/
She thought so because the bricks were engraved with ancient runes along the passage.
It wasn’t well managed like the teleportation gate and the runes didn’t shine, so Gorz and Luke didn’t seem to have noticed at all.
No, Radis also might not have noticed had she not seen the gate at Larrings and Dvirath.
‘Maybe this passageway is an ancient magical relic like a gate.’
Sometimes, while passing the chest to the other as they took turns carrying it, Gorz and Like chatted as though they wanted to fill the long silence.
“When we first came here without knowing anything, I didn’t know how many times I went back and forth. It’s just dark everywhere and there’s no end in sight.”
“Bwahaha, just like our future!”
“……”
Then, silence again.
“Wash it the fifsh one? We pwepawed hawd and finawwy went to the ewnd!”
“Yeah, that’s right. When we opened the stone door, a large clearing appeared, and we looked around because it was just so amazing. There were white trees all over the place…”
Watching Gorz blabber on like that, Radis decided to set aside her suspicion of him for the moment.
The landscape he was describing exactly matched the forbidden region that she remembered.
It seemed like this passageway was actually connected to the forbidden region.
“…And there were eggs at the edge of that clearing. I knew it instinctively the moment I saw them. Those are monster eggs!”
“Kehehehe!”
“They were a little salty!”
Radis shook her head and asked.
“Was there someone who bought them?”
Gorz replied excitedly.
“I heard they boiled them and ate them all up!”
“You’re absolutely nuts.”
Indeed, there were more weirdos out there than she previously thought.
Such requests were usually sent to the subjugation squads.
In case they could find the horn of a black unicorn, or if they would ever come across the tusks of a Shabel tiger, then collectors would come forward and buy them for prices even higher than a mana stone.
There were times when just parts of a monster were more expensive, like a specimen of a night fog butterfly for example. And even when they didn’t know what they’d be used for, there were also times when certain people wanted to buy monster meat or blood.
“We once akshidentally bwoke a monshter egg back then, geh, then a low-ranked monshter came all the way here, wight?”
“A ghoul, an imp and a harpy all appeared suddenly that we were so terrified out of our wits.”
Radis was dumbfounded.
“You were so terrified that you thought to use them to terrorize the border villages? Are you bragging? Do you want to get hit again?”
“Noooo!”
Gorz grumbled.
“We did that because we don’t want to go hungry! After some rumors broke out that the viscount who boiled the eggs suffered a lot because of the spread of demonic energy, we couldn’t sell any eggs at all. You can’t even imagine it, but it’s hard for mercenaries like us to survive without having to resort to such tricks.”
“And that’s how you’re justifying the cowardly acts that you do? You were bound to be caught one day in any case. As I did.”
“Ah, yes, Ma’am! How can a lady of noble status, who is doing her part as an apostle of justice, ever understand low lives like us.”
After hearing Gorz answer like that, Luke stomped his feet—which were getting numb—and then shouted the same words again.
“We made a mistwake! We won’t do it agwain! We’ll tuwn ower a new weaf…!”
Radis glared icily at them and turned away.
Apostle of justice. Ridiculous.
She wasn’t doing this because she was sticking her nose into things.
She never wanted to be an apostle of justice.
Her principles remained the same as they were in her first life.
Her hands were full with just protecting herself.
Sure, sometimes she slipped out of the marquis’ estate and hunted some monsters, but it wasn’t for some great cause.
The biggest reason was because she wanted to collect mana stones as they would fetch for high prices, and also because she knew that actual experience with battle was the most efficient way of training.
There was also some hope that she could be beneficial to the marquisate.
In any case, it wasn’t because she likened herself as an apostle of justice or whatever.
‘Should I say it’s also because I don’t want to go hungry?’
Ridiculous, really.
After Gorz repeatedly did what he had done with the monster eggs because ‘he didn’t want to go hungry’, Gorz had harmed countless people and soon eventually became a wanted criminal. Then, he was executed.
‘No matter who it was who found out, they’d do the same thing and stop it.’
Radis concluded so.
She didn’t do it because had some great cause in mind, just as Gorz said so sarcastically.
Since she knew that a tragedy was about to happen, it’s just that she wouldn’t allow it to happen.
That’s all.
They took breaks once in a while, but how long had they been walking now?
At last, the end appeared.
There was a round clearing right there, and a huge stone door could be seen.
Luke brought the torch between the cracks in the stone, so the clearing could be seen more clearly.
“This…!”
Radis was certain.
This passage was really an ancient magical relic.
The bricks laid down on the floor of the clearing were inscribed with ancient runes similar to those that could be seen at the teleportation gate at Larrings.
While Radis looked around the open space, Gorz and Luke put down the chest and slumped down on the floor.
“Oh mah gosh, we’we finawwy hewe!”
“I thought I was going to die from all that walking!”
“It was sho hawd!”
Radis side-eyed the pathetic men, but actually, Radis was also quite tired.
Though rather than her body, her mind was exhausted.
Walking in the dark where there was no end in sight was harder than she thought.
But she couldn’t afford to relax.
‘Really though, how long has it been?’
It must have been quite a long time already since she left the marquis’ mansion.
They were just in the darkness the entire time, so she didn’t know exactly how much time had passed. But it seemed like it’s been a full day.
Maybe the people in the mansion were now looking for her.
After this, she might no longer be able to use the excuse of going out for an evening stroll.
Radis smiled bitterly.
‘It’s not something that I should hide in the first place, but… why did I do that?’
But the answer came up quickly.
Because she didn’t want anyone to know.
Radis was good at hunting monsters, but she never boasted about it.
She was a force to be reckoned with when it came to surviving in the harsh environment of the forbidden region, but the moment she returned to House Tilrod, Radis was always treated as nothing more than a rabid dog that had rolled around in mud.
’Can you not come out of your room? Do you mind? Oh my god, how appalling!’
After seeing Radis’ skin, which had turned violet after she had been poisoned by demonic energy, Margaret pinched her nose and flinched back as if Radis had turned into a poisonous mushroom herself.
’That’s not contagious, is it? It’s going to be so bad if David catches it, so don’t you dare come close to him!’
She didn’t think that Margaret could hurt her now, but Radis still hadn’t recovered from her previous life.
How many tears did she shed as she washed her body? Even if that violet tinge wouldn’t ever come off with water…
“……”
Radis shook her head vigorously.
‘That’s not going to happen anymore.’
Just like how Gorz and Luke wouldn’t be able to wreak havoc with those monster eggs.
Now that Radis was far, far away from the Tilrod residence, her family would no longer be able to torment her.
As Gorz and Luke carried the chest again as they whispered something between themselves, Radis turned to them and spoke.
“Let’s go.”
“Mmh?”
Luke shook his head in despair.
“We cawn’t go. Not ewen one step!”
Luke had been obediently following Radis’ orders until now, but he looked like he had already made up his mind this time.
It was no wonder that Luke was acting like this though. After he had been beaten by Radis to her heart’s content on top of having to walk so much for a full day, he really looked miserable.
‘Did I hit him too much?’
Radis reflected on her actions.
Very minimally.
Then, Gorz stood up with a groan.
“I’ll go. Luke, you stay here.”
Gorz held the handle of the pulley that was connected to the heavy stone door and chain.
He turned the handle with such force that his face turned red.
Soon enough, a rumbling sound echoed through the air, and a rusty chain lifted the stone door that began to open little by little.
When there was a gap that was enough for one person to pass, Gorz hung the handle on the latch and wiped off his sweat.
“Here it is, Ma’am!”
Radis slowly passed through the stone opening.
As she walked through the door, she could see nothing through the thick fog that stretched in front of her.
It wasn’t just humid—it felt like she was underwater.
The fog was so hard to breathe in because of the strong fishy smell that were coming from the bodies of the monsters there.
Rather, the acrid air inside the stone gate was considered to be better.
Not even a single gust would pass inside the forbidden region.
Nevertheless, in those bleak surroundings, a strange howl resembling the sound of wind could often be heard.
Carrying the chest with the eggs in them, Radis stood there and looked around.
This sound.
This smell.
They brought back memories of her previous life.
’Vice Commander, we can’t find any traces of the inspection team.’
‘Something’s not right.’
‘Vice Commander…!’
As Radis was staring blankly into the forest, she shook her head in terror.
“No, no!”
During Radis’ life—where she pretended to be David and was the vice commander of the subjugation squad—was already over.
She already died.
Here, she was just the sixteen-year-old Radis.
This version of Radis who decided to live only for herself.
“It never happened. Don’t be afraid of something that never happened!”
Radis covered her nose and mouth with a sleeve.
The forbidden region was a place where many kinds of poisonous mushrooms and herbs grew.
The stagnant air itself in the forbidden region was also poisonous because no fresh breeze would even pass by.
Perhaps that was what caused the sudden recollection of that desperate memory just now.
Radis looked back and spoke.
“You, your nose and mouth…”
But Gorz was not there.
There was a loud screech, and then the sound of chains spinning through the stone door.
Through the nearly closed stone door, Gorz’s exclamation seeped through.