Chapter 10
10
Simone stood still, watching the utterly horrifying sight.
"Hey! Why aren't you dodging!"
To say that Crown Prince Louisby had ever shown such a flustered appearance in the fifteen volumes of books would be an overstatement.
But Simone remained unshaken.
Why else? She wasn't moving because she was supposed to be eaten.
Annoyance surged along with fear, and she shouted.
"Ugh! The smell!"
The revealed monster was more disgusting, cruel, and foul-smelling than she had imagined.
Probably the leather, eyes, hair, hands, and feet that the monster was wrapped in were all made from the corpses of people it had devoured.
It seemed to be trying to imitate a human, but it was only repulsive.
Heeheehee! Heehee!
The outstretched branches clung to Simone.
Simone didn't bother to push them away and said to Louisby in a trembling voice.
"I told you? I get eaten, and when that monster returns to the tree at the main gate, you cut it down."
The composure vanished from Louisby's face. Rotten branches were enveloping Simone's entire body.
He knew he had to wait. But if he waited, Simone would…
But Simone smiled at him.
"If you want to follow the plan, you should jump now."
Unlike her trembling voice, Simone's expression was very calm. Even as her body and face were gradually being wrapped and covered by branches, she looked no different from when she had been skimming through documents earlier.
'Damn it.'
Louisby gripped his sword tightly. And after a brief hesitation, he asked Simone.
"Doesn't it hurt?"
"It's bearable."
It wasn't like there was no pressure, but well, she had spent the past week practicing wrapping her whole body in Mana like a shield, knowing this would happen.
That was what the week had been for. Of course, it was because she didn't want it to hurt.
She had practiced like crazy, fearing that she might be torn apart or crushed as soon as her body was caught by the tree, and now she was incredibly good at creating a barrier.
Thanks to that, she was still holding on.
Hearing Simone's answer, Louisby nodded and headed for the terrace.
"I hope you have enough power to protect yourself."
Louisby jumped over the terrace without further hesitation.
Heeeee! Heeehee!
As he leaped, Simone completely disappeared into the branches.
"What the F***! The smell!"
Along with a scathing curse.
"Haa, what on earth is this!"
Louisby's irritated voice echoed loudly in the vast outdoor garden.
Even after seeing it with his own eyes, he couldn't understand what was happening.
Something that wasn't a person wearing human skin.
The people in the mansion not waking up despite this loud commotion.
And the client being captured by it.
'So the rumors about the Illestone family were true.'
How could this be happening?
And what was the identity of that woman who showed no fear even when caught by the monster!
The more he ran towards the tree, the more complicated his thoughts became.
But Louisby couldn't stop running.
If he didn't somehow cut down that tree before that suspicious woman was really eaten-
Hehehe……. Ehehehehe……! Heeheeheehee!!!
The laughter coming from behind made Louisby stop.
A terribly squelching sound mixed with the laughter.
Louisby reflexively dodged and hid.
That monster.
The man-eating monster was returning to its nest.
If Simone was captured, it would be over if he was captured too.
If that prosecutor does his job well, the tree will be gone tomorrow morning.
And if he fails?
Of course, both the swordsman and I will become nutrients for the tree.
The conversation between Simone and Archduke Illestone came to mind.
If he got caught, it would be over. The job would fail, and they would both become nutrients for the tree.
So he had to keep his wits about him in this chaotic situation.
Louisby watched the Tree Monster while hiding. The stench was overwhelming even here.
Looking at it, the back of the Tree Monster was bulging roundly. Simone was probably buried between those thick branches.
'She's not dead yet, is she?'
The Tree Human wriggled up the many vines with tattered clothes hanging on them, heading towards the main gate.
Then, it gradually stretched out its branches, intertwining them with the branches of the gate, merging them together.
His mind was still complicated, but for now, he just had to think about cutting it down the moment it was completely merged.
"Hoo."
Louisby took a breath and gripped his sword. And it was the moment he took a step closer to the monster.
Creak……, creeeak……. Squeak…….
The monster, which had been gradually merging with the tree at the entrance, suddenly stopped and began to writhe in pain.
Louisby's steps also stopped.
It was a momentary thing. A black aura began to force its way out from between the monster's branches.
'What is that?'
Louisby frowned. It wasn't an aura of good energy.
An indescribable heaviness, a suffocating sense of unease, an overwhelming feeling that couldn't be compared to when he first encountered the monster.
Creak!
The monster trembled as if in pain, but continued to move its branches to merge them. The grotesque imitation of a human form began to turn back into a tree.
Even in the midst of all this, the sinister black aura continued to pour out as if it would burst the monster.
He didn't know what that aura was, but anyway, Louisby pulled himself together and moved.
It was almost time to cut it down.
Finally, the tree became one. The large tree blocking the entrance returned to its original state, as if it had never moved, with all the corpse skin, and solidified firmly.
Louisby stood in front of the tree.
"Haa……. Haa……."
A suffocating tension. The tree was completely still, as if everything he had just seen was an illusion.
The only thing that told him that what had happened so far wasn't an illusion was the black aura flowing out from between the trees.
Cut it down the moment the monster returns to the tree.
Before she dies.
Louisby raised his sword. Then, without a moment's hesitation, he cut the tree.
Thud-!
"Huh? What."
The tree was cut down so easily that it was embarrassing, considering the force he had put into it. As a result, Louisby's body swayed forward and then back.
Wouldn't it be harder to cut down a normal tree?
It was cut down very easily, as if cutting paper.
Just as Louisby was about to pull his sword back in embarrassment-
……Screech!!!!
"Ugh!"
Louisby covered his ears. The monster made a bizarre sound, and then began to wither rapidly, starting from the part where Louisby had made the wound.
The black aura poured out like a flood from the wounds in the tree.
'What is this!'
There was nothing he could understand.
Louisby involuntarily stepped back, avoiding the black aura. When he had seen it from afar, he couldn't tell what this aura was, but after seeing and feeling it up close, he knew for sure.
This black aura. No, not an aura, but Mana.
Death Mana. The Death Mana that the Necromancer, the sorcerer who had now disappeared from the world, used to wield.
Death Mana dried up the Tree Monster as it poured out madly, like sand being poured out.
Screeeech-!
Squeak!
'I have to get her out.'
That client, who seemed too young to handle this kind of thing, was probably still inside that tree. But the power of the Mana that was leaking out was so great that he couldn't get close at all.
Did this tree possess such terrible power!
So this was the Power of Death he had never felt before in his life, the dangerous Mana that had no choice but to disappear from this world.
It was when Louisby barely overcame his fear and took a step.
Boom! Bang!
The tree couldn't withstand the pouring Black Mana and exploded completely.
The withered vines flew in all directions and fell to the ground.
And Louisby could see it in the midst of it.
A girl with black hair, slowly sliding down through the pitch-black Death Mana.
Red eyes looking at him, protected by Mana as if nothing had happened.
"Good job."
"……Excuse me?"
Simone, who looked quite different, shook off the vines and Black Mana attached to her body and approached Louisby lightly.
"You……."
"Is something wrong?"
'You look very different?'
Louisby swallowed the words that were about to come out. Instead, he asked something else.
"Did you make that monster explode?"
At Louisby's question, Simone paused and then smiled.
"The swordsman cut it down, didn't he? Thanks to you, I lived. I almost threw up."
How foul the odor was, no, could it simply be described as foul? What should she call the feeling of being buried in a pile of corpses, it was very painful.
It was so painful that she had unknowingly poured out her power.
She had practiced protecting herself with Mana, but since she had only just started training, the Mana easily fluctuated depending on her emotions.
"……Is that so."
Louisby shook off the strange thoughts and took a deep breath.
"Well, if that's the case, then that's the way it is. Anyway, it seems the request has been completed."
Louisby looked around. The entrance was wide open. The beautiful garden was littered with withered branches.
"Anyway, I'm glad you're safe."
The 300-year-old curse on the tree was lifted. He still didn't know the principle at all, but judging from his conversations with Simone so far, she probably wouldn't tell him even if he asked.
'Well, I can ask her slowly later.'
Louisby looked at Simone, who was looking around.
It seemed that she was not an acquaintance he would simply pass by.
The pouring Black Mana, Simone being protected by it. And the black hair and red eyes that he had only now discovered, as if she had dyed them earlier.
She was definitely a Necromancer.
'I thought they had disappeared.'
To think that the Necromancers, who were all executed and disappeared 300 years ago, were still alive.
Interest arose in Louisby's eyes instead of dissatisfaction and annoyance.
If she was a Necromancer…….
'Maybe my father too…….'
"Ah, it's all over."
Louisby snapped out of his thoughts at Simone's hoarse voice.
Simone, with sleepy eyes, signaled Louisby to go back.
"Now that it's over, let's go to the room."
"You don't seem to have any lingering feelings. You've accomplished something great."
"What great thing."
She was just struggling to survive.
Simone gestured for Louisby to go first.
"Anyway, you've worked hard. Rest well. I need to wash up and sleep. The smell……. Ugh!"
What was harder to endure than the Mana that poured out regardless of her will was the stench.
Simone retched repeatedly and hurried back to her room.
"Rest well."
Louisby bowed to Simone and smiled.
To think that he would meet such an unexpected being in this mansion he had come to investigate. He was lucky.
