“No, does that make sense now! Just when strange creatures have appeared, if we separate like this, it might be playing into their hands.”

The Crown Prince shook his head with a determined expression. There were many risks involved.

Moreover, wasn’t Serena said to be a contractor of Darkness? In this situation, there were many disadvantages to trusting just one word.

“How about we go to where the Duchess wants after we reach that place first?”

The Crown Prince, who had learned that pushing too hard would lead to a fight with Magnus, quickly suggested.

Magnus shook his head.

“Drukan is strong too, so he’ll be enough as an escort even without me.”

“I can protect my own body! I’m worried about you.”

Magnus tilted his head with a subtle expression.

“You’re worried about me, Your Highness?”

At that gaze that seemed to look down on him as if it was trivial to worry about him with his skills, the Crown Prince trembled, clenching his fists.

“…Magnus, that expression of yours is really infuriating! But I’ll say it anyway, I’m worried about you, so I’d prefer if you didn’t go!”

“Yes, and I’m worried about my wife, so I’ll be going.”

Magnus replied indifferently. It didn’t seem like he had any serious intentions at all.

“D*mn it, this is why they say you shouldn’t make friends with a man crazy in love!”

“When were we ever friends?”

“Are you really going to act like this?!”

Seeing that the Crown Prince wasn’t likely to yield easily, Magnus let out a short sigh.

“Um, Magnus. Then, as Your Highness said, later……”

“Thank you for your concern, but it’s not just because of Serena. I also felt that we should go there.”

Magnus said calmly.

“Your feeling, you say…?”

“Yes.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

“Don’t lie, you d*mn con artist!”

The Crown Prince easily read the lie in his old friend’s expression.

Magnus clicked his tongue. Serena swallowed a laugh. So it was a lie…

“It’s bothersome, so I’ll be going now. Drukan, please take care of His Highness the Crown Prince while I’m gone.”

“Yes, understood.”

“It’s fine if you go, but how do you plan to return after resolving things there?”

At the Crown Prince’s question, Magnus tilted his head.

“Well… I’ll think about that when the time comes.”

After finishing his words, Magnus put Serena on his back and kicked off the ground.

“…That, that crazy bastard.”

The Crown Prince grumbled discontentedly, grabbing the back of his neck.

But honestly, there was no one who could chase after Magnus. It was undeniable that he had been matching their pace until now.

“…For now, I think it’s best if we continue on our way, Your Highness the Crown Prince.”

“Ah, yes, let’s do that.”

Drukan shifted his gaze slightly as he held the child again.

The child was staring blankly in the direction where Magnus and Serena had disappeared.

‘This might be better, actually.’

Drukan thought.

Somehow, he had instinctively felt that the child and those two shouldn’t be kept close together.

“Let’s go.”

The Crown Prince, holding Rosia, kicked off the ground. Drukan ran ahead of him and finally cut off his nerves.

* * *

It took about two days for the two of them to reach the place Serena had mentioned.

Magnus’s movements, freed from hindrances, were so fast that they could be described as those of a beast.

Moving at a speed that seemed twice as fast as before, Magnus stopped around midnight to sleep outdoors, and then ran again without rest.

“…Do you perhaps have steel stamina, or drink stamina potions, or maybe… are you an NPC with unlimited stamina?”

“NP… what? What’s that?”

“No, I was just wondering if you have overflowing stamina.”

“Not really, but simple running is nothing if you just take proper rest.”

Magnus said as if it was nothing.

But it wasn’t nothing.

Of course, Magnus did rest. He ran for about 50 minutes and rested for 10 minutes.

And he kept running in the same pattern. But she hadn’t really noticed his breathing become disturbed.

However, due to his extreme consumption of stamina, food supply was somewhat challenging.

Still, there were animals, houses, and fruit trees along the way, so they didn’t have to starve.

It was fortunate if you could call it fortunate, and unfortunate if you couldn’t.

Because, thanks to that, they arrived faster than expected, but as a result, they encountered something terrible earlier than anticipated.

Squirm, squirm, squirm.

Something deeply buried in the ground was wriggling and moving.

It looked like a large, slimy, and sticky thing, resembling flour dough with too much water or a liquid monster.

“…What is this?”

“Well, wouldn’t killing it solve the problem?”

Just as Magnus was speaking calmly and drawing his sword.

Kugugugugugu-

The ground started to vibrate, and then something burst up from the ground.

Whatever appeared from the pitch-black darkness was not clearly visible, buried in the darkness.

“What is…?”

Serena took a deep breath.

“Aah……”

The slimy things started approaching Serena and Magnus.

Thud, thud, thud.

It was unclear whether it was the sound of walking or something sticky falling.

What was certain was that it was an unpleasant sound.

“……Give.”

Serena, who was backing away, stopped abruptly.

Something flowed out from within that sticky liquid.

“Sa, save… ugh… sa, save… urgh… me……”

There was a sound of something being swallowed. It sounded like something was being forcibly pushed down every time the speaker’s throat opened.

“Didn’t it just speak, Magnus?”

“Speak? Well. For now, Serena, don’t get too far away……”

Magnus gripped her hand while tightening his grip on the sword.

The slimy things kept trying to cling to Magnus. And they also reached out to Serena.

“Save… me……”

“I’m sor… never again… I’m sorry……”

Some seemed to be walking, while others seemed to be crawling.

In any case, what was certain was that they were all alike, buried in sticky, pitch-black liquid.

They looked even blacker than the pitch-black darkness.

“They’re asking to be saved, but how are we supposed to save them…?”

“What are you saying, Serena?”

“They’re asking to be saved… can’t you hear it?”

Magnus’s expression furrowed.

‘They’re speaking?’

Magnus turned his head to look at the shapeless monsters.

He focused on his hearing, but he couldn’t hear any words in particular.

“Grrrr…… krrrrk, gurrgh!”

All he could hear when they opened their mouths were strange cries. Cries that couldn’t be believed to be human.

“I can’t hear it. I only hear strange cries… Even if they’re asking to be saved, how are we supposed to save this?”

He didn’t know what the sticky liquid was, but for now, it was difficult to take any action other than cutting it with the sword.

But he couldn’t let them touch Serena or himself as they wished either.

If that liquid stuck to them and they ended up in the same state, it would be troublesome.

“Hmm……”

Serena tilted her head.

‘…If this is darkness, wouldn’t it retreat if there was light?’

The problem was that the sun had disappeared and everything was engulfed in darkness, so there was no such thing as light.

Then…

“Should we try burning it with fire?”

Magnus’s eyes widened at Serena’s words.

“Fire?”

“Yes, if this is… really darkness, it seems like it could be solved if there was light, but there’s actually no light.”

But with fire, the view would be clear. If they were going to kill it anyway, it didn’t seem bad to try.

“It would be troublesome if it splashed on you or stuck to the sword and wouldn’t come off if we carelessly cut it……”

“Are you a genius?”

“Huh?”

Serena thought for a moment and then smiled.

“Better than a gorilla, I suppose.”

“…That d*mn gorilla, I told you, I meant the pig comment as a compliment, so I’d appreciate it if you’d start understanding that.”

“Mmm, okay.”

Rather than making her understand, it would be nice if he could change the word ‘pig’ to something else.

Serena, unable to say that much, shrugged her shoulders.

“Shall we light a fire?”

“It would be convenient if we had something like a torch……”

“We have that in the bag. I packed it in advance thinking we might need to camp out.”

Just in case, she also packed oil, and for cloth, they could tear anything and use it. She was now so familiar with using flint that she could do it with her eyes closed.

While Magnus was blocking the front, Serena quickly gathered several pieces of wood to make a thick bundle, wrapped cloth around it, soaked it in oil, and lit it.

Whoosh-!

As soon as the fire was lit, the approaching monsters began to retreat instantly.

Magnus tilted his head as he watched the wriggling things retreat.

“They’re running away.”

He put away his sword, took the torch, and holding Serena in his other arm, he kicked off the ground.

At that moment, his body shot forward.