“I’m just taking a break.”

“I heard you made a bet with Duke Ernes. But I see you’re quite relaxed, Lady Fiona.”

He really kept saying that to joke around.

But I see that he didn’t seem to have caught many monsters. He really was unmotivated.

I laughed softly.

“Your Highness must have been quite bored with this competition.”

‘Don’t nag at me, you’re the same!’ that’s the meaning of my sentence.

However, Sigren seemed relaxed even though he might have noticed what I said, he even slightly rubbed the back of his neck.

“Oh, it sure isn’t fun.”

“….”

“So I hope I could join you two in your break.” Sigren smiled while looking at Arrendt.

Arrendt answered with a picturesque smile. “It is my honor, Your Highness.”

As I grasped the change of the atmosphere between the two, I decided to move away. “I have to end my break now.”

Both of them looked at me at the same time.

“It’s not good to overdo it.”

“I want to hear more of Lady Fiona’s opinion, but I can’t. It’s a pity.”

“Marquis, I don’t think I can tell you anything more because I don’t know more than that. And Your Highness, the Prince.”

Sigren’s eyes met mine.

“I know my stamina well, don’t worry.”

I really didn’t understand why Abel and Sigren were so mean to me in Heilon, they always nagged at me. Honestly, the reason was pretty annoying too. My stamina was normal. Not bad at all. It was them who were not normal. Their stamina was definitely not human-level stamina. But for me, I was definitely a normal human.

Sigren shrugged lightly. As if he was saying ‘really?’

Cheeky guy.

“Besides, I made a bet, so I have to do my best.”

Sigren replied as if he remembered something. “Come to think of it. Duke Ernest seems very motivated.”

“Did you meet him?”

“No, just saw him pass by.”

I can’t believe that duke just passed by after seeing a prince.

But Sigren didn’t seem to care about that.

“It seems that he went beyond the control line.”

I opened my eyes wide. “What? Why didn’t you stop him?”

“Why should I?”

‘You should stop him!’

Sigren burst into a small laugh after seeing my expression.

“Lady Fiona, Duke Ernest is not a young man who can’t control his energy. He would come back if he finds what he does is unreasonable. Besides, the knights who followed him definitely won’t be weak.”

I put on a shaky face. “The Duke is quite… he must have been in a hurry.”

“I told you.”

While we were having a conversation, a loud horn was suddenly heard from afar. Usually, blowing the horn was a signal to gather at the hunting ground competition headquarters.

“Doesn’t that mean the end of the hunting competition?”

Arrendt looked up at the sky and estimated the position of the sun. “no, it is still far from over. But the fact that the horn was already blown is—”

“It means something is wrong,” Sigren said firmly.

“Yes, I think it would be good to go back.”

The three of us hurriedly set off.

***

Duke Ernest drove his horse.

“Duke, it’s dangerous to go any deeper than this!”

“It’s fine! I can’t see any other monsters anyway—”

At that moment, the horses suddenly stopped with a whinnying sound as if they were terrified.

“What is it?”

The duke looked around casually. It was a quiet forest, and he couldn’t see anything strange.

“Du, DUKE! Look at the ground!”

The ground? Duke Ernest lowered his gaze. Then his eyes opened widely. The ground was pitch black. The surrounding plants were also dry and twisted. It was a bizarre sight.

“Ho, how the hell did this happen…”

A knight opened his mouth.

“This is a phenomenon I’ve heard of. The Darkness, the surrounding land dies after it appears…”

The explanation vaguely reminded the duke as well. That was a theory that the academy scholars have argued loudly. Humans should prepare a countermeasure against Darkness. However, since it was such a rare phenomenon, it was the first time that Duke Ernest had even seen it with his own two eyes.

“Then what will happen?”

“I’ve heard that the surrounding monsters are stronger and more ferocious than usual. In that case, even the lowest level monsters would be difficult to deal with. Evacuate quickly…ARGHH!!”

Suddenly, red blood was splattered and screams rang out.

Duke Ernest was stunned by the sight in front of him.

A monster appeared out of nowhere and bit the neck of the knight who had been talking.

‘Whe, where did it come from?”

The speed of the monster was very fast. It was hard to follow with human eyes. Its appearance was obviously a low-level monster, but the speed was different.

The sound of swords being drawn echoed from all directions.

“Ready to attack!”

“Protect the duke!”

At the same time, the sound of a longhorn came from afar.