"It's gone..."
I was sure I saw someone standing there. Cory quietly explained.
Cory took out a pair of glasses from his pant pocket. His glasses were more wrecked than the last time I saw it. The hook that was supposed to go behind his ears were warped, so his glasses were extremely crooked when he wore them.
Hylli went next to Cory and took a look around as his expression turned uncomfortable. It wasn't as obvious, but Swanhaden also looked put out by the place we were in.
"It makes me feel just as grossed out as the dean's morning breath."
As if Cory understood Swan's expression perfectly, his expression shifted as he commented.
"….Swan, tone down the comparison."
I also felt an uncomfortable feeling, just like the others. The strange, eerie air of this area was probably because of the magic flowing from here. It was a type of magic that I didn't really know. It felt like it was pressing down on me, making me feel suppressed and sent shivers down my spine.
"Cory, if you're done checking, let's get out quick."
At Hylli's words, Cory looked slightly displeased. He soon nodded though, and it was just when he was putting his floating spell on Hylli and Swanhaden again.
With a 'krrrrr', a creature's roar filled the air.
"Cory!"
A strange looking monster with a patchy blue mane suddenly appeared out of nowhere and began to attack Cory, who was unprepared. There had been zero signs of it. We couldn't hear a single movement of the monster. Until the monster had sounded out its own attack, we couldn't hear anything else. We could suddenly feel the monster's negative aura all around us.
The monster, with all of its unkempt blue fur, immediately separated Cory from the rest of us and began tearing him to shreds.
It was using its sharp claws to tear Cory apart. For a second, I couldn't breathe.
Feeling like my heart had dropped to the floor, I was just about to run to the monster when I heard a familiar voice from behind me.
"Whew, it almost got really bad there for a second."
Cory had rejoined our group and stared at himself being torn to shreds as he spoke. He didn't look like a person who had just been on the verge of death. Swanhaden looked on at Cory, who had gotten away from the monster with his transportation spell, with a disappointed look.
"Your reflexes are slow so I thought you died."
"You really are quick at transporting yourself."
Hylli and Swanhaden were both incredibly relaxed. Cory watched the two of them, completely calm, with a quiet smile of his own.
I was relieved to see that Cory was fine. When I let out a sigh and rubbed at my face, Cory asked me if I had been worried with a satisfied smile. I looked away from Cory, who looked fine, and instead looked at what the monster was ripping apart.
The monster was tearing at Cory's wine-colored subjugation robes. Cory, who was just wearing a white shirt and pants, stared at his robes being ripped apart.
"I found out something that's kind of chilling."
Cory scratched the back of his head as he frowned.
"That monster, I think it's reacting to our subjugation uniforms."
Or maybe the color of it. Cory seemed deep in thought as he stared at the monster ripping at his robes. The monster didn't seem to find it weird that Cory had disappeared. It just kept ripping at the clothes.
The blue monster wasn't one that existed in our records. I had thought that we were in the know of basically all of the monsters in the lower and upper areas, but this monster was the first I'd ever seen of its type.
There were more aggressive and violent monsters the higher up we went into the mountains, but this was the first time one had just attacked us after appearing out of nowhere.
I felt like we needed to get some more information about it, so I took out the monster collecting item, the monster ball, and threw it at the blue monster. The monster disappeared into the ball, leaving only Cory's wine-colored clothes.
"Well, we'll figure it out when we head back."
I double checked to see that the monster was in the ball and spoke up.
There was a fact that I had realized in the years of monster subjugations. It was that all of the monsters were becoming stronger and more aggressive by the day.
Moreover, apparently it was getting more and more common for monsters to go down to mountains and attack people. They came down to our school, which was near the mountain, more often as well. Because of that, subjugations were getting more and more regimented than before.
I felt like the reason behind this phenomenon had to have come from here. Caradil had said that she had felt strange magic from this area as well, so I was half sure of it. I wanted to tell the school about it, but I had a bad feeling about it.
First, though, there were a few things that I wanted to check so I told everyone else that we needed to leave. They seemed just as eager to get out. They immediately got ready to leave. And just when we were about to head out.
[Look at the branch on that left tree.]
I suddenly heard a foreign voice in my head. It sounded like a deeper female voice, or a man's voice, but the one thing that I knew for sure was that it wasn't a voice from the three I was with.
My heart began to pound and my face stiffened. I couldn't help but stiffen up at the sudden situation.
I decided to ignore it.
When I began to walk somewhere else and ignored the voice, my head suddenly turned to the left. It felt like some kind of magic had controlled me, but I wasn't completely sure.
My eyes were led to a small note tied to a tree branch. Seeing that branch made me sure that I hadn't just made up what I had heard earlier.
I didn't know who it was, but it was obvious that they wanted me to read that note.
I walked closer to the tree with the note on its branch and decided to ignore the note.
When I turned my body, I heard a scoff in my head as my body turned back towards the tree.
This time, I felt someone express that they wouldn't let me go home if I didn't read that note.
"Shushu, what are you doing all of a sudden?"
I was climbing up the tree as best as I could.
Cory, who had asked me what I was doing, was laughing as if I was funny.
"If you're trying to be funny, you succeeded. Let's hurry and go back."
Hylli laughed jokingly as he spoke. Swanhaden shoved Hylli hard.
"I'll wait for you, so do whatever you want to."
Swanhaden's face was blank, but his eyes were sparkling as he cheered me on. He just told me to be careful not to slip.
When Swan spoke with a soft, worried tone, Cory and Hylli both turned to stare at him. They looked like they were disgusted. Swan turned his head to stare at the two.
"Turn your heads back before I dig out your eyeballs."
"You're the one whose life was just threatened. Why is he the crazy one here?"
"I dunno."
"Your tone and words are both so cheery."
"It's the first time I've ever seen it too."
While they were all busy talking amongst themselves, I retrieved the note from the tree branch. Cory said that he would catch me with his magic and told me to just fall, but I declined and swung myself off the tree and landed safely. When the others cheered, I scratched my head in embarrassment.
"What's that note?"
When I came back with the note, the rest of them finally seemed to realize its existence. Hylli asked about it, but I wasn't too sure either so I just shrugged.
I opened the note and looked inside.
A bunch of thoughts ran through my head as I unfolded the notes. I couldn't guess the contents of it. Seeing its size, I assumed that there would be one or two sentences at most, but I wasn't too sure.
I was curious about the contents, but I didn't want to read it because the atmosphere was too eerie. It felt like I was going to be clickbaited into a jumpscare ghost video like in my last life.
With shaky hands, I peered at the note. The short sentence entered my sight immediately. It was an incredibly vague note.
[Save him.]
It said, with neat letters.
I couldn't help but frown at the contents of the note. What did they mean, save him. What did that even mean?
When they saw that my expression wasn't very bright, Cory asked me what the note said. I was trying to show him what the note said as I stretched my hand towards him–the one with the note in it.
That was when it happened.
Upon [him], a magic circle emitting a dark light began to draw itself. Then, the circle began to burn the note. As the paper burned, the contents of the note disappeared into itself.
The paper was gone, but the circle that had drawn itself above it appeared on the back of my hand before disappearing completely.
The circle sunk into my skin as if it absorbed into my body.
"...!"
When the paper burned itself and a strange circle appeared and disappeared in front of them, all three of them looked serious. Their eyes were wide in shock.
"What in the!"
Hylli grabbed my left hand, where the circle had drawn itself and disappeared into. He looked at my hand with an anxious expression. It looked like he had gone crazy for a single moment. His lips were tilted into a twisted smile and his eyes were filled with despair. His red eyes and hands shook as he gripped my hand tightly within his.
"All of a sudden, why…. No, why. Maybe, what if..."
Hylli instinctively knew that the magic circle from before was related to black magic. It had appeared out of nowhere and had disappeared just as quickly so it was hard to determine, but it looked like it was related to black magic.
Hylli's grip felt like it was moments away from breaking my hand, so I tried to take my hand out of his grip. But I didn't need to snatch it out on my own as Swanhaden took it out for me.
I thanked Swanhaden as I peered at his face. His expression was frightening to behold. He looked blank, as if he was confused, but I could feel an incredible amount of murderous intent and anger.
Swan spoke, rushed.
"Cory, hurry!"
Swanhaden stared at me blankly, as if he didn't know how to process the situation.
It looked like everyone was shocked because it was black magic, but I felt calm. The magic that had just entered me felt like it was there to help me, not harm me.
Of course, if I said this out loud then all three of my friends in front of me would yell at me for complacent so I decided to take it seriously.
At Swan's yell to hurry about something, Cory moved quickly. Cory began to draw a large magic circle around us. A peek at it showed me that he was linking a protective spell that protected us from outside attacks and a long-distance transportation attack together.
That was supposed to be incredibly difficult and extremely taxing. Seeing Cory draw this circle without hesitation made me look on in awe.
"This, is it, black magic. What if it's a curse….."
"Shut up, it's not."
Swanhaden responded angrily at Hylli's shocked, stilted sentence. But even as he denied it, Swanhaden couldn't seem to assure himself either. He grabbed both of my hands tightly with hazy eyes. Swan's hands were cold and shaking slightly. I was a bit surprised at Swan's reaction.