“Mother, please don’t leave…
“Father and I need you. He’s injured, and I can’t carry him away. Please don’t abandon us…”
The woman gazed at the young girl before her, who clutched desperately at her sleeve, tears welling at the corners of her eyes; a profound reluctance shone in the woman’s own.
From the surrounding mist, screams, pleas, and sobs—both adult and child—drifted intermittently.
She bent down, tenderly stroking the girl’s cheek, using her thumb to wipe away the tears at her eyes.
“You’ve grown up, Lalviye. You can accomplish many things that we never could. I’m so proud to have you as my daughter.”
“W-wah…”
Unable to hold back her tears any longer, the girl threw herself into the woman’s embrace.
“I haven’t grown up at all! I don’t want to be a child without a mother!”
Indeed, at fourteen years old, the girl was already at an age of understanding, especially in a world such as this, where people often matured prematurely.
She knew that in the midst of such a catastrophe, turning back or attempting to save others offered almost no chance of survival.
Having fled all the way here, she had witnessed countless scenes that could only be described as hellish; now, her sole desire was for her family to survive, whole and safe.
“Silly child, what nonsense are you spouting? I’m going to save people, not to die… A doctor doesn’t possess abilities like your father’s, nor do they need to confront those things.”
Her gaze not on the girl in her arms, the woman stared absently at the unconscious man leaning against a large rock.
She was lying, and she hugged the girl tightly, afraid to let her see the guilt in her eyes.
“Be good, listen to me. Take your father and leave this place. You know his temperament; his identity and the mission he carries won’t permit him to flee or linger. Even injured, he would be among the first to charge forward.”
“No! Father has already fainted! He won’t have the chance to do something so foolish! Are those people truly more important than Father and I!?”
Gradually, the surrounding area fell silent, and the woman knew with chilling clarity that it was because most of the people had already perished; if they delayed any longer, their last opportunity would slip away.
The girl clung to her with desperate strength, and forcing them apart might result in injury.
“Sigh…”
A soft sigh escaped her, and her gentle smile was tinged with helplessness.
“There’s truly no convincing you. You stand guard, and I’ll carry your father.”
“Really! You’ve changed your mind!”
The girl innocently released her grip, looking up at her mother with delighted surprise. Before she could even react, a peculiar scent wafted past her nose, and her vision blurred to black as she collapsed into a warm embrace.
Before her consciousness faded completely, she heard a final sentence:
“With your eyes, protect yourself and your father when the greatest danger strikes.”
Having settled her husband and daughter in a concealed spot, the woman turned without a backward glance and vanished into the mist.
****
Lalviye-Komel suddenly opened her eyes, gasping for breath.
“Hmph…”
‘Was I dreaming of the past…?’
She opened her mouth, tasting a strong metallic tang of blood, and her eyes felt a stinging soreness. Catching sight of her reflection in the broken rearview mirror, she noticed two tear tracks at the corners of her eyes.
Her entire body ached. The wound on her forehead and the scrapes on her arm had been bandaged, though crudely—a simple handkerchief covered the injury, secured with wild grass as a makeshift rope.
She offered a helpless smile.
‘Could this truly be the handiwork of a nun?’
Yet, looking on the bright side, the nun still cared about her safety.
It was a good omen; often, feelings between two people only deepened after enduring hardships together.
Such were her fantasies.
She couldn’t move; her body was essentially trapped, and several ribs were broken to boot.
After spending a minute to comprehend her current predicament and calm her racing heart, she began to recall the events that had led to their present situation.
It had started, more or less, with her conversation with the nun.
She recounted her growing suspicions: everything had been fine initially, until they reached this deserted stretch of road. Suddenly, the nun had acted as if she’d seen a ghost, reaching for the car door, intending to jump out.
In a moment of desperation, she slammed on the brakes, coincidentally evading the tree that had unexpectedly fallen.
‘…If only it truly were an accident.’
She discovered that the short sword in her sleeve was gone; its sheath, which doubled as a cane, rested in the passenger seat.
Through the rear window, she saw the young girl not far behind the car, clumsily swinging the short sword at rats.
Her movements were awkward, worse than an amateur’s; Konehl would have believed her if she claimed to have never touched a blade before.
She could only manage to clumsily stab at the rats that rushed directly to her feet.
The only thing truly commendable was her courage; a normal young girl would have screamed and fled upon seeing so many rats.
‘Perhaps she’s doing it for me?’
Her mood brightened slightly.
Gripping the short sword, Konehl-Ghervil forcefully thrust it through a rat scurrying past her feet. Her strength was beginning to wane, and she knelt on one knee, her eyes fixed intently on the tall grass.
Initially, she had worried about the rats’ supposed immortality, but now it seemed entirely superfluous; the short sword in her hand was a weapon similar to Helm’s dagger.
This one, however, seemed even more potent, capable of inflicting lethal damage with just a shallow cut to a rat’s skin.
By now, she had already killed over a dozen.
This couldn’t continue; the rats were endless. They were wary of the short sword, persistently advancing and probing.
Judging by the swaying areas and amplitudes of the tall grass, their numbers likely ranged from hundreds to thousands.
“Konehl!”
‘Hm?’
‘So familiar…’
‘Wait, that brazen fellow called my name!’
“Since when did we become so familiar?” she snapped, turning her head to shout behind her.
“Lure them over, bring them right beside me.”
“Are you out of your mind?”
Protecting herself was already a challenge, let alone adding an immobile burden.
“Trust me.”
The woman strained to poke her head out of the car window, a smile of suppressed pain gracing her face.
Konehl-Ghervil noticed that the woman’s pupils now held a gleam, making her appear less like a blind person.
Nodding slightly, Konehl-Ghervil backed up step by step, her back to the rats, until she reached the driver’s seat.
As expected, all the rats followed, slowly converging from every direction.
Once a sufficient number had gathered, a voice came from behind her:
“That’s enough. The rest is up to you. There’s not much more I can do. Now, close your eyes.”
Konehl-Ghervil seemed to close her eyes a beat too late. A wave of dizziness washed over her brain, forcing her to kneel on the ground, leaning against the car door. The sensation was strikingly similar to their encounter on the second floor of the cathedral.
Slowly, the incessant squeaking of the rats vanished, and with it, the dizziness. An eerie silence descended upon their surroundings.
Pushing herself up by the car door, Konehl-Ghervil saw that the woman’s eyes had returned to their dull state as she gazed at the short sword in her hand.
“It’s a bit strange. Be careful. I can sense a few rats who didn’t appreciate the beautiful dream I wove for them.”
It was akin to a form of hypnosis; the surrounding rats lay asleep on the ground in various postures.
A bead of cold sweat trickled down Konehl-Ghervil’s temple as she stared, utterly stunned, at the scene. There must have been around a thousand rats.
‘If this ability were used on people…’
No wonder she was already on Ramsey’s level, despite only recently joining the Epidemic Prevention Bureau.
She didn’t need to be told what to do next; she already knew.
It took her half an hour to dispose of all the rats. During this time, there was no need for fire; any rat killed by the dagger simply disintegrated into dust, saving a considerable amount of time.
As for the woman’s worries, Konehl-Ghervil could only say she had been overly cautious; even after searching through the tall grass, she found no conscious rats.
“It’s finally over…”
Her spirits lightened, and she waved to the woman in the driver’s seat, only to realize that the woman’s face showed no sign of relief at their survival.
Her eyes were wide open, fixed in a hateful gaze directed upwards.
Suddenly remembering something, Konehl-Ghervil sharply looked up.
Approximately five meters directly above her, a creature hung suspended in the air, its tail wrapped around a tree branch, its body spinning. Compared to the twenty-centimeter rats she had just dealt with, this one could only be described as a ‘giant rat.’
It was a rat aggregate.
Its size was at least a quarter of the fully-formed white rat they had encountered previously, and its height was probably half of hers.
Upon its chest, there was a patch of white fur, starkly out of place amidst the surrounding rats!