Chapter 68
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15. The Butterfly Effect
I returned to the Cabin with Kaiden, but there was no one inside. The surroundings were eerily quiet.
As it happened, darkness began to settle around us. The sky was casting shadows as the sun dipped toward the horizon.
"Where did everyone go?"
Kaiden drew his dagger and held it firmly in his hand, moving cautiously.
We searched inside the Cabin, but found no one.
It didn't appear they had left. Each person's belongings lay scattered throughout the Cabin. It seemed as though everyone had rushed out for some urgent matter.
And then it happened.
Boom—!
A tremendous sound thundered through the Forest. Kaiden and I exchanged glances, sensing something amiss, and hurried out of the Cabin.
Crash!
Another deafening boom echoed as we saw vegetation shaking and trees toppling in the distance.
Flap, flap—
In response to the tremor, birds took flight into the sky.
"Something seems to be happening over there."
"Let's go check it out."
At my words, Kaiden nodded with a tense expression.
The Silver Earthworm wriggled and emerged from my pocket, gazing up at me pitifully—as if pleading not to be abandoned.
"I'll be back. Stay here and keep watch."
But at my words, the creature spun in circles, displaying clear anxiety.
"That direction might be even more dangerous."
Despite my words, the Silver Earthworm continued to fidget, protesting to be taken along. I watched it squirm on the ground for a moment, then extended my hand.
"Can you promise not to let go of my arm?"
The Silver Earthworm immediately crawled onto my palm and coiled around my wrist.
The texture of its scales wasn't particularly pleasant, but it had wrapped around my wrist so tightly that it didn't seem likely to slip off easily.
I ultimately wrapped the Silver Earthworm around my arm and retrieved two wooden spears that had been leaning against the Cabin entrance.
"What is that?"
Kaiden took the spears from me and asked with an exasperated expression, observing the Silver Earthworm coiled around my wrist like an accessory.
"It threw a tantrum wanting to come along."
I smiled and waved my arm to show him, and the Silver Earthworm protested by raising its head as if complaining about the dizziness.
"All right, I'll stop."
I lowered my hand with a smile. Kaiden, watching me, shook his head as if to say he'd seen everything strange.
"Anyway, let's go."
At Kaiden's words, I adjusted my grip on the spears and moved with him toward the source of the thunderous sound.
* * *
Margaret had disappeared.
I had just returned from a light patrol around the Cabin with Rujeep, but Margaret was nowhere to be seen inside.
"Perhaps she went to gather mushrooms. Rodban isn't visible either."
Rujeep scanned the Cabin once and spoke.
Just then, Yuanna was descending from the Second Floor. Enoch strode forward to approach her.
"Where is Margaret?"
"...I beg your pardon?"
Yuanna turned to face him with a bewildered expression.
"Where is Margaret?"
Enoch asked again. Yuanna then looked toward Rujeep with a flustered face.
However, since Rujeep also had no idea why Margaret was absent, he remained silent.
"I wouldn't know...?"
She looked at Enoch with a puzzled expression—genuinely clueless. Enoch let out an irritated sigh and glanced around the Cabin.
"What about the Crown Prince and Diego? You don't know that either?"
At Enoch's haughty question, delivered with a furrowed brow, Yuanna's face twisted.
"That's quite rude of you."
"Just answer the question."
Enoch's face looked fierce as he spoke in an overbearing tone. His demeanor suggested he had no interest in anyone but Margaret.
"His Highness Asdal is resting on the Second Floor. As for Diego... I'm not entirely sure either."
Before Yuanna could even finish speaking, Enoch turned his back and left. His behavior was completely unlike his usual self, leaving Yuanna staring after him in shock.
Whether in the Langrid Empire or on the Island, Enoch had always maintained the bearing of a noble royal. He was not warm, but his courteous manner of speech and gentlemanly demeanor were ingrained in him.
Yet now, appearing to have lost all reason and consumed by anxiety, he was different.
"Is something the matter?"
Diego happened to enter the Cabin at that moment. Enoch quickly approached him and asked about Margaret's whereabouts.
"I saw Flone Young Lady leave earlier with Rodban."
"When did she leave?"
"Now that I think about it, quite some time has passed. The sun is setting, and this could be serious... Your Highness?"
Without even waiting for Diego to finish, Enoch burst out of the Cabin.
Diego looked at Yuanna in confusion. Then, as Enoch pushed the door open again and re-entered with a fierce expression, he asked Diego once more.
"Which direction did they go?"
"Sir?"
"Which way did the two of them go?"
"I saw them heading in that direction. I assumed they were simply going out to gather provisions."
Enoch left the Cabin with sword in hand and walked aimlessly in the direction Diego had indicated.
Rujeep hurried after him in alarm.
"Your Highness!? Your Highness!"
But whether Enoch didn't hear Rujeep's voice or simply ignored it, he pressed forward in silence.
The sky had grown dark, and the Forest was shrouded in gloom.
The dense undergrowth blocked out the sky, leaving no moonlight. It was nearly impossible to see where one was walking.
"Your Highness, venturing deeper seems dangerous."
Rujeep followed close behind Enoch, his anxious gaze sweeping the surroundings, tensed in case a Monster should appear.
Yet Enoch did not slow his pace.
'I definitely heard something.'
The sound of Margaret's flame bomb detonating seemed to echo from a great distance away.
They soon emerged from the Forest and reached the Cliff's edge. Beneath the moonlight that broke through the parted foliage and clouds, a truly horrific scene unfolded before them.
"Ugh, argh!"
Rujeep discovered the colossal Tarantula lying dead before the Cliff and collapsed right where he stood.
An overwhelming stench wafted toward him, forcing him to cover his nose and stumble backward.
Moreover, scattered around the massive Tarantula were the corpses of several smaller spiders.
Enoch, who had been methodically surveying the surroundings, soon extracted something from beneath the Tarantula's legs.
"Isn't that Flone Young Lady's bag?"
Rujeep rose to his feet with a puzzled expression. Enoch stood motionless like a plaster statue, his gaze fixed only on the bag in his hands.
"...It appears to be."
Only after a long pause did Enoch answer Rujeep's question.
Rujeep cautiously approached Enoch, glancing at the dead spiders, and examined the bag in his hands carefully.
"May I take a look?"
Enoch stared at the bag without responding, lost in thought. Rujeep carefully gauged his reaction before gently extracting the bag from his hands and inspecting its contents.
Inside were a notebook and illumination rounds, along with several first-aid supplies rolling about.
Curiously, the illumination rounds that Margaret used when attacking Monsters and the spherical magical artifact she called a "flame bomb" were nowhere to be found.
The flame bomb, being single-use, might have already been deployed—which would explain why the spiders lay dead.
But then where were the illumination rounds and Margaret? And where had Rodban and Kaiden disappeared to?
"They left this behind—where could the two of them have gone?"
Despite Rujeep's murmuring, Enoch remained silent. His earlier anxious demeanor would have been preferable; at least then he showed some emotion.
But now there was no way to discern his thoughts, and he appeared utterly devoid of feeling—like an inanimate object incapable of sensation.
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