Volume 1 Chapter 38 Call, Birth Cry
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
The rain was pouring down heavily.
In her strangely blurred vision, Sophia thought about this as she suddenly became aware of her surroundings.
”Eh…?”
Droplets of water that had collected on her eyelashes fell and trickled down her cheeks.
The rainwater that soaked her hair dripped from the ends onto her shoulders and back.
”Cold!”
She instinctively screamed and hugged her body.
The thin dress she had been using as pajamas clung to her skin.
It was incredibly cold.
And the clothes were heavy from soaking up the rain.
”Wh-where is this…?”
It was cold.
She felt like she might freeze.
The surroundings were dim.
She felt anxious and lonely.
She didn’t understand anything.
Around her were short weeds and common pine trees.
But when she turned around, she saw a beautiful wall of black roses blooming wildly, stretching endlessly on both sides.
It was an imposing wall of roses that loomed over her.
Sophia hugged her shivering body and staggered backward.
”Where is this? A dream?”
(Surely, yesterday my father contacted me, telling me to come back to the country if I was going to be fired from my job at the Guild…)
Everything had fallen apart because of the lowest-ranked adventurer, Kian, and Sophia was being called back to her father’s homeland.
Last night, she had been cursing Kian and the Guild Master, Friedrich, while packing her suitcase.
She was still in her nightclothes because it was nighttime.
Sophia had planned to visit the Guild early in the morning, officially get fired, and then set off for her homeland.
The rain continued to pour.
Drip, drop…
”────”
(This isn’t a dream…)
Seeing her breath turn white, Sophia felt fear emerge from her confused mind.
She was somehow outside in the rain.
Not in a town or street.
Not in a place she recognized.
She didn’t know the way back.
Sophia looked down at the soft grass beneath her feet.
One of her feet splashed into a puddle.
(Yesterday, after packing her things and getting into bed… I had no memory of what happened next. If my current situation wasn’t a dream, it felt like I had been wandering outside like a sleepwalker.)
”It’s cold… I don’t care about anything else, but I need to find some shelter from the rain first.”
She looked around, glancing about.
There was only a black rose wall in front of her, and behind it was a rundown farm road stretching out.
Beyond that, fields overgrown with shrubs and tall grass continued.
There were no signs of people around, and at first glance, she couldn’t find a place to take shelter.
”Um… is anyone there? Is anyone around?”
Calling for help in a thin voice, she began to walk.
She thought she would try walking along the rose wall.
Since such magnificent roses were blooming so neatly, she figured there was a good chance someone lived beyond this thick wall.
”Is anyone…?”
Splash, splash…
She walked along the wall, splashing through puddles.
”Is anyone there…? Is no one here…?”
As Sophia repeatedly called out to her surroundings, she suddenly realized something about this place.
(Roses… always raining… could it be ‘Labyrinth of Roses’?)
To work at the Adventurer’s Guild reception, a certain level of knowledge was required.
She had memorized landscape paintings depicting the characteristics and appearances of all the dungeons, from the famous ones to the less popular.
Although she had never been there, this place looked the most like what she remembered of the ‘Labyrinth of Roses’.
(The place where the ancient Countess was imprisoned. A mansion of a demon woman who tried to maintain her youth and beauty by drinking the blood of others and bathing in blood. A strange place where, despite always raining, the surrounding plants like roses somehow never withered.)
It was said that the monsters that appeared were mostly ghost-like.
Because it always rained, it was a place where creatures that disliked sunlight could thrive.
The rose wall was a maze, and deep inside was said to be the Countess’s mansion, but it was rumored that no one had ever reached the mansion in the back.
There was no quest set in this place, so hardly anyone thought about entering the maze.
Sometimes, eccentric scholars researching long-extinct vampires would issue quests, but adventurers prioritized quests that offered better rewards elsewhere over working in a place that was always rainy, leading to no one accepting them.
”Haa, haa…”
(Breathing was hard. It was cold, and the footing was bad. Moving in the rain was so difficult. I truly understood why adventurers hated the rain.)
…
…
──Come here.
…
…
”Ouch!”
Suddenly, a sharp pain shot through one eye, and she pressed her hand against it.
It felt like a thorn had pierced her.
…
…
──Welcome. Shall we become one…?
…
…
”Ugh, ah…”
The intense pain made her drop to her knees.
Water splashed as she landed in a puddle, and the knees of her white dress got muddy.
”U… ugh…”
She released her right hand.
It was stained with bright red blood.
”──────!?”
Behind Sophia, a horrifying groan echoed.
When she turned around, a greenish glow flickered, and a figure wrapped in tattered white cloth emerged from the darkness.
(Rain Wraith!)
It was a ghostly monster that appeared in rainy areas.
It wore ragged clothing and had a skeletal face.
In one hand, it held a rusty sword, and in the other, a lantern that emitted a green glow.
The rusty sword had physical attack power──if the ghost’s body made contact, it would drain her life force and kill her.
Moreover, it had no physical form, so it could only be defeated with special magic weapons or spells.
Throwing stones would just pass through it.
Its weaknesses were fire, silver, and mercury.
But in a place like this, none of those were likely to be found.
”I have to run…!”
Enduring the sharp pain in her eye, Sophia stood up.
The receptionist, from the perspective of the general public, was an elite who had studied magic in the royal capital, but very few could actually fight.
Sophia could use magic to some extent, but she had never cast it against a monster.
She had only shot a little earth magic and wind magic at wooden targets or friends under the supervision of her teacher in a safe gym or on the playground.
There was no way she could handle such a brutal situation all of a sudden.
On top of that, there were multiple Rain Wraths.
If she fought, she would definitely be killed.
”Haah, haah, haah.”
Splash, splash, splash, splash──.
(Someone, someone help me…! Please…!)
Ghosts emerged from the surrounding grass, blocking her escape.
It was as if they were saying they wouldn’t let Sophia get away.
──Scary, scary, scary.
──Help me.
──Anyone, please…!.
Her well-groomed toenails, like those of a girl her age, were now in tatters, and when she tripped, her knees were covered in blood.
Several ghostly flames flickered behind her, following the trail of Sophia’s blood.
The only escape route was the rose wall in front of her.
Just then, a part of the wall opened up.
It was the entrance to the Labyrinth of Roses.
Sophia looked back, tears streaming down her face, and desperately jumped into the maze.
”Haah, haah, haah──”
’Hehehe…. What a cute girl. Young, fresh, with the scent of sweet blood.’
(Wh-who…!?)
As she ran frantically through the rose maze, she asked the mysterious voice.
’Such meltingly sweet blood.’
’Hehe, sounds delicious.’
’You’ve lived a life full of love.’
’There’s no bitterness from hardship.’
’Exquisite blood.’
”────, ah!?”
Suddenly, something wrapped around her right leg, sending a sharp pain through her shin.
Sophia fell face-first into the mud.
”It hurts…”
Looking down, she saw that her ankle was tangled with thorny rose stems.
Thorns were sticking out from the nearby rose wall.
”…Ugh.”
Tears streamed down her face from fear and pain as she reached out her trembling hand to her leg.
At that moment──.
The direction was set, and from deep within the rose thicket, something was wriggling at the edge of her vision.
”…?”
When she looked, a black shadow was slowly crawling out from the rose wall.
It had long, messy brown hair and thin limbs that looked like dry branches.
”Eek!”
Splash──’she’ stretched her right hand toward the ground in front of her.
Dragging her body awkwardly, she closed the distance toward Sophia.
It was coming this way! The long hair, wet with mud and rainwater, was lifted, and bloodshot eyes locked onto Sophia.
”…!”
In a panic, she grabbed the rose stems tangled around her feet.
A sharp pain shot through her, but fear overwhelmed it.
Desperately, she tore at the multiple tangled rose stems.
”No, no! Let go!”
Splash!
Another step, ‘her’ hand reached out again.
It was slowly crawling closer.
Sophia faintly heard a woman’s voice, struggling to breathe.
Aaaaaaargh…
It was a hoarse voice that sounded like it was rattling from deep in the throat.
(Why?)
Even when she brushed away the rose stems, they wrapped around her again as if time was rewinding.
Sophia felt her mind go blank.
Scared.
Unable to escape.
She would be killed by that incomprehensible something──.
She squeezed her eyes shut tightly.
In the next moment, the sound of the grotesque woman splashing through the muddy water grew rapidly louder.
Splash.
Splash, splash, splash, splash, splash!
Splash!
”…!”
A faint sound of breathing came from right in front of her.
Sophia squeezed her eyes shut even tighter.
Now, the monster was right in front of her──!
”No, please, please…”
She pleaded while inching back.
The sound of her panting breath followed suit.
(…Is it searching for my thing?)
Maybe it would let her go like this──? Just as she thought that, a growl reminiscent of a large beast erupted, and Sophia was grabbed by both shoulders and pinned against the rose wall behind her.
She opened her eyes in shock.
Right in front of her was the woman with limbs like dead branches, looming large.
Bloodshot eyes were staring directly at Sophia.
”Eek, gii!”
Sophia twists her body to escape the woman’s claws digging into her shoulder.
The woman opens her mouth as if to grin.
She sinks her fangs into Sophia’s white throat.
* * *
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Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
Thanks for reading.
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