Episode 33
“Y-Your Highness…”
The knights began appearing one by one.
They had been escorting our carriage from both front and back all along.
Each of them clutched a shoulder or an arm in pain. One of them was bleeding from the head.
“Eunice!”
I called out to Eunice, who was anxiously trapped between them.
She immediately rushed to me and grabbed my sleeve with trembling hands.
“My lady!”
Thankfully, she didn’t appear to have any visible injuries.
“How strange,”
Devan murmured.
“Being surrounded by eight monsters… it doesn’t look normal even to me.”
“That’s not what I meant. Why aren’t these monsters attacking us?”
He narrowed his eyes.
Come to think of it, it was odd.
The monsters had only smashed the carriage, and since then had simply been surrounding us, silently staring.
The knights’ injuries had all come from the carriage debris, not direct attacks.
In other words, the monsters didn’t seem to have any intention of attacking us directly.
“These creatures aren’t known for their intelligence.”
“You know a lot about monsters?”
“I know enough. These monsters are said to ‘see all that exists.’”
Just one look at those five eyes was enough to understand the origin of that rumor.
“They’re said to always keep at least one eye open, even when sleeping. That’s how they got the nickname of seeing everything—but in reality, they’re just stupid. Famous for destroying things without thinking.”
“Then why are they acting like this now?”
Devan silently studied them.
The knights began to inch toward us, but the monsters didn’t react, despite the clear shift in balance.
They didn’t seem disinterested in us either.
It was truly bizarre.
If they had gone through the trouble of smashing the carriage and weakening our defense, shouldn’t they have attacked right after?
Yet they just stood there… like they were waiting for something.
“Waiting…?”
“What?”
Devan turned around at my mutter.
A sudden thought flashed through my mind.
“They’re stalling us. They’re waiting.”
“Waiting? For what?”
“I’m not sure, but then why break the carriage? They could’ve just watched from outside.”
To get us out of the carriage? But why?
A chill ran down my spine. My trembling hand grabbed Devan’s arm.
“Evelyn?”
“…Look at their magic stones.”
In the lowest eye of each monster—specifically the pure white pupils—there was a white mana stone embedded.
So small and pale you wouldn’t notice it unless you looked carefully.
Devan furrowed his brow.
“Just as I thought.”
Normally, mana stones weren’t externally visible like that.
As the source of the monster’s power, the stone should’ve been deep within its body.
You had to dissect them to retrieve it.
But these looked forcefully inserted—unnaturally so.
“This isn’t the time. We have to run.”
“If you’re right, and they’re watching us while waiting for something, there’s no way they’ll just let us go.”
Devan spoke bitterly.
He gripped his sword and murmured,
“If all they want is the mana stone…”
“Wait—you’re thinking of fighting?”
Anyone could see we were at a disadvantage.
Not one knight was uninjured.
Since they rode regular horses and non-enchanted carriages, they hadn’t been protected from the earlier impact.
Clearly, the enchantments on our carriage weren’t just to cancel divine signals.
“I’ll heal the knights first. I don’t think they’ll attack immediately—”
“I doubt we have time for that,”
Suddenly, Devan picked me up and slung me over his shoulder.
My world turned upside down before I could even react.
Before I could yell at him—
Boom!
The ground where I’d just been standing collapsed with a deafening roar.
“What in the…”
“They noticed us.”
Devan gently set me down, then took his sword and braced himself.
“They… noticed me?”
He gave a strained smile, squinting with one eye.
“You.”
And then he slashed behind me.
His sword sliced into the outstretched leg of the giant monster behind me.
Warm blood poured over my back.
“They noticed me? What does that mean?”
“What else could it mean?”
Devan pulled me behind him and slashed again.
The monsters all focused solely on me.
Devan had been right—they had noticed me.
The white mana stones in their legs… all aimed only for me.
Why hadn’t I realized earlier?
The temple. This was the temple’s doing.
A command from them—to capture me, or kill me.
Their tactics had become more aggressive, more desperate.
Which only meant they were running out of time.
The injured knights rushed to help Devan.
They threw themselves at the giants with everything they had, but the monsters didn’t even flinch.
As if swatting away flies, they kicked the knights away with massive legs.
They didn’t even seem to feel pain.
Was that also because of the embedded mana stones?
“Stay back! You’re just getting in the way.”
At Devan’s shout, the knights reluctantly retreated.
From that point, it was chaos.
Devan faced the eight giants alone.
Or rather, they faced him.
He released me and danced through the battlefield like he was one with his sword.
It was hard to believe this was the same man who had been blind not long ago.
As he had said, he targeted only the legs embedded with the mana stones.
In this sense, his smaller size was an advantage.
The giants were incredibly fast despite their size, but not fast enough to match Devan.
He closed the gap in seconds, removing their mana stones with a few precise slashes.
Once the stones were removed, the giants thrashed like they’d been freed from hypnosis.
Who knows how much time passed?
Three monsters collapsed unconscious,
Two fled into the forest,
One went berserk and destroyed everything until Devan slit its throat.
Only two remained.
Despite everything, Devan had only suffered minor injuries.
He panted heavily, covered in blood.
All of us—myself and the knights—could only stare at him in awe.
The thought of helping him or warning him seemed meaningless.
His power was simply overwhelming.
He casually wiped the blood from his face with one hand.
His eyes glowed intensely through the streaks.
He looked a bit tired—understandably so.
Then—
One of the remaining giants rushed toward me again.
Devan swiftly intercepted it, aiming again for the mana stone.
But then, something strange happened.
The remaining two monsters froze.
Like someone had hit a pause button.
What?
A chill ran down my spine. Something was coming.
Something they had been waiting for.
And I had a terrible feeling that whatever it was—it wasn’t going to be good for us.
Devan frowned but leaped forward to finish the monsters anyway.
“Wait—!”
Just as I reached out to stop him—
A low divine power surged into the air.
Everything darkened instantly, as if the sun had vanished.
Vanished?
I looked up.
Hovering above us was something massive—its wings stretching wide enough to cover the entire sky.
Like a giant eagle—or a dragon.
A dragon?
The temple can control dragons?
That would mean they could control all magical beasts in this world.
The dragon circled above, eyeing me like a predator.
Then I understood.
Why the monsters had attacked the carriage.
Why they’d forced me outside.
To find me—to confirm my location.
If they caught me, I’d die.
Just as that thought crossed my mind—
“Damn it.”
A low curse rang out.
My vision shook violently.
All I could see was black.
Devan’s chest.
“Ghk…”
A painful groan.
He was holding me. Tight enough to crush my ribs.
His body trembled violently.
Something was wrong.
Warm blood poured down onto me.
Not monster blood—his.
“…Quiet.”
He spoke with a strained voice, unlike his usual tone.
Then I understood everything.
The dragon had descended—so fast, I couldn’t even register it.
It had come to snatch me away.
But it failed.
Because instead of me, its razor-sharp claw had pierced Devan’s back.
My body froze.
I lifted a trembling hand and dropped it again.
I couldn’t even scream.
“Your Highness!”
“My lady!”
Cries erupted around me.
Eunice and the knights tried desperately to reach us, but one flap of the dragon’s wings knocked them all away.
We were completely isolated—in the eye of the storm.
There was no one to save us.
Except me.
I had to save him. No one else could.
I had to… but my body wouldn’t move.
Seeing Devan—someone I believed could never fall—leaning on me, drenched in blood…
Knowing all of this was my fault…
Those two truths wrapped around me like chains.
What should I do?
I could feel the strength leaving Devan’s body.
I… had to move—
But my body trembled like a leaf.
