Chapter 92
“Huh?”
Kaiden stopped walking and turned around. Yuanna, who was walking behind him, looked at him with a puzzled expression.
Even Diego, who was walking behind Yuanna, responsible for the rear, stopped walking.
“What’s wrong?”
Even at her question, Kaiden scratched the back of his head and busied himself looking around.
“It feels like someone’s watching……”
Kaiden stopped mid-sentence. It was because the two of them were blinking at him with faces that said they didn’t understand anything.
In the end, Kaiden nonchalantly turned back around.
“It’s nothing.”
He thought it must be because he was being too sensitive and started walking again.
A full half-day had passed since they left the cabin. Yuanna seemed to be getting tired quickly, but she was trying not to show it.
‘I need to find a place to hide for the night quickly.’
Kaiden was in the middle of such thoughts.
“But, Lord, you’re quite surprising.”
Yuanna’s voice came from behind him.
Kaiden didn’t bother to turn around, and continued forward, cutting down the tree branches blocking his path with his dagger.
“After seeing you talking with Lady Flone, I thought you were a more approachable person than the rumors suggested. And you talk a lot more than I expected.”
Kaiden was an individual who carried around as many prejudice-filled rumors as Margaret.
If the Langrid Empire’s crazy lady was Margaret, then the crazy guy was naturally Kaiden.
However, the difference between Margaret and Kaiden was that Margaret was actively involved in social circles, while he rarely showed his face to the public.
The places he occasionally appeared were laboratories led by Wizards or clerics. Moreover, whenever he appeared, he would smash the place to smithereens, so it was no wonder people feared him.
Yuanna continued to try to talk to the unresponsive Kaiden.
“But you’re unusually quiet today.”
“Well, does that matter? If we’re talking about surprises, isn’t Sir Diego the most surprising?”
Kaiden wasn’t so much quiet as he simply didn’t like socializing with people.
The fact that he was with these uninteresting people was all because Margaret had asked him to.
He picked at his ear as if the question was annoying. Then, Yuanna’s laughter came from behind him.
“Ah, that’s true too. Sir Diego looks like that, but he’s terribly fond of cute things.”
At her playful words, Diego protested in a small voice.
“Please respect my preferences.”
Kaiden thought he wanted to tease him, and as expected, Yuanna didn’t miss the opportunity to quip.
“Ah, not just preferences…… Sir Diego is surprisingly scared too, right?”
“No, it’s a misunderstanding.”
When Diego answered with a grumble, Yuanna burst into laughter.
“Misunderstanding? Who was it that shed tears like chicken droppings, saying they couldn’t eat the rabbit because it was too cute?”
At Yuanna’s playful question, Diego finally shut his mouth. He seemed to think it was better to keep his mouth shut.
Even Kaiden thought it was a wise decision.
They pushed through the rough bushes and came out into an open space. Kaiden deftly twirled the dagger between his fingers and put it into the dagger holder tied to his waist.
“It looks like Noel is setting.”
Kaiden propped his chin up and looked up at the sky. A red shadow began to fall on the blue sky.
“This is too open of a space, so it seems easy to get surrounded by Monsters……”
“Lord is right.”
At Kaiden’s muttering, Diego nodded as if he had been waiting for it and answered. He calmly scanned the surroundings and said.
“I think it would be better to walk a little further. It’s dangerous, but since the sun is still up, now is the best time to survey the surroundings.”
“Ah, if we walk a little further from here, there’s a huge river. If we’re looking for a place to spend the night, wouldn’t it be better to be close to the river?”
At Yuanna’s words, Kaiden took out the compass and map that Margaret had given him.
After getting his bearings with the compass and checking his location on the map, he wasn’t too far from where Yuanna had picked up the Key.
He would probably be able to arrive quickly if he camped out for just one night.
Kaiden folded the map and said.
“The area around the river is dangerous because an Anaconda Monster could appear at any time, but it’s easy to get water, so it would be good to be near there.”
As soon as Kaiden finished speaking, the river began to appear faintly between the trees.
“It’s the river.”
Yuanna shouted with a brightening face.
And just as Kaiden and Yuanna were about to walk towards the river, they stopped. It was because Diego had stopped them.
“Please wait a moment. There’s something like a cabin over there.”
When they looked in the direction Diego was pointing, there was a small cabin-like structure built near the river. It was a very small makeshift cabin that looked like it could barely fit three people.
They looked at each other’s faces, expressing their puzzlement, and then slowly approached it.
Kaiden carefully examined the area around the cabin first.
Huge trees were positioned around the cabin like a fortress, and Red Flowers were blooming here and there, creating a bright atmosphere.
“It’s a little different, but it feels similar to what Margaret made.”
At Kaiden’s muttering, Diego, who was examining the inside of the cabin, turned to him with a surprised face.
“Is Lady Flone really able to build cabins?”
“Lady Flone is really amazing.”
Yuanna exclaimed and looked back at Kaiden. Kaiden nodded, acting proud as if he had received the compliment himself.
“Margaret is quite amazing.”
Then, he pulled out a dagger from his waist, twirled it in his hand, and whistled.
“It doesn’t seem like there’s anything dangerous around. The cabin looks fine too, so how about we stay here tonight?”
Kaiden, who had checked the inside of the cabin, asked Yuanna and Diego.
Yuanna and Diego, who had been looking around the cabin and checking its condition, agreed with his words and nodded.
“That would be good.”
As soon as Yuanna finished speaking, they unpacked their luggage inside the cabin. Just as they were finishing up, Kaiden came out of the cabin again.
“I’m going to scout around the area for a bit. I’ll also get something simple to eat.”
“I’ll go with you.”
At Diego’s words, Kaiden shook his head firmly.
“Please protect the cabin. The most important thing in our journey right now is The Saintess.”
Diego nodded in agreement. Yuanna, who had been listening to their conversation quietly, smiled at Kaiden and waved her hand.
“Come back safely. I’ll take good care of the cabin.”
Kaiden frowned and sighed as Yuanna sent him off with a hand kiss. She was difficult to deal with because she tended to be hard to read.
Kaiden roughly nodded in greeting and set out to scout the area with his dagger in hand.
The sky was turning purple. Kaiden moved as little as possible to prepare for the danger of Monsters appearing.
A little while later, he captured a small animal that looked like a rabbit and was about to return to the cabin.
‘Why do I keep feeling a gaze?’
At that moment, Kaiden sensed a strange wave subtly vibrating through the air.
He looked around to identify the source of the sound wave and discovered a pair of eyes staring at him from afar.
“Damn it.”
The yellow eyes shining in the darkness didn’t seem to have any intention of attacking him. It was as if their purpose was to watch.
Kaiden quietly gripped his dagger and took a stance. It looked like a Wolf-type Monster.
After a long staring contest, the Monster soon seemed to lose interest and turned around, disappearing into the bushes.
Kaiden straightened his posture with a somewhat bewildered face.
“What, how unpleasant.”
It was as if he was being watched by a Monster.
Could it be that the Monsters on the island are systematically monitoring us, as Margaret and I speculated?
Moreover, this area is where Tarantula-type Monsters live in large numbers. This was the first time he had seen Wolf-type Monsters roaming around in this area.
It was unsettling, but he would have to tell Margaret about this fact when he got back later. He hoped he would be praised for bringing useful information.
Feeling a little better at the thought, Kaiden hummed and returned to the makeshift cabin.
And there, he witnessed a rather bizarre sight.
“What on earth……”
Red Flowers were blooming so densely around the cabin that it seemed unreal.
Before he left, the flowers weren’t blooming so densely that there wasn’t even room to step. The moon had already risen high in the sky, and these flowers were ominously absorbing the moonlight and blooming even more fully.
“Did you arrive, Lord?”
At that moment, Yuanna came out of the cabin, yawning. Following her, Diego also came out with a somewhat tired face.
“Huh? When did the flowers bloom like this?”
Yuanna looked around at the flowers filling the area around the cabin with a puzzled expression.
Kaiden propped his chin up and carefully observed the flowers.
The sudden increase in the number of flowers, the surprisingly fast growth rate, and the suspicious points were not just one or two.
“I kept seeing these flowers while walking here earlier. They’re pretty…… I’ve never seen such pretty flowers.”
At Yuanna’s muttering, Diego glanced at her.
“If you like them, I’ll pick one for you.”
As he bent down to pick a flower blooming in front of the cabin, Kaiden was startled and stopped him.