The Suspicious Holy Knight
"Ugh!"
Only a few seconds had passed after the crimson light swallowed Juhan and Hadley before Juhan opened his eyes again.
…My vision still hasn't fully come back.
Whether the red light had carried some kind of mental assault as well, Juhan's body was reeling with dizziness.
Thud.
Staggering, he managed to lean his weight against the nearest tree.
"Ugh…"
His skull felt like it was ringing from the inside. Once again he was reminded just how fragile a human body could be.
Even so, one voice cut through the haze with perfect clarity.
"You with us?"
The voice came from right beside him. Holy Knight Hadley.
"It's a trap. Looks like we're sealed inside a barrier."
Hadley was explaining that they seemed to be trapped in a barrier, though he himself didn't look much better off.
"…Damn it. To fall for something like this."
He clenched the sword in his hand so hard it trembled with sheer frustration.
"……"
Juhan watched him for a moment, then turned his head to survey their surroundings. Finding a way out of this barrier came first.
What met his eyes, however, was anything but ordinary.
"The sky… it's red."
"A trap favored by heretics and cultists."
When he tilted his head back, the sky held nothing but a thick red fog. At some point every tree around them had twisted into grotesque shapes, as if they were alive and writhing.
Like hell itself.
If someone fell into the underworld, this was exactly how it would look.
Hadley, watching Juhan take it all in, spoke up again.
"That said, it isn't as if there's no way out."
"You're saying there is a way to escape?"
"Yes."
As long as they followed his plan, he insisted, getting out was entirely possible.
"This barrier is for a sacrificial ritual."
"A sacrificial ritual?"
He seemed to know exactly what the barrier was. Kneeling on one knee, he brushed the soil with his fingers as he spoke.
"One of the methods the cultists love to use."
"……"
Ssshk.
Rubbing the red dirt from his fingertips, Hadley continued.
"They pen the offerings in. They let fear and despair grow. Then, at the end, they harvest everything at once."
"Harvest…"
Being the ones currently trapped inside made the word especially unpleasant to hear.
"Barriers like this usually have a core. The keystone that keeps the ritual running."
"So if we manage to find that core… we can get out?"
"It won't be easy, of course. But we can't just sit here and wait, either."
Hadley's eyes flashed as he said it. Juhan nodded as if he understood—while thinking something else entirely.
This energy feels familiar.
The power circulating through the barrier was unnervingly close to something he had felt before. Honestly, it had startled him a little.
I never expected any of it to still be left.
It was unmistakably similar to the energy he had sensed when he was first summoned into this world long ago.
O-O god…
More precisely, it brought back the image of a certain woman he had managed to forget for a while—reaching toward him with her one remaining arm, desperate. And behind her, Carius staring her down, along with his companions.
Ugh…
Memories he would rather never revisit. They had treated him like a god and claimed to act for his sake, yet he had never felt any fondness for them. Even in the novel, their atrocities had been too horrific to put into words.
Getting involved with them only ever leads to trouble.
What Juhan wanted most was a safe, peaceful life. The thought that any entanglement with them would make everything exhausting dominated his mind.
Using them, maybe. It's not like they'll figure out who I really am.
It even occurred to him that Pate and Karun might already have made contact with the worshippers of the Great Catastrophe.
"……"
Hadley seemed to misread Juhan's silence for fear.
"Stay calm. If you don't know what to do, just follow my orders."
He scowled and barked the command as if telling Juhan to pull himself together.
Juhan looked at him for a moment.
"…Yes."
He nodded as if he understood. There was no need to contradict Hadley right now.
"Northwest… no, we should head east."
Somehow Hadley seemed to know more about this barrier than Juhan—who had once been the Great Catastrophe himself.
Adjusting his grip on his sword, Hadley spoke again.
"We move. Don't fall behind."
With that, the two of them set off.
Thud-thud-thud!
The red fog was far thicker than it had looked. Recognition-disrupting spells were layered into the barrier as well; even after what felt like a long trek, there was still no end in sight.
Hm?
Something snagged Juhan's gaze—a single tree.
"What's that?"
The tree he pointed toward looked almost as if a person were hanging from it.
"Don't look at it."
"Excuse me?"
"Things like that are common illusions inside barriers like this."
Hadley answered without even turning his head.
"They take the form of the dead, or of someone you most wanted to see."
"……"
Juhan looked back at the tree.
There's nothing there.
The vague human shape that had been hanging a moment ago was gone in an instant. Only undergrowth matching the surrounding landscape remained. Exactly as Hadley had said.
"It's meant to rattle your mind. Just keep following me."
Hadley started walking again, as if he already knew exactly where they needed to go.
…Something's off.
Watching Hadley's back, Juhan's eyes narrowed. A strange unease had settled over him.
At first he had chalked it up to simple experience. A Holy Knight knowing about this kind of magic wasn't strange at all.
But then—
"Left."
Hadley moved as if he already held the answer key, and Juhan's suspicion only grew deeper.
Thud.
Hadley changed direction; Juhan followed.
Barely a few steps behind them, in the stretch of ground they had just avoided, nameless red thorns suddenly erupted from the earth.
Thwip-thwip-thwip!
Crunch!
"……"
If they hadn't turned left on Hadley's word, they would have walked straight into the trap. Juhan watched it in silence for a moment, then tore his eyes away and ran after Hadley once more.
They kept moving for roughly ten more minutes. Thanks to Hadley's guidance, Juhan reached the destination without any further danger.
Vmmm—
"This is…"
A faint vibration, palpable even from a distance.
"We're almost there."
Feeling the tremor in the air, Hadley murmured that they only needed to go a little farther.
Thud-thud.
Just as he had promised, it wasn't long before they arrived at a strange open clearing.
"A crystal?"
In the very center of the clearing stood a massive crystal pouring out a vivid scarlet light, as if the end of the world itself had arrived.
Hoo.
Hadley caught his breath while glaring at the crystal, then scanned their surroundings and spoke to Juhan.
"This is definitely the crystal maintaining the barrier."
"Then…"
"Touch it with your hand and you'll be able to leave."
Touch the crystal, Hadley claimed, and they could escape the barrier. For someone who had been so sharp with Juhan until now, the explanation was almost generous. He told Juhan to go first while he covered the rear.
"Get out first. I'll clean up behind us and—"
Rumble—!
The rest of Hadley's words were cut off by a sudden quake.
"Kh!"
Vmm—!
The source seemed to be the red crystal in the middle of the clearing. It had begun to pulse in small, rhythmic beats, like a heart.
Once. Twice.
With every pulse of the scarlet crystal, the entire clearing shuddered as if a miniature earthquake were rolling through it.
Ssshh—
The red fog around them thickened as well. Anyone could tell something was badly wrong.
"Run! Now!"
Whoosh!
Watching the landscape shift, Hadley waved his hand frantically, urging Juhan to flee.
Judging by the situation alone, it almost looked as if he were ready to sacrifice himself to get Juhan out.
"……"
And yet Juhan didn't move at all.
"You said—"
"Why are you still standing there?! Run!"
"You said that if we touch that crystal, we can escape, correct?"
He simply asked again. Was it truly certain that touching the crystal would let them leave the barrier?
Thud!
"Yes, damn it! Hurry!"
Hadley didn't even glance at him—just shouted the answer. He seemed more puzzled that Juhan still refused to leave than anything else…
"Sir Hadley."
"You're still not—"
Juhan only nodded to himself, as if everything had finally clicked into place.
"No. Hadley."
"…What?"
Then he asked the question.
"How did you get into the Holy Kingdom?"
How, exactly, had he managed to slip inside unnoticed?