SWY 99

Sharhan’s expression twisted as he shot a glare at Lestel, who silently nodded.

‘Hah, so while I was out there getting beaten half to death as a mercenary, he was laughing it up with the little brat? No wonder he remembered her name so precisely. How many times did they meet behind my back?’

Truthfully, Sharhan remembered Ardelle’s name perfectly too. He’d deliberately said “Ardalle” just to test Lestel. It was petty, he knew, but the ugly feeling inside him kept twisting. And he couldn’t stop himself from stewing. Just then, the man Ardelle had knocked unconscious began to stir.

Pressing down hard on his chest to stop him from getting up, Ardelle demanded,
“Where’s your base? Where did you take the kids?! Why are you kidnapping children?!”

The man, waking to the pressure on his chest, groaned and wheezed, but still sneered and tried to provoke her.

“Do I look like I owe you answers, girl? No, wait… since you’re dressed like a man, I guess I shouldn’t call you a girl, huh? While we’re at it, mind if I ask something? Are you a man, or a woman?”

Ardelle raised an eyebrow, then lifted her foot and brought it down hard on his chest. A thud echoed, followed by the man’s pained groan.

“You’ve got eyes, don’t you? Can’t you see I’m a damn lady?! Now quit with the crap and answer! Why are you taking the kids? Where did you take them?! And what happened to the man who saved me? Is he dead?!”

“I don’t owe you–!”

The man, clearly in agony, possibly from a broken rib, tried to avert his gaze and dodge the question, but the moment his eyes landed on Sharhan’s face, he flinched.

Sharhan, watching with vague amusement, raised an eyebrow.

“You know me?”

“I don’t!”

The man denied it instantly, but his wavering eyes and trembling voice gave him away.

“Looks like he does.”

Lestel, reaching the same conclusion, placed a hand on Sharhan’s shoulder and glared down at the man with sharp eyes, as if trying to place him. But no matter how hard Sharhan looked, the face wasn’t familiar.

“Are you from Katun?”

Lestel asked. Sharhan had no clue who the man was, but if the guy knew Sharhan, then he was likely from Katun. At the question, the man twitched, then suddenly drew in his lower stomach and screamed.

“Aaaaaaaaah!”

The bellow rang across the area. Startled birds flapped and scattered into the sky. As the group flinched and scanned the surroundings, the man sprang to his feet and darted toward Peter, still screaming nonstop. His plan was obvious: draw in corpses with the noise and take Peter as a hostage to escape.

The hostage would be bad enough, but the noise attracting moving corpses was even worse.

Clicking his tongue, Lestel swung his axe at the man’s neck just as he reached for Peter’s collar. Peter, frozen with fear, jerked to the side, and the man’s head twisted unnaturally as his body crumpled to the ground.

“He’s dead.”

Sharhan walked over, slipped his foot under the man’s side, and flipped him over. As expected, he was dead, eyes wide open.

“Too bad we couldn’t get the location of their base. But he’s dead now, so nothing we can do. Anyway, Sharhan, you got food? The kids are probably starving waiting for me, and as you can see, I’ve got nothing.”

Letting out a sigh at Ardelle’s shameless request, Sharhan pulled his arrow from the moving corpse’s body and replied,

“Lead the way.”

***

Sharhan’s group continued on foot, leading Thunder and Lightning, and just as expected, their destination was the Hines family’s villa. He’d only seen it once, nearly ten years ago, but even so, he remembered the place clearly. Back then, nestled at the base of a mountain owned by the Hines family, the villa was surrounded by wildflowers, a bubbling spring, and breathtaking scenery.

Now, it was so decrepit he could barely believe it was the same building.

The spring had dried up, the garden was choked with weeds, and the mountain behind the villa was blanketed in heavy snow so blinding it hurt to look at.

That mountain used to be thick with trees…

Once filled with beautiful red “sari” trees, prized for their scent and high-quality lumber, it now looked patchy and diseased, like an animal with mange.

Sensing Sharhan’s silent gaze at the ruined villa, Ardelle spoke with a sheepish look.

“There used to be someone managing it, but my father kidnapped the steward’s eldest daughter and sold her off to Count Yollan as a mistress. She was a real beauty, but the countess abused her to death. When my father set his sights on the second daughter, the steward and his family fled overnight. Since then, no one’s managed the place. After the world went to hell, I came back and… well, it had turned into this. The spring dried up a long time ago too.”

As usual, Ardelle rambled on, offering unsolicited explanations.

“On the way here, we passed a huge cornfield left to rot. We nearly died when a swarm of corpses popped out of it.”

“Lots of fields around Lahan were abandoned when the farmers fled. Can’t blame them, really. My father and brother squeezed them dry. That mountain used to glow red year-round thanks to the sari trees, but now look at it, my father chopped them down without a second thought. Do you know how they died?”

“……”

“When everything went to shit, my father locked the gates and hid like a rat while the townspeople begged him for help. But one of the maids he let in had been bitten, he didn’t notice. She turned, bit another maid, and then she bit someone else… the entire castle descended into chaos. My father ordered the knights to kill everyone who’d been bitten, but no one obeyed. They were too busy stealing and fleeing with their families. The butler got bitten too, but he turned slowly, and with his last bit of awareness, he hunted my father down and tore him apart. Then he bit my brother. My mother and I were right there, but they ignored us. The butler’s son had been killed by my father. And it was my brother’s fault. Guess they’d been waiting to take revenge.”

“That why you came here?”

“My mother said we should. And I didn’t have anywhere else in mind. We started out together, but… on the way, she got bitten. As soon as she realized it, she pushed me away and ended it herself.”

She didn’t cry, but the grief in her voice couldn’t be hidden.

“You said you were taking care of the kids alone?”

“I couldn’t just leave those kids crying all alone after losing their parents. One by one I brought them back here, and now there are quite a few. Even in a world like this, adults should protect children, don’t you think? And they’re from Lahan, they were my people. So they’re my responsibility. It was tough, having to care for around twenty by myself. But now that you’re here, it’s a relief. And not just kids from Lahan, there are ones from Katun and Serman too. That means you both have a duty to help!”

Her intense gaze warned them not to even think about running. But Sharhan couldn’t meet her expectations.

“We’ll drop off some food, but then we have to head straight to Serman. I have to find Iris.”

Someone had been helping her for a while, but he couldn’t stay long. And though Ardelle had been quietly struggling with the burden of so many kids, she had briefly gotten her hopes up, thinking reliable help had arrived. Her face fell at Sharhan’s words.

“You… didn’t know about Iris?”

“What do you mean? If you know something, tell me!”

Sharhan’s voice rose in desperation. Ardelle looked flustered and rubbed the back of her neck, glancing toward Lestel.

“Why are you looking at me?”

Lestel frowned.

“Well… did you know there were rumors about you around here three years ago?”

“What rumors?”

“After the previous Count Kaios and his wife died in an accident, the title went to your uncle. But people said you couldn’t accept that, so you kidnapped Iris and stole the family heirloom before fleeing…”

Sharhan let out a breathless laugh of disbelief. Iris was his sister. What kind of brother kidnaps his own sister? And what was that about a “family heirloom”?

“The Kaios family heirloom?”

Stunned into silence, Sharhan could only stare. Lestel spoke up instead.

“Yeah. And why would he steal the heirloom and not the seal?”

The heirloom was valuable, sure, passed down through generations. But unlike the seal, it wasn’t a symbol of inheritance or power. Besides, Sharhan never even had the heirloom. Years ago, he’d pawned it to pay for academy tuition. And now people were saying he stole it? Did that mean it was actually missing?

“I don’t know. That’s just what the rumor says. They even put up a bounty, twenty gold coins to anyone who catches or turns you in.”

Sharhan turned to look at Lestel, whose expression had gone stiff. He wanted to ask, Did you know about the bounty my uncle placed on my head? But right now, something else was more urgent.

“Then what happened to Iris?!”

“She’s at Ailun Castle.”

Ailun Castle, that was Lestel’s home. Sharhan turned again to look at him. Lestel looked just as stunned.