Chapter 92
Chapter 92
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 92
Chapter Title: Foggy Night
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Ruby sensed movement somewhere in the fog.
First through a tremor in the air, then by scent, and finally with her eyes.
'They' moved without touching a single blade of grass, made no sound as they stepped on the soil, and knew how to conceal themselves in the fog.
'Skilled at moving through the forest. Elves, then? Or perhaps demons mimicking elves.'
Ruby shot a red gaze toward Merald, who stood watch.
Even though Ruby knew he was there, it still took a few seconds of scanning the surroundings to pinpoint his exact position.
That ability to hide his bulk was something even Ruby wanted to learn.
Merald raised a hand to Ruby once, then lowered it. A signal to stay put.
Ruby blinked several times, restoring her red eyes to normal.
'He already knew, huh. Did he notice faster than me? Annoying. And if I just stay still like he says, it'll be like I'm taking orders from him.'
Ruby looked down at the base of the tree.
Saph lay asleep, using a large leaf as a blanket. Her face looked as white as if reflecting the moonlight.
Jade tossed and turned a few times before quietly gazing at Saph. His gaze at her was sometimes like looking at a little sister, sometimes like a lover.
Ruby descended silently to Jade's side and asked,
"Isn't Saph pretty?"
Jade's eyes widened, caught off guard either by her sudden appearance or the question. Fortunately, he didn't cry out in surprise.
It was likely just restraint to avoid waking Saph, but with unidentified beings approaching, it was good that Jade hadn't made noise.
"What brought that on out of nowhere?"
Jade asked.
"I notice odd things while observing you. What do you think of Saph? Dragging around a girl this pretty and not having a single thought?"
Ruby asked in a challenging tone.
"What kind of delusions have you been nursing to jump straight to that conclusion?"
Jade said, his anger measured and calm. Ruby answered honestly.
"I imagined you dying to Cowking."
"That's surprising. I figured you'd only be imagining smashing Cowking to bits."
"That's why I'm surprised too."
Ruby wiped the moisture tickling her nose with the back of her hand and retraced the process that had led to her 'delusion's conclusion'.
Right up until Saph was on the verge of sleep, Jade and Saph had shared a conversation full of mutual concern.
'Is your spot uncomfortable?'
'We can't exactly expect Sage's cabin.'
'Still, it would've been nice to bring a blanket. Colder than the Darkwood Forest.'
When Jade shivered, Saph slightly lifted the leaf covering her.
'Then should we share? Body heat will keep us warm.'
To Ruby's eyes, Jade hesitated for that instant. Even if he'd said 'sure' and they'd embraced to sleep, Ruby would've accepted it as natural.
But Jade refused.
'Sometimes Saph treats me like a kid.'
Saph lowered the leaf again and apologized.
'Did it seem that way? Sorry. Most outsiders I've met were Goya kids, so maybe that's it.'
'No need to apologize. Get some sleep.'
Saph fell into a deep sleep almost magically after that, but Jade still couldn't drift off.
Ruby reconstructed the scene in her mind in a single second, reconfirmed that this wasn't some future event or something from five hundred years ago, and asked,
"You like Saph, right?"
"Of course."
"Saph likes you too. If not for the prejudice of her being a nun and the barrier of religion, she'd have thrown herself at you or fallen for you ages ago."
Ruby pointed at Saph as she continued.
"You're tied down by the fact you were once a priest, excommunicated or absolved. That's why you can't be honest with your feelings. Otherwise, you'd have consummated things long ago and forged an even stronger bond."
"Don't judge relationships between men and women based on book knowledge."
Jade said, as if admonishing her.
Ruby shook her head.
"No, I'm actually praising you. Admiring you, even."
"In what way?"
"Humans, men or women, can't fully escape the satisfaction from physical pleasure."
"You're suddenly so academic; it's hard to adjust."
"It means once you try it once, you want to keep going."
"Then in my case, never having experienced it means there's no 'keep' involved."
"Don't lie. What I mean is one leads to two, two to three—it's not that there's no craving for that very first time. Yet you seem to have escaped even that perfectly. How?"
"You're handling these tough talks so smoothly; doesn't seem like the moment to teach you patience."
"There are things you can endure, and things you can't."
"How about we drop this now?"
"No way! You have a duty to teach me every human emotion."
"When did that duty start?"
"You often stop me from fighting. For ridiculous reasons."
Cutting Jade off mid-thought, Ruby pressed on.
"It's common sense to you. But to me, those reasons are ridiculous. If you want to issue orders based on common sense instead of chain threats from now on, you need to teach me all of it—including patience." Ruby briefly made the collar around her neck visible, then turned it transparent again. Jade shifted into a more comfortable sitting position.
"That's oddly convincing. Better than puzzling over why that bridge-crossing story from earlier was funny."
Ruby didn't hesitate to spill the thoughts she'd been harboring.
"I think pleasure is something a certain spirit inside humans creates. Actually, the joy from eating something delicious or sexual pleasure—same spirit makes them both."
Ruby tapped her head with her index finger as she continued.
"It lives right here. People usually say the heart's in the chest, but I say it's here."
"Library book knowledge too?"
"The books said pleasure comes from fire, one of the four elements making the world. But I disagree. As if the world could be built from just four elements!"
Ruby pointed her left index finger at the sleeping Saph, her right at Jade, then crossed them into an X.
"Anyway, every time you recall physical pleasure with Saph, you're killing that spirit inside you. But it won't die until you do. It's just holding its breath for a while. Suppress it too hard, and the spirit builds resentment, eventually driving you mad instead."
"Mad? Sounds exaggerated."
"I've seen over a million such mad people. Especially men. But not you. And you won't in the future. How do you keep the pleasure spirit in your head from unleashing madness? Warning you now—'because I'm a priest' is wrong. Plenty of priests among those millions."
Jade glanced at Saph, then looked away. It felt deliberate.
"Even assuming such a spirit exists, I don't see it as madness, and I haven't tried to kill it."
"Then you just leave it? It'll rampage."
"Well, perhaps I satisfy it in other ways."
"How? Tell me. Knowing the method might let me satisfy mine too."
"After my parents died, I thought I could never endure losing someone I love again. So I didn't let anyone in, didn't hold anyone dear. But Father Danel and Saph slipped into my heart on their own... Couldn't stop them."
Ruby held back from saying something like 'Father Danel might be dead?' Not to sadden Jade, but because she didn't want to interrupt.
"Our journey from Rom through the Red Desert to the Kuman Plains brought bigger demon fights, bigger fears. Battling Heldra drove it home deeper. That absurdly massive monster didn't scare me at all. What terrified me was Heldra smashing Teymon—tens of thousands might die. But that was just scale."
Jade pointed to his head, mimicking Ruby.
"If there's madness in me, it kicked in then! I was losing my mind fearing Buffalord might've killed Saph. Now even sleep scares me. Afraid she'll be gone when I wake."
"So that's why you can't sleep now?"
"I'd say yes to keep the flow, but honestly, the ground's uncomfortable. My back hurts."
"Unnecessarily honest, aren't you?"
Jade smiled as he said,
"Seeing Saph sleeping so peacefully right here satisfies me."
"What? That's the answer? Some tiny bit of relief makes up for no physical pleasure?"
"In my case, yeah."
"Your spirit's awfully modest...
Even as she spoke with Jade, Ruby kept an eye on Merald.
Merald signaled for her to stay put.
'This guy's aware I know, and I take it for granted he knows. Interesting. Excluding angels, was there anyone like him five hundred years ago?'
Ruby pointed downward with her finger, signaling 'I'll stay here.' Her talk with Jade wasn't over yet.
"Now I get it."
"Get what?"
Jade asked.
Ruby thumped her chest.
"The spirit in me always craves battle. Stronger foes, fiercer fights to put this madness to sleep.
But you tame yours with some timid relief? Explains why we never see eye to eye."
"Could be."
Jade gazed at Ruby with concern as he continued.
"You called it a spirit; I'll call it a vessel. You said head; I'll say heart. Metaphor either way."
Jade lightly thumped his chest with his fist.
"The heart's like a box that grows the more you put in it.
A magic box that expands with what you add, shrinks when you remove. Fill it with hate, hate grows; fill with love, love grows."
"Fill it with worry like you, and worry grows?"
"Can't deny it. I'm worried about you right now, and that worry box keeps expanding."
"You daring to worry about me is ridiculous, but go on—why?"
"You said it yourself: once you try something, you want to keep going."
"I did."
"Once you get that pleasure to quiet your madness spirit, the next one'll have to be even bigger inevitably. What then?"
Jade asked.
Ruby scratched the tip of her nose.
'Direct hit.'
It felt like getting counterattacked without even swinging.
Right on cue, Merald signaled. Again assuming Ruby was in the know.
'I'll handle it. You stay put.'
Ruby tossed back a casual signal.
'Suit yourself.'
No actual signal for that, of course.
Just a random wave of the hand. Merald got the gist anyway.
"Now wake Saph."
Ruby said in a commanding tone.
"Dragging her into this debate?"
Jade asked.
"That'd be a good idea too. Saph's take on physical pleasure would bring a fresh angle. But that's not why."
It was only after they'd closed a good distance that Ruby identified the race of the approaching foes.
"Elves nearby."
Jade asked for confirmation.
"Elves... plural?"
"Yeah. Quite a few. Don't feel especially friendly."
Ruby kept her voice low.
Jade whispered even softer.
"How do you know they're not friendly?"
"They're nocking arrows at us."
"...Plan?"
Jade asked quickly.
"Wait. Merald's got it. If he doesn't, I'll handle it then. You lot stay put. Elf arrows are tough to block."
Ruby added with a joking tone.
"Feel that? Worry box starting to grow?"
Jade silently woke Saph.
'This one's forgivable without a laugh.'
The moment Saph's eyes opened, Jade pressed a finger to his lips.
Saph nodded without a word.
Saph's movements were always fascinating. Seemed sluggish, but actually quick as a wildcat; seemed dim, but her instincts were sharp.
This time too, unprompted, she rolled from lying flat to prone on the ground. No flailing panic to stand—instead securing a stance ready to spring up instantly.
Moments later, Merald's voice echoed faintly from the darkness.
"I am a guardian of the Darkwood Forest."
A fainter reply came in the common tongue.
"Why has a guardian of the Darkwood Forest left it to enter the Black Ash Woods?"
"Passing through. We're en route to the Ancient Swamp Ruins. Heard an entity called Cowking is there."
"Cowking... there?"
the other asked.
Ruby grasped Merald's sudden silence.
'Even their guard captain might not know. We only learned after drawing out Buffalord's soul.'
Merald said,
"Per the intel I have, the Ancient Swamp Ruins is his lair."
"Watercon rules the Ancient Swamp Ruins."
"And Cowking? Don't the Komora here endlessly sing Cowking's hymns?"
"They sing them to exhaustion. Yet we know Cowking lurks in some deeper darkness beyond our ken, not in Elforest. Some even suspect Cowking's a fiction cooked up by Watercon."
Merald sank into deep thought.
If she could, Ruby wanted to toss Merald some advice.
'Focus on the guy in front. They're taking up combat positions.'
Ruby viewed the elves as potential threats, and they clearly weren't taking the guardian at face value as an ally. Maybe they just didn't trust guardians, period.
"A human travels with you? Why's a human in a place like this?"
an elf asked from the fog.
"My companion."
Merald slowly advanced toward the other.
The other approached cautiously as well.
Beneath the thick fog and moonlight, they halted about ten paces apart.
Neither lowered their bows.
Ruby readied herself to charge the moment fighting broke out.
'Jade's got reason to worry. I'm unconsciously hoping for big pleasure from this fight. Hoping they're better shots than Merald, evil as demons. That way, I can kill them freely!'