19 – Sleeping (5)

Suddenly, the time turned to night.

The sun had already gone over the trees, and the air in the forest was so dense that it was impossible to see an inch ahead.

I knew too.

By now, Mr. Sylvia must have realized that I had disappeared and was very upset.

However, I never made stupid mistakes like getting lost like an idiot or not realizing the time was passing because I was so preoccupied with collecting herbs.

In the first place, I literally only planned to pick a small amount of herbs or mushrooms to eat today.

However, I couldn’t go back until now.

Maybe, you can’t go back forever.

The night in the woods did not allow me to see anything, and the smell of grass, trees, and animals was everywhere.

Right now, the only information I could rely on to make sense of my surroundings was my hearing.

And that very information terrified me.

“Damn it… to die like this…”

The cry of a large bear was very near.

I was just trying to get some herbs in the woods, but how did this happen?

What happened, I picked the wrong time zone,

After it started to get dark, I had already overlooked the fact that I shouldn’t go into the woods.

I met a bear in the woods.

Fortunately, I somehow escaped the bear and climbed a tree, but that must have been a mistake.

The bear began to climb up the tree despite its massive body.

Fortunately, the tree was a bit flimsy compared to the bear’s size, so the bear, fearing that the tree would break and fall, could not stride up.

And the problem is that this bear doesn’t show any signs of giving up.

‘Damn it, I should have run blindly toward the cabin.’

The reason I didn’t run for the cabin was that it was extremely difficult to find one’s way through the darkening woods while avoiding bears.

Besides, he didn’t have the confidence to run to the hut without being caught by the bear in the first place.

No matter how much Sylvia is said to be a hero with divine power who saved me from dying, she also has limits.

Silvia is not a saint.

My leg was definitely healed, but that didn’t mean it was completely back to normal.

I couldn’t run anymore like I used to.

Of course, I wouldn’t have been fast enough to outrun the bear when I was sane.

coouk, coouk,

The rough breathing of an excited carnivore could be heard from under the soles of his shoes, filled with only darkness.

It was even getting closer to me.

The cries that he spits out with his mouth wide open at himself in the dark.

If the abstract concept of death has a form, it must be a hungry bear in the dark.

“Don’t come, don’t come!”

This damn man-eating bear didn’t look like he was going to give up on me.

The ferocious cries of the beast are getting closer and closer.

At least I tried to climb a little higher, but I couldn’t see an inch ahead, so I was blocked from finding a branch to climb on.

One tree branch that I barely touched broke powerlessly, and the wind swayed greatly on the branch I was standing on.

“Aww! No no! please!”

As if laughing at my fearful pleas, the bear’s breathing grew wilder and more excited.

In the pitch-black darkness where nothing can be seen, I can only hear the claws of carnivores that are determined to kill me get closer every second.

My whole body was drenched in cold sweat, just like Sylvia who had a nightmare.

Ah, Layla.

My poor little sister said she had been bitten by wild animals.

Perhaps, the fact that my steps at the time of the carriage accident, which I struggled with dripping blood, reached Mr. Sylvia’s cabin was a miracle created by consuming all my luck.

I couldn’t even move a finger on my own, so intense fear spread through my body so quickly that it burned my nerves.

scary.

It’s so scary.

I thought I had already experienced the fear of death many times, but it was arrogance.

Violent teeth and nails that do not even speak.

My soft skin could easily be torn and mashed just by brushing against it.

My whole body stiffened.

It was as if a long nerve had been plucked from the base of the vertebrae at the nape of the neck and scratched sharply with a violin bow.

My legs trembled, and the thin branches supporting my body swayed in response.

“Oooh!”

I let out a screaming spirit and managed to keep my balance by putting my hand on the branch I was stepping on.

At that moment, the bear’s hot breath touched my hand on the branch and the sole of my shoe.

ah.

no.

You have to move.

Was the dagger that I used to make Layla’s mother badge right now in my arms?

no, no

Even if I held that blade, smaller than that beast’s ferocious claws, in my hand, which had no muscle to be found, what could I do?

Oh, I could tell even if I couldn’t see it.

The bear jumped up and stretched out its rough, rugged, hairy paws at me.

My sharpened hearing caught the sound of death.

in action.

how?

Where?

I do not know.

If you still don’t want to die, you have to do something right now.

“Ah, ah… ah ah!”

My pitiful courage, which suppressed and squeezed fear in order to move my body, was limited to screaming loudly.

“Ah ah ah ah ah! Sylvia!”

I involuntarily shouted her name.

From noble mtl dot com

Maybe this is my will.

Why did I call her name at this moment when that cry could be the last word in my life?

I myself couldn’t figure out why.

“ash.”

“…!”

However, that seemed to be the correct answer.

A fist-sized ball of fire cut through the darkness and flew toward the bear’s torso.

The bear let out a painful cry and fell down the tree, but thanks to its sturdy hide, it didn’t seem to suffer much damage, and it got up, shaking off the fire.

The wind blew the fire from the bear’s body in all directions, and I could barely see what was happening under the tree.

I saw her holding a large longsword in scabbard.

“Sylvie… ah… Mr.”

As soon as I saw her face, I felt blood running through my cold hands and feet.

As if the warm blood had spread to my face, I felt the back of my eyes heat up, and without realizing it, I cried.

“…they didn’t run away.”

Sylvia gave me a brief look at me from the top of the tree, then quickly turned her eyes to the bear.

She glared at the bear, who shook her head as she raised the sword at her waist.

On a dark night, the only light was the small sparks that fell around the bear, and even though my eyes were watery, the image of her raising her sword was clearly etched in my retinas.

The thought that she might see a hero wielding a sword made her unable to take her eyes off her.

Until a little while ago, the fear of death had been crushing all the nerves, but now I even had a pounding heart.

An existence that guarantees victory just by existing.

That was the size and definition of the name Hero.

Sylvia-san peeled off the leather scabbard as if she were used to it, with a movement that was neither fast nor slow.

I’ve been with her for over a month already, but I saw her holding a sword for the first time today.

It was a distinctly different feeling from holding a bow and arrow for hunting.

It felt like something heavy, thicker air was enveloping her.

The big wild bear, too, must have sensed something, and while breathing heavily, it slowly lowered its head without taking its eyes off Sylvia-san.

It was not meant to be submissive, but a readiness to attack right away.

“Sylvie…!”

The moment I tried to warn her, the bear roared and leaped towards Mr. Sylvia half a beat faster than I expected.

It seemed that there was almost a few meters between her and the bear, but with just one leap, the bear’s body reached Mr. Sylvia’s place.

Almost at the same time as the jump, the bear’s large paws with vicious claws flew straight toward Mr. Sylvia’s head.

She couldn’t even wield a sword yet.

“…,”

Silvia smiled.

It was a sneer that was clear enough to see from a treetop.

However, it was physically too late for her to swing the sword.

I stopped and closed my eyes.

“…”

When I slowly opened my eyes, the sparks already attached to the floor were extinguished, leaving the forest filled with darkness again.

I called her name in an anxious voice.

“… Poem, Mr. Sylvia?”

No sound was heard.

No answer, no cut, no sound of the bear crushing her head, no sound of her falling, no sound of the beast’s heavy breathing, only silence fell in the forest.

Uneasy in the stillness, I called her once more, thinking that it would not be possible.

“Sylvia? I’m sorry, are you okay? Seriously, no way… Mr. Sylvia!”

thud, thud

There was the sound of something collapsing on the ground.

It happened twice, in quick succession.

Could it be that she even made friends with that savage beast?

“No… oh no… Shi, Mr. Sylvia!”

“calm down.”

“Ahh!”

Her voice came from right below me.

“Are you okay?”

She didn’t answer, but she started a fire by flicking her fingers like flint.

Then the bear picked up a twig that had fallen to the ground and set it on fire while climbing the tree.

In an instant, the leaves caught fire, and the branches could illuminate the surroundings like a kind of simple torch.

Silvia-san had already put her sword in the scabbard and wore it around her waist.

There was no sign of being out of breath, let alone hurt.

He must have seen the bear’s large forepaw nearly hit her head, but she was undisturbed, as if she hadn’t experienced anything.

I looked at the place where she and the bear had collided a moment ago.

The corpse of a large bear lay on the ground in the spot illuminated by the flickering torch.

The bear’s carcass was split in two to the left and right, with internal organs protruding between the sides of the fallen bear’s torso.

“What are you doing, come down quickly.”

“Ah yes…”

Sylvia told me to come down in a very firm voice.

Sensing a hint of discomfort in her voice, I hugged the tree to hurry down.

Mr. Sylvia spoke again.

“Just run.”

“yes?”

“right now.”

Silvia-san glared at me with fiercely raised eyes.

For some reason, I felt very bad.

Well, you must have been very surprised that I was gone.

The height of the tree was a bit hesitant to look over 3 meters, but I carefully jumped down for her, who must have worried a lot.

She caught me falling with one arm.

“Ugh, go, thank you.”

“…”

She was staring at my face without saying a word without putting me down.

Are you angry? Or is she surprised too?

I didn’t know why she kept her mouth shut, but as I looked at her face, something grimaceous and spicy seemed to build up in her throat and the back of her nose.

Soon, that something came up behind my eyes and warmed my eyes.

The fast beating of his heart slowly subsided.

“…ah, ugh… ugh”

“…”

“Sil, Sylvie… ah… Mr.”

A cry suddenly broke out.

Even though I tried to hold it in, the tears just leaked out.

I felt all the sense organs in my body, which had been holding my breath until now, pulsate.

lived

I’m really glad that Sylvia came.

I’m glad she’s here.

A feeling of relief filled my entire body.

It was a life that had already almost died once in a wagon accident.

Back then, I wasn’t afraid to die.

No, I already thought I was dead.

That’s why the man-in-the-middle walked through the pain to save Layla with his body.

However, today was different.

The situation in which his life was forcibly taken by a ferocious force that he could never overcome was more terrifying than he could have imagined.

Rather, did the experience of walking in the woods with a dying body instill arrogance in me?

I got scared.

The forest became afraid of death.

I was ashamed of the uncontrollable tears, so I hid my tear-stained face in Sylvia’s arms, but I couldn’t even hide my trembling shoulders.

Sylvia-san hugged me quietly.

.

Tap the screen to use advanced tools Tip: You can use left and right keyboard keys to browse between chapters.

You'll Also Like