Escape From a Deserted Island With Enemy Female Soldiers

11 – A Sliver of Trust (3)

*Screeeeeak.*

The door opened.

An eerie aura poured out like a cold gust of wind.

“Ugh.”

Valkyrie took a step back.

“Why?”

“I feel a bad energy behind this door.”

Valkyrie’s expression was grim.

“The mana concentration is excessively high. There’s definitely a tremendously strong monster living behind this. There’s no guarantee we’d win in a fight.”

I think I understood her hesitation.

The mana concentration was unnaturally high.

“Can’t we just take another path?”

“What, you want to detour?”

I retraced my steps.

“No, that won’t work.”

I’d already explored many areas, but they were all dead ends. We could only discover a new path by going through this door. There was no other way.

I showed Valkyrie the map I had made on our way here, and her face darkened even further.

And then, that moment.

[“The passage leading to the exit is only here.”]

A woman’s voice echoed from beyond the door.

[“If you don’t believe me, you’re welcome to go back and check. You’ll end up back here anyway.”]

A truly captivating tone.

[“Hmm, but I’m not exactly the most patient.”]

It’s like they’re bewitching someone.

[“There, black-haired, golden-eyed woman. You’re truly beautiful. It’s a joy that a living person has come to this island after so long, but a beauty I’ve been craving has arrived. Ah, how many more days of such joy will there be?”]

Valkyrie flinched, her shoulders twitching. From my side, I could clearly see her trembling. Understandably. To me, those words sound like refined language, but to Valkyrie, they must be an unsettling whisper of the unknown.

[“Now, you handsome friend there too. Come this way, friendly-like.”]

“……”

[“Don’t test my patience.”]

As soon as those words fell, geysers of water erupted from the cavern floor.

*Swishhh!*

One by one, the monsters revealed themselves.

Walkers, crawlers, spitters, and so on. There were familiar monsters, but also a few new grotesque beasts.

[“Ah, milady. For milady, we, we, must, offer human, human, sacrifices.”]

A few of the monsters began to speak in their guttural tongue.

[“Oh, our beautiful Lady Lesley. Poor daughter of the Palenche Marquess. You do not belong here, so how did you become shackled to such a curse?”]

[“We must free the pitiful lady.”]

[“ooo.”]

[“Let’s push these humans inside, and offer them to the lady…….”]

Valkyrie and I immediately took our combat stances.

“Tch.”

There’s a decent number of them. Even the familiar ones have slight differences in color or appearance.

For instance, the walkers. The ones I normally fought looked like a bream, but these ones here look like mahi-mahi.

[‘Life hack. Mahi-mahi tastes better cooked than as sashimi.’]

Whoa, thanks for the tip, David.

But that’s just ‘cause you don’t know flavor, man. Stuff caught in a good spot, you can eat it raw and it’ll put marlin to shame, texture-wise.

“Any combat hacks, instead of life hacks?”

[‘The numerical difference is overwhelming. It’s best to focus on defense and pick off enemies one by one. I recommend using the Umbrella Stone.’]

I pulled a mana stone from my left pocket and called out to Valkyrie.

“Get ready to fight.”

She nodded at my hand signal.

I used the Umbrella Stone to shield Valkyrie while supporting her attacks. In an instant, she turned the jellyfish-like monsters into cold platters.

The path was narrow and winding, making it hard to properly cast magic. We covered each other, retreating through the doorway to an open space.

And then, it happened.

[“Stop.”]

*Thump*.

The door slammed shut.

At the same time, the monsters closing in from all sides stopped moving.

[“Welcome. To the home of me and my brood.”]

Our heads turned to the voice, which sounded like it was singing.

A woman emerged from the darkness. She was naked, pale white to match the cave, except for her face which had an unnaturally flushed complexion. Her face looked like it belonged to someone else.

But those minor details weren’t important.

From the head to the waist, the woman was human. But from there down, she was no different from a fish. Where legs should have been, there were only scales and a single fin.

“……A mermaid?”

A mermaid.

I’d always thought they were creatures only in stories. Never imagined, they’d be a branch of the monsters said to have gone extinct long ago.

[“Alright everyone, gather ’round. We have guests to welcome.”]

*Thud, thud, thud.*

The monsters emerged from the rear, moving with chilling precision. They lined up in two columns, then split apart, forming pathways on each side.

“It’s controlling the monsters?”

“That thing must be their leader.”

I closely observed the monsters. The mermaid was controlling them with *Hwigeon*.

The mermaid woman spoke with a gentle smile.

[“Now then. Before we get to business, we need to take care of the…”]

[“Who are you?”]

[“……Huh?”]

The mermaid, clearly surprised, asked back, after I interrupted.

[“You, human. You can understand me?”]

[“Yes. I can understand.”]

[“You can speak Mantran? Are you a mage?”]

[“If you are speaking of *Hwigeon*, then yes. I am a mage affiliated with the Hazkael Magocracy.”]

The mermaid tilted her head.

[“A mage? Hazkael? Hmm, I guess it’s similar to a wizard. Well, time has passed, so I guess the terminology would have changed a bit.”]

She giggled.

[“Hey, what’s your name?”]

[“When asking someone else’s name, you should introduce yourself first.”]

[“How rude. My status is different from yours.”]

[“Status?”]

[“I am the esteemed daughter of the Margrave of Filenze. Even in this state, that remains. Our family, our nation’s flag, it still stands strong, right?”]

[“Were you originally a person?”]

[“Answer the question.”]

I gestured to the Valkyrie, who was floating aimlessly, that she needed to wait a bit, then continued speaking.

[“The Philopon family? Never heard of it.”]

[“Not Philopon, Filenze! Don’t you know Filenze? The Filenze Marquisate of the Kingdom of Silis! A grand noble house, practically equal to a duke! Ah, perhaps you wouldn’t know, being common and all?”]

The Kingdom of Silis.

I vaguely remember hearing about it in middle school history. It was located east of the Holy Spirit Nation, I think, and was said to have fallen hundreds of years ago.

[“That nation no longer exists.”]

[“No, no longer exists?”]

The mermaid’s pupils contracted.

[“And about being a count or a marquis, the class system has been gone for a long time in most countries.”]

[“What in the world are you saying? It hasn’t even been a few decades, has it?”]

The mermaid clutched her head.

[“N-no, this can’t be. Our family, gone? The place I need to seek revenge on, gone without a trace?”]

Her face shifted, a kaleidoscope of emotions.

But then she chuckled, smoothing the crumpled expression. A chilling coldness emanated.

[“No… I just wanted her gone, somehow. I couldn’t stand the sight of her. Everyone pointed fingers, said I had no talent. ‘If you’re ugly, you better at least sing well,’ they said. As if they ever helped me.”]

The mermaid kept muttering.

[“I wanted to be good too. I wanted to excel at something and earn his favor. But he wouldn’t even glance at me, his fiancée, while he frolicked with that commoner wench…!”]

Her voice, laced with resentment, lamented.

[“Just for making a deal with a demon, they exiled me to this forsaken island. Don’t you think that’s unfair?”]

[“You made a deal with a demon?”]

[“Yeah. Is that my fault?”]

Crazy b*tch.

I made my judgment. This creature was one of two things. Either a demon who mistakenly thought it was human, or something that had become an abomination by making a deal with a demon.

[“That crone told me. If I offered the bone dust of a hundred young men and women at the altar, I would be reborn as the most beautiful thing in the world. And I’d be able to leave this cursed island too!”]

The mermaid, no, the monster, screamed.

[“I don’t know how many long years I’ve waited after offering ninety-eight. You two are all that’s left. Finally, I can escape this wretched place! Finally, I can break free of these chains!”]

In the next moment, the monster lunged, fast as a cobra.

“There’s no other way. So, if we take down that one who seems to be the leader, we can get out of this cave, right?”

“Yeah, if we take her down, everything will be fine.”

Valkyrie and I immediately readied ourselves. Valkyrie raised her spear, taking her stance, and I began to circulate the mana imbued in my lapis lazuli.

But thinking she’d come at us with physical attacks was a misjudgment.

[“La, la la, larira.”]

The monster hummed a tune. Sound waves, heavy with pressure, slammed into my skull, rattling the insides of my head.

“What the…”

I’d only blinked, and the scenery had shifted.

I was on a warship.

“Senior!”

A voice called out from behind me then.

“Congratulations on your promotion to Captain.”

“Ensign?”

My eyes refused to believe it. Approaching me was Ensign David Kanig. A fellow graduate of the Larion Academy’s Rune Stone Studies department, and one of my dearest friends in the 8th Fleet.

“You, you… you were definitely dead, weren’t you?”

“What are you talking about, Senior? Did you have a nightmare or something?”

David said.

“Commander Kalon is looking for you. He says your expertise is needed for the white phosphorus normalization process.”

Commander Kalon’s alive? No way. That man was definitely killed by ‘Black Cat’…

There was no need to ask, no need to panic.

My hand was already frantically searching the inside of my uniform pocket.

Nothing.

Not even a tiny pebble, let alone a rune stone.

“Heh.”

I got it. What was happening.

“Sloppy. They didn’t even manage to render it properly up to this point.”

“Senior?”

“Casting magic directly without a mana stone isn’t my specialty…”

“Senior, no, Captain? Are you feeling unwell?”

“Sorry, David.”

“Yes?”

“I think I’m going to have to kill you twice.”

*Click.* I flicked my finger.

[“Time, flow onward. Let the chaff be swept away, and the kernel remain.”]

The moment the incantation left my lips, time began to accelerate.

Colonel Kahlon died, and I was promoted to Major, taking his place. David and I boarded a warship to assist in the battle. The fleet set sail. The fog was thick. It rained like that day.

Soon, the Holy Empire’s elite Dragon Knight unit, the White Lotus Brigade, appeared. There, with goggles and a holy lance, was ‘Black Cat’, Rachel Brokenheart.

-Senior! Senior Erich! Help me! *kkyaaa!*

Separated from me, David fought the Dragon Knights with all his might, but in the end, he was hit by a projectile fired by Rachel and fell backward.

*Grind*, my teeth gnashed.

There was nothing I could do here. This was an illusion. Normally, I could see, hear, and touch, but just at critical moments like this, I was ‘manipulated’ to just blankly observe.

What followed was the same. My body moved on its own. I tossed two of Rachel’s comrades into the water like snacks for whales, then sent her plummeting into the sea before escaping in a lifeboat.

The nightmare ended there.

“Tch.”

I could feel a throbbing in my head. Unstable mana was trying to gnaw away at my cerebral cortex. I started the process of adjusting my internal mana to normalize the flow.

That was why I could still maintain my sanity.

[“Fog, disperse.”]

At my words, the hazy fog scattered in all directions. The illusion was over, so the magic should fade. I started thinking about how I was going to beat the crap out of that mermaid when I returned to reality.

But.

“……?”

The illusion didn’t end.

I blinked again and found myself in a small village located in a coastal basin. It looked like an ordinary fishing village, but I had never been to a place like this before.

But the situation didn’t look good.

Flames were shooting up from every house. Shouts of people were coming from everywhere.

The mana concentration in the air was unusually high. It wasn’t hard for me to realize that these flames weren’t naturally occurring, but artificial fire demons created with fire magic.

“Help me! Is anyone there? My mom and dad are inside!”

I turned around. The two-story house right behind me was ablaze. And in front of it was a young girl with sooty black hair and golden eyes, her face smeared with grime.

The girl, who had been screaming wildly, burst into tears and then, as if her energy had run out, collapsed onto the ground.

“Anyone…please…help…hic…hic….”