Sharti glared at the man.
<The soldiers of the Neweiton Empire don’t leave loose ends.>
Her handwriting trembled slightly.
<You’re the one who asked me for help. I’m the one who agreed to help you knowing what this could entail. So don’t change your mind now.>
“I am……”
The man furrowed his brow. He couldn’t clearly express his conflicted feelings.
As the man rubbed his face in frustration—
‘……Shh.’
Sharti put her index finger over her lips.
Not far away, the sound of flapping wings echoed. A flock of birds was flying into the sky as if escaping something.
‘They’ve closed the distance this much already?’
Sharti quickly rummaged through her bag.
Small pouches familiar to the man appeared.
“Surely you’re not planning to throw those at the soldiers? If you do that…!”
The man whispered.
Sharti shook her head and opened the pouches, scattering their contents around the spring.
“……A sweet smell?”
Immediately Sharti grabbed the man’s hand and began running.
‘Ugh!’
Her precarious right leg finally sent a warning signal. Sharti gritted her teeth and ran as fast as she could.
At this moment, the man’s gaze was fixed on Sharti’s right leg.
‘Please!’
Sharti threw and scattered the small open pouches on the ground.
Traces began to appear wherever the two had passed.
“-There they are!! After them!!”
At the clear, booming shout, Sharti clenched her teeth.
As they ran, their footprints were chaotically imprinted, making it easy for the soldiers to follow.
The one consolation was that the ground was all wet mud.
“……I can’t see clearly!”
“I’m not certain, but it’s something huge!”
“Catch it first and then confirm!”
The soldiers’ voices grew closer.
At the same time, she had used all the pouches she carried.
“Hold tight.”
As soon as Sharti gasped for breath, the man lifted her up and ran quickly.
Soon the muddy ground ended, and a grassy field appeared.
‘There! Hide there!!’
Finally, they arrived at the place Sharti wanted. It was an area with large rocks scattered about, as if a huge stone wall had collapsed.
Rustle—. The man hid behind the largest and most solid-looking boulder that Sharti pointed to.
Sharti hurriedly took out a fruit jam from her bag and prayed with both hands.
‘This has to work!’
Sharti threw the fruit jam with all her might behind the boulder.
Crash—. Luckily, the jam jar hit a stone among the grass and broke.
“……!”
The man was startled by the sound of the breaking jar, but only for a moment before Sharti pounced on him.
‘It’s stifling, but bear with it!’
Sharti covered herself and the man with her robe.
As her hair suddenly came close enough to touch his face, the man gasped. At the same time, soldiers began to appear one by one.
“Squad leader! The trail ends here!”
“Wh-what? Where did they go?!”
Perhaps because the area was full of undergrowth instead of trees, the soldiers’ shadows lengthened under the moonlight.
The long shadows covered the boulder.
“Search! They couldn’t have gone far—.”
Crack……. Dodint, the squad leader, checked what he had stepped on.
It was a piece of glass from the jar Sharti had thrown and broken.
“What’s this?”
“Isn’t it a jar?”
“Hmm? There’s some sticky liquid mixed with small particles….”
“It’s covered in dirt, so I can’t tell what it is.”
The soldiers murmured.
Sharti, eavesdropping on their conversation from not far away, felt like her heart was about to burst.
The man’s heart too was beating rapidly, though for a different reason.
“Forget it. Ignore that and search the area immediately!”
“Yes, sir!”
At Dodint’s command, Sharti squeezed her eyes shut.
‘Hurry!’
The man firmly embraced Sharti’s slightly trembling body.
Rustle, rustle.
“……!”
“……!”
“Snnrff……”
Sharti and the man held their breath at the sniffing sound right beside them.
Something was nudging the robe they were covered with.
Sniff, sniff. Then it sniffed around and gradually moved away, passing the boulder.
“S-squad leader. Isn’t that… a bear?”
What had touched Sharti and the man and emerged from behind the boulder was a black bear.
“Looks like a cub.”
Yes, a bear cub.
The bear cub kept sniffing with its nose buried in the undergrowth.
“Could what we’ve been chasing be this bear cub?”
One soldier asked with a dumbfounded expression.
The bear cub had lowered its body and was sticking its nose near several soldiers’ feet.
“How could that be possible! It was definitely something huge!!”
“But the direction this bear came from was ahead. If what we were chasing was human, why would this bear come toward us?”
The bear cub fearlessly stuck out its tongue and licked the bottom of their boots.
“Damn it……. It was definitely a person.”
Dodint gritted his teeth and looked around.
****
The man hiding behind the boulder was in agony.
“…….”
In a situation where even breathing had to be careful, he felt heat rising not only in his body but also in his head.
Her curly hair tickled the tip of his nose and cheeks, and her frail breaths brushed against his neck.
‘This is maddening.’
The man repeatedly curled and uncurled his finger joints in an awkward posture.
Before the soldiers appeared, Sharti had abruptly removed her robe and was now sitting on his thighs. She had positioned herself on top of him without hesitation, spreading the robe to hide.
‘Why so close…….’
With every breath he took, the strong herbal scent emanating from Sharti’s body stimulated his senses.
All of the medicines she made had different smells. Yet from her body, where all those scents must have clung, he could only detect a pleasant fragrance.
‘I thought I lost my memory, but have I lost my sense of smell too?’
But there was another issue.
‘I may be strange, but this woman is equally strange.’
Although they communicated through written notes, Sharti readily took hold of the man’s hand—a stranger whose identity was unknown. Moreover, she showed no embarrassment when examining his body for treatment.
‘Even now.’
Though he was wearing the robe Sharti had provided, his upper body was bare underneath. Yet Sharti, who was practically straddling him, seemed completely unmoved.
She truly treated him as a patient, nothing more, nothing less.
‘……Wait, why does that bother me?’
The man reflexively hid his displeasure.
Sharti had no unnecessary contact or unpleasant intentions. Rather, this situation was welcome and fortunate.
If someone who meant him harm had been in charge of his welfare, he might have regained consciousness while being tortured rather than treated.
‘Get a grip.’
The man closed his eyes.
He tried his best to ignore the sensations focusing on Sharti.
‘……I couldn’t see her face properly when she removed her hood earlier.’
Sharti had her back to the moon, casting shadows on her face.
Still, thanks to his sharp night vision, he could vaguely make out the contours of her face.
‘There were no scars.’
Though he already knew this from what he could vaguely see, he was curious.
Why Sharti kept her face so well-covered.
‘Haah…….’
He hesitated to clench his hand where veins prominently showed, continuing with useless thoughts. If he didn’t, he might bury his nose between Sharti’s neck and shoulder and sniff frantically.
Just like the bear cub that had been nudging their robe earlier.
“So, squad leader, what should we do? Keep searching?”
“Of course we continue the search! We haven’t found anything yet!”
“But if we go deeper into the mountain, it could be dangerous. They say mountains are more treacherous at dawn than at night. Perhaps it would be better to return during daylight……”
“Are you afraid?”
Chang—. Dodint drew his sword and pointed it at the subordinate soldier.
His fierce eyes reflected in the blue blade.
“There’s more at stake in this search than your worthless lives, and you want to turn back now?”
“N-no, sir! I just meant that when day breaks, we could return……”
“If you’re a soldier, then act like one and listen to what your superior is saying!!”
Having already climbed the mountain once, their target might catch their scent and flee.
His ambition for advancement brought impatience, making his eyes gleam.
“S-squad leader!”
As the soldiers hesitated, Dodint gripped his sword firmly.
“What’s so difficult about this!”
Dodint struck downward with his sword at the bear cub.
“……Wrrnnn—!”
The bear cub, barely avoiding the blade, cowered in fear. The pitiful cry of the bear echoed throughout the mountain.
“M-mountains!”
The soldier who had been skeptical about the search shouted with a pale face, his eyes tightly shut.
“Where there’s a bear cub, wouldn’t there naturally be a mother bear?!”
“……What?”
Dodint, who had been smirking at the trembling bear cub, flinched.
Rustle—.
“……!”
The gaze of all the soldiers opposite him turned beyond Dodint’s shoulder. It was the direction from which they had come through the undergrowth.
“Why suddenly……”
With a chill running down his spine, Dodint slowly turned his head.
His gaze, and that of the soldiers, gradually moved upward.
“Grrrrr…….”
A massive bear, twice the size of an adult man, was approaching with bared, sharp teeth.
“Oh, no!!”
“Draw your swords now!”
“Aaaagh!”
As the soldiers, backing away cautiously from the bear, placed their hands on their sword hilts, the bear’s roar engulfed the mountain. The soldiers turned pale at the ear-splitting roar.
“……!”
In that moment, Sharti quickly gathered her robe. Simultaneously, the man lifted Sharti and fled with his back to the boulder.
Sharti silently marveled at the man’s quick-witted action. The man laughed ruefully in response.
“So you erased our scent and used the sweet smell as bait.”
While running quickly, the man frowned in disbelief.
“I didn’t realize you meant to lure such a large predator.”
He had already recognized Sharti’s reckless and dangerous planning from the cave.
Since Sharti had always sprinkled beast-repelling herbs in front of the cave, the man could also anticipate the dangerous creatures of the mountain.
“…….”
Sharti hit the man’s arm as if asking to be put down, but the man turned his head away completely. At this obvious dismissal, Sharti looked exasperated.
“How many of those soldiers do you think will stand against the bear? They’ve surely scattered and fled.”
“…….”
“Hah. Just guide the way as we go. I don’t know how far you can run with that leg.”
As his gaze shifted toward her leg, Sharti quickly pulled down her robe.
Watching Sharti meticulously close her robe, the man first checked her breathing.
‘She’s a bit better now.’
Sharti had been limping and gasping for breath throughout their escape from the soldiers.
Though she seemed to be trying not to show it, the man strangely detected the other’s condition keenly.
Additionally, while it was strange that he could easily predict the soldiers’ simple range of actions, the man didn’t delve deeply into it.
His own situation was something he could figure out later, slowly.
‘For now, I need to get this woman to a safe place.’
The muscles in his arms, supporting Sharti’s back and the back of her knees, tensed.
