ERTHMB Chapter 95

Kill or Be Killed

 

Gelda rubbed her bloodshot eyes.

 

Water dripped steadily from the raincoat carelessly draped over the chair. It had been truly a long time since she felt such suffocating despair.

 

‘Damn it, damn it, damn it. Think, you cursed brain. Come up with a solution.’

 

Hair escaped between her fingers as she clutched her head as if tearing at it.

 

The solution seemed to slip away just like that, making Gelda feel stifled.

 

[I understand your situation, but… His Lordship won’t permit it. We can’t deploy search parties without orders. Besides, with the festival preparations, he’ll refuse no matter how much money you offer.]

 

Dairon’s security force, which she had visited clutching at straws despite knowing better. The straw snapped as straws do.

 

After quickly giving up, Gelda immediately knocked on the door of a professional search guild. However, she gained no significant results. The bad weather combined with financial difficulties created the worst possible outcome.

 

There were no fools brave enough to plunge into monster-infested forests through the pouring rain, and even if personnel were deployed, the danger pay required would be considerable.

 

Moreover, even that was limited to local areas only.

 

‘She was swept downstream, so that entire area needs to be searched. This is nowhere near enough.’

 

She didn’t even consider the possibility of death. Partren’s personnel had already been deployed to the eastern forest. Gelda too had spent the entire day searching around before being forced to return as the sun set.

 

In the end, it was a race against time. She had to complete the location search before it was too late. No matter how blessed by fortune, there was no way to avoid injury from that height.

 

‘If she’s seriously injured and we miss the golden hour… then truly…’

 

Gelda felt she couldn’t bear it. That worst-case scenario, and herself.

 

Nothing was more pathetic than powerless stubbornness. When had she ever left everything behind and departed freely, only to return and claim someone as her own, ending up in this state?

 

The days when she had spoken boldly without the power to protect were shamefully embarrassing. Unbearable humiliation washed over her.

 

Of course, regret was utterly unnecessary in the current situation. Just as she was trying to cut away those thoughts, the village old man suddenly visited.

 

He was an old man acquainted with both Helena and Ian. The one who had first informed them of Partren’s existence at Dairon’s entrance.

 

“What brings you here, old man?”

 

“I have something to give you.”

 

Without even shaking off the rainwater, the old man pulled his hand from his thick robe. A heavy cloth pouch came out with it. Gelda immediately frowned.

 

“What is this?”

 

“Can’t you tell just by looking, girl?”

 

“That’s exactly why I’m asking. Don’t I have that much capability? old man, go buy your granddaughter a present and hurry home to sleep.”

 

Gelda firmly refused. She couldn’t add the villagers’ hard work to her own mistakes. However, the old man was just as firm.

 

“Just accept it, Gelda. We have at least this much decency.”

 

“What kind of decency costs this much?”

 

“It was what we owed all along. We also want to… save you all. Just once. Just once, we absolutely had to do this. Right?”

 

Unlike his words, the old man didn’t forcefully push the money bag. He simply extended his hand further and shook it. He wanted Gelda to accept it directly.

 

“How long will you make this powerless old man wait?”

 

“……”

 

“Oh, my arm is falling off.”

 

Gelda blamed the damn gloomy weather for the moisture gathering around her eyes. The slightly blurred vision was due to the water mist.

 

“……Thank you, old man. I’ll use it well.”

 

Gelda reluctantly accepted the cloth pouch. She was receiving something more than simple money.

 

At that moment, the door burst open once again.

 

“Boss!”

 

It was a guild member who had gone out early in the morning for search operations. He approached with a very troubled expression.

 

“Boss, this gentleman—”

 

“Are you the one?”

 

He wasn’t alone. The considerably large guild member was lightly pushed aside by someone who had followed him.

 

His bearing, his breathing, his voice—everything. A wickedly black-haired man with blazing golden eyes grabbed Gelda by the collar.

 

“Are you the guild captain who drove Helena into danger?”

 

—–

 

‘My dreams were ominous, so this was it.’

 

Gelda observed the situation that had unfolded in an instant with numb eyes.

 

“I told you to wait!”

 

The stranger brought by the guild member wasn’t alone. Behind the black-haired man, a carrot-like man with green hair rushed in frantically.

 

He seemed of better quality than the ill-mannered ruffian who had grabbed her collar right away.

 

As soon as the green-haired man spotted the troublemaker’s violence, he cried out in shock.

 

“Good heavens, why are you taking out your anger on an innocent person!”

 

He clung to him trying to remove the ruffian’s hand from her neck. Naturally, it didn’t budge.

 

Gelda mentally expressed considerable gratitude to him for providing even a moment of levity, then directly removed the hand herself.

 

“That’s quite rough for a first greeting.”

 

The sharp gesture of brushing away was fierce. The black-haired man didn’t attack again. Gelda’s quiet gaze swept over his tall stature.

 

Her height, larger than the average woman, allowed her to look up at him only slightly. Inwardly grateful for even that, Gelda met those bright yellow eyes.

 

They were eyes closer to a beast than a human. Gelda remembered eyes that were the complete opposite of those.

 

“I always wondered.”

 

For having her throat nearly crushed, her voice came out quite calm. Gelda sent the memory of her first meeting with Helena into that calmness.

 

“What kind of life must that woman have lived to have such eyes at her age?”

 

A faint sneer lingered only at the corners of her slightly raised lips.

 

“It was truly an absurd thought, but anyone who saw those eyes would have thought the same. That she alone carried an abyss layered so deep that no one could dare peer into it. But.”

 

The black-haired man didn’t seem to have much patience.

 

However, he had to listen. No one else but this man had to listen.

 

So Gelda came forward with a louder voice, as if to suppress his growling momentum.

 

“So you were the one who gave her that gift.”

 

It seemed she had hit the mark properly. Raw killing intent began to emanate from the black-haired man.

 

“You threw my wife into a forest teeming with monsters and dare say such things.”

 

“Do you even see that woman as human?”

 

The man hesitated for a moment. For some reason, his face looked slightly more broken than before. Gelda took advantage of that gap to continue dropping her words.

 

“From what I can see, you appear to be a fine noble lord. If you wanted a doll to decorate that splendid house of yours, you should have gone to an antique shop, not here. I don’t know who deceived you, but the woman you’re looking for isn’t here.”

 

Then the black-haired man raised his killing intent again.

 

“Do you need advice not to carelessly run your mouth about relationships you know nothing about?”

 

It was only for an instant, but her entire body momentarily went numb. Gelda knew. That his ‘advice’ wasn’t simply sound made by vocal cords. Even so, she had no choice but to respond to the end.

 

“I’m speaking because I think I understand.”

 

For Helena’s sake.

 

This wasn’t clumsy sympathy or pity. It was simply comfort sent to the time you endured alone until you came to harbor that abyss. Truly inadequate, barely adequate comfort.

 

The black-haired man burst into contemptuous laughter as if to crush her.

 

“How long has Helena stayed here? One month? Two months? Your audacious ignorance in daring to make assumptions with that paltry amount of time is admirable.”

 

It was clear mockery and dismissal. Gelda clenched her fists. Even if mites jumped in her blood vessels, she had to endure it. In truth, if that were all, she could have endured it sufficiently.

 

However, her comfort had been trampled. That was hard to bear.

 

Gelda stubbornly displayed the trampled comfort.

 

“Has it always been like this, my lord?”

 

As soon as she spoke, a suffocating pressure gripped her throat. Gelda pretended to be unaffected and continued word by word.

 

“Whatever choices your wife makes, without even thinking about what meaning they hold for that person, always fitting everything only to your standards, and whenever something doesn’t suit your taste, deciding on your own that it’s the wrong choice.”

 

“……”

 

“It was the path Helena chose, and this is the place she came to with her own feet. Do you know how beautiful the trajectory of the sword she wields is, and what her expression is like at that moment?”

 

Gelda asked accusingly. It was a statement thrown expecting the coming storm. But the surroundings were quiet.

 

Only heavy silence poured down continuously. Even that blocked her breathing, making Gelda somewhat regret her reckless confrontation.

 

‘A count perhaps. Or a marquis? Higher than that might be difficult.’

 

But the man’s heated gaze gradually died down. He let out a heavy, long breath and rubbed his face dryly.

 

“……Now I’m almost envious. Even that ignorance that allows you to be confident without knowing anything.”

 

It seemed like he would cause a big commotion. The man retreated unexpectedly readily.

 

“If you fail to find Helena, you’d better prepare to lose what’s most precious to you as well.”

 

Though the warning he left was still murderous.

 

He turned around decisively and commanded the green-haired man.

 

“You take charge of the riverside area. I’ll start from the western forest.”

 

****

 

The surroundings gradually brightened. The long dawn was lifting.

 

Helena placed her hand on Ian’s forehead.

 

‘Thank goodness… his fever has gone down.’

 

As she relaxed with relief, her strength suddenly drained away. Only then did extreme thirst wash over her. She tilted the canteen with pale hands, then realized the water was gone. She needed to fill it before her strength dropped further.

 

‘There should be a river nearby.’

 

Helena carefully got up so as not to wake Ian. Taking her sword and canteen, she stepped outside the cave, and the dawn air penetrated her collar.

 

Since it hadn’t yet embraced sunlight, it approached as sharp cold.

 

Helena tightened her boot laces, dried by the campfire all night, and steeled her resolve. If she closed her eyes and concentrated very, very hard, she could hear the sound of flowing water.

 

But she heard another sound too. It was even getting closer. Like grinding a jagged knife against flint…

 

Grrrrr-.

 

The breathing of a living magical beast.

 

Helena’s eyes snapped open. She immediately met a pair of red eyes.

 

It was a Cerberus with only one head and one front paw remaining. It was the creature she had been defeated by last time. The cross-sections of the remaining head and paw that Ian had cut off writhed savagely.

 

“Gasp…!”

 

She reflexively gasped and urgently covered her mouth with both hands.

 

But it was already too late. As a first-grade monster, Cerberus possessed high intelligence and a keen sense of smell. It seemed to remember her by her scent.

 

Killing intent beyond that of simply discovering prey made her skin tingle. The hissing breath added to the urgency. Helena slowly backed away.

 

‘Dangerous. Dangerous.’

 

She had to do something, but her body wouldn’t obey. The sudden fear gripped her organs like a heavy punch. Sweat flowing down her spine was chilly.

 

She hurriedly drew her sword, but that didn’t calm her trembling legs. Just inhaling the oxygen needed for breathing was overwhelming.

 

‘What if my sword breaks again this time? Can I really win? Wouldn’t it be better to lure it somewhere else? Will I be devoured before I can do that? If I at least get away from here, will he be safe?’

 

What if it eats me and then returns to the cave?

 

Her brain folds seemed to be tangled in all directions. Inconclusive thoughts scattered chaotically. A huge shadow fell right before her nose.

 

Meanwhile, Cerberus had approached, burning through her lifeline.

 

Kill or be killed.

 

Helena had to choose.