It had a different form from the monster encountered in the fir forest earlier.

They looked like creatures from another dimension, with their mouths split into multiple parts.

‘What is it this time?’

He watched the front with a cool gaze.

Ayla took out a dagger from her bosom and grabbed Diana’s wrist.

“We have to run away.”

Raoul shook his head firmly after counting the number of monsters.

“We’ll be caught up to soon anyway.”

“We can’t handle them with just the three of us!”

“You go first.”

“Wait a moment!”

He struck the monster’s heart with the dagger drawn from his waist.

Gweeeeek!

The battle began with a terrible scream.

Raoul charged with daggers in both hands. White snow dust rose, blurring the surroundings.

He moved quickly, using their heads as stepping stones.

One. Two. It took less than 3 seconds to stab and pull out the knife from their hearts. Nevertheless, their numbers kept increasing.

‘We’ll be caught.’

An excited monster followed Diana as she evacuated.

He placed his foot on its slimy neck and bent his back.

With one short, heavy snap, the iron blade sliced through the air at high speed.

Gweeeeek!

As the metal penetrated the monster’s back, an unpleasant scream rang out and a large pool of blood formed.

“He’s going to die at this rate!”

Ayla looked back at Raoul, covered her mouth, and stopped in her tracks.

There were too many monsters. The white snow field had turned black like a land swept by fire.

Raoul, who failed to counterattack, had his arm bitten off, becoming an even more appetizing prey.

As the excited beasts rushed at Raoul all at once, black masses piled up like mountains on his body.

“No!”

Ayla chanted in ancient Elvish and stirred up a snowstorm, but the entangled monsters and Raoul wouldn’t separate easily.

As monsters began to break away, Ayla also couldn’t demonstrate her full abilities due to the injury she sustained yesterday.

Ayla, who had been groaning painfully, finally gave up on Raoul and turned her back at that moment.

“I’m not dead yet.”

Diana murmured in a calm voice without high or low pitch.

Cracks began to form between the disgustingly writhing lumps of flesh.

[This is the timeline separator]

Raoul couldn’t even open his eyes properly. His vision was dark due to the blood drops wetting his face.

In the tightly packed flesh, he breathed heavily to secure the scarce oxygen.

The daggers were all worn out, and now the only usable weapon was his transformed nails.

As the pulse hitting his jaw reached its limit, his vision narrowed. Blink. Blink. As his eyelashes descended, his reason began to blur.

Now he couldn’t feel the smell of rotting corpses or the monster’s teeth stuck in his arm.

With those last words that came to mind, Raoul lost consciousness.

“Where am I?”

He opened his eyes in another world. A world of inner darkness. He walked towards the faintly shimmering light in the silent darkness.

“Come quickly.”

A clear voice like rolling jade beads. A human figure flickered among the light.

The girl, glowing softly like a lotus flower, tucked her black hair behind her ear and smiled shyly.

Behind her, paradise-like scenery flashed by.

Shining sunlight, gusting flower wind, a boat floating on the lake.

The girl looked down at the boy lying on her lap, her plump cheeks twitching.

The boy, who had covered his face with an open book, lowered the spine and opened his eyes narrowly.

“Your hair is messy.”

As her delicate fingers touched him, the boy raised the book high again.

With his neck so red, thinking that just covering his face would be enough. A laugh burst out at such a silly action.

But soon the scene changed and it started to rain.

The water in the lake gradually increased and overflowed to the field where the girl was sitting.

“Raoul! Where are you?”

‘Raoul?’ It was a familiar name.

With a feeling of his hair standing on end, he looked around, but the boy who had been talking intimately until just now was nowhere to be seen.

The girl who had been stomping her feet came closer slowly. One step, two steps, as her figure drew nearer, his heart pounded heavily.

‘Why am I like this?’

She shouted from inside a transparent membrane.

“Raoul! Come here!”

Her face, alone in the rain, crumpled sadly.

His heart ached. ‘She looks cold.’ He wanted to touch her, to hug her. Even though he reached out his hand, there was an invisible transparent wall between them.

No matter how much he looked around for the boy, not even a strand of hair could be seen.

“I’m cold…”

Raoul felt a burning sensation inside. For some reason, he felt sorry for this girl. Even though he traced her face lines with his hand on the glass wall, the two couldn’t touch.

“Don’t wait, go inside quickly!”

“Don’t abandon me…”

The girl shook her head and lowered her gaze.

Making her wait alone! Just as he frowned while cursing the pathetic boy, the raindrops began to thicken.

The raindrops that filled the sky gradually soaked the girl’s dress, and water rose up to her slender waistline.

“Ah…”

“What are you doing? Evacuate quickly! You can’t just stay there!”

“Raoul?”

The girl put her hand on the glass wall and met his eyes. It gave him goosebumps, as if she was talking directly to him.

He urgently knocked on the wall and suddenly wondered who this Raoul boy and this girl were.

Splash! Before he could find the answer, the girl’s body sank deep into the water.

“Damn it!”

The girl trapped in the water desperately reached out to Raoul. Her hair scattered in all directions and the air from her mouth disappeared into bubbles.

‘Save me.’

Their eyes met and he began to swing his fist as if possessed.

Bang! Bang! As the glass wall shook, he saw the girl with closed eyes struggling, clutching her neck.

As the remaining oxygen decreased, his memories also began to return.

“No, Diana!!!”

No matter how much he struck, the glass wall didn’t budge. At the moment Diana, who had been struggling, went limp, the fuse in his head blew.

Even though blood flowed from his tightly bitten lips, Raoul struck the tank without realizing it.

“Break!!! I said break!!!!”

First with his fists, then with his body, and finally as he slammed his head down, crack! The glass wall began to crack.

The thin crack spread into multiple branches in an instant, and water gushed out.

Crash!

Finally, the shattered glass fragments scattered like a mirage and Raoul embraced Diana.

“Diana!”

“Raoul!”

As soon as he hugged her hurriedly and felt her warmth, he immediately noticed an alien sensation.

“Why…”

Looking down, he saw that the wet person was not Diana but Raoul.

The dark blood on his hands and arms. His blue pupils shook finely as if he had seen a ghost.

“Diana…?”

“Get up.”

“What?”

“Get up! You have to get up and fight!”

From head to toe, his frenzied blood circulated at a chilling speed.

With a tremor that could be called a thrill, his closed eyes snapped open.

The heat that sprang from his heart awakened all the cells in his body anew.

[This is the timeline separator]

Ayla couldn’t believe the scene unfolding before her eyes.

Dozens of monster corpses lay sprawled at the young boy’s feet.

“Raoul!”

As soon as the black, grimy figure that was unrecognizable as human or monster collapsed to the ground, Ayla rushed through the snow field.

“You can’t die… I haven’t even properly thanked you yet!”

Ayla cradled Raoul’s head and shed large tears.

Diana, who had walked over slowly, grabbed her trembling shoulders and said,

“He’s not dead. Don’t worry.”

Ayla became angry on Raoul’s behalf at the tone that was calm to the point of being cold.

“Aren’t you worried at all?”

“Didn’t I just tell you he’s perfectly alive?”

“He’s all battered from trying to protect us! At least pretend to be worried!”

“Alright then.”

Diana lightly brushed her off and sat down beside Raoul.

As her long hair covered Raoul’s body, Ayla startled and pushed Diana away.

“W-What are you doing!”

“I’m checking for infection. Don’t interfere.”

Diana gathered holy power at her fingertips to search for any monster energy, then finished her examination and stood up.

“He’s clean.”

Ayla quickly embraced Raoul and let out a sigh of relief.

“Thank goodness…”

Diana turned Raoul’s head to the other side and wiped away the blood on the back of his neck.

As the bloodstains disappeared, a crescent moon-shaped mark was revealed.

“A mole?”

“He performed the ritual properly.”

“What do you mean?”

“Lycans awaken three times in their lifetime, and this child has just succeeded in his first awakening.”

“You mean he’s gotten stronger?”

“Something like that.”

Ayla pressed her forehead against Raoul’s and murmured as if praying.

“You did well. It must have been hard, but you endured so well…”

Ayla, who had been sharing warmth by Raoul’s side for a long time as he remained unconscious, gauged the position of the sun and checked Diana’s expression.

“You said your mission was to take me away?”

“Yes. I don’t have any personal grudge against you, but I have no choice if I want to be recognized as a rebel.”

“I’ll give you my hair. Take it with you.”

Diana cut off a lock of her peculiar, scale-like shimmering hair.

“This won’t do anything. The reason the rebels want you is to find out the location of the holy relic.”

“I’ll tell you someday in the future.”

“How can I believe that?”

“With that much, the rebel leader can even curse me. Is there any reason for me to lie when my life is at stake?”

Ayla let out a small sigh and looked at Raoul’s face resting on her lap.

The boy’s condition was too poor to leave him alone.

In the end, Ayla raised the white flag first.

“When he wakes up, tell him not to worry. Say I left safely.”

“I will.”

“He must have been very shocked, so I hope you’ll take good care of him in my place.”

“Don’t worry.”

“And…”

Ayla hesitated, then shyly conveyed her final words as she stood up.

Fanning her flushed cheeks to cool them, she bit her lip and said,

“I can’t leave Raoul alone, so I’ll let you go this time. But next time, no chance. I will find out the location of the holy relic.”

“I’ll be waiting.”

Diana softly murmured as she watched the red-haired girl gradually disappear into the distance.

“So that’s why your lover embroidered forget-me-nots.”

She turned around and looked down at the sleeping boy. The handkerchief that had been neatly tied around his forearm was now gone.

[This is the timeline separator]

“Congratulations. You’ve now become a proper warrior.”

Diana sprinkled snow over Raoul’s head.

“According to the book, the tradition is to sprinkle azalea flowers from the mountain, but we only have snow now, so this will have to do.”

The snowflakes quickly melted due to his hot body temperature.

He finally managed to sit up, wiping away the damp snow falling on his cheeks.

“How long has it been?”

“I’m not sure. There’s no way to tell time.”

“Did the kidnapper chasing you die during the battle?”

“No. They left alive.”

Raoul nodded as if uninterested and looked around.

“Could that be the lover you mentioned?”

‘What nonsense.’ Raoul frowned in annoyance.

“No.”

“That’s strange.”

“What is?”

“The person who just left seemed to have a special relationship with you.”

Diana recited without expression.

“If you meet again like fate, then don’t part ways next time.”

“What are you suddenly saying?”

“That’s what I was asked to tell you.”

“Hah…”

Raoul frowned as he recalled the innocent face. Getting involved with Ayla always left him with an uneasy feeling, regardless of his intentions.

Raoul was innocent. Helping Ayla was just his duty as a human being, nothing more, nothing less.

Still, he felt uncomfortable. If Diana found out, she would be upset but unable to show it. He quietly closed his mouth and stood up, following Diana.

“Let’s go now. The soldiers from Arnel are trapped in the snow and on the verge of starvation.”

Raoul, who was organizing his sword, turned to Diana in surprise.

“Those guys are still alive?”