Chapter 66
As Captain Arc’s body began to grow larger and larger, Lilibet gasped once more.
“Wh-what is that!”
In response, Captain Arc grew even bigger.
At the increasingly enlarging size, Briden finally realized what was in front of them and cried out in shock.
“Captain Arc!”
With Llibet’s fear adding to Briden’s fear, Arc grew to its limit.
Meanwhile, Asil, who had come right up to Captain Arc’s nose, stared up at the gradually enlarging Arc.
‘What is it.’
A shadow was falling over her head. It was clearly about the same size as a regular Arc, so why had it grown so much?
“Then Asili can’t scold it.”
“Run away!”
It was Lilibet’s voice.
Asil’s mouth fell open.
No way, the humans had followed them all the way here!
Lilibet grabbed Briden’s hand and ran toward the horses. Then, with lightning-fast movements, she quickly mounted a horse.
Briden, who got on behind Lilibet, immediately tried to spur the horse in the opposite direction from Captain Arc.
“No! We have to take Lady Erzébet too!”
“It’s fine, there’s no time to go that far!”
“If you don’t take her, I’ll jump off the horse right now!”
“……Fine, we’ll go!”
And thus, the three people ended up encountering Edenber while fleeing from the house-sized Arc.
* * *
“Huaaaaaang!”
She was completely out of her mind. What is this! Everything’s ruined because of the humans!
“Huaaaaaaaaang!”
With the rough wind brushing her face, Asil screamed loudly.
Briden was already rough with horses to begin with, but being chased by Arc made it even more violent.
Briden shouted to Edenber, who was galloping alongside.
“We have to escape outside the forest!”
“No, there are unarmed people outside. There will be great casualties!”
Even in the urgent situation, Edenber worried about others’ safety first.
“Why on earth did it grow so big? And why are Lady Erzébet and the young lady here too!”
“Asili came to scold the captain! But the humans made Arc grow big!”
In her frenzy, instead of titles like young lady and young lord, the word humans came out.
However, since everyone was equally frantic, no one paid attention to listen.
Only Edenber reacted to the part about coming to catch Captain Arc and scowled.
“That’s nonsense-!”
“What do we do now? Horses have their limits too!”
At Lilibet’s cry, Asil looked around. And she spotted a nearby area with higher ground.
At its end was a cliff, and below the cliff was a large lake.
She recalled once seeing snow leopard brother Snowa and his friends doing a drive hunt.
They ran hard, stopped at the cliff’s edge, and scolded beasts much larger than themselves in one go.
‘There, I can scold Arc.’
She wasn’t the only one who thought that.
“That way!”
Edenber pointed to the cliff and shouted.
“That way!”
Briden spurred the horse as instructed.
The Captain Arc, grown to its limit, roared and followed behind.
“Kuaaaaa!”
“Stop the horse on my signal.”
With an expression devoid of any fear, Edenber commanded.
“Three, two, one…… Now!”
Hiiihiihing!
The two horses barely stopped at the cliff’s edge.
However, Captain Arc did not.
The monster, unable to slow down, fell straight off the cliff.
“Kuaaaaa-!”
Splash!
With a fierce spray of water, the house-sized Arc plunged into the lake.
As a monster living in the forest, Arc could not swim.
It thrashed wildly for a moment, then slowly sank downward. Its thunderous roar gradually faded.
“W-we survived…….”
Her legs were trembling so much she couldn’t stay on the horse any longer.
Lilibet and Briden jumped off the horse, and Asil dismounted from the saddle with Liribet’s help.
Edenber, who had also gotten off his horse, looked slightly angry.
While visually checking if Asil was hurt anywhere, his mouth spat out sharp words.
“Lady, what on earth were you thinking coming here-”
Crack.
It was then that an ominous sound came from underfoot.
Edenber reflexively looked down at the ground. No way?
Craaack.
It wasn’t ominous; it was reality.
The cliff, unable to bear Captain Arc’s weight, was about to collapse.
“Run!”
There was no time to mount the horses.
He reflexively grabbed Asil’s wrist and dashed toward the opposite side of the cliff.
Even Lilibet, who had been going eee, grabbed Briden’s hand and followed.
However, the cliff’s collapse was too fast.
Crunch.
Because his vision was poor, Briden, running at the very back, heard a strange sound from under his feet.
“……Ah.”
Sensing something amiss, Briden reflexively looked down.
At the same moment, Lilibet pulled Briden toward her with all her strength.
In an instant, Lilibet and Briden’s positions swapped.
Exactly at the line where Briden had stepped, the cliff completely crumbled away.
“KyaAAAAA!”
“Lilibet!”
Splash!
Lilibet fell straight into the lake.
“No!”
The panicked Briden tried to jump into the lake after Lilibet. However, Edenber blocked him.
“If you jump in from here, you’ll die too, young lord!”
“But Lilibet!”
“Asilian swims well!”
Asil, who had come running dododo, immediately jumped into the lake.
Seeing this, Edenber’s face turned pale.
“Wait a moment!”
He reached out too late, but it was already missed. Edenber hurriedly set down his sword and shouted to Briden.
“I’ll bring the two, so wait here below!”
Then, without the slightest hesitation, he jumped down from the cliff.
* * *
Asil was famous in beastman kindergarten for being good at swimming too.
The lake bottom had many floating particles, so visibility wasn’t great, but it was clear to Asil’s eyes.
Lilibet was sinking to the bottom while unconscious.
Captain Arc was already dead and turned to smoke, nowhere to be seen.
‘Asil will save you!’
Asil tried to swim toward Lilibet.
However, her waterlogged clothes were too heavy.
Even in human form, her movements were awkward to begin with, and with the clothes weighing her down like heavy weights, she felt like she was flailing in place.
‘What to do.’
She didn’t even know how to take them off.
Meanwhile, Lilibet continued to sink.
‘I don’t know.’
Even if humans find out, no choice!
In her desperation, Asil returned to her original form.
She shed her enlarged clothes and belongings and quickly dog-paddled toward Lilibet.
She barely managed to grab Liribet and tried to swim back up using one front paw and two hind paws.
But.
‘Heavy!’
Humans become incredibly heavy in water. She hadn’t known that before.
With no choice, she gripped Lilibet with both front paws and struggled upward, but without using her front paws, it was noticeably slow.
It was then that she remembered the necklace Arcian had given her.
‘Let’s call dad.’
When she tried to press the button firmly, there was nothing around her neck. Where is it?
In the moment she looked around, she saw something sinking downward.
The necklace was sinking rapidly along with the dress adorned with jewels.
“Uwaaan!”
She quickly reached out a front paw, but it was too short to reach. Asil was a beast with short arms, sadly.
‘Sigh.’
A sigh escaped on its own. She should have called dad before turning back to her original form.
Asil is an idiot. Idiot black dragon.
With no choice, she gritted her teeth and began pulling Lilibet up again.
Asil still had leeway, but humans can’t hold their breath long underwater, she heard.
So she had to go up quickly. Before this human completely runs out of breath!
It was exactly that moment.
A very bright light burst from Lilibet.
Then, a massive turtle with a mysterious blue body and blue shell appeared.
It was much larger than the firebird they had fought before.
“…….” (Why are you dying, master.)
Clearly no sound was heard, yet the massive turtle’s words embedded clearly in her mind.
☆☆☆
By Anna 💓
