The sight of the clear night sky and the smell of the grasslands brought a smile to Jelyn’s lips. Finally, they had made it out.

She had to admit–walking with a figurative knife to their back had made their progress smooth and quick. Within just a quarter of an hour, they were able to cover the same distance that took them an hour before Manna arrived.

Well, she could have done without the suffocating sensation she felt whenever Manna was nearby, though. But at the very least, the apathetic huntress had hidden from view and simply guided the group through verbal instructions. And it worked well. Her words were always precise and to the point. When she took over the job of leading them, the group no longer had to suffer from setbacks such as major slime blockages. Before they knew it, they had reached the sewer's exit.

Since it was the main discharge point of the sewer system, the opening was made to be able to handle a large amount of runoff. It used a small branch of the Capital Stream River, which was directed to a long and unnecessarily-complicated set of tunnels underneath the city before being ejected back into the main river.

Their next destination was a decently-large burrow at the edge of the forest. It was one of the Pharmacy Guild’s temporary holding areas for tools and supplies. Though it was protected by multiple barriers and hidden underneath dense foliage, Jelyn had already memorized the location and the method to unlock it. Being forced to retrieve items there thrice within a single day helped a lot.

“Keep moving,” Manna commanded. Though her voice was clear, Jelyn couldn’t identify where Manna was. It was like the voice came from everywhere and nowhere at the same time. That fact confused the beastkin siblings, who were looking around with baffled and alarmed faces.

Speaking of which, Muon was comfortably asleep on Jelyn’s back. Dorian didn’t bother herself with the mystery of Manna’s ability to hide and simply basked in the beauty of the starry sky. And as for Gered…

“What’s wrong? I said keep walking.”

Her words were unnaturally heavy. Even without being the focus of Manna’s ire, Jelyn could still feel a horrifying sensation creep up her neck. Worse yet, it was at the same intensity as it was when she was the one being targeted. It was like there were lead balls stuck to her throat and weights attached to her limbs. Her poor little heart had to work overtime to compensate for the pressure she felt. She could only imagine how it would feel for the real victim.

“...”

“Looks like your tongue is useless. Should I cut it off?”

“No! I… I’m w-walking…!”

It was genuine torture. Jelyn had never heard someone’s voice shake so much. Gered looked arguably worse than she did back when her friends died. Of course, she didn’t know what she looked like back then, but she knew she was right on the money. At that moment, only fear was what was keeping Gered upright and in motion.

Jelyn didn’t know much about Manna. She knew that she was a D-ranked adventurer with Matthias’ group. She also knew that she was a huntress who specialized in traps and archery. That was it. For anybody else, that kind of background knowledge would give the impression that Manna was an unremarkable person. D-rankers were the most common, and hunters were one of the basic roles a party had. In fact, it wasn’t rare to see a party have more than one hunter. However, after experiencing what it was like to earn the ire of such a person, Jelyn felt that what little people knew about her was a deception.

If looks could kill, then Manna could become easily become a serial murderer.

There was no way a “weak” and “common” adventurer could inject such malice into her eyes. While Jelyn didn’t have the fortune of being able to meet many of her former-fellow adventurers during her short time in the guild, she was quite sure that none of the members of the strongest party of the town can compare to her.

Because otherwise, leaving the Adventurers Guild would have been the right decision after all.

----------------------------------------

They followed the river downstream towards the forest. In order to hide from any nearby monsters, Jelyn had stuffed her mushroom lantern inside her bag. The only things that illuminated their path were the two moons and the light that reflected off the grass. But despite that, it was still very dark. They had to rely on the siblings to guide them forward. But because they didn’t know where the burrow was, they still had to refer to Jelyn for instructions. The additional steps to progress slowed them down considerably. And eventually, both of the siblings had to take a rest.

With Manna’s permission, Jelyn and Dorian set up a couple of blankets on a small pit. It was a difficult ordeal without any substantial source of light. They had to be careful to avoid placing the blanket over a rock or any sharp protrusions on the ground. And since they were so close to the river, they also had to make sure that the ground was dry enough to lie on. Getting robbed of one’s body heat was not a laughing matter. Ideally, they should have a bed underneath them for warmth, but considering the situation, they had to make do with what they had.

After making sure that Ekl and Tisse were okay, Jelyn decided to take a short rest of her own by the river. She was followed by Dorian, while Gered was left to stand guard… even though Jelyn was quite sure that he would collapse out of fatigue the moment his tension loosened even slightly. But that was fine.

Jelyn knew that, as long as Manna intended to keep them safe, then they would be.

After arriving at the riverbank, Jelyn stopped. The breeze felt wonderful on her skin. When she inhaled a lungful of the cold night air, she felt her body involuntarily relax.

She knew that she was tired, but she only realized the extent of her fatigue when an opportunity to rest came by. Even the cold soil felt comfortable as the body heat she had accumulated from extended exertion had warmed it to resemble the sheets she had in her room. A sigh of relief involuntarily escaped her mouth. The moment her entire body had settled, she felt an indescribable weight press on her consciousness. But she remained awake. Despite her drowsiness, her mind was still as alert as it could be. She feared every rustling of the grass or breaking of branches could mean an undead sneaking by. Though she wholeheartedly believed in the huntress that threatened to kill her one time, it was in her nature to be anxious.

At least the sky was pretty. If only they weren’t in a predicament, she would have loved to appreciate the unobstructed beauty of the stars with the children.

“You look content.”

Manna’s voice instantly dispelled all thoughts of rest. Before she knew it, she was already standing at attention. But because of her physical state, her knees almost buckled due to the sudden motion. Thankfully, she managed to gather enough strength to maintain her position.

“What are you doing? Lie back down.”

“Oh. Ah! Okay…”

Her words contained none of the usual spite she directed at Jelyn. After being so used to it, she found the absence of that feeling weird and foreign. It didn’t take long for her to realize why. And in fact, it even sounded… soft.

Nah, she was probably just imagining it.

At the corner of her eye, she saw that Dorian had already fallen asleep on the soft grass. It was a rough time for the children, yet they did their best to stay awake for everyone’s sake. And like Jelyn, they couldn’t help but grasp at the opportunity. That was especially true for Dorian. Despite her arm strength, she didn’t have much stamina. But she still persevered up to that point. It was no wonder that she collapsed the moment she lay down.

But what really disturbed Jelyn was that Dorian’s head was on Manna’s lap.

“Got anything to say?”

“Please don’t kill me.”

And in an instant, Manna’s face grew cold as she averted her gaze to Jelyn.

“What did I do?!” she cried in her heart.

“Relax.”

“How can I relax if you always look like you’re going to stab me?”

Her eyes widened. She felt her mouth slacken in shock.

There was a distinct difference between the dryness of her throat at that time compared to a few seconds ago. Before her jaws dropped, she felt that her mouth was already open. Her ears had also stopped ringing from the oppressive silence that had pervaded them in between the moments when Manna talked.

When she realized what she had done, her heart stopped.

“Oh. Fuck.”

Did she say that out loud?

Judging by the pricking feeling on her skin… yes she did.

“I’m really sorry!”

She really didn’t want to die from such a stupid screw-up.

Manna was the kind of person to press a knife on someone’s neck simply because she was displeased. Normally, she didn’t think she would actually kill someone. But what if there were no witnesses? With everyone fast asleep, she could easily claim anything to the children and they would have nothing on her.

The mere thought sent shivers down her spine.

“... It’s fine.”

“Oh… uhh… it is?”

“It is,” Manna replied with a hint of displeasure. “Now go to sleep.”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Taking her annoyance as a signal to shut up, Jelyn quickly laid herself back on the ground.

That was the start of an awkward silence between the two. As much as Jelyn wanted to get some meaningful rest, her brain simply refused to comply. She was stuck between physical exhaustion and mental agitation. The only middle ground available to her was to lie down and look around. Meanwhile, after stealing a quick glance, Manna was busying herself with coddling Dorian. Though she couldn’t see Manna clearly due to the lack of light, Jelyn was quite sure that she had a smile judging from how warm the air was around her.

On that note, Jelyn thought it was strange. Yes, it was dark out, but for some reason, Manna’s outline looked… off. It was like her body was composed of a consolidated mass of smoke. Try as she might, Jelyn failed to distinguish any of Manna’s features through the dim light of the two moons.

Was it a skill of a professional hunter? Perhaps. But Jelyn knew of other, older hunters back in her hometown, and never once did she learn of such a skill. Perhaps it was magic, then? If so, then all she could do was give up. She didn’t know jack squat about it.

“Why are you still awake?” Manna suddenly spoke. As she did, the blurred outline of her body undulated slightly. Jelyn felt the former’s gaze on her face. “We have to move out soon. Get some rest.”

Jelyn was surprised. Manna sounded genuinely concerned. She couldn’t help but stutter in her reply a bit.

“I… I was wondering what you meant earlier.”

“About what?”

She swallowed her saliva. Jelyn was still nervous around her. Maybe with a moist throat, she would be able to squeeze out her words better.

“You said you came… to fetch us. But then you changed your mind. Why?”

A grunt came from the murky figure beside her.

Jelyn expected some outlandish, callous reply like “It doesn’t matter” or “you don’t need to know.” But she was shocked by not only the fact that Manna replied properly, but also by what she said.

In fact, she had to go against her own heart by asking Manna to explain herself. And she did. Jelyn didn’t hear anything wrong. She felt the blood drain from her face when Manna repeated her words.

“Undead… might appear here?”

The sides of the fog-like figure bulged alternatingly, which looked like she had shaken her head. “Not “might.” It will. Even if no human corpses are under the ground, there will be monster and animal bodies.”

“T-then–! The kids! We need to go back to town!”

“Hold it.”

Manna’s words came quickly and with force, preventing Jelyn from budging an inch from where she was.

“I don’t mind you going away. But the kids stay here.”

There was an almost animalistic duress coming from her words. Jelyn found it hard to argue in fear for her life. But she persisted.

“Why…?”

“Because. I’m not going back. Not yet”

“Not yet? But… what is there to do here?”

“You don’t need to know.”

Jelyn groaned in dismay. She should have expected that, still. It was kind of nice that she wasn’t immediately ignored, though.

She opened her mouth in an attempt to… ask for more information. But then, Manna uttered a sound uncharacteristic of her. Jelyn had no choice but to wait.

“Well. Whatever, I guess,” Manna murmured. Though it wasn’t obvious, Jelyn felt that Manna’s eyes became distant. She then turned to Jelyn and suddenly stated, “I think the necromancer is here, outside. If not, someone else is here.”

“Huh? Wh—” she stuttered. “How? Isn’t the ritual supposed to be at the cemetery?”

“Yes.”

“Then… why can’t we just hide at the burrow?”

“Because it would be useless. The undead can sense the living. But…” Manna’s words suddenly wandered. “Something doesn’t make sense. Why would its influence reach outside? How? There’s no point. The town walls are quite large, and the sewers are populated with a ton of scavenger slimes. It’s impregnable to low-level undead. If they concentrated everything at the graveyard, they could have raised stronger monsters. But they didn’t. And it takes a stupid amount of energy to spread something this far. Why? How?”

That was the first time Jelyn had ever heard Manna talk so much. She was sort of startled. That, and the sense of discrepancy she felt when hearing a normal human tone come from a shadowy, perhaps inhuman figure fascinated her.

“Maybe it’s just a coincidence?”

Of course, she didn’t say that. She preferred having her head attached to her shoulders. If Manna had a sneaking suspicion of something, then the wise thing to do was to look for some way to confirm that. So, Jelyn thought hard of something to say and… actually came up with an idea.

“Maybe it’s a distraction?”

She felt Manna’s gaze bore into her skin. Goosebumps shot up her arm, and she recoiled from the pressure.

“Go on.”

“Y-yes! I mean… they can’t exactly ignore undead knocking on their door, right? If nobody detected the ritual happening, then everybody would be defending the walls… I think.”

“…”

When she finished her piece, another period of grim silence took over.

She was afraid that she may have angered Manna because of such a thoughtless idea. But her fears were quickly abated when Manna grunted in satisfaction.

“That’s a good point. You’re not entirely useless.”

“Thanks… I guess?”

“Very well,” Manna continued. Jelyn blinked a few times. Perhaps she was imagining it, but it seemed like Manna’s tone when talking to her had mellowed somewhat. “As to how it’s done, I think I have an idea. But I need to deal with it if so. Don’t worry, I’ll take care of the kids properly.”

“What about me?!”

A squeal escaped her throat.

“As long as I get them back to the sewers in one piece, I’d have done my job.”

The corners of the obscure figure of mist raised in a shrug. Jelyn pondered over the former’s words for a moment before asking, “Can I help?”

Jelyn had an almost instinctive fear of Manna. It wasn’t like she had done anything to deserve it. But the more she interacted with the huntress, the more that sense of dread settled in. After a while, a feeling of uncanniness had even started to take root. Manna had become something less of a human than a human-shaped monster in her heart. Even so, Jelyn was sure of one thing:

Manna was definitely not a psychopath. It was more like she just openly expressed her aggression toward anybody she didn’t like. As for those she had no particular impression of, she simply acted cold around them. But that didn’t mean she ignored people. In fact, considering her personality, she might be the most conscientious person Jelyn knew. Perhaps that was the reason why she was greatly relieved when Manna said that she would protect the children.

She still wished that Manna included her, though.

“Help?” Manna asked with a ridiculing tone. “You can’t even help yourself, and now you want to help me? The best thing you can do right now is to sleep. Otherwise, you’ll just be dead weight later on.”

“It doesn’t have to be about fighting…”

It wasn’t like she was a combatant in the first place. Even back in her old party, her role was strictly out-of-battle support. Manna seemed to have immediately understood her point and sunk into thought.

“Actually, I think I do have something you can do.”

Jelyn didn’t know why, but when she heard that she could help, her mouth twisted into a grateful smile. What the hell was she doing? She’s afraid of the undead, right? But maybe after mentioning that she couldn’t fight, then her role would be something similar to her old one?

That was the hope she had in her heart.

But when she heard of Manna’s idea, she almost fainted from shock.

----------------------------------------

Jelyn awoke with a start.

It was still the wee hours of the morning. The two moons had barely budged from where she remembered they were when she fell asleep. There was none of the sweet smells that the local flora released in anticipation of the sun. On top of that, she was still tired. Her head ached, and her extremities felt like lead. In a way, it was better to not sleep at all if the other choice was having too little rest.

She took a quick glance at where Dorian was. The little dwarven girl wasn’t there anymore. She managed to catch the panicked shout that rose from her throat.

“Where–?!”

When she shot to a sitting position, she felt a weight on her waist. To her relief, she found Dorian sprawled across her hips, still fast asleep. She sighed and tried to calm down.

“Miss Manna…?” she whispered. The surroundings were quiet. None of the nocturnal insects could be heard. Though she felt the wind blow across her face strongly, she couldn’t pick up the sound of the trees, or even the nearby grass rustling. What was happening?

“Where are the other kids?”

“They’re here.”

A black, murky figure blocked her line of sight. By that point, she had already associated that voice and figure with Manna and thus avoided falling into another bout of panic.

Soon, she saw four children crawl toward her. Despite the darkness, Jelyn was able to make out that every one of them looked terrified. The instant Ekl and Tisse were able to, they jumped towards Jelyn’s shoulders and clung onto her with trembling arms.

When she asked them what happened, they didn’t respond. They couldn’t respond. Words couldn’t escape their throats. Even Gered, who was supposed to be the bravest of the group, could only prop himself on all fours and pant in exhaustion.

“Undead. They’re here.”

Those words snapped Jelyn out of her groggy stupor. Her ears started to work again. Maybe it was all the silence that had numbed it. All she needed was a bit of shock to get going.

Guttural groans and creaking bones could be heard everywhere. There was no escape. They were surrounded.

How long did she sleep? It couldn’t have been a long time. Maybe only half an hour had passed, at most. How could so many undead appear within that short time? Even dungeons couldn’t spawn that many instantaneously.

“You. Get ready.”

“Ha? Oh… right. Shit.”

Jelyn took a deep breath. Did she agree to it? She probably did. But she couldn’t remember if it was a completely voluntary agreement.

“Kids. Give me a second. I need to wash my face.”

She had a bit of difficulty trying to remove the twins’ arms on her neck and chest. They were quite strong despite their age. As expected of beastkin. After the two reluctantly drew back, Jelyn cradled Dorian and handed her over to Gered.

Jelyn knelt on the river and scooped up a large handful of water. Her silhouette was visible on the calm surface. Even though it was downstream of the town canal, the water’s quality was well-maintained by the many slimes and scavengers that lived in the area. It was clean enough.

But it was very cold. With her face still slightly warm from coming right out of slumber, the frigid water shocked her awake. But even so, she still didn’t want to go back just yet. She got another handful of water and stared at it.

With her brain function mostly restored, her eyes were able to adapt to the darkness even better. The silhouette on the water’s surface turned into a poorly-lit reflection of herself.

As a disclaimer, Jelyn actually felt quite calm. She had mostly resolved herself earlier on what she needed to do. Manna had assured her that there was little risk to anybody even if things went south. Jelyn was somehow convinced by that since she knew Manna was the type of person who liked getting to the point.

But there was always a difference between what the mind and the body thought. Just like how some people act when pulling nose hair, they would complain about the pain but continue doing it anyway. A contradiction wasn’t rare between the two. And that was the case with her as well.

She had never seen herself look so terrified before.

Immediately, she splashed the water onto her face again. She had to look away before her appearance shook her resolve. And once the faces of her dead friends came to mind, she shook those away too.

“Nothing will go wrong. If I don’t do this, the kids will be in danger.”

She convinced herself that Manna was right. Even though that person had done nothing but glare at her, Jelyn still thought that everything would go well if she followed Manna’s instructions.

It was just a hunch, though. Or maybe it was just her fooling herself. Maybe the actual reason was that she was just too scared to refuse.

“Ready?”

Jelyn nodded.

By that time, Dorian had just woken up. It was a timely moment.

She squatted before the kids and told them to huddle up.

“I’m going to leave now. I need to do something, real quick. Follow Miss Manna for now, okay? She’ll protect you.”

She didn’t intend to tell them everything. It would be better if they had other thoughts than death in their minds.

Just in case she failed to run away from the undead.