1. Even Pretty Shoes Can Become Weapons (part 3)
Something damp and cold touched her skin. Marcella squeezed her eyes even tighter. But no matter how long she waited, she didn’t feel the demon beast’s teeth touching her or the pain of being crushed.
When she opened just one eye to check, the demon beast was nowhere to be seen, and the weather, which had been bright until just moments ago, was suddenly shrouded in fog.
Marcella blinked and looked around. It seemed like she was in the mountains but also not in the mountains.
“Running away like that again?”
The boy’s voice was heard not far away. Is he talking to me?
In her confusion, Marcella almost seriously protested that it wasn’t like that.
Fortunately, she realized he wasn’t asking her and quickly shut her mouth. She couldn’t hear the demon beast’s roar, but it could be hiding somewhere.
Sweat formed on Marcella’s forehead from tension.
Marcella very slowly got up from her spot. She needed to go down the mountain and quickly report that there was a demon beast, but it was hard to tell which direction led down.
Even though this was a mountain she had frequented since childhood and was familiar with, it felt like she was visiting for the first time. That way? Marcella stepped carefully, though she wasn’t sure.
“If you don’t want to be lost for life, you’d better not go that way.”
The boy appeared through the fog. Marcella mentally let out a small scream of surprise.
The boy paid no attention to Marcella and stared in the direction she had been about to go. His eyes were serious, as if he could see something.
Marcella looked at the fog again.
She couldn’t see anything. Just as she thought that, something writhed in the distance.
“Gasp!”
When Marcella flinched, the boy looked at her. Meeting the boy’s eyes, Marcella nervously swallowed.
The demon beast was scary, and this fog was scary too. But the scariest thing was this boy.
Though he clearly had a human appearance, he didn’t seem human. The magic power he emitted was so oppressive that it was hard to breathe.
Still, Marcella didn’t run away from the boy’s side. She didn’t want to disregard his advice and go deeper inside.
Marcella thought rationally rather than instinctively to survive. She didn’t know when the demon beast hiding in the fog might attack. If so, being by the boy’s side was more likely to keep her alive than being alone. She wanted to believe that.
“Are you someone who lives here?”
The boy, who had been silently staring ahead, spoke to Marcella. At the sudden question, Marcella was startled.
The boy was still looking ahead into the fog with an indifferent face. It seemed like he hadn’t spoken or she had heard voices.
When Marcella hesitated, the boy turned his head to look at her.
“Where is this? Is this Dorus territory?”
Meeting his gaze, Marcella reflexively shook her head.
At his questioning look asking where then, Marcella opened her mouth but was momentarily speechless looking at his golden eyes.
“Where is this?”
“This is… Morris territory.”
When Marcella finally gave an answer, the boy nodded as if satisfied.
When his gaze left her, Marcella let out a sigh of relief. He hadn’t said he would harm her, so why was she so nervous?
Marcella was as nervous as when her sister scolded her, continuously swallowing saliva.
Marcella glanced at the sword he was holding and moved her lips. If she didn’t say something, it would be hard to endure the fear.
“I’m Marcella. Marcella Morris.”
“I see.”
“Well…”
She was about to ask what his name was, but Marcella closed her mouth. Usually when you give your name, the other person reveals theirs too, don’t they? But maybe he didn’t want to tell her his name since he wasn’t doing that.
There would be no point in trying to have a conversation with someone who didn’t even want to tell her his name. Marcella closed her mouth.
“You’re not Count Morris’s daughter. You’re too grown for that.”
“I’m his younger sister.”
Marcella answered excitedly, not expecting him to continue the conversation.
He spoke as if he knew her sister. But how? Marcella thought about it.
Maybe her sister had already received a report that a demon beast had appeared in the mountains. That’s so like sister. Yes, that must be it! That’s why she called this demon beast hunter.
Though a demon beast hunter who said ‘you’ was somewhat strange.
“Did my sister call for you?”
“No.”
Marcella, who had been sure that was the case, was surprised by his firm answer and closed her mouth. Talking to him was as difficult as being trapped in this fog.
Marcella felt it would be better to give up on conversing with him.
She wanted to escape from this fog quickly. He said going that way would make her lost, but was that really true? Did that mean she had to stay here until the fog lifted?
When Marcella glared at the fog, it writhed greatly. It was like it was swallowing saliva, trying to devour her.
“Th-then, wh-where did you come from? Are you a traveler?”
Marcella deliberately spoke loudly to turn her eyes away from her fear of the fog. The thought that demon beasts might notice their location and attack came only after she had already made the loud noise.
“The west.”
But the boy didn’t care whether Marcella made small sounds or loud sounds.
Marcella’s mouth became parched and cold sweat began to form on her forehead. She wanted to have a conversation with him, if only to distract herself from the fear, but it wasn’t going as she wished.
“When do you think the fog will lift?”
“When the fog gives up, it will lift.”
When the fog gives up? He spoke as if the fog were alive. Marcella’s mouth became parched and cold sweat broke out.
The fog grew thicker.
Marcella couldn’t breathe well. Her breathing became rapid from the suffocating feeling.
“You look pale.”
“I-is that so? I am sweating a bit. Must be hot.”
Marcella barely answered while breathing unsteadily.
Suddenly, a warm touch reached her forehead. When Marcella opened her eyes wide in surprise, she saw the boy’s face with his hand on her forehead.
“Hot?”
The boy looked at Marcella and tilted his head slightly to the right. Then he took off his gloves and touched Marcella’s forehead again with the back of his hand.
The boy slowly lowered his eyes and took Marcella’s hand. Marcella’s fingertips were ice cold.
“I misspoke. I think I’m cold.”
“You think you’re cold?”
“I’m cold…”
The boy gathered Marcella’s two hands together and enclosed them with his own. When his warm warmth was transmitted, Marcella’s unsteady breathing gradually returned.
Marcella looked at him, thinking the somewhat rude thought that he was human with warmth after all.
She hadn’t thought about it much because she was scared, but seeing him this close, she could tell. Though youthful, he was handsome. Much more so than someone like Donner who always acted like he was handsome and showed off.
The moment she thought he was handsome, their eyes met. Marcella flinched, feeling guilty. Had her thoughts been discovered? Had what she was only thinking come out of her mouth?
Marcella was busy thinking of excuses.
“Marcella.”
The low voice calling her name felt somehow ticklish and embarrassing.
The boy tilted his head slightly and stared at Marcella.
“Are you scared?”
Of course I’m scared! Though now it’s more awkwardly embarrassing because of you than scary.
When Marcella looked at the boy resentfully, he glanced toward the fog.
“I didn’t think of that.”
What thought? Before Marcella could ask again, he raised his sword. Marcella’s heart, which had been warming up, turned cold again.
No way! Because I was whining about being scared, is he annoyed and trying to kill me? Sister, Tela, brother-in-law!
Marcella’s trembling eyes followed his sword.
The sword drew a curve and cut through the fog, not her. It wasn’t like the fog could be cut.
Contrary to Marcella’s thoughts, sunlight appeared through the gap in the cut fog. When he swung his sword repeatedly, the cut gap became wider.
“Let’s get out.”
The boy took Marcella’s hand and walked toward the gap. Marcella followed him, confused and only making “uh, uh” sounds. The white fog turned reddish.
—Just wait. I’ll kill you.
A young woman’s voice stuck in her ears.
When Marcella was startled and looked around, giggling laughter followed. Marcella clung close behind the boy, trembling in terror.
She felt the boy glance back at her slightly. ‘It’ll be quick,’ the boy seemed to whisper.
Having completely escaped the fog, Marcella took a deep breath. Who knew the sun she met again would be so welcome and precious?
After taking another deep breath, Marcella turned around. As if what she had experienced had been a hallucination, there was no fog. Then what about that demon beast? Where had the demon beast hiding in the fog gone?
“That creature isn’t here.”
As if knowing what Marcella was looking for without her saying anything, the boy spoke.
He was still holding Marcella’s hand, and somehow Marcella felt embarrassed and her face flushed.
“It might still be hiding in the mountains.”
“It won’t come to this mountain again.”
“How do you know that?”
No matter how capable a demon beast hunter he seemed, how could he be certain of that?
You can leave when you’re done, but this was Morris’s homeland.
Marcella glared at the boy, then thought ‘oh no’ about what she had said. Had her courage suddenly grown just because they escaped the fog? When had she stopped being afraid of him, thinking he didn’t seem human? And she was still holding his hand.
“It only comes to kill me, so there’s no reason for it to appear here.”
Unlike Marcella’s worry, he answered matter-of-factly.
Marcella didn’t understand what he was saying, but she felt a strange persuasiveness in his confidence.
“Still…”
“You don’t need to worry.”
“Just in case, we should search…”
She couldn’t just accept his word alone.
