WOSE Chapter 11

Someone's shout tore through the air, followed by screams of horror erupting from all directions. Iyu, who had tumbled to the floor of the carriage, scrambled to her feet and thrust her upper body out the window to assess the situation.

Outside was already pandemonium.

Beneath a massive shadow that seemed to have plunged the world into sudden night, an enormous quicksand pit shaped like an inverted cone was swallowing everything—including the rear carriage—piece by piece. The coachman and horses that had fallen from the supply wagon clawed desperately at the ground, thrashing wildly to avoid being sucked into the earth.

"Ahhh!"

"Help me!"

And at the center of that chaos...

Iyu craned her neck back until it ached. The source of all this disaster was slowly revealing itself through the thick clouds of sand.

When she finally confronted the monster's complete form, Iyu froze solid.

"Why is that here..."

"R-run!"

The sand serpent that emerged from beneath the dune was exactly as its name suggested—elongated like a snake, covered in bumpy scales. Horrifically, it had no head. Instead, the end of its body split into four sections like a cross.

Uuuung!

With a noise closer to vibration than animal cry, four massive flaps of flesh yawned open like a trap. Inside that hideous maw, spiral rows of saw-like teeth glinted.

Faced with a monster larger than most buildings, the priests' faces turned white as if they might faint at any moment.

The knights were the first to recover their wits. Kalix's expression hardened as he muttered a quiet curse, then immediately drew his sword.

"It's dangerous, so absolutely do not leave the carriage."

After firmly instructing Iyu, he shouted roughly at the coachman.

"Get forward now!"

Kalix spurred his horse toward the monster at a speed incomparable to before.

The stunned coachman finally came to his senses and began shaking the reins furiously, whipping the air.

"Hiyah!"

Repeated shouts and someone's screams, a roar like the earth itself twisting. Inside the carriage rapidly distancing itself from all that, Iyu could only pour out cold sweat.

'Why did a sand serpent appear instead of desert wolves?'

She'd expected a monster to appear during the desert crossing, expected the resulting chaos. But in her previous life, what she'd faced wasn't this bloated monster but a pack of starving desert wolves.

'Besides, I heard sand serpents are nocturnal and not particularly aggressive creatures, so why...'

What had changed was the size of the party, and the person leading it. Just that difference—yet why did it produce this result? Even as she thought it through, her blanched mind offered no meaningful answer.

As confusion mounted, someone near the carriage shouted loudly.

"It's dangerous alone! Come this way!"

It was Kelgrida, who until moments ago had been behind the carriage.

'Why isn't she joining Kalix, but coming toward me as I move away from the monster?'

Shouldering a poleaxe as large as her body, she shouted urgently again.

"There are probably more around here!"

It was a voice filled with certainty, carrying an odd sense of déjà vu.

"I'll protect you no matter what! Quickly, to the right!"

Kelgrida spurred her horse toward the carriage without hesitation, delivering that familiar line once more.

Through the hazy dust, the woman's face flickered briefly into view. Not a trace of confusion crossed it. In that moment, a numbing realization struck like a blow to the back of the head.

'Could this be her doing?'

Iyu recalled the more confused reactions of the others compared to before, Kalix's more serious expression.

With the sand serpent's appearance instead of desert wolves, everyone's actions and words had shifted slightly—except Kelgrida's words, actions, even timing remained identical to the previous life.

Too identical to be coincidence.

While Kalix dealt with the desert wolves, the carriage had evacuated forward, and she'd been too terrified to come out or assess the situation, only trembling.

Then Kelgrida had chased after them, warning of danger in exactly the same way and demanding the carriage move right. Shortly after, they were attacked by a wolf that had broken away from the pack, and the carriage overturned.

As a result, Iyu had been thrown from the carriage into danger.

The one who saved her had been Kelgrida. Kelgrida, who leapt into the wolf's jaws in Iyu's place, even ended up injured in the leg.

'That's why I felt grateful and guilty, why it was harder to refuse her request to remove the darkness.'

But what if all of it had been her intention?

The White Desert belonged to Nidavellir territory. Especially for dwarves who had to cross the desert repeatedly, they would know perfectly well how to lure or avoid desert creatures.

Above all, hadn't both the desert wolves and sand serpents appeared from the rear where Kelgrida had consistently positioned herself?

'Still, no matter how much she wanted to create a debt, would she really orchestrate something like this...'

Yet was it deeply rooted distrust? Why did her speculation feel like the correct answer rather than delusion?

She had no proof that all this was truly Kelgrida's plan. But...

After briefly confirming Tamia, who had curled up in fright, Iyu's expression twisted viciously.

Iyu stuck her head out the open carriage window again and shouted at the coachman.

"Turn left!"

"What?"

The coachman had been about to pull the reins right, following Kelgrida's request.

But if her speculation was correct, another threat would strike the carriage the moment she drew close to Kelgrida.

Just as it had in her previous life.

"Turn left right now!"

"B-but..."

The coachman holding the reins looked back and forth between Kelgrida approaching from the right and Iyu hanging from the carriage window, at a loss.

"If you want to live, hurry!"

At her second urging, the coachman squeezed his eyes shut and yanked the reins left.

But perhaps the decision came too late. The carriage tilted precariously again. Just as she'd predicted, another quicksand pit was forming ahead and to the right—in Kelgrida's direction.

Smaller than the rear one, but still large enough to easily crush a carriage or two, a sand serpent burst up from the sand.

"God have mercy..."

The coachman who had barely escaped danger once let out a groan.

Iyu clung desperately to the swaying carriage and craned her neck upward. Even at this new threat's appearance, Kelgrida showed little surprise, merely clicking her tongue at the carriage pulling away.

Kelgrida dropped a small pouch from her waist somewhere in the desert, then quickly turned her horse's head and began chasing the carriage.

Iyu pulled her body back inside the carriage and scooped up the trembling child.

Then, this time, she flung open the carriage door instead of the window.

"Wh-what are you doing!"

The savior hanging from the door looked so dangerous that even the stunned coachman cried out in horror.

"Abandon the carriage!"

At this rate, the carriage would overturn, and there was a strong possibility Kelgrida, being closest, would be the one to rescue them.

In that case...

"You trust me?"

She looked down at Tamia and asked. The child nodded and burrowed into her arms.

"White Branch!"

Iyu, half-leaning out the door on the opposite side of the tilt, shouted roughly.

The moment she thought her voice might not carry through the commotion, the Hundredth White Branch, who had been riding from the front toward the rear, abruptly turned his head.

Across the distance, their eyes seemed to meet.

Discovering the savior on the verge of falling, he drove his horse toward her with trick-riding skill.

The instant Iyu hurled herself from the carriage, clutching Tamia, was precisely then.

"...!"

Without hesitation, the Hundredth White Branch plunged into the quicksand and caught them stably.

Solid, cool gauntlets wrapped around her waist and pulled. Hanging from his side, Iyu released the breath she'd been holding.

'We're alive!'

She'd been prepared to roll across the ground or fall into the quicksand. The knight she'd chosen seemed more capable than expected.

The Hundredth White Branch, who exited the quicksand as easily as he'd entered it, set her down outside with a light touch.

The moment her body, which had dangled in the air like a doll, fully touched the ground, Iyu immediately checked on Tamia first.

Contrary to her worry that the child would be horrified by her reckless act, both plump cheeks were flushed bright red with excitement.

If the situation had allowed for writing in her notebook, she surely would have shown a sentence like "Amazing!"

Only then did Iyu exhale and step toward the man who'd saved them.

She wanted to thank him—after all, she'd escaped Kelgrida's clutches completely unharmed thanks to him.

But the massive man atop his warhorse briefly fixed his golden eyes on her as if in reproach, then departed.

He rode alone toward the front sand serpent. Likely because knights and Kalix were already engaged with the rear one.

Wouldn't it be better to help deal with the rear one together and receive support, she thought for an instant.

Then the longsword glinting in the sunlight traced a wide arc and cleaved the object in two.