05

As her clothes began to stick to her body from getting wet, Aris let out a sigh. Not checking the weather properly had been a mistake.

However, when she was at the foot of the mountain, the sky had been clear. It was such perfect weather that the thought of rain hadn’t even crossed her mind.

‘Let’s wait until Sir Mishuan arrives.’

If the rain became too heavy, she planned to track him with her magical device and meet him directly.

Taking out a hair tie and pulling her bothersome hair into a single bundle, she carefully examined the ground and her surroundings. Perhaps this was a good opportunity. She could observe how the soil changed when it received rainwater.

Aris took out some of the normal soil she had collected beforehand, transferred a small amount into the glass tube of her magical device, and activated it. A magic circle appeared at the opposite end of the device.

Aris directed it at the wet ground. The magic circle began to glow slowly, recognizing the ground she was illuminating.

If there were any changes, the magic circle would react within three minutes.

If there were none, it would remain quiet.

While observing the magic circle that was carefully comparing the original soil with the wet soil, Aris suddenly lowered her gaze. Something was moving at the edge of her vision. The device still remained quiet with no reaction.

‘……An earthworm?’

There, she saw an earthworm wriggling out from the wet soil.

‘It must have come out when the ground got wet from the rain. How cute.’

Thinking this, she turned her attention back to the magic circle on her device, when suddenly she felt a chill run down her spine.

‘Wait….. This area’s ecosystem was completely destroyed, nothing should be able to live here….’

The moment this thought flashed through her mind–

The quiet magic circle turned an eerie red.

Aris’s eyes widened. The magical device showed an abnormal reaction.

As she lowered her gaze in surprise, the magical device began to shake violently with a bizarre noise.

And below, in the soil where the earthworm had emerged, she made eye contact with something red that emitted a chilling light.

Suddenly, a horrifying ringing pierced her eardrums. She screamed in shock and threw the device away.

The device continued to emit red light before eventually exploding.

With the skull-rattling terrible ringing in her ears, Aris furrowed her brow and hastily stepped back several paces. Her head was so dizzy she couldn’t make any proper judgments.

‘It’s too loud…!’

Though she covered both ears while gasping for breath, the sharp ringing that seemed to pierce through her entire body didn’t diminish.

Aris looked with frightened eyes at where she had been standing until just moments ago. Below the soil, something red slowly began to rise to the surface.

‘S-Sir Mishuan, quickly…’

She searched through her bag with trembling hands for the communicator. But before she could do so, whatever was beneath the ground stopped rising and began moving toward where Aris was.

Aris turned deathly pale.

As it drew closer, she could make it out. It was undoubtedly an eye. A very large eye with an elongated pupil.

Stopping what she was doing, Aris began to back away. Not knowing how it might react, she couldn’t turn her back and run.

It was definitely a monster. Aris’s senses heightened with the suffocating fear and the deafening ringing in her ears. Gasping, she managed to think.

‘M-magic…. Like last time….’

What did I do back then?

No matter how high her magical talent might be, as a magic scholar, she couldn’t possibly be as proficient in combat magic as the knights’ mages.

Looking at the approaching red eye, Aris’s thoughts became paralyzed.

— Aristena, run.

Just then, a voice came from somewhere. A voice both familiar yet strange, an unfamiliar voice that cut through the ringing to speak to her.

The moment she heard that voice, Aris began running without a moment’s thought. She couldn’t think of anything. Her body simply moved as the voice commanded.

Just like back then. Just like those moments when she had heard this voice.

A loud boom sounded from behind. Aris, who had been running frantically, turned back in surprise. A monstrous creature formed from countless large and small earthworms clumped together had pounced on where she had been standing and was now raising its head above ground.

The monster looked around slowly like a snail before spotting Aris fleeing in the distance. Swallowing a terrified breath, Aris had no choice but to run without looking back from that moment on.

Because the monster, which had been moving sluggishly until just now, began thrashing through all the surrounding trees and charging at her at high speed the moment it spotted her.

“S-Sir Mishuan… Sir Mishuan! Help me, Sir Mishuan…!”

Aris desperately called out for Mishuan with trembling lips. Even that was uncertain as the ringing was so loud she couldn’t tell if she was properly making a sound.

Why did a monster appear in a place where the rift had already disappeared… when no new rift had even formed?

Why, from soil that hadn’t shown any movement until now?

Just… why?

Countless questions poured through her mind chaotically.

The rapidly approaching terror pressed down on Aris. A large shadow she didn’t even want to imagine began to loom in her vision. Aris cried out desperately, almost like a scream.

“H-help…! I’m here! Someone please, ah…!”

Her foot slipped on the wet path. Wide-eyed, she fell unconsciously and rolled down the sloped ground.

Her dizzyingly spinning vision finally stopped when her back hit a large rock. Fortunately, she hadn’t hit her head, but Aris’s consciousness grew hazy from the tremendous impact.

Barely managing to exhale, she struggled to sit up. But the huge monster was already right in front of her.

Seeing its grotesque form, Aris froze like ice. She couldn’t move an inch anymore.

Sensing despair, she squeezed her eyes shut.

Just when she had gotten a new chance and was moving toward a happy life, was she going to die at the hands of a monster again?

If only… if only it hadn’t rained. If only she hadn’t separated from Sir Mishuan…

Amid the flood of regrets, Aris let out a sob-filled sigh. Was she being punished for trying to arbitrarily change her miserable fate into something brilliant?

‘I still have… so much to repay to that person.’

Her sorrow deepened with how sorry she felt toward the person who had sponsored her.

Despite them believing in and supporting her, Aris hadn’t shown anything yet. She had only made countless grand promises.

“I’m sorry… sponsor…”

Just as she muttered with a crawling voice through the clear ringing–

Slash!

Along with the sound of something splitting and bursting, the ringing stopped. For a moment, sounds as vivid as if they were being pulled up from the depths of the sea filled her ears.

Aris swallowed her breath in surprise and opened her tightly shut eyes. An unbelievable sight dominated her vision.

Monster blood mixed with rain was pouring down from the sky. And in the center of Aris’s vision, someone was standing. She could see the broad back of a man holding a sword, and from the tip of his sword, monster blood was dripping.

As she stared blankly at this, he turned his head. The brief moment their eyes met seemed to flow slowly.

“…Kalaian?”

Aris called his name in disbelief.

It felt like scenes and memories from the distant past were overlapping. So Aris wondered if this was a dream after her death.

In that memory, her childhood hero was making eye contact with Aris while backlit by light seeping from the sky.

Aris, who had been in a daze, soon realized this was different from that past. Kalaian’s sword-holding hand was trembling severely.

This isn’t a dream.

It wasn’t… a dream…

In an instant, fear and tension melted away, and relief rushed in to take their place.

“Your High– ugh…”

Aris tried to stand up but hesitated. She couldn’t move properly due to her injuries.

Then Kalaian threw his sword into the bushes and strode over to Aris. He knelt on one knee and looked at her.

“Aristena.”

“Your Highness, how did you…”

Aris asked in surprise, but Kalaian seemed not to hear her words, busy frantically checking her physical condition. He was paler than even Aris. His amethyst-colored eyes, trembling endlessly, were almost unfocused.

“Aristena…”

Kalaian reached out with a shaking hand and cupped one of Aris’s cheeks. He was so agitated that the anxiety felt in his hand transmitted even to Aris.

Finally, Kalaian pulled her into his embrace. Aris was startled and tried to push him away, but stopped when she heard his rapidly beating heart. His heart was pounding, seemingly terrified.

“I-I’m… fine…”

Though Aris was confused, she answered with a trembling voice. As she weakened and leaned against him, Kalaian held her even more tightly.

“Thank goodness… you’re safe.”

He buried his face in Aris’s shoulder and muttered desperately in a broken voice.

Though it was surprising, Aris was at a loss for how to react, wondering if this warranted such an extreme response from him. Just then, a welcome voice called from far away.

“Doctor!”

“Over here, Sir Mishuan!”

Soon the bushes parted and Mishuan appeared. He paused briefly as if assessing the situation, then hurriedly approached.

“Doctor, are you alright?”

“I’m fine. I hit my back a little… but it should be fine after treatment.”