Chapter 225
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 225
“W-we’re looking! Young Lord!”
“If you don’t find her, every single one of you is dead!”
Leon roared at the top of his lungs, even as he rescued a noblewoman who was about to be attacked by a monster.
She clung to Leon’s leg, pestering him with annoying persistence.
“What are you doing?! Get over there!”
“Young Lord Leon!”
But the noblewoman’s voice was louder.
“That Viscount over there was badmouthing Grand Princess Tulia earlier!”
“What?”
“So there’s no need to protect him like that! My husband took the Grand Princess’s side! Please find my husband first!”
The Viscount, who had been sticking close behind Leon Frezier—the safest place in the vicinity—turned pale.
“Y-you petty couple...!”
Those words were essentially a confession of the truth.
The Viscount nearly fainted on the spot under the murderous gaze Leon Frezier directed at him.
“Agh!”
“Get lost!”
“Heugh!”
Kicked by Leon, the Viscount scrambled on all fours toward the Holy Knights, trembling violently.
“What does your husband look like?!”
“When he was young, he was a handsome man exactly my type, and now that he’s older, he’s a middle-aged heartthrob exactly my type...!”
How was he supposed to find him with a description like that?!
“Oh, wait!”
The noblewoman shouted through her disheveled hair.
“And Grand Princess Tulia went into the Temple of Light with His Royal Highness the Crown Prince!”
Leon, who had been about to toss the noblewoman toward the Holy Knights as well, froze. He immediately hoisted her onto his back and began striding forward.
“Y-you cannot enter here!”
“What?”
“This is a sacred place that can never be entered without the High Priest’s permission...!”
“Then go bring the High Priest!”
“W-we don’t know where he is!”
“You crazy bastards!”
Sparks flew from Leon’s eyes.
“If I can’t get in right now! And even a single hair on my sister’s head is harmed! I will—!”
“War.”
“Yeah! I’ll start a— War?”
Wait, that’s a bit too large-scale for me to decide on my own, isn't it? I don't even have the authority for that in the first place.
Leon blinked and reflexively looked back.
Lisian was already walking toward them.
“Brother? War?”
“Yes.”
The Grand Temple had always been very fond of Lisian Frezier. With his consistently gentle, upright, refined, and soft demeanor, he was a paragon for all young noblemen.
“A territorial war.”
The priests’ knees knocked together; they had never imagined this silver-haired youth, who always wore a faint smile, could make such a chilling expression.
It felt different from Leon Frezier’s aggressive face. It felt like the despair one would feel if abandoned by the very angel they had prayed to their entire life.
“Hey, you.”
Leon kicked a priest and spoke viciously.
“You heard him, right? If you don’t open that door in three seconds, the Frezier Grand Duchy will declare a territorial war against the Grand Temple, whether my sister is hurt or not! 3, 2...”
SLAM!
“Agh!”
“Young Lord!”
“You’re stupid enough to actually wait for the count!”
Leon, who had kicked the priests aside while pretending to count, dashed inside.
Before following him, Lisian quietly drew his sword.
“...!”
The monsters that had been crawling toward the fallen priests to devour them were cut down in a single stroke.
“What... is the Temple... calling... these things... right now?”
The priests, who had nearly lost their lives in the blink of an eye, stammered out what they knew.
“C-Creatures! They are calling them Creatures...!”
“Creatures...”
Lisian’s light-green eyes turned cold. The monsters were called monsters, but in truth, they had human forms.
Corpses that looked like mummies, withered and devoid of any vitality, as if they had been dead for a long time.
They used their bizarrely mutated bodies to relentlessly slaughter people.
“Young Lord!”
Lisian gave a brief command to the Frezier Knights rushing in behind him and entered the rear garden.
* * *
‘These bastards... they look familiar!’
When I went to get the White Tulip seeds, there had been piles of corpses there.
I didn't have the stomach to look at them for long, so I had quickly turned away, but an inexplicable gut feeling was telling me now.
Those corpses and these monsters looked strangely alike.
‘Is it possible? Since Corico was demoted to a villainess and the female lead position is vacant, did I somehow end up as the female lead by default?’
Is that why I developed this special intuition, a "female lead's hunch"?
At this point, people could say I’m obsessed with being the female lead, but I really did envy that position.
‘If I weren't, I wouldn't be caught up in this horror movie...!’
I carefully opened my eyes, which I had been squeezing shut. And as soon as I peeked, I almost screamed.
Right in front of me.
Blood was streaming from two hollow eye sockets. It was the face of a priest whose eyes had just been gouged out right before me.
His mouth was agape, frozen in a scream from the moment of death.
I closed my eyes again.
Tears streamed down my cheeks. I was terrified, but I couldn't even scream. I was currently hiding among the corpses of the dead monsters and priests.
‘Those priest sons of bitches... bastards...’
I cursed them incessantly in my head.
If it hadn't been for them.
“Your Royal Highness! Please protect the Saintess!”
“Saintess! You must live! You must survive!”
If they hadn't suddenly shoved Corico toward Ferdinand, telling him to protect her.
“Aaaagh!”
“Run!”
And if they hadn't come running toward me with the monsters in tow, begging me to save them, I wouldn't be in this mess.
‘You could have just hidden inside the Temple! Why did you open the doors and come out, dragging me into this...!’
If we had just waited inside the Temple of Light, Corico could have been protected, and I wouldn't have been separated from Ferdinand by the sudden surge of the crowd!
I was so scared. I had clearly seen these unidentified monsters tearing the eyes out of living priests. My whole body shook as if I were about to die right then and there.
‘I already used my Protective Barrier once. I only have one left...’
But there were too many monsters crawling through the Temple’s rear garden. I knew all too well that I could never escape this place alone.
“Save me! Save me! Save...! Sa...! Aaaagh!”
As I trembled with my hands over my mouth, I heard another scream of someone being devoured nearby.
I squeezed my eyes shut even tighter. I felt like I was going crazy. The sound of movement was getting closer to me.
‘No...’
Was there only one monster? Was it really just one? Could there be only one?
Shhh. Shhh. Shhh.
Could I run away? How? Where?
Shhh. Shhh. Shhh.
Thud.
Along with the sound of the pile of corpses collapsing, dead blood splattered onto my face. The shadow vanished, and light pierced my eyes.
I barely managed to open them.
Grin.
I saw the eyeless monsters surrounding me, smiling brightly with their torn mouths...
‘Fuck... it’s over...’
Closing one's eyes right before death was a reflex. No one could keep their eyes wide open in such a nightmarish situation.
But.
Even so, I opened my eyes.
‘I’m going to run.’
I’ll escape, if only because it’s so unfair.
‘Think of everything I’ve done to survive until now.’
When the monsters pounced all at once, I would bolt through the gap.
If I activated the barrier, I’d have at least one chance. If there were other monsters outside, I’d be torn apart then, but...
‘Now!’
Activating the barrier with a thought, I gritted my teeth and sprang out like a coiled spring, darting through a gap. A few strands of my hair were sliced off and scattered in the air.
The monsters made no sound. There was only a deathly chill from the hollow murderous intent felt right behind me.
However, my sprint was short-lived. Just as my barely-holding barrier was about to shatter.
“...!”
A firm pair of arms pulled me into an embrace. The thick scent of blood hit me. When I reflexively opened my eyes again.
I realized eyes redder than fresh blood were looking down at me.
Looking back, the monsters that had been trying to catch me and eat my eyes were already hacked in half, strewn across the ground.
“...Are you alright?”
“Crown Prince...”
A beat late, I realized Ferdinand’s clothes were even redder than mine.
Whose blood was all this? Was Ferdinand hurt?
That couldn't be right. He’s the male lead, isn't he? He’s the male lead who grew up safely this far, so this blood must be...
“The blood... the blood...”
But my mouth couldn't keep up with my brain. Right now, I must look like a complete idiot, on the verge of losing my mind from the shock.
“The blood...”
Then.
“I’m sorry.”
Ferdinand pulled me fiercely into his arms.
“I’m sorry for losing you. Tulia Frezier...”
Crying from this point on was surely a matter of instinct.
“Ferdi... nand...”
A sob burst out of me. I buried my face in Ferdinand’s chest and wailed.