Chapter 70: Troublemaker

According to the map there should be a flower field in front of the trees, but there weren’t even any weeds growing let alone flowers. The ground was bulging from the roots of the surrounding trees making it difficult to walk on, and there wasn’t a trace of the said flower field, rather the atmosphere itself felt eerie.

「Why……the map」

Did we make a mistake?
Thinking that, I hurriedly check the map, but the route to this point was practically a single path so there shouldn’t be any mistakes. The only part was just the single left turn we made.
We should’ve been progressing exactly according to the map.

「……Is the map perhaps wrong?」

It wasn’t an impossible thing. Judging from the appearance the map was handmade, likely from the students in my grade. In other words, mere children who only recently started attending middle school.
Even if a teacher checked the map, he could’ve just thought that all the other maps were just copied from the one he checked.

「Sashia-sama, this map──」

「……Eh, ah……what?」

In response to my voice Sashia’s shoulders started to shake and his expression was stiff to the point where it could no longer be concealed. Even the corners of his mouth were barely in a smile and his eyes were widen.
The fear was no longer being concealed.

「Let’s head back, the route, or perhaps the map was wrong…….but I think it should be fine if we head back the way we came」

「Ah……yes, that’s right.

He exhaled a sigh of relief to my words. On the other hand, as a person who knew his inner turmoil I felt troubled.
I’m sorry but I can’t really do anything about it so there’s not much I can comfort you on, right now the best course of action would be to return to the hotel as soon as possible.
It would be nice if he could also regain his composure before we return but…

I turned my back on the weirdly shaped trees and began walking back towards the way we came……or I should have.

「Eh──」

Before I could begin walking, I heard a sound coming from behind me. In front of me Sashia looked surprised and his eyes widened even more, on reflex I looked behind me……and I instantly regretted it.

A dark figure. It had arms and legs, but only three fingers. The body was covered in something resembling fur and flowed about even though there wasn’t any wind. There were no eyes. And no nose. But there was a mouth that was slightly opened, and I could see sharp white fangs inside of it.

If I were to compare it to something it looked like some sort of huge lizard creature.
A pitch black face with only a mouth was facing straight towards me. Even without any eyes my instincts warned me that it could still clearly see me.

It wasn’t a human. I wonder if I could even call it an animal.
I didn’t know what it was since this was the first time I’ve ever seen it in my life, but I knew of a general term.

「Dem-..on……?」

There are places that are slightly different from a typical textbook description, but I could tell it was definitely no pet. It was neither cute nor beautiful, it’s dominating presence was also quite different from that of a lion.
As if it were breathing or pulsating, its body throbbed at regular intervals and glowed darkly, the ominous feeling brought forth a chilling atmosphere.

「Why is it here……!」

This place was within the training camp, and since the forest was being used for the test of courage it should be an area where safety was guaranteed.
But we were also off our original planned route. I didn’t want to acknowledge that we had stepped out of that guaranteed safety without knowing, I didn’t want to re-acknowledge the importance of such a guaranteed safety in a place like this.

「Maria-san, over here……」

「W-……」

The demon’s gaze…… it’s hard to tell since there is no eyes, but going from the trajectory of its gaze there is no mistake.
Don’t turn your back to it, don’t make any sudden movements, and slowly retreat while maintaining eye-contact, these were the steps one was suppose to take when encountering a bear. Regardless of whether it would work in this situation, I still knew that recklessly running away at full speed wasn’t a good idea.

The defensive barrier should still be working properly, but it’s likely I stepped out of it by mistake, this was no laughing matter.
I began slowly and gradually retreating backwards while maintaining eye-contact.
But in that tense moment, I unconsciously remembered something. From a long time ago, something my mother said.
Look forward properly while walking. Don’t look around.

「Ah..…..!」

Because you trip quite often.

Every time I ran around playing with Keito, fell over, or ended up with a bruise, my mother would always anxiously tell me this. I thought that it would be more relaxing to play around like a child but the plan ended up backfiring, so I began to act more carefully like I was told.

But I ended up forgetting about it until this moment, was the timing good or bad?
I was walking backwards without confirming what was beneath me and the moment I remembered my foot was caught by an unearthed tree root.

The fact that I instinctively reached back my hand to stop myself meant my reflexes appeared to be properly working.
The problem was that there was nothing beneath my outstretched hand.

「Hu──!?」

While one hand properly felt the ground beneath me the other hand met empty air.
My body which had its balance thrown off couldn’t resist the force of gravity and easily fell backwards through the trees and into open air before I even realized.

「Wai-, no……!!」

Just what is going on, how did this happen?
I unconsciously reached out my hand to grab something and before I could fully comprehend what was happening, my thoughts had come to a complete stop.