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“We’re here now, but I’ve not even seen a rabbit. Perhaps the people who’ve gone ahead have found their own prey, but…”
The crown princess murmured with a low voice. Certainly, not a squirrel could be seen, let alone a rabbit. But there was something else that bothered me more.
‘Is anyone else feeling this?’
The deeper we went into the forest, the clearer it became to me that there’s something up in the air. It wasn’t exactly an unpleasant feeling.
Rather than that… It felt as if there was a small petal flying in, fluttered gently by a passing wind—that kind of sensation.
I wanted to ask people around me if they also felt anything strange, but I eventually closed my lips. It might just be me, and I’d look strange bringing up something unnecessary.
‘…But just in case, I need to stay alert. And Owen’s mage is also suspicious…’
Then at that moment, I felt something different.
Immediately on reflex, I halted my horse.
I felt chills down my spine along with a wave of anxiety. If I had felt just a tickling sensation of something harmless earlier…
This was the complete opposite.
“Duchess Valentino?”
The crown princess looked back at me with a perplexed look when I stopped in place.
And it was only then that I realized what this feeling was. It was the sensation of…space being distorted. And I felt this only once before—when a rift had appeared in a village at Veronis.
“What’s the matter, Duchess Valentino? Is horseback riding too difficult for you after all?”
Adeline approached and spoke to me with a pitying tone. But with my brows furrowed, I asked her.
“Lady Alvinith… Do you not feel anything?”
“……?”
Adeline only looked at me as though she wanted to ask what I was talking about. Urgently, I then ignored her and shouted towards Queen Ellemiel.
“Your Majesty, please stop the march! You can’t go any further!”
As Queen Ellemiel paused and looked back at me, it was at that very moment that the space right in front of her had cracked open, and a ‘crevice’ appeared.
It was a rift.
“R-Rift!”
“A rift broke out!”
“Secure Her Majesty and Her Highness!”
The quickest to respond were the royal knights who were escorting Queen Ellemiel and the crown princess.
They quickly sent the two to the back and defended them from the front.
The knights of House Valentino and other households also went forward and drew their weapons.
“Why did a rift appear in the Ashridge Forest?!”
“This isn’t even the season for when rifts occur…!”
“Rifts don’t appear here in the first place! This is the first time!”
People went into a panic. But amidst the chaos, Adeline’s questioning voice could be heard beside me.
“Lily, how did you know that there would be a rift?”
…Is that really important right now? I didn’t want to deal with her, but I answered with a steady voice anyhow.
Because several people, including the queen, were paying attention to our exchange.
“I felt the space around us distorting.”
Hearing my answer, Adeline narrowed her brows, then she snapped back.
“…That’s ridiculous. You have to enter a contract with an elemental spirit first to feel that—”
But at the same time, a tremendous rupture resounded throughout the forest.
The distortion of space shook the ground and a loud ringing sound split through the air. The trees swayed as though they’d be uprooted at any given time, and leaves scattered to the ground soon enough.
As the fabric of reality was torn open, a dark energy that was as dim as the abyss flowed out.
And as if kicking down a glass window, beyond that rift, a strange beast’s foot appeared.
It was a monster.
“……!”
As soon as the deluge of monsters registered in everyone’s minds, the surroundings grew entirely silent, and the tension in the air was pulled taut.
Even the sound of everyone’s breathing could be heard through this silence, and at the same time, the cries of the herd of monsters soared sharply.
Soon after, terrible monsters poured out of the rift.
“Everyone stay in place! Do not retreat!”
A knight from the vanguard cried out. There were two ways to deal with this kind of situation.
First, those who could fight would protect those who couldn’t, and they would fight against the monsters.
Second, those who couldn’t fight would run away.
But the latter wasn’t a very good choice. Because…
“Aaahhh! Save me! AAAACK!”
A man who showed his back to the monsters was eventually caught by one, which had jumped straight at him.
That’s why.
It wasn’t known whether the monsters were capable of intelligent thinking or not, but they commonly attacked anyone who’d show their back first.
“Fire the smoke signal! We must alert His Highness about this!”
“The smoke signal is defective! I’ve tried firing it several times now but— Huuk!”
Turning the situation into a full-frontal battle wouldn’t be good. The smoke signals were defective, and the monsters were coming in droves, enough that the knights were being pushed back.
At this rate, their defense would soon be broken through.
Towards the young ladies and noblewomen who were trembling in fear, Adeline suddenly stepped forward and shouted.
“I’ll drive them out with magic, so everyone, please stay behind me!”
Certainly, Adeline was a daughter of House Alvinith, and so she knew how to wield magic. The problem was this fact—it was very difficult to deal with the monsters with magic.
The only power that could surely defeat the monsters was through the power of an elemental spirit.
Magic could weaken a monster or take its breath away, but the very door through which the monsters entered—the rifts—could be closed only by an elemental spirit’s power.