What spread out before my eyes was a forest — a space that had lost its vitality, with desolate shadows falling everywhere.
A gloomy, damp, and unpleasant place that made one instinctively refuse to approach it.
Bare trees with only branches left. Bizarre flowers of forms I had never seen before.
It looked like skinny arms were hanging down.
When I was young, whenever I was riding in the car with my father, there was a scene that ca to mind.
On a dark night, the trees outside, seen through the window, looked eerie, like skeletal humans dancing. The landscape expanded through the child’s imagination, changing its appearance at will.
I could hear the wind. No, it changed from mont to mont, as if mocking what I thought was the "sound of the wind."
—It sounded like a human crying. Like a child laughing brightly, a woman crying desperately, an animal wailing, or an old man screaming.
Square. Square.
Because I had lost my sense of sll, I couldn’t sll anything.
On the contrary, I felt fortunate about it now. I was sure that if my nose had been fine, I would be nauseous all the ti right now.
We continued walking without saying a word. It wasn’t that I was holding back from speaking for any particular reason.
It was just that none of us were able to open our mouths because we were so overwheld by the eerie atmosphere.
It was Eden who broke the silence.
"It’s a spookier place than I thought."
I nodded.
"... I think it might be a good thing that my sense of sll was banned."
Eden smiled brightly.
"Ha ha ha! Maybe so. But does a plant called Mandrake actually exist?"
Charlotte answered,
"Of course. Commoners like you wouldn’t know, but I’ve seen it myself."
It seed quite scary to see her constantly looking around even while answering.
"Then do you know where it grows?"
"Hmm... a damp, humid place?"
I looked at her with a dumbfounded face.
"... ... ."
That was because the entire place was damp and humid. She seed to realize that and turned her words around in an irritated tone.
"It must be sowhere! I’ve felt it before, but isn’t there sothing strange here?"
At that mont, Frey, who was walking at the front, suddenly stopped.
"What? Why did you stop suddenly?"
Frey said, looking at the group with a serious expression.
"... It seems like we keep circling the sa place."
Charlotte asked in disgust,
"Frey, really...?"
She nodded.
"Yes. Do you see that tree over there?"
Her finger pointed to the tree on the right. It looked like a human face.
"What is that?"
"It’s an interesting-looking tree."
"Is it a human face tree...?"
"That’s right. I felt sothing strange earlier, so I counted in my head every ti we ca across that tree."
Charlotte swallowed.
"We encountered that tree a total of seven tis. In other words, this is already the seventh ti we’ve been in the sa spot."
I looked at the face.
’What? Is it an illusion?’
It seed like its expression had changed just now... as if it were laughing at us.
"Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!"
It was Charlotte who scread. She shouted, pointing sowhere with a pale face.
"Hey, over there, over there!"
The trees surrounding us all took on human shapes.
It wasn’t an illusion after all. The corners of the mouths of the trees looking at us were torn into half-moon shapes.
The creepy sight sent a chill down my back, but it wasn’t the ti to just watch.
Frey drew her sword and charged courageously. Eden followed behind.
"I will stop it!"
"I will help too!"
I ran up to Charlotte, who was terrified, and shouted,
"Charlotte! What are you doing? Get a hold of yourself!"
The girl who had been so confident was now on the verge of fainting. She grabbed by the collar, shaking like a scared puppy.
"I don’t know! I don’t know! You guys, please do sothing about them!!"
I expected it to so extent.
Having grown up as a flower in a greenhouse, she had a significant lack of practical experience compared to her talent.
But more than that, she seed to have no resistance to fear.
"Quick, quick! Get it out of my sight quickly!"
Suddenly, I felt irritated. If things continued like this, she would only be an obstacle rather than a help throughout the exam.
In this case, the classic thod is best.
Smack!
I slapped her in the face. I thought I had controlled my strength, but her lips burst, and her head snapped back.
"—!"
She looked at with a shocked face, as if she couldn’t believe what had just happened.
"How dare you...!"
She was so stunned that she couldn’t even speak, muttering with tears in her eyes.
However, there was no ti to indulge in foolish hysteria.
"If you whine one more ti, I’ll rip your mouth off, so shut up and listen."
My next words must have shocked her even more, as she began hiccuping.
"Hic!"
"Everyone except you is suffering like a dog right now. Fuck that damn ban that you suggested. But what are you doing? Are you going to keep shaking like a scared mutt? If you want to be the leader, show appropriate behavior."
Her face turned red like a ripe apple. It seed she felt quite ashad.
"... You, just wait and see."
She stood up with a venomous expression on her lips.
Her hands were shaking violently — not from fear, but from sha and anger.
I knew that the target of her anger was , but it didn’t matter. For now, it was more important to have her regain her composure.
"Charlotte. Use fire magic."
"Shut up! I’ll take care of it, so don’t give orders!"
Naturally, trees were vulnerable to fire. Even wet firewood is reduced to ashes before overwhelming firepower.
Charlotte closed her eyes and concentrated.
Red mana rose like a haze from her entire body. Four rings blood above her head.
It was the mark of a 4th Circle wizard.
I shouted to Eden and Frey, who were buying ti at the front.
"Eden, Frey! That’s enough. Please co back!"
The two seed surprisingly fine. Frey looked composed, and Eden was a stronger man than I imagined.
He said with a bright smile,
"Ugh, trees with human faces moving are the worst. I thought I was going to die because it was so disgusting."
"... I agree, Eden."
Frey also had an unusually disgusted face.
At that ti, Charlotte, who had completed all her preparations, quickly began to chant — her serious and solemn voice contrasting with her usually haughty tone.
"The wind that flows through my will. The fire of hell will burn the enemies who stand in my way."
However, the sha was mine.
"—Weathering Fire."
Her eyes twinkled as if filled with flas. The air flow changed.
She held onto the fluctuating mana and moved her hands gracefully, like a conductor leading an orchestra.
The wind blowing along her hands gradually beca stronger, soon covering the entire area and oxidizing into flas.
Raarrrrrrrrr!
The bodies of countless trees surrounding us caught fire.
The fla, which had begun as a small ember, gradually grew in size and turned into a fiery demon, engulfing them in an instant.
Crackle. Crackle.
Many of the human-faced trees turned into ashes in an instant.
As expected from the blood of the Magee family, she was trendously talented.
It was a miracle I, who had relatively little magical power, could not even imitate.
I approached Charlotte. She seed tired, perhaps because she had consud a lot of magical power.
I caught her as her legs weakened and she was about to fall.
"Are you okay? That was great work. As expected, the bloodline of one of the empire’s greatest magic families is extraordinary."
Charlotte glared at as if she were dumbfounded.
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