56
Chapter 56
"......."
In that moment, tension crept up my spine.
At this distance, it wouldn't be strange for someone to pull out a sword.
A pack of ghouls in front, and a mysterious stranger behind.
There was no way to run, no time to hide.
However, he continued speaking quietly, in a very low voice.
"Calm down and steady your breathing. Ghouls are sensitive to sound."
......My nervousness must have been obvious.
Then again, flustered and out of breath in this yard, I couldn't hope to put on an act.
I took a small breath.
Exhaling slowly, very slowly, as if draining the air accumulated in my lungs, I cooled the sweat on the back of my neck.
"......Who are you."
At my quiet question, he tilted his head ever so slightly.
Then, after glancing toward the forest once more, he answered carefully.
"I suppose... it's only polite to reveal my name first."
He bowed his head and muttered briefly.
"My name is 'Silon'. Let's just say I'm a passerby."
"For a passerby, you found us a bit too accurately."
"I didn't find you. I just... followed the direction the ghouls were gathering from where I was."
"......."
He looked beyond the pack of ghouls and spoke quietly.
"That pack will move soon. They won't stay put like that. They start hunting when the sun goes down."
"......And so."
"I know a way out."
Saying that, he pointed a finger toward the right edge of the forest.
A place tangled with vines and trees, which didn't look like a path at a glance.
"Depending on what you want, I might be able to help."
In that moment, silence fell once again.
Eileen carefully nudged my side.
I read the question in her eyes: 'What should we do?'
After a beat, I opened my mouth.
"This way out you mentioned... is it really safe?"
If there was such a safe path, why would he bother taking us?
Silon chuckled and gave a short reply.
"In this forest, a safe path is simply a less dangerous one. Still..."
He slowly turned his body and met our gaze.
"It's not like you have any other options right now, do you?"
...He wasn't wrong.
We had to evade the pack of ghouls somehow, and he was the one who claimed to know how.
"Then how about we move while keeping our distance from each other?"
Eileen carefully suggested from my side.
"Since we don't trust each other, it can't be helped. Let's do that."
He turned around without another word.
Without even telling us to follow, he just started walking.
We naturally followed behind him, keeping our distance.
By the time the pack of ghouls completely disappeared from sight, the scenery outside the forest revealed itself again.
But-
"......It's a cliff."
"Yes."
There was no path ahead.
To be exact, there was one, but it was a vertical drop.
A naturally eroded fault cliff situated right where the dense forest ended.
The height looked to be about three stories of an apartment building, and the bottom was an irregular tangle of brush and stones.
"Do we... have to go down this?"
I instinctively swallowed my saliva.
If we fell wrong, we wouldn't just be hurting our ankles.
Moreover, with my wrists not in perfect condition either, it was definitely a burdensome option.
"This cliff is originally the elevation difference that divides the outskirts of the forest and the plains."
"The plains?"
He raised his hand and pointed into the distance.
"If we go down there, the Northern Trade Route continues. The city is at the end of that path's fork."
At those words, I let out a small breath.
So this was the right path after all.
"You're not expecting us to just jump down this, are you?"
"No. If we follow the right side, there's a gentle slope. We just need to go around to there."
He quietly walked ahead, and we started walking along the cliff again.
Looking back, the shadows of the forest were finally receding.
"Can we really trust him?"
Eileen asked carefully.
"No."
I answered firmly.
Watching Silon walking leisurely ahead of us, there was no reason to mince words.
The timing of his appearance, his attitude, his reasons—there wasn't a single thing about him that wasn't suspicious.
We weren't following him because we trusted him; it was simply because we had no other choice.
"Still... we have to follow him for now."
"Yeah. It can't be helped."
Whether he heard our conversation or just felt something off, Silon glanced over his shoulder and let out a faint smile.
For some reason, that expression felt like an act, deliberately meant to lower our trust.
'He really is a suspicious guy.'
After walking a little further along the cliff, we finally saw the slope.
On the right slope, a small stone path snaked through the gaps of solid boulders, and below, a dense forest and wide plains spread out.
"It's here. If we go down this slope, we can reach the Northern Plains right away."
Silon said, pointing downward with his hand.
We carefully made our way out of the forest, following behind Silon down the incline.
The narrow path leading down the cliff was winding, and the damp dirt road kept making us slip.
"It won't be long now. Once we get down there..."
Silon said as he led the way.
His voice was still calm. But it felt as if it was trembling slightly.
I caught Eileen's eye over my shoulder.
"......Doesn't this seem strange?"
"Yes. Look over there, at the ground."
There was a bizarre crack in the ground.
It looked like it had been trampled and packed down dozens of times, yet it was raised as if something had pushed up from inside.
I instinctively took a step back.
Then-
Crunch! Rumble!
The ground heaved.
"What the-!"
A rotten hand burst through the dirt.
Soon after, decaying skin, rotting eyeballs, and a jaw with exposed bone broke through the ground.
"Gwooooarrrr——!!"
I thought it was a ghoul.
But it wasn't.
It was different from a ghoul.
It was more rotten, more like a corpse.
...If I had to describe it, it was like a zombie.
There wasn't just one.
The ground erupted everywhere.
They had been hiding beneath the soil and sprang out all at once, as if they had received a signal.
"Damn it, it was an ambush!"
"......Silon?"
I turned my head.
Silon was gone.
He had already turned around and was running away.
Without a single word or signal.
"This bastard...!"
I leaped up at once, pulled my staff from my waist, and aimed it at him.
A small Water Bomb formed by a brief Condensation.
"Where do you think you're going, you bastard?!"
I fired it without hesitation.
Swoosh- Bang!
The Water Bomb landed a direct hit on the back of the fleeing Silon's head.
A wet splash erupted, and the shockwave struck the back of his head, causing him to stagger and lose his balance.
"Ugh... Y-You bastard...!"
"You're the son of a bitch, you moron! Running away and leaving us behind?!"
I dashed forward and kicked him again.
At that moment, the zombies had closed in right behind us.
"Riv, behind you!!"
At Eileen's shout, I hastily turned my body around.
Whoosh. Crunch!
The mace I thrust with my left hand crushed the zombie's head.
Blood and rotten ooze splattered, soaking the ground.
"One, two, three... Damn it, how many are there?!"
"We're surrounded!"
"Damn it, then let's break the encirclement first!"
I grabbed the collar of the fallen Silon and threw him toward the horde of zombies.
"You fight too, you bastard!"
"U-Uwaaaagh—!!"
And just like that, the battle began.
Silon was a more experienced fighter than I expected.
He seemed to have regained half his senses even after taking a hit to the back of the head, responding with surprising speed.
Picking himself up, he drew a short dagger and swung it at the approaching zombies.
"D-Don't come any closer! Get lost, you rotting freaks!"
The dulled dagger slashed a zombie's shoulder, but the rotting flesh clung to it like mud, preventing a clean cut.
Silon seemed to notice this right away, quickly changing his angle of attack to target their arms, legs, and joints.
The guy was a coward, but his combat instincts were quite sharp, proving he wasn't armed for nothing.
"Uuuuugh...!"
The appearance of the zombies surrounding us was nothing short of a nightmare.
Ones with missing eyeballs, ones with spilling intestines, and ones with exposed bones instead of fingers.
Every single one of them was mutilated to the point where their original appearance was unrecognizable.
"Riv, on your right!"
I reflexively turned my head at Eileen's shout.
One of them had been crawling on all fours before suddenly lunging into the air.
"Gwaaaah-"
"Get lost!"
Smack!
I swung the mace in my hand and struck the top of its head.
Its head burst open like rotten fruit, and it staggered before collapsing to the ground.
With the zombies swarming in like rats, I had to cast a Water Barrier to block the front.
Thump! Thump, thump!
The stream formed a translucent wall, pushing away the hands and feet of the zombies.
I gritted my teeth against the immense pressure.
Fortunately, Silon was drawing the attention of most of the zombies by himself up ahead.
It was as if he had walked into the middle of hell all alone.
...He brought it upon himself.
Among the ones rising from the churned earth, Silon staggered around with a half-dazed expression.
He was holding out with just a short dagger, but the weapon was already practically useless.
"S-Save me!!"
I ignored the scream coming from the front.
Right now, just blocking the single zombie in front of me was overwhelming.
"They're weaker than I thought... The number is the problem."
Despite their terrifying appearance, the zombies were slow, and their attacks were simple.
However, dealing with them one by one was burdensome due to their sheer numbers.
If I took down one, two more would approach, and another would leap out from my blind spot.
"Ugh, I'm blocking the back!"
Eileen was holding a dagger, blocking the rear.
It couldn't be helped. I had to force my way through.
Trusting Eileen, I focused on gathering my mana.
"Alright, just hold on like that!"
I dispelled the Water Barrier and coiled the current back over my staff.
The blue sphere, condensed to the size of a head, was already vibrating violently enough to hum.
I couldn't control it any further.
"Move!!"
I shouted at Silon and swung my staff with all my might.
[Water Bomb]
Swoosh!
The flying current stretched out like a compressed waterfall.
Its trajectory was cutting straight through the center where the zombies were most densely packed.
"Aaargh!"
Crash!!
The water stream burst like an explosion, sweeping the ground, and the zombies, losing their balance from the impact, were torn to shreds and tumbled in all directions.
In an instant, a path opened up and the view ahead cleared.
"Now! Break through!"
I shouted, and we stepped forward in unison.
A few stragglers popped out, but gripping my mace, I smashed the knee of the one lunging from the left, while Eileen kept her grip on her dagger tight and stabbed another in the back of the neck, dropping it.
"Move!"
"This way!"
Moving in sync, we desperately pushed our way through the gaps in the zombie horde.
There were still hands writhing and crawling behind us, accompanied by the stench of rot, but we only looked ahead and ran.
And finally, as we pushed past the brush, our field of vision opened up.
I was out of breath, and my whole body was covered in mud and blood, but we had definitely made it past the worst of it.
Panting, I muttered under my breath.
"Huff... huff...... this sucks."
Catching my breath, I sat down next to a boulder.
Beside me, Eileen was fixing her disheveled hair and quietly taking a breather.
And Silon.
He slumped to the ground, chuckling hollowly with scratches on his arms and face.
I thought he would just run away, but whether it was because he lacked the stamina or just had some nerve.
He had followed right behind us.
"Huff, huff. I-I lived...."
When I quietly approached from behind, Silon sensed me and freaked out.
"Eek! I-I'm sorry. Please spare me just this once...!"
"......."
Silon stayed slumped over, burying his head into the ground.
I shot a quick glance at Eileen standing next to me.
She briefly met my eyes and then silently nodded, as if to say, 'I'll leave it to you.'
"Take off the cloth."
"Y-Yes... Yes...."
With trembling hands, Silon carefully untied the rough cloth covering his face.
The skin revealed beneath the cloth looked much younger than expected.
The short brown stubble and unkempt hair hinted at his awkward age.
Sun-tanned skin, a wrinkled forehead, but a jawline that hadn't yet fully hardened.
At a glance, it was the face of someone in their early-to-mid twenties, not yet fully matured.
Even now, he was in a slightly cowering posture, wearing an expression as if he were about to make some sort of excuse.
I gripped the hand holding my mace tightly and glared at him.
"Hey."
Silon flinched.
It was probably because my tone was laced with heavy displeasure.
"Let's hear an explanation. Those things earlier, what was that about them suddenly popping out of the ground?"
He bowed his head without a word.
There was no particular explanation, not even an excuse.
That made me feel even worse.
Eileen was also quietly watching his reaction.
Her gaze was colder and sharper than mine.
"Did you lead us there on purpose?"
"......."
After a long silence, he reluctantly opened his mouth.
"If I had known it was like that... I wouldn't have gone with you... guys."
"Don't dodge the question, answer me. You knew there were zombies there!"
"......My colleagues were taken out first, and I had no way to deal with it alone."
I took a deep breath.
So he was originally with his colleagues and got attacked, and then tried to use us to get out.
For someone who planned that, he ran away again with a terrified face.
The sight of him crumbling from a single Water Bomb while running away was still fresh in my mind.
If he had been targeting us, he would have just ambushed us from behind.
In the end, he was...... just a coward.
I turned around and said.
"......Tch, get lost."
He didn't say anything.
However, one of his eyebrows twitched slightly.
We started walking toward the Plains again.