NOVEL NEXT Chapter 36
EP.36 The Stench of Rotting (1)
Two weeks of classes have come to an end.
As I was about to head to the café, I found myself in a predicament thanks to a certain student who barged into the professor’s office.
If it were an ordinary student, I could simply tell them to come back later. However, the person who showed up was anything but ordinary.
The Fourth Princess, Ayla.
She beamed at me.
“Shall we go?”
“Uh… what?”
“You promised! You said you’d help me investigate after class.”
“Well, more like I was… pressured into it.”
I shot her a discreet glance, hoping she’d get the hint, but Ayla’s resolve was rock solid.
“Hmm.”
The corners of her eyes curved upward slightly.
I wiped my brow.
“Okay, let’s go.”
To be honest, I felt a little uneasy. If the Princess was insisting so much, there must be something worth investigating.
“Thank you for your help!”
“Uh, yeah…”
—
Stella, Child of the Stars.
Those blessed by the stars can hear their whispers. It’s different from that of a hero. There is no mutual exchange of communication.
It merely comes down one way.
However, that unilateral whisper sometimes brushes against the realm of prophecy.
The Fourth Princess, Ayla.
She has experienced prophetic intuitions in the form of instincts. Many times. Though we casually refer to it as instinct, infallible instincts are close to prophecy.
And that instinct is now sounding alarm bells.
“……”
Ayla’s gaze shifts, pointing with her finger.
“It’s annoying.”
With her aching finger bent, she raises her head. What comes into view is the hallway flanking the professor’s office. A usual sight.
However, with every step, her finger throbs more.
The tingling eventually turns into pain.
“I feel awful.”
Ayla muttered.
“This whole corridor feels off. It’s hard to breathe… I feel nauseous.”
“……”
“This has never happened to me before. Are you listening, Professor?”
“Yes, I am.”
In response to Ayla’s question, the woman walking beside her nodded. Ashen hair swayed slightly.
Rania van Trias.
A person with a peculiar connection to Ayla.
Originally, Ayla intended to call her guard knight, Habel, to search the corridor together.
However, the moment she faced Rania, her mind changed.
‘Habel would be sad if he knew…’
Ayla found Rania, walking beside her, more trustworthy than Habel, whom she had long known.
‘The stars are whispering too…’
As always, the reason remains unclear.
She just feels that way.
“Um…”
Ayla sneaked a glance at Rania’s profile. She was always a bit of an oddity.
Her stature wasn’t all that different from Ayla’s.
If anything, Rania was a bit taller and appeared more mature. Well, that might not even be entirely accurate.
‘It’s more about the difference in atmosphere…’
The aura she’d wrapped around herself felt distinctly different. Heavy. Sharp. Unlike the students and even the ordinary professors.
More like that of a soldier.
That unique atmosphere couldn’t be hidden by the neat robe or her title of professor.
As Ayla was observing her, Rania suddenly turned to look back. There was a hint of hesitation in her gaze.
‘Something seems… off?’
Am I the uncomfortable one?
Ayla tilted her head.
“I’ll walk ahead.”
“What?”
With that one phrase, Rania took a large stride forward.
Thud.
Unlike Ayla, who cautiously advanced, Rania strode boldly ahead. Ayla pouted as she followed.
‘She just avoided me outright, didn’t she?’
Even if that was the case, was it really necessary to be so blatant?
“Can you slow down a bit, Professor?”
“If, as you said, there’s something in this place, shouldn’t we check it quickly?”
Despite Ayla’s grumbling, Rania’s pace didn’t falter. Ayla hurried to keep up with the swaying ends of her robe.
‘But it feels ominous…’
The sense of foreboding still lingered.
If anything, its size magnified.
Though the corridor seemed perfectly normal on the outside, as they walked deeper into it, Ayla felt like she was stepping into the jaws of a beast. Or perhaps into the dark depths of a cave where anything could be lurking.
‘What could it be?’
The kingdom’s finest academy, Apuria.
What could possibly be causing her finger to tingle like this in the heart of the royal capital?
‘It feels like something is crawling beneath my feet.’
Her body itched.
It felt as if a bug had gotten inside her clothes. A disgusting sensation, like something was creeping up her spine.
And then,
“A.”
Finally, that discomfort peaked.
“There!”
At the end of the corridor.
The firmly shut door of the professor’s office.
“That, right there.”
Ayla pointed her trembling finger at the door.
Holding back the pain that felt like her finger might break, Ayla continued.
“That’s where…”
And at that moment.
“Excuse me for a second.”
“What?”
Thump.
Rania pushed Ayla aside.
Ayla, bewildered and unsure of what had just happened, looked at Rania with a confused expression.
“Why are you…?”
Before her question could finish.
BOOM!
An enormous sound echoed as one side of the wall exploded.
Debris flew, dust swirling. The explosion was aimed directly at where Ayla had just been standing.
And that spot was also where Rania had been.
Dust plummeted from above. As the settling dust revealed the scene of the corridor, it was filled with the wreckage of the shattered wall.
The passageway leading to the office was completely blocked by piles of rubble.
“A…”
Ayla blinked, staring at the heaps of stone that filled her vision.
She couldn’t see it.
The professor Rania, who had been standing right in front of her moments ago, was nowhere to be found.
“…Professor Rania?”
No answer came back.
—
Flicker.
On the third floor of Central Academic Hall.
Lac, sprawled on his bed, opened his eyes. He thought about taking a nap, but something told him it was probably a bad idea.
“……”
Without a word, he lifted his upper body.
Then reached out. His hand aimed for the hand axe on his desk.
‘Something’s coming.’
He grabbed the hand axe in both hands.
Stepping down from the bed, he spun around, swinging his arms once.
“The smell of rot.”
CLANG!
He struck the hand axe against each other.
Small sparks flew, and the prepared spells siphoned off Lac’s mana.
Haste.
Enhance-Strength.
Veins bulged in his arms.
Lac raised his right arm above his head, gripping the doorknob. He counted in his mind.
One, two, three…
‘Now.’
BANG!
SKREEEEE!
As he flung the door open, a zombie was pulled out, dragged from behind the door, its rotten upper body invading Lac’s room.
And then.
Lac’s right arm moved.
The hand axe he had raised swung down. With a motion resembling a guillotine, it struck the zombie at the waist.
CHOP!
The axe met no resistance.
Slicing through cleanly, the axe separated the zombie’s upper and lower body.
SPLOOSH!
Blood splattered. Lac didn’t stop. The dismembered zombie’s upper half fell to the floor, and Lac released the doorknob, swinging the axe in his left hand.
‘To defeat a zombie, you must smash its head.’
That’s what he learned from the northern warriors.
Lac executed the lesson perfectly.
THWACK!
He pulled the axe from the crushed skull of the beast.
He shook the blood off. Stepping over the decapitated corpse, he emerged into the hallway.
“The smell of rot.”
The stench of the undead assaulted him.
Lac frowned. His eyes landed on the undead wandering the corridor. There were plenty of them.
‘Where did they come from?’
It was unclear.
‘What in the world is going on?’
That too remained a mystery.
“Well.”
Lac twisted his wrist.
Nothing was clear. It was a riddle.
‘What should I do in such a case?’
He recalled the teachings of the northern warriors.
– You don’t know what to do, young master?
– Well, we are the ones you call young master.
A warrior.
A noble northern warrior.
– Yes, indeed. A warrior. What is there for a warrior to do? There is really only one answer.
“Right.”
– If you don’t know what to do, young master.
Lac halted the rotation of his wrist.
– Just swing and slash, and the answer will appear.
He raised his arms.
“Then, it’s decided.”
He swung and struck down.
“And that should do it.”
One of the undead collapsed.
Stepping through the pooled blood on the ground, Lac charged toward the remaining undead.
—
“A, ah…”
Ayla’s mouth repeatedly opened and closed as she sat down, covering her mouth with her hand.
‘The wall crumbled.’
Ayla searched her memories.
‘Something exploded? No, something… struck it hard.’
In that instant when the wall blew apart, she felt as if she saw a massive figure. Currently obscured by the rubble, but it felt like something lurked behind the debris.
She needed to flee.
However, Ayla couldn’t bring herself to do so.
The wall had shattered.
And there, in the rubble, was Rania.
‘The moment the wall collapsed.’
Ayla recalled that the professor had pushed her away.
Grimacing at that memory, she thought, “Ugh…”
If she noticed in time to shove her aside, she could have easily avoided it. But she didn’t manage to escape.
Why hadn’t she escaped?
The answer to that question came swiftly.
‘She tried to protect me.’
In trying to guard her, she became ensnared in the explosion.
There was no way she could have survived such a blast. Gritting her teeth, Ayla stood up.
The wall had fallen.
Piles of rubble lay in the way.
Someone had been caught up in the explosion while trying to protect her.
The series of events were awakening memories Ayla wished to forget.
“I don’t want this.”
She reached out to the rubble.
Heavy and large, it didn’t budge easily.
“I don’t want this.”
She didn’t want to become a burden like back then.
Just like before, she didn’t want to witness someone die while trying to protect her.
“Ugh, ugh…”
Struggling with trembling hands, Ayla shouted loudly enough for blood vessels to bulge in her neck.
“Professor Rania! If you can hear me…”
“Yes, what is it?”
Huh?
“Huh?”
Ayla halted her movements.
“Professor Rania?”
“Yes, what are you calling for?”
A voice came back.
The voice that reached her sounded incredibly calm.
“Are you, okay…?”
“I’m perfectly fine. Move back a bit.”
“Ah, yes…”
‘Am I hearing things? Is this a hallucination?’
Even with that thought running through her mind, Ayla stepped away from the wall. Soon, the piles of rubble began to shift.
“Ah, ugh. Dust.”
An irritated voice.
SMITE!
RUMBLE! The debris stirred and then poured down. From the pile of wreckage emerged someone walking.
Cough, cough. Ugh…
The sound of dry coughing.
Waving her hand to clear away the dust, Ayla stared blankly at the figure.
Rania van Trias.
She, thought to have been crushed beneath the rubble, appeared utterly unscathed. Not even a scratch could be found. Even her robe had only a bit of dirt on it, showing no signs of tearing or wear.
“Yes, so…”
She tilted her head.
“Why did you call for me?”
Suddenly, Ayla noticed what was in Rania’s hand.
‘…A head?’
A beast’s head, dripping with green blood.
Ayla slowly raised her head.
“…Are you, okay?”
“I’m perfectly fine.”
It didn’t sound like a formality; she genuinely seemed fine.
Ayla was left speechless.