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(T/N: I should have felt that Edmund telling Daphne to sit beside him was romantic, but I was reminded that this wasn’t exactly a rom-com novel 😣)
Chapter 41
Alec took the lead in place of Edmund, and before long, the carriage began to move.
The problem arose after that.
Daphne had tried to cover the broken window, but she couldn’t block the cold wind. Letting out a faint groan, she curled up tightly.
Edmund, who had been sitting with his arms crossed and eyes closed, opened his eyes. He reached out and pulled the shivering Daphne into his arms. It was merely an action to prevent her from dying from hypothermia.
After a while, as Daphne absorbed Edmund’s body heat, her eyelids fluttered slightly. Noticing the movement, Edmund lowered his head, and Daphne opened her eyes at the same moment. Daphne’s eyes widened in surprise.
‘Green.’
Edmund suddenly remembered the pale green of Daphne’s eyes, as seen in her portrait. He had thought green was just green, but hers were different. Daphne’s eyes were clearer, more beautiful…
“What… what are you doing?” Daphne struggled in his arms.
But she couldn’t escape from Edmund’s firm embrace.
“Let me go.”
“If I let you go, are you planning to cause another disturbance?”
“Disturbance? What are you talking about…?”
Daphne abruptly stopped speaking. It seemed she had just recalled what she had done.
“…I won’t cause any more trouble, so let me go. There’s no need for us to stay in this uncomfortable position.”
“You’ll regret it.”
“I won’t.”
Edmund, who had been looking down at Daphne, released his arms without hesitation. Finally free from his embrace, Daphne quickly moved and settled in the farthest corner from Edmund, diagonally across the carriage.
Though the carriage’s interior was small and the distance wasn’t much, Daphne desperately crammed herself into the corner. Before long, Daphne’s expression stiffened, and the color that had returned to her lips began to fade to blue.
Only now did she realize what Edmund had meant when he let her go.
“I told you, you’d regret it.”
Daphne turned to look at Edmund, her face pale. No matter how much she curled up, the cold wind seeped through the gaps in her clothing.
“You could die from hypothermia.” Edmund’s voice was calm. “Come over here.”
If she had the strength, Daphne would have scoffed. But, to conserve what little energy she had left, she simply turned her head and curled up tighter.
“If you don’t want to die, come here.”
“No.”
Daphne’s refusal was firm.
“Daphne.”
“Are you worried about the baby?”
Daphne whipped her head around to look at Edmund.
“Is that why you’re so anxious? Is the baby really that important to you?”
Edmund only then realized he had been restless. However, his gaze remained fixed on Daphne’s face, which was turning a deeper shade of blue.
“Answer me.”
“Yes. So, come to me, quickly.”
Haa.
In the end, Daphne let out a dry laugh through her clenched teeth.
“I told you. I don’t….”
Before she could finish, she found herself in Edmund’s arms once again. Daphne tried to move her limbs to escape, but they didn’t respond.
“Let go.”
“You have frostbite.”
It wasn’t Edmund holding her tightly; Daphne’s body had stiffened from frostbite.
Edmund reached beneath the layers of her skirts and grabbed her foot without hesitation. Fortunately, the frostbite wasn’t severe.
“How could you let yourself get into this state…?”
If it had been any later, the frostbite could have become serious.
“…Edmund.” Daphne murmured blankly, calling out to him. “You…”
Her heart started to thud loudly. Was it because warmth was returning to her hands and feet, or was it the tension? Heat surged through her body, tingling like pins and needles.
Daphne blinked.
Or had she? She wasn’t sure if she had actually blinked, but it felt like she had.
“Could it be….”
Neither Daphne nor Edmund, nor anyone else, dared to breathe. Edmund was waiting for Daphne’s lips to part and form words. The only sound was the pounding of their hearts, and the cold wind blowing incessantly, reminding them that this was reality.
“Did you know?”
Just then—
“Your Excellency! A monster…!”
Crash! The carriage roof collapsed with a loud noise.
“Your Excellency!”
Edmund raised his hand toward the approaching Alec. Understanding the signal, Alec stopped as Edmund stood up. As the carriage collapsed, a cloud of dust billowed up, and beyond it, the monster began spewing its foul miasma.
‘Its eyes….’
Edmond noticed something strange: the monster had no eyes. Bringing his index finger to his lips, he signaled for everyone to remain silent.
He reached for his waist. Nothing. The strap that held his scabbard had vanished. Edmund spotted his sword, trapped under the wreckage of the carriage.
Without taking his eyes off the monster, he whispered to Daphne, who was still in his arms.
“Quietly, move back.”
At his words, Daphne cautiously glanced around.
“Mother.”
Hearing the soft voice of Damian from right behind her, Daphne slowly retreated. Damian was also carefully making his way toward her. Everyone held their breath, and the monster still hadn’t moved.
Alec, realizing Edmund’s situation, cautiously moved to hand him his sword.
The only fortunate thing was that this particular monster couldn’t see. Deprived of all sound, the creature twitched its large ears and sniffed the air.
Daphne swallowed dryly and took another step. One step, then another.
Damian reached out his hand as Daphne drew closer. Her arm, wrapped in a bandage, had loosened due to her earlier struggles, and blood began to bead and trickle down her arm.
The blood slid past her wrist, down her palm, and dripped from her fingertips. Plop. The moment the blood hit the ground, Daphne took her final step.
Snap.
The sound of a small twig breaking echoed loudly across the silent snowfield.
Screeech!
The monster let out a grotesque screech and charged forward.
Edmund quickly grabbed a wooden plank and channeled his aura through it. By some miracle, the plank didn’t immediately shatter and was able to block the monster’s ramming attack.
“Damian!”
Damian immediately pulled Daphne toward him.
“Ugh.”
“Your Excellency!”
Alec threw his sword toward Edmund, who had been scratched by the monster’s claws. In one swift motion, Edmund caught the sword, sliced through the monster, and was instantly drenched in its blood.
Edmund approached the writhing beast and found the glowing purple core, which he destroyed. Only the sound of heavy breathing, whose source was unclear, filled the air.
Simultaneously, sighs of relief were released as everyone quickly prepared to move on.
— — —
One of the two carriages was destroyed, so Daphne was moved to the supply wagon that Damian was riding in.
“Your Excellency, are you alright?”
Once the situation was under control, Alec immediately approached Edmund.
“It’s fine. I’m alright.”
Edmund, holding out his sword, cleared the monster’s corpse and lifted a wooden plank. As he raised the sword’s scabbard from beneath it, drops of the monster’s blood splattered down.
Edmund paid it no mind, drew his sword from the scabbard, and flipped over the monster’s body. Alec, standing nearby, widened his eyes in shock.
“It’s not that the monster didn’t have eyes…”
Someone had forcibly sealed its eyes shut. The monster had eyes, but both were glued shut, as if covered with adhesive.
Edmund spread out the monster’s abnormally large ears. Inside, something strange caught his attention.
“The eardrums look unusual.”
Alec bent down to examine them more closely.
“It’s as if… there are multiple eardrums layered on top of each other.”
Where there should have been just one eardrum, there were several, densely packed together.
“Your Excellency, have you ever seen a monster like this before?”
“Never.”
Despite having slain countless monsters, this was a first for Edmund. Which meant…
“…It’s a mutant monster.”
Another mutant monster had appeared.
Ordinary mutant monsters were simply evolved forms of regular ones, but this one was different. Though small in size and unable to see, its hearing was even more developed than that of other mutant monsters.
“This is already the second mutant monster we’ve encountered in five years.”
It had only been five years since mutant monsters first started appearing. And now, yet another new form had emerged. Had Edmund not quickly assessed the monster’s condition, there could have been significant casualties.
“Your Excellency, something is approaching.”
At that moment, a subordinate approached. Hearing this, Edmund stopped inspecting the monster and looked ahead. What had been a single dark spot became several, and the scent of blood reached his nose.
“…Johann!”
It was the vanguard.
Of the ten or so men, all had minor injuries, but Johann had sustained the most severe wound – a long, vertical slash down his side that wouldn’t stop bleeding.
“What happened out there?”
“We encountered a monster.”
With a haggard face, Baron Nuvelle began explaining.
“It was just one monster, so we let our guard down. But it wasn’t like an ordinary monster or even a mutant one.”
Edmund had a sense of foreboding.
“That monster… It didn’t seem able to see well, but strangely, it could detect even the smallest sounds. Johann injured his side trying to dodge it, but it could have been worse. The monster was almost like….”
“Did it have abnormally large ears?”
“How did you know?”
Baron Nuvelle looked at Edmund, startled, and nodded.
“Could it have been this monster?”
Edmund led Baron Nuvelle to the bisected monster’s corpse. Due to the chaotic situation, Baron Nuvelle hadn’t had a chance to examine the body closely. When he saw it, his eyes widened in surprise.
“That’s it. Could it be that this place too…?”
“It suddenly appeared and attacked the carriage. Specifically, the one Daphne and I were in.”
As Edmund spoke, he noticed something strange. The monster had seemed to target the carriage deliberately, as if it had a purpose. It ignored those at the front and went straight for the carriage.
“But the one that attacked us was smaller.”
“…Which means neither of them were fully grown.”
Edmund looked down at the monster’s body, which was the size of two horses. Its core was smaller, but its body was larger.
“Could it be… a new type of mutant monster?”
“There’s no other explanation.”
“This is unbelievable….”
Baron Nuvelle couldn’t hide his shock at the appearance of a new mutant monster.
Edmund, suddenly aware of the sword in his hand, raised it. The strap that held the scabbard was cleanly cut – not torn, but snapped neatly in two. It was as if something was being signaled. Edmund gripped his sword tightly.
“…We move out immediately.”
They had to leave this place as soon as possible.