Chapter 275: A Special Event on the Return Journey
Chapter 275: A Special Event on the Return Journey
I thought they wouldn't come. Just as I was about to announce our departure, thinking they had already left the canyon, I sensed the unicorn's presence as if by magic. Suddenly, the image of the baby unicorn rubbing its face against my leg flashed through my mind. A flicker of excitement sparked within me at the thought of seeing it again.
Step. Step. Step. Step. Step. Step. Step. Step.
Huh…? The sound of footsteps… there are too many.
Suddenly, I felt a great number of presences enter the range of my Sensing. This was definitely not the sound of a single creature. There had to be at least ten of them—no, maybe even more than twenty.
As I stood still, staring to my right, Ahn Hyun quietly gripped his spear. Following his lead, the others began to reach for their weapons one by one. I quickly raised my hand, signaling them to stop. Unicorns are extremely wary of humans, so there was no need to provoke them.
Looking around, I saw a hazy, mist-like energy slowly encroaching on our surroundings. I slowly walked toward the direction they were coming from. Sensing that something was amiss from the enveloping energy, the clan members helped the other Users move behind me.
Before long, the source of the footsteps began to emerge from the distance. Enhancing my vision, I could see them more clearly. They had bodies similar to horses, but covered in silvery-white fur. A silver horn spiraled from the center of their foreheads, and their eyes were the color of jet-black.
As I’d expected, it wasn't just one unicorn. A herd of nearly twenty unicorns was approaching, led by the baby unicorn from before. And next to the baby unicorn walked an adult unicorn that looked twice the size of the others. It radiated an extraordinary aura, as if the words “I’m the leader” were written right on its face.
A few moments passed as we simply stood there. During that time, the unicorns continued their approach until they were close enough to be seen clearly with the naked eye.
And just as I’d expected, a commotion broke out among the clan members and Users when they saw the approaching herd.
“Hyung! Th-that's…”
“My god.”
“Woah… So many Kkyu-kkyus are coming…”
“Shh.”
I quickly turned and pressed a finger to my lips, and the noise died down instantly. They were extremely sensitive creatures, so greeting them quietly was the best choice in every respect.
“Do not startle the unicorns under any circumstances.”
I warned Ahn Hyun in particular, who had been about to draw his weapon, before turning my gaze back to the approaching unicorns.
Hrrrr… Hrrrr… Hrrrr… Hrrrr…
The adult unicorn's cry was completely different from the baby's. Soon, they seemed to spot us as well. They gradually slowed down, coming to a halt about ten meters away.
Hrrrr…
“…”
A suffocating silence descended upon the area. Aside from the occasional soft sound from the leader unicorn, neither I nor my clan members uttered a single word.
Ten seconds passed as we faced each other. I glanced at the unicorn's corpse I had placed near the riverbank. The leader unicorn's gaze followed mine. And then it happened.
“Kkyu!”
At that moment, the baby unicorn, which had been standing still, suddenly darted forward. It toddled over to the fallen unicorn and began to circle the body slowly. It looked as if it was trying to identify the one lying there.
Soon, having finished its inspection, the baby unicorn stopped circling. It then turned its head to the unicorn at the front of the herd and let out a low cry.
“Kkyu…”
Hrrrr…?
“Kkyu… Kkyuu… Kyuuu… Kyuuuuu…”
The moment the leader unicorn responded, tears burst from the baby unicorn's eyes. It gave a small nod, then collapsed right where it stood and began to weep sorrowfully. It continuously rubbed its head against the corpse, suggesting it had a deep connection to the deceased unicorn.
Seeing this, the leader unicorn gently closed its eyes, and a series of mournful sighs flowed from the unicorns standing quietly behind it.
“Kyuuuuuu… Kyuuuuuuuu…”
The wailing baby unicorn soon looked at me, tears streaming from its eyes. Its heart-wrenching cries made it look like a small child screaming, “Why couldn't you bring them back alive?”
I watched silently for a while, but when it showed no sign of stopping, I decided to step forward. As I did, the leader unicorn at the front also began to walk slowly toward me. One step, two steps, we drew closer. The leader unicorn's gaze was fixed on me, and while there was a hint of caution in its eyes, it showed no hostility.
Soon, with the still-sobbing baby unicorn between us, both the leader unicorn and I stopped walking at the same time. I knew they had a strong sense of kinship and were fiercely protective of their young, so I didn't dare make any careless moves.
Our gazes met in mid-air. Its eyes seemed to study me intently for a moment before it gave a slight nod. It was a silent sign of permission. With the leader's approval, I knelt on one knee and held out my arms to the baby unicorn, which still had its face buried in the corpse.
“I'm sorry.”
“Kkyu…”
The baby unicorn lifted its head, its eyes brimming with tears, and stretched out its forelegs to fall into my embrace as if it had been waiting. As the baby unicorn soaked my clothes with its sorrowful tears, I gently patted its back and whispered softly in its ear.
“I'm sorry we couldn't save them sooner. By the time we found them, it was already…”
“Kkyu… Kkyuu…”
As I stroked its back comfortingly, the leader unicorn drew even closer, its eyes never leaving the little one. Unicorns are highly intelligent animals. If it had heard the story of our meeting from the baby, it would probably have a rough idea of the situation, but I decided to explain everything just in case.
“Just so you know, we're not responsible for that body.”
Hrrrr…
As if to say it already knew, the leader unicorn gave a light nod. I had been preparing for the worst, so its response was a great relief.
“The culprit was a monster living inside this canyon's barrier. A mage who was human, but not human. We came here to deal with that mage on our own business, and we found this body in the process. That's the whole story. I considered just taking the body with us… but then I suddenly remembered this little one. That's why I brought it here.”
Hrrrr?
“Ah, and we took care of that monster for good, my companions and I. We got revenge, so you don't have to worry about it anymore.”
Hrrrr… Hrrrr…
It suddenly occurred to me that this was a bit unfair. They seemed to understand my words, but I couldn't understand them at all. I could only guess their meaning based on their reactions, which was honestly a little frustrating.
Before I knew it, the baby unicorn's cries were starting to subside. Faint sobs remained, but the heart-wrenching wails from before were fading. The leader unicorn gazed at the sniffling baby in my arms, then quietly lowered its head before me.
Does it want me to put the baby on its back?
I interpreted it my own way and was about to gently place the baby on its neck and step back when the little one suddenly nipped my hand. It whined and pulled my hand toward itself, as if telling me not to go.
But that only lasted a moment. The leader unicorn's long tail swished up and gently stroked the head of the baby nipping my hand. The little one looked up at me with listless eyes. Its thin tail, which had been wagging nonstop when we first met, drooped as it gently released my hand.
Hrrrrr!
The leader unicorn let out a loud cry. It must have been a signal, as the other unicorns, which had been standing rigidly, finally began to move.
I took a few steps back from the dead unicorn and watched them. The unicorns soon formed a circle around the corpse and, one by one, began to nuzzle it. It was the beginning of their own ritual, a way for these creatures with strong camaraderie to send off their fallen companion.
That wasn't all. After nuzzling the body, the unicorns went to the baby, who was lying limply on the leader's back, and comforted it by rubbing their faces against it or licking its back.
Careful not to disturb their ritual, I quietly backed away to where my group was waiting. And I decided to wait for them to finish.
*
The unicorns' ritual didn't take long. Each one took about thirty seconds, so the whole thing was over in less than ten minutes.
The atmosphere among me, the clan members, and the Users was one of complete silence. These were the same people whose eyes had gone wide at the sight of the dead unicorn. But now, seeing over twenty of the creatures and witnessing their ritual, they were all watching, completely captivated.
If my chance encounter with the baby unicorn was a rare event, this was something that might happen only once in a lifetime in the Hall Plain.
I had been worried they might cause a commotion like when they first saw the unicorns, but thankfully, they had enough sense to read the mood. They mostly remained silent, only occasionally whispering to one another.
The ritual seemed to conclude with the baby unicorn and another, slightly larger unicorn of about the same size. The leader made a low sound, and three or four sturdy unicorns came forward, lifting the corpse to drape it over two of their backs.
And with the ritual complete, the leader unicorn led its subordinates over to me and my group.
Hrrrr. Hrrrr. Hrrrr. Hrrrr.
I have no idea what it's saying.
It was clearly trying to say something, but I honestly couldn't make heads or tails of it. In any case, I had succeeded in putting them in my debt. If I blatantly asked for a reward here, I risked damaging the bond I felt we had built. So, I decided to be satisfied with this and bid them farewell.
“We've returned the deceased unicorn to you. Now, we should get going. As you can see, we have Users who were also harmed by that monster. We need to get them to a city for treatment quickly.”
As I spoke each word clearly, the gazes of the leader and all the other unicorns fixed on the people behind me. Their eyes narrowed slightly, and I guessed they had seen the Users with severed limbs.
Good. This establishes a sense of solidarity.
In other words, we had both lost comrades to the same monster, so we shared the same pain. Of course, the truth was that the Users were complete strangers to me, and this was just a thought I was entertaining, a mere possibility.
In any case, it was now truly time to leave. I turned to face the clan members to announce our return. Ahn Sol and Lee Yoojung hesitated. I tilted my head, asking what was wrong. Ahn Sol, her eyes fixed on the baby unicorn, spoke up timidly.
“Um, Orabeoni…”
“What is it?”
“Can't we just pet Uni one last time before we go? It looks so sad… It breaks my heart to just leave like this… I want to comfort it…”
Uni (?) was still lying on the leader's back as if lifeless. It didn't even lift its head when I said goodbye. I wasn't offended; I understood how it felt and just felt sorry for it. After looking at the baby unicorn with pity for a moment, I let out a long sigh.
Ahn Sol's request was a bit unreasonable at this point. It might have been possible when I went out to explain the situation earlier, but now the baby unicorn was surrounded by many others. While it might be possible to get through them to pet it, making a clean break here was the best option.
“Let's just… Huh?”
I was about to shake my head and tell her we should just go.
Hrrrr.
Just then, I heard that now-familiar cry, along with the sound of footsteps weaving through our group. Startled, I spun around to see the unicorns approaching my companions, one for each of them. And before me, the leader unicorn I'd seen first came to a stop and stood looking at me.
Just as I was feeling bewildered, the unicorns' next actions were truly shocking. The leader unicorn folded its four legs and sat down quietly in front of me. Then it lifted its long tail and slapped its own back.
“…Huh?”
Hrrrr. Slap!
“Are you telling me to get on your back?”
Nod, nod.
I looked around in disbelief. In front of each of my companions, a unicorn sat with its back presented to them.
“H-Hyung! What's going on?”
“I don't know. Why don't you ask the unicorn in front of you? I'm not sure myself…”
“H-Hey. Are you doing this so I can ride you? Really?”
The unicorn in front of Ahn Hyun had long eyelashes. It gave him a pretty glare before nodding its head, just like the leader. Ahn Hyun, his face filled with emotion, choked up and wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. The unicorn looked at him with an expression of pity.
Although I was a bit taken aback, I could see a mixture of excitement and relief on the faces of the rescued Users. Riding is certainly much better than walking. We probably couldn't ride them all the way to the city, but if we could ride them even part of the way, it would drastically shorten our return journey.
I tilted my head in thought for a moment, but ultimately decided to accept their kindness. In a way, this could turn out to be an even better opportunity.
I gave a faint smile and spoke to the few clan members who were still hesitating.
“It seems the unicorns are offering us their help. With the injured among us, this is a fortunate turn of events. For the Users who are still unconscious, have two people ride together. And please, be gentle with the unicorns.”
After speaking, I set an example by settling myself onto the leader unicorn's back. The unicorn then straightened its folded legs, and I felt my own feet slowly lift off the ground.