Chapter 252

“What?”

Nathan’s eyes widened in shock at Azar’s casual statement. He belatedly noticed that not just Azar, but the other three were also carrying similar bundles. They were blankets tied up like parcels—and they were all filled with remains?

Nathan was momentarily speechless at this shocking revelation. His mind raced, trying to figure out how things had come to this. When he stared at Azar expectantly, demanding an explanation, Azar scratched his cheek and spoke.

“Well, explaining everything that happened inside would take a while, so perhaps we should discuss it after leaving this place…”

Nathan nodded in agreement. Now that they had emerged from the dungeon, there was no reason to linger in this suspicious location. Besides, while waiting for them, he’d already surveyed the surroundings and taken care of some necessary matters. There would be no immediate problems if they left now.

Of course, the mere association with black magic gave him a rough idea of what had happened.

“Nathan, what happened out here while we were inside? Why are those two like that?”

Azar asked, nodding toward Truin and Rona, who were sleeping while leaning against each other in a corner. Nathan suddenly realized his oversight—he should have woken them up earlier! He’d left them sleeping, thinking he could wake them after surveying the area, but Azar’s group had emerged from the dungeon before he had the chance.

“Ah, monsters… Some monsters showed up.”

“…Are you injured anywhere? Are you all right?”

“It wasn’t that serious. I could handle it alone, and those two—well, a monster appeared right behind where they were standing. They were just so startled they fainted, so there’s nothing to worry about.”

Nathan shrugged, trying to appear nonchalant. For a brief moment, Azar gave him a strange look but quickly softened his expression and said:

“You must have had a tough time on your own.”

“It was nothing compared to what you all went through.”

At that moment, Ali spoke up:

“Shouldn’t we wake those two up?”

“Probably for the best. We’ve accumulated quite a bit of luggage now. Carrying them would be additional work. If their legs are functioning, it would be easier to move if they’re awake.”

The response came from Ramiya, who was readjusting her bundle of remains.

As soon as she finished speaking, Ali summoned a ball of water in midair. After briefly maintaining its shape above Truin and Rona’s heads, the water lost form with a “plop” sound and poured down.

Splash!

“Huaagh!”

The two suddenly drenched with water jumped up in surprise. Unable to grasp the situation, they blinked slowly.

“There’s nothing like cold water to wake up unconscious people.”

Ramiya calmly remarked, looking at the two.

“Wh-what? What’s going on? Huh?”

“Why the sudden water…?”

“Why water…! Gasp! Monsters! There are monsters over there! …Huh?”

Wiping away the water from his face with a delayed reaction, Truin expressed his confusion but suddenly stopped mid-sentence, startled so badly he fell on his backside. With a terrified expression, he pointed behind him, but naturally, there was nothing there. Truin and Rona tilted their heads with bewildered expressions.

“There was… a monster?”

“Yeah, I clearly saw it charging at us earlier…”

As they continued muttering in confusion with blank faces, Nathan handed them towels and calmly responded:

“The monsters are gone now. More importantly, are you both alright?”

At his words, the two finally noticed Nathan, looked around once, and then spoke with relieved expressions:

“Ah, Mr. Mage… The others have come out too, I see.”

“I have no idea what happened. Why did we…?”

“…Don’t you remember? You were both startled by a monster that came very close, fell over, and apparently hit your heads, fainting on the spot.”

“Oh, did that happen?”

At Nathan’s rather composed lie, the two showed uncertain expressions before eventually nodding in acceptance. Fortunately for Nathan, they had a vague memory of tripping over each other’s feet and falling.

“Are you feeling unwell anywhere?”

“No, no… I’m fine except for this stiffness in my body, like I’ve had a nightmare.”

Rona answered while pushing back her wet hair. She wondered if the stiffness was from falling earlier, but her shoulders felt heavy as if she’d been having a nightmare. What was even more disturbing…

“I feel a chill. Is it because I’m wet?”

Rona replied while rotating her stiff shoulders. Beside her, Truin also tried moving his aching body, rubbing his arms against the cool sensation.

“If you’ve both come to your senses, let’s be on our way.”

Remberton said, pulling up his robe to cover his mouth.

“That’s right. Let’s leave this place first.”

With Azar’s final words, they hastily departed.

Was it because they had brought out the remains from inside? Somehow, an even cooler and more ominous energy seemed to flow from the dungeon, settling over the entire area. It wasn’t just his imagination—the already blackened forest began to change subtly. The grasses that had barely maintained their form suddenly crumbled as if their life had been instantly drained, and the ground they had walked across began to crack dryly.

Creaaak. Crack—.

Various spine-chilling sounds echoed behind them. Truin, who had turned around out of idle curiosity, jumped in shock.

The forest was moving.

The blackened trees were writhing, intertwining to block the path they had just traveled. The sight was endlessly bizarre and sent shivers down their spines.

“What in the world…”

Ramiya, who had glanced back, muttered with a sigh as cold sweat ran down her face. It was a sight that captivated their attention even as they slowly backed away. But soon they gradually stopped walking. Perhaps they instinctively sensed that this movement wouldn’t harm them.

The intertwining trees, as if attempting to seal off that strange forest, stretched all the way to the sky.

When the trees finally ceased moving, the resulting scene was, how to describe it—as if the forest had drawn its own boundaries. The path to the dungeon was closed. The densely positioned trees left no visible gap to enter through.

“So, is everything okay for now?”

Azar muttered blankly. They watched for a moment just in case, but the trees no longer moved. Only then did the group breathe a sigh of relief.

“…I don’t know exactly what happened, but with things like this, it’ll be difficult for anyone to enter from the outside, don’t you think?”

“One less thing to worry about.”

“The problem is that we can’t go back in either…”

At their exchange, Rona suddenly asked in surprise:

“Wait, why would you want to go back there?”

“Is it because of treasure? Aren’t those bundles treasures?”

Truin pointed at the packages they were carrying in their arms. Since they hadn’t had those when entering the dungeon, he’d assumed they had returned with treasure.

“Ah, this… This isn’t treasure.”

Azar continued with a rather awkward expression:

“These are remains we recovered from inside the dungeon.”

“…What?”

The statement was so unexpected that the two could only stare blankly.

“Well…”

Azar wondered if it was appropriate to tell these two the unvarnished truth. What they had experienced inside the dungeon would be difficult for ordinary people to comprehend. Would they even believe that dead people were moving and attacking the living? Even if they did believe it, he worried whether these easily frightened individuals could handle such a story. After deliberation, Azar decided to partially conceal the truth.

“…When we went deeper inside, we found quite a few corpses. From what we could see, there were signs of fighting between people.”

“Ah…”

Truin let out a small gasp at those words.

“It just didn’t feel right to leave them there. So we’re bringing back what remains we could find. It would be better for them to be buried in a sunny place rather than left in such a location.”

He added that this was why they had taken longer than expected to come out, giving Nathan, who was watching him, a slight eye-smile.

“…I see.”

Nathan suspected there was more to the story. Confirming his suspicion, Ramiya whispered beside him that she would explain in detail later. Nathan nodded briefly. It seemed difficult to hear the full story while those two were with them.