Chapter 36

Chapter 36 : Treasure Hunting Is Made of Dreams and Hope (6)

The interior was so dark that it admitted not a single sliver of light.

Even the light that had filtered in from outside gradually retreated, swallowed up by a darkness so deep I could no longer properly see even my own palm.

The only things I could rely on were the red thread the little bird had carried ahead of me and the sense of touch in my hands.

Beyond the dense darkness, the red thread swayed and trembled.

That thin strand looked perilous. The fear crept along my nerves in little gnawing bites that, if it stopped now, it might snap and leave me alone in this darkness forever.

I braced a hand against the narrow, uneven wall and forced my feet to move when they did not want to.

The farther I went, the clearer it became that this space was not a naturally formed crack.

Once I left the narrow cleft of rough stone walls behind, I found a smooth wall broad enough that I could stretch out both arms. The sensation beneath my fingertips was so smooth it felt like touching glass.

Before long, the path of the red thread drifted farther and farther away from the wall, and I had no choice but to take my hand from it as well.

At least the ground was fairly even, which made walking through the darkness marginally easier.

Drip— drip-drip—

Far away, the sound of water droplets falling echoed through the corridor, louder than it should have.

Whenever the faint glow cast by the red thread brushed over the interior, thick pillars came into view.

The pillars, engraved with simple patterns, were the same kind I had seen before.

I curled one corner of my mouth.

Curiosity stirred in me again, wondering why these vast ruins sleeping beneath the Black Forest had been left abandoned. Every single one of them took the shape of a temple, as though made to worship some god.

Splash.

Cold water seeped in through the gaps in my shoes.

Even the structure resembled the place where I had found the travel record. I stopped and widened my eyes, trying to find the little bird that had vanished ahead into the darkness, but of course I couldn’t see it.

Far off, a faint light leaked from a wall embedded with luminous stones, but that was all.

“Hey. How far did you go?”

Miaow—

Miaow—

I called for the little bird, but only empty echoes came back.

I lifted one foot and judged the depth of the water again. The hard floor beneath it seemed almost unnaturally clean, as though not a speck of mud had settled there despite the pooled water.

“If something happens, I can always turn back.”

I let out a sigh as I stared at the red thread stretching into the distance.

The decision came quickly.

To be honest, I hated standing frozen in the dark, unable to go either forward or back, far more.

My splashing footsteps echoed through the cavern.

Grrr—

How far had I gone?

A low breath, like some beast slowly exhaling, mixed into the sound of the water.

It was low and slow, but unmistakably breathing.

That breathing, repeated at long intervals, meant there was something else alive in this darkness.

‘Could Woldeer…….’

Hope flickered that he might be alive.

Then, at once, fear followed close behind. What if it was another Phantasmal Species instead?

Woldeer had been one that approached me with blind affection. Originally, all the other Phantasmal Species would probably have approached me the same way too.

The moment I remembered swinging a blade in the black fog, I shoved a trembling hand through my hair and kept walking.

Pan had said it was stabilizing. That there was no more black fog now, and the Phantasmal Species would no longer transform. That there would be no need to kill them if they rushed me again.

“What am I even saying.”

No matter how many excuses I made to justify myself, it didn’t change the truth.

I was afraid.

Afraid that I might be forced to kill a Phantasmal Species again.

And yet, despite all that, I still couldn’t let go of the hope that it might be Woldeer.

…

…

The path led deep, far deeper than I had expected.

Fortunately, the water remained shallow, never rising above my ankles.

Only after what felt like an hour of walking through the dark along the red thread did another light begin to appear in the distance.

The light spread gently over the surface of the water, scattering all the way to my feet in ripples.

Pillars stretched in long rows on either side, and the great open space between them was so empty that the ceiling, dozens of meters overhead, lay beyond the reach of the light.

Naturally. The light came only from a small opening in the ceiling, where it poured down to illuminate a single patch below.

Something crouched beneath that beam of light, bathing in it, and the red thread touched that shape.

Not all of it. Only part of its head.

A half-lidded large eye, a great horn rising over its head, and vivid violet shading.

“Woldeer?”

All my hesitation up to now had been meaningless.

I quickened my pace at once and splashed urgently through the water.

The closer I came, the more of its full form came into view. Long, shaggy fur still covered its whole body, and even its magnificent fangs were still resting neatly between its forepaws. But—

“You got a lot bigger……?”

Even at a glance, its size had changed from before.

It wasn’t just that it had grown a little. It had become at least ten times larger, so large that when I came close, a single forepaw almost hid my whole body.

The thought crossed my mind that if it charged me happily now, it would crush me to death.

Then my face hardened.

A scene from the travel record came back to me.

“It is the dominant species of the Black Forest.

Waiting for those who disappeared with none to remember them, it guards their traces.

Was it instinct that made it choose to remain alone in that place where the forest sank and the waters flowed?

When something living appears, it takes its life. When something dead is cast aside, it tears even the corpse apart and devours it.

It longs for a master who will never return.

A monster with no natural enemy, condemned to suffer forever, unable to die even in death.

……It resembles my own condition as well.”

The eye that had been only half open fully revealed itself.

Its pupil moved slowly, then came to rest on me. When its eyelid flickered once, focus returned to its clouded gaze.

They were Woldeer’s golden eyes, still gleaming even in the darkness.

Grrrr.

A low vibration scratched through its throat as Woldeer pushed itself upright and slowly lifted one forepaw to pat my head lightly, once, twice.

Even so, the wound in its throat—where Hwipone had stabbed it that day—still pulsed, and blue blood still welled up, beading in its fur before dripping to the floor.

All the muscles in my body, tensed from forcing my way through the darkness, suddenly went slack, and I let out a long breath.

Relief? Emptiness? Joy that it was all right? Guilt that I had never known? Sorrow over a wound that still had not healed?

Whatever it was, I felt bitter.

I remembered the day I had seen Woldeer collapsed and dying, and still fled because I had been too desperate to survive myself.

I remembered how, once I believed Woldeer was dead, I had simply decided there was nothing more for me to do.

And even now, I had only come here thinking of taking a fragment from a dead Woldeer.

The disgust I felt toward myself made me sick.

Well, so what. In the end, it was nothing more than a bundle of data.

“I’m…… glad you’re alive—”

Cheep, flutter.

So that was where it had gone, leaving only the red thread behind. The little bird, which had been perched on the tip of one of Woldeer’s horns, fluttered down and landed neatly on my shoulder.

Woldeer’s eye shifted toward the little bird.

Its throat, still pierced, no longer allowed it to make a proper sound. Woldeer lowered itself again and quietly closed its eyes.

Instinctively, I knew this was the end.

That once those eyes closed, they would never open again.

I reached out and stroked the bridge of Woldeer’s nose.

The rough yet soft fur slipped between my fingers.

I remembered the cool warmth of the first time.

“Sleep well…….”

Stop waiting for that foolish master who will never come back, and go in peace now.

Grr.

Its final breath brushed my hair.

The fur that had been rising and falling so steadily at last settled.

Letting go was always hard.

Even after that, I kept my hand there for a long while before finally taking it away and sinking down in front of it.

At the edge of my vision lay Woldeer’s shaggy paw.

It had been less than a month.

Only now, after being allowed beside it and given a place in its company, did I understand that the blind affection had already become attachment.

A quiet trembling rose in me.

My teeth ached with the beat of my heart.

“This is ridiculous.”

I wiped a hand down my face and forced away emotions that wouldn’t help.

I hadn’t even thought about any of this at the beginning, and now look at me, pretending at sentiment.

“You’re tired of looking at this filthy sight too, aren’t you?”

I let out a hollow laugh and pushed myself to my feet. What did it matter? Thinking it had held on until I came was probably just my own arrogance.

Then, at the corner of my vision, a faint red light appeared.

It began at Woldeer’s horns.

A crack of light slowly drew itself there, and then, like a mirage vanishing, its form began to disappear from the top down.

It looked as though it were turning into light.

Or like mist scattering away.

When Woldeer had vanished completely, only a single red fragment remained hanging in the air.

The blood-red jigsaw-shaped piece spun once in place, then dropped weakly to the floor.

“A Fragment of a Phantasmal Species…….”

The color was different, but it matched what I had seen in the other Phantasmal Species I had killed.

Before I could even react, the little bird on my shoulder flew first and seized the puzzle piece in its beak.

“Hey—!”

It happened in an instant.

The little bird enlarged its beak wide enough to swallow the fragment—far larger than its own body—in one gulp, then worked its throat a few times and let out a satisfied chirp.

That enormous puzzle piece vanished without a trace into the little bird.

Before I could even find words for my bewilderment, the bird’s snow-white fluff began to change.

As though dyed by the red held within the fragment, the little bird slowly took on color until it became completely red.

Ding!

[You have found a Fragment of a Phantasmal Species.]

[The information for the 【Epic】 Quest 〈If You’re Underfolk, Surely You Have a Phantasmal Species or Two?〉 has changed.]

Fortunately, it didn’t seem that the quest itself had been affected.

---

In Riwin’s newly renovated fixer’s office, there was a single plant Pan had cultivated.

The plant, which had arrived in a small pot and resembled something close to a bonsai, had become quietly famous among the members of the forest because Pan came by so often to check on it.

People were even making wagers among themselves over what the plant would become once it was fully grown.

Beside that flowerpot sat another subject of rumor: a ball-jointed doll modeled after the Ruler of the Sky.

Displayed neatly side by side inside a glass case, the doll was of such exceptional quality that some people came just to admire it. Most, however, came to confirm a rumor.

The rumor that the eyes of the Ruler of the Sky doll moved on their own.

It was a dark, heavy night.

Even the lights of the night market had gone out, and only the faint moonlight remained.

“Ah…… the copying is finally over. I’m done. I can’t do it anymore. I’d rather die.”

Iwon came in through the office door, limp as a paper doll, and didn’t even make it as far as the bedroom before collapsing face-first onto the long sofa in the lobby.

Resting his chin on the low armrest of the sofa, half-closing his eyes, Iwon kicked off his shoes and shrugged off his outer layer carelessly, then sank into sleep almost at once.

At that moment, the eyes of the doll inside the glass case rolled once in a great circle and fixed themselves on the sleeping Iwon.

After blinking a few times, the doll very naturally pushed open one side of the closed case and leapt out. It landed without making a sound.

Smoothing back its glossy hair, made from expensive fibers, the doll toddled off in a straight line as though its destination had always been set.

It skillfully climbed up the edge of the sofa and looked down at the sleeping Iwon.

The doll crept closer, drew the little imitation longsword from its waist, and began poking Iwon in the back.

More precisely, it poked at the place where his heart should be.

Perhaps because the little sword was only a tiny model, he felt nothing through his clothes. Or perhaps he was simply too exhausted and had collapsed outright.

The doll poked and prodded quite thoroughly, yet Iwon did no more than groan a few times and failed to wake.

“As I thought…… he resembles him.”

Its eyes, blue as ice, gleamed as though sensing some invisible, formless aura. Though, being only a doll, all that really changed was that they became a little brighter.

The doll nearly fell several times, clearly inconvenienced by its small body, but at last managed to climb away and return safely to the glass case again.

It happened only a few days before Iwon set out for the Black Forest.