Mona had mustered every ounce of her courage to force those words out, but instant regret washed over her.
Rihart, hand gripping his sword hilt, looked down at her with chillingly cold eyes.
‘…Ugh.’
Yet, terrifying as he was, she had no choice but to intervene.
Left to his own devices, this man would butcher the monster in an instant.
And that would be a disaster…
If the details pried from those mercenaries earlier were true, killing the beast haunting the rocky caverns near the hills was the worst possible choice.
‘I need to inspect the site firsthand to see if my theory is correct, but still…’
As Mona stood there on pins and needles, Dominic stepped forward from behind his commander and spoke carefully.
The permission came from Rihart in an indifferent voice.
At Rihart’s order, Dominic swallowed a short sigh and activated a sphere infused with lightning magic.
Whatever had gotten into the commander, once Rihart made a decision, he never revoked it.
There was nothing to do but obey in silence.
Fearing Rihart might change his mind, Mona replied quickly and scurried after the two men leading the way.
The three walked in silence toward the outskirts of the estate.
Passing through the crudely stacked stone fortress walls, cool air tinged with the scent of grass and damp earth brushed against their cheeks.
Dominic explained, showing the map.
Inwardly, he hoped this monster scholar who had barged into their mission would change her mind and return to her lodgings even now.
She, however, did not budge.
‘…Tsk.’
He wondered why she insisted on following them somewhere so dangerous, but since Rihart asked nothing, Dominic held his tongue and simply marched on.
Before long, they arrived at the expedition team's burgeoning base camp.
The illuminated sphere revealed the camp's silhouettes, which had been buried beneath the pitch-black night.
The base camp was barely taking shape.
Across the gentle hills, makeshift canvas tents and palisades of wooden stakes stood enclosed, with a broad clearing in the center secured for the teleportation magic circle.
Mona chewed nervously on her lower lip as her gaze fell upon the stream flowing along the ridge near the clearing.
‘It’s a suitable spot for a base camp, but…’
Her eyes gradually traced the current upstream.
Higher up toward the water source, the vegetation faded into rocky formations where caverns would naturally form.
‘…The beast must be hiding beyond that.’
Dominic took the initiative, stepping toward the slope where water-eroded boulders were stacked in uneven layers.
Mona hastily called out to stop him.
The moment the surroundings plunged into dimness, the atmosphere turned instantly eerie.
With their vision clouded in shadow, taking each step became much harder, and to make matters worse, the incline grew steeper, leaving Mona quickly winded.
In her childhood, she had roamed the rugged eastern demonic realm with ease, but now, having spent her adulthood writing papers all day, her stamina was nothing like it used to be.
‘Ugh, this is exhausting…!’
Her short legs struggled to keep pace with the knights' wide strides, yet Mona gritted her teeth and endured.
She knew that if she fell behind even slightly, Rihart would abandon her without a second thought.
“…”
Meanwhile, Rihart, who had been walking slower than his usual pace, cast a sideways glance at Mona as she managed to keep up without stumbling.
She had bound layers of cloth and rope tightly around her shoes so she wouldn’t slip on the wet rock surfaces.
Yet his decision to allow her along had not been due to such quick resourcefulness alone.
‘…Why follow me when she's so terrified of me?’
Seeing her cower and tremble after rushing out so eagerly to join them had stirred a faint curiosity within him.
There had to be a reason she refused to turn back, even when Dominic subtly offered her an out.
Because that faint spark of intrigue had not yet soured into annoyance, Rihart deliberately slowed his stride so she could keep up.
They climbed the rocky terrain for quite some time.
Then, all three came to a halt simultaneously.
“…!”
A fishy stench, mingling the scent of stagnant water with damp earth, drifted through the air.
The further upstream they went along the water cascading down the rock face, the more pungent the odor became.
A few paces higher, a pitch-black cavern loomed before their eyes.
Mona nodded, sensing the faint trace of reversed mana circulation in the air.
The demonic energy brushing against her skin did not feel particularly threatening.
…Yet that was not the problem.
Casting a brief glance down at the flowing stream, Mona slowly stepped into the cavern.
In stark contrast to the chilly air outside, the cave interior was thick with sultry, suffocating moisture.
Dominic muttered under his breath.
The ankle-deep water had grown viscous with moss, but fortunately, a narrow path wide enough for one person ran alongside the stream tracing the rock face.
At Rihart’s order, Mona, who had been studying the blackened clumps of moss scattered across the ground, held her breath and scurried closer.
The cavern’s passage curved gently inward, the humidity growing denser with every step.
Stopping abruptly, Dominic’s green eyes flashed sharply toward the lower recess of the cave.
“!”
As the magical sphere Dominic held illuminated the damp cavern wall, the faint silhouette of a coiled serpent came into view within a stagnant pool of water.
‘A black and white serpent…’
Mona leaned in to scrutinize the monster's form to verify her suspicion.
Sensing intruders, the creature flared its scales and let out a menacing hiss.
Yet neither Rihart nor Dominic gave the beast a second glance, scanning only their surroundings.
Dominic drew his sword.
Mona urgently caught Dominic’s sleeve.
Rihart watched her desperate intervention with cold eyes before speaking.
Rihart narrowed his eyes.
Just as she said, a tumor-like protrusion dangling right beside the beast’s head was actively bleeding.
That explained why the mercenary band had failed to deal with it, even with the monster in such a weakened state.
‘Besides, this creature would have returned to the demonic realm on its own once it got what it came for.’
Why on earth had they provoked such a docile creature…?
As Mona clicked her tongue inwardly, Dominic exclaimed in disgust.
Seeing Dominic drop into an attack stance, Mona spoke rapidly.
Mona held up a foul-smelling clump of blackened moss to show them.
“Yes. If we want to prevent severe contamination, it’s far better not to draw its blood.”
At Mona’s confident assertion, Rihart furrowed his brow slightly and asked,
