Chapter 4: 4

04. Shush

 

The air flowing through the carriage’s window was chilly, and in front was a huge wall.

Behind the party’s backs, the magic circle dispersed.

Auston shivered and grumbled.

“Argh, those superficial guys. How long are they going to be using this old-fashioned formula? Less efficient.”

“If you didn’t like it that much, you should have done it yourself. I would have been able to go straight to the castle.”

“How can you say such a horrifying thing when I have already consumed all of my magic power in the morning? I don’t even know if I’ll get extra pay.”

He had this serious look at Randall’s words.

Randall crossed the gate after clicking his tongue, saying, ‘that bastard who is only serious about money.’

The distance from the castle wall to the Duchy of Belfort on the hilltop was about an hour’s drive at a leisurely pace.

As they crossed the castle gate, a dense forest greeted the party.

Randall looked at Sylvia from time to time, explaining that a village would be found after crossing this forest for about 30 minutes.

“Sylvia, you don’t look so good. Are you all right?”

“I’m okay.”

Sylvia answered with a smile, but the truth was different.

‘How long has it been since I moved like this?’

She could guarantee that today’s movements would be three times the movements of the past 22 years combined.

Her frail body, which had been accustomed only to breathing exercises, declared a strike and urged her to collapse on a bed and rest at once.

However, Sylvia barely managed to sustain herself with the patience and mental strength she had built up over the years.

‘Only until the first night…… Let’s just put up with it until the first night. After that, all I have to do is sleep for three days.’

Unfortunately, today’s schedule wasn’t over yet.

The first night, in fact, remained the most important wedding procedure.

In her mind, the first night or whatever, she just wanted to collapse and fall asleep right away.

However, she decided to deceive God’s eyes by imitating the life of a ‘normal couple’ as much as possible, so the first night was a must-have procedure.

It was when Sylvia was torn between intense fatigue and responsibility.

“……!”

Randall and Sylvia’s heads turned at the same time.

Their eyes, looking at the other side of the forest, sank coldly.

“Everyone, draw your swords. Auston makes a barrier around the forest. Knights, keep the carriage as a priority.”

At that moment, the knights’ faces hardened when they sensed the unusual magic coming from the other side of the forest.

Auston quickly thrust his hand forward and recited a spell.

Then, a translucent barrier separated the forest from the village.

Randall and other knights surrounded the carriage and grabbed their sword.

“Auston. Make sure there’s no one else in the forest.”

“I’m at your command!”

Randall, who gave the order, then looked back at the carriage window with a stiff face.

“Don’t open the window, and make your presence as little as possible.”

As soon as Sylvia nodded, the carriage’s window closed without a gap.

Kieeeek!

Immediately afterward, with a horrifying cry, demons with eerie appearances came out of the forest and attacked the party.

“It’s a ‘Piravat’! The number looks about twenty!”

“Keuk, on this kind of day, don’t you have to keep at least your wits aside a little bit! How come these guys don’t have a day when they don’t show their faces!”

“Shut up! Another one is coming!”

Each of the knights cursed and frantically brandished their swords.

Their mouth was busy talking, but their hand was precise in cutting through the demon’s neck and tendons.

The one who attacked the party was a low-ranking demon named ‘Piravat’, something that was a nuisance in the Duchy of Belfort.

Of course, that does not mean that their lethality or risk is low.

With a body about twice the size of a human, a quick body, and a jaw that could chew stones, it could be considered a natural enemy of humans.

‘But it’s not comparable to their master.’

The knights glanced at Randall as they each dealt with the demons.

Kiiiik!

Keeek!

Randall was slaughtering demons with his piercing eyes.

The tearing screams of demons echoed around him.

There was no unnecessary movement of his sword.

There was not even a hint of wavering in the sword that formed around the blade.

A sword that flies neatly and accurately.

In addition, a sharp sword that could cut through the sky.

Because of such characteristics, it was so strong that it cannot be prevented even if it[1] has grasped the direction of the sword’s movement.

It is indeed a swordsmanship that can be said to be the ‘pinnacle’ that all knights pursue.

Randall’s swordsmanship was of great help just by watching, so the knights glanced at him whenever they had a chance, even as they slowly destroyed the demons.

Meanwhile, Auston’s urgent voice as he closed his eyes and explored the barrier shook the air.

“Lord! There are children close by……!”

“…… What?”

In the midst of the commotion, a spine-chilling silence came.

But before they could react, the bushes near the carriage shook and small figures appeared.

“Look, I heard a noise from this side, so the village is also this way…… Huh?”

The child who confidently waded through the bushes at the front had a blank face at the sight in front of him.

The children, who seemed lost while playing in the forest, were small enough to appear to be about seven or eight years old.

Sensing this, one of the demons jerked its head and rushed straight to the children.

“Avoid it!”

Jeffrey, the knight closest to the children, shouted urgently and jumped in front of the demon.

Clang! The claws of the demon slammed down on the blade as if to break it.

“Kwaaak!”

“M, mom!”

The children screamed a little late and crouched down.

At the unfamiliar scream, Sylvia opened the window slightly and peered out through the crack.

Her face hardened at the sight of the children crouching in fear.

“What are you doing! Run away!”

Randall and the other knights were also busy dealing with the excited demons.

Jeffrey screamed again, desperately holding off the demon, but the already terrified children only trembled.

It was the moment when Jeffrey was distracted by the children.

The demon’s feet flew through his body into the air with a fierce sound.

“Gasp!”

Crash-!

With a loud sound, Jeffrey’s body slammed into the carriage’s door.

Luckily, he avoided being pierced by the claws, but it made a deep cut in his side.

On top of that, the carriage door was smashed to pieces.

Randall sensed the commotion and reflexively turned his head.

With that, the demon, noticing that there was another human in the nearby carriage, overtook Jeffrey and rushed into the carriage.

“Damn it, Sylvia!”

The carriage’s door was on the opposite side of where the party was engaged.

Randall and the knights were about to head toward the carriage.

Keueeeeek!

The corpse of the demon, which had been lying in a mess on one side, suddenly raised itself and rushed at its own kind.

Kiik! Kiiiiik!

The demon that rushed towards the carriage screamed in panic.

However, the corpse of the demon, with its bright red eyes, did not even cry, but bit and blocked its own kind with its whole body.

In the end, the demon who was aiming for Sylvia had its head ripped off by the corpse of its own kind and died.

Then, the tattered corpse of the demon soon stopped moving and collapsed like a broken doll.

The red glow in the corpse’s eyes that had stopped moving had suddenly disappeared.

“…… what just happened…….”

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Meanwhile, Jeffrey, who had watched the whole scene from the side of the broken door, muttered blankly.

In confusion and pain, he struggled to raise his eyes, which were gradually blurring, and belatedly remembered Sylvia’s existence.

‘Madam!’

His mind returned sharply as if he had been thrown into cold water.

He moved his head desperately to look inside the carriage.

“Huh……?”

Inside the dark carriage.

Sylvia was looking at the corpse of the fallen demon with an oddly detached expression on her face.

Just before Jeffrey sensed a flash of red in her golden eyes.

“Shush.”

 

 

Sylvia brought the index finger of her right hand to her lips and beautifully folded her eyes.

After a wave of magic swirled around her, he fainted and fell to the floor.

“Sylvia!”

“Madam!”

At that moment, Randall and the knights, who had dealt with the remaining demons, rushed to the carriage.

“Waaaaaah!”

“It’s all right, boys. It’s all right now.”

Some of the knights ran to the weeping children and hunched on one side.

Randall, who jumped into the carriage as if flying, swallowed various swear words inside and examined Sylvia urgently.

“Are you okay? Where did you get hurt?”

“I’m fine. But he……”

Before Sylvia knew it, she looked at the door of the carriage with her red eyes.

There was Jeffrey, sprawled on the floor, unconscious, and the knights surrounding him, shouting.

“Jeffrey, Jeffrey! Wake up!”

“His wound is severe! Can you stop the bleeding, Mr. Auston?”

“Got it!”

Randall’s expression stiffened when he saw them..

A familiar fear hardened his body.

Once again, his colleague, his subordinate.

The fear of losing those he has gathered with his own hands.

Then Sylvia grabbed his stiff hand.

“Randall.”

“……Ah.”

“It’s all right.”

Randall looked back at Sylvia, who stared at him with a calm face in the dimly lit carriage.

Sylvia smiled softly as if to sooth him.

“He’s going to live. I know.”

“…….”

“Let’s go back to the castle.”

A voice that seemed to soothe the depths of his heart that even he couldn’t see, gradually calmed his fear.

Randall squeezed her hand for a moment, as if not to miss the warmth that came into his hand, and then pulled himself up with a pained groan.

“Auston! Take care of Jeffrey! Return to the castle quickly!”

“Understood!”

As he stepped out of the carriage with his back to Sylvia, the back of his neck was slightly red.

 

＊ ＊ ＊

 

“I made a mistake, Lord!”

Thanks to Auston’s quick return to the castle based on tears and lamentations, the knight Jeffrey was safe.

Of course, after waking up, he went back to all the Knights and got a good night’s sleep, and he became a patient again.

“Haha! But I’m still alive, so I’ll still get a good night’s sleep and stuff like that!”

“Ugh…….”

“By the way, you’re amazing. How can you use the handle of your sword to crush a demon’s skull? Is that strength innate?”

“Ugh…….”

Randall sighed heavily as he saw Jeffrey, who had been busy praising him even after he had risen from the dead, and ordered him to take a one-month pay cut and a self-reflection.

Jeffrey humbly accepted it and apologized to Sylvia as well.

“I’m sorry, Madam. I’ve only been showing you this stupidness of mine since the first day.”

“No, I’m glad you’re safe.”

Sylvia looked over at Jeffrey, smiling softly.

But she didn’t feel any other feelings from him, except a little guilt and disconcertedness.

‘Thank goodness.’

Sylvia inwardly swallowed a sigh of relief when she saw that Jeffrey didn’t remember anything.

The last time she dealt with magic and darkness was more than 20 years ago, so she thought it wouldn’t work properly, but fortunately, her skills did not seem to be rusty.

‘……I should have just died there.’

Once the situation was sorted out, a late sense of regret came over her.

When the demon Piravat opened its mouth and rushed into the carriage.

Sylvia thought for a moment, ‘Wouldn’t it be an accident if I died like this?’

It was an attack she hadn’t expected, so it was quite natural.

However…….

‘…… I can’t be ripped to death in front of such children.’

She swallowed a sigh of pity.

No matter how much she lost most of her humanity, she didn’t want to show the children how brutally she died.

-Sylvia!

In addition, she could not deny that Randall’s voice calling out to her with concern bothered her.

For such an upright and healthy young man, wouldn’t it be shocking to see the corpse of his wife, who was mutilated by the claws of a demon?

Sylvia used her abilities out of consideration for the children and the soon-to-be bereaved Randall.

She had two powers.

One was human magic.

And the other one…… she can deal with all sorts of strange things, including death,

The demon’s ‘darkness’.

Sylvia has so far used magic when she had to personally use her powers.

That is because the use of darkness reminded her of the time when she was wandering through Kelvetia in her first life, so she didn’t like using it.

But at the time of the attack, Auston was there, and he had the most outstanding qualities of a wizard she had seen since Alisa’s death.

If Sylvia had used a magic circle to attack the demon, she would have been caught immediately.

‘And it makes no sense for someone who’s never learned magic in her life to use magic.’

After Sylvia was born as ‘Sylvia’, she decided to do nothing.

Of course, she took classes on basic knowledge and liberal arts, but even that didn’t last long.

She was learning what she already knew, so it was better to sleep more at that time.

Thus, in a corner of the house, all the books that Count Fleurette had stored for his daughter had been left untouched and dusty.

In addition, Sylvia was well aware of how much people bothered the existence of being a wizard.

It was obvious that if she was discovered to be a wizard, death would not be even easier.

So Sylvia inevitably used the darkness to deal with the demon.

After that, she used a magic so small that would go unnoticed, and knocked Jeffrey out before he could see the dark energy in her eyes.

‘Well…… there will be more opportunities in the future.’

It was when Sylvia was feeling strange with regret or other emotions.

The knights huddled around Jeffrey’s bed muttered something and then suddenly stood up with serious faces.

“Lord, Madam.”

“Hmm?”

“You must not be here like this. You have to go!”

…… To where?

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