“How can you go without this important thing!”
It was like a parent running after a child who forgot their lunchbox on a picnic day.
“…Why did you follow me again?”
“W-who said I followed you? I just heard you were going to the Forest of Darkness and thought you might need this, so I came to deliver it. It is, after all, a gift I gave you….”
When I looked at him meaningfully, Krius slightly averted his gaze.
“Ahem. If you don’t need it, I’ll take it back.”
“No, thank you.”
I naturally received the Death Scythe. Actually, I learned some brief combat skills from Adolf last time. An evil spirit’s body was different from a human’s. So stamina, strength, and the way to handle weapons were all unpredictable. It was harder because of that, but I managed to learn the basic posture, grip, and how to accurately slash a target a little bit.
“…Because it would be a waste if I couldn’t use it in actual combat even after practicing.”
“Excuse me? Don’t tell me you trained?”
Krius seemed a little flustered.
“Not exactly training, but I just learned the basics from Adolf.”
“Ah, is that so. Well… I have plenty of free time too, so you can come find me anytime.”
Until just last time, he treated me seriously without any playfulness, so was there a change of heart? Today, he seems to have returned to the familiar original Krius Harper.
“Never mind that. You seem to have returned to normal now. You know you’ve been too serious lately, right?”
“….”
“No matter how much you’ve fallen for me, it was too much.”
“W-why would I fall for you! That makes no sense…!”
“Pfft.”
I chuckled to myself because it was a little funny how he flared up for no reason, and before I knew it, Krius was looking at me blankly. Knowing that, I casually scanned the gathered members.
“Well, anyway. Is the team finally formed like this?”
Havel, Evan, Lilith, Aaron, Krius, and me. That was it.
“Krius. You’re not planning to tag along too, are you?”
“I don’t really want to follow you into the dangerous Dark Forest, but… since I’m already here, well, let’s go together.”
Krius said as if doing us a favor.
‘Liar. You came with the intention of going together in the first place.’
“Six people. The number of people has unexpectedly become too large…”
“You have to count excluding ghosts and evil spirits. Not large. Four people.”
Before I knew it, Havel had interrupted.
“Are you going to keep nitpicking everything I say?”
When I rebuked him, Havel feigned ignorance and took out the emergency rations he had put in his pocket and ate them. It was messy from the start, but after many twists and turns, this group of members began the breakthrough of the Dark Forest.
‘Please, let nothing happen.’
Without even dreaming of what would happen in the future, I prayed in my heart.
* * *
Basileon continued to repeatedly be trapped in the illusion and released from it. The ones he faced in the illusion were always his sister and father. They mobilized all sorts of methods to kill him in order to make Basileon suffer. But the resurrected Basileon was always calm.
“Why on earth.”
Chera grabbed Basileon by the collar.
“How can you make such a detestable expression?”
An ordinary person would have lost their mind and gone crazy by now. Repeating endless deaths in pain no different from reality was not something an ordinary person could handle.
“Even though you’ve already died several hundred times.”
Bang—. Chera threw Basileon against the wall once again. It was purely taking out her anger.
“Wipe that aloof look off your face. I don’t want to see it.”
Even the countless repeated deaths couldn’t break Basileon’s mind again. The Chera in the illusion couldn’t suppress her anger and distorted her face heavily. After suppressing her anger and thinking deeply for a while, she finally opened her mouth.
“…Right. Because now there will be more humans falling into my grasp.”
Only then did Basileon, who hadn’t even blinked at any form of violence, look at Chera.
“How.”
“Are you finally interested?”
As Chera waved her hand in the air once, Evien appeared before Basileon’s eyes.
“……!”
Not only Evien, but Krius and a number of survivors were gathered.
“You know that bald human, right? The human you’ve always killed first.”
Chera pointed her finger at Aaron.
“That human made a reckless attempt to go outside. As a result, I was able to regain even a feeble amount of strength, and found a way to draw the humans in.”
They were definitely walking toward the Dark Forest.
“…The Dark Forest again.”
“The Dark Forest is the most suitable place. The more humans are consumed by fear, the weaker their minds become. If I take advantage of that opening and cause confusion, it’s easy from then on. Humans are weak beings.”
As Chera gestured, a blue-haired survivor was reflected in Basileon’s vision. The survivor with long, braided blue hair was Mary Crow. She was constantly biting her lip nervously outside the Dark Forest.
“Like that.”
Mary’s surroundings were quiet and dark, but there was definitely no presence felt. However, she kept glancing around as if something scary was nearby. And she wandered around in place with an anxious look. Nevertheless, perhaps unable to shake off the surging anxiety, Mary plopped down on the spot.
“I’m scared… Evan… Lilith…”
Hearing the names coming out of Mary’s mouth, Basileon twitched his eyebrows.
“It’s just that one human for now, but soon I’ll use that one to draw in more humans. Because once a minority becomes a majority, persuasion becomes that much easier.”
“…How are you going to use a human trembling with anxiety to the point of not even being able to stay still?”
“See for yourself how it turns out.”
Basileon’s eyes, which hadn’t changed expression even at the pain of death, wavered. While he was consumed by the illusion like this, if anything were to happen to Evien, it would be a huge problem. Basileon tried his best not to waver. If he showed signs of agitation after seeing Evien, it would be giving the opponent an excuse.
“It’s no use trying to control your facial expression now, Basileon.”
“…!”
“There’s no way I wouldn’t know how much you’ve always cherished Evien.”
Before he knew it, Chera’s appearance changed and became his father, Karus. Karus approached Basileon and stroked his head. After that, he swept his hair back to reveal the black eye on the right.
“By the way, Evien seems to be very interested in your mutant eye…”
The composure he had barely been holding onto crumbled completely.
“I should have brought this up from the start. We can finally communicate a little now.”
“….”
Basileon’s eyes sank coldly.
* * *
“As you all know, we have to go through the Dark Lake and exit to the other side. To do that, we have to be prepared to encounter banshees or werewolves.”
“…It’s fine. I’m used to it.”
Evan said so while glancing at Havel and Aaron following behind.
“Lilith must be used to it too. But those people, especially Havel Akron. You are of no help at all.”
Havel was very big and his movements were slow. When monsters chased after them or something, he might not be able to run away quickly. But Havel didn’t back down and retorted.
“I strong! Am helpful. Brought what evil spirit gave. If eat that, become strong and fast.”
“….”
Evan still looked displeased.
“How dare these things decide who is helpful or not…!”
Aaron, standing behind, angrily raised his voice. Before he could even finish speaking, Lilith pulled out a dagger. Thanks to that, Aaron couldn’t continue his words and quieted down.
“Damn it.”
Aaron muttered to himself just loud enough for me, who was nearby, to hear. So I gave him a word of warning instead.
“Try to flaunt your pride like that and beg for your life because you’re scared. Because I’ll just leave you and we’ll go by ourselves.”
“….”
Silence continued again. As we walked, I felt it, but because Evan and Lilith were so fast, the slowpokes following behind lagged behind. I let out a deep sigh and suggested changing positions.
“Let’s change positions. You’re too slow.”
We put the slowest Havel and Aaron at the front, and Evan, Lilith, Krius, and I followed behind. I simply thought it would be efficient to put the slow people at the front. However, Aaron was very displeased with this situation.
“…You guys. Are you trying to use me as bait and run away if a monster pops out?”
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