Chapter 93
The dead beast lowered its body. It was a menacing posture, as if it would spring forward instantly if it found even the slightest opening. Arzeletta felt her entire body tremble at the black pupils in its eye sockets, persistently fixed on her.
Living as a fairy, she had experienced countless threats and fears, but this sensation of fear was new. She felt her whole body freeze, like a butterfly caught by a giant praying mantis, or a tiny insect standing before a snake.
‘I’m going to be eaten.’
Arzeletta’s instinct told her.
The power moving that dead beast was trying to consume her. To pull her into that deep swamp within the pupils of those eye sockets.
Arzeletta involuntarily backed away on her b******s.
Rustle, the wild grass swayed at Arzeletta’s movement. The beast nodded its head again. It looked as if it was waiting for an opportunity.
“Stay still.”
Ragnar did not look back. Arzeletta stopped squirming.
“Just wait. Trust me.”
“……!”
“Trust.”
Having finished speaking, Ragnar took a step forward, his arm holding the dagger extended.
It was an act absolutely not to be done while holding such a small knife. He walked slowly towards the dead, exposing himself as if to reveal all his weaknesses.
As if the man’s action, like throwing bait, was more threatening, the beast lowered its body. A tense atmosphere, as if it would spring up at any moment, was stretched taut.
The next moment,
“Screech-!”
Arzeletta covered her ears. An unpleasant, ear-splitting sound spread over the wide lakeside.
‘No!’
It was an unbearable sound. If the gaze of a spider or praying mantis opening its mouth to swallow its prey were turned into sound, it would feel like this. Arzeletta cowered, feeling as if she was being eaten just by the sound.
If not for Ragnar’s firm back, if not for the conviction given by his words to trust him. Arzeletta might have fainted from fear alone.
The mind-shattering sound shook the air. At that moment, the dead beast sprang towards Arzeletta.
“……!”
It was the moment Arzeletta met the gaze of its black, burning pupils, desiring her.
“Screech, screeeech!”
The dead beast, which had been almost flying as it lunged at Arzeletta, stopped dead in mid-air.
Ragnar’s hand was deeply piercing the black darkness within the body of that dreadful beast.
The spot where Ragnar had plunged the dagger glowed faintly. In the vicinity of where a heart shouldn’t be, Ragnar’s dagger was firmly embedded.
Having plunged the dagger deep enough into the beast, Ragnar finally withdrew his hand.
Screech! Screeeech!
Thud, a pile of bones scattered on the ground. In the darkness near the heart, the silver-burning knife remained deeply embedded.
Something seemed to burst and spill from the dead beast’s body. If it had been a living beast, it would have been blood spreading like a mire, but this was more horrifying.
“Ah…!”
Arzeletta pulled back her white feet, her face pale and bloodless.
What spilled out like grains of rice were bizarre black insects. They poured onto the ground stickily like blood, gathering into clumps as if coalescing.
Thud, thud, thud.
“Hmph…”
As Ragnar pointed with his finger, the insects instantly burst. Arzeletta buried her face in her hands again.
“…I’m sorry.”
The man, who soon approached, said something unexpected.
Arzeletta looked up at the man with tear-filled eyes.
“I made you see something terrible.”
“……”
“Are you all right?”
Arzeletta nodded. But despite her answer, Ragnar still had his brows slightly furrowed, as if always displeased.
At this moment, he seemed to have forgotten that Arzeletta was a maid of the slaughterhouse.
His attitude was as if she were a lady from a noble house, as if his gaze shouldn’t even touch anything ugly or dirty. As that thought crossed her mind, Arzeletta smiled slightly amidst her tears.
At the slight narrowing of Arzeletta’s eyes, Ragnar’s naked body tensed again. Whatever he was thinking, his eyes grew colder.
“To dare approach outside the castle gates. The dead have never descended from the mountain before now.”
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