The Savage Heart
Bellarne shook her head at Celine’s question. “No, that’s not it. When there’s a group of humans like your village, the scent spreads out more, you could say. Have you ever seen the ocean?”
Celine nodded. She thought she understood what the vampire meant. When water stretched out endlessly, it didn’t smell overpowering, but the distinct briny scent blanketed everything. On bad days you could catch the smell from far away. On the other hand, a deep lake—though not as vast as the sea—could only be sensed when you drew close. Yet its intensity was on another level entirely. Sometimes it hit so hard it felt like you’d just plunged your face into the water.
And what Bellarne was describing was clearly the latter.
“Then it’s likely only a small number of people,” the nun replied.
Bellarne nodded in agreement. “Yeah. Judging by the amount of blood scent… maybe one or two people? But…”
“But?”
“The concentration is incredibly strong.”
There was only one thing that could mean.
“The bleeding… is severe.”
-Whoosh—!
Bellarne, who had been about to nod, realized her gesture was pointless. She was already being carried through the air, lifted slightly off the ground. And not by her own will. The vampire, held securely around the waist by the barbarian, had no choice but to listen to Harnok’s roaring question while he glared down at her.
“Where are they, vampire!”
“Go straight for twenty meters, then turn right!”
At Bellarne’s words, Harnok gave a fierce nod and picked up even more speed. The wilderness soil beneath his feet screamed in the dark of night with every thunderous step. The next instant, the sudden change in direction forced Bellarne to bite her lip hard and bury her face in Harnok’s trapezius. Otherwise she was certain her organs would flip upside down.
When Bellarne finally opened her eyes, it was clear something terrible had happened. Otherwise Celine would never have screamed like that.
What filled the nun’s vision was a boulder nearly four meters tall.
Bellarne’s blood-detection ability literally only sensed the concentration, volume, and location of blood. It offered no help in detecting anything else. In other words, she had no way of knowing what lay in their path.
The moment they veered right, the boulder had leaped into view. The nun couldn’t even close her eyes in time. It was already too late. The rock was practically on top of them.
No matter how strong Harnok was, he couldn’t dodge a boulder directly in front of his face. So he didn’t dodge.
-Kwa-ga-ga-gang—!
Instead, he chose to ram straight into it. And naturally, something shattered. That something was the boulder.
From its midpoint, the rock had been smashed apart by a single headbutt from Harnok. As fragments of stone sailed over their heads, the nun and the vampire wore nearly identical expressions. It was as if they were competing to see whose mouth and eyes could open the widest.
“Hmph!”
Harnok shook his head vigorously, flinging the rock dust from his long black hair, then began pounding the ground even harder. With the obstacle gone, he grinned in satisfaction before suddenly remembering the women in his arms and bellowing,
“Oh no! Are you both all right?! Nun! Vampire!”
The two women, as if they had rehearsed it, patted Harnok’s rock-hard—no, iron-hard—trapezius with trembling hands. It was their signal that they were fine. It was a simpler gesture than speaking, but they had another reason for doing so. If they didn’t keep their faces pressed against the barbarian’s thick trapezius, they were sure they would vomit from motion sickness.
Of course, the truly horrifying sight of a two-meter boulder being launched directly over their heads was also doing its fair share to unsettle them.
…If only Harnok had shown a little consideration for their plight, all three might have reached a happy ending. Sadly, the night had them firmly in its grasp, and the barbarian sprinting forward with his eyes fixed ahead could not closely examine the two women burying their faces in his shoulders.
So when they signaled they were fine, the barbarian let out a rough laugh and accelerated even more.
It was truly a nightmarish evening.
After charging forward for about five minutes without the slightest hesitation, the barbarian gradually began to slow down. The two women cradled in his powerful arms felt the change immediately.
Celine clutched her slightly dizzy head and whispered, “Have we arrived?”
“Not quite… We’re almost there, but we haven’t reached it yet…?”
The vampire blinked several times to steady her swaying vision and looked around. Only then did she understand why Harnok had slowed.
“This is…”
“A statue?” Celine said.
Just as she described, what stood before them looked exactly like a statue. And an incredibly detailed one at that. The rock formation, seemingly carved to depict a mercenary, even included leather armor and a longsword. Its face was frozen in utter terror, so lifelike it seemed it might move at any moment.
Similar statues were scattered everywhere.
“What in the world…?”
The statues came in many forms. Some resembled the mercenary they had just seen, others took the shape of enormous lizard-like beasts, and still others looked like merchants. While their appearances varied wildly, they all shared one common trait: every single one wore an expression of pure horror.
As they passed through the field of statues—not gravel, but statues—the nun and the vampire blinked in disbelief.
Celine spoke in a trembling voice. “Seeing all these statues standing here… doesn’t that mean there must be a territory nearby?”
“…I’m no expert in art, but if I had the skill to create something this intricate, I’d want to display it in a museum. I certainly wouldn’t want to exhibit it in the middle of the wilderness with no audience.”
Celine nodded. Even she had to admit the idea lacked any real persuasiveness. Honestly, it was nothing more than her own deep wish that a territory lay nearby, projected onto her words.
Harnok said nothing. After briefly scanning the statues, he strode forward with long steps, leaving the field behind, and once again broke into a sprint.
The moment the barbarian began to run, the two women were yanked backward by inertia and clung tightly to his shoulders. Bellarne hurriedly began giving directions again.
“We’re almost there! About two hundred meters…!”
It was then that a small flicker of light appeared in the distance. In daylight it would have been invisible, but the surroundings were wrapped in night, making the flame stand out even more clearly.
Confirming the light, Harnok nodded and increased his speed once more.
One hundred fifty meters…
One hundred meters…
Fifty meters…
-Fwoosh—!
Because of how fast he was running, the area suddenly seemed to brighten. And in a sense, it had. The three of them had reached the immediate vicinity of the faint light source they had seen earlier.
The moment they came within fifty meters, not only Harnok but the other two could see it clearly as well.
One person holding a torch that flickered as if it might go out at any moment, another person collapsed beside them, and a massive snake coiled in front of the torchbearer, flicking its tongue menacingly.
The words burst from Sister Celine’s mouth like a scream.
“Basilisk!!!”
“You ———————— !”
It truly was like a flame. That was how Harnok leaped.
In the blink of an eye, the two women who had been in his arms were set down on the ground, standing unsteadily and blinking in confusion. By the time they grasped the situation, Harnok had already soared high into the air.
“Vile beast ———————— !”
The snake was enormous, easily four meters long. In an instant Harnok drew his hoe and hooked its blade around the basilisk’s neck.
-Hiss?!
Suddenly caught by the hoe around its neck, the basilisk—which had been opening its mouth wide—thrashed in panic. Its four-meter body writhing looked like waves rippling across the earth.
-Hissssss!
But nothing happened. Instead, whatever had latched onto its neck only tightened further, squeezing and coiling. As the pressure clamped down right beneath its head, the basilisk gradually realized it was having trouble breathing. A dizzying terror of suffocation raced from the tip of its tail to the top of its head.
-Hiss—!
Yet a basilisk had no limbs, so it resorted to the only method it could. It reared its head high.
“Be careful, Sir Harnok! Basilisks possess the petrifying gaze! If you look into their eyes, you’ll turn to stone!”
“Understood!”
The barbarian answered the nun’s warning with a nod. With his left hand—the one not holding the hoe—he grabbed the back of the basilisk’s head.
-Hiiisssshhh!
Letting out a roar like a fierce scream, the basilisk twisted its body. Having a solid mass of rock-like muscle clinging to its back made free movement nearly impossible. Still, attempting its most instinctive attack—the petrifying gaze—allowed it slightly better mobility than before. It had loosened the other coils that had been constricting it.
It seemed this unknown foe was also vulnerable to its gaze. In that case, it would keep trying.
-Hiiisssshhh!
The basilisk gathered all its strength in its head and tried to turn. Earlier it had definitely heard other sounds. That meant this one had not come alone. The basilisk thrashed violently, trying to look at the other targets. The fact that they were together suggested they were not hostile toward each other. Therefore the one on its back would have no choice but to dismount in order to protect them—just like the two it had tried to devour moments ago.
The harder the basilisk struggled, the more it felt the arms around its neck loosening. That made sense. To hold on more securely, the foe would need both hands on its neck. But one hand was already squeezing its throat, so to get a better grip it would have to release that hand. And that was exactly the moment the basilisk had been waiting for.
-Hisssss…!
“Kyaaah…!”
No matter how tightly it squeezed the neck, given the difference in their physical sizes, it could not restrain the foe’s entire body. Hearing the growing screams, the basilisk realized it was turning in the right direction. As if expressing its joy, the crown-shaped horn unique to basilisks gleamed with menace.
“H-huk…!”
The screams of the prey it had tried to devour earlier only whetted its appetite further. Today would be a feast. The basilisk smiled inwardly and twisted its neck with all its might.
-Hiss?!
And then it saw nothing.
In the darkness, as the creature panicked, a voice like thunder rolling through a cave shook its ears.
“It seems your heart is filled with savage fury!”
-Hiss, hissss…?!
“I know! Everyone struggles at times to contain the boiling savagery within! But if you carelessly unleash what boils up from the heart, not only others but you yourself will eventually be devoured by that very savagery!”
The method Harnok had chosen was unexpectedly simple. He had emptied the food sack he carried on his back, then pulled the empty leather bag over the basilisk’s head.
Of course, a mere leather sack was nothing to a basilisk. Not when the one holding it was Harnok.
Once prepared, Harnok began to preach to the basilisk with a devout heart.
“But fear not! When I once could not control the savagery boiling within me, His Holiness taught me one thing—!”
And he delivered that lesson as a battle cry.
The reason Harnok shouted his battle cries was simple. A battle cry was a way of shouting loudly, and he believed the louder the voice, the better the message would be conveyed.
-CHUUUURHAAAAK!!!
…Of course, for the basilisk hearing it right beside its ear, it was pure torture.
The basilisk squeezed its eyes shut and thrashed wildly. Since it couldn’t see anyway, it had to focus on its other senses. But closing its eyes only made the volcanic-explosion-like roar even more vivid.
Damn it all!
It had to open its eyes. Yet if it did, it still couldn’t see anything, which severely limited its options… Tears began to well up in the basilisk’s eyes.
“The answer is to close your eyes and fall into meditation—! By closing your eyes and blocking outside sensations, your focus will not scatter and you can devote yourself entirely to your inner self—! Therefore you too must close your eyes—! Close your eyes and concentrate on yourself—!”
In truth, the advice was genuinely helpful for escaping the chaotic outside world and focusing on one’s inner self. The problem was that Harnok himself had become completely absorbed in the content of his own sermon.
By the final words, the barbarian had grown so moved by gratitude toward His Holiness—who had taught him this very method—that he could no longer contain himself. ‘Your Holiness! Today once again I spread your teachings far and wide!’
His gums flashed in a wide grin as uncontrollable joy surged through him. Eyes still closed, he threw his arms wide open.
-!!!
And the basilisk did not miss that moment.
-Kahaaak!
With a powerful twist of its body, the basilisk hurled the sack that had been restraining it high into the air. Freedom at last! The great serpent with the petrifying gaze could now display its power without restraint. It no longer needed to keep its eyes closed. It savored that freedom.
It opened its eyes wide and looked at the sky. The vast blue heavens, the clouds resting against it, and even the leather sack it had just thrown.
5… 4… 3… 2… 1…
……?
-Crack—!
Five full seconds had already passed since it had looked at the sack. It could no longer be called a sack. It was now nothing more than a stone shaped like one. And stone was not as light as leather. The rock that had risen into the air immediately came crashing back down. Straight onto the basilisk’s head.
‘……?’
Harnok, who had opened his eyes and looked down, tilted his head at the sight of the basilisk writhing beneath a rock shaped exactly like the leather sack.
After blinking a few times, his eyes suddenly blazed with fiery intensity.
“What utter foolishness I have witnessed! You could not even endure for a brief moment and revealed your savagery! If only you had taken a little time to look within yourself, you could have turned that savagery into proper fuel for your own power! Yet because you could not endure even that short while, you have ended up devoured by your own savagery after all!”