Cast Before the Beast

They'd thought using the Gate would make the journey easier. It hadn't quite worked out that way.

"Urgh—"

"Hhk—"

All around them, people were dropping from the aftereffects—dizziness, retching. Some even protested they couldn't go any farther.

"Damn it. We're dying out here, and someone gets carted along in comfort. I heard she spent those ten days of rest whining about being sick and had people waiting on her hand and foot. That true?"

"She stayed in a separate space from the expedition, that's a fact. Can't confirm the waiting-on-her part."

"She got special treatment either way, didn't she? Take a look—she disappears for a few days in the east and comes back looking like a whole new woman. A criminal, wearing new clothes? Last time I even caught her dabbing something on her face."

While the expedition halted for those suffering from Gate-sickness, their voices drifted into the carriage, and Lisbel clenched the collar of her dress tight.

She never should have accepted the things Pruna had given her. She'd known they would find something to pick apart, and still...

Most of the knights conscripted into the expedition had fought in the dungeon raids themselves. They carried the memory of comrades lost to monsters, of a capital that had nearly fallen—and to them, Lisbel could be nothing but the architect of that disaster.

She let the sharp accusations from outside wash over her. That someone hated her was no longer even a surprise. All that remained was a crushing exhaustion, and a sour, lingering distaste.

"The Captain's right there. You think he'd allow that? He's not the type to sit back and watch."

"I'll be honest. Hasn't it seemed like the Captain's gone unusually soft on that woman lately? Those times they vanished together for 'exploration' never sat right with me. What the hell were they doing out there with nobody around..."

"Watch your damn mouth."

The line had been crossed. Around them, men sucked in their breath. A superior issued a low warning, but the knight who'd raised the suspicion didn't stop.

"I'm not saying this without grounds. At the eastern ruins, that girl went out exploring with the Captain every night for four days straight. I was on tent watch. Before they went in, there was nothing on her. When they came out, I saw it clear as day—something like a red bruise left on the nape of her neck."

"Is that true?"

"You think I'd be crazy enough to invent a lie like that about the Captain? A young man and a young woman, alone in a sealed room for hours every night. And she had marks on her neck. Wouldn't you wonder?"

Lisbel felt as though her entire body had frozen. Her trembling hands clenched her collar.

Those mornings after the heat had taken her—after she'd tangled with Hendrick—the ache in her nape and along her back came flooding back with a nauseating vividness. She'd believed he would never leave a mark on her body. The sheer stupidity of that belief was almost more than she could bear.

The curse had driven her, yes. But she had been the one to cling to him first, to beg. The more that memory rose, the less she could deny the knights' insults—and the harder it became to breathe.

"What in the name of God do you think you're saying?!"

Isaac's shout cut through the air like a blade. The conversation, which had been sliding into filth, froze instantly.

One of the knights cleared his throat, awkward, and began to explain himself.

"Ahem. Father. This isn't a story I made up. Doesn't the Lord Himself teach us to punish a woman that lewd?"

"Do not dare to insult the will of God so freely. I don't know what grounds you think you have for such filthy talk, but would you repeat those words in front of the Captain?"

The carriage was barely five paces from the knights.

They'd mocked her as if they wanted her to hear—and the moment Hendrick's name entered the conversation, every one of them shut his mouth. It was a naked display of men who were cruel only to the weak, and craven before the strong.

"Father, you must find that heretic as repulsive as the rest of us. She was treated like vermin even in the Sanctuary, that bitch..."

"Those who behaved that way were excommunicated and punished for distorting the will of God. You seem to have forgotten who personally carried out that sentence."

"Th-that's..."

"You ought to be ashamed. A knight's sword exists to protect the weak. That you would slander a defenseless lady on baseless suspicion—it is a disgrace that men like you call yourselves knights. Even if Sister Lisbel is a sinner, she has the right, as a lady, to the most basic protection and respect."

Silence settled over them.

Faced with an argument they couldn't refute, the knights offered no defense at all.

Isaac was always like this. He knew that shielding her too openly would drag his own name into the gossip, and so he became her shield in the cleverest way he knew how.

Then—

"What is all this commotion?"

A low, sunken voice, and the world outside went still in an instant.

"C-Captain!"

"I-it's nothing, sir!"

The knights' frantic voices tumbled over one another. But Isaac didn't hesitate.

"Discipline among the knights appears to have grown rather slack. They were spreading obscene gossip about a superior officer and a fellow traveler."

A brief silence followed. Then Hendrick's cold voice cut through it.

"Is this true?"

"Th-that's..."

"Then I share the priest's opinion. Though it seems you gentlemen consider it nothing of consequence."

The air around them seemed to freeze. Hendrick's words meant, in essence, that he had heard every word of the knights' conversation himself.

"Yes, sir!"

The hurried sounds of armor being stripped and weapons being laid down followed in a rush. Moments later, a clatter of running footsteps receded into the distance.

Only when the surroundings had gone quiet again did Isaac's footsteps approach the carriage.

"Don't let words like that wound you. They aren't worth a moment of your attention."

He left that quiet comfort behind, and his footsteps faded once more.

Alone, Lisbel leaned against the carriage wall and tipped her head back without a sound. She stared into empty air, blinking slowly.

Don't let it wound you. He was right—a hundred times over.

Her tears were far too precious to waste on filth like that.

But misfortune hunted Lisbel to the very end.

"Block this side too! They're flying monsters!"

"Ngh—my sword's broken!"

"Damn it, where are the reinforcements? This doesn't end until we kill every last one of them!"

It came, of all times, right after someone had suggested she was summoning the monsters. Without warning, a dungeon tore open, and the creatures poured out.

The journey's purpose had been exploration, so the escort was already a skeleton force—and they'd left some of even that behind when they crossed the Gate. They were badly outnumbered.

"Aagh! Help me!"

"Aaaagh, die! Die, you monster bastard!"

Terrible screams tore through the air from every direction.

No one had thought to protect her. Lisbel escaped the carriage on her own and hid herself in a secluded spot. But there was no such thing as a safe place.

"Hah— ah, aagh! Stay back...!"

The terrified scream of the knight who'd claimed to see the bruise on her neck rang out. Peering through the vines, she watched him get launched into the air by a single blow from a monster the size of a hill, then slam into the ground.

Lisbel held her breath, swallowing the scream that wanted to tear from her throat.

The creature that had struck him was covered in twisted white horns, a beast sheathed in black scales. With every breath, a dark crimson mist spilled from its body.

"How the hell are we supposed to beat something like that..."

"Where's the Captain? Find the Captain, please!"

The knights had already lost their will to fight. But Hendrick, the man they so desperately sought, was nowhere in sight—held elsewhere, it seemed.

"You...!"

In that instant, Lisbel's eyes met those of a knight who had been scanning the area for Hendrick.

"Ah—! Let go of me!"

"You goddamn heretic. You summoned those things, didn't you...! You heard what we said and held a grudge!"

"I didn't!"

"The fuck you didn't—was it a coincidence Allard died first? You brought these monsters, so you die first!"

Dragged from the undergrowth where she'd been hiding, Lisbel was hurled defenseless before the monster before she could even get a word out.

"Ah..."

She had never seen a monster this close in her entire life. Standing before the beast as it bared its fangs and poured out that savage aura, her legs gave way beneath her. Her mind screamed at her to run. Her body, frozen solid, would not move.

"Sister Lisbel!!"

Isaac's desperate shout rang out from far away. But before she could even hope for his help, the monster's massive jaws yawned wide and it lunged straight at her.

"Ngh...!"

I didn't want to die like this...

Lisbel squeezed her eyes shut, bracing for the terrible death rushing toward her.