Escape From a Deserted Island With Enemy Female Soldiers

47 – The Price of Environmental Destruction (3)

The rain had stopped.

Taking advantage of Gongbyeong looking elsewhere, I brushed the dirt off my military uniform. The static made it hard to get the debris off.

Damn it, the smell won’t go away because of the humidity.

It was then a sharp voice rang out.

[“Kids, where are you?”]

[“Where could these things have gone?”]

Looks like the dryads are after us.

We quickly hid behind a rock. The dryad group narrowly missed finding us.

[“Let’s split up and look. If you find them, let me know right away.”]

[“First one to find him gets the wizard, right?”]

Ssssk.

The dryads scattered. Moving like slithering snakes. Two of them went, leaving only one nearby.

[“Where could he be-ee?”]

The dryad hummed a little tune.

Now’s the time to ambush.

I signaled to the sapper with my hands. She nodded. She moved towards the bushes on the other side.

[“You better come out now.”]

I loaded a small stone into my slingshot pouch. I’d wait till the creature turned its back to me.

Not yet.

Not yet.

Gotta wait more.

Right now.

[“No matter how much you run, you’re trapped. Once you’re inside the barrier, you’ll never get out. You’re gonna be caught and tortured eventually, so might as well get it over with…”]

*Fwiiissh!*

The sunstone cuts through the air.

The power is pathetic, but the important thing is accuracy and speed. Once it connects, the magic stone will take care of the rest.

My prediction was correct.

*Thwack!*

The instant it hit, the dryad’s head erupted in flames.

[“aaah! Fire! It’s fire!”]

The dryad thrashed. The plan had gone a bit sideways. I’d aimed for its head on purpose, wanting to shut it up first, but it was screaming its lungs out anyway.

No use crying over spilled milk now.

Gotta finish this before support arrives.

[“Kaaargh!”]

After shifting my position, I fired two more pieces of turquoise at it. Penetration power cranked to max. The dryad’s legs were severed. It lost its balance and crashed to the ground.

[“Dammit, where the hell…!”]

I saw the engineer jump to the next thicket. I filled my lungs with air, and yelled:

“Look at me——!!”

[“There you are! You arrogant b*stard! You worship magic, yet you dare to revolt against our demon race!”]

*Thud!*

The dryad slammed its fist into the ground. Its fingers pierced through the earth.

*Ddddddd.*

I had a bad feeling about this. I reflexively threw myself to the side.

*Kuuung!*

Roots burst from the ground where I’d been standing moments before. A dozen or so of them. I’d almost been skewered.

[“…You dodged it?”]

The dryad cackled, a chilling sound. Her head was still ablaze. Her eyes had turned to ash, empty. Still, she could see me, fixing her gaze my way.

[“You’ve got good instincts. Were you some big-shot mage in the outside world?”]

The monster flicked its tongue.

[“Whatever, it doesn’t matter. You hurt me and my mother nature, so you’re going to pay. At the very least, I’ll rip your heads off….”]

The monster’s words were cut short.

*Thwack!*

A sapper, who had approached from behind, swung a hand axe, sending the dryad’s head flying. A clean strike.

The dryad’s twitching body soon went limp. Purplish blood trickled from the severed wound.

“Hoo, being charcoal seems to make them easier to cut!”

The sapper grinned, shaking off his axe. I chuckled along.

I nudged the ashen dryad’s head with my foot, feeling a round, foreign object. It was a magic stone. It had a yellowish hue.

“Resin? Or maybe amber?”

Just by the look of it, it resembled resin or amber. Either way, it would be a great help for survival.

It’s too soon to relax. After pocketing the magic stone, the sapper and I hid back in the bushes. After a while, two more dryads came back the way they came.

[“Those things dare to trick us?”]

[“Cocky b*stards. They will pay the price for destroying nature.”]

It was the same ones from before. A dozen or so monsters followed behind them. They were like a small troop.

[‘Still, their numbers have gone down from before.’]

[‘It seems there is a limit to how many a single one can lead.’]

[‘Alright, we’ll hit and run, taking them out one by one.’]

[‘No, think carefully. If one is defeated, would the rest split up and move again?’]

[‘Hmm. You might be right.’]

David was right. The dryads showed no sign of separating. They buried their dead companion, then started yelling at the top of their lungs.

[“Come out, you wretched things!”]

[“Where are you hiding? You have to be around here somewhere.”]

I handed the axe to the combat engineer and gestured. She nodded. We slowly moved away from the scene.

That’s it for today’s exploration.

*

It had to be.

“What do we do? I think we’ve come way too deep.”

No matter how much we tried to leave, we couldn’t find the path. We were actually going deeper. The proof of that was the ever-worsening cold.

I’m uneasy.

Are we really trapped on this island?

“W-what do we do? Are we not going to be able to get out of here?”

The combat engineer’s voice trembled. Darkness was falling. The temperature was dropping further, and we could hear rustling sounds all around us.

I can’t let the atmosphere get to me.

I took the combat engineer’s hand. She made a strange noise, like “eh?”

“Hold on tight so you don’t fall behind.”

“U-uh? Okay.”

Before the sun completely set, I took out a glowing stone. I squeezed out the last of my magic power and wrapped it around the magic stone. A soft light illuminated our surroundings.

“Let’s find a place to camp.”

The combat engineer holds my hand tightly.

Recognition of her as the enemy, the unpleasant feeling of her being a beastkin, all of that had long vanished. Right now, in this forest, the only ally I can trust is the combat engineer.

We walked and walked and walked. There was no place to lie down, no cave in sight. The water in our canteens was almost gone. My throat was parched. A chill wrapped around my whole body. Gong-byeong and I huddled even closer.

“M-mage.”

“What?”

“L-look, l-look at that.”

Where Gong-byeong pointed, there was a person.

Not a living person, no. It was a corpse, with one body and two heads. The eyes were empty, the nose slashed off. It hadn’t been dead long.

“…The Holy Kingdom uniform.”

“Ugh, horrible. What is that! Who the hell would do something like this….”

I scrunched my face. I could feel traces of corrupted mana coming off the man. Maybe there were castaways who reached this island before us.

How long did we walk like that?

[“Hee, hee-hee, heh.”]

An unrecognizable singing voice reached our ears.

“…A woman’s voice?”

“It’s a monster. Let’s go around.”

Gong-byeong and I slipped off the main path. That was when the voice started to form words.

[“You’ve worked hard to get here.”]

[“You’ve suffered!”]

*Chaaar-lak.*

A sound of something striking and dragging on the ground. At the same time, bright particles started floating one by one around us.

“Holy magic?”

No, no way.

This is light infused with mana. Whether it’s fire-based magic, or the use of a luminescent magic stone, this is the work of someone who knows magic.

Finally, the owner of the Whispering revealed.

[“Welcome!”]

[“To our hideout.”]

They were two female entities completely covered in plants. One had large breasts, the other had wide hips.

The two entities embraced each other, watching us.

[“We have new test subjects! Don’t we, Ne?”]

[“Of course, Al.”]

The one with large breasts is ‘Al’, the one with wide hips is ‘Ne’, huh?

So this must be the ‘Alraune’ the dryads were talking about?

[“A filthy beastman and a cunning mage!”]

[“Both are subject to disposal. But…”]

[“Both are interesting. A child with two souls, and a human mage who’s reached the level of being able to perform a sacrifice. Plus, if the mage’s body had enough mana, he could have even reached ‘surgery’?”]

[“Al, you’re going too far.”]

[“Yeah, yeah. There’s no ‘what if’. Still, it’s a shame, isn’t it? If he reached the level of a surgeon, we’d be nothing to him.”]

The two monsters chuckled and looked at me. I opened my mouth.

[“Who are you?”]

[“We are the forest keepers of this island. Beings who inflict severe punishment on those who destroy nature.”]

[“Of course, with bodies like this, we can’t go very far.”]

The monster’s main body was stuck to the ground like an old tree.

[“So normally, you release sentries to patrol the forest.”]

[“Our lovely familiars, they are.”]

[“Those kids said so? That you guys are wrecking this forest to hell.”]

[“How dare you take scissors to our precious nest.”]

[“The flower garden given to us by *Her*……”]

[“Don’t you *dare* ruin it——!!”]

The two monsters simultaneously pulled out vines. One from their chest cleavage, the other from behind their pelvis. Rose whips, thorny.

[“Dryad, those kids didn’t do their job properly. I told them to capture them, but they ended up getting played around with pathetically!”]

[“Al, there was no need to be so hasty. Anyway, as long as they don’t surpass us, they can’t escape this island.”]

I was sure.

These monsters were Alraunes.

If I killed the ones in front of me and got their magic stones, I could move on to the next island.

“U-uh, they look like super strong monsters….”

I placed a hand on the head of the trembling conscript. He seemed to have sensed their strength through some animal instinct.

But so what?

There are some fights you can’t avoid.

*

Rachel and Tyria returned with food. They’d had a very successful hunt, so tonight there would be a generous meat feast.

However, Liyo and Erich didn’t return, even late into the night.

“Colonel…”

“I know.”

Tiria chewed nervously on her fingernails.

“Maybe… maybe it’s just taking him a little longer to come back.”

“But that mage isn’t stupid enough to miscalculate time.”

“Still, you never know. Something unexpected could have happened…”

Unexpected variables.

Like, for example, he could have been attacked and killed by monsters.

It was Rachel who first considered that possibility. The image of Erich’s corpse flashed in her mind. A cold shiver ran down her spine.

Why?

Wouldn’t it be a good thing if the mage died?

Even as she thought that, she found herself questioning it.

The enemy of her friends. How hollow would it feel if he didn’t die by her own hand? She didn’t want to end their bitter connection without having her revenge.

“Colonel.”

Rachel lifted her head. The full moon had climbed high in the sky.

“I think we need to make a decision.”

“You’re saying we should go into the forest?”

“Yes.”

“It could be dangerous.”

“The two of them could be in even greater danger.”

Tiria watched. The way Rachel’s eyes wavered, like a candle flame in the wind.

“I… I don’t want to keep losing things anymore.”

“Even if it’s that magic-user, besides Lio Sergeant?”

“Yes. Even if he’s an enemy right now… No. I misspoke.”

Rachel shook her head.

“…He’s my nemesis. My sworn enemy. That’s why I don’t want him dying by anyone else’s hand.”

Tiria sighed.

“Going into that monster-infested forest at night is practically suicide. You know what I mean, right?”

“Understood.”

Rachel picked up her spear and grabbed the lumistone. There wasn’t a single thing she hadn’t received from that magic-user.

A halo flashed over Tiria’s head as she recited the incantation. She drew her baculus, adding quietly,

“Major, you protect me. I’ll follow the magic-user’s trail.”

Truthfully, Tiria had only been testing Rachel.

She had planned to enter the forest from the start.

No matter where he was, she would find him.