ISGW 09

Chapter 9

The Nightmare Forest, and Shuriel (4)

“S-Sorry, Asbel…….”

Leod spoke with a deeply discouraged look on his face.

“I made a mistake……”

“Honestly, you’re so useless…! If you cause trouble like this one more time, I’ll—!”

Asbel growled as she tightly wrapped cloth around her injured arm.

“A lot of Aderas leaves were used up because of what just happened. Is there any other loss besides that?”

At Asbel’s question, as if checking their remaining supplies, Harin checked the things she was carrying. Then her face stiffened.

The herb water.

The leather pouch that held it.

She had thought something had been scratched and torn by the Cyrus’s claws earlier, but it had been her own leather pouch containing the herb water.

Following Harin’s pale gaze, Asbel checked the torn leather pouch. Her face immediately twisted in anger.

“You idiot! You couldn’t even take care of your own herb water?”

Harin had nothing to say, so she simply kept her mouth shut.

“To begin with, everyone only had enough herb water for one person. It makes no sense for someone to lose their mind because they were trying to take care of you. It’s your fault for failing to protect your own share, so from now on, you’ll have to deal with the danger yourself.”

Asbel spoke coldly and turned away.

Leod looked at Harin with an uncertain expression for a moment, then followed Asbel.

Harin couldn’t move her feet, as if she had just been sentenced to death.

Go through the Nightmare Forest without any herb water?

The terrible things she had heard from the travelers in Britton echoed in her ears. They had said that everyone who entered the Nightmare Forest either went mad from hallucinations or died.

Did that mean the same thing would happen to her?

Unable to grasp the reality of the misfortune that had suddenly fallen upon her, Harin stood there in a daze.

“Ms. Harin.”

At Shuriel’s voice, Harin looked at him.

She looked up at him with somewhat unfocused eyes, and for some reason, he seemed angry.

His hand touched her shoulder. Feeling the warmth against her shoulder, Harin stood there silently as he spoke in a low voice.

“It’s all right. We’ll be able to get out of the forest without anything happening.”

The fog seemed to be getting colder little by little.

No, perhaps it wasn’t an illusion.

Harin looked down at the arm she had suddenly felt was cold, only to see someone’s pale arm touching it.

She flinched and brushed the arm away, but it scattered like smoke.

The surroundings were becoming colder and colder. The pale shapes that had seemed blurry began taking form, gradually turning into human figures.

They’re all hallucinations. I can overcome them.

Harin squeezed her eyes shut and shouted inside her mind.

“No one ever wanted someone like you……”

“What?”

Harin muttered without realizing it.

The cackling laughter of several voices pierced her ears like sharpened shards of glass.

“You lowly human… You should hurry up and die. How are you still alive after all this time……?”

Harin flinched.

Those were the same words one of the beastfolk in the village where she had lived had said to her…….

Before she knew it, the scenery around Harin had become horribly distorted, rippling as though she were in another world.

Harin rubbed her eyes.

“A useless, inferior human.”

“You think someone like you can find your parents?”

Cackling laughter came from somewhere, stabbing at her ears.

“There was a reason they abandoned you. Do you really think the humans who found you so horrible that they threw you away in the beastfolk forest would ever want you to find them……?”

“No.”

Harin muttered the word.

She had only said it inside her mind, but laughter still rang out around her as if mocking her denial.

What she had thought was smoke took the shape of a person, and what she had believed had no physical form brought a terribly cold hand to Harin’s neck.

She felt herself being strangled, unable to breathe.

“Kehehehe! Even your parents don’t want to see someone like you. It’s all pointless!”

“…No!”

“Ms. Harin.”

Even when someone grabbed her shoulder and shook her, Harin remained standing there, unable to distinguish between the hallucination and reality.

That person called her name again, this time with more force.

“Ms. Harin!”

“Shuriel……?”

Only after hearing her name for the second time did Harin manage to focus her eyes and look at Shuriel, who was holding her shoulders.

The boundary between hallucination and reality was blurred, leaving her mind hazy.

It was as if she were dreaming while standing upright.

“Don’t pay attention to it. It’s all just an illusion.”

Harin took the leather pouch he handed her and drank the herb water.

Slowly, her senses began returning to reality.

The distorted surroundings became clear, and the hallucinations in front of her disappeared. The voices that had been whispering to torment her also faded away.

Everything had been a hallucination.

Even the hand that had been choking her until she could hardly breathe had been an illusion.

It was hard to believe that the vivid terror she had just experienced wasn’t real.

Even though the temperature inside the forest was cold, cold sweat ran down Harin’s forehead.

“…Thank you.”

Harin calmed her trembling heart and held out the leather pouch containing the herb water to Shuriel.

But he didn’t even reach out to take it. He simply looked at her.

“Just keep it and drink it when you need it. I’ll tell you when I need some.”

“What? But……”

Harin was flustered by his words.

There might not even be enough herb water for Shuriel to drink by himself, yet he was telling her to keep it.

“If you collapse, I’ll have to carry you, and that’s a lot of work. So just do as I say.”

He spoke as if he were joking, but Harin couldn’t laugh at all.

She couldn’t even think of anything to say. While she stood there staring at Shuriel, he turned around and walked ahead.

What if she didn’t collapse, but Shuriel did?

There wasn’t even any Awakening Grass here to wake someone who had lost consciousness.

Wouldn’t losing consciousness and collapsing here be no different from dying?

Harin’s mind was filled with fear of death and concern for Shuriel, but she had no choice. To keep her increasingly clouded mind from slipping away, she drank the herb water he had given her.

Even during the long time it took Harin to drink several times, Shuriel never once asked for any water, despite what he had said earlier.

With an anxious expression, Harin repeatedly checked whether he was all right as they walked side by side.

But he seemed fine.

So fine that she couldn’t understand how it was possible.

Asbel and Leod walked ahead and occasionally looked back to check on them.

Since the two of them were sharing enough water for only one person, they seemed curious about which of them would fall behind first—or whether both of them would.

It was the third day.

According to their original plan, they should have found the exit and left the forest long ago.

But no matter how far they walked, Harin didn’t feel as though they were anywhere near the city.

On top of that, even the terrain around them looked different from the map, and Asbel’s expression grew increasingly stiff as she walked ahead.

…She absolutely couldn’t admit it.

No, how could she admit it?

They had taken the wrong path while running frantically from the monsters’ attack.

And they had been going the wrong way for two whole days……!

Asbel clenched her fists until blood appeared.

Even if they turned around and went around the forest, it would take at least two more days.

Now that their herb water to resist the hallucinations was running out, they could lose consciousness at any moment.

White fog was slowly creeping into her vision.

Her fear of death exploded, and Asbel shouted with bloodshot eyes.

“You! You’re the guide! Think of something, somehow!”

At Asbel’s admission that they had taken the wrong path, the expressions of everyone in the group turned blank with despair.

Harin looked stunned, while Leod’s face turned as pale as dirt at the thought of dying, and his body began to tremble.

No matter how loudly Asbel shouted, there was no easy solution to this situation.

Shuriel slightly furrowed his brows and answered her.

“Didn’t I tell you from the beginning that we should prepare enough for a week?”

At Shuriel’s words, Asbel’s eyes widened as she grabbed him roughly by the collar.

“Are you kidding me? How can you be so calm? You’re going to die in this forest with us!”

“……”

“You shared the herb water with Harin, didn’t you? If you did, at least one of you should have collapsed by now. So how can both of you still be fine……?”

“I gave my herb water to Ms. Harin. I didn’t drink any.”

“You……!!”

At Shuriel’s calm answer, Asbel tightened her grip on his collar as if trying to choke him.

“What the hell are you……? What kind of trick did you use—?!”

“Asbel, stop!”

When Asbel looked as though she might attack him at any moment, Harin stepped in and pulled her away from Shuriel.

Asbel shoved Harin aside, then turned a threatening gaze on her.

“Hey… Could you two be working together to kill us and steal our money? You’re in on it too, aren’t you?!”

Her golden eyes gleamed wildly, as though she might hurt Harin at any moment.

Kirik— Kiriririk—

At the familiar sound gradually approaching them, Shuriel frowned as he looked into the distance.

“Ms. Asbel, lower your voice.”

“Haha! What’s the difference between being killed by monsters and going insane?!”

Asbel continued shouting loudly.

But unlike before, her golden eyes were badly unfocused.

“I’ll kill you two before I die—!”

Asbel suddenly transformed her hand into its beastfolk form and swung it.

Harin flinched, but Asbel’s vicious claws only sliced through empty air.

She looked as though she were fighting someone, but it was obvious that she had been consumed by a hallucination.

“Asbel……?”

After huffing and attacking the empty air for a long time, Asbel suddenly collapsed as though she had lost consciousness.

Seeing Asbel collapse after being consumed by a hallucination, Harin froze in shock.

“Mom…….”

At Leod’s voice, Harin turned toward him.

Leod was standing with his back to her, groping at the air with his hands as though he couldn’t see anything.

“Mom… Dad…? Where is everyone……?”

“Leod…….”

“Help me… I don’t want to die……”

Leod collapsed as if his legs had given out, his face filled with terror.

Harin reached out toward him, but she couldn’t get any closer.

White fog swirled before her eyes, transforming the scenery of reality into something strange and unfamiliar.

Her mind was becoming clouded, and she couldn’t even tell what was real anymore.

Harin struggled to look toward Shuriel.

Through her fading vision, she could see him looking at her with his brows furrowed.

She didn’t know how he had been able to remain fine for so long without herb water, but……

“If possible… get out of the forest by yourself……”

With those words, Harin lost consciousness.

Kirik— Kiriririk!

Shuriel caught Harin as she fell and carefully lowered her to the ground.

The only one in the group who was still fully conscious, he lowered himself onto one knee and looked toward the direction from which the Cyruses’ unpleasant cries were approaching.

Kiririririk—!

He raised his green eyes and looked at the black shapes of the Cyruses flickering through the fog.

There seemed to be even more of them than before, and they were gradually drawing closer.

The monsters were excited at the thought of filling their stomachs.

Three or four of the nearest ones raised their black claws and charged at him with grotesque cries.

Kuwaang—!

In an instant, a black shape lunged forward and bit into the Cyruses that were about to attack Shuriel.

It was a creature resembling a gigantic black panther.

With a single attack, it snapped the necks of several Cyruses.

Sensing the deaths of their companions, the other Cyruses hesitated and backed away in fear.

Kirik! Kiriririk—

As the monsters quickly fled in all directions, the creature that had driven them away turned around and looked at Shuriel.

Its sleek black body gleamed, and its golden eyes looked fierce.

When their eyes met, Shuriel smiled at it.

“Hello, Akram.”