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HELHEIM SCANS
[Translator - Night]
[Proofreader - Gun]
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Chapter 131
At that moment, one of the cadets turned pale and screamed.
“……”
“I heard a voice calling for help… begging to be saved… so I rushed in, but… that…”
“Leon… Leon… where is my son…?”
As if trying to lure me in, the voice called out, and I slowly walked toward it.
“I-Instructor, you mustn’t!”
“If you get any closer, it’ll be dangerous! Even Her Highness fell victim to that thing…!”
The panicked cadets clung to my arms, screaming in terror.
“That… that thing!!”
“Damn it! How is he so strong?!”
Even as they held onto me, the cadets found themselves being dragged forward, their faces filled with shock.
Eventually, I reached the massive tree where the voice had come from.
“Eek?!”
At the same time, the cadets caught sight of something and collapsed to the ground, their faces drained of all color.
The first thing I saw was a pair of grotesque, blood-red eyes and a mouth stretched unnaturally wide.
Inside the crimson maw were countless razor-sharp teeth, just looking at them sent chills down my spine.
What was even more horrifying was that while the creature’s face was human, every other part of its body was covered in pure white fur.
From a distance, it looked like its long, white hair was supporting its head in an eerie manner.
At first glance, it resembled something straight out of a horror movie from my previous life—bizarre and spine-chilling.
The first time I saw it, I was so shocked.
[Entity confirmed: Faker Voice.]
Yeah, I know.
A Jangsan Tiger wannabe.
This bastard is doing the same thing here as it did in Labyrinthos.
Back then, it called out pitifully, calling me an older brother.
Faker Voice tilted its head upon spotting me and grinned.
“Haaah!!”
Ignoring the cadets’ terrified screams, I walked toward it as if entranced.
“Damn it! He’s already been possessed, just like Her Highness!”
“Run!!”
The creature’s long, white fur slithered toward me, wrapping around my entire body.
At the same time, its mouth stretched open even wider, preparing to swallow me whole.
“You little shit… Whose voice do you think you’re imitating?”
In an instant, I grabbed Faker Voice by the head and slammed it into the tree.
BOOM!!!
Crackle…
“Are you insane?”
BANG!!!
“Who do you think you are?”
BANG!
“You bastard.”
BANG!!!
“You dare imitate my mother’s voice?”
KABOOM!!!
With a thunderous crash, I drove its head into the tree several more times.
BANG!! BANG!! BANG!!
Its white fur constricted around me, trying to stop my movements, but it was useless.
Each time I slammed its head, a massive shockwave erupted.
And the cadets watched my actions, frozen in place.
* * *
The cadets were completely frozen, watching the spectacle unfold before them.
“……”
A creature of terror—one so horrifying that just looking at it was enough to break their minds—was now being brutally smashed into a tree, letting out tortured screams.
How was this happening?
This thing had been invincible just moments ago.
To the cadets, Leon was an irritating figure.
Professor Rommel had brought him in from outside, and as a result, he had interfered with their test.
He had stubbornly prevented them from entering the inner area, even though there was no official academy directive against it.
Some had even suspected that he was obstructing them to cheat.
While Princess Eilena’s intervention had silenced their complaints, their resentment hadn’t disappeared.
Once Leon left, they had vented their frustrations.
“Who does he think he is, telling us what to do?”
“Seriously, does this even make sense? This is an abuse of authority!”
Even as they grumbled, Princess Eilena closed her eyes and pondered for a moment before calming them down.
“He doesn’t seem like the type to obstruct us just for the sake of it.”
“Your Highness…”
“Let’s find another way. If we adjust our route now, we can still make it in time…”
Just as she was about to persuade them—
A desperate cry for help echoed from beyond the forest, the very place Leon had warned them not to enter.
“H-Help… Someone… please help me…”
Hearing the almost dying voice, Princess Eilena and the cadets felt a chilling sensation crawl up their spines.
The source of the sound came from the forest Leon had forbidden them from entering.
But someone was in there, begging for help?
A horrifying theory took shape in their minds.
Leon—the instructor—had harmed someone inside and was trying to cover it up.
That’s why he had stopped them.
“Did you hear that?”
“Yes, I did.”
The cadets nodded, and Princess Eilena immediately stood up, her face cold as she grabbed her sword.
“Everyone! We’re moving in, now!”
There was no time for hesitation.
No one here was heartless enough to ignore a dying person’s plea.
But they shouldn’t have done it.
In the end, they ignored Leon’s warning and entered the forest.
And there, they saw it.
The horrifying, pale-white creature mimicking the dying cries of a human.
Hiding behind the trees, it perfectly imitated a person’s last moments with eerie precision.
When the first squad finally laid eyes on that ghastly, monstrous being, an overwhelming sense of dread washed over them.
Even the bravest of men would have felt their hearts drop, let alone a group of young, inexperienced cadets.
* * *
“That’s what happened…”
“There’s no need to ask what happened afterward.”
“……”
The cadets clamped their mouths shut and lowered their heads, their hands trembling slightly.
Their gazes shifted toward my hands.
They were stained with a deep red liquid—presumably the blood of the Faker Voice.
To put it simply, the Faker Voice was completely beaten to a pulp.
But it didn’t die.
Killing that thing was notoriously difficult in the first place.
The creature, having been reduced to a battered mess in my grasp, had scattered like a bundle of white fur drifting away.
It was likely lurking somewhere, waiting for another opportunity.
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HELHEIM SCANS
[Translator - Night]
[Proofreader - Gun]
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For the cadets, the mere existence of that monster seemed to have left a deep trauma, filling them with fear.
“So, what happened to the princess?”
“Well… Unlike us, as soon as she encountered that monster, she suddenly lowered her head and…”
“She walked deeper into the forest?”
“……”
A moment of silence passed before someone cautiously spoke up.
“Uh… but is that monster really dead?”
They were struggling to overcome their fear.
“No, it’s still alive.”
“What the hell is that thing? I’ve never seen—never even heard of something like it…”
“It’s called a Faker Voice. It mimics the voice of those it has devoured or reads the memories of those it sees, imitating someone connected to them.”
That’s how it had been able to hide so easily, perfectly imitating human speech.
“There’s no record of such a creature even existing…”
“That’s because it rarely shows itself. And once it marks something as prey, it never lets go.”
At those words, the cadets’ faces turned pale.
After all, they had already been targeted as its prey.
“W-What do we do now?! If that thing got away, there’s no guarantee it won’t come after us again…”
“W-What about Her Highness?! The princess… what will happen to her?”
“She’s been entranced. Most likely, she walked straight into its lair of her own accord. If she hadn’t been there, all of you would’ve been the ones to lose your minds and crawl toward it.”
Their faces turned grim at my words.
No one spoke.
They had realized that none of this would have happened if they had just listened to my warnings and stayed out of this danger zone.
“I’ve got the gist of the situation. You all need to leave—immediately.”
“B-But what about Her Highness…?”
“I’ll bring her back. Just get out of here.”
As I summoned the phantom horses, the cadets flinched in fear.
But after a quick explanation of the situation, they hurriedly climbed onto their mounts.
“Remember this.”
“……”
“This is what the Demon Realm is like. If someone tells you something is dangerous, there’s always a reason.”
“…Understood.”
They nodded weakly as I sent them off on the phantom horses.
Undead creatures summoned by the Faker Voice filled the forest, but the speed and agility of the phantom horses made them impossible to catch.
Besides, Muyeong and the other spirits were clearing the way ahead.
Now, the only one left was Eilena Lu Pascallia.
The princess who had completely succumbed to the Faker Voice’s illusion.
I didn’t need to ask why she acted the way she did.
She was bewitched.
At this very moment, she was likely running madly toward the Faker Voice’s nest, completely entranced and unaware of herself.
* * *
Her mind was hazy.
It felt as though someone was pulling her forward, calling out to her in a dreamlike trance.
Slowly, Eilena opened her eyes.
The darkness surrounding her was not the mere shadows of a black forest.
It was a suffocating abyss where direction itself ceased to exist.
As a cold breeze swept over her, a strange thread-like sensation coiled around her hands and feet.
A shiver of horror crawled up her spine.
“Kyaaah?! W-What is this?!”
That was when she realized that her arms and legs were tightly bound by thread-like strands.
She frantically tried to summon her aura to break free, but the threads only tightened, as if they were alive, ensnaring her even further.
And then, not long after, a pair of eerie red eyes emerged from the darkness.
An overwhelming fear gripped her entire being.
But something was strange.
The creature had looked monstrous even before she lost consciousness.
Yet now… it was somehow even more twisted.
Like a wounded beast in agony, it staggered toward her, its blood-red eyes striking terror into her soul.
Just then, a crimson light spread through the surroundings, slightly parting the abyss.
And at that moment, a scene of sheer horror, something straight out of hell itself, burned into her mind.
A monster?
A beast?
What even was this place?
Born into nobility, she had rarely experienced true fear.
Even when she had been injured during duels at the academy or faced monsters for the first time, she had always been able to endure.
But this was different.
This was an entirely different level of terror.
Not just the fear of death, but something primal—cold and suffocating—was devouring her whole.
She had always prided herself on being emotionally composed.
Even when members of the royal family died, even when Prince Dorn—who had treated her kindly in her childhood—recently passed away, she had felt sorrow, but never let her emotions consume her.
But during this trial, that composure had already shattered twice.
First, when she met Leon and let out an uncharacteristically cute scream before collapsing to the ground.
And now, again.
But this time…
It had utterly surpassed the limits of her emotional endurance.
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HELHEIM SCANS
[Translator - Night]
[Proofreader - Gun]
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