Savage Forest - Chapter 132.1

Tarhan was nowhere to be found. Even after using the skull spider’s keen senses, there was no sign of him. Enya scanned the place where she had last left him. Only the wolf guarding Senu’s body was pacing in circles.

She had rescued everyone she could.

In the pouring rain, she wandered, calling for Tarhan.

‘Where are you, Tarhan…?’

Urgently calling his name, she began searching through the entire forest.

* * *

At the highest point of the forest, someone was running to avoid the incoming water.

It was Servia.

Her breath came in ragged gasps, her once-black hair now starkly white. Wrinkles lined her eyes and mouth.

She looked like an old woman, aged overnight. Her hair, once as dark as a raven’s feather, was now completely white. The shocks and hardships she had endured the previous night had completely altered her appearance.

“Hah, hah…!”

Servia was running frantically.

As the branches scratched at her face, sharp, blade-like leaves from the forest left deep cuts on her limbs, and blood streamed down her arms and legs. Yet, in terror, Servia didn’t stop. She continued running.

A voice echoed in her head.

It was an old voice.

“It’s another son. You did well.”

The image of Kahanti handing her the anklet appeared before her like a lingering memory.

A gentle hand lightly caressed her flushed cheek as she lay down.

Even Servia’s fingers, holding the anklet, seemed to glow with happiness. In her youth, she believed the anklet held Kahanti’s heart.

…How foolish that belief had been.

After handing her the anklet, the chieftain had gone off toward another woman’s hut, still cradling a newborn child in his arms.

At that moment, Servia made a decision.

The anklet had no meaning.

She would give everything up and live as an Aquilea woman, thoroughly forsaking any love or affection from the chieftain. She would live as Servia, the next elder of Aquilea. So, when she abandoned Senu, she also discarded the anklet.

By doing so, she believed she had completely rid herself of human emotions.

After all, emotions were useless. The ties of relationships were no more than pebbles on the road. She had cast aside human emotions and reborn herself as the solid foundation of her clan. She would live and die for the honor of Aquilea.

But now, none of that resolve mattered.

It was useless.

As she ran desperately, Servia finally tripped over a rock. Her disheveled white hair became mired in the muddy earth. Blood poured from her forehead, but she had no intention of getting up.

She lifted her hands, now stained with mud.

Her hollow eyes stared at her rough, calloused palms.

“Ah…! Ah…!”

Her bloodshot eyes were entirely red.

Tears streamed down her cheeks, passing over the raw scratches on her face. It was as though she was shedding blood tears.

The truth overwhelmed her.

She had killed Senu with her own hands. Only then did she realize what she had done as regret came after the death of her eldest son.

It was self-blame.

The pain of knowing it was irreversible was even worse. As Servia grabbed at her hair in anguish, her white hair, now stained with mud, was torn out.

“Gaaaahhh!”

Her body could no longer bear the mental agony and collapsed. She ran barefoot through the muddy path again, but her body wouldn’t move forward. Instead, she fell with a heavy thud.

It was a swamp.

Her legs slowly sank into the muck. The sky, growing darker, was once again swallowed by storm clouds.

The swamp began to consume her.

With no strength left in her limbs, Servia couldn’t resist. She closed her eyes.

‘Senu, you were my…’

The words she had said to her son echoed in her ears again.

‘You are my pride, my glory…’

Even as her ears submerged in the swamp, those vows continued to play over and over in her mind, never fading, always circling.

Her breath stopped.

Alone, at the bottom of the cold mud.

* * *

“Hah! Hah…!”

On the other side of the forest, Gernan was also being relentlessly chased. His terrified face was drenched by the pouring rain. His fear was reflected in the wide, dilated pupils of his eyes.

Someone was chasing him.

A man with black hair and a large scar crossing his chest… The former leader of Aquilea was hunting down Gernan.

“Hah… Please, please, just spare my life…! Please, just let me live!”

However, Tarhan didn’t slow down, nor did he increase his pace.

In fact, it was his calm attitude that made Gernan’s heart tighten further. No matter how hard Gernan ran for his life, the distance between them never closed.

‘Tarhan, you insane bast*rd!’

Tarhan wasn’t running wildly like Gernan, nor was he desperately fleeing. He was simply following him with ease, and that was what terrified Gernan the most.

Fear swelled in Gernan’s chest.

He recalled the scene that had just unfolded before his eyes.

‘He killed him! Right in front of me…!’

He was captured by Avisak and managed to escape only after waiting for the right moment on the wide rock. He had even considered abandoning his grandfather, Haron, but brought him along, thinking he might be useful.

‘But then that monster tore Haron apart right in front of me!’