Chapter 76

-Shirrrrrrk!

-Charararararara...

-Kiiiiik!

They were hanging from the ceiling like bats.

Black eyes, twice the size of normal ones, were gazing down at the ore heap.

People half-wrapped in white, shining threads had their arms, legs, and heads dangling outward.

Looking at that sight, he inadvertently blurted out.

"...Cocoons?"

The moment he uttered those words, a shout was heard.

"Your Grace, it's dangerous!"

"Ugh!"

Suddenly, the Margrave rose to his feet.

His physique, which had been indiscernible as he was crouching, was now revealed.

With an elastic body like a pupa just before hatching, the Margrave's head only continued to rise upward.

Stones rolled down from the ore heap.

The Margrave's grotesque body kept elongating, stretching, and changing continuously.

Inside the darkish, semi-transparent flesh, internal organs twisted and moved.

Some moved upward to become parts of a new body, while others hardened palely, preparing for the next transformation.

-Keeeeeeiiik.

An unpleasant, eerie cry, as if declaring something.

-Sharrrrrrk!

-Chirrrrrrr...

-Shaaaaaa...

The group hanging from the ceiling, blessing and witnessing it.

At the end of this strange ritual,

The Margrave's body split open, and something unknown revealed itself from within.

White fur all over its body and gleaming white butterfly wings.

A head that was a mixture of half moth and half human.

Everything was reflected in abnormally large black eyes.

Its atrophied arms were flailing as if searching for a sacrifice, while it used its sturdy legs, covered in bushy fur, to touch the ground.

A massive and overwhelming size that would be too large even if five ore heaps were combined.

The mouth on that ferocious face split into four parts.

-Kyaaaaaaaaaaaa!

"Aaaaaaah!"

He covered his ears at the chest-vibrating, eardrum-tearing sound, but it was of no use.

The windows in the hall began to burst one by one with painful sounds.

There was a popping sound from inside, and the sound started to fade.

Even so, he couldn't stop his legs from trembling.

A different kind of fear from when he had witnessed the giant earlier.

The fear of immediate death rather than a distant, profound existential terror.

A red alert lit up in his head.

This monster seemed capable of killing him.

And quite easily at that.

At that moment, there was only one thing he could say.

"Run!"

The hall shook, and the cocoons on the ceiling began to fall one by one.

Some of them were still human, and some were butterfly larvae just beginning to hatch.

As the ore heap collapsed, Amelia's screams and Russel's prayers could be heard from somewhere.

He ran desperately without time to look back at them.

He rolled over ore flying in all directions, running toward the exit, unaware that his cloak was being torn.

He saw Russel and Amelia entering the passageway they had just come through.

Behind them, Leandros jumped in and looked back at him.

The hand he extended was right in front of him.

Just a little, just a little more!

"Ah!"

At that moment, something clung to his ankle. He lost his balance and tumbled to the floor.

A baby moth that had torn through a cocoon was hugging his ankle.

Its devilishly gleaming black pupils captured his terrified face.

"Your Grace!"

"Leandros!"

With a scream, the mithril ore heap collapsed, completely blocking the passage.

He had been left alone here.

No.

No, not here!

The giant butterfly's leg snatched his waist.

The end of the foot, shaped like a small hook, dug into his abdomen, tearing his skin.

"Ugh...!"

No matter how he struggled, he couldn't escape.

As the floor receded far below, all he could see were the hatched baby moths and the monster that had once been the Margrave.

The Margrave, while holding him up, opened its mouth wide.

Teeth that seemed capable of grinding anything were densely protruding along the inside of the throat.

A horrific sight of it writhing and secreting bodily fluids as if desiring prey.

If he were thrown in there, he would be ground up without time to scream.

Was this the end of this life?

While he was gasping for breath, in pain as if his intestines might burst, the butterfly's face subtly changed.

The butterfly, which had been observing him, soon turned its head and roared.

The babies began to gather beneath his feet.

The hatched offspring, which had been chewing mithril ore or biting the mother butterfly's legs, were looking up at him.

Only then could he understand the mother butterfly's intention.

It intended to tear him into pieces and distribute one piece to each of the offspring below.

If his body were torn to pieces while fully conscious.

How great would that pain be?

Would it be better to bite his tongue and take his own life now?

Another hook-like foot grabbed his shoulder.

Simultaneously, he heard a booming sound.

"Your Grace!"

It was Leandros who emerged from beyond the blocked ore heap.

Leandros, who had lost him and couldn't leave like that, had finally broken through the stone heap and shouted from below.

"Your Grace, please learn to run properly!"

"What are you saying! Just go! Just come back later and properly retrieve my body!"

"It would be fortunate if there's even a part of your body left when I return!"

That would be true!

He was honestly happy to see Leandros.

But the butterfly didn't seem to feel the same way.

The butterfly that had been the Margrave began to roar in anger.

It felt like the sound was hammering directly into his muffled ears, shaking his brain.

-Kyaaaaaaaaa!

As his body was shaken violently, something fishy rose from within.

But before he could spit it out, his body was slammed into a wall.

A body that had been slammed against ore heaps, stone ceilings, and walls multiple times for venting could not endure.

An ordinary human body that had not been trained.

Unlike protagonists or villains, a body that had received no blessings or protection and had only weakened with repeated regressions crumbled quickly.

His vision turned white, then red from pain beyond the limit.

Even the normal sensation of pain flew far away.

Something was clearly broken, but he couldn't even gauge where it was.

So this was what it felt like when internal organs were mixed up and the brain turned to mush.

The sound of breaking,

Screams from an unknown source.

White noise echoing from far away.

And Leandros rushing toward him with his gleaming sword.

For a moment, the left antenna of the moth Margrave twitched slightly.

The giant moth's leg struck down at the rushing Leandros.

Fragments of the ore heap flew out in all directions.

Leandros was able to narrowly avoid the leg, but he was outmatched in weight class.

There were multiple giant legs.

And baby moths underneath.

This battlefield was full of obstacles.

The right antenna of the angry moth twitched.

The right antenna.

And the subtle force added to the right foot squeezing his body.

A viewpoint that could be secured by being close to the moth.

"Right...!"

As soon as he shouted, Leandros reflexively dodged.

Almost simultaneously, the right foot with a small sickle-like claw barely grazed Leandros's head.

"R, right!"

-Thud!

The intact floor cracked and was deeply dented.

It was because the right foot had been stomped down.

But when the monster attacked, Leandros was already gone from that spot.

He had even managed to dodge with considerable ease.

Right, left, left again.

The more he repeatedly called out, the more the ore heap collapsed, and mithril ore spread everywhere.

Infuriated by Leandros, who was dodging everywhere, the moth began to trample even its innocent offspring.

Sticky liquid burst from all around, and a disgusting stench spread.

As the moth lost its reason, the odds began to tilt in Leandros's favor.

And finally, when he stepped within the moth's approach distance.

Leandros adjusted his grip on his sword.

With a clicking sound, his feet firmly planted on the floor.

In front of him, the giant moth roared.

A monster too large to cut down in one stroke.

An overwhelming difference in size that seemed to make it impossible to even thrust the sword.

But there wasn't the slightest hesitation in Leandros.

Like someone who had never even considered failure.

The sword, forged with demonic beast teeth that he had personally extracted, hummed faintly in its master's hand.

A swordplay neither elegant nor flashy.

But the spirit that couldn't take one's eyes off it clearly resembled him, the protagonist.

A trajectory that clearly resembled the tail of a blazing, fierce meteor was drawn.

With a slicing sound, bodily fluid burst out like a fountain.

Over the flailing, frenzied legs, cutting through the huge, solid abdomen, past the armored thick shell-covered shoulders to the face split into four parts.

His body fell downward along with the slowly collapsing giant body.

Before he collided with the ground, Leandros caught his body by a narrow margin.

Seeing his eyebrows shoot up, he couldn't help but smile.

The reason he smiled was simple.

He was the protagonist, and he was a supporting character watching the protagonist from the side.

Being able to see the protagonist's amazing performance with the sword he had given him in real-time was almost a privilege unique to him as a supporting character.

Seeing this, being a supporting character might not be so bad.

And then he fainted from the pain that was crushing his entire body.

* * *

When he opened his eyes, he heard a crackling sound from somewhere.

His back was warm, damp, and soft.

At first, he thought this was finally either heaven or hell.

But a dull pain belatedly arrived, tormenting his entire body.

So he was still alive.

Unable to raise his body, he only rolled his eyes to survey his surroundings.

Judging by the snow storm blowing outside the frozen white window, it seemed he was still in the north.

The room had some basic furniture, and a small, warm fire was lit in the fireplace.

Where was this?

As he was thinking that, the door opened, and Leandros entered.

"You're awake."

"Where..."

"It's the inner castle. It seems to have been the Margrave's bedroom."

His voice came out surprisingly raspy, but Leandros didn't seem to mind much.

He dumped what he was carrying by the fireplace and threw them into the fire one by one.

It seemed like he had broken up the remaining picture frames or furniture.

After lighting the fire, Leandros helped him sit up.

"How do you feel?"

"...Better than I expected."

It wasn't much worse than he had expected.

It wasn't just empty words; when he had been caught by the moth, he had thought his entire body would literally be like celery in a juicer.

Wasn't it a miracle that he was alive like this?

But Leandros's face was grim.

"It must be because of the herbs you took while unconscious. Although you say it hurts less, in fact, about four of your ribs are broken, so please be careful with your movements."

Did that mean something like morphine was circulating in his body now?

Was there an herb that had a painkilling effect as powerful as morphine?

Why did he carry that around?

Leandros continued.

"It's a miracle that you regained consciousness. The bleeding was severe, and above all, your internal injuries are deep. Please rest."

"But..."

But to just lie here like this?

What about Amelia and Russel?

How would they return to the ducal residence?

Various worries arose, but Leandros took out something like dried leaves and put them in his mouth.

After lying him back down, he left the room, saying he would find more firewood.

The sound of snow and wind howling.

The peaceful sound of firewood burning.

Unable to get up on his own, he had no choice but to chew on the strange-tasting dried leaves and lie there.

The Margrave's metamorphosis.

What on earth had happened in this empty castle, in the north?

He had thought that since the 'Lord of the Extreme Realm' had descended, the northern pit was inevitably an altar for that god.

Looking back on what had happened so far, there were more than one or two things that seemed strange.

But to resolve this issue, he would need to move first.

With his current physical condition, it seemed he couldn't do anything.

All he could do was chew on the leaves Leandros had given him or look around the room.

A room with flickering red firelight.

Suddenly, his gaze turned to the fireplace.

More precisely, to the front of the fireplace, where Leandros had dumped the broken furniture pieces.

Something was sticking out from underneath.

A paper in a place where there wasn't a single book?

He tried to wiggle his fingers, but there was no way he could reach it.

Finally, after making a strained expression and narrowing his eyes, what he barely saw was-

A picture of a white butterfly.