Chapter 193: Trauma

"Wait."

Ferda looked at the two people walking ahead.

"While you're checking the route, would you mind if I took a look over there?"

He pointed toward a room.

The two adventurers glanced at the room Ferda intended to inspect.

Inside were several desks and bookshelves lined with books.

Just from its overall layout, they could roughly guess what kind of room it was.

"It looks like some kind of reading room the guests used... At least there don't seem to be any traps."

After inspecting it from a distance, the adventurers exchanged glances and nodded.

"Go ahead."

"There's not much point in you coming with us right now anyway..."

They made no effort to stop Ferda from acting on his own.

In fact, it suited them just fine.

As far as they were concerned, Ferda was a complete novice adventurer. He was bound to become an unpredictable variable.

Since they were already reducing burdens, one of them turned to the Armored Knight beside them.

"Sir Knight, please accompany Regent Ferda."

Nod. Nod.

The Armored Knight obediently moved to Ferda's side.

"Wait."

'?'

Ferda spoke with a serious expression.

"Don't stand so close. I'd appreciate it if you kept a little distance."

Nod.

He looked... disappointed.

That disappointed expression sent chills down Ferda's spine.

What's with this grown man...?

"We'll be back in ten minutes."

"Very well."

Suppressing his discomfort, Ferda ignored whether the knight was beside him or not and pulled a book from one of the shelves.

His brow furrowed immediately.

'The writing is different.'

It wasn't runes, nor was it the commonly used Imperial language.

Just as expected of a land little known to the outside world, it had developed its own script.

Fortunately, Erika could read it.

Ferda spread out through the bookshelves and selected several sample books to take with him.

If even one of them contained a Mana Cultivation Method or knowledge regarding emotions, it would be a worthwhile gain.

As he searched through the room, he suddenly realized something.

"Ten minutes should have passed by now..."

The adventurers should have returned to retrieve him and the Armored Knight, yet no one had come.

'A trap to lure me away?'

His first instinct was suspicion.

'...No. That doesn't seem likely.'

Their attitude had clearly shown annoyance.

Not hostility—just the burden of having to babysit amateurs.

If this had been a trap, they would have acted much more kindly.

"In that case... perhaps they're the ones who fell into a trap."

"!!"

The Armored Knight visibly panicked.

He immediately turned toward the direction the group had gone.

"Let's go find them."

Nod!

He strode forward with obvious enthusiasm.

Ferda didn't like that enthusiasm one bit.

"Wait."

"?"

"Follow behind me. If there's magic ahead, I'll inspect it first."

Nod.

Still, the knight obediently listened, which wasn't entirely bad.

Ferda cautiously followed the group's trail.

The footprints continued in a straight line before splitting to the right.

There was no need to wonder which path to take.

A groaning sound came from the straight passage.

Following the sound, he found one of the adventurers.

"Ghhhhh..."

The man stared at something with an expression of unbearable agony.

Ferda held his breath and signaled for the Armored Knight to stop.

Advancing alone, he peered around the corner.

"I'm sorry... I never meant for this to happen... Please..."

The adventurer stared at something unseen, confessing his sins and begging for salvation.

'An illusion?'

Could a member of the Demon Race be hiding here?

A faint light flickered in Ferda's eyes.

He activated Mana Detection, intending to destroy the source of the illusion.

What he saw, however, shocked him.

'I can barely sense any magic... This isn't enough to say he's under an illusion spell.'

If magic were responsible, mana should have been surrounding his head or eyes.

Dispel that mana, and he would awaken.

Instead, the mana was simply flowing naturally from his heart and Dantian, and even then only in tiny amounts.

'Which means...'

Ferda suddenly remembered his conversations with Luri.

The past she had confessed.

Her regrets.

The pain those memories brought.

Having grasped the situation, Ferda followed the adventurer's line of sight.

But he deliberately didn't look at what the man was seeing.

Instead, he drew his staff.

"Lightning Spear."

Crackle!

A crimson spear of lightning shot toward the edge of the adventurer's gaze.

Crash!

The spell struck flesh, burrowed into it, and exploded.

Green blood and purple chunks of flesh scattered everywhere.

At the same moment, clarity returned to the adventurer's eyes.

"H-Huh...? What in the world..."

"Are you all right?"

"Huh? Ah... yes..."

"Where's the other one?"

"Th-That... More importantly, how did you get here...?"

Though his mind had returned, he was still rambling under the aftereffects.

"We don't have time. If he's fallen victim to the same thing as you, do you want to watch him die?"

"Ah! S-Sorry! I think... he went down the fork in the road before we got here!"

Ferda turned toward the Armored Knight.

'If this idiot falls under that thing's influence, it'll become an even bigger problem.'

"Armored Knight."

Nod?

"Take care of this adventurer. No matter where he points or what he tells you to look at... do not look over there."

Nod.

His replies were always reassuringly firm.

Whether that inspired confidence was another matter entirely.

Still, Ferda had no better option.

The Flint Expedition would become the starting point of everything.

They needed to demonstrate how meaningful this expedition could be.

Above all, avoiding casualties was essential.

This city had been established as the foundation for conquering the Eastern Region.

To Ferda, every survivor mattered.

He sprinted toward the place the adventurer had described.

Retracing his steps and turning at the fork, he heard another pained groan.

This one was in much worse condition.

An adventurer was embracing some grotesque lump.

Instinctively, Ferda covered his eyes.

He was already too late...

But thanks to that, he learned something.

'Simply seeing its outline doesn't seem to affect me.'

Which meant the crucial trigger behind the hypnosis lay elsewhere.

For now, rescuing the adventurer came first.

Unlike the first man, who had suffered in agony, this one wore an expression of absolute happiness.

"Sandra... I'm coming... This time, I'll stay with you... I'll never let you go again..."

Ferda could feel it.

At this very moment...

The man believed he had finally been saved.

But it was time to part.

"Lightning Bolt."

A crimson bolt of lightning flew straight ahead and struck the grotesque mass.

Crash!

Several Shadow Hands burst from Ferda's sleeve and seized the adventurer's body.

In a place devoid of all light, the power of shadows was especially strong.

They forcibly tore him away from the creature.

"Ah... Aah!!"

The man's body was covered in wounds.

Blood poured from countless cuts, yet he paid them no mind.

"Sandra...! My love! Where did you go!?"

"Pull yourself together."

"Sandra! Sandra! Let me go!"

The man struggled desperately to run back toward the creature.

Ferda forcibly dragged him backward.

"Let me go!"

The man drew a dagger and stabbed into Ferda's shadow.

"Ugh!"

Even though it was only his shadow, the pain transmitted to him vividly.

Treating the sensation as an illusion, Ferda quickly withdrew.

Everything here worked against him.

The dense demonic energy filled him with disgust.

Even brief pain created tiny openings in his concentration.

Because of that...

He accidentally looked at what the man had been staring at.

Only for an instant.

But Ferda clearly saw it.

The creature's enormous eye.

'Damn it!'

The moment he blinked—

Its form changed completely.

"...Valdrova?"

Two horns.

A breathtakingly beautiful appearance.

A healthy, feminine elegance that seemed utterly incompatible with the title of the Red Dragon.

"Why... are you here...?"

Impossible.

She couldn't be here.

She should never have been here.

And yet...

She stood before him.

"Ferda..."

Her gentle voice called to him with heartbreaking sorrow.

'I can't concentrate.'

Every time he looked at that thing, he became convinced Valdrova truly stood before him.

She should still be beneath Valdrova Castle.

He forcibly discarded emotion and clung to logic.

A hastily formed sphere of mana shot from his hand and pierced Valdrova's figure.

Pshhk!

Her head snapped violently backward.

Once the illusion shattered, it should have dispersed into its true form.

Ferda should have broken free.

But...

It didn't happen.

"Why..."

"...Are you attacking me?"

Valdrova slowly raised her head again.

Half of it had been blown away.

From her remaining eye, tears streamed endlessly.

Ferda knew that expression.

Although she was human now...

That was exactly how she had looked when she had still been a dragon.

He repeated the same words to himself over and over.

That isn't Valdrova.

"Ah... I see... I'm... no longer needed..."

That isn't Valdrova.

"Hehe... I'm sorry... I misunderstood again... I caused trouble for you again, Ferda..."

That isn't...

"Isn't this what you needed?"

Pshhk!

Valdrova...

"I'll give it to you."

She tore out her own heart...and held it out to him.

His reason collapsed.

The suffocating despair stabbed deep into his lungs.

Staggering, she slowly walked toward him.

"I..."

Despair became regret.

Regret awakened the deepest darkness within Ferda.

"I'm... sorry."

At that very moment—

Valdrova's body suddenly lurched upward.

The place where she had torn out her heart was pierced once more.

A steel gauntlet emerged there.

Clutched within it...was a massive heart.

It ripped the heart free——and crushed it.

"Ah...!"

At the peak of his regret...

Something that had bound his mind suddenly unraveled.

Ferda closed his eyes...then opened them again.

Where Valdrova had stood...

Only a grotesque lump lay sprawled on the ground.

Green blood.

Purple flesh.

Without a doubt, it was a monster.

There were two of them.

One where Ferda's mana bullet had struck.

The other where the Armored Knight had pierced it.

Slowly recalling what he had witnessed, Ferda pieced everything together.

After Valdrova's illusion had been pierced through the forehead, another monster had immediately replaced it...

Continuing the illusion.

It made the victim believe they had already killed it—

Only to survive...

And torment them even further.

Even Ferda had to admit...

It was a brilliant trick.

'So this is what Luri saw...'

No wonder she had nearly lost her mind.

There hadn't even been the slightest sign of spellcasting.

Responding with magic was nearly impossible.

One thing was certain.

They needed a countermeasure against those creatures.

But before anything else...

What Ferda needed most was stability.

"Ugh..."

His Shadow Circle spun wildly.

It was on the verge of exploding and taking his life with it.

The Armored Knight cautiously reached toward his face.

His intention was obvious.

He was worried about Ferda.

It was an act of kindness.

And that kindness...

Once again took the form of Valdrova before his eyes.

"Get away from me!"

Ferda violently slapped the hand aside.

The image of Valdrova vanished...

Revealing the Armored Knight once more.

The knight looked startled.

He slowly withdrew his hand and carefully stepped back.

A beast is at its most dangerous when its weakness is exposed.

At that moment...

Ferda was exposing his own weakness.

He couldn't allow that.

In this land of despair...

Despair made the easiest prey.

Taking a slow breath, Ferda spoke politely.

"I'm sorry... but please keep your distance."

Nod.

Though clearly reluctant, the Armored Knight seemed to understand.

He carefully hoisted the wounded adventurer onto his shoulder and took the lead.

Ferda silently followed behind him.

For some reason...

That broad back kept looking like Valdrova's.

I'm going mad...

***

Not everyone returned on time.

Remarkably, every group that had split up had encountered the exact same monster.

The group on the right—Ferda's group—had suffered the greatest damage.

"For now, let's designate this creature as 'Trauma'."

Its common trait was dragging the victim's memories to the surface and showing them hallucinations.

Those hallucinations always took the form of the person they longed for most.

"It doesn't seem possible to block its gaze with Mental Fortification Magic. My guess is that this isn't magic at all... but hypnosis."

"Hypnosis..."

"Is that possible without magic?"

"This is only a theory, but I believe it's more like a trap. The moment you look into its eyes, the trap is activated."

That was Erika's conclusion.

If the monster called Trauma had been casting hypnotic magic, there should have been a mana construct to destroy.

Breaking it should have freed the victim.

But that wasn't what had happened.

"What should we do? Should we stop splitting up and stay together?"

After witnessing such horrifying visions, anyone would have been shaken.

Yet surprisingly, none of the affected adventurers immediately suggested regrouping.

"There weren't any other traps."

"And if the greatest danger is just those things called Trauma..."

"I think we can manage as long as we're careful."

They still believed the expedition was manageable.

"In that case, we'll keep the same teams as before. This time, we'll avoid making eye contact with them as much as possible. We'll move in pairs, facing each other."

"So we'll know immediately if one of us gets caught."

"Understood."

"Then let's continue the deeper exploration. Any questions before we leave?"

No one raised a hand.

"Good. Perform your individual preparations, then we'll depart. Ten-minute break."

The members dispersed briefly to inspect their equipment.

"Captain Eri."

The one who approached Erika privately was Ferda.

"What is it?"

"I found these books where I went."

Secretly, Ferda handed her several books.

"They're written in an Eastern script. You want me to translate them?"

"Yes."

"I only memorized the meanings of the more important characters, so... let's see..."

Erika casually skimmed through the books before asking,

"Did you find all of these in the same place?"

"Yes. The same location, though they were scattered around."

"Then there's one thing they all have in common."

"What is it?"

"See this character here?"

She pointed to the same symbol appearing in every book.

"This character means love."

"Love..."

"I don't know what each book is about, but they're all related to love."

His strong intuition had guided him correctly.

This was exactly what Ferda needed.

It had to be a repository of manuals on controlling and utilizing emotions.

Places like that usually contained hidden passages...

And deeper inside...

Secret manuals were often stored.

"Then that's where we should go."

"Yes. There might even be magical artifacts there. If we can find even a clue to what you're looking for, that'll be enough. Is that all?"

"Actually... there's one more thing."

Ferda answered her question.

"Didn't you say the front group was also affected?"

"...That's right."

The ones in the front group who had fallen victim were Erika and Virgil.

Unlike the side groups, who had been rescued by others...

Erika had escaped on her own.

Just as Ferda had.

"And what exactly... did you see?"

"Do I really have to answer that?"

"You don't need to be specific. I simply want to confirm something."

Erika remained silent for a long moment before finally speaking.

"What I saw..."

"...Was the greatest mistake I've ever made."

What each person saw was different.

Yet their essence was the same.

"How did you overcome it?"

That was what Ferda truly wanted to know.

How had she escaped something so horrifying?

Erika answered as though it were simple.

"Because I realized..."

"...That I could never allow myself to repeat that mistake a second time."

For Ferda...

It was the worst possible answer.

His Shadow Circle was still spinning uncontrollably.

No...

With every passing moment...

It was growing even more violent.