Chapter 34: “A Little Bird Told Me”
(I)
-“W-What is this…?”
Blue blood dripped down.
No, to call it blood would be inaccurate. It was excessively sticky, with a grotesque viscosity that was unnerving to even look at. As Judith watched the thick liquid drip down, a wave of nausea rose in her stomach.
‘Is it… oil?’
The shiny, slippery surface of the liquid made it look more like oil than blood. If it weren’t for the grotesque stickiness, Judith might have easily believed it was just blue oil.
-“Ah.”
The warrior wiped away the blood running down his face with a hollow look in his eyes. His leather glove brushed against the wound on his cheek, and the sticky liquid clung to it, smearing thickly.
-“G-Grandius!”
And then, the warrior’s companion, Yuna, was the first to run toward him. It was as if she already knew that what was flowing from him wasn’t blood but this strange blue substance. She calmly took out a handkerchief and gently wiped it away.
The sticky liquid soaked into Yuna’s brown handkerchief, turning it a deep blue.
-“What the…?”
Judith’s mind was racing.
Why on earth is his blood blue?
Some monsters bleed blue, but even then, it’s never this viscous.
And yet, what baffled her even more was the way the warrior’s companions acted. They didn’t flinch, didn’t even seem surprised. They carried on naturally, as if this was entirely normal.
There were so many questions, enough to make her momentarily forget her worries about her hometown.
But before she could start piecing together any conclusions, a sharp, heavy pain in her abdomen shattered her train of thought.
-“Ugh!”
In the moment she was distracted by the warrior bleeding blue, the archmage Milan summoned a massive magical hammer and struck Judith with it.
Bright red blood burst from her mouth as she was flung across the grand dining hall, crashing hard into the wall.
-“Gah…”
Cracks splintered through the wall like shattered glass, and a searing pain spread throughout Judith’s entire body, leaving her unable to move even a finger.
The voices of the warrior’s party mixed with the ringing in her ears, barely reaching her consciousness.
-“That crazy bitch… What the hell did she do to Grandius…?”
-“She saw the warrior’s ‘secret.’ We should kill her to keep her quiet.”
-“She wounded the warrior, and you think killing her is enough? Not a chance. We should gouge out her eyes first and torture her until she begs for death.”
-“Ugh…”
Their eyes burned with fury as they slowly approached Judith, step by step. But she couldn’t move. The sudden attack had caught her completely off guard, and she’d taken the full brunt of the blow.
Judging by the pain coursing through her, several of her bones had been completely shattered. It was a miracle she was even alive.
-“Who… what are you…?”
Judith managed to lift her head, glaring at the warrior’s party as they closed in on her.
A warrior who bled something other than blood, something grotesque.
And companions who followed him without question.
Whatever they were, they weren’t the heroes sent to save the world. That much, Judith was sure of.
-“Wait. Stop.”
…Then, the warrior stopped his companions in their tracks. With just a single word from him, the three men and women halted at once.
-“…Yuna is right. We can’t just kill her.”
The warrior himself stepped forward, moving between them, and approached Judith. His emotionless, hollow eyes stared down at her.
His cold, chilling voice reached Judith’s ears.
-“…I gave you a chance.”
The warrior spoke as he stood over Judith.
-“But it was your own greed that made you throw that chance away, Judith Evergrit.”
-“Urgh…!”
The warrior slowly crouched down, grabbing a fistful of Judith’s blue hair and lifting her up until they were at eye level. Drained of all strength, Judith couldn’t resist as he pulled her up into his grasp.
His deep, dark blue eyes bored into hers.
-“I never imagined you’d dare attack me at that moment. Whatever your reasons, you saw something you shouldn’t have.”
-“S-Something I shouldn’t have seen…?”
He was, of course, referring to the blue liquid that had flowed from him.
If it got out that the warrior wasn’t actually human, the resulting chaos among the people would be unimaginable.
No wonder he wanted to keep it hidden.
And who could have expected that a rookie party member like Judith could leave a mark on him?
The fact that she had broken his composure, seen him flustered for even a moment—that was enough to make a faint smile creep onto Judith’s lips.
-“You’re smiling? It seems you don’t understand the situation.”
But the shadow that darkened the warrior’s face remained. His voice was still cold as ice as he spoke again, delivering one final warning to Judith.
-“I’ll give you the most entertaining punishment, the most painful death you can imagine. So wait for it. Eagerly.”
His fist rose slowly into the air.
A sharp pain struck Judith’s temple.
Her vision went black.
The warrior’s rotting face was the last thing she saw before she lost consciousness and was dragged into the dungeon.
(II)
“How long has it been…?”
The underground prison of Nevirthol was pitch-black, devoid of even a sliver of light.
Lying exhausted and in pain on the cold stone floor, Judith Evergrit murmured to herself. With no light, no sound, and nothing to stimulate her senses, she couldn’t tell how much time had passed since she was imprisoned here.
…It felt as though she had been sealed away somewhere, cut off from the world.
“Damn it…”
Clicking her tongue, Judith buried her face in the icy stone floor. The coldness climbed up her cheek, where a crust of dried blood remained.
“Father…”
Though it was a voice that no one would hear, Judith called out to her father, almost absent-mindedly. She was sick with worry about her hometown, wiped out by the “Ancestral Vampire,” and the fate of her father.
“…It’s probably too late.”
A single tear fell to the floor.
Even if she had left as soon as she heard the news about Rieli, she would have been too late. At this point, there was nothing she could do if she went back now.
The army of monsters could have already trampled over any survivors, or the cruel vampire could have killed her father on a whim.
…The warrior had blocked her path, refusing her small request to return to her homeland. Now Judith, clueless about the fate of her family and her home, was trapped in this cold underground prison.
Her worry was soon followed by a surge of anger.
“Vellius Grandius…”
Grinding her teeth, Judith muttered the name of the warrior who had imprisoned her, Vellius Grandius.
There were too many suspicious things to count.
He was overly fixated on the Prime minister, Lillianel Greenfield, and his actions didn’t match that of a warrior. His companions, too, seemed as though they were brainwashed, accepting everything as if it were completely normal.
Even the fact that the warrior didn’t bleed red but instead some strange blue substance.
“That blue liquid…”
What was that sticky, blue liquid that had flowed from him instead of blood?
It resembled the blood of certain monsters at first glance, but the viscosity was entirely different.
It wasn’t a liquid that could flow from any living creature.
Even Judith, who had studied a variety of knowledge at the Royal Knight Academy, had never seen such a substance. It was certainly not something common.
“Ugh…”
…Judith pushed herself up, pressing her hands against the cold floor.
Sitting here in this prison would only lead to one thing—death and torture.
She had to find a way to escape, investigate the warrior and the “blue liquid” that flowed through him, and return home to learn the fate of her family.
“Open…”
With her small hands, she grabbed hold of the iron bars and shook them.
They were old, rusted bars, but it was clear that human strength alone wouldn’t be enough to open them. The metal groaned slightly, mocking her feeble effort.
“Open…”
She shook them harder.
“Open…”
Harder still.
“Open already!!”
With all her strength, she rattled the bars.
“Damn it!!”
…But the iron bars didn’t even budge.
Frustration welled up inside her as she screamed, unable to believe how helpless she was—trapped in a prison she couldn’t even break free from. The sheer misery and rage, along with a growing sense of despair, surged within her, overwhelming her.
The ‘light of hope’ was dimming, and her brain’s ability to think positively was growing colder and colder.
“…Let me open it for you.”
“…?!”
…A voice startled her.
It was Robert Whitefin, the Prime minister’s aide, standing before her in the underground prison.
(III)
Grass and greenery.
The moment they disappeared from the landscape was swift.
As soon as I crossed a certain boundary, the beautiful, vibrant nature was gone, replaced by barren plains of dry dust and cracked earth.
“We’ve entered the border…”
Riding atop my phantom horse, I instinctively realized that I had crossed into the boundary of the mining city, Lavaheart.
Yes, this is a mining city, after all. Verdant forests and lush greenery don’t match its image at all.
In fact, these cracked, drought-stricken lands fit the atmosphere of a mining town much better.
“…We’re almost there.”
Now that the scenery had changed, it wouldn’t be long before we reached Lavaheart, the continent’s deepest abyss.
The army of undead increased their speed, racing toward their destination.
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