Silent Witch

Book 10: Chapter 9: Thing that Turned into A Disaster

Book 10: Chapter 9: Thing that Turned into A Disaster

The Duchy of Rehnberg is situated in the eastern part of the country. It's a place that was prone to dragon damage but compared to other territories, the amount of dragon damage that appeared there was relatively low.

At most, a few times a year, some herbivorous dragon strays from the herd and wanders into the human village. Ever since Eliane was born, she only heard of stories of a few large dragons appearing in the past.

As far as she is concerned, bears and boars are much more threatening to her than dragons. Since a large beast hardly appeared, this forest had become a perfect place for a stroll. Albeit with a large deer would be coming out occasionally. Generally, a deer could be ferocious in their own way, but since Peter had a hunting rifle, he would be able to drive them away if he encountered one.

Oh, how wonderful it would be if I were to bump into Lord Felix here. He may look a little surprised, but he will soon smile and extend his hand to me, saying, Come here, Eliane.' I will appear confused at first, but when I take his hand he might pull me in his arms a bit forcefully. Then, while I was embarrassed, he would tell me to hold on tight or I would be in danger, and I would nervously reach for Lord Felix's chest

As Eliane was entranced by the pleasant fantasy, her horse abruptly stopped.

"Hm? What's the matter?"

"I don't know. The horse suddenly started getting frightened"

Peter examined the horse, but it didn't seem to be injured anywhere. It was just clearly flustered and scared of something.

Judging that there might be a large beast nearby, Peter held up his hunting rifle just in case.

However, he sensed the forest felt so quiet and didn't hear any distinctive sound of large animals scurrying through the grass.

Then a sudden gust of wind blew and swayed the hem of Eliane's skirt. She felt slightly chilly followed by fading sunlight. Maybe the clouds obstructed the light, so Eliane tilted her head up and gasped.

"huh?"

It was not the clouds, but something large circling above the trees was blocking the sunlight. Looking at the sight of the huge silhouette made Eliane's back cold.

"a dragon."

The first thing that comes to mind when thinking about dragons that are good at flying is wyverns. In terms of size, a wyvern is roughly has the same size as a cow.

But the dragon above her head was about twice that size. Its thick, hard-looking scales were vibrant fresh green in color.

"A Green Dragon A higher-tier"

At Eliane's murmur, Peter also looked up. Despite his paleness, he tried to rein in the horse doing his duty as a servant. However, the frightened horse refused to move an inch. On the contrary, it seemed as if it would be rampaging if he provoked it too much.

"Lady Eliane, I think you should get off the horse."

"B-But it would be better if we ride a horse"

"Horses that encounter a dragon have a high probability of losing control! It will be thrown you off if you ride on it with the saddle sideways!"

Eliane hurriedly let go of the reins, held her skirt, and tried to get off her horse At the same time, the dragon above her head cried out in a high-pitched roar.

The horse, frightened by the dragon's cry, neighed and lifted its front legs high. When Eliane lost her balance and fell off the horse, Peter pulled Eliane's hand and opened the distance to prevent the horse from kicking her.

At that moment, a particularly strong wind blew. The Green Dragon came hurtling down toward them. As Peter and Eliane hurried to hide behind a tree, the dragon's sharp claws buried into the body of the rampaging horse.

The dragon's claws crushed the horse's body along with its sturdy saddle. Eliane quickly covered her ears and turned away at the sound of the horse's dying cries. Then Peter pulled Eliane's arm strongly.

"We should get out of here."

"H-Hold on. I think we should hide rather than make a careless move"

And then they saw that the dragon was not devouring the corpse of the horse but was simply chopping and grinding it up as if it was taking out its anger on it. Its behavior was clearly abnormal.

Unlike the lower-tier dragons, the higher-tier dragons were intelligent beings. As such, they would not mindlessly attack humans.

It made Elaine wonder why did that Green Dragon seem to be so violent?

Eliane had an uncomfortable feeling when looking at its behavior.

She saw something shadowy emerging from the green dragon's beautiful fresh green scales. She assumed it was just its silhouette at first, but the shadow was crawling over the green dragon's body like a giant snake. Its appearance was clearly abnormal.

"Aaah!"

Branches and hard leaves from the bushes scratched Eliane's soft skin and tangled in her fluffy hair. It was painful.

I must have a word or two to say about this treatment, thought Eliane as she got up and looked up.

Then she saw Glenn's legs were entangled in a black shadow after letting Eliane and Peter escape. The shadow crawled up from his ankle and entwined itself around his entire body. His body, which had been lifted by flight magic, fell to the ground with a thud, like a bird shot down by an arrow.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaarrggh!"

A blood-curdling scream poured out of Glenn's mouth. With his body stained with dark spots. Just like the horse before, his body was about to be taken in by the curse. And his face, which was always full of joyful laughter, was now contorted in anguish.

Eliane could only stare at the scene in shivering terror.

No No This can't be

Glenn's body was already half-swallowed by the shadow. His eyes were unfocused and his mouth was leaking a thin voice. But it wasn't a voice of anguish.

It was a chant'.

"be burnt"

A fireball was formed in the palm of Glenn's hand. When the trembling hand pointed to the Green Dragon in the sky, the fireball shot toward it and accelerated.

There was a deafening explosion and a flash of light that made it impossible to even open her eyes. Eliane forced her painful eyes open and looked at Glenn and saw him lying limp on the ground with about half of his body eroded by the shadows.

The shadow that had been eating away at Glenn slipped back into the green dragon's body, leaving a part of the shadow on his body, then left his body alone.

The Green Dragon survived a direct hit from Glenn's fireball and showed no signs of weakening. The dragon's scales which are very resistant to fire make it difficult for fire spells to damage it.

Perhaps sensing the threat of the fireball, the Green Dragon clad in the curse took one large circle before it flew away.

Peter in exhausted breath muttered, we're alive?'

Eliane paid no attention to Peter and approached Glenn with trembling legs.

"L-Lord Glenn?"

He did not reply. His body did not move a muscle, but the shadow curse left on his body was crawling around his body.

"No Please no Lord Glenn, you're okay, right? Please, wake up, Lord Glenn"

"Don't touch him!"

With a sharp voice, a tall man with black hair grabbed Eliane by the scruff of the neck as if he were handling a kittenit was Bartholomew Alexander, the attendant of the Silent Witch.

"Let go of me Lord Glenn Lord Glenn, he was protecting us He's"

"He's under a curse right now. Touch him and the curse will infect you."

"B-But if we don't do anything Lord Glenn will diehichic"

When Eliane finally began to sob, Bartholomew frowned in annoyance.

He took his hand away from Eliane and crouched down in front of Glenn to observe the shadow eating away at Glenn's entire body.

"A person with a low amount of mana will be eaten immediately by this thing For a human being, this guy sure posses that a lot maybe more than my master?"

Bartholomew mumbled and touched the shadow crawling over Glenn's body with his fingertips. The shadow seemed to crawl up Bartholomew's finger, but somehow, it moved as if to avoid the finger.

"Hmm, all right, I think I can handle it."

Bartholomew stood up, carrying Glenn's body roughly on his shoulders, and looked alternately at Eliane and Peter.

"Anyways, let's get back to the safe place. Also, call a curse specialist when you get back to the mansion. This thing is not something amateurs can handle."