"Something you want to tell me?"
However, it was not a situation where I could have a carefree conversation with the little one. There are times when I try to soothe the little one by saying I will listen later.
"Lady!"
I turned around at Rudis's urgent shout.
“That. The other world..."
The liquid inside the glass tubes standing side by side was stained blood red. Moreover, it seemed as if it were breathing, squirming as if it were boiling.
The fear I felt when I first followed Eon into the exhibition hall returned. I asked the little boy, who was still moving as if he were conducting an orchestra.
"Did you make it like that?"
The little boy smiled brightly and nodded.
"I told you. There is something I want to tell Sally."
“What on earth?”
I soon changed my mind. It was because I instinctively felt that this was not the time to ask questions, but the time to stop the little kid.
"Stop..."
It was before the words could even be finished. With a sharp roar, glass shards flew in all directions. At the same time, a red liquid surged up as if something suppressed had exploded. It looked just like red champagne pouring out after shattering a giant bottle.
"Lady!"
In an instant, Rudis wrapped his body around me. At that moment, I was holding a little one in my arms. We tried to protect each other like a mother bird cradling her smaller chick. However, since I hadn't expected Rudis's protection, I looked at him reproachfully after the storm had passed.
"What if you got hurt?"
"I told you, I came to protect the Lady."
Something red trickled down Rudis's forehead. I had hoped it had simply turned into that terrible liquid, but what was on my hand was warm blood.
“Hurry up and get treatment.”
"Don't worry about it. It is just a glorious scar. More importantly, that child seems to have something to say."
Only then did I turn my gaze to the child in my arms. As soon as our eyes met, the little one reached out a finger as if they had been waiting.
“Look at Sally.”
What the little boy pointed to were the corpses lying on the floor. The mere fact that the glass tubes were shattered into pieces and the room was completely stained with blood was enough to send me into a state of panic. In the midst of this disaster, I had completely forgotten that there were corpses inside. The little boy kindly reminded me of it.
"Why did you do that? You shouldn't play games with corpses!"
The plight of those who were not only killed by the murderer but were also being humiliated without even being properly buried was truly tragic.
“It’s not a corpse.”
The little boy smiled brightly. It looked as if he was telling me to rest assured, but in reality, I couldn't.
"Uh. Th-th-th-that!"
Count Hyrn's voice, bordering on a scream, signaled the beginning.
The corpses were moving. It did not appear as though they were being swept up in the commotion. They lifted their heads and pulled out their tangled brown hair strand by strand. Having tidied their hair in their own way, they now placed their hands on the ground to stand up and began to walk on their own two feet.
The green eyes gleamed brightly. My mouth dropped open as I heard a familiar song.
"You must not break the rules."
"The rules of the Magic Tower are a matter of practice."
Pity? Did you really know what those things were and dare to pity them? Whenever that song was played, something bad always happened. I had to get out. If I stayed in this exhibition room, something terrible would surely happen.
I pulled in Rudis, who looked as if he had lost his mind at the strange sight unfolding before his eyes.
"Let's go. Hurry up."
Little one, what should I do with this little one? I hesitated for a moment, but I snatched the child's hand. I felt like something even worse would happen if I left him here.
"Run away first."
"Yes?"
"I can't leave Count Hyrn behind."
It was only then that Count Hyrn, who was rolling around in the sea, came into view. He was unable to control his body, whether he had been injured by the fall or was simply terrified.
"It doesn't matter! I don't care what happens to that person..."
However, the male protagonist, full of a sense of justice, thought differently from me. Rudis, who had run over to the Count before I knew it, picked up a large shard of glass that had fallen on the floor, wrapping it in a handkerchief.
“Get out of the way!”
He swung the glass shards like a knife.
"Please come this way!"
The Count, emboldened, dragged his body along the ground. As if he looked like good prey, the resurrected corpses slowly gathered around him with their heads half-raised.
"Who broke the rule?"
"The one who broke the rules."
"The one who broke the rules."
"Sir Rudis! Get out of the way!"
Even though they took the form of young women, their power was not human. They were by no means opponents that Rudis could stand against.
Crash.
Whether by chance or intentional, a shard of glass Rudis was swinging pierced the neck of one of them. The same liquid that had soaked the room gushed from the wound. However, they did not stop moving. They reached out their hands toward Rudis.
'They're going to kill him. They're going to kill Rudis.'
I knew all too well how ruthless those things were. My vision blurred, my mind became a jumble, and I recalled the day I lost Karina. The neighing of horses, the damp air, blades cutting through the void, and shadows creeping closer.
I let out a small sound, like a mumble.
“Stop.”
I didn't want to become that helpless fool again, hiding behind Karina and doing nothing. One experience of someone helping me die right before my eyes was enough. I couldn't let Rudis go like this, too.
I clenched my fist tightly. I felt an energy around me similar to what I had felt when the little kid moved his hand, but this time, instead of burrowing into me, it seemed to want to explode outward at any moment. It felt as though it were urging me to choose between spitting it out or swallowing it. I screamed as if to shake it off.
“Stop everything!”
What came out of my mouth might not have been a voice, but hundreds or thousands of ice shards. It seemed those shards had frozen those things, whether they were alive or dead.
They no longer sang. They did not approach with heavy footsteps either. With eyes that did not even blink, they looked at me as if waiting for my command.
There was no time to be surprised or moved by the sight. I briefly let go of the little boy's hand and led Rudis, who was standing blankly in the middle of the enemy lines.
"It seems... it stopped at the Lady's command."
Rudis muttered as if he couldn't believe it.
“That can’t be right.”
I knew this was merely a lucky coincidence. It was just like the time when the singing and stomping of feet suddenly stopped, when I had barely escaped a crisis thanks to the overlap of my command and Eon's appearance.
"It looks like the owner is on their way..."
Just then, the sound of hurried footsteps was heard. The reason I hadn't heard the noise loud enough to echo down the hallway was probably because of the strange singing.
It was Captain Hanson and his subordinates who arrived a step ahead of Eon.
“This, this.”
Unlike the ferocity with which they stormed into the exhibition hall, the knights hesitated once they actually entered. It was understandable, given that a scene unfolded that no one could have imagined.
"What are you all doing!"
Everyone seemed to snap out of it at Captain Hanson's command. The knights drew their swords as if they had been dropped into the middle of a battlefield.
"Captain! Look at them! The corpses have woken up and attacked us!"
As if he had been waiting for this moment, Count Hanson gave the order to attack at Count Hyren's words.
"Get rid of those ugly things immediately!"
They offered no resistance whatsoever, rendering the weapons in their hands and their imposing presence meaningless. It was as if they were faithfully following my command to stop. However, their blood-soaked appearance was enough to provoke the knights.
The knights wielded their swords even more fiercely than when facing humans. Brown-haired women fell one after another.
"Heart! Aim for the heart!"
As if he had heard something, Count Hyrn shouted at the top of his lungs. Following his words, the tips of several swords were thrust into the hearts of the corpses.
Shrunk.
It was then that I felt a small amount of smoke rising from the fallen thing.
Shrunk.
And once again, smoke rose from another place.
"Captain, the body has disappeared."
Before the hazy smoke had even cleared, a soldier's voice was heard. It meant that what I had seen was not just my own delusion.
"What do you mean by that!"
Still, perhaps because he was the head of the military police, Captain Hanson was the first to move.
“Sally.”
Amidst the chaos, a small, faint breathing sound was heard. It was the sound of laughter that made one look for the little one.
"Sally, look closely; there's nothing to be afraid of."
At the same time, Eon's low voice rose.
"So you were the one causing the commotion."
He slipped between the little kid and me without a sound, but now I didn't even have the energy left to be surprised.
"Because you are deceiving Sally."
"Ha, you regained your strength unnecessarily quickly."
I was furious watching them chatter away as if nothing were wrong amidst a commotion that felt life-threatening. I felt like I should grab the two of them and make a scene, but unfortunately, I was not allowed to do so.
"Where have the people gone, leaving only stones behind? Does that make sense?"
A stone? A stone, indeed. My gaze was drawn to one spot at Captain Hanson's voice. It must have been because it was such a preposterous remark. But absurdly, it was exactly as he said. Where the body should have been, a green stone the size of my fist was shining.
"C-Captain Hanson. It's not just a stone. This is a huge magic stone."
Count Hyrn, who had an uncanny ability to spot things that could be profitable, cautiously added.
"A magic stone of this size would be more than enough to buy a small castle. No, rather than that, I never knew a magic stone of this size existed."
"Marquis Grannois, shouldn't you explain the situation by now?"
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