Chapter 61
He stepped a little closer to me.
“No matter how I look at it, this dangerous egg is clearly from a monster—so why is it only friendly toward you? Isn’t that strange? And how did you even know how to open a path through the flow of mana? Why did you help us while hiding your reasons?”
With his eyes narrowed, Kaiden scrutinized my expression, as if he intended to see straight through me.
“Well… it’s just that everyone already finds me suspicious, so I didn’t want to say anything unnecessary. But—wait, Kaiden, we don’t have time for this. The sun’s setting.”
I quietly pointed at the sky. As I said, the sunset glow was already fading. It was the time when monsters appeared.
“I’m fine. What about you? Want to spend the night here together? Honestly, I’m not that afraid of dying.”
Kaiden tilted his face toward me. There was a glint of madness in his eyes—it really looked like he intended to stay here until I told him the truth.
“It’s been strange from the start. And not just one or two things. Margaret, tell me. What are you hiding?”
He pressed again. I struggled desperately to pull my hand free from his grip, but it wouldn’t budge.
Should I pull out a flare? If I distract him for a second, I might be able to run…
As I thought that and placed a hand on my crossbody bag, I suddenly met the sharp gaze of a beast over Kaiden’s shoulder.
“Trying to run away by yourself? That’s all you’ve been thinking about, isn’t it? You were planning to abandon us from the beginning.”
“W-wait.”
Startled, I tried to push him away. But he tightened his hold on me, as if warning me not to try anything funny.
Kaiden firmly grasped my hand.
At that moment, a monster’s shadow emerged from the forest.
“That’s not it—behind you…!”
Following my gaze, Kaiden turned his head toward the forest.
Just then, a long, hairy leg stretched out from between the bushes. A chill ran down my spine.
Parting the undergrowth, a massive tarantula revealed itself. It looked at least three times the size of my body.
I met the gaze of its eight eyes embedded in a body covered in black bristles. My hair stood on end. Frozen by tension, I couldn’t even move.
“Damn it.”
Kaiden, too, stared at the tarantula monster with a flustered expression.
Then the tarantula moved swiftly toward Kaiden.
“Watch out!”
I shoved Kaiden away with all my strength, then pulled a bomb from my pouch and yanked out the pin.
Bracing myself, I aimed for the tarantula’s body and threw it.
KABOOM!
The massive tarantula’s body exploded apart, its legs collapsing as it crumpled to the ground.
But the real problem came after that.
Skitter skitter skitter—
Spiders—smaller than the giant tarantula but still medium-sized—came swarming in.
“We’re screwed.”
I took another step back, despair filling me. This had to be the tarantula swarm Yuanna’s group had talked about.
Kaiden drew his dagger and pulled me tightly toward him by the arm. We couldn’t move back any farther—behind us was a cliff.
I opened my crossbody bag and took out my remaining bombs, counting them.
Only two left.
The bag was too small to carry many bombs—if only I’d brought more. At least, thankfully, I’d brought all the flare rounds with me.
“Stay back. It’s dangerous.”
Kaiden stepped in front of me, adjusting his grip on the dagger.
There were five spiders in total, surrounding us beyond the corpse of the giant tarantula.
Their long legs were thickly covered in hair, twitching as they hesitated, ready to pounce.
Below their bodies, packed with pitch-black eyes, sticky-looking slime dripped steadily, as if their mouths were open.
Sharp pincers that looked like venomous stingers clicked together—tap, tap—as if they were savoring the moment.
Damn it. I want to pass out. I hate spiders so much.
I clenched the two bombs in my hands and used my teeth to pull out the pins.
Kaiden, seeming to understand what I was about to do, lowered his stance and tightened his grip on the dagger, ready to deal with whatever came flying after the explosions.
But… what if blowing these up makes the cliff collapse?
Still, if we stayed here, we’d just become monster food.
What should I do…?
After agonizing for only a split second, I made up my mind.
“I don’t care—dying this way or that way, it’s the same!”
I hurled the bombs straight at the tarantulas.
KABOOM—!
BANG!
Some of them were hit squarely. Shattered bodies and a spray of green liquid—probably blood—burst into the air.
Below that, one spider staggered to its feet and came toward us, while another looked completely unharmed.
Two of them were still alive.
The ground beneath our feet trembled from the blast, then began to crack with a loud crrreeak. It wouldn’t hold for long. My palms grew slick with sweat.
With a tense expression, I pulled out a flare launcher from my bag, loaded a round, and racked the lever. My hands were shaking violently.
“I didn’t survive all this just to die here.”
I said it, but my trembling voice refused to calm down.
The tarantulas crept closer, watching us warily. As I tracked their movements, they suddenly raised their front legs and began spewing threads of webbing.
“Are you kidding me?!”
Strands of web shot out, wrapping around my wrists and then winding around my waist.
“Ah! Why are you only attacking me?!”
I was yanked off my feet and dragged across the ground toward them.
“Margaret!”
Kaiden grabbed my wrist tightly and used his dagger to cut through the webbing. But the spider that had shot it kept targeting me.
I jumped up and immediately aimed the flare launcher at the spider pulling the web.
Then I pulled the trigger.
BANG!
The recoil knocked me backward, but Kaiden caught me in his arms, preventing us from plunging off the cliff.
The gunshot left my ears ringing.
The problem was the other tarantula, which had been staggering toward us—it was already right in front of us.
One long leg rose high into the air. Kaiden rolled across the ground to dodge as it slammed down.
BOOM!
The impact was so powerful it gouged deep into the ground. Another leg followed in attack.
“Damn it.”
Cursing, Kaiden yanked me back and swung his dagger.
Slash!
The leg was severed cleanly. When I saw the thick green liquid oozing from the stump, I shuddered. Ugh…
The spider shrieked in agony, thrashing violently. The problem was that its long legs flailed wildly—and I, standing behind Kaiden, was struck head-on and sent flying.
That instant felt like slow motion.
I was hit by the spider’s leg and hurled beyond the cliff, suspended in midair as I looked down.
A river flowed far below.
Holy… shit?
“Margaret! No!”
Kaiden screamed and leapt from the edge of the cliff, stretching his arm out toward me. He pulled me into his arms, wrapping himself around me.
Together, we plummeted down the cliff.
Splash!
Even as we plunged deep into the river, Kaiden held me tightly, as if to shield me, never letting go.
I thought to myself—Kaiden really wasn’t normal either.
Even though he could die, he reached out for me without a moment’s hesitation.
When he saw me knocked off the cliff, his face looked as though his world had collapsed.
It was hard to believe he was the same man who had been doubting me, wary of me, and pressuring me just moments ago.
Wasn’t he the one who didn’t trust me?
And yet, he risked his life for me without hesitation.
I really couldn’t figure Kaiden out. I had no idea what he was thinking.
Of course, I didn’t have the presence of mind to think about it any longer. The river water rushed into my lungs, my breath caught painfully—
And just like that, I lost consciousness.
