Chapter 64: Night of the Hunt (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 64: Night of the Hunt (2)
“Noel, Noel, Noel—dammit…”
A grumble slipped past Katya’s lips.
Her face was a picture of discontent. She looked thoroughly irritated by the fact that she had been separated from Noel and Aiden, forced to wander around on her own yet again.
Clutched tightly in her arms was a bundle of wooden stakes she had taken from Aiden. Her newly assigned task was to walk around and drive them into the ground at specific intervals.
Even though the man had clearly been reluctant to assign her such trivial chores, she had insisted on taking them just moments ago. It was better than doing absolutely nothing while alone.
…Fine, I’ll handle a few errands for him.
Pouting at the thought, she set off once more.
She hammered the stakes into the earth one after another along her path. It was a tedious, simple task, but knowing it was helping Aiden made her feel a little better.
In truth, the work itself wasn’t difficult at all; being separated and left on her own again was her main grievance.
Why does he always look after her first?
And honestly, it was true.
Whenever there was work to be done, it had become second nature for Aiden to look out for Noel first instead of her.
Watching Noel exude an aura of absolute reliability from head to toe, pouting in discontent was the only natural reaction Katya could muster.
Well.
Sometimes, she even felt a certain way about it:
He thinks I’m just in the way.
Mulling over that thought made her feel gloomier for no good reason.
She had once pressed Noel about what their relationship really was, but regardless of the answer, the fact that the two were betrothed was as clear as day.
Whatever hidden details lay between them, it was an undeniable fact that the two were closer to each other than they were to Katya.
“…”
Naturally, from Katya’s perspective, the situation was utterly insufferable.
Along the edge of the cliff leading toward the canyon, she repeatedly hammered stakes into the ground with loud, crunching thuds, as if venting her anger.
Well. How should she even describe this emotion?
She hated the idea of Aiden being with anyone other than herself. She was well aware of her own possessiveness.
Then, was it jealousy—a desire to occupy that spot herself?
Yet, defining it like that felt strangely ambiguous.
I don’t even really know what a wife is supposed to be…
They said the dictionary definition of marriage was accepting an outsider as part of one’s family.
However, whether Katya herself wanted to become that was equally ambiguous.
In the first place, to her, family was—
“…”
A heavy tug deep inside her chest made Katya freeze.
Ah.
Dangerous.
Realizing this, she calmly suppressed the Divine Power surging within her body.
Even with a body that could feel nothing, there were occasionally elements beyond physical sensations that unsettled her mind. Namely, emotions.
Insults, contempt, humiliation.
Beyond those disorienting memories, if she were to define the violent mental surge outlining itself most clearly:
Rage.
A pitch-black rage that felt like it would violently tear her mind apart and bleach her reason white.
To her, the word “family” was nothing more than a trigger for such emotions.
Her body flinched. Her breathing threatened to turn ragged against her will.
…Friend.
Until she recalled that specific word, the symptom was severe enough that she had almost unleashed flames around her without realizing it.
Aiden.
Aiden Kellermain.
That man was her friend.
Not family.
“…”
Repeating that word over and over, she barely managed to regain her composure and catch her breath.
Right. So, in truth, trying to pry Lionheart away from his side meant she was actually helping him.
Wasn’t she helping him escape the dreadful fetters known as family?
Therefore, if she saw that woman flirting with him again, she would have to sabotage it by any means necessary to be satisfied—
“Can’t you run any faster?!”
“I’m sorry, but this is top speed!”
“…”
Just as Katya was stoking her fighting spirit, Noel and Aiden came bursting out from deep inside the forest, clinging tightly to each other. Their faces were filled with uncharacteristic panic.
Seeing Noel carrying Aiden on her back like a sack of luggage—just like last time—Katya’s eyes immediately narrowed.
She had literally just been thinking how sickening it was to see them stuck together…
“What on earth are you two—”
Before Katya could finish her sentence, Noel scooped her up and slung her over her shoulder.
It happened so naturally, leaving absolutely no time to resist. Katya found herself dangling like a sack over Noel’s left shoulder, her eyes wide with shock.
“What is it?! What’s going on?!”
When she demanded an explanation from Aiden, who was slung over Noel’s right shoulder, he answered, completely out of breath.
“I’ll explain later! Just shoot a blast for now!”
“…?”
The question of what she was supposed to shoot at instantly crossed her mind, but additional explanation proved unnecessary.
She immediately realized what they were running from.
A demonic beast soared up from the slope adjacent to the group.
Yes, ‘soared’ was the right word.
It had surely hooked its legs onto the edge of the slope to pull itself up, but its absurd leg strength had launched it upward as if it were a projectile.
Katya’s mouth fell wide open. She watched the corner of the hill—where she had been standing just moments ago—crumble simply from the shockwave of the beast kicking off the ground.
It was a quadrupedal demonic beast resembling a feline predator.
However, simply comparing it to a ‘predator’ would be a grave insult to this terrifying monster.
In fact, it was doubtful whether it could even be classified as a living creature fitting that category.
Its bulk was comparable to two houses joined together. Monstrous, vicious muscles pulsed along its limbs, which were as thick as structural steel pillars.
With the way primal violence surged in waves from its entire body… calling it a biological tank would be far more accurate.
With every single movement, the earth rumbled.
Looking at this creature, she was reminded once again.
The demonic beast that had previously sprouted from the Grand Duke’s Daughter’s body was, well…
…Nothing at all.
This was the kind of monster that boasted the highest tier of strength among demonic beasts.
It took something of this scale to make other beasts—creatures driven purely by instinct—cower and flee.
Gaining these realizations in rapid succession, Katya twisted her lips and spoke.
“…What on earth is that?”
To Katya’s question, Aiden possessed an extremely precise answer.
⊙ Soul River [Berserk]
A beast occupying the apex of the ecosystem among quadrupedal demonic beasts deep within the Void Zone. Demonic beasts whose pure physical capabilities can rival it are exceedingly rare outside of the Dragon Species, and in certain aspects, it even holds the upper hand over dragonkind.
Though it possesses high intelligence and pride capable of conversation, it is currently in a berserk state due to an unknown reason. Proper reasoning is currently impossible, and it harbors hostility toward everything in sight.
— Weapon: Entire Body
— Strengths: Pinnacle athletic capability among demonic beasts; defense harder than dragon scales; near-immortal life force.
— Weaknesses: None.
Of course, rather than listing out such absurd specs, keeping his mouth shut felt like the wiser choice.
Immediately after, the Soul River slammed into the ground with a screeching roar like metal scraping against steel. The wind pressure generated as its four legs churned the earth at a terrifying speed blew away the cloud of dust before it could even billow up.
Its speed was undeniably faster than Noel, who was sprinting at full force while drawing upon her supernatural abilities!
“…Ha.”
At this point, she couldn’t help but deeply sympathize with Aiden’s plea to just shoot a blast first and leave the explanations for later.
Divine Power pulsated throughout Katya’s entire body.
Much like Lionheart, a vast amount of Divine Power—enough to call her a walking supernatural power plant—pulsated within her.
As she formed a hand seal, her Divine Power sharpened even further. Every royal of the Holy Kingdom actively practiced the Blazing Flame Art to wield their innate supernatural abilities with greater destructive force.
And Katya was someone who ranked highly in terms of sheer ‘skill’, not just raw output.
Rotational blades of Divine Power manifested all around her. Blades capable of easily melting and piercing thick steel plates fired straight at the Soul River’s ‘eyes’.
No creature could train vital spots like the eyes or internal organs. And Katya’s divine blades, precisely sniping that weakness—
Bounced off with a shower of sparks.
Katya’s mouth fell agape despite herself.
Of course, it wasn’t completely unaffected; the Soul River, which had been charging with ferocious momentum, let out a pained roar and slowed down slightly.
“…Did I just see that right?”
And naturally so.
For a creature to take a direct hit to a vital spot from an attack unleashed by royalty of the Holy Kingdom—and a top-tier one at that—and merely ‘slow down’ was utterly absurd.
Katya’s fingertips trembled with a rare tremor. It was clear her pride was wounded beyond measure.
No, it went far beyond mere wounded pride.
That attack just now was lethal enough to instantly kill most powerful supernatural ability users. Taking that directly to the eye and suffering no real damage?
“…How on earth are we supposed to kill that thing?”
It was only natural for such a question to spill out.
It also made complete sense why Lionheart, who had distinguished herself in the Alliance War, was running away so helplessly.
However, Aiden responded to her words as if there was nothing strange about the situation at all.
“It’s fine. We can’t kill it anyway!”
“…What?”
“I had no intention of killing it in the first place!”
Granted, it didn’t possess the hopeless immortality of Katya, but it was still a monster explicitly described by the system window as rivaling the ‘Dragon Species’.
Considering that dragon scales were a symbol of impenetrable defense, even with Lionheart and Deathwish present, this beast was an infuriating opponent they couldn’t defeat simply due to a ‘lack of firepower’.
Killing it was never an option to begin with.
“Then what do you plan to do?! Tell us the plan!”
Fortunately, there was a clear answer to give to Noel’s scream-like cry.
“I’m going to tame it!”
“…”
“…”
Both Noel and Katya stared at Aiden with dumbfounded expressions.
“…Tame it?”
“Yes!”
“… That thing?”
“Yes! I’m going to raise it!”
“…”
“My goal is to ride it around!”
At this point, it was terrifying to ask any further.
…Thinking about it now.
This man.
He had definitely lost his mind lately.