Thanks to Kalm’s efforts, some of the threads attached to the Wyvern were severed.
I searched for the ends of the cut threads with Lauren. …I couldn’t find them at all. The threads were originally thin, and with the darkness, they were even harder to spot. Or maybe they’ve already been retrieved? No, I must have seen it wrong. But since Lauren said it was there, it must be.
“Hey, Lauren, did you find them?”
“Shh! I’m searching now, wait, it’s from around here, I can feel it… hmm, mmm! Found it!”
She pointed at the ground like a radar detecting something. Then, she gently scooped an invisible thread from the ground. As I approached and strained my eyes, I could indeed see a piece of the broken thread.
“This is it? How did you know?”
“Hehe, I felt a faint trace of magic. Come on, let’s go.”
I followed Lauren, who was chuckling with her shoulders. The thread led further into the cemetery. The Wyvern and the commotion surrounding it faded into the distance. Once we were away from it, the area suddenly became silent, and the eeriness returned. I guess cemeteries are spacious in such a large town. The inorganic gravestones seemed to stare at me. Even the flowers adorning them looked artificial now.
What if all the corpses buried here suddenly came to life? I could laugh it off as a common trope in movies, but not now. Because we, Lauren and I, alone, couldn’t possibly fend off such a large swarm. And Lauren, surprisingly, showed no signs of fear and kept going ahead.
“Lauren, hey, what if the corpses rise from here?”
“Huh? What are you talking about? There are no corpses here.”
Huh? None? That can’t be, there were so many of them just moments ago.
“Did someone already dig them up?”
“They, they don’t do burials here. There’s only ash. I, I, I heard from one of the escorts. I-it’s because I was curious about how they gathered so many corpses, you see?”
So, cremation? That makes sense! That’s what had been bothering me. With this level of civilization, would they still practice burial? It might be plausible in a rural town, but not here.
“Then where did they gather them from?”
“Th-that’s the strange part. I, I think they bought them. B-because they’re beautiful, aren’t they? If they were buried, they’d be much dirtier.”
Now that she mentions it, she’s right. All the corpses were relatively clean, and although some had maggots, their body parts were intact. Were they managed by the hospital? It’s precisely because these corpses are so clean that they’re causing trouble for the escorts. As I replied with a “hmm” and kept walking, Lauren suddenly stopped in front of me. I almost crashed into the belly of a spider.
“What’s wrong? Stopping so suddenly, oh, isn’t that Sharin?”
I hadn’t been able to confirm during the fierce fight with the Wyvern. Sharin was the only one whose figure was missing, so I assumed she was fighting the corpses alongside the escorts.
“Oh, did you find the enemy’s location?”
It’s reassuring to be able to rendezvous with her here. Honestly, we came here just the two of us, and I was already regretting it, realizing we wouldn’t be able to fight if we encountered enemies.
“W-wait, something’s… not right.”
Before Lauren could finish her sentence, Sharin’s dagger was right in front of my eyes.
Huh? What did Lauren say? My brain couldn’t keep up. Why was Sharin so close?
The next time I blinked, my chest was being grabbed tightly. My vision swayed front, back, left, and right, unable to focus. Before I could even take a breath, I was thrown to the ground. The impact on the back of my head made me finally realize I had been knocked down.
It’s no use, I want to say something, but only groans come out.
“W-Sharin? Why?”
I took Lauren’s outstretched hand and managed to get up. Was I attacked by Sharin? That’s absurd.
“N-no way, this is… this has become troublesome.”
Troublesome? Did she mean Sharin turned against us? The dagger she was holding was stained with red blood. It was probably mine. My neck felt warm and wet, and I felt sick. And my headache, which had finally subsided, came back with a vengeance.
“Sh-she’s being controlled by the enemy.”
