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Chapter 80
Translator: Yonnee
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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 gahd, 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, it was her mind that’s 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 miasma, 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 was coming from the bodies of the monsters there.
Rather, the acrid air from the other side of the stone door 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 Captain, we can’t find any traces of the inspection team.’
‘Something’s not right.’
‘Vice Captain…!’
As Radis was staring blankly into the forest, she shook her head in terror.
‘No, no!’
Radis’ life—where she pretended to be David and was the vice captain 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.