224. The Hunting Banquet (2)
224. The Hunting Banquet (2)
- 1 -
The Administrative Office of Highrash Royal Castle.
Even after quitting time had passed, the lights at several windows still showed no sign of going out.
Seureuk.
Evangeline hid within the shadows and observed their movements.
'Reports wouldn't be compiled regularly.'
The documents she had discovered last time in the underground secret archive library matched her memory.
Decisive evidence proving that humans possessed a Dungeon Lord and a core.
But there had only been old documents, none recently organized.
'The reason is one of two things.'
Either the department had been transferred, or the security classification had changed.
The possibility that the department had been abolished was nonexistent.
Matters concerning the Dungeon Lord and the core were among the important interests of the royal family and the nobility.
"Haaam..."
Evangeline kept an eye on one of the officials working overtime.
A young official in a brown uniform who seemed to be the youngest. She had been working overtime at this hour for several days now.
Teop!
"Mmph...!"
The female knight's form, having quietly put the official heading for the restroom to sleep, changed in an instant.
Her blonde hair turned brown, and her thighs and abdomen gained some flesh. The eyes behind the glasses sharpened, and dark circles appeared.
'Miscellaneous tasks.'
There was nothing important among the work on the official's desk.
She sat down at the desk for the time being. Just to pretend to work for a moment.
Organizing this level of paperwork and stamping it wasn't difficult.
"I'll be leaving first, then. Tell the youngest to go home early today, too. There's another new Fated Gathering at the royal castle tomorrow, so today's work isn't urgent."
"Yes! Have a good evening!"
"Oh dear. Isn't your voice hoarse?"
"Haha... I suppose so."
"Hurry up and go get some rest. Well, I'm off first."
After responding appropriately to the person who seemed to be her superior, she waited for everyone in the office to leave.
Before long, she was the only one left in the office.
"Let's see."
After examining the sketch map, she confirmed the location of the document archive, her eyes gleaming.
After that, her actions were unhindered.
Evangeline found coded documents about a facility housing 'special slaves' and a warehouse containing 'special magic stones'.
Of course, there was a reason her actions could be so swift and precise.
'Because it's just a process to check if it's different from my memory, and if so, how different.'
She knew the right answer anyway.
Nevertheless, the reason she took this troublesome course of action was to confirm and remove in advance any potential obstacles in the path her master would tread.
"Seems we can't get in easily."
Looking at the name of the royal mage written in code on the documents, Evangeline sneered coldly.
It was the name of someone she had killed before.
- 2 -
"It's running! That way!"
The afternoon's hunt was reaching its climax.
As the nobles began to chase the 'real' prey, Yu Ran's golden eyes flashed.
Flames sparked from the tips of her black tails.
"We are giving them salvation. My little ones."
Her limbs were already spreading out in every direction throughout the forest.
'I don't want to die...!'
The forest was growing darker.
The girl ran endlessly.
The fate of her mother and father, who had sent her ahead first and stayed behind, weighed on her mind, but she had to survive—to not let their sacrifice go to waste.
'I must take revenge.'
Even so, she didn't forget to nurture the blaze that burned in her heart.
'I'll kill them...!'
That laughter that had burst out as they killed her family.
That sharp, high sound mocking their heroic deaths.
She would never be able to forget it for the rest of her life.
"This place..."
But the forest was too dark and deep.
She couldn't even properly tell where she was heading.
"I have to get out..."
At that moment.
-...Hahit!
A cold ghostly laugh grazed her ear.
The girl, feeling a chill down her spine, looked around.
But all that met her eyes was the moonlight seeping into the forest.
'Moonlight...?'
She sensed something strange.
As the daughter of a slash-and-burn farmer, she knew well how to tell time in the forest.
It was not yet time for sunset.
The girl stopped walking.
The shadows cast by the moonlight were strange.
It was as if someone was reaching out toward her.
"What a cute child."
A sudden voice.
The girl, who had whipped her head around, soon discovered a strange sight.
Sararak
A golden fox revealing itself between the moonlit trees.
She instinctively recognized it was a 'fox,' but the fox was incredibly beautiful.
Shimmering golden fur, a luxuriant tail, a body that swayed languorously and bewitchingly.
It was enough to understand why the wealthy kept handsome foxes as pets.
"Hello."
The fox spoke to her.
"Is this... a dream?"
The girl's voice trembled slightly.
But it wasn't out of fear.
Upon hearing the fox's voice, she felt her consciousness grow hazy.
"Pitiful child. Are you looking for a path?"
"What kind of path...?"
"A path for revenge."
The fox whispered.
Her voice was as cozy as a cradle and as beautiful as the moonlight.
Sparks flew in the eyes of the girl who heard that voice.
"Yes! Those who... hunted my mom and dad...!"
Tears flowed from her eyes.
Not clear ones, but tears of blood filled with rage and hatred.
"Then follow me. You will do something to those nobles."
The fox's voice grew even sweeter.
A purple flame flared and then died away at the tip of her tail.
The girl followed behind the fox.
In her hand was a sharp dagger she didn't remember grasping.
- Right here...
Arriving at the designated spot, she looked up at the purple full moon in the sky and raised the dagger.
The point was aimed at her own chest.
An ecstatic smile lingered on her lips.
Peok.
Crimson blood gushed from the girl's body.
The moment that blood hit the ground, it began to draw strange patterns.
"Keok!"
"Kkeueuuk...!"
Throughout the forest, similar events were unfolding.
The Black Fox's sorcery consumed the victims and grew increasingly powerful, and the patterns drawn in blood became clearer and clearer.
Those who had been called in as prey for the nobles.
Now became sacrificial lambs for the very sorcery meant to devour those nobles.
- 3 -
Paaak!
Shue was dashing through the forest.
The nobles had no inkling that she was leaping around above their heads.
Because her presence was swallowed up and vanished among all the cries of beasts and humans.
As she sprinted through that space, crimson power flared over her body.
The desire of a monster to rip flesh to shreds. The greed of a predator to guzzle blood.
Her power awakened that which slumbered within human blood.
Her power swallowed the nobles' frenzy.
And then, the Frenzy mixed with blood-red power spread out again.
"More... more fun...! Heuhee!"
One noble muttered.
His eyes gradually turned a deeper red.
The red Frenzy seeping into the whites of their eyes mixed with the bloodshot veins and was barely distinguishable.
Amid their consciousness, muddled by drugs, a deeper and more violent Frenzy intruded.
"Where are you hiding? Where are you?"
Another young noble lady looked around with Frenzy-laced eyes.
What she held in her hand wasn't a bow, but a dagger.
Now, it was hard to be satisfied simply by chasing prey.
More Frenzy.
More blood.
"Over there... over there!"
A man's shout rang out.
The eyes of the others who heard that sound were also clouded with red power.
Frenzy burrowed into the humans' inner selves.
A thirst for blood was turning them into beasts.
"Don't let them get away! We have to catch them all!"
The laughter and shouts of the nobles echoed throughout the entire forest.
The careful search for game was no longer here.
They had to kill those who had become prey, take their blood, and eat their flesh.
A more brutal festival of blood was needed.
"Haaam..."
Shue took a step with a yawn.
Her attitude was as if this matter had nothing to do with her.
But wherever her footsteps reached, a new Frenzy blossomed.
Shue's Frenzy further fanned their liberated nature.
Perched on a high tree branch, her red eyes merely observed the surface, shining ominously.
- 4 -
"Strange..."
Viscount Nelson looked down at his hand.
His skin was still the same, but something seemed different.
Something black was slowly spreading.
Like ink seeping into cloth.
"What... is this...!"
His inner self twisted.
His soul was being encroached upon by something.
He could not refuse.
He could not flee.
He didn't even want to... scream.
He merely watched, 'joyfully,' as his inner self was filled with darkness.
"Haha... hahaha...!"
The viscount's laughter rang out.
Now, no human emotion was visible in his eyes.
"What... is this...!"
- Heu, heuheuheuhee...
Different transformations occurred throughout the forest.
Some turned into shadows and vanished.
Some had their skin color change.
Others retained only their outer shell while their inner selves were completely emptied.
Within the darkness of the hunting ground, they were transforming into things no longer human.
Not a single one escaped.
Not a single one survived.
Only their shells returned to being human.
Even though their inner selves were already filled with something worse than beasts.
- Hee... hahahaha!
"Ah... Let us welcome our master..."
Regardless of whether they were noble, attendant, or servant, everyone was changing into monsters.
Monsters filled the forest.
- 5 -
- Kkaak!
Libertas was observing all of it from on high.
Dozens and hundreds of clones summoned through Mary delivered information from all directions, assisting her.
Her figure, seen from afar, was a dreamlike scene of a small woman sitting in the sky, leisurely swinging her legs.
But anyone magically sensitive who saw it would shudder.
Kkattak.
As her fingers moved, the red glow of the late afternoon scattered and spread into a rainbow of colors.
Both light and darkness spread through prisms and mist, blanketing the entire sky above the forest.
The effect was simple.
Not a single trace of any curse present here, not a scream, not a shout. Not one of them could spread outside the forest.
...!
The air vibrated.
It was all a massive change brought about by the small black magic circle drawn over her five fingers.
Using the Frenzy spread by Shue's power as material.
The transformations wrought by Yu Ran's sorcery.
Blossomed under Libertas's grasp.
'It's the first time I've tried this method, and it's working out well.'
The one who had proposed this method was Yu Ran.
This Authority, created by transferring Libertas's 'authority' to her, installed a magic formation and sorcery formation across the entire area to ascend humans into monsters.
While they were still alive.
Of course, certain conditions were required.
The one who fulfilled the most important of those conditions, 'they must be crazy humans,' was Shue.
- Aaah...
"Oh, master..."
People gathered from all around.
They came and bowed their bodies at her feet.
They pressed their heads to the ground and swore absolute obedience.
"We pledge our loyalty. Our master."
Their voices were no longer human.
"The barrier of the royal capital has a blind spot."
A smile bloomed on Libertas's lips.
"It only blocks external intrusions. It cannot see internal changes."
Yu Ran's golden eyes gleamed seductively, and a sharp smile graced Shue's lips.
"To top it off, human mages cannot surpass my ability."
The red glow of the evening was dyeing the forest.
"I feel like I'm walking among blind men."
As the new monsters swore their loyalty to her, her smile deepened further.
While sensing the presence of her own hero returning to her from afar.
"Let's prepare."
Within the royal capital, beings had been created who shed their human masks and became monsters.
Now it was time to fill the court of Highrash with her own shadows.
"A big prey awaits. Eve. Shue. Ran."
Libertas sat cross-legged in the air, arms resting on her knees, chin propped up.
Her gaze was fixed on the spire of the royal castle, which soared as if to pierce the heavens.
