Chapter 39
Chapter 39
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 39
Chapter Title: Gigantia's Rampage
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Through the crack in the shattered glass vial, Gigantia slithered out, wriggling its red body.
"Knight, what is the meaning of this!"
"I'm trying to kill the sacred bloodline."
"I already told you I've poisoned the prince! We need to escape now! Gigantia is a species that grows even larger in an instant after feeding!"
"I have no interest in some prince."
Gigantia began slowly crawling up the stone wall.
Its eyes, like those of a predator eyeing prey, were fixed on the people inside the interrogation room.
Watching Gigantia shake its head as it did before a hunt, the attending physician screamed.
He didn't want to die here.
He didn't care if a madman like Stipe died here—he wanted to live.
The moment he turned to sprint toward the exit, a strong hand grabbed his clothes.
He thrashed like a madman, but he couldn't overcome the strength of a seasoned knight.
'My daughter told me.'
Stipe's grip tightened as he recalled Leopoldt's arrogant expression.
The pain from his broken bones was nothing.
The screams and thrashing as Gigantia dropped from the ceiling onto the physician's body were nothing.
'I can't refuse my daughter's request.'
Stipe hated Leopoldt.
The man who had crushed both his legs without a shred of pity, ending his life as a knight. The man who held his life in his hands.
Gigantia particularly loved the blood of those with Divine Grace.
This mansion housed Leopoldt's two children.
Let's see if he could keep that same calm face as when he interrogated Stipe and ruined his hands, even after his beloved daughter died.
If he could just see Leopoldt suffer like he did when Lucy died, Stipe would do anything.
"Aaaah!"
As Gigantia tore into its prey, the physician's screams slowly faded.
As the light of life went out in the physician's eyes, Gigantia's body swelled with a sickening crack. The finger-sized monster grew massively in an instant.
And with that, it tossed the physician's corpse aside and lunged toward the living Stipe.
Once more, screams echoed through the underground interrogation room.
Rumble—!
I, who had dozed off for a moment, felt my body tilting and opened my eyes.
With the vibration, my body was thrown straight to the floor.
When I finally came to my senses, the entire house was shaking like there was an earthquake.
"What is...?"
Before I could finish, another vibration hit.
At the same time, with a crack, the door of the dresser in the dressing room collapsed.
'The prince is inside there!'
I rushed over in shock, but no matter how hard I pushed with my strength, the fallen door wouldn't budge.
"Step back."
Whether he'd heard me struggling to open it, the prince murmured lowly.
And at that moment, heat surged through the entire dresser, even dislodging the last remaining hinges as the door tilted forward.
With just the prince pushing, the door couldn't hold and crashed down.
Screams filled the air from all directions.
"What ith it?"
"Shh."
As I shut my mouth at the prince's signal, snippets of people's shouts reached my ears.
"Monster...! Right now...!"
My face and the prince's hardened almost simultaneously as we pieced together the fragmented words.
A monster? Why was there suddenly a monster in our house?
The question didn't last long.
Another vibration shook the wall by the window, and the glass shattered, unable to withstand the force.
Thanks to the prince pulling me toward him, I rolled on the floor and barely dodged the shards.
And then, I locked eyes with it.
Jet-black eyes that were bizarrely round. Hundreds of wriggling legs. A massive body gleaming with a smooth sheen.
A house-sized centipede stood on the floor, lifting only its head to stare at me and the prince.
A faint green mist swirled around the centipede's body.
"It's monster poison. Be careful."
As I looked at the boy's pallid profile, a foul stench began to creep into my nose too.
It was far stronger and more acrid than the monster poison I'd faintly smelled from war prisoners before.
Whenever bodily fluids dripped from the giant centipede monster's body, the surroundings melted away.
Nausea welled up.
If even a healthy me felt like this, the prince—who hadn't been well for a while...
A thin trickle of blood that had finally stopped traced down his lips again, and the prince wiped it away with his hand.
No corpse could be as pale as the prince.
Bang—!
The monster slammed its head into the wall again, trying to force its way into my room.
With a deafening crash, the window frame and wall began crumbling together.
"What now?"
"Monsters with poison are more aggressive toward bloodlines with Divine Grace."
"You and me."
"Don't leave my side no matter what. Got it?"
As those words ended, a reddish heat began spreading around the boy's body.
The moment the monster finally twisted its head into the room, the heat converged at one point and flames erupted.
Kieeeek—!
Engulfed in massive flames, the monster screamed and writhed.
Stone dust rained down from the ceiling.
"You okay?"
The boy's condition was a mess. His face looked more pained than the monster, which had pulled its head back to escape the flames.
The prince, vomiting up a clot of blood, barely caught his ragged breath.
"I won't die from some poison."
It felt less like stating a fact and more like a vow.
Like brainwashing himself that he absolutely wouldn't die.
Having been scorched by flames once, the monster grew a bit more cautious.
Instead of thrusting its head back in, it grotesquely writhed its body, beginning to coil around the entire room.
Hundreds of legs gripped the walls firmly and started climbing.
No way...?
"It looks like it's trying to bring the house down."
"Our house!"
As soon as the prince spoke, the walls creaked and tilted from the monster's constricting force.
The structural beams' resistance and the monster's squeezing power balanced precariously.
But it was a fragile balance that could break at any moment. The monster still had plenty of leeway.
If the house collapsed, we'd die.
No matter how great the prince's Divine Grace was, his condition was at its worst right now.
Even I was blinking with flickering vision, purple spots dancing from the monster poison's effects.
'Think.'
If we didn't escape before the house fell, we'd either be crushed or die from poison.
I clutched my aching head and racked my brain.
What the monster feared.
Fire.
When the prince had ignited flames earlier, the monster had retreated quickly. It definitely feared fire.
So there was only one way.
"Whatcha doin'?"
I grabbed the scented oil the maids applied to my hair after baths and poured it generously onto the bed.
The place with the most fabric.
The spot that would burn the longest and hottest.
One bottle wasn't enough, so I emptied three or four in a row.
The fruit scent of the oil mixed with the monster poison's stench, turning my stomach, but I had to endure.
"Light fire here!"
"What?"
"Monster fear fire. Hot, it let go."
I wanted to speak clearly, but whether it was a symptom of poisoning, my jaw muscles were stiffening.
The prince stared at me intently for a moment.
His expression seemed to hold back many words as he reignited the flames.
'The flames are weaker than before.'
Even as he strained with all his might, his face drained of color in real time.
Only after all blood had vanished from his face did a single spark land on the bed.
At that instant, the prince spewed blood again.
A much larger amount than before.
At this rate, he'll die from blood loss, I thought, checking his face—but stubbornly silent, the prince used his Divine Grace once more.
The spark on the bed slowly grew.
Torn curtains, dolls, colored paper, notebooks. I gathered everything flammable and tossed it into the flames.
"This enough now."
"The monster hasn't retreated yet."
"But...!"
"Don't worry about it. Whether I live or die has nothing to do with you."
Here I was worrying, and he snaps.
I pouted and took a couple steps away from the prince.
The flames had already grown massive, enveloping the entire room.
This should make even the monster feel the heat.
The moment I glanced at the window to confirm, an unprecedented vibration shook the whole house.
Kiiiiieeeek—!
Whether the heat had spread, the monster coiled around the house thrashed wildly, its legs gouging into the walls.