The Survival Strategy of the Contract Duchess - Chapter 107

The creature I rode on was dwarfed by the ones before me. As I saw in the Uhalin Forest, they had grotesque wings and were intimidatingly large. Thud, thud their footsteps echoed as the creatures emerged and slowly approached her.

Kee-ik!

I locked eyes with the one leading the pack. A shiver ran down my spine, but I swallowed hard, suppressed my fear, and stood my ground.

Keeik, kee!

Keeeee!

Then, the leader and the young one who had brought Sasha here began to exchange sounds, as if in conversation.

I couldn’t understand what they were saying yet, but even as the leader spoke with the young creature, it kept glancing at Sasha.

Keeik!

The sudden loud noise made me look at the leader. Sasha flinched at the sharp eyes and sound that suddenly confronted her, but she didn’t back down.

As I stared intently at the creature, it turned and began to walk away. Is that it? Just a brief encounter?

As the leader turned and walked away, the others slowly followed.

The whole situation encountering a mystical being on a snowy mountain ridge was absurd, yet somehow more mystical and wondrous. The fear had faded long ago. If they didn’t suddenly attack, I felt like this atmosphere could continue.

Kee-!

But then, the young creature, who hadn’t left, spoke to Sasha. It bobbed its head as it spoke, but when I tilted my head, unable to understand, the young creature came behind Sasha and nudged her back with its snout.

“Huh? Telling me to go? To follow those creatures?”

Kee-ik!

The young creature moved its head vigorously up and down, happy that its meaning had been understood.

Sasha chuckled softly and calmly began to follow the group of creatures, who were already far ahead. What more was there to fear, now that I was already up in the mountains?

The skirt was a bit cumbersome on the mountain path, but it was more manageable than I thought. Come to think of it, the creatures in front were breaking off protruding branches and stepping on them, rolling away large stones as they walked.

“Are you guys like her mom and dad?”

When I asked the young creature, it nodded and made a high-pitched, giggling sound. Was it happy that I recognized its family, or was it just proud of its parents?

Anyway, I walked happily along the cleared path, following the creature’s movements, when I heard a sound in the distance. It wasn’t like voices. Was it the sound of hooves, or was a rock rolling down from a mountain peak?

The endlessly majestic sound was getting closer and closer.

At the moment when the path, which had been wide even on the mountain ridge, seemed to lead slightly downward, I realized what the sound that had been ringing in my ears was.

“Wow!”

The sound, like hundreds or thousands of horses running at once, was a waterfall.

I could see the white, crashing water falling into the endless depths below. And because I was on the mountain ridge, I wasn’t looking up at the waterfall from below, but rather walking up towards where the water was pouring down.

The creatures walked with heavy steps, then leaped and bounded up the path, stopping at a certain point to look back at me.

Lost in the spectacle of the waterfall, Sasha had barely been walking. The young creature nudged her arm with its wing, and she snapped out of it and walked the rest of the way.

“Mom! I’m here!”

It was then. Suddenly, a young voice cut through the sound of the waterfall. Startled by the human voice, especially a child’s voice in these mountains, Sasha looked around and immediately realized.

Her eyes fell on the young creature bounding towards its parents.

Could it be?

“Don’t run! It’s dangerous to misstep here.”

Then, an adult voice came from the front, and Sasha’s eyes and mouth widened in shock.

Wow, waah!

Sasha quickly snapped out of her daze and hurried her steps. Because they were waiting for her, she carefully watched the rocks under her feet and walked as quickly as possible.

I should have exercised more regularly, even if I liked the library. As I quickened my pace, I could feel my calves tightening.

When the falling waterfall became too much to bear at a glance, I stopped and stood in front of the creatures. They silently waited for her to approach, then turned their gaze towards the waterfall.

“This is the path we use to cross over. Creatures from another world are forcibly transported to this world below this waterfall.”

The one leading the pack was a woman with a rather elegant voice. Probably the mother of the young creature, who was clinging to her side.

“Forcibly transported?”

I had heard that they were not only focused on eliminating them, but also thinking a lot about how they were created. Sasha also tilted her head slightly and looked over the edge of the waterfall. She was too scared to lean her whole body over, so she just glanced.

“We don’t know the exact reason either. If we did, we would have closed it off. When we cross over, the human group here tries to control us. They use a rather old magic, which is like torture to us. To avoid it, we end up clashing with humans, and that’s how fights break out.”

Geranel! I guess they’re talking about that. Sasha frowned at the creature’s explanation, having thought that the method of handling them was just like taming horses or raising dogs.

“So it’s Geranel, I didn’t know they were treating you like that. It was a terrible place.”

“I’ve heard that the current leader of Geranel is your father.”

Another creature added. Sasha learned an unexpected fact here. Who? What did you say?

“When you were born, everyone sensed your energy. And from the time you were able to move, we searched far and wide to find you, avoiding the clutches of that group. We found you in the house of their leader.”

“I heard that there was a creature who recklessly rushed into that mansion and almost harmed you. That creature was thrown down the waterfall by us, but after that, it became difficult to sense you.”

“Maybe that dad locked me in the attic because of that.”

I don’t know the exact timing. Sasha had escaped from that house and came to Kyler’s house, where she took over this body.

The man called Dad locked his daughter in the attic because creatures were coming, completely erasing her existence. Even though the existence of a dad was awkward, even though I had never dreamed of having parents. I didn’t want it to fall apart like this.

Iberon had taken away even that small fantasy from Sasha. I don’t know her heart well, but I thought it must have been torn a hundred or a thousand times more than mine.

“But when we were here, we felt that feeling. That is, a human who will guide us. There was no way for us to communicate with humans. If we clashed, we had to fight, and it only ended when one side died. That’s how it’s been until now. But, you can talk to us like this now.”

Ah, wow. Am I the person who can help communication between creatures and humans?

It was an unexpected aspect. I felt like a fool for agonizing and worrying about whether I was a creature or whether Sasha was originally a creature. I didn’t know there would be such an answer. Wait a minute.

“Um, this is something the people here don’t know. The body I’m in now is the daughter of that Geranel you were trying to meet, but now, a soul from a completely different world has entered this body.”

I revealed something I hadn’t even told Kyler in front of them.

Maybe I’m not the one they’re looking for. No, at this point, since I’m communicating with them, I can say that I am. But then, I didn’t understand why they were looking for this Sasha when she was first born.

“I don’t know much about this connector either. However, I think that the reason we can communicate is because your soul, which twisted the world and entered another world, is resonating. Perhaps your soul was thrown into another world when you were born. And for some reason, after you grew up, you returned to this body.”

“That’s right. So, at that time, we couldn’t meet you because of the interference of the leader of Geranel, but even if we had met, we wouldn’t have been able to communicate. You were too young.”

Sasha nodded. So, I was a soul that had to come here anyway.

“Is that why, I didn’t have parents?”

I can’t even begin to describe how lonely she was in her previous life. Because she wasn’t supposed to be born there in the first place, there was no one by her side.

Her quiet, lonely voice was swallowed by the roaring waterfall and disappeared below with the pouring water.

But the creatures with good ears heard everything she said.

“It seems like it’s okay to live without them.”

The moral values of creatures and humans may not be the same, but at least they seemed to have similar things like maternal and paternal love. Sasha smiled wryly at the unexpected discovery, shaking off her bitterness.

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