COARV Chapter 29

Before I knew it, Lesche had donned lightweight celestium armor.

In this world, celestium armor was as essential to knights as horses. Demonic beasts were the continent's common enemy. Thanks to successive refinements by various nations, celestium armor had become far more comfortable to wear than traditional armor. Of course, the price remained astronomically high...

The armor Lesche currently wore was among the lightest, with the simplest donning and doffing mechanisms. Sufficient to block the demonic energy of the one or two beasts we'd need to handle immediately.

Reassuring as that was, the situation itself made no sense. Why had a demonic beast appeared?

Because I haven't visited the glacier in days?

I'd skipped glacier inspection today to retrieve Abigail from prison. I'd skipped yesterday too. But that was only a few days. Normally, even skipping an entire week rarely brought beasts this far down...

Rarely. Not never.

The probability was extremely low, but beasts could appear. At that moment, a light knock sounded against the carriage door before it swung open. Linon.

"Lady Seria! Are you all right? Oh—it's warm in here. Like heaven."

Looking ready to cry, Linon quickly took the seat opposite me and curled into himself. Seeing his pale blue cheeks, I asked, "Were you riding a horse?"

"No. I was in the supply wagon."

"Why didn't you come to this carriage?"

"I do have some tact... No, no. We departed in such haste that I had things to check..."

Trailing off, Linon suddenly said, "Oh!"

"My lady. You know we'll arrive at Laurel Manor soon, yes? Once you enter that place, you must not speak formally to anyone—not me, not the knights, not the servants. Anyone. Otherwise we'll die. Demons live in that estate."

The severity in Linon's voice was genuine. His expression held a touch of fear. Those 'demons' seemed connected to whatever Lesche had found difficult to explain earlier. I was about to ask more when—

"M-My lady, quickly, behind me..."

"What?"

"Hk—"

Linon's breath caught audibly. His gaze had turned toward the window, and reflexively I looked through the glass too.

"..."

My own breathing stopped cold.

Impossibly, a demonic beast stood there. Far more grotesque than any illustration I'd seen. Its skin was black as carved-out light, its protruding blood-red gums and teeth evoking visceral revulsion. Though I'd inspected the glacier frequently as a Stern, I'd never seen a demonic beast this close. Its two differently colored eyes lacked focus, rolling wildly in their sockets with wet gleams.

More than anything else—

The beast had a completely human form.

That was the most horrifying part. Unlike ordinary humans, its bulk was massive, its arms grotesquely long, dragging on the ground, its height easily three meters. But its basic shape was human, making it all the more nightmarish. I'd heard that witnessing a demonic beast for the first time caused mild nightmares at best, complete mental breaks at worst. Seeing one now, I understood perfectly.

And this beast—it was standing before the carriage window, staring at us. Wasn't it?

The instant instinct struck to leap from the carriage—

The beast's mouth gaped wide and it bit into the carriage with a sickening crunch.

"My lady!"

At Linon's cry, the carriage lurched violently. The horse screamed. The carriage tipped.

I screamed and curled into myself.

"My lady!"

"There's another one!"

"The carriage is under attack!"

A knight's urgent shout rang out.

"Linon!"

Crawling through the shattered carriage frame, I grabbed Linon's arm and pulled hard. Fortunately, he hadn't lost consciousness.

"My lady! Q-quickly, escape toward the supply wagon...!"

Linon's words cut off. A black stain bloomed across his cheek. The reason humans couldn't stay near demonic beasts—

Demonic energy.

"..."

Cold dread crawled down my spine. Slowly, I turned around. The beast. The beast had caught Linon's ankle with its grotesquely long arm.

"Linon!"

I screamed and pulled his face into my arms. Unlike celestium that completely repelled demonic energy, Sterns could only purify it to some degree. Though Seria's innate purification power was weak, this much energy seemed manageable.

"Get down!"

A knight immediately charged the beast with drawn sword. Clang! An ear-splitting metallic screech—and the knight's body flew backward. My eyes widened. I'd known. I'd known demonic beast bodies were hard as metal. I'd learned it from the original novel, from the Stern knowledge embedded in Seria's body. But experiencing it firsthand was an entirely different matter.

The beast's mouth gaped wide. Its other hand reached for me—

Thunk. The grotesque arm fell severed to the ground. I looked up. Lesche's back filled my vision.

It happened in an instant. Lesche leapt and cleaved through the beast's neck. Dazed, I watched the beast collapse and watched him sprint toward me in a single bound.

I stared blankly as he dropped to one knee before me and asked urgently, "Are you hurt?"

"No... I'm not hurt."

He checked my condition thoroughly yet quickly. Only after confirming I truly bore no injuries did he exhale quietly. Lesche jerked his chin toward the back of Linon's head.

"Is that one dead?"

"Im nod ded (I'm not dead)..."

"If you're not dead, why are you acting like it?"

"Ah, yes. I was purifying the demonic energy..."

"How much longer do you need?"

"I'm finished now."

"Then let go."

Lesche grabbed Linon's shoulder and yanked with what felt like unnecessary force. I obediently released my arms and moved to stand—only to find myself lifted again. Lesche had picked me up once more. While I stood flustered, he carried me and called to the knights as though nothing was amiss.

Meanwhile, Linon was checking his ankle with tears welling in his eyes.

"It's still attached... I thought the beast would tear it clean off..."

"Let me see your face. Good. It's fine."

I sighed in relief. The original novel constantly described Seria's purification power as weak, so I'd worried—but fortunately Linon's face was clean. Not a trace of demonic energy remained.

"Thank you, my lady. Thank you..."

Linon sniffled. It hadn't actually been difficult, but having the Grand Duke's chief aide crying in gratitude was objectively a good situation.

Meanwhile, the demonic beast corpses were burning to black ash. If something that size didn't decompose, disposal would have been a real chore. More importantly, leaving them would have been visually horrific.

I had a feeling I'd be having nightmares tonight too.

"Your Grace. We cannot continue using this carriage."

"Completely wrecked."

Lesche clicked his tongue at the half-destroyed carriage and looked skyward. A knight spoke with concern.

"The snow shows no sign of stopping."

"What about the supply wagon?"

"Intact, but it can only carry one person."

"And it's slow."

I'd been practically abducted by Lesche without time to change clothes because of this sudden blizzard. Prioritizing speed to avoid blocked roads, our procession consisted of only two carriages—one supply wagon, and the passenger carriage Lesche and I had been riding that just got mauled by a beast.

"We'll have to ride. My lady."

"Ah, yes."

As I prepared to dismount from Lesche's arms, he asked, "Where are you going?"

"You said to ride?"

"In that outfit? We don't have time to retrieve riding clothes from the supply wagon."

"No, I can ride perfectly well if I just remove this blanket."

True, I was currently dressed like a proper noble lady—in flowing nightclothes. But I could tolerate that much discomfort. This confidence came from Seria's excellent horsemanship.

What I regretted was the blanket. This blanket with blue silk outer covering was warm, light, and soft—practically my beloved comfort blanket.

"Planning to freeze to death?"

"Pardon?"

Lesche jerked his chin toward a nearby knight.

"Remove my cloak. Spread it on the ground."

"Yes, Your Grace!"

The knight immediately unfastened Lesche's cloak and laid it on the ground. Lesche set me down on it, then suddenly stripped away the blanket wrapped around my body and began rolling me up from the shoulders. He pulled the cloak up like wrapping paper and tied it firmly below my waist. What was happening?

"Seria Stern."

"...Yes?"

Lesche exhaled and spoke with irritation threading his voice.

"Your arms are completely frozen. Do you want to die of exposure?"

"No..."

I answered cautiously, but Lesche's expression didn't change. I understood he was worried about me, but the anger in his voice was honestly frightening.

"Your Grace, it's my fault. Miss was purifying me, she couldn't help..."

Linon spoke up for me in a small voice. But as Lesche said, I hadn't even registered that my arms were cold. My body had frozen helplessly before the beast.

It struck me anew just how incomprehensibly formidable Lesche was. How could he face such a grotesque creature without the slightest hesitation and dispatch it instantly?

Lost in that thought, my body suddenly lifted again and in an instant I found myself astride a horse. Even more—Lesche mounted behind me. I'd been reduced to a blanket-wrapped grub held in Lesche's arms, an absurd predicament.

"Your Grace... am I cargo?"

"If you were cargo, you'd be loaded in the back."

"More valuable treatment than cargo, then. Though right now I feel exactly like kimbap... no, like a grub."