m glad you really seem better, but you can’t do that again!”

I spoke as sternly as I could.

Mana exhaustion could truly be life-threatening.

Edmund obediently nodded.

“I don’t want to die either.”

After all, he had endured hell for seven years and barely escaped.

If we just went a little farther and reached Lamberto Castle, it would be a success.

How unfair would it be to collapse right before the finish line?

Only then did I realize something belatedly.

When we hid in the gap of the tree trunk that Juto found, we had blocked the entrance with soil and monster droppings.

I noticed the stench hitting my nose only then.

“Ah, sorry. Doesn’t it smell really bad?”

But Edmund shook his head with a calm expression.

“No. I don’t smell anything at all.”

At that, I felt as if my blood ran cold.

‘One of the representative side effects of mana exhaustion is that the five senses weaken—or are lost entirely!’

I wondered if his sense of smell had been affected because of mana exhaustion.

But no matter how much I observed or touched Edmund’s nose, there was no way to check his sense of smell.

‘There’s nothing I can tell except that it’s straight and sharp enough to cut someone!’

Of course, since I wasn’t a doctor.

“Really nothing? It’s this awful.”

I told him what we had smeared around where we were hiding and asked again.

Not being able to smell this was a serious problem!

Then Edmund’s expression became very subtle.

The corners of his mouth twitched slightly.

‘Does he have another side effect, like he can’t control his facial muscles?’

I was seriously worrying about the possible side effects of mana exhaustion Edmund might be experiencing.

When the warm mass stuck to my back pressed even closer.

Then it rubbed its cheek against my back and mumbled in its sleep.

“Uunng… Kassia…, please… my bride….”

“…!”

Edmund’s expression, which had been oddly relaxed, immediately sharpened.

He pulled me closer and tried to kick Juto away with his foot.

“Kyah! What are you doing, Edmund!”

“Guek! He hit me! I! It hurts!”

“He’s a kid!”

“That brat knows exactly what he’s doing!”

We bickered for quite a while, keeping our voices as low as possible so no one around would hear.

We emerged from the tree trunk when the morning sunlight began to shine through the gap.

Moving during the day was, after all, the best way to reduce danger, even if only a little.

Using the compass, we set our direction and kept walking.

I was so exhausted that it felt like my limbs didn’t belong to me, but there was no room to collapse now.

We shared the little water we had and tried to maintain our strength by letting the few dried rations and biscuits melt in our mouths.

But no one complained.

‘The hardest part is that we’re not even sure we’re going the right way.’

With no map and surrounded by tall coniferous forests, it was difficult to grasp the surrounding terrain.

Because of that, Juto had to climb trees from time to time to look around.

“Can you go up again and check?”

“Understood, Kassia.”

Juto nodded obediently, but I could tell from his expression, movements, and even his breathing that he was getting worn out.

The speed at which he climbed, digging his nails into the tree, had noticeably slowed.

‘If we wander around for too long, his stamina will run out first.’

I was sitting on a tree stump to catch my breath, worrying about that.

Then I heard Juto’s excited voice from above.

“I see it!”

Edmund and I snapped our heads up.

Edmund, in a rare show of excitement, asked Juto,

“Really? What do you see?”

“Yes! I see it! A castle! It’s white!”

My eyes met Edmund’s.

A castle as white as snow, visible far beyond this vast coniferous forest.

There was only one possibility.

‘Lamberto Castle!’