Although it was probably said as a joke, I couldn’t say no in that moment.

When I was 25, I loved Ernant, and because of that, I secretly wished for the death of the captain who threatened his position.

But that’s in the past.

Now, I didn’t wish for the captain’s death.

“…I won’t kill you.”

Hearing my answer, the captain let out a deep sigh.

“I’m not joking. If I lose my mind under mental manipulation and attack you, you must face me prepared to eliminate such a version of me. If you’re half-hearted, you’ll lose your life.”

“…”

“So swing your sword with sincere intent. Before I take your last breath.”

It was truly touching words, but unfortunately, I wasn’t a subordinate who followed orders well.

Why, even when he told me to hold on a little longer when I had swallowed poison, I couldn’t endure and ended up closing my eyes.

So this time too, I was thinking of making a small rebellion.

“I refuse.”

“…You really don’t listen, do you?”

“Anyone would disobey such a strange order.”

He put on a deliberately stern expression.

It was the expression he used to make whenever I tried to disobey his orders as my superior.

Indeed, with such a stern face, an atmosphere befitting his nickname as a cold-blooded person emanated.

Wrapped in such a cold aura, he approached me one step at a time.

When our distance became close enough to touch if I stretched out my arm, his straight lips moved.

“Listen to me. I am your superior.”

“…”

“I don’t want my subordinate to die by my hands.”

Despite his cold expression, the words that flowed from his lips were incomparably affectionate.

I found that gap sad, and at the same time, slightly endearing.

So I decided to be friendly to him for the first time.

“There’s no need to worry. I’m not weak enough to die at your hands, Captain. If you don’t believe me, why don’t you try attacking me now? See if I die easily.”

“…”

“So let’s forget about unnecessary worries and focus on catching the Queen.”

Even though I was saying quite insolent things, the captain didn’t reprimand me.

He just stared intently at my face.

Perhaps we might have just stared at each other for a long time, as if time had stopped.

If it weren’t for the sound of the monster that was heard just then.

Kiiiiik…

At the eerie sound like scraping metal, we had no choice but to startle apart at the doorway.

The captain looked at me briefly again, then stared towards the room where the monster would be.

“I hope that statement about not dying easily isn’t a lie.”

“Yes, it’s not a lie. So let’s go catch it now.”

At those words of mine as a signal, the captain opened the door.

As we, who had been suppressing our presence until now, suddenly burst in by flinging the door open, the Queen seemed surprised and stopped moving.

In that brief moment, I quickly scanned the Queen’s appearance and characteristics.

Just as I had seen before the regression, it had a human-like form.

By the way, ‘having a human-like form’ here meant that it had a head and limbs like a human and walked upright.

Standing on two legs, if you roughly looked at just the silhouette, it might seem human, but its face had no eyes or nose.

The only thing there was a mouth split grotesquely wide.

The Queen, having recognized the intruders, was just opening that mouth with a ‘crack―’ and screaming.

Kyaaaak!!

Inside its open mouth were countless teeth planted like a shark’s.

Separate from the revulsion rising at that eerie appearance, my well-trained body was already springing towards the monster.

Tadak!

The movement of kicking off the ground was light and swift like a feather.

My body, 5 years younger after the regression, was light as if enchanted, strong, and quick.

In an instant, I approached right in front of the monster and swung the sword I was holding towards it.

However.

Kagang―!

Unfortunately, my first attack was blocked by the monster’s long, hard claws.

No matter how much strength I put into the sword, those claws didn’t break or cut.

Probably possessing strength comparable to metal, only an unpleasant friction sound could be heard from where the weapon made contact.

Kkadeuk―

Seeing that the monster’s claws remained intact no matter how much force I applied, I changed tactics and slightly twisted the sword.

After deflecting the monster’s claws that had been blocking my attack downwards like that, I immediately swung the sword up diagonally.

An attack chained swiftly without a moment’s gap.

This time, even the monster couldn’t avoid it.

Seoguk―

The tip of my sword slashed the monster’s chest.

If the opponent had been human, it would have been a fatal wound cutting the heart.

But sadly, the vital point of such humanoid monsters wasn’t always in the left chest.

Their ‘core’ that acted as a heart could be in the chest, the head, and sometimes even in the abdomen.

Sure enough, this Queen didn’t seem to have its core in the left chest either, as it moved around perfectly fine despite having its chest deeply cut.

Then I should aim for the head this time.

Just as I was about to swing my sword again.

Kyaaaak!!

The monster opened its mouth wide and screamed desperately like before.

At that moment, I could clearly see inside the monster’s open mouth, and soon made an astonishing discovery.

“…Eye, eyeball?”

Surprisingly, there was an eyeball embedded in there.

Before the regression, there were so many members who came together that I was too preoccupied to look at such details closely.

So this was the first time I had seen inside its mouth, and to think there would be something like an eyeball embedded there.

What kind of body structure is this?

The moment I thought that, my vision wavered with nausea.

“Yulia! Step back!”

The captain, who had been gathering his ability to the fullest while I was dealing with the monster, shouted like that.

Probably intending to deliver a big blow to the monster, I immediately moved away from it.

That’s when it happened. The captain shouted again.

“No! Stay right there!”

“…?”

The captain wasn’t someone who easily reversed his orders.

So I looked towards the captain in confusion, but I couldn’t see him.

Then the captain’s voice shouted from somewhere again.

“Yulia! What are you doing! Stab your stomach with that sword right now!”

“Die now, Yulia!”

“Drink the poison and die now, Yulia!”

I couldn’t see the captain’s figure, and only his orders were coming from all directions.

And they were all orders that the real captain would never give.

It seemed that due to the monster’s mental attack, hallucinations were being heard inside my head.

While high-level awakened ones like me and the captain don’t easily fall for monsters’ mental attacks, that doesn’t mean we’re completely safe.

We could fall under the attack weakly, and in that case, we would suffer from auditory and visual hallucinations.

Like now.

“Die, die now!”

“Die, die, die, die!”

“Die! Die, die! Die―!”

Grotesquely distorted hallucinations were heard from all around.

In this state, I couldn’t defeat the monster.

I had to wake up from the mental manipulation right away, and if so, there was only one way.

Puk―

I took out the small dagger I carried in my bosom and shallowly stabbed my palm.

That stinging pain awakened and cleared my head.

Thanks to the pain, I finally woke up from the abnormal state and immediately looked around.

“Yulia! Snap out of it!”

The captain was facing the monster in my place while I had been incapacitated for a moment.

I immediately informed the captain of what I had discovered.

“I’m fine now! More importantly, you absolutely must not look inside that monster’s mouth! There’s an eyeball in there, and it seems looking at it causes mental manipulation!”

Before the regression, I only knew that this monster had such an ability, but not how it used that power.

As I had just learned this information myself, I urgently conveyed it to the captain.

Fortunately, the captain seemed to properly understand my advice.

Without looking closely at the monster, he first swung his halberd to cut off the monster’s arm.

Then I stepped in.

Jjeojeojeok―!

Ice spikes that rose from the ground frozen by my ability pierced through the monster’s entire body.

A normal human would have died at this point, but not a monster.

To kill such a humanoid monster, one had to find the core and smash it, and it seemed the captain was trying to do that final task.

Hwareureuk―!

Sharp flames shot out from the halberd the captain swung.

Without the slightest deviation, it hit the monster’s head and mercilessly burst it.

Puk!

The black flames the captain had shot continued to burn the rest of the monster’s body without going out.

The monster stopped moving.

After blankly watching the corpse pierced by ice burning in the flames, I said.

“When I was under mental manipulation, I heard hallucinations of your voice, Captain. A voice ordering me to die.”

“…”

“Earlier at the door you told me not to die, but this time you told me to die. I thought you were quite fickle, going back and forth like that.”

“Is this the time for jokes?”

The captain said in a subdued voice as he grabbed my wrist.

As anyone could see he was angry, I sheepishly closed my mouth at that point.