Chapter 84

Chapter 84

The bear’s form vanished into blackness before my eyes. The young marquis had covered my eyes with one hand. But the beast’s growl still rumbled, terrifyingly close. Worse still, his body temperature met mine like ice-cold stone. Everything was suffocating with fear. Tears spilled out in helpless, uncontrollable streams.

“Laura! Benat!”

The Duke’s voice came with the sound of approaching footsteps. He was stepping into the cave. I shakily rose to my feet, and the young marquis’s hand fell naturally away from my eyes. Then the Duke came into view, his face tight with worry.

The thought that I was safe now drained every ounce of strength from my body. I nearly collapsed on the spot, but managed to grab hold of the Duke to steady myself. I couldn’t stop the tears from dripping down, though.

“Are you all right?”

“It’s not me—it’s the young marquis. He needs treatment right away.”

I turned my head and met the young marquis’s gaze. He was already getting to his feet, though he didn’t look good. Blood from the bear streaked his pale skin, so ghostly that veins seemed to show through. The wound on his forehead, barely healed, had burst open again.

“Benat, can you move?”

The Duke asked his clearly injured friend.

“Yeah.”

The young marquis slowly wiped a hand down his face. Dark, clotted blood smeared from beneath his eyes, clinging sticky to his fingertips.

“But you’re hurt? What’s wrong with your side?”

“Got a hole in it.”

“Ha… Don’t move. Stay right there.”

The Duke pointed a finger at the young marquis, who obediently leaned back against the cave wall like a well-behaved child. He blinked slowly, exhaustion heavy in his eyes. I could see his chest rising and falling with each labored breath.

“Kyaaah!”

Even so, the beast-shaped ghost hadn’t disappeared—it was still making a racket. I was too afraid to face it directly, so I just clutched tightly at the Duke’s coat. My heart pounded in a frantic, natural rhythm. My mind went blank, offering no solution.

“Are you all right?!”

Then came the priest’s urgent voice.

“Your Grace! Do not leave the young lady’s side. It would be best for someone with divine power to stay near her!”

As his cry continued, the Duke yanked me close and ducked low. Over his shoulder, I caught a glimpse of the animals—a mangled, tangled mass. Then the priest began chanting an unknown prayer. In an instant, the jumbled heap of creatures collapsed in a cascade.

The beings spilled out, one by one shrinking like beads before beginning their ascension. But not every animal rose. Those that failed to reach the sky started fusing back together at random.

“─────”

The priest’s prayer kept going. At its rhythm, the creatures scattered and regrouped into a tight ball, over and over. Fear and tension knotted my stomach, and I hugged the Duke’s back tight.

As the priest had said before, there were far too many—countless souls bound together. Even severing their connections bore no meaningful result. At this rate, he might have to chant endlessly.

“I’ll hold them off—you three need to get out of here.”

The priest must have shared my thought, because he turned and shouted toward us. But with the young marquis barely able to stand, escaping seemed nearly impossible.

“Benat, hold onto me.”

But we had to do something now. The Duke quickly grabbed the young marquis’s arm. I grabbed him too, trying to help him stand. His feet stumbled unsteadily, straining to support his own weight.

“Just hold on a little longer, Young Marquis. Once we tell the detached palace, the imperial physician can treat you!”

I shouted as I watched him take a short step. Then I raised my head and looked ahead. In that moment, a deer’s head loomed large in my vision. My heart lurched, my skin crawling. My whole body froze solid. All I could see were the deer’s black eyes.

The deer quietly tilted its head once, then stepped back a few paces and looked somewhere. I followed its gaze naturally. And there, I found a dying bear. The beast clung to a faint breath. But only for a moment—a sphere-shaped soul began to slip out of its mouth.

The soul didn’t rise into the sky. Instead, it drifted through the air and hung round atop the deer’s antlers. A faint blue light swirled around the small, bead-like soul. It looked almost like a tiny lamp.

“Duke…”

I called out lowly, bewildered.

“I see it too.”

The duke didn’t look back at me, just gave a small nod as he answered.

“That deer… it’s the one that charged at the horse I was riding earlier, isn’t it…?”

‘Maybe that deer is gathering the souls of other animals. I was told that souls, by their nature, push each other away — they can’t cluster together. But that means there might be something out there that forces them together… didn’t I hear that…? So that must be the deer…’

Yes, it was certainly possible. A deer that seemed close to Divine-Beast class could probably summon animal souls without much trouble. Look even now — the bear’s soul was trapped in the deer’s antlers, unable to break free. I couldn’t clearly tell what its goal was, but well, at any rate, it could hold a soul captive.

“Kyaaaah—”

Soon, the deer began to cry out even louder, its voice rising. The piercing wail cut into my ears like a blade. A chilling shudder ran across my skin. I quickly turned to the priest and shouted.

“Priest! There’s something here gathering souls toward itself!”

“Yes, it seems so.”

‘Truth was, I hadn’t noticed until a moment ago, but now that I looked closely, I could tell. For a deer, it had a massive body and a pair of antlers that jutted out stoutly — that proved it. No doubt about it, that was the same bastard that had attacked me.’

‘Is it going to come at me again…?’

‘I took a step back as I thought it. An unavoidable unease settled in. That deer was a soul, yet hadn’t it created wind that I could feel against my skin? A gale so fierce it had startled the horse into bolting. It was almost unheard of for an animal’s soul to possess that kind of power. Maybe that thing was a Divine Beast — or something beyond. If a soul like that decided to attack us without reason, this time I’d be completely helpless.’

“Kyaaaah—”

“But luckily, the deer didn’t seem intent on attacking us right away. It just kept letting out that eerie cry. Above its head, a round soul was radiating a blue light. My gaze was naturally drawn to that shimmer.”

‘What in the world is that…? Why hasn’t the bear Ascended? Why has it latched onto the deer…?’

“Then, suddenly, a thought struck me.”

At my words, the priest sprinted toward us, placing his massive soul between us and the charging deer. Then he spread one hand wide toward the creature. The deer crumpled to the floor as if shoved. The impact knocked the soul loose from its antlers with a soft *thump*, and it began rolling across the ground. It collided with the young marquis’s cold, gleaming dagger—and was sucked into the blade. A bizarre, utterly unexpected phenomenon.

“……The soul’s inside the sword……”

I stared at the short dagger, murmuring in bewilderment. Meanwhile, the deer paced restlessly around the blade. Then, in an instant, it stopped, looked at us, and struck the sharp edge with its hoof—*tap, tap*—as if to say, *Look at me*.

“Seems the deer wasn’t the problem after all……?”

The duke, catching on, spoke as he watched. Then he abruptly turned to the priest.

“Is it possible for that sword to collect souls?”

“Yes…… It is. When you hunt, blood stains the blade. Blood is a soul’s record. The owner of that blood, with a grudge born of it, might have been trapped in the sword, and that vengeful spirit could have drawn other souls to it. That would explain such a mass of souls clumped together. ……Let me test that theory.”

He answered, grabbed the dagger, and hurled it toward the tangled mass of souls around the animals. Countless spirits began to be sucked into the blade. But then it spat out the shape of a massive bear. One by one, the other souls followed, tumbling out in a chaotic, twisted heap.

The priest rushed forward, binding the dagger tightly in a long white cloth. The animals that had been pushing their way out were forced back into the blade. The whole vicious-looking swarm vanished from our sight.

“It’s done! That sword was indeed the one holding the souls!”

He dropped the dagger with a clatter, collapsed to his knees on the floor, and cried out. He seemed entirely drained of energy. I stepped forward and looked down at the dagger, now wrapped in the white sacred cloth. The deer also crept closer, circling the blade.

“*That deer…… Is it worried about the animals trapped in there?*”

I thought, watching the deer as it fidgeted helplessly. And if I was right, the deer had been trying to protect the bear’s soul. That was why it had held it so firmly on its antlers. But my interference had caused the bear’s soul to be trapped inside the sword as well.

“*What should I do……?*”

A wave of awkwardness washed over her. If she’d realized sooner that the deer wasn’t the problem, the bear might have already ascended.