How to Live as the Terminally Ill Younger Sister of the Villain - Chapter 15
The bat monsters were much smaller than the six-armed monsters, but they were agile.
They were difficult to hunt as they skillfully dodged using the terrain with many branches.
“Winged ones are always a pain to deal with!”
Mason, unable to contain himself, burst out in frustration. At the same time, a white light erupted from the tip of his sword.
Though faint, the pure holy power caused the bats to momentarily freeze.
“Now!”
Blake and the other knights, who had been waiting for this moment, swung their swords, and with each swing, monsters were successively cut down.
Thud.
After the last bat monster fell to the ground, a moment of silence followed.
“As expected, the Dark Forest is truly the Dark Forest. To think there would be this many monsters, tsk.”
Mason frowned as he shook off the purple blood remaining on his sword.
“This damn holy power isn’t working as I want today either.”
It had been a week since they entered the Dark Forest.
At first, everything went smoothly. As long as they kept good night watch, they could camp at night and advance during the day.
But on the second day, the number of monsters increased dramatically.
They swarmed in regardless of day or night, and once they had to fight non-stop for a whole day.
“It wasn’t this bad even when we went on extermination missions.”
Even Blake’s close aides, who were used to monster extermination, were experiencing this for the first time.
“Moreover, what is this thing that’s neither an orc nor a centaur?”
Mason kicked the fallen six-armed monster lightly as he put away his sword.
The reason why the battles here took longer than other exterminations: all the monsters were ones they had never seen before.
Not knowing their weaknesses, characteristics, or strategies to defeat them, it inevitably took longer.
“We haven’t seen anything like this even in the monster compendiums.”
All of Blake’s close aides, including Mason, had done monster extermination to the point of being sick of it.
There probably wasn’t a knight order in the empire that had faced more monsters than they had.
But even for them, most of the monsters here were ones they were seeing for the first time.
“Surely they can’t all be mutants.”
While it wasn’t unusual for monsters to transform according to their environment, giving birth to unseen creatures, the numbers were too high for that to be the case.
Blake, who had been quietly listening to Mason’s grumbling, briefly replied as he shook the blood off his sword.
“The Dark Forest is a space of chaos, so nothing that happens here should be surprising.”
The Dark Forest was ‘chaos’ itself.
The ground had its own chaos, the sky had its own. Countless monsters were busy tumbling over each other every moment.
As a result, many species declined and went extinct, and just as many new species were constantly born.
Moreover, perhaps due to the mist permeating the area, even the terrain kept changing.
“But even considering that, this is a bit extreme.”
However, even taking all that into account, there were many suspicious aspects to the current situation.
Blake frowned as he examined the corpses after putting away his sword. Then he scanned the direction from which the monsters had appeared and the path they had come from.
“Your Grace, it seems there are no more monsters in the vicinity. Shall we prepare to camp?”
Shawn, another close aide, approached Blake, who was seriously surveying the surroundings and asked.
“…No. We’ll go a bit further.”
“But Your Grace. We’ve been up all night due to the battles. Everyone is very tired.”
“That’s right, Your Grace. Rather than moving further and potentially encountering monsters…”
Mason agreed with Shawn and spoke. But Blake interrupted and asked,
“Don’t you find this situation strange?”
“What do you mean?”
“This one, these ones. And all the monsters we’ve faced so far.”
Blake explained, pointing at the corpses with his scabbard.
“They’re all different species. Even if they’re types we don’t know, it’s clear they’re not the same kind.”
“Why is that important?”
“Do you think it’s normal for such diverse individual entities to show this kind of organized movement?”
“…”
When going on monster extermination missions, they usually prepare for only one species.
Normally, only one type of monster inhabits a single area. Even if there are others, they’re usually just scavengers feeding off the leftovers of the main inhabitants.
Fundamentally, monsters, unlike magical beasts, were creatures made more of instinct than reason. They were beings incapable of cooperating with other species.
They were too busy fighting each other for territory to engage in cooperation or mutual assistance.
Yet now, these monsters were launching coordinated attacks against Blake and his aides.
It was beyond common sense.
“Moreover, they’re pushing us to our limits, but also pacing themselves so we don’t collapse.”
It wasn’t just coordinated attacks. The timing of their hit-and-run tactics was impeccable.
Just when things seemed to be getting easier, monsters would swarm in, and when it became truly overwhelming, the attacks would subside.
But if one thought the monsters’ intelligence had developed, that wasn’t the case either.
The way they charged in like bulldozers couldn’t be assessed as high intelligence.
Realizing the strangeness of the current situation after Blake’s explanation, Mason’s expression turned serious.
Once they became aware, drawing a conclusion was easy.
“It seems the Magic Tower is not pleased with our visit.”
After all, only the Magic Tower, which ‘controls’ this area, would be capable of manipulating the Dark Forest monsters in this way.
“They probably intend to drain our strength completely before we arrive.”
It was clear that if they reached the Magic Tower in a fatigued state, the Magic Tower would have the upper hand in any negotiations.
“Wait, is it possible to tame and freely control monsters like this? They’re not even magical beasts!”
“We’re dealing with the Magic Tower. It’s beyond our common sense.”
It was a speculation that monster taming might be possible for them.
“Sigh, I told you we should just use the Tower’s Path. What’s the point of all this trouble?”
Mason grumbled, letting out a deep sigh.
“Isn’t the Tower’s Path made for times like this? Aren’t they just venting their frustration because we’re not using it?”
The ‘Tower’s Path’ laid out by the Magic Tower was a road created for those who might want to visit the Magic Tower.
It could be considered the safest area in the Dark Forest, with restricted monster access and no confusing mist.
“I’ve explained several times that it’s because we might run into others unnecessarily.”
Blake responded stiffly to Mason’s complaints, causing Mason to pout.
“Yes, yes. I know I get it. No one should know that Your Grace is trying to meet the Tower Master.”
The Empress thought that the Kadenhart ducal family had completely collapsed and had let her guard down.
Blake saw this as an opportunity. While she was distracted, he needed to regather the vassals he had lost and rebuild the foundation that had crumbled.
So Blake came to meet the Tower Master as part of building his power base.
If he could succeed in allying with the Tower Master, he could draw all the ambivalent neutral factions to his side.
Above all, with the Tower Master’s support, he wouldn’t need to cling to maintaining a friendly relationship with the Sun God’s Order as he did now.
For Blake, the Tower Master was like a key that could solve numerous problems. He was essential.
That’s why, even knowing that the Tower Master had zero interest in politics, Blake couldn’t give up on this journey.
“How likely is it to meet anyone using the Tower’s Path anyway? There are barely two or three visitors to the Magic Tower in a year.”
Regardless, Mason didn’t stop his complaints.
“Besides, after all this hardship, we don’t even know if the Tower Master will agree to meet us.”
He continued his monologue even though no one was responding.
“I heard the Tower Master has a willful and extreme personality, and seeing this behavior, it seems to be true.”
His dissatisfaction was more pronounced because he didn’t like that Blake was so politically cornered that he had to go to these lengths.
“I wonder if we’ll even get to see that handsome face. No, how is it that not a single person has seen that guy’s face? Even the Magic Tower’s mages don’t know, they say. Ha, are we sure this person actually exists?”
With Mason’s unceasing voice as background, they continued their heavy footsteps.
They looked like they might collapse at any moment, but they didn’t stop.
If all this was indeed the Magic Tower’s doing, as long as Blake himself pushed them to their limits, the monsters wouldn’t appear.
It was a simple hunch, but Blake had never been wrong about his ‘hunches’ in his life.
That’s why he kept moving forward, dragging his body that felt as heavy as a water-soaked towel.
Not collapsing despite reaching their limits was already a familiar experience.
