/
At that moment, Nathan didn’t even know he stopped breathing. When he finally let out his breath, Nathan lost his strength and collapsed. He bowed his head, clasping his wand as a support. ‘I have no strength in my legs.’ His body trembled mercilessly, whether it was a belated fear or a cold caused by rainwater.
Looking at Nathan, Hazard took out a knife in the head of the daemon and jumped to the ground. The water splashed. Nathan looked up blankly and saw Hazard’s palm sticking out in front of his nose.
“Are you okay?”
‘Ah, he still shines in this dull world.’
“
why are you here?”
Instead of holding his hand, Nathan immediately asked questions. Nathan’s question was perfectly natural to him. Hazard popped up out of nowhere, it was really unexpected.
“Somehow, I was separated from my teammates.”
He scratched his face awkwardly. From up close, his clothes were no less messy than Nathan’s, Hazard rolled his sword and shook his head.
“In the sky, there are continuous blasts. The daemons suddenly ran wild and the rain never stopped. It was no joke.”
“What about your return seat?”
“Oh!”
The response as if he remembered it only then was ridiculous. Nathan’s voice had a reproach at first glance.
“If you found yourself alone, you should have used the return seat right away.”
“Well.. you’re right. I probably forgot because it’s been a while since I had a practice.”
“If you didn’t do well against the daemon, you would have been seriously hurt”
“But I was able to help you because of it, so isn’t that enough?”
“
”
Nathan shut his mouth tight. That was indeed the case. His appearance a moment ago was really like a scene from a novel. If Hazard hadn’t come, Nathan would’ve been dead. That thought reminded him of the daemon’s mouth again. Nathan remembers the sense that time passed very slowly at that moment. His hand that held the wand gripped it tight.
“Why are you alone in a place like this? What about the others?”
“They all went back.”
“What? They left you alone?”
Hazard frowned uncharacteristically at the remark. The situation just now was dangerous enough even though Hazard’s one-on-one confrontation with the daemon was not always so unusual for a leading knight, it was dangerous enough for a rearguard wizard.
If Hazard had been late a while ago, Nathan would not have ended up with a simple injury, but his life would have been in danger. So Hazard had no choice but to frown at the words that he had been left alone while the others returned. Nathan shook his head looking at Hazard and forced his trembling legs up.
“I told them to go. I was going to follow them straight away, but I couldn’t because things got a little messed up.”
“You weren’t in a position to say anything to me.”
His voice was uneven, so Nathan didn’t say anything more, but just took the compass out of his arms and avoided Hazard’s eyes. It was not an ordinary compass, it was a machined tool for finding your way. It tells you where to go. When Nathan opened the lid, the instructions spun around and pointed to one side.
“Hazard.”
“What?”
“Let’s go. Let’s get out of the woods.”
“Do you know where to go? We’re so deep in the woods that I don’t know where to go
”
Nathan shook the compass in his hand instead of answering.
The two of them walked silently for a while. The rain stopped at some point, and only the occasional dripping of rainwater hanging from the branches could be heard. When the rain stopped, Nathan wiped the water off his glasses. He was relieved by the clearer view.
Nathan held the wand in his hands as if he would break, not knowing where else the daemon would pop out, even though he didn’t show his face. Hazard, who was walking next to Nathan, noticed that his hand turned white.
“Don’t you think the forest is too quiet?”
Nathan walked for a long time as the compass pointed, and then suddenly stopped because of Hazard’s words.
As he said, the forest was as quiet as death. It was the sound of rain falling and the sound of two people walking in the mud.
It was too quiet to be a forest full of life. It was certainly strange that I couldn’t hear the sound of grass bugs along with the cries of animals that I had heard until I entered the forest.
“Did I hear wrong before?”
“It’s too quiet for that. Something’s weird
.”
At that time, the wind blew from somewhere as if this silence were an illusion of two people, and soon the forest became noisy. The sound of the leaves banging against each other tickles his ears. In the dark woods it was quite frankly a chilling phenomenon. Nathan unknowingly rattled and grabbed Hazard.
“Haha, don’t do that. It’s just the wind. It’s not a big deal, right?”
“It’s just that I got goosebumps.”
“If you’re scared, you can hold on to me more.”
“I’m okay.”
Nathan frowned at the sly voice and took his hand off.
‘Why did I hold onto him? Because he’s the main character. Were you attracted to him unconsciously because you thought he’d feel safe when he’s next to him?’
He didn’t think it would be okay for grown men to stick together like this, so Nathan took a step back from Hazard’s side, shaking his hands, pretending to organize his robe.
“Right, Norbert”
“?”
“Can you keep what you saw today a secret?”
‘What he saw today?’ I couldn’t understand for a moment, so I tilted my head, and Hazard looked down in embarrassment and smiled softly.
“It’s a little difficult if it’s known that I can catch a daemon by myself.”
For a moment, Nathan replied, bewildered, “OK.” With Hazard’s handsome face, he became a perfect picture no matter what he did.
. . .
After that, the two were lucky enough to escape the forest. Hazard, who was with him, suddenly disappeared just before leaving the forest, and at one point he was in a group of swordsmanship departments. Nathan, looking at him talking to Remburton in the distance, turned his head.
Fortunately, even though the students who escaped from the forest were injured, no one was too seriously hurt.
In the midst of being surrounded by people, Nathan honestly was completely absent-minded. While comforting Yulrey, who was hanging on to him and crying, Nathan couldn’t remember clearly what Yulrey said and what he answered, what Professor Michael said, whether Agnes laughed or tapped him on the back. Nathan was just tired.
It wasn’t until midnight that they were able to return to the Academy. Nathan broke up with the group at the entrance to the dormitory. Everyone smiled and waved, then went back to their rooms.
The smile gradually disappeared from Nathan’s face. Nathan turned at a slow pace only when no one was in sight. Perhaps there was a problem with the lamp hanging on the wall, the hallway leading to his room was dark. Walking in the dark hallway with the moonlight as a light, he quickly reached his room. Nathan entered the room
Chang Grand!
As soon as the door closed behind his back, Nathan’s wand, who he had been holding like a rope, rolled on the floor. When Nathan was left alone, he hugged his arms as if he were wrapping them like a bow and sat down.
‘I couldn’t stop shaking. My hands and feet are cold. When I close my eyes, I feel like I can hear the shouts of evil spirits. My stomach was empty. I felt nauseous.’
His throat was throbbing as if he were going to vomit, but Nathan just gasped.
‘How long have I been doing that in front of the door?’ Nathan staggered to his feet.
“Oh, I need to wash up..”
‘Let’s wash up and sleep. Then it’ll be alright.’
Nathan couldn’t even remember how he got to the bathroom and washed himself. Clothes thrown off roughly crumbled underfoot. He crawled up to the bed in a slouch. The blanket was cold. It was close to summer, but Nathan felt like it was cold like midwinter.
“It’s cold.”
Nathan trembled before his breath leaked. After a few false touches, he put the blanket over his head. ‘As if you’d ever be safe.’ He curled up and thought of a hypnotic saying to help him sleep, “Let’s go to bed. You’ll feel better when you fall asleep. Let’s sleep. We have to sleep. Let’s get some sleep.”
So Nathan fell asleep little by little.
. . .
“Then I’ll see you after vacation! I’ll send you a letter!”
“Okay, get home safely.”
Etton, who pulled her head out of the carriage window, waved away. Nathan was standing in front of the main gate of the academy to see the children off. Not many people were left at the front door after Etton and Robert left in the carriage first. Finally, Nathan saw Berry off. Nathan reached out for Berry, a modest dress instead of a school uniform.
“Thank you.”
Berry, who is usually blunt, smiled slightly at him and took Nathan’s hand and climbed into the carriage. Just before Nathan closed the door, Berry asked.