Shadow's Oath

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Chapter 87: That Which Lies in the Darkness (2)

‘Where are you going?’

Charlon scolded herself for asking the question.

‘Don’t talk nonsense. You have to stay here.’

She closed her eyes, trying to focus on her breathing, but it was impossible.

Even the darkness behind her closed eyelids terrified her.

She opened her eyes again.

The ceiling of the tent came into view.

At that moment, she recalled the black silhouette she had seen inside the cave.

‘I have to go.’

It felt like she had forgotten something important again.

‘Go where? Don’t tell me you’re planning to return to the shrine of Iktaron? And for what? Oh! You want to find out what that black silhouette was? Ridiculous!’

Even if her father insisted on investigating what had happened to his daughter by leading an army of a hundred thousand from Born, she had already decided she would refuse.

She had no intention of investigating it herself either.

Even if she married the prince, became the ruler’s wife, and gained the authority to oversee everything, she wouldn’t try to find out...

‘What am I thinking? I’m not marrying the prince anymore. I can’t, and I shouldn’t.’

Charlon only wanted to think about what would happen between her and Jedrick from now on.

‘It won’t be an easy path. But I won’t give up.’

Would she live in the north, where Jedrick was accustomed?

Or would they return to Born, the land she was familiar with?

‘To the people of the south, I’d be a barbarian’s wife. So maybe it would be better to settle here and become a farmer, with soil on my hands. Or a hunter, with animal blood on my hands. Maybe I should raise goats. I’m not confident in any of it... but I can learn. I learn quickly.’

Surprisingly, she thought the prince might forgive her.

If he did, she would become the wife standing by Jedrick, who protected the lord of the north.

If he didn’t forgive her, she could accept that too.

Even though she had spoken in the cave when she thought she was about to die, her feelings hadn’t changed now that she had survived.

If death was the price of love, she was ready to pay it.

‘I was supposed to die in that cave anyway. So it’s fine. Whatever happens, it’ll be better than being eaten by corpses...’

The moment she had that thought, overwhelming fear gripped her.

It felt as if a thick, liquid darkness was pouring down from the ceiling, pressing against her face, chest, stomach, and legs.

She couldn’t breathe.

To change her thoughts, she forced herself to imagine being executed by Damion’s wrath.

It was difficult to picture such cruelty on the prince’s kind face.

But she had to imagine it.

She was willing to do anything to forget this fear.

If Odel’s medicine could take it away, she thought she might drink every last drop without hesitation.

‘Don’t worry, Charlon. That thing isn’t following you.’

She reassured herself.

‘Think carefully. It never directly harmed me.’

It was natural to fear the warriors of the Tagda tribe.

It was even more natural to fear living corpses.

But there was no reason to fear a formless shadow.

That was all in the past.

‘If it was truly some kind of entity, why didn’t it kill me the first time it appeared?’

Why did it just linger nearby instead of attacking?

Why did it only seem to approach when she was alone with Jedrick?

No... was it even trying to kill her?

It had never been friendly.

But now that she thought about it, it had never been openly hostile either.

‘Should I have asked? Who are you? That would have been stupid.’

It had only hovered around her.

Never coming too close, just staying nearby.

Like a shadow...

Like Ram...

As if it was protecting her...

Why did it disappear midway?

When did it disappear?

The moment she had been in Jedrick’s arms flashed through her mind.

That was when it vanished.

Was that just a coincidence?

Or was there a connection?

And then it appeared again...

“Huh?”

Charlon opened her tightly shut eyes.

The ceiling of the tent was still there, light pouring in.

She hadn’t even realized her eyes had been closed.

She had been in complete darkness only because she had closed them, yet she had unknowingly convinced herself that the tent had become as dark as the cave.

Charlon sat up in bed.

She carefully traced back her memories.

The black figure had disappeared right after she and Jedrick had been together.

It hadn’t appeared again since.

And yet, she had convinced herself it had returned.

A sudden chill ran through her.

She shivered so violently that her teeth chattered.

She searched for a blanket but found none, so she wrapped her arms around herself instead.

It was the only way to endure the cold.

She wanted to call out.

Bring me a blanket.

Light a fire.

It’s too cold here...

If she did, the knights outside or Odel would come rushing in to grant her every request.

But she didn’t say a word.

Because she wasn’t really cold.

I’m just scared.

What am I afraid of?

The corpses?

They’re gone.

They wouldn’t come here.

They don’t move in the sunlight.

Jeje said so.

That they stopped because of the sunlight.

Charlon unwillingly recalled the moment the corpses had rushed at them.

She wanted to erase it from her memory forever, but it replayed in her mind again.

The corpses had risen and charged.

Charlon had run.

Ram had tried to protect her but had failed.

But then the corpses had suddenly stopped.

Because the morning sun had risen.

They stopped in the morning sunlight.

Because they were ghouls.

Because ghouls belonged to the night.

‘It was just a coincidence that they stopped when I told them to.’

A coincidence?

Really?

It was because of the sunlight?

Really?

If it wasn’t me who stopped them... then who did?

‘It stopped them!’

She hadn’t imagined its return.

It had appeared again.

‘That thing appeared when the ghouls were chasing us.’

The black silhouette she had seen in the darkness had been by her side.

Just as ghouls were creatures of the night, ‘it’ was a being of darkness.

But it wasn’t that it couldn’t step into the light—it simply became invisible under the sun.

The command Charlon had given hadn’t been directed at the ghouls.

She had commanded it.

And it had stopped the ghouls.

‘It wasn’t trying to harm me. It was trying to protect me!’

When the ghouls collapsed, it disappeared again.

It had left because there was no more danger.

Then why had it appeared in the cave?

That meant there had been a threat.

It had appeared because she was in danger, and when the danger passed, it vanished—only to return when danger arose again.

What was the danger?

When the Tagda tribe ambushed them?

It hadn’t shown up then.

Maybe that hadn’t been dangerous enough?

After all, Ram had managed to fight them off alone.

Instead, it had appeared when there were only four of them in the cave.

[Translator - Night]

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And it had drawn closer when she was alone with Jeje.

But when she had embraced Jeje, it had vanished.

It had appeared twice.

Once with Jeje.

Once with the ghouls.

And it had disappeared twice.

Once after she had held Jeje, and once after the ghouls had been defeated.

As Jeje was nearby, it appeared, seeing Jeje as a danger...

After embracing Jeje, it saw that Jeje was no longer a threat and disappeared.

‘It came to kill Jeje!’

After suddenly reaching that conclusion, Charlon couldn't understand how she had arrived at it.

It felt as if she had already decided on the conclusion and then pieced together various clues to fit it.

Her father had always warned against hasty conclusions.

‘If you decide to hate someone, from that moment on, you’ll only see their flaws. If you decide to like someone, you’ll only see their strengths.’

Her father had spoken from experience.

‘I believed that Born would win the war. Because everything and everyone around me only spoke of victory. But after we lost, I realized—I had ignored the voices that predicted defeat and overlooked the clues that pointed to it.’

Charlon trembled.

‘I want to believe that was a fairy who appeared to protect me.’

She checked the ceiling and looked beside her bed.

There was no black silhouette.

‘That wasn’t a fairy protecting me. If such a fairy existed, it should have protected me when I was a child. But it never did.’

Charlon curled up.

This time, it wasn’t the fear of the cave that overtook her but the fear of her childhood.

‘If such a fairy really existed, it should have protected me back in Born…’

Charlon clenched her eyes shut.

‘It should have appeared when my mother tried to kill me!’

Tears streamed from eyes that had never shed them, no matter how much pain she endured.

‘It shouldn't have stopped the ghoul—it should have stopped my mother!’

Olga’s words resurfaced one by one.

‘When the smoke rises, the four of you must share each other’s blood.’

‘Make a vow not to harm one another.’

‘Listen to the voice of the gods.’

‘Then, you will find a way to escape Tanu…’

‘There was never any such way. Olga's prophecy was all a lie. Just bait to lure us into that temple and hand us over to Tagda.’

The four of them had sworn an oath in blood.

It wasn’t exactly as Olga had described, but they had made a vow not to harm one another.

Ram had sworn to be their shadow and protect them all.

Yet nowhere in that process had they found a way to escape Tanu.

There had been no voice of the gods to guide them, no divine revelation.

‘No… Olga only said that we would find a way. She never said how we would find it.’

Charlon felt as if different voices were fighting inside her tangled mind.

’Don’t be fooled. Olga’s real goal was to lead us into that temple. That so-called prophecy was just an elaborate lie meant to trap us.’

Charlon had confirmed her love with Jedrick.

The black silhouette had retreated then.

Had that silhouette been Tanu?

Or had it been a fairy?

"It was just an evil spirit in the cave. It was just a coincidence that it disappeared then. Don’t twist that coincidence to fit Olga’s prophecy.’

Even so, she couldn't shake the lingering question.

We will find a way to escape Tanu…

‘What if we’ve already found it?’

Charlon sat up.@@novelbin@@

‘What were we expecting? For red smoke to rise and for a grand divine voice to emerge from the flames, saying, ‘To escape Tanu, you must sacrifice the heart of a living lamb’?’

She recalled the moment they had shared their blood and sworn their oaths in the cave.

As vivid as the terror of the darkness had been, the overwhelming certainty of that moment was just as clear.

They had sworn to protect one another.

They had pledged their souls never to harm each other.

It had been a promise made in total darkness, between four people not even twenty years old—yet to them, it had felt as if they were staking their entire world on it.

‘We risked everything. It wasn’t just me. In that moment, we all truly meant it. We gave everything we had. We staked our entire world on it.’

Charlon rose from the bed.

‘I have to go.’

She had known all along that she had to go.

She had known exactly where she needed to go.

She had just been looking for excuses not to.

But she had to go.

Charlon left the tent.

By chance, there was no one around.

Neither Odel nor Rusef was in sight.

A knight from Born appeared, but rather than stopping her, she could command him.

"Bring me my horse."

"What?"

"Hurry! It’s urgent!"

"…Understood. But where to?"

"I have to go to Elum Village. You may escort me if you wish."

The knight nodded and left to retrieve her horse.

While he was gone, Charlon kept walking, wanting to get as close to the village as possible.

‘We’ve already found the way.’

She was already out of breath.

The pain in her side, which had been quiet, flared up intensely.

Still, she didn’t stop walking.

She wasn’t afraid of anything anymore.

From a distance, Rusef spotted her and ran toward her.

"Charlon! Where are you going?"

Just then, the knight arrived with her horse.

Charlon pushed past him and took the reins.

She mounted the horse immediately.

The moment she landed in the saddle, pain shot through her side like it was tearing apart.

"I have to go see Olga. I need to ask her something."

Charlon said to Rusef.

"That witch? Why?"

Rusef shouted as he ran nearly to her horse’s side.

"It’s no use, Charlon. Olga is going to be burned at the stake soon."

"I’ll stop it."

Charlon spurred her horse toward the village.

Rusef didn’t stop her.

If he really wanted to, he could have grabbed the reins or blocked her path.

But doing so would have risked making her fall from the saddle, and he wouldn’t let his sister get hurt like that.

Charlon trusted that.

‘It wasn’t about making a vow to not harm each other in order to find a way to escape Tanu. That vow itself was the way to escape Tanu.’

With Charlon on its back, the horse galloped toward Elum Village.

[Translator - Night]

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