TEB Ch 99

After a while, the place where Renard and Liev landed was a little further from the flat, open space they were in before. Before they could even set foot on the ground, they felt an eerie atmosphere. The forest they had been looking at just a moment ago, where the fairies lived, had a slightly different atmosphere than an ordinary forest. But this place had a completely different feeling, as if it were artificially created. In such a dense forest, you would expect to hear the sounds of birds or small rodents like mice and chipmunks, but all they could hear was the sound of the wind. 

“I have a bad feeling about this.” 

Liev said, trying to stay close to Renard. Even though Renard had cast protective magic to prevent any sudden encounters with enemies, Liev couldn’t shake off the feeling of unease. Should they go back? But the thought of wasting time doing nothing away from Sigrid and the others bothered him even more. 

At least give us some other hints or things we should be careful of.

Even though he was very worried, there was nothing out of the ordinary that caught his eye, and he couldn’t see any large groups of soldiers or monsters, which only made him more suspicious. 

“Renard, do you feel anything? Is there something strange about the flow of mana?” 

Liev asked, to which Renard shook his head. 

“It’s hard to explain… but ever since we started moving along the mountain range, there’s been a different feeling from outside the mountains.” 

Whatever it was, it didn’t seem like a positive sign. 

“There shouldn’t be any problems.” 

If there is no problem on this side, there is a high chance that something is going on over there. But still, since Sigrid is with us, nothing serious will happen. They had no choice but to trust the main character. 

How much longer did they keep walking around the vacant field? They still haven’t found anything suspicious, not even a fingernail’s worth. Could it be that Rowena gave us false information? As he hesitated whether to go back to the village we were just at, the communication device in his pocket suddenly lit up.” 

Huh?” 

Did it finally reconnect? Hurriedly taking out the device to connect, a frantic voice came through. 

“You need to get out of there right now! As far away as possible! At least Renard…” 

And then the voice abruptly cut off without finishing. Liev shook the communication device with a puzzled face. 

“What, why suddenly cut off while talking?!” 

But why did they suddenly tell us to leave when just a moment ago they were urging us to hurry and come? Liev couldn’t help but feel bewildered as he turned to Renard. It was extremely awkward and difficult to decide which direction to follow. But it was better to follow the most recent order.” 

Renard, turn back to your original form right now.” 

But for some reason, Liev was unable to finish his sentence because his heart started racing and pounding as if it were about to explode. 

“…..Ugh.” 

Why is this happening? My head is spinning as If he had inhaled some poisonous gas, a feeling of nausea rose up to his chin. He reached out to grab onto something nearby, trying to steady himself from the sudden dizziness. Liev, who believed Renard would naturally catch him, started falling forward in surprise at the fact that he wasn’t there. 

“Renard, where… what?” 

And then his eyelids became heavy and closed completely as he fell to the ground. Right before everything went black, the last thing he saw was Renard, who had also collapsed to the ground, just like him. 

*** 

“This is bad. The communication wasn’t properly transmitted.” 

Albert let out a sigh at Rowena’s worried voice. 

“Shouldn’t we go quickly now?” 

In response to Albert’s question, which was filled with concerns, the group members all nodded with serious expression, just for one person. Except for Sigrid, the group of heroes who quickly retreated at Liev’s command in front of the village was able to completely annihilate all the monsters. Thanks to being far away from the village, they were able to freely unleash their powers without worrying about causing serious damage to property. 

They were also successful in capturing and defeating one of the Imperial soldiers who was commanding the monsters at the back of the group. As soon as Rowena, who could speak the Imperial language, began questioning him, he repeatedly muttered in an annoyed tone, “It’s already too late.” Then he continued to ramble about how everything was already prepared and that once the final preparations in the Mount Mikel were complete, everything would fall into the hands of the Empire. 

So, what exactly is this Mount Mikel? If everything is already ready, what’s the point of us knowing about it now?” Rowena asked irritably. 

The soldier replied with a displeased laugh, 

“It’s nowhere, it’s a place where a fire that never dies constantly burns!” 

The only active volcano in this area that could accommodate a large number of troops was Mount Mikel. Renard’s mobility was beyond common sense, so they should quickly confirm that area first. Rowena urgently turned on the communication device and contacted Liev. In the meantime, the soldier, who had hidden a vial of poison in his mouth, began to have convulsions. 

“Didn’t you properly check the inside of his mouth!?” 

Rowena asked in surprise. Albert replied in an aggrieved voice, 

“Do you think I would make such a simple mistake? Obviously, there was nothing! I even tied his tongue with a cloth so he couldn’t bite it, how did he manage to release the poison?” 

Albert seemed genuinely wronged. If he didn’t poison himself, there was one more way left. Rowena quickly asked Plavin and Albert to take off the soldier’s uniform. A strange magic circle spread all over his body, crawling over his skin. 

“Damn it, I have to stop them quickly! It could have been a trap!” 

With the existence of magic devices that could be operated remotely, like communication devices, there were various types of magic and spells similar to those. In general, the farther the target was from the caster, the more burdened the caster became, so it was difficult to remotely control magic like communication devices. 

However, how could a person die from the slightest wound?. Depending on the caster, they could take a life by hiding in some faraway place, and destroying vital organs such as the heart or brain was a possibility. Of course, there had to be prior preparations for such methods and it was not an easy task. 

“Quickly, let’s contact them through the communication device.” 

Rowena injected magic power to activate the communication device, and after a while, she frowned and let out a sigh. 

“It’s not working. It’s completely dead.” 

Something was definitely interfering with the communication device’s signal. In that case, the only solution was to get as far away as possible. Rowena asked Plavin to take care of the body, and she ran with Katrice. Finally, they were able to reach a place where the communication device’s signal could be picked up, but just as they were about to send a message, the connection was abruptly cut off again. 

“Oh, really! It’s so frustrating!” 

If they moved any further away, there was a risk of getting separated from Sigrid’s group. All that was left was for Renard to handle whatever trap there was and hope he could overcome it. 

Rowena, who rejoined the rest of the group, noticed that Sigrid did not seem nervous while everyone else had serious expressions. Sigrid had been a childhood friend of Rowena for a long time. They had been friends since the time when Sigrid wet the blanket. But these days, for some reason, she didn’t know why she felt distant from him. 

To be precise, something changed the moment Rowena left her hometown with Sigrid. It felt like he suddenly became an adult, unlike the other guys. She thought that maybe he had also changed his attitude as they left their hometown, but his attitude had become too different from the foolish idiot she knew. 

But these days, it is hard to just brush it off with words. Since reuniting with the person Renard had been looking for, he has been acting alone more often and sometimes seems to have secret conversations with Liev. Why? They had spent more time together than with that person…..This wasn’t a matter of jealousy or disappointment. 

Suddenly, Rowena was engulfed with anxiety, wondering if “Sid” was a trustworthy ally.