TCMED 29

Chapter 29

Ethan’s relaxed smile stiffened. It seemed he hadn’t forgotten about this either.

“I think it’s time I heard why you deceived me as ‘June’ in the beginning, and why you treat me like… this.”

Whenever Ethan approached me like he did now, I grew anxious.

It wasn’t because my status as a priest required me to avoid exclusive, possessive affection.

Nor was it because he had shown me a side different from the novel. Humans are complex beings, and I now knew well that the Ethan of the novel was just a part of the Ethan standing before my eyes.

This was simply anxiety stemming from the fact that his secret seemed to involve me, yet I had no inkling of what it could be.

Ethan was all the more so because he wasn’t someone I could just ignore even if I wanted to.

“…Ah, right.”

Ethan, visibly flustered, swallowed dryly.

Soon, his lips slowly parted.

“…”

But no sound came out.

Ethan’s brow furrowed. At some point, his mouth seemed sealed shut as if pasted together, unmoving.

He remained like that for a long while.

At first I thought he was teasing me, but he looked even more frustrated by his own inability to speak. As if some unknown external force was acting upon him.

After continuing his silent attempts, Ethan let out a deep sigh.

“This is actually…”

But before he could finish his sentence.

*Skrrrrr—*

An unforgettable, familiar noise like tearing paper echoed from behind me.

I knew without looking. That a rift was opening right now.

*’Rifts open randomly anytime, anywhere, but this timing is just too much…’*

Ethan’s eyes widened greatly, and my body, sensing danger, instinctively erupted with divine power.

Monsters avoid my divine power, so that should serve as an emergency measure.

Perhaps because it was so sudden, it strangely didn’t feel real.

“……!”

But even in that moment, there was something puzzling.

No one was holding me, yet my body kept being pulled backward. I braced myself with strength, but eventually both feet left the ground.

I’d never heard of gravitational force acting at the mouth of a rift.

“Ah.”

As I thought that, I realized. Those who experienced this must have never returned.

The committee’s aftermath team had mentioned that disappearances had been increasing lately, and it seemed I’d just found the biggest cause.

Though I had no idea if I’d be able to report this.

“…Damn it, Thetis!”

Ethan’s cry pierced through my world like lightning, where time seemed to flow in slow motion.

The rough wind tousling my hair, the urgent air of the scene, the red light of the rift closing in from behind to swallow me—all flooded my five senses in an instant.

The stark reality, the terror of facing death—my blood ran cold.

“…Aaaagh!”

I kicked at the air belatedly, but my body was being smoothly pulled toward the rift.

“Grab on!”

Ethan lunged toward me without a moment’s hesitation.

The last thing I saw before squeezing my eyes shut was his face, desperately earnest.

At the same time as a warm sensation enveloped my body, I felt a strange queasiness, like when using a portal.

Ethan and I fell into an unknown place.

While my body tumbled, I alternately heard sounds of passing over muddy puddles and fallen leaves.

By the time the damp smell of moss clung all over me, my rolling body finally stopped. It was a relief I hadn’t crashed into anything.

First, I needed to assess the situation.

As I took deep breaths to calm my trembling body, I felt a careful patting on my back.

“Thetis, it’s okay to open your eyes.”

At those words, I slowly lifted my eyelids.

And I was flustered.

“…I can’t see anything.”

Surrounding us was complete darkness.

I could only tell this was a forest from the thick scent of grass and the faint outlines of trees.

Ethan chuckled lightly at my dazed response, then murmured something unintelligible—probably reciting a magical formula.

Soon, as expected, a bright sphere of light rose in the air.

“This is……”

What came into view was a black forest. Literally, a black forest.

The tall trees were completely black—their trunks, their leaves, everything. Even the withered fallen leaves scattered on the ground were the same.

A few meters away, dozens of small pools resembling springs were clustered together, but even those looked like pitch-black swamps.

Did a place like this even exist in the world?

As I stared blankly at that alien landscape, Ethan asked me.

“Do you remember what I said the first day we met?”

If he meant the first day we met, that would be when I knew him as ‘June.’

“What did you say?”

“That I wanted to introduce you to my hometown.”

A sudden guess flashed through my mind, and my eyes widened.

“Surely……”

When I couldn’t finish my sentence, Ethan nodded.

“Yes. So it seems that promise is being fulfilled like this.”

His words confirmed my guess.

This place we had crossed through the rift into was the cursed city, Mapel.

*’To think I’d see firsthand a place I’d only encountered through Ethan’s recollections in the novel…’*

Knowing this was Mapel made the place feel even more surreal.

I dazedly looked around the scenery while sitting up, then realized I was still using Ethan as a cushion.

“Oh, sorry.”

No wonder my body didn’t hurt at all even after rolling across the forest floor…!

Startled, I sprang to my feet.

But Ethan, who rose after me, urgently grabbed my wrist.

“Don’t stray from me.”

Then he placed the hem of his clothes into my hand.

What was this about.

Seeing the question blooming on my face, Ethan added an explanation.

“Due to the curse, the air here is dangerous to breathe. In Mapel, my recovery skill is shared with anyone touching me, so hold on tight.”

“Ah……”

Ethan had awakened his power while fighting against Mapel’s air, which had attacked him from the moment he took his first breath. As a result, his power grew stronger when he was in Mapel.

That was why I, having stayed close to Ethan since entering the rift, had also been able to escape Mapel’s influence.

Confirming I understood, Ethan moved the luminous magic orb around, surveying the surroundings.

I followed half a step behind, clutching the hem of his top.

Standing like this made me feel like a child clinging to a parent’s pant leg…

Just as that thought crossed my mind, Ethan spoke in a troubled tone.

“…I didn’t know such a place existed, but it seems we’ve fallen into a restricted zone.”

“A restricted zone?”

“Yes. The terrain is rough and the contamination concentration is high, so even Mapel’s residents don’t approach this area.”

The reason Mapel was called a cursed city rather than a cursed village was because its area was quite large.

Ethan seemed to have confirmed this was a restricted zone by the absence of markers that Mapel residents used to distinguish regions.

“For now, let’s head to a safe place.”

“Alright.”

“The ground might suddenly give way, so follow carefully, Thetis.”

With Ethan in the lead, we slowly crossed the restricted zone.

The nighttime forest, where moonlight fell only sparsely, carried an ominousness that stimulated survival instincts.

As we were almost past the cluster of small, unidentified black springs, I casually glanced back at where we’d come from.

And I spotted it.

In the distance, probably beneath the thin rift we had entered through—the surface of that spring was bubbling violently.

“Ethan, wait a moment.”

Sensing something ominous, I stopped Ethan.

The moment his gaze followed mine toward the black spring beneath the rift—

*Boom!*

A viscous liquid burst violently from that spot.

The unbelievable scene continued.

Black streams of liquid that didn’t fall to the ground but hovered in the air, writhing and taking on an unknown shape.

Soon, parting through them, a horrifying hybrid appeared—a bat’s body with a snake’s head.

It was a monster.