Though the thickness of the shell was getting thinner, it was still a dragon egg so it wouldn't break from such a short drop to the floor.
Seeing that it looked fine, she thought 'Fortunately enough. That's as good as it gets.' and turned her attention to another pressing matter.
"Let go of me! If you don't let go, I'm going to scream! Argh!" Humming shouted loudly, threatening to scream at the top of her lungs.
However, up close, the lord's eyes were a little strange. His eyes were empty as if he had lost his soul and his pupils were vertical slits.
Something wiggled under her butt as Humming frowned at her strange discomfort. In addition, the lord's weight completely crushed her and she could feel his body try to climb on top of her. 1
'Eeeek!'
Humming, who was so surprised that she screamed internally, punched the lord's jaw with all her might. The sound of her fist connecting sounded and a second later, her knuckles throbbed in pain but the lord remained unfazed and didn't seem to feel any pain.
"You crazy man! No! I'm precious!"2
The lord's movements paused when she slammed her knees up and was met with something squishy3. She took the opportunity to scramble out from beneath the lord.
The attack, which seemed to hit the vital spot, no doubt worked as the lord's face instantly paled. The pupils, which had been torn vertically, also returned to their original form for a while. Without missing another moment, Humming frantically scuttled back even more. She felt the fallen egg on the floor behind her waist.
"Creeeee!"4
At that moment, a beastly, anime-like cry came out of the lord's mouth and his pupils pulled into vertical slits again. He couldn't move properly, perhaps because the impact Humming had inflicted on the vital point was too great.
A deep, thick shadow moved under him.
The shadows as dark as a void swirled, gathering like an endless sea of darkness, and moved towards her. Or, to be exact, towards the egg.
Bzzzzz, bzzzzz!
A stream of mana burst forth from the egg , striking at the shadows to threaten it. The shadow stopped and seemed to pulse angrily. It gradually increased in volume; the black void of shadows pooled thickly outwards. As if responding to it, the amount of electricity exploding from the egg also increased. Humming, who was hugging the egg, could immediately feel the increase in power. Though the power the egg was releasing was overwhelming, she guessed that it was forcing itself to do this. Humming hurriedly hugged the egg tighter.
'No, this egg is going to die.'
She felt the temperature of the originally hot egg gradually grow colder. From the looks of it, the more magical power that flowed out of this egg, the faster it seemed to die. It was as if it was squeezing out the remaining mana that had barely been sustaining its vitality.
"No, no, no… don't die. You can't die. You're going to survive, don't die like this."
Humming kept whispering to the egg, hugging it tightly in sorrow.
The bulky shadows were still growing and were gradually rising off the ground. Having gotten to her feet somewhere in the commotion, Humming backed away with a white face. Her back hit a wall. She felt a cool breeze blow around her body and realized that her back had hit the window she was looking out only a little while ago.
Should I jump outside?
The thought crossed her mind for a moment, but she soon gave up. She couldn't escape just by jumping down. From this height, she would seriously hurt her body and she couldn't guarantee that she could protect the egg in her fall. Anyway, this was the lord's castle and her opponent was the castle's lord. The chances of her getting caught were high. It had started raining outside the window at some point.
Whoosh.
Listening to the sound of the pouring rain, Humming thought of Kalia.
'It would have been different if she was here….'
That thought made her laugh.
In times of crisis, your mind turns to the one who it thinks can protect you and their strength… Remembering her strength also reminded Humming of her own weakness. Grieved, she shouted at the enemy, "You, shadow, you… come. Just come! Ka, Kalia will scold you later!"
Out of options, all Humming could do was threaten the shadow with Kalia's name from behind gritted teeth. She hugged the egg tightly, sharing her warmth and tried not to tremble as she stared at the shadow that had now risen to the ceiling with tired eyes.
But it was useless.
"...Kalia."
All she could do now was pray that she could return safely and meet her again
Ah, Shasha is about to be born.
She was supposed to give the child his first bath…
She was sure that Kalia was worried…
At this rate, she couldn't imagine how Kalia would feel if she found out something went wrong with her and Allen. If a person with a strong sense of responsibility thought that someone was hurt because of them…
'Please, please… Let me get back to Kalia safely tomorrow. Please.'
In this short time, countless thoughts had passed through Humming's mind. Her eyes were screwed shut, desperately praying.
Swoosh!5
Humming felt something cut through the air towards her as that crazy shadow monster launched itself at her. She shuddered and waited for the pain to come, but somehow, she didn't feel anything.
'What…?'
Peaking open her tightly closed eyes, she cautiously looked up. She could see the shadow reaching for her, but as if it was hardened by something, it was frozen in place. From behind the shadow that was trembling as it seemed to fight against an invisible force, someone's voice was heard.
"What a mess." A languid, somewhat familiar voice, murmured, as if annoyed.
"I know right. Where the hell did this thing come from? Hey, why are you on the ground… isn't this the lord of the castle?"
The voice that followed was unfamiliar.
When Humming heard the familiar voice again, she felt her heart tremble even more than when the shadows were coming at her.
" ...So dirty."
As soon as the person uttered the last word, the huge shadow's shuddering increased, its trembling almost frantically. Suddenly, a part of the darkness that had been tossing and turning rebelliously broke off and escaped. It was only the size of a palm, but it wasn't as fast as it would be normally.
Simon's eyes glanced at the fleeing darkness, but he didn't pay it much attention. Soon, blue flames burst out, covering most of the great darkness. Humming collapsed in awe at the flames that overwhelmed her eyes. White sparks sprang around the sea-like bluish flame, bouncing around its edges.
Humming stared blankly as the shadow was engulfed by the blue flames. From beyond the black shadow that died instantly without even a sound, the man stepped into the room and dazzling silver hair shone in the moonlight. At his appearance, Humming unconsciously swallowed her breath and covered her mouth in surprise.
'How can he be here…!'
The tall man with bright golden eyes and that sacred6 silver hair, looked at Humming with indifferent eyes.
Simon Terroan!
Kalia's only best friend and possibly Shasha's father.7
She was so surprised that she forgot to breathe when she looked at him. The longer he stared at Humming, the more those indifferent eyes of his began to change. His stiff complexion twitched subtly and soon, his chest swelled in surprise.8
His face contorted into a heart-wrenching look and his chest clenched. Disregarding the two bodies on the ground, he quickly approached Humming. Humming, who saw him getting closer, trembled even more than the moment the shadow tried to attack her. Hugging the egg tighter, Humming hurriedly lowered her head to avoid his gaze.
She stammered out a sentence from his lips that were trembling like a fool. "T-t-thank you for saving me-"
"Kalia."
Hick.
Hearing Kalia's name, Humming hiccuped, bit her lip and stopped talking.
Seeing her response, Simon hastily grabbed Humming's wrist and asked in a simmering voice. "...Where's Kalia?"
His unfathomable emotions threatened to well up and bubble over. She glanced down at the white fingers encased around her wrist. The big hand gripping her didn't hurt, but was holding on as if it won't ever let go. 9
She had been caught with no way out. 10
'Oh, I'm screwed.'11
Humming closed her eyes tightly and kept her mouth just as tightly shut.
This night felt so damn long.
***
It was a noisy morning.
Even the sound of rain falling all night did not calm the bustle in the lord's castle. The lord's wife had woken up to an empty bed and came out looking for her husband who did not return no matter how long she waited. As she headed out to find him, she heard a loud disturbance from the fourth floor.
To her surprise, she was greeted with the sight of her husband lying on the floor, sweating profusely and the guests' room a mess. Furthermore, there were even 2 imperial wizards in the room and no one knew when they had arrived. One of them was a person so prominent and significant that she would have never thought she would ever encounter in her entire life as a humble noble situated in the countryside.
The lord's wife stood in a daze for a while before she hurriedly came to her senses. It was because her husband lying on the floor was writhing in agony, groaning as he held his balls.
"I- I would like to properly greet and welcome you once I have taken care of my fallen husband. Hey, call the young master right now. Also help the lord to his room!"
The castle's knights rushed into the room to carry the lord out.
Unfortunately, there was no doctor residing in the castle, just Allen. Allen, who had only fainted, was woken and checked the lord's condition without knowing the truth of what had happened. After the examination, Allen looked briefly at Humming, who was squatting in a corner with a guilty look, and Simon, who was just staring at him, before explaining the condition to the lord's wife with a very troubled expression.
"He just fainted because he's feeling weak. ...He's been in a lot of pain, so I've given him some painkillers. Fortunately, there seems to be no loss of function, but for the time being… I don't think you should do it."
Although he specialized in gynecology and pediatrics, as a man, he could understand how much pain the lord was in right now. His voice trailed off after the awkward and embarrassing explanation. The lord's wife turned red and could only nod in response. He didn't know what happened, but given the fact that Humming couldn't raise her head, he made a feeble guess that she probably played a significant role in everything that transpired. When he woke up after he had suddenly fainted, the situation became strange in many ways. Putting aside his urgent need to leave, Allen tried to figure out the precarious situation.