Chapter 6
The energy of the dark forest made all of the beasts that had lived there for a long time trembled in fear. This was due to the presence of creatures that are higher ranked on the food chain than those beasts that have long occupied the forest. At one time, sunlight hung in the morning, dew formed on green leaves, and the forest where people often came to dig or hunt medicinal herbs were no longer considered popular. In such a forest, those beasts would drink blood from the wolf’s neck with their tentacles extracted from their tongues.
The girl with her pale pink hair twisted up high and tied into one, was lovingly dressed according to her liking. The girl was currently adorned in a black dress tied with a ribbon, black high knee-socks and a pair of shiny loafers. In the forest, with a staff stamped with the seal of the Golden Dawn, she stepped forward, striking the damp ground. Sasabonsam, the beast who had been enjoying its meal for a long time, finally felt the presence of humans and turned its head.
“Wow, that’s disgusting.”
It was a demon with no hair, thin and pale skin, with prominent blood vessels, walking bipedally, but also equipped with bat wings. A tribe’s legend identified the demon as Sasabonsam. Reminiscent of what she had learned while practicing her magic, Rosha stretched out her hand and saw that the creature was so slender that his cheeks were hollow. She talked to it with her fake gentle voice while suppressing her power as much as possible.
“C’mon. You want to eat this?”
Animal-eating demons were not very dangerous. A group of humans were enough to hunt this kind of demon. Demons who were too weak to hunt for humans alone and gave up, evolved to fill their stomachs with animals instead. But in the core of their existence, only human meat could satisfy its appetite. At night, it sneaked out and attacked a person secretly, so it was Rosha’s responsibility to kill it.
In addition, the bigger problem was that Sasabonsam was a weak monster that couldn’t live alone. While living in a group, a Sasabonsam would get pregnant with several offspring and then leave the group, settle itself in a new area in order to give birth and form another group. Rosha’s eyes zeroed in on Sasabonsam’s stomach. As she had expected, several babies could be seen to be conceived by it. This means that it would need more nutrients.
“You really don’t listen, do you ?”
Rosha didn’t hesitate and bit her arm hard. Red blood flowed down from the wound. The eyes of Sasabonsam, who were still having its tentacles around the wolf’s neck, flashed on alert. The excited monster crawled towards Rosha with a creepy cry. Although it had wings, it seemed to be powerless because they haven’t drank human blood for a long time. The Sasabonsam, who had long been starving, hurried to stick out its tongue. Long tentacles with a sharp tip emerged from a hole in the tip of the tongue.
Sasabonsam’s tentacles flew to Rosha, drawing a long parabola like an arrow. Rosha quietly put her hands on the staff even though the tentacles were flying in front of her. As the tentacles were close enough to reach Rosha’s neck, she raised her staff and struck upon it. And at once, the tentacles were wrapped around the staff.
Sasabonsam let out a bizarre cry as it struggled to break free from the staff. Rosha was also struggling not to get dragged away by the demon, but with the help of her mana wrapped around her whole body, she did not lose her strength at this moment. During the tug-of-war, she swung her staff little by little to wrap the tongue of Sasabonsam even more and the distance between them gradually got closer. Finally, Rosha, who had narrowed the distance enough to be one step ahead of the monster, crushed its one eye, and the monster fell to the ground, wriggling in pain. The monster cried out its pain in a bizarre sound.
The more it cried, the more Rosha was inclined to get this job done quickly as it was getting bothersome, while at the same time, she felt joyful.
“Die, you monster!”
The monster’s existence was such a waste of air. Still, the weak monster continued to suffer in hunger and weakened even more. She got the urge deep in heart to torment the helpless monster even more. Although it was already in pain and even shed bloody tears, Rosha wanted to rip the monster apart and see its cubs pulled out of the stomach while it was still alive. She really felt like committing those gruesome acts.
[If you do what the darkness in your heart tells you, you will eventually become a slave to it].
But, Rosha couldn’t do it. When she is reunited with Lily later, she doesn’t want to become a monster herself. She collected her own precious blood that got pooled on her palm. If the magic tools made by the Golden Dawn, such as a wand or pocket watch, were used to control power, more energy would be saved making it easier for its wielder to use their own magic. All of the words spoken by wizards could be used as a spell in any situation according to their will.
“The flame of God will burn you.”
On the contrary, a medium that could amplify magic would come from the wizard themselves, their own blood. Using a puff of wind released from her lips towards her gloved palm, a flame sparkled following Rosha’s breath under the power of the spell she previously chanted. The flame soon lit up the body of the Sasabonsam.
“Ahhhh!!!”
When the Sasabonsam’s body burned, the tentacle that previously connected to the staff tore in half. Rosha removed the part that was still still attached to the staff, took out a handkerchief and wiped it while savoring the screams of the monster. While she was slowly wiping her staff, the burning body quickly became ash and disappeared into the air without leaving any trace. Instead, a small ember remained, emitting a faint glow on the ground. Rosha casually stepped on the still flickering cinders to extinguish it.
****
Then, when she found that the ribbon on one of her black shoes had loosened, she bent her knees for a while and tied it.
“God, thank you for helping me not to become a monster today.”
Rosha, who prayed to God like a habit, tried to leave the forest with the staff in her hand as she was. Then the sound of some beasts was heard, and she raised her hands reflexively to attack . However, the identity of the one who created the sound was not another monster, but a young wolf cub. Rather than the monster that Rosha criticized for being ugly and vulgar, it was literally a young cub. As if it was not long after it opened its eyes, the tiny white furry cub was crying hard. Other dead cubs could be seen next to him, but their mother was already dead while trying to protect them from the monster earlier. Luckily in the process, this white cub survived.
“Your mother is dead. Take care of yourself.”
Rosha just ignored it and tried to leave. The loss of the mother was grim, but the monster was unable to take responsibility for the damaged animals. She took three steps away from the young cub when…
Kiing, Kiing, Kiing …
The baby’s cries persistently followed her.
“Ha, really…….”
Was it because the dog was originally a wolf family? She remembered her dog, Polly, that she had a long time ago. The dog who was able to sense dark energy and ran away, came back to save its owners, and eventually died as a young friend and family member. Rosha suddenly screamed mindlessly and when she had calmed down, she stood in front of the white young wolf.
“You know you’re lucky.”
Looking down at the baby wolf, she sighed and raised him up. The cub still whined in her arms. Rosha wrapped the cub in a cape coat, and left the forest without hesitation. As she left the forest, Ray, a black eagle waiting nearby, sat on Rosha’s shoulder. With unique hair and eye color as well as carrying two beasts out of the forest, of course, she was bound to attract people’s attention. However, as she was familiar with it, she didn’t care about the attention. After receiving the promised money from the town’s chief, she borrowed his one-of-a-kind phone here to report on the mission. Shortly after, the phone connected with a short beep.
[My girl, Rosha. Did you finish your work well?]
Upon answering the phone, Noah knew immediately it was Rosha. She quietly reported about the work, repressing the feeling of wanting to lie about being unable to perform the mission.
“As you expected, it was a monster belonging to the vampire side. It’s named Sasabonsam. Fortunately, before forming a new herd, there was only one pregnant individual, and it was neatly burned and removed without a trace.”
[I believe in your ability. No injuries?]
“I’m not weak enough to get hurt by such a weak monster.”
[Yes, you did a good job today. Anything else to report on?]
Noah’s soft tone relieved Rosha’s tension, who had stiff muscles due to her holding the cub. Didn’t know what to say, she looked down at the wolf still whining in her arms.
“I also picked up a wolf.”
[A wolf?]
“Can I raise it?”
[If you want.]
“Oh, and I’m so tired, but I’ll stay here today and leave tomorrow.”
[Oh, what should I do?]
“Why?”
[I have to get to the headquarter right now.]
Noah, who had been asking for a favor because Rosha was still young, was determined somehow. That said, there was a reason to go up right now.
“If you’re going to see my face anyway, why did you want to make the phone call longer?”
[ I want to hear more of my cute youngest sister’s voice.]
Noah said, as if Rosha was even his actual younger sister. Although they used the same surname as Rostelier to symbolise them being in one family, there were more than a thousand magicians belonging to the Golden Dawn Society. There were very few people born with magical power, and the conditions for the awakening were also difficult, so only a small number of them were far behind. He said that the stronger the power, the longer the lifespan and it added up to the number of personnel as it was now. That’s why Rosha was still the youngest, even though it’s been 5 years since she joined the group.
By age or order of joining, Noah was aware of the faces, names, ages, and personalities of more than a thousand Golden Dawn members and, surprisingly, he seemed to take care of them all diligently. Among them, Rosha was the youngest of them all.
“If you have to go to the headquarter in a hurry, is there something important?”
[Of course I do.]
“What is it?”
Noah’s voice lowered. In addition, Rosha also felt his breathing sounded lighter than before. Shortly afterwards, Noah continued to speak in a low voice .
[Tomorrow is your….]
A moment passed away as she was waiting anxiously for his words.
[It’s your fifteenth birthday.]
“Yeah……?”
[We are having a party, but it’s hard to attend the party as soon as we arrive. So come up today and have a good rest and enjoy the party tomorrow.]
He told Rosha to come up in a hurry differently than usual, so she was wondering what was so important. It turned out it was just a little thing called birthday. Although it was absurd, Rosha could not get angry because she knew Noah cared for her.
“I see. I’ll start right now.”
Rosha hung up the phone, and cherished the baby wolf in her arms even more, wrapped it inside her coat and found the luggage she had left at the residence. She departed early in the morning and as soon as she arrived in this village, she had to kill the monster and now left for the capital without rest. That was an 8 hours round trip.
“It’s gonna be hard on the way, let’s hang in there. Got it?”
Ray the eagle quietly entered his cage, the wolf snuggled in her arm, and Rosha, with her staff and pocket watch, sighed as they all headed for the train station.