Adeline was not human.
I had to chew over that short sentence several times before I could even begin to digest it.
“...Not human?”
“Right. She’s acting like a human, but she isn’t one.”
With my mind turned blank, I tried desperately to recall the original story. Adeline, as the leader of the Rebels—a core faction—had a fairly detailed character background.
Adeline Cross. She was a mother who had lost her husband at a young age and raised two daughters alone. But after the king’s tyranny stripped away all her wealth and even took the lives of her two young daughters, she lost her sanity.
Half-mad, wandering the world, Adeline encountered a new entity named Kain and buried the pain she had endured deep within the abyss.
I hadn’t read all the way to her end, but a character with that kind of backstory couldn’t possibly not be human.
“Adeline is... a split personality. Two personalities inside a single body...”
“Are you sure?”
Varen stared down at me as I stood there frozen pale.
And I couldn’t answer easily. My knowledge was based only on a half-read original novel.
As I opened and closed my mouth without speaking, Varen tilted his head and asked again.
“Ceryl, you’re saying the other thing inside that woman’s body is a ‘personality.’ Are you certain?”
Varen had just said something that deviated from the setting of the original story I knew.
Had I missed something? With my dizzy mind, I reviewed the original setting again.
Adeline met a new entity named Kain. Unlike the gentle Adeline, it possessed a cruel nature...
“...It never said... it was human...”
Two completely different beings existed within a single body, so I had naturally assumed it was a split personality. But when I thought about it carefully, the original story had never actually used that word.
Varen gently brushed my pale cheek as I froze there, blaming myself for my stupidity.
“Ceryl, this is exactly why I didn’t tell you. You don’t need to be afraid.”
Even his attempt to soothe me didn’t calm the unease.
Seeing me trembling, Varen clicked his tongue briefly. Then he turned his gaze away and fixed it on the forest.
“After staying here for a few days, I was able to see fragments of that woman’s past.”
“...What past?”
“The human who had that woman’s face is dead. I can’t tell the exact date, but it was quite a long time ago.”
“Who... who killed Adeline? Then the Adel—no, what is that thing over there? What exactly have we been dealing with all this time?”
In the end, questions poured out of my mouth in a disordered rush.
I spoke rapidly without even breathing, but Varen simply narrowed his eyes and looked into the empty air, sifting through the past he had seen.
“It was a very short scene. But I can’t say who did it.”
“What does that mean?”
“Well. If I had to say what killed her...”
Varen closed his mouth, searching for the right word.
Even that brief silence was unbearable. I grabbed both of his forearms.
Then he gave an answer that shattered my feeble imagination.
“It was an insect.”
“...An insect?”
This wasn’t the first time I had been drowning in a flood of information.
And yet I fell into sudden panic. My mind turned completely white, leaving no room for reason.
Only an overwhelming fear—something I had never felt before—took hold.
I had faced life-threatening danger dozens of times. But this was a different kind of terror.
Varen looked down at me with concern and grasped my trembling shoulders.
“Calm down, Ceryl. I thought she was human at first too. But the hungrier it becomes, the harder it is for it to hide what it really is.”
“Hunger...”
One of the words Varen had spoken lodged in my mind.
Recently, Adeline had often said there wasn’t enough food. And the snake-like voice I had heard earlier kept repeating that it was hungry.
Something wearing a human disguise was starving with unbearable hunger.
And it wanted Varen.
“Ugh...”
A wave of nausea surged up. I clamped a hand over my mouth while grabbing Varen with the other.
My breath wouldn’t pass properly through my trembling fingers. Like a broken machine, my neck jerked stiffly as I looked up at him.
Varen sighed in frustration and wrapped an arm around my waist, pulling me into his chest.
“Ceryl, whatever that thing is, it can’t harm you.”
That’s not it. I’m not afraid of it hurting me.
The words caught in my throat and wouldn’t come out.
Even the broad chest that always gave me comfort had no effect this time.
Maybe it was because I had heard Varen say it.
It felt like insects were crawling all over my body.
“...We have to run.”
I couldn’t continue speaking. I grabbed Varen’s hand abruptly.
But Varen frowned, looking confused.
“Ceryl, something like that insect isn’t even worth being my opponent.”
“No. We can’t stay here.”
We have to run. From here. I have to take Varen and run.
My instincts were screaming.
I looked around frantically. To the left stretched a forest whose end I couldn’t see. To the right was the path back to the Rebels’ base.
Logically, we should flee into the forest.
But strangely, my feet wouldn’t move.
The forest that had begun to feel like home now felt unfamiliar today.
Even though the sun was high in the sky, a strange darkness seemed to swirl inside the trees—as if warning me not to come.
This time I turned my head the other way.
The Rebels’ base looked as busy and chaotic as ever.
And a powerful premonition pulled me toward it.
“Let’s go.”
I gripped Varen’s hand tightly and headed toward the Rebels’ base. Varen let out a deep sigh but followed where I led.
The closer we got to the sounds of people, the faster my steps became.
Walking a distance of only a few minutes, I sharpened my senses.
The snake-like voice no longer came from Adeline’s tent.
I couldn’t feel her moving either.
It’s not too late yet. I just need to take Varen and run. We can figure out the rest later.
I reassured myself.
Before I knew it, we had reached the center of the Rebels’ base.
I stopped briefly in front of the tent where hundreds of monsters and Drunkard were staying.
Following my gaze, Varen looked at the worn-looking tent.
“Why here? Are you worried about the monsters that will stay behind?”
I couldn’t answer Varen’s question.
Even I couldn’t attach a proper reason to my own actions.
I turned away, but before I could take a step, an unfamiliar voice caught my ankle.
“Lord Dravergh! Is that you?”
The voice carried no malice at all.
Varen and I turned at the same time. It was one of the guards who always stayed by Adeline’s side.
The young man, with a boyish face barely past twenty, pointed over his shoulder with his thumb.
“Lady Adeline is looking for you. She says there’s something she’d like to discuss.”
Having finished delivering the message, the man turned around and motioned for us to follow.
But we only tightened our grip on each other’s hands and didn’t move.
When we showed no sign of following, the guard frowned in irritation.
“Didn’t you hear me? Lady Adeline is looking for Lord Dravergh.”
“No.”
I stepped forward in front of Varen as I spoke.
Hiding the body a head taller than me behind my back, I shook my head firmly.
“I will not be sending Dravergh to you.”
“What?”
“Tell Adeline that.”
Without any explanation, I delivered the point sharply.
The man looked bewildered and tried to chase after us, but I grabbed Varen’s hand and moved faster.
I heard someone call, “Hey!” several times behind us, but I ignored it lightly.
Our unusual behavior made the Rebels—who had been busy with their own tasks—turn to look at us in surprise.
As attention gathered, Varen frowned and whispered to me.
“Ceryl, everyone is watching us. If we draw unnecessary attention...”
“I don’t care.”
“Where exactly are you planning to run? Morpha told us to wait here. You can trust Morpha.”
“I do trust them. That’s why I’m running.”
Morpha had told me several times that I needed to sense the danger approaching Varen before anyone else.
Morpha believed in the instincts I didn’t even trust myself.
So whatever plan Morpha might be setting up wasn’t my concern.
I would follow my instincts.
“Ugh... ugh...”
A groan escaped my mouth despite myself.
My steps quickened ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) until I was almost marching like an alarm bell.
The sensation of insects crawling over my body—something I had been feeling for a while now—was rising from the soles of my feet.
More precisely, it felt like it was coming from beneath the ground.
Even taking a single step was agony.
I didn’t want to place my foot on this ground for even a moment.
When I glanced up, Varen seemed completely unaware of the disgusting sensation of insects crawling underfoot.
That only made me more certain that the warning from my instincts was real.
When we reached the massive tree that served as the entrance to the base, my stomach churned and a retch rose in my throat.
At the same moment I covered my mouth, Adeline’s voice came from behind us.
“Well now. Where are you hurrying off to like that?”
