Chapter 38 Part 1 – Mother’s willpower is an arrow of lightning and her love is my tears. In the midst of despair, where there is nothing I can do but pray, a flying white horse descends along with the moonlight

The imperial guards of the royal family risked their lives to stop the demon dog Gallam in order to let us escape.
In order not to let that spirit go to waste, we were trying our best to make the three horses gallop.
Mother was in the lead. She was so focused that she barely blinked.
Her eyes narrowed and her lips pursed in a straight line.
Mother was once severely bullied by nobles and became a shut-in. Because of that, she became highly sensitive.
Sensitive to human pain.
That’s why the imperial guard’s selfless dedication must have shaken her to the core.
After her, Mary rode with an imperial guard, followed by me, Bradd, and an imperial guard riding on another horse.
Although I feel like we’ve come a long way, we still haven’t reached the pond.
The small forest on the premises felt like an endless expanse of forest because I’m feeling impatient.
The path should be short, but I felt frustrated as it seemed as if it’s getting longer and longer.
The turmoil doesn’t subside.
The wind gradually intensified as if to agitate me even more.
The rustling in the treetops became louder.
Still, I felt a little relieved when I realized that we were finally coming closer to the pond.
Because Mary told me previously when we were taking a walk that the night breeze was strong around the pond.

The moonlight flowed through the gaps between the trees overhead.
Only a little moonlight illuminated the path ahead, but there was no hesitation in Mother’s leadership.
Even though the forest was filled with night fog, we ran through it without slowing down, as if guided by the moonlight.
At first we were on a wide path, but before we knew it, we were heading down a narrow path, barely wide enough for a horse to pass.
Just as I had suspected, mother’s horsemanship was amazing.
She entered the narrow path without showing any fear.
The imperial guards were no less skilled and they were following right behind her.
The tip of the protruding branches grazed over my hair.

「Shrink your body as much as you can.」

Bradd curled his back a little and held me tight inside his arms.
He was trying to keep me from getting hurt.
From the thorny cedar trees that grew densely on both sides of the path.
The trunks and branches are covered with thorns like roses, and the tips of the leaves are sharp, biting into my hair and clothes, leaving my skin full of scratches.
In the old days, the punishment in this area was to throw the sinners into the dense thorny cedar trees.
And yet, the path rapidly became narrower and the thorny cedar trees swung their sharp claws without restraint.
It felt as if we were pushing through a thicket of thorns rather than advancing on a path

Why did mother choose to go on such a dangerous path, where one wrong move would inevitably result in a serious accident?
I soon realized the reason.
I could feel Bradd’s heartbeat against my skin as he held me tightly in his arms to protect me.
His heartbeat was like an alarm, alerting me to the impending crisis.

「…It caught up already.」

From the darkness behind the horses, I could hear the clawing sounds and ragged breath of the demon dog Gallam, and the sound of trees being crushed approaching us.
Even with the sound of the horses’ hooves and wind whirling, it was impossible to mishear the pursuit.
The imperial guard members accompanying us turned around with grief-stricken expressions on their faces, and then looked forward again.
Mary bit her lip.
The fact that the demon dog Gallam was catching up with us meant that the imperial guards had been defeated.
Mother exhaled a big breath as if to shake off her own agitation.

「…On this road, even the demon dog Gallam will not be able to catch up so easily. The more it struggles, the more it gets tangled up in the thorns. In order to not waste everyone’s strenuous efforts, we have to continue to move forward.」

I saw the profile of a mature woman staring ahead as she does what needs to be done before grieving.

Mother was right.
Gallam, a demon dog with a stiff and uncommonly huge body, was hindered by the dense thorny cedar trees. The noise of the pursuit, which had once closed in on us, quickly receded into the distance behind us.
Since it has come this far into the thickets, it would not be able to retreat.
That’s why mother deliberately chose a narrow path.

「It’s okay. I’m sure that the imperial guards, who are so strong, won’t be so easily defeated. It probably just found an opening and exploited that in order to break through. I’m sure they’ll all be fine.」

Bradd’s thoughtful words softened the stiff expressions of the imperial guards.
I think so too. There’s Matzo over there.
The death of a man who looked like a steel giant robot is the hardest thing to imagine in the world.
His death in my「previous 108 lives」was the result of a deliberate choice to be killed so that I could escape.
Originally, he is nearly invincible.
As long as he is the commanding officer, the annihilation of the imperial guards is unlikely.

「Mm-hmm, yes, indeed. I’ll have to make fun of my idiot colleagues later. Thanks to them, I’m risking my life to play tag with a monster while relying on the moonlight.」

「As an apology for their carelessness, I’ll have them treat us to food all the time.」

The imperial guards laughed at each other.

「…That’s a wonderful suggestion. May I also join you?」

The two imperial guards grinned widely as mother giggled and joined the conversation.

「Please do so. Everyone will raise their hands and shower you with a warm welcome.」
「We’ll serve plenty of alcohol from the Orange Company.」

Mother laughed cheerfully when they immediately brought up the subject of her favorite drink.

「Fufu. I’m looking forward to it. Now then, as an adult who enjoys drinking alcohol, I have to show the children a good time. This road will soon be cut off. From there, we will ride our horses down the cliff. Then the pond will be right in front of us. Can you follow me?」

She deliberately said a provocative statement not out of contempt for them.

「You’re underestimating us. Putting aside our skills with the bow, if our horsemanship is also inferior to the duchess, we won’t be worthy of the position of imperial guards.
「We are one with the horses. Even if it’s a precipitous cliff that only a deer can descend on, we will follow right behind you.」

The two imperial guards immediately responded to mother’s words.
They took their hands off the reins and clapped their hands courageously.
There was the bravado of cool grown-ups who did not want to look bad in front of children.

Mother’s heart was once destroyed by the abuse of the「red nobles」and had been driven to anthropophobia, but now she was riding freely on her galloping horse and exchanging jokes with the members of the strongest unit of the imperial guards.
Even in these circumstances, it made me happy.

Yeah, it’s not bad to start life over again like this.
Even if it’s a bit of a hard mode, I’ll gladly accept it.

I thanked God from the bottom of my heart.

It was then that the moonlight was suddenly blocked.

At first I thought it was a cloud. The next time I saw it, I thought it was a swarm of moths.
There was a swarm of something rustling in the air?
The sound that was similar to heavy rain soon turned into the sound of a rushing waterfall.

「····What?」

The night-visioned Bradd furrowed his eyebrows and looked closely at it.
His complexion changed.

「The forest is dying… It’s poison…!! It can even use poison!?」

The leaves of the trees that obstructed the demon dog Gallam’s visual field fell off, leaving our backs visible to him.
What appeared to be a swarm of something was actually the leaves of the treetops that withered all at once and whirled up in the sky.
A scene of a dying forest full of bone-like branches. Behind us, there was the demon dog Gallam.
In the scene of the trees twisting in agony, its horrible red eyes shone in the middle of darkness.
Its feet flickered eerily like shimmering flames.
We could clearly hear the sound of the withered cedar tree’s thorns coiled around the demon dog Gallam being destroyed.
The birds and small animals that had been hiding in the trees fell down, vomited blood, went into convulsion, and fell silent.
The destruction of the forest was quickly expanding and closing in on us.

「…That damned dog …It actually spewed out poisonous air and withered the forest in order to untangle itself from the thorns! That damned dog can do all kinds of things!! We gotta get out of here as soon as possible!」

Bradd shuddered after he saw the scene.

Poisonous air!? The thing that is only created in areas where there is a lot of volcanic activity!? Something that can make people faint just by breathing it in!?

This is a natural phenomenon that cannot be seen in this country where there are no volcanoes.
It’s the work of the demon dog Gallam again! The problems just pop out one after the other!!
The god of fate is really harsh!!