Chapter 81
“Bishop, do you think Margaret has disappeared?”
“Well, if not that…”
If not that, ‘she might be dead.’ Luzef swallowed his words as he stared at the giant Tarantula.
Luzef, too, couldn’t hide his confusion. He didn’t even want to consider the latter possibility.
Margaret dead? That couldn’t be. She wouldn’t be dead. She mustn’t be.
“Aren’t those footprints?”
Luzef discovered something at the edge of the cliff and approached it.
It was too dark to make out clearly, but at first glance, they looked like human footprints.
“Judging by the size, they seem to be Lady Flone’s.”
Luzef silently followed the footprints with his eyes. There were small footprints and larger ones. The other set was undoubtedly Kaiden’s.
A bad feeling washed over him. Luzef didn’t want to understand this terrible situation and stared blankly at the footprints.
“…It seems they fought Monsters.”
The footprints led towards the dead Tarantula, and there were signs of a very fierce struggle.
Following the footprints, Luzef saw that the last ones ended at the edge of the cliff.
It didn’t seem like they had moved voluntarily. It was as if they had been hit by something and flown off, ending right there without any forward or sideways movement.
“Did you see that, Your Highness? Could this possibly be…?”
Luzef hurriedly squatted at the edge of the cliff and looked down.
It was a dizzying height. If they had been hit by something and fallen down, they would have died instantly.
Enoch stood next to Luzef, arms crossed, silently looking down the cliff.
Rustle.
Then, they heard something moving in the bushes. They couldn’t tell if it was just the sound of the wind or a Monster.
Luzef felt a chill and turned to Enoch.
“Your Highness, it would be best if we returned. It’s dangerous to stay here.”
However, Enoch didn’t move. Luzef wondered if he had even heard him. He anxiously looked around.
Fortunately, it seemed to be just the sound of the wind, as there was no further movement in the forest.
Enoch was still standing at the edge of the cliff. Luzef approached him, but he showed no sign of agitation.
Luzef didn’t want to stay any longer in this place with the Monster’s corpse, but he didn’t have the courage to return alone.
In the end, he stood quietly next to Enoch.
\ \ \
Margaret had disappeared.
Whether she had left on her own accord or had an accident, both were enough to drive him crazy.
His stomach churned.
Unidentifiable hot emotions flowed like lava through his chest, beyond his control.
His hand, clutching Margaret’s bag strap, trembled slightly.
His heart pounded with anxiety and unease, and he couldn’t control it. He felt like he was suffocating from the helplessness that consumed him. It was hard to breathe.
Luzef spoke to him from the side, but he couldn’t hear what he was saying at all.
Beyond the vast river, behind the dense thicket, a large mountain range could be seen. The night sky above the mountain range was filled with stars.
And in between, a large moon illuminated the dark night, standing guard.
It looked just like Margaret.
‘I must be going crazy for Margaret.’
Now he was even thinking about Margaret while looking at the moon.
“Frankly, I don’t understand why Your Highness insists on not marrying or even getting engaged to me. I have what Your Highness doesn’t. A Pure noble bloodline.”
Margaret’s words from the past echoed in Enoch’s ears.
“Now that you’ve become the Crown Prince, marriage is even more important. You need to solidify your position. Consider it fortunate that I, Lady Flone, like you.”
She was someone who, despite being born with the noble status he had always admired and longed for, could only speak in such a way. The Margaret of the past.
She said she liked him, but her attitude towards him showed not a trace of respect.
Well, had anyone ever respected him until now? Probably not. That’s why he had to be perfect.
‘But if it’s the current Margaret…’
The her he met again on this island didn’t value his status, nor even her own. The current her pursued the essence of a person, not their appearance.
Perhaps she was the noble and strong person he had been looking for.
Enoch frowned, recalling Margaret’s face, and then closed his eyes with a painful groan.
“I’m going crazy.”
He tightened his grip on the bag.
“Do you think they’re both alive?”
Luzef quietly voiced his question.
“They’re alive.”
Enoch muttered as if hypnotizing himself.
Luzef looked at Enoch with an expectant expression, then quickly hardened his face and sighed.
Enoch straightened up, scanned the surroundings, and replied nonchalantly.
“Margaret will come back. If not, I’ll search the entire island to find her.”
As Enoch finished muttering and turned around to return the way they had come,
Spiders the size of human bodies were densely gathered around the cliff, having appeared from nowhere.
“Eek!”
Luzef screamed, apparently very surprised, and collapsed to the ground.
Clang.
Enoch, with a tense expression, drew his sword and scanned the endlessly gathering Monsters.
“It would be good to wipe out the Monsters while we’re at it.”
Wipe out the Monsters? Luzef looked up at Enoch in confusion.
“Wouldn’t it be dangerous since it’s just the two of us?”
He didn’t know when they had gathered so much, but the number of Monsters surrounding them and approaching was enormous. And they continued to gather from the bushes.
Enoch calmly scanned the surroundings and assessed the situation.
“I don’t know how those guys know and gather, but if we leave them alone, the cabin might be surrounded.”
Enoch glanced at Luzef, tilting his head slightly.
“Fighting on the cliff is dangerous, so we need to move. To do that, we need some stimulating bait.”
“S-Surely you don’t mean…?”
Enoch smiled at Luzef’s flustered question and slashed his arm with his sword. Luzef couldn’t even stop him.
“Your Highness! What are you doing!”
Despite his surprised shout, Enoch calmly replied without any agitation.
“If the Berserk state doesn’t stop even after all the Monsters are wiped out, stab me with your sword to knock me out.”
With those words, Enoch moved.
‘If you stab me wrong with the sword, I might die instead of just fainting!’
Luzef internally screamed at Enoch’s absurd words, but he couldn’t move from his spot. Enoch had already disappeared into the Monsters.
Enoch’s sharp blade cut through the air. The blade, momentarily gleaming in the moonlight, was swung rapidly. Following the trajectory of the splendid sword, the Monsters’ green blood scattered like a fountain.
Like a person without brakes, Enoch’s movements never stopped. He was not in his right mind.
He had goosebumps from head to toe and couldn’t move at all. He thought that maybe Enoch had finally gone crazy. He would only regain his sanity if Margaret returned.
Luzef was overwhelmed by Enoch’s madness and couldn’t move an inch from his spot, simply watching him slaughter the Monsters.
And they spent two days like that. Until Margaret appeared with Kaiden.
\ \ \
Eunji, who had been wrapped around my arm, jumped down and crawled on the ground. She was definitely faster than me.
‘Wow. Crawling is faster. She really is a Monster.’
Kaiden, also very curious, stared intently at Eunji’s rear end as he ran.
“Does she grow?”
At Kaiden’s question, I shrugged as I ran after Eunji.
“She’ll grow, right?”
“If she’s the Anaconda baby we saw back then, doesn’t that mean she’ll grow that much?”
At his words, I suddenly got goosebumps and stopped walking. Eunji and Kaiden stopped at the same time and looked at me.
“Don’t say things like that. Eunji won’t grow that big.”
At my words, Eunji tilted her head as if she didn’t understand.
“Isn’t growing that big better? Raise her and train her. She might catch other Monsters for us.”
Thud!! Thud!
A loud noise, as if something was collapsing, echoed in the forest. I was touching Eunji’s belly and was startled and raised my head.
“I think we need to move again quickly instead of standing around like this?”
At Kaiden’s words, I nodded and got up again.
‘It’s ominous. Enoch couldn’t have Berserk stated, could he?’
I tried to suppress the anxiety that surged like a wave.
After running like that for a while, we stopped in front of a clearing. To be exact, it was a clearing artificially created in the middle of the forest where all the trees had fallen.
The clearing was densely filled with spider corpses.
Thick green blood was messily pooled on the dirt floor. I hurriedly picked up Eunji. She was about to walk over the thick green blood.
Not knowing what was going on, she looked up at me with her tongue out. She tilted her head, looking at me with her sparkling eyes, as if asking why I wouldn’t let her go.
“What on earth is this…?”
Kaiden couldn’t close his mouth and scanned the surroundings as if he was dumbfounded. The stench that rushed in the moment the wind blew made me grab my nose.
“Who did this?”
“Who else could it be?”
Kaiden and I were thinking of the same person. Enoch.
Enoch was the only one who could devastate Monsters to this extent.
Bang!
Then, a loud noise was heard not far away.
“Your Highness! Please stop! It’s dangerous!”
The piercing scream sounded like Diego’s.
