[TKOSINM] 174 - Found You, Duchess

 For a moment, the air around him seemed to freeze, and chills struck. Every single individual, either allies or enemies all got goosebumps. After that, Noel’s one-sided massacre on an extreme scale took place. To the foes, he was like a predator. And from a prey’s perspective, with one blink, a comrade’s neck came flying. Two blinks, his sword came into sight as his blade swung directly in their way, ready to pierce them at any moment. The rest of the crew just stared blankly at the scene, petrified, as if they had buried their feet into the ground. He was the real devil. When there were finally no standing assassins left, Noel’s indiscriminate slaughter came to an end. While it was so quiet that not even breathing could be heard, Noel carelessly wiped the wet blood stain from his cheek.

“...th-that, are you okay? Did you get injured anywhere?”

“Can’t you see?”

 “...It doesn’t seem like it.”

 “One of the assassins is still alive. Find him and capture him, don’t kill him because we need to find the mastermind behind this.”

 “Yes!”

Everyone looked at Noel with a weary face, who had just shown off his brilliant swordsmanship but did not lose his breath. Regardless, Noel checked the location of Irene on the ring. The position of the star was very near him. He could figure out where it was in an instant.

This place is...

 “Oh, my Lord! Where are you going? It’s still dangerous...!”

Suddenly, Noel climbed on a horse, and it galloped away with full speed, the startled knight shouted, but his cry only echoed in vain. When Noel disappeared completely into the mist, the soldier muttered with a serious expression.

“I don’t know if it’s okay for him to go alone. Maybe there’s still an assassin left lurking somewhere…”

Then Hex, one of the mercenaries who heard that, replied. “You are worried about him even after having witnessed he took away half of the monster’s life and terminated the whole group of assassins in a wink?”

 “That’s true.”

“I was really scared…”

“I was so confused about which one was the real demon.”

“We are so lucky to be on his side, I would rather kill myself if he were my enemy.”

“Same here, same.”

The mercenaries and the Duchy’s knights, who used to hold hatred toward each other, became comrades. They felt a deep sense of sympathy for one another before Noel’s swordsmanship, which was not surprising but rather fearful, to say the least.

♔♔♔ 

Irene panted.

Where am I?

As she blindly followed the way to Noel’s position on the ring, she found herself in a foggy forest. The problem was that the fog was so thick that it was hard to tell her whereabouts.

“We have temporarily lost them, but they will come after us again soon.”

“Let’s go a little further.”

“Yes.”

At Irene’s words, Louiselle rode slowly. She did not know what was ahead, so she had to move as carefully as possible. If they happened to meet a monster that had not yet been subjugated, the situation would turn from bad to worse.

It’s gloomy.

Passing through the endless fog, Irene frowned. The moist air brushed past her skin and the sound of roaring from an unknown source. On the other hand, their surroundings were so quiet that she even felt as if she was lost in a zone where time stopped.

I’m sure it’s somewhere around here.

 Irene checked the ring once more, but it was difficult to pinpoint the location more accurately due to the limitation of the jewel’s size.

She only knew that he was around here. Is this the Snow Forest?

Surely, the temperature was mild even though it was snowing out of season. However, it was quite different from the place she had heard from Noel. No matter how much she looked around, it was nothing warm and cosy as in his story.

What happened here?

 “At the front, there is something big.”

Irene was lost in thought for a moment, only until she heard Louiselle’s voice, did she come to her senses and lifted her head. Indeed, as she said, there was something huge standing right in front of her.

“I will get down and check it out.”

“I’ll get off with you.”

“Okay.”

Louiselle, who got off the horse first, reached out her hands to lift Irene down from the horse. However, as soon as Irene’s weight shifted onto her and all force was pressed down to Louiselle’s feet – the foundation, Louiselle frowned a little. She had accidentally injured her ankle during the escape. But she promptly fixed her expression before Irene could notice. It was because she knew that Irene would be heartbroken to know that she was hurt and that nothing good would come out of it.

“Is this…a tree?”

Irene got off the horse, unaware of her struggle, and approached what was hidden behind the mist. Up close, it was a surprisingly enormous tree. Its texture, on the whole, was rough, the leaves and branches have all withered.

Is it a diseased tree?

However, something was odd, this tree is unusually big among the trees in the forest and...

I feel uneasy.

As she got closer, an indescribable aura came rushing in. What on earth was it? As if she was drawn into it, and the moment Irene was about to touch the tree...

“Found you, Duchess.”

---