It’s Not Night - Chapter 117

“Don’t go.”

Dustin hurriedly grabbed Andra, who naturally jumped out. He looked at her with a heavy, serious expression, just like when Andra had thrust her face into the hole in the tree. In addition, he seemed visibly angry.

Andra stared at Dustin, who wouldn’t let go of her wrist held tight. Her eyebrows were furrowed.

“Let go of me. The Prince is in danger!”

“What if it’s a trap set by the enemy? What if the Prince was already injured?”

“Is this the time to think about that? It’s only right to go to the Prince first. Do you not know why we came here?”

Andra tried to shake Dustin’s hand off, but Dustin didn’t budge. What’s wrong with him? As Andra was twisting her wrist and trying to get out of his grasp, she let out a violent breath. She looked like she couldn’t understand the situation. Then Dustin suddenly spoke.

“I once went to practice in a dungeon in Borea region. It was an easy level dungeon. I only needed to dispose of the monsters.”

“What does that have to do with now…”

“But there was a mutant among the monsters in that dungeon. The original monster was an animal imitator… It wasn’t that bastard.”

A little more strength goes into the hand holding her wrist. Dustin desperately stopped Andra from heading towards the sound.

“That bastard imitated human voices. Because of that, one person died and five people were injured. Because of that, the dungeon was temporarily closed.”

“…So you’re telling me not to go because it’s dangerous?”

“As you said, if the dungeon was created because of us, or if it reacts to our power, what do you think this is all about?”

Ack! Is anyone there? Help me! Meanwhile, Jonathan continued to yell for help. Andra turned her head to the source of her voice, then she turned to Dustin again. Then she started talking calmly.

“Dustin, I know what you mean, and I know what you’re worried about… It’s hard to conclude that the mutants from the dungeon you speak of are here too.”

“It’s hard to say for sure. What if this was all done to lure us in?”

“…Even so, I will go to rescue the Prince. A person is shouting for help like that, so you’re just ignoring it? That person is the Prince! As a knight, you can’t do this!”

“Even compared to the Imperial Family, your life comes first. If something ever happens to you…”

“Dustin, behind you!”

Andra then shouted, pointing over Dustin’s shoulder. With a creaking sound, the ant monster’s hard jaws came toward him. Dustin used the sword he was holding to block the chin and immediately cut through the monster’s chest and stomach.

Then he groaned and looked at the place where Andra was standing. While he was dealing with the ant monster, Andra called in the wind and ran through the smoke, heading towards the place where Jonathan’s voice was coming from.

“ANDRA!”

Dustin moved at once to grab Andra belatedly, but somehow the ant monsters started attacking him intensively. Shit! Dustin quickly swung his sword, holding back the swearing. The ants’ legs were cut off by his ruthless blade.

Andra kept running through the smoke to find Jonathan. She prayed that Jonathan was not hurt. It was Andra’s duty to protect the prince’s safety. If any trouble befell him, it would be hard for her to escape a rebuke.

And most of all Andra hated a precious person whom she had known for a long time getting hurt. Apart from his status as a prince, Jonathan was a good person to her.

“Aaaaah! F*ck!”

Jonathan’s voice was heard close by. Andra pushed back the smoke with a bigger wind than before. Then, not far away, she saw Jonathan struggling with the ant monster.

“Prince!”

“Anna?!”

The ant’s jaw snapped as if it would cut off Jonathan’s face at any moment. Without a second thought, Andra immediately pushed the ant away with magic. The ant rolled down, so Andra hastily went to Jonathan and held out her hand to lift him up.

Jonathan was covered in dirt, probably because he had rolled on the floor. Fortunately, there seemed to be no major injuries.

“Are you okay?”

“…Except for a few scratches. What about you, Anna? Are you injured anywhere?”

“I’m alright. I’m sorry for coming late.”

“No, thank you for coming. If it wasn’t for you, I would have been eaten by that monster.”

Andra was tempted to say that ants had the characteristic of storing food, so he wouldn’t have died right away, but that didn’t matter. Andra just nodded. First of all, it was important that Jonathan was safe and unscathed.

“How about the Princess?”

“I don’t know. I was alone after fighting the monsters. Come to think of it, Anna, you’re alone too.”

Noticing that there was no one by her side, Jonathan looked at her with surprised eyes. Anna replied rather embarrassedly.

“Actually, I met Lord Airak in the middle, but we separated while looking for Your Highness. Anyway, this is not the time. We need to get out of here.”

Andra grabbed Jonathan’s arm.

“You’re right. Now that the big monster is going somewhere else for a while, we have to get out of here. Can you hear it? The sound of movement.”

Jonathan was right.

The big monster that had been spewing fire from above started to move in the other direction. Andra brought the wind back and started moving with Jonathan to the other side of the big monster.

“There’s a horse over there!”

Jonathan found a horse that had run away. The horse seemed to have calmed down a bit, and was wandering in the smoke with a calm appearance. That’s when there was a shriek from behind.

Andra intuitively realized that there was an ant monster following her. She pushed Jonathan’s back toward her horse.

“Get on the horse first, I’ll buy you some time!”

“Leave it, come with me!”

“Your Highness doesn’t even have a sword right now! Do what I say, don’t be stubborn!”

Andra said, letting go of Jonathan, who held her. You have to think about what comes first! Jonathan had no choice but to run to where the horse was.

In the meantime, Andra pushed the ant monster with her magic and applied pressure to press the monster to the ground. The ground was slowly dug up, and the crushed monster screamed. But Andra didn’t stop her magic even while frowning.

‘Please die quickly!’

Andra put more power into the magic. Then, there was the sound of the ant’s joints breaking, and the ant started to writhe and eventually stopped moving. After a while, the ant began to secrete juice while being buried in a deep hole.

She managed to hold back the nausea after seeing that sight. Even though it was just one big ant, she couldn’t believe that she had killed that ant with her hands.

“Anna! Come on, get on the horse!”

Jonathan rode the horse to Andra and held out his hand. Andra took his hand and mounted the horse.

After a while, the two started to run to the place where there was less smoke.

After going for about five minutes, they saw the original forest. Jonathan stopped the horse little by little.

“It seems there is no more smoke and fog.”

“Yes, I think so. Anyway, where is this… Are the others still in there?”

Andra turned her head to stare at the area still filled with smoke. She couldn’t hear anything, but she still couldn’t get rid of her unease. She was even more worried about leaving Dustin behind to come to Jonathan.

She wondered if Dustin had escaped from there like her. As an Airak, he does excel in this area, so compared to the others, he might not be in a very dangerous situation. But she was still worried nevertheless.

“Come to think of it, I don’t even know Sister’s well-being.”

“Go back and…”

“That won’t do. We don’t know if we can go back in and come out safely like now.”

“Then what do you plan to do now?”

“Let’s go for now. Where the counts are. If Sister is still alive, she would have gone to the Counts’ estate.”

Jonathan fumbled and then took out a small compass. It was good to keep one just in case. After finding the north, south, east, west, and west through the compass, he began to draw a map in his head, tracing his memory.

“I don’t know exactly, but if we go a little further west, we will find a valley. Further north from there is the County Norrent’s estate.”

“Then finding the valley is the priority.”

“That’s right.”

“Let’s leave quickly. It’s not safe here either. You never know when monsters will appear.”

Andra looked around. Jonathan agreed and nodded his head in agreement. Only their vision was not blocked, but the two were still within the range of the monsters’ movements.

Jonathan moved his horse and began to advance west. Hopefully they’ll find the valley before the sun goes down.

* * *

“You’re alone, Sir. Where did Lady Avellin go?”

Dustin, who was randomly slashing monsters, turned his head at the sudden voice.

Viola, covered in the monsters’ juice, was standing there wiping the fluids from her face. Sir and me, we both look very serious. Viola said with a light smile.

“We got separated on the way.”

“What happened?”

“She went to save the prince.”

“There’s no way you will go to rescue Jonathan, it seems the lady did. As expected of Avellin.”

Viola stepped closer to Dustin. She thrust her sword into the middle of the grappling monster’s stomach that hadn’t stopped breathing yet. The juice splattered, and then the ant drooped. Viola brushed her hair and sat with her hips pressed against the body of the large ant.

“Even Sir knows too, but the big monster has already disappeared.”

“…….”

“It seems that all the demons around here have been cut down and killed… Let’s get moving before the sun goes down. A short distance south of here is the estate of the Durs County. It’s a blessing in disguise.”

Viola rummaged through her inner pocket, took out the compass, and examined it. Dustin removed the sword and put it in the scabbard. He then asked with a sullen face.

“What will become of the Prince and Lady Avellin? Are you going to leave them?”

“Sir, don’t ask stupid questions.. Anthony wouldn’t ask that question. Leave them? Jonathan is a kid who knows his way well. Lady Avellin is also smart. If the two of them had met, they would have gotten out of here earlier than we did.”

“The two of them are close to ordinary people…”

“Airak says this every time, saying that they’re great. Don’t talk, just move.”

Oh, my back. Viola patted her back and stood up. She put the compass back into her pocket and pulled out the sword that had been stuck in the monster. Then she started walking south. Dustin caught up with her in no time.

“Aren’t you worried?”

“My God. Sir, stop talking like a child. Maybe not as much as Airak, but to a certain extent, other people are also competent. If you’re going to ask an unassuming question, go search for them in the woods by yourself.”

Viola waved her hand at Dustin with a hint of annoyance.

Dustin turned around for a moment and looked at the forest where the smoke had faded. According to the princess, there was nothing to worry about. But he was always worried about Andra. From the moment he entered the Morgennis area, a strange sense of uneasiness and nervousness began to surround him.