PDHTFV 24

~Chapter 24~

Yushen sent Tayla and me back to our places, then moved quickly with Hebranne.

It seemed something unexpected had happened.

That feeling from before was definitely from a monster. There must still be monsters left at the ruins.

Otherwise, the mission wouldn’t suddenly change right at the destination.

Since the medical team—including me—can’t fight, we were sent to the very back, and the fighting formation was set up quickly.

It was clear they’d trained a lot for situations like this.

Soon, the knights in their battle line entered the ruins.

Our group waited outside, hoping nobody would get hurt and the fight would end safely.

But there was one thing I found strange.

“Captain, why are you here?”

I thought Yushen would be fighting up front, but he was with me at the back, watching the ruins with his arms crossed.

He looked at me and answered,

“Winter told me not to butt in.”

It was… a surprising answer.

Normally, you’d expect something like “I’m guarding the rear” or “They can handle it without me.”

And can someone even say that to the captain…?

Well, maybe the vice-captain could.

At that moment, a nervous knight next to me went over to Yushen, biting his nails.

“Captain, why did the mission change? Nobody told us the details…”

Oh, right. They only said the mission changed, but didn’t say why.

I knew it was because of the monster, but the others didn’t, so everyone looked anxious.

“A monster showed up.”

“What? A monster? I thought monsters don’t appear here anymore!”

“We’ll have to check. Either Winter didn’t do his job right, or someone let monsters loose on purpose knowing we’d come.”

So, nobody expected this.

But… what if they ask me why I didn’t predict this? In the novel, nothing like this happened, so it made sense I didn’t know.

I’ll just say I can’t see things this close to the present.

And Yushen knows my ability isn’t perfect, so that’s probably why he only wanted me to help plan, not predict everything.

Anyway, with Yushen here, things probably wouldn’t get out of control. If the knights inside were in danger, he’d run right in.

Suddenly, a loud monster roar echoed from inside the ruins. It sounded like more than one.

Then, a sandstorm rose.

Because nobody lives here, the ground had become rough and dry.

Through the blowing sand, the monster appeared.

Even though it was my first time seeing a monster in this world, it looked strangely familiar.

“…Cerberus?”

A monster shaped like a dog with three heads.

It looked just like Cerberus from Greek myths.

“That’s not an easy monster to see—how did you know its name?”

Yushen asked sharply after hearing my mumble.

Where I’m from, almost everyone knows that dog.

But I couldn’t say that, so I had to think of another reason.

“…I read it in a book.”

“A book about Cerberus… I wonder which one.”

I fell silent.

Partly because I didn’t want to get caught lying, and partly because I didn’t want to keep piling on lies.

Honestly, I don’t like lying—it always gets found out. Right now, I have to lie to survive, but I’ll avoid it if I can.

Yushen didn’t push for an answer, either.

“But, Captain… Is Cerberus really strong?”

“Didn’t you say you read about it?”

Did he really think the book only had the name and picture?

“…Sometimes what you read is different from what you see.”

“Depending on size, it can be mid-level or lower. This one looks about medium-lower.”

Really, if he was going to answer so easily, why ask so many questions?

At least it was only one Cerberus. The roars sounding like several monsters must have been its three heads.

“So they’ll beat it soon, right?”

“With our current team, it’s no problem.”

Yushen sounded so confident that I believed him.

But as time passed, the fight started going badly. Yushen’s face grew dark.

He watched with sharp eyes, leaning forward like he’d run into battle any second.

Then, one of Cerberus’s three heads suddenly turned toward us.

All the noise died at once. Tension filled the air like a tightrope.

After five seconds of eye contact, the other two heads turned toward us as well.

No way…!

Then it charged at us.

I suddenly thought maybe Cerberus was after Yushen or me from the start.

But I’d think about that later. Right now, Tayla and I tried to calm the panicking group.

But since none of us could fight, everyone was frozen.

Only Yushen could fix this.

Maybe he thought so too—he drew his sword and moved to block Cerberus.

He was the only fighter at the rear, but thank goodness the captain was with us for once. I finally felt like he was dependable.

“That’s our captain!”

“Thank you!”

Just as I thought, seeing Yushen made everyone calm down.

With him here, I felt sure this would end soon and sighed in relief.

“…&%$#!@##&”

While watching from a distance, one knight next to me muttered something I couldn’t understand.

Suddenly, I had a strong, uneasy feeling. I just knew I had to stop him.

Sometimes my instincts are spot-on, and now was one of those times.

Is he going to cause trouble?

My mouth went dry.

I grabbed his shoulder hard. But he shot forward before I could really stop him.

He was too fast—I couldn’t catch him.

Once again, my hunch was right.

I stared at the empty space, snapped back to my senses, and turned to look at Yushen.

The knight was already at the battlefield between Yushen and Cerberus.

“Reto!”

Other knights shouted his name. But he just kept running, as if possessed, straight for Yushen.

Reto stopped between Yushen and Cerberus.

Yushen looked surprised at the sudden appearance, but quickly rushed over to save him.

The clever Cerberus didn’t miss its chance and attacked.

“Captain!”

Luckily, paladins coming out from inside the ruins attacked and stopped Cerberus’s attack just in time, or Yushen and the knight might have been hit.

But they didn’t dodge completely—Yushen had to protect the knight and ended up rolling on the ground.

With the paladins’ help, they finished off Cerberus quickly.

Reto, the knight who ran onto the battlefield, was taken away by the paladins, and the rest of us safely finished the mission.

Because of the unexpected monster, we spent more time at the ruins and had to camp for another night instead of returning that day.

I didn’t mind, since at least I wasn’t sleeping on the ground.

But my mind was busy. I kept thinking about the monster showing up and Reto running forward like he was possessed.

Rumor was, Reto said he didn’t remember anything. They even checked his body with holy power and found traces of a weak spell.

So the temporary conclusion was that someone did this to him on purpose.

I was sure that someone was Leana. The way Cerberus charged at Yushen and me made me think of her right away.

I’d already had my suspicions before.

I need to find Leana and stop her before she does something even worse.

Why is she trying to get in my way?

I have to meet her and ask. There has to be a reason for this.

There’s so much to worry about.

Why is everyone after someone who just wants to live quietly for a year?

Sigh, I should just stop thinking and sleep.

When your mind is full, sometimes not thinking is the answer. I flopped down on the cot and closed my eyes.

But instead of sleep, I kept seeing what happened during the day.

…Huh?

Thinking back, I realized something looked odd. When Yushen got up after rolling on the ground, he moved awkwardly.

And I remembered his face looked a little pained.

…Is his back still not healed?

If there’s a problem, it must be his back. Nothing else fits.

…Wait, what does it matter to me if Yushen’s hurt? If he’s in pain, that’s his problem!

I forced myself to clear those thoughts from my mind.

I tried to sleep.

“Aaagh!”

But in the end, I shot up from bed.

I kept seeing his pained face and it was driving me crazy.

“Why does he have to make that kind of face and make me feel guilty?”

Muttering to myself, I quickly put on my coat and left the tent.

Whew, okay. This is just because I feel like I owe him. Since Yushen helped me before, I should help him back. That’s only fair!