“Wow, you guys are no joke.”
Tamon said mischievously and gripped his throbbing sternum.
The silver deer attacked all at once, as if they considered Tamon an enemy.
The power of the silver antlers, hard as steel, was enormous.
If anyone accidentally got stabbed, it was likely to tear all their internal organs.
Tamon couldn’t even persuade the deer to come with him because he couldn’t communicate with them, and he couldn’t kill them like monsters and beasts, so it was best to choke them and knock them out.
As a result, unnecessary waste of strength continued, and unnecessary injuries increased.
A couple of broken ribs, a cracked shin, and a split lip….
In addition, on the way here, he handled the mutant beasts and had resulted in small wounds.
The bleeding started in the torn right shoulder, and one arm was already soaked with blood.
What was even more maddening was that the more animals Tamon defeated, they called more of their mates.
He reduced the number of animals to three at most, and before he knew it, there were six again.
“I’m tired…”
He had to get it done and go as quickly as possible.
Tamon clenched and opened his torn palm, glaring at the deer.
Although he healed faster as he increased his resilience, he lost his energy more quickly than when he had dealt with Perharz, probably because he had no physical contact with Asha when they camped.
He had to do this with as little blood as possible.
He didn’t see any broken bones so it was okay.
However, if he came back covered in blood, Asha might try to kill him with her big eyes.
‘I’ll have to kill some of them.’
Sacrifices seemed inevitable in order to finish this quickly.
They seemed to notice his change in momentum, and the attitude of the silver horned deer changed again.
The smart ones began to put pressure on him, with Tamon in the middle.
Tamon fixed his sword. So far he only attacked with the sword case, but from now on, killing was inevitable.
Grrrrrr!
The one standing at the front of the line, the one with the captain’s rank, attacked Tamon’s with its horns.
Kaaaaa!
Tamon crossed his arms to block the attack, but his body was pushed away to a wooden post.
Tamon called out the names of the children in a rant as he blocked the deer that attacked him one after another.
“Mirah! Lucentia! Come out quickly! If you don’t come out, I’ll kill all the deer!”
Tamon’s voice echoed through the canyon.
In fact, he had already tried calling the children’s names several times, but there was still no particular response.
‘Perhaps the children are not here?’
It was possible that these deer were not the herd of silver antlered deer that Asha had mentioned.
Or the children, Mirah and Lucentia, may have already died on the way here.
After all, this was the black canyon where even skilled knights could not survive.
Exposure to that black fog would cause total paralysis.
“Mirah! Lucentia!”
Tamon called the siblings’ names at the top of his voice for the last time.
At that moment, the air currents in the canyon changed and a suspicious sound could be heard.
Boom!
It was the sound of something heavy falling to the floor.
Tamon and Silver deer looked behind them at the same time.
“Why ……?”
It was the very mutant beasts that were hiding behind a tree to watch them, without approaching the stream.
Five of them followed Tamon.After that, the number increased as many more had pushed in.
The problem, however, was not the number of mutant animals that had increased.
The beasts, who were hiding, were collapsing on the spot as if they were under a spell.
“What is it?”
It was exactly at that moment.
A strange smell aroused Tamon’s acute sense of smell.
It was a unique aroma that he had never smelled before.
A strange aroma that was sweet, yet somehow muddy.
There was an instinctive sense of rejection.
His nerves poured into the scent and he was caught off guard.
And the silver deer that had attacked him most violently jumped on Tamon at full speed.
“……!”
He urgently raised his sword to block the attack, but was instantly pushed backward with tremendous force.
As he put his legs together to prevent himself from losing his balance, the two deer who had been watching the gap went on a support attack.
“Well, that’s cheap!”
Tamon gritted his teeth.
It was a deer but it was as powerful as a bear or a monster.
Quickly bending at the waist to fend off the attack, Tamon kicked with all his might at the big deer that was still pushing him from the front.
The deer, pushed backward with a “bang,” snorted angrily and thrust its antlers at him again.
At that moment, Tamon clipped his sword between the antlers and swung it at the deer, which came out from the left in a supporting attack.
Kurukuru!
Kihin!
The antlers of the two deer remained tangled in a mess and could not be removed.
He kicked the deer in that state with his foot, and the two deer that were struggling fell backward in a tangled heap.
Without hesitation, Tamon lifted his sword with all his might.
He was going to get rid of the biggest deer that had bothered him the most.
“….. No!”
Tamon’s movements stopped at the urgent cry.
“Don’t kill Titi.”
It was somewhat a poor language, a little childish voice.
Tamon put down his sword and looked at the spot where the sound had come from.
On the other side of the stream, a figure appeared from behind a rock at a sloping spot.
“It’s you….”
The hair was pure white, as if it had lost its pigmentation, the eyelashes, and the white skin looked pale.
“La Gorreci.”
They were the children of the white deer.
The boy and girl, holding each other’s hands tightly, could not hide their peculiar strangeness, even though they were wearing rags.
The only thing vivid in the two children were their eyes.
Two pairs of blue eyes of different light and dark stared at Tamon.
Did Asha say that the boy is Mirah and the girl is Lucentia?
“Who are you? Are you the one sent by the emperor?”
Mirah, a boy of about 17 or 18 years old, asked in an angry voice.
Tamon, who smiled, answered succinctly.
“I don’t have an emperor. But I do have a Queen to be admired.”
“A Queen ……?”
“By the name you know, Roselyn V Sunset, the woman who was Empress of this country.”
“……!”
Tamon’s words startled the siblings, who looked at each other.
“…… She’s alive?”Lucentia, the girl standing quietly behind her brother, asked in a trembling voice.
Tamon nodded lightly and held out his hand toward the children.
“Let’s go together. She’s waiting for you.”
“But, but she’s already……………………….!”
Mirah exclaimed incredulously.
But for the life of him, the word “dead” didn’t seem to come out, and he gritted his teeth.
Tamon raised his chin at the boy and said with an arrogant laugh.
“She is alive. I saved her. I gave her everything I had.”
“…….”
Mirah and Lucentia looked at Tamon with confused eyes.
Curiously, the silver horned deer stared at them silently, stopping their attack as the siblings and Tamon began their conversation.
If something went wrong here, they would jump out of the way right away.
“How can we trust you? How are we supposed to believe that you are not the emperor’s servant?”
A little more clever, it seemed, was the brother.
Lucentia, who thought for a moment and told Tamon to bring evidence.
Evidence.
Tamon hesitated for a moment, then suddenly pulled out a handkerchief he had tucked away in his pockets.
“I don’t know if you believe this, but…….”
He approached the creek to show what was in the handkerchief.
At that moment, a large deer staring at them approached him with an angry snort.
Grrrrr, grrrrr.
“Are you saying I can’t approach?”
The deer’s eyes remained deadly, but his steps approaching Tamon were slow and relaxed.
The deer approached Tamon with a look of disbelief, and thrust its huge horny head out like a branch.
Kuhuhuhuhu!
Tamon looked at Mirah and Lucentia as the deer’s head twitched from side to side.
“What does this mean?” (Tamon)
“…… means to put that handkerchief on his antlers.”
“Oh…..”
The deer was going to deliver Tamon’s handkerchief to the siblings.
“This feels like a dedication to the princess of a country.”
He chuckled and put his handkerchief on the silver horn.
“Don’t drop it, my friend. It’s very important.”
“Hmph!”
The silver deer exhaled loudly and zipped across the thin stream.
The children carefully lifted the handkerchief the deer handed them.
And the moment when they unfolded it.
Kaaaaaa!
A fawn jumped into the group of deer, screaming at the top of its voice.
The startled deer herd looked at the little deer and surrounded him.
Khiin! King! King!
It must have been very happy to finally meet his family as the little silver deer jumped up and down on its long, thin legs.
His black eyes were filled with tears.
“Mia, look!”
“Lost child, you’re alive!”
Mirah and Lucentia also could not contain their joy at seeing the deer cub and cried out.
‘All of a sudden, a little deer in the woods……?’
Tamon looked with wonder in the direction in which the little silver deer appeared.
Then Tamon quickly adjusted his sword to the unfamiliar movement that followed.
***
*Well, we know who had come to bring the little deer back to his family. Tamon will get in trouble next 😀. Can anyone guess what Asha will do to him?