Chapter 75
Chapter 75
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 75
Chapter Title: Dark Forest
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Dark Forest.
Anyone who had actually entered this place would know exactly why it bore such a name.
The first thing that caught the eye was the trees soaring skyward as if to pierce the heavens.
As if lonely in their solitude, they stretched out their arms from high above, intertwining with one another, extending countless branches too numerous to count.
Those branches, too, sprouted leaves in greedy abundance, leaving not even a sliver of light to seep through from the sky.
Naturally, in such an environment, the smaller trees received no sunlight, and at the forest floor, stunted trees lay withered and twisted, forming graves.
An owl hooted faintly from somewhere in the distance as Arsen turned to look behind him.
He could still make out the hazy sunlight from how far they had come, but that was all—no more shouts echoed through the air.
It seemed their pursuers had no intention of following them into the woods.
“All hands, halt!”
“Halt! Everyone, stop!”
After a brief commotion as orders were relayed, the group came to a stop and reformed their ranks.
Lenoc approached Arsen to report.
“No deserters, Captain!”
Arsen nodded in acknowledgment of Lenoc’s report before issuing further orders.
“All hands, rest. Knights, over here.”
As everyone leaned against nearby trees to catch their breath, Arsen, Eloise, and the knights gathered in a spot out of earshot from the soldiers to hold a strategy meeting.
In the gloomy silence, Bazkal was the first to vent his frustration.
“Karik, that bastard! Betraying us like this...”
“Quiet,” Arsen said to the fuming man.
“But Captain, aren’t you pissed? We parted on such good terms, and just a few days later, he shows up with an army...”
“He only brought forces we could wipe out if we wanted to.”
“Huh?”
Bazkal blinked in confusion.
Having gleaned something from Arsen’s words, Ahn—who had been downcast just moments ago—snapped his head up.
He had been utterly crushed by the betrayal from Karik, whom he had considered a friend.
Feeling the eyes on him, Arsen briefly explained what had just happened.
“Sir Karik saw our strength firsthand. If he’d truly meant to capture us, he wouldn’t have come charging in with that rabble.”
In truth, if they had fought, it would have been a one-sided slaughter due to the overwhelming difference in power.
A volley of lightning spells from the mages alone would have felled the soldiers, and when it came to the knights, they held a decisive edge.
Marun might be clumsy in close combat, but protected, he was a decent archer. Bazkal was more than capable of handling his own. Ahn went without saying as a seasoned veteran knight.
Add Arsen tying down three knights on his own and Eloise controlling the battlefield, and the fight would have ended in absurdly short order.
“That means he didn’t fully report our strength to Manar. That alone shows he kept faith with us.”
At that moment, Marun, who had been standing nearby, raised his hand.
“Then couldn’t we have just fought them off back there?”
“You planning to kill Sir Karik too? He didn’t strike me as the type to throw his comrades to the wolves and save his own skin.”
Everyone around shot Marun looks that said, “And you call yourself human?” Sheepishly, he bowed his head.
Arsen added,
“Besides, slaughtering them wouldn’t end it. They’re not idiots—they’ve probably already called for reinforcements from the territory. Unless you’re confident you can take down dozens of knights, we’d have no choice but to flee here anyway.”
Blushing with embarrassment, Marun slunk back with a dejected expression.
In contrast, Ahn’s face, which had been gloomy moments before, was now much brighter.
His vigorous shout brimmed with enthusiasm.
“See? I knew I could trust Sir Karik!”
“Didn’t seem like it.”
As Ahn glared at him with his usual battle-maniac intensity, Bazkal averted his eyes and turned away.
Then, perhaps to change the subject, Marun cautiously spoke up.
“Sir Arsen, how about illuminating the area with some light?”
“Good idea. If you would.”
At Marun’s gesture, a few mages summoned spheres of light.
The previously dim forest brightened, but the shadows cast by the light deepened even more.
The eerie atmosphere sent chills down their spines for a moment before Bazkal glanced around and said,
“But something feels off. It seems even darker than before...?”
Arsen swiftly removed his helmet and scanned the surroundings.
Switching to normal vision instead of mana detection sight, he understood what Bazkal meant.
No matter how densely the trees blanketed the sky, it was midday—yet the area around them was as dark as midnight.
In fact, until just recently, it had only been the light gloom of dusk or early evening.
At some point, even the light from the direction they had entered had vanished. Even with a knight’s eyes that pierced darkness like daylight, he could only perceive the space illuminated by the magical light; he couldn’t penetrate the shadows between the trees.
The most chilling part was that none of the dozens present had noticed this until Bazkal pointed it out.
“This doesn’t feel like natural darkness.”
Eloise cautiously scanned the surroundings as she spoke.
Anxiety was beginning to spread; the others fidgeted uneasily, tilting their heads.
Arsen donned his helmet again and tried reading the mana, but it yielded nothing significant. The entire space in the forest was already saturated with mana.
“For now... let’s head back the way we came.”
With no better ideas forthcoming, they turned and retraced their steps in the direction they had fled.
* * *
Regrettably, it didn’t take long to prove they couldn’t return to where they started.
They had run earlier and were walking now, but even accounting for that, walking for a full thirty minutes without seeing any light was far from natural.
They had no choice but to admit they were isolated in the forest by some unknown force, lost with no way out.
“Are we sure we came this way?”
“It’s weird. With this many people running through, there should be tracks... but there’s nothing. It feels like we’re on a new path.”
“This is definitely south, right?”
Even the Narvik hunters, skilled in forestcraft, exchanged opinions but found no answers.
Ahn proposed a solution. Simple, yet efficient and time-honored.
“Let’s carve a mark on that big tree over there.”
One soldier drew his sword and embedded it in the tree.
As an ancient enchanted weapon, the blade sank smoothly into the wood, leaving a scar.
After carving an arrow pointing the way forward, the group pressed on.
How long had they walked?
They encountered the arrow they had just carved again.
According to its direction, at some point, they had turned around and were moving in the opposite direction.
“Huh? Why is this here?”
“Did we turn around without realizing?”
As everyone recoiled in shock and fear, Arsen struggled to maintain his composure.
Fortunately, his emotions weren’t as rattled as he’d feared.
He had anticipated something like this ever since the darkness had suddenly deepened.
His sense of responsibility as the leader suppressed his fear, allowing Arsen to stay calm.
What he needed to do now was not tremble in terror, but think of solutions.
By contrast, Marun was utterly terrified, chattering his teeth as he anxiously scanned the surroundings.
At the distant hoot of an owl—hohoo—he groaned and bowed his head.
His voice trembled with dread.
“Aaah, Sir Arsen, what do we do? If we’re really trapped here...”
Arsen felt an urge to snap at Marun to act like a proper knight and keep some dignity.
But in this situation, that would just be venting—hardly productive.
What he needed to do as leader was prove he had the situation under control and remained level-headed.
‘I’ve really become one of these knights, haven’t I...’
“No need to worry. I’m working on a way out. Focus on keeping the mages together.”
Arsen reassured Marun in a steady voice, as if soothing a child, without a hint of agitation.
Just then, he felt someone lightly tap his armor.
It was Eloise beside him.
[Do you really have a plan?]
It wasn’t hard to guess why she asked secretly. She wanted to know if it was just to reassure them or the truth.
[Sort of. I have a few ideas...]
That was when Arsen realized Eloise was trembling.
Looking closely, her face hidden under the hood was pale as a ghost, tears welling in her eyes.
Unlike Marun’s open display, she had hidden it well, but deep down, the situation terrified her.
Arsen gently reached out, grasping her hand, and offered words of comfort.
[One of the knights can climb a tree to check direction, or we tie ropes and spread out to search for a path. If that fails... we just burn the whole damn forest down.]
[Isn’t that a bit reckless?]
She sounded concerned about the risk, but Eloise’s face had relaxed considerably.
At least she had confirmed Arsen wasn’t panicking and was devising countermeasures.
Then, surprise flashed across Eloise’s face.
[Sen, that tree looks weird. The one with the arrow.]
Arsen turned to look at the tree.
The tree with the arrow carved into it. It had withered before fully growing, yet it still towered twice a man’s height.
Most trees around were in similar states, making it hard to pick out. Its only distinctions were the arrow at head height and the bizarre pattern above it...
‘Huh?’
A deeply unsettling, eerie shape adorned it.
Long, slitted eyes bulging with rage, and below them, a gaping hole evoking a roaring maw.
Before he could wonder if it had always been there, the eyes in the face pattern rolled grotesquely, shifting their gaze.
Straight down at the soldier standing below.
“Get out of the way!”
With Arsen’s shout, a bizarre resonant hum emanated from the tree, vibrating through their bodies.
Then, two branches sprouted from the tree.
Covered in hazy gray leaves, they even ended in small twigs resembling fingers—unmistakably arms and hands.
“Wha... wha...”
The soldier in front of the tree froze rigid at the surreal turn of events.
Even in a world fraught with magic beasts, the idea of a tree extending arms was unimaginable.
As the massive hand lunged at the soldier, Lenoc dashed in, shoving the stunned man backward.
The soldier rolled away, screaming.
“Argh!”
Fortunately, Lenoc agilely leaped aside after throwing him, escaping the tree’s grasp unharmed.
The tree’s movements weren’t particularly fast—anyone ordinary could dodge easily enough.
Confirming the attack’s failure, the tree extended its arms to full length downward.
With a groan-like strain, its body began to slowly swell.
No, not swell.
Its body was pulling free from the ground.
Moments later, once fully uprooted, long roots emerged.
The roots writhed like tentacles, supporting the tree.
“What the hell is that...!”
A plant turned magic beast, moving before their eyes—an unheard-of reality. As the others gaped in horror, Arsen scanned the surroundings at the growing strange noise.
The owl hoots they’d heard since earlier, once mere background, were drawing closer.
Hohoo, hohoo—not from afar anymore, but from somewhere in the high, cloaking darkness.
Then, abruptly, the cries stopped.
“What the fuck. What the...”
Bazkal’s tense voice echoed in the silence when something burst from the shadows.
“Shields up! It’s coming from above!”
The incoming threats were a flock of massive owls, each as large as a man in body size.