The Way Back (2)
The Way Back (2)
There were only two of us inside the forest.
Just a moment ago, we'd definitely been following the rest of the group.
On top of that, I couldn't tell where on earth we were.
Getting lost? It was unbelievable that I, with my sharp senses, could lose my way.
"Did we... somehow get lost?"
I heard Young Lord Ride's voice.
When I looked at Young Lord Ride, he was staring at me with an expression I'd never seen before.
But that unfamiliar look vanished in an instant.
"I have no idea what happened."
I shook my head. This was a completely unexpected situation.
"Hold on a moment. I'll go check from above."
I climbed up to the treetop and surveyed the surroundings.
Absurdly enough, even after climbing up, I couldn't make head or tail of where I was.
The situation was unexpected and utterly absurd, yet somehow, it made me nod in understanding.
"So that's how it is."
One major question had been answered.
I climbed back down and spoke to Ride.
"It's a bit strange, but I think I can find the way. Let's hurry."
"Huh? You know the way?"
When I said that, Ride looked utterly disbelieving.
"Yes, let's go."
I started off in one direction.
From behind me, I heard hesitant footsteps.
I turned to look at Ride. He followed behind me, his expression troubled.
As we moved, monsters appeared just as they always did.
I stepped forward first to block them with my sword, but unlike before, they weren't easy to deal with.
I thought I was swinging my blade accurately, but it only grazed the monster. Other times, I swung too deeply and had trouble pulling the sword back out.
"Damn it, why can't I hit properly? Give me some help!"
"I'm trying too! My ability doesn't work well against that monster!"
He seemed to be doing something behind me, but the monster gleefully came at me, and I barely managed to defeat it, by then covered in wounds.
Even so, I didn't stop.
Finding the path grew even more difficult, but I kept walking, leading Ride along.
After a few more battles, I eventually suffered a massive wound and came to a halt.
Ugh... ugh.
I sat down on the carcass of an alligator-like monster and inspected my flank.
My flesh was torn open, exposing my internal organs. Blood kept pouring out, making me dizzy.
I poured potions over the wound, but it was so severe that even keeping my condition stable seemed impossible.
"Looks like this is as far as I go. I don't think I can walk any further."
At my words, Ride examined me with a grave expression.
No matter how intensely he looked, nothing was going to change.
My wound was fatal, and moving any further was out of the question.
After staring at me for a long while, Ride picked up my sword, which had been leaning against a tree.
"This sword is heavier than I thought. You've been fighting while swinging something like this?"
Frowning, he handled the sword.
Unlike with his magic-type ability, he seemed to have learned swordsmanship properly.
Watching Ride silently grip and swing my sword, I let out a sigh.
"So it was you after all, wasn't it? The one who intentionally separated me from the others."
At my words, he smirked.
"There are way too many quick-witted people. Or maybe my acting skills are lacking."
"Don't tell me... someone else besides me realized it?"
At my question, he poked my flank with a finger.
"The professor who suffered the same wound caught on at the very end, too. If she hadn't known, she could have died in peace. Why did she have to act so clever?"
He clicked his tongue quietly.
"Don't tell me... Professor Katrin didn't die because of monsters? Did you kill her?"
"Well, she would have died if left alone anyway, so you could blame it on the monsters. I just sped up her passing a bit because it seemed like she was going to tell Bria."
He spoke in an exceedingly relaxed voice.
Even with me sitting right in front of him, he didn't seem worried at all.
And that made sense—even by my own estimation, dealing with him in this condition was impossible.
He knew it too, which was why he was chatting so comfortably.
"People didn't know this, but my ability isn't effective only against monsters. I can warp human senses to disrupt their perception, or make them mistake the position of the light pillar."
Just as I'd expected.
My getting lost and Katrin's group taking a wrong turn—it was all due to Ride's ability.
"And yet, the Duke and the family elders disregarded this power of mine and gave the position of heir to my younger brother!"
As he spoke, he began thrusting my sword toward the sky.
"Do you have any idea how agonizing it is for the family's heir to be banished to the academy and forced to laugh and play along with other dregs of the nobility? Ah, no, you're a bastard to begin with, so there's no way you'd know."
He launched into his personal story with enthusiasm.
It seemed I didn't even need to ask about his motives. He was spilling everything on his own.
From the entrance ceremony until yesterday, I hadn't known anything about Ride's situation.
I'd thought he was just a smart son of a high noble living a normal, comfortable life, but it seemed he had his own share of pain and conflict.
Honestly, to me he just looked like a fucking dumbass, but if he claimed he was suffering, what could I say?
I had neither a reason nor the ability to say anything about it.
Ride continued speaking.
"While barely holding on, I finally realized yesterday that Heaven hadn't abandoned me."
As expected, that knight's corpse was the issue.
"That corpse belonged to a knight our family sent to the Seal Grounds 50 years ago. It was a grand operation involving my grand-uncle and half the knights' order. You don't need to know what item they were trying to find, but anyway, just like the others who failed, they came to these Seal Grounds and vanished."
I watched him chatter away blankly. The dizziness grew progressively worse, but for now, it was still bearable.
"Ever since, anyone from our family who attended the academy was tasked with coming to the Seal Grounds to retrieve my grand-uncle's lost belongings. That was their duty and objective."
"But there was no way something like that could be found so easily. In the end, it became a mere formality."
I must have momentarily passed out while listening to his story.
"Hey, don't die already. You have to hear my whole story."
Ride looked down at me with a worried expression.
Once I regained my senses, he resumed talking.
"It was merely a formal duty, but once it actually happened, it became a completely different matter. It was an opportunity big enough for a son ousted from his position as heir to rise back up."
As he spoke, he rested a hand on his waist.
"Just in case, my late grand-uncle possessed a ring that glowed when brought within a certain distance of his target. And any member of our clan coming to the academy carries that ring."
He showed me his hand. A ring I hadn't seen back at the academy was on his finger.
After discovering the knight's corpse, he had pulled the ring out of his bag to check it. The ring had been glowing red, so he used his ability to lure the group in the direction it indicated.
Unfortunately, the destination happened to be a monster nest, and he succeeded in using the others to retrieve the item his grand-uncle had left behind.
"Is... is that pouch at your waist the item?"
"That's right. The thing our family was searching for. The item that will restore me to my place as the heir."
He patted the small pouch hanging from his waist.
It was so small that it didn't look as though it could hold most ordinary things.
I wonder what's inside.
A flicker of curiosity stirred, even through my hazy state of mind.
"When I returned later, the injured professor was suspicious of me, so I had no choice but to take care of her."
Having finished his story, he glared at me.
"It wasn't even a big deal, but the professor ended up dying because of it. On top of that, you had to act all smart and make things difficult for me!"
Even though it was ultimately his own doing, he was directing his anger at me and Professor Katrin.
He deceived people, killed a person to cover up that deception, lied again to hide the murder, and now he was trying to kill me.
Perhaps yesterday was the very first time he'd told such a major lie.
But as one lie and murder led to another, his conscience dulled, and he grew accustomed to killing.
In the end, he was trying to kill me without a shred of hesitation.
"I just really wanted to tell someone. I used to laugh at villains in plays spilling their secrets in rambling monologues, but once I found myself in their shoes, it was bloody hard to resist."
After that final babbling excuse, he finally stepped toward me.
"I don't have enough time to wait for you to die naturally. I need to reach the rendezvous point before sunset, so please excuse me for killing you ahead of time."
Spouting total nonsense, he raised his sword high.
If I die by that sword, I'll loop back to yesterday morning.
Everything was going according to plan.
I had to die at least once anyway to save Katrin.
To make the most of that death, I'd been searching for the culprit all this time.
I had my suspicions about her death, asked around to identify the culprit, and then deliberately sustained a severe injury to loosen his tongue.
Luckily, the culprit was loose-lipped, so I was able to hear his story easily.
So all that remains now is to die.
Rumble!
Still, it felt a bit unfair for me to die alone.
Even though what happened now would be erased anyway, I couldn't just leave the bastard who killed Katrin untouched.
"What! What is that noise?!"
Without even swinging the sword, Ride looked around in alarm.
'Good, my timing was right.'
Curiously, my ability to see and feel mana wasn't affected by Ride's power.
While my sense of direction was completely scrambled, my ability to perceive mana remained intact.
Thanks to that, sensing approaching monsters and finding places infested with them was more than doable.
So while getting lost, I actively sought out areas crawling with monsters.
And this place happened to be an alligator monster nest.
The carcass I was sitting on belonged to the female that had remained at the nest; the monsters swarming in now were the males.
Dozens of alligator monsters emerged from every direction.
"Get away! Get away from me!"
Overcome with terror, Ride swung the sword and exerted his ability.
But the sword bounced right off the monster's hide, and his ability only worked on one or two of them.
"N-No! I was almost there! I was supposed to reclaim my rightful place!"
Ride's screams echoed from amid the horde of monsters.
His screams grew fainter and fainter until silence took over.
The sound of monsters tearing through flesh echoed, and I could see the remaining beasts closing in on me.
'Still, I can't let myself be eaten.'
I gathered every drop of my remaining mana.
Mana flowed out of me along with my blood.
The dizziness peaked, and my physical energy evaporated completely.
At the same time, darkness consumed my vision.
[You have died. Restarting from the Automatic Save Point.]
A moment later—or perhaps after a long while—my vision brightened once more.
A lush forest and tangled vines.
The team members I'd seen yesterday were crouched down, dry-heaving.
The exact same scene.
I was back, just as I should be.
Now then, it's time to go save Katrin.