Chapter 152
* * *
James rejoined John with an utterly exhausted body. They looked just as worn out.
“That slippery bastard.”
James ground his teeth and cursed as he recalled Aesir, who had neatly avoided every attempt when he tried to attack from behind. John, who was catching his breath beside him, asked with concern.
“Your Grace, haven’t we followed too deep? I’m worried about the soldiers we left behind.”
“…Ha, I did expect him not to keep the agreement properly, but I didn’t think he would run this desperately while taking the human with him.”
“Now that you mention it, I didn’t expect it either. At the time, his interest in the human only looked like simple curiosity.”
“…John.”
“Yes?”
James hesitated, recalling the human’s resentful eyes that still lingered in his mind, and asked cautiously,
“If the human hates you, God wouldn’t punish you for that or anything, right?”
“……”
John gave him a look that seemed to say, ‘What kind of question is that?’ but since he couldn’t answer with certainty, he kept his mouth shut. Seeing John’s silence, James scratched his head roughly in irritation.
“Ah, maybe I should’ve shouted louder. She heard me properly, right?”
“…What exactly did you do over there?”
“Well, it looked like the human was misunderstanding something, so I tried to explain.”
James answered vaguely while still scratching his head. After thinking for a moment, he placed both hands on his hips, stretched his back as if leaning, and spoke to John.
“For now, we should head back. Let’s postpone settling things with Marquis Kris for another time.”
“Yes, I think that would be best as well.”
As they were about to leave, a hawk flew toward them. John immediately recognized it. It was the hawk he had told a subordinate to send if anything happened before they came here.
The hawk landed precisely on John’s forearm. He quickly untied the paper tied to its leg and opened it. As he read the note, his face turned pale.
“What is it? Did something happen?”
“…Your Grace.”
“What, did Duke Blois get really angry? Didn’t I tell them to just run away since he usually doesn’t chase far?”
“……”
John, who couldn’t bring himself to speak, finally opened his mouth heavily.
“…Our unit has been annihilated.”
“……”
James couldn’t react right away, unsure if he had heard correctly. They had brought more soldiers than usual to carry out this plan. And yet, annihilated?
“And that’s not all. The cat tribe… no, the Blois forces are currently invading the Becker domain.”
“…Damn it.”
Only then did James realize he had truly stepped into deep trouble. The price for being played by the snake tribe’s tongue was far too great.
No, perhaps from the beginning he had underestimated Duke Blois too much. Thinking that, as usual, the duke would have no choice but to let them go if his troops retreated had itself been taking him lightly.
“We’re going back.”
“Yes…”
* * *
Not long after they left, Nox reached the vicinity of Kris territory. He detected the scent of the wolf tribe nearby, but that was not what mattered right now.
Nox abandoned his exhausted horse and entered Kris territory alone. Circling through the mountain range and moving along paths where there were no people, he advanced quickly.
He tried to catch Sia’s scent somehow, but strangely, her scent had not remained. More precisely, the scent of her mixed with the pheromones he had left on her.
Either he had arrived too late and her scent had already faded, or another pheromone was covering his.
“Then I won’t kill them quickly.”
He would kill them painfully, very slowly. Grinding his teeth, he suddenly stopped for a moment, feeling the illusion of Sia gently brushing his jaw.
Even when they were apart, Sia was always with him.
In his mind.
Or throughout his entire body.
“But we can’t stay apart like this.”
Wanting to feel the real touch of Sia’s hand, he moved swiftly through the mountain range thick with large trees.
At that moment, small snowflakes began to fall. It was the first snow, announcing the beginning of winter.
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