Doggone Academy

The old woman’s joints cracked audibly, her movements eerie like a marionette.

Damian subtly shielded Vivi behind his back.

Suddenly, the old woman lunged at Damian as if trying to throttle him.

Damian twisted his body, gripped Vivi by the waist, and dodged to the left while swinging his wooden sword.

Swish!

The decaying body of the crone was cleaved in two, its halves flying off in a diagonal line due to inertia.

Damian turned to face the severed remains of the old woman, taking a combat stance.

As expected, the old woman’s body, split between torso and legs, floated in the air, clearly manipulated by some unknown magic.

She clapped mockingly, her tongue flicking out.

“Ugh… such a waste to kill here. Look at those luscious lips. If I were just a bit younger, I would have nursed him myself.”

“There’s nothing in my stomach, yet something is coming up.”

“Aww, don’t be frightened, my little one.”

Damian pulled out a potion bottle and drank it down in one go.

Despite the horrifying situation, he maintained his composure, which Vivi could feel against her body pressed to his back. He was not trembling at all.

“Be careful…”

“Get away from me.”

Without hesitation, Damian cut the rope binding them and nudged Vivi away with the tip of his finger.

In this situation, Vivi knew she was only a hindrance and stepped back willingly.

A flock of crows descended upon the old woman, each carrying a staff adorned with a skull.

The crone took the staff and began to chant a strange incantation. Black smoke started to billow from the skulls’ mouths.

The smoke swirled into a sphere, enveloping the crone and gradually growing in size.

Damian scanned the area.

From the thicket behind the old woman, ghouls began to emerge, following her into the sphere of black smoke.

The sphere expanded, seeming to erode the area around it.

“Come here, my child.”

Suddenly, from behind Vivi, the old woman’s voice was heard.

Turning around, Vivi saw the crone had approached her, attempting to lay hands on her body.

Vivi screamed reflexively.

“Kyah!”

“…!”

Damian quickly pulled Vivi back and slashed at the crone with his sword. Upon contact, the body turned into black smoke and dispersed.

The old woman’s laughter echoed from the void.

“Ahahahah!”

Then, a voice sounded from the side.

“Ooh, what a lovely pair.”

Damian turned, but there was nothing there.

“Such a prince to watch over her, how could she be more blessed?”

Now the voice came from behind. It was coming from all directions.

“But my dear, don’t be fooled. Women are naturally cunning creatures.”

“Giggle, do you think a wench would offer her purity to you just because you sacrifice your life for her?”

“For one girl, mountains of knights have died. Your dead body will hardly be noticed.”

“Your sacrifice will be remembered but for a moment. Soon she will forget and offer herself to a prince from a neighboring land. That’s the filthy nature deep within all women.”

Vivi’s expression contorted.

“While you barely cling to life with your mangled body and a soldier’s pension, that wench will be partying with a prince.”

Vivi shouted.

“Shut up!”

“Aww… See how she flares up when her true nature is exposed.”

The black smoke grew larger, slowly engulfing Damian and Vivi until they were trapped once again in a dark enclosed space.

“Stay close to me now.”

“…Alright.”

The provocations from the old woman continued.

“It was the knights of the duchy who ruined my life. I tended to a knight who had lost his way and collapsed, but when he came to, he crushed my poor brother’s head like a dented pot and then he raped me.”

“….”

Whether true or not, the story was repulsive just to hear.

“The scions of the duchy deserve this fate. That girl will abandon you. You can trust my words, my dear.”

Vivi was more shaken by the taunts than Damian was.

Up until now, Damian had fully proven his faith in the Lady with his actions, but Vivi had proved nothing to Damian.

The crone had watched their interactions and cunningly found a breach in their relationship.

She had nothing to do now, just muttering words.

She wanted to show her faith that she would not leave Damian after everything was over.

With trembling resolve, Vivi reached out to place her hand over Damian’s left one.

However, Damian suddenly moved, and her attempt failed.

Damian whirled and slashed with his sword.

Whoosh!

A ghoul that had leaped out from the smoke was cut in two by his blade.

“Ahahah! The sight of you cowering like a scared little mouse is adorable.”

Damian pushed Vivi aside quickly, and another ghoul that had charged at her previous spot was also dispatched, its snout pierced by his sword.

“I could play this hide-and-seek all night.”

The crone cackled mockingly.

Then, suddenly appearing next to Vivi, she tried to scratch her.

Damian reacted swiftly, severing one hand, but he couldn’t stop the other from leaving deep claw marks on his forearm.

“…”

When Damian thrust his wooden sword into her belly, the crone turned to smoke and vanished again.

They were being completely toyed with. This was magic like nothing they had seen or heard of before. There seemed to be no way to counter it.

“The master of this land has already awakened. The disaster has begun, and the end is already set.”

Then Damian whispered to Vivi.

“Do you feel anything?”

“Feel something?”

“There must not be an immortal being. It seems like a main body hiding and controlling the crone’s corpse and ghouls.”

“That must be it. But what do you mean ‘feel something’?”

“I don’t know. Anything suspicious will do.”

Another ghoul attacked unexpectedly, but it was repelled by Damian’s blade.

Vivi closed her eyes, trusting Damian, and focused on any odd sensation around them.

No source of magic that could be the main body was felt.

“…There’s something.”

“What is it?”

“Suddenly… it appeared again. The mass of formless magic that flickers before us.”

“Where is it?”

“It’s near us… and it’s moving. Very slowly…”

Vivi pointed in a direction and moved her arm to indicate the path it was taking.

Damian’s gaze followed her hand.

“We need to follow it.”

“That’s… right.”

As Damian moved in that direction, the frequency of ghoul attacks increased, as if resisting.

The crone suddenly fell silent. Usually, she would have clapped and mocked them at any lull.

Now, even Damian began to see the blue stag.

He too was visibly perplexed by the sudden appearance of the blue stag.

A faint blue light emanated from beyond the black smoke.

And then it halted abruptly, pointing towards something.

The flow of the black smoke subtly changed in one area. Damian, thanks to the griffon potion, was sensitive enough to detect it.

Without hesitation, he threw his wooden sword.

Immediately after, it pierced something.

“Scream!”

At the same time, a chilling scream reverberated.

Damian grabbed Vivi’s wrist and hurried towards the source of the sound.

The black smoke, having lost its center, began to disperse.

Where they arrived, an old woman with an oily face and a belly that jiggled with excess fat clutched at her chest, writhing in pain. Her face matched that of the priestess they had seen, and a skull staff lay on the ground nearby.

The pitiable and starved appearance was also a ruse. The crone was one of the most well-fed among Barvisia’s settlers.

Damian’s wooden sword had pierced her chest precisely. The crone seemed unable to comprehend how this had happened.

“How… how did you…?”

Damian taunted.

“If you were going to deceive, you should have held your breath.”

“The master of this land… will soon…”

Before she could finish her sentence, the crone collapsed and moved no more.

The black smoke had almost completely dissipated. Damian, still wary of ghouls, placed his hand on the pocket where he kept his bombs and surveyed the surroundings.

The ghouls had fled, and no enemies remained.

Vivi quickly assessed the situation and examined Damian’s wound.

“You’re bleeding. Are you alright?”

“I’m used to seeing blood. But…”

Damian started to say something but grabbed his head and staggered.

Vivi, startled, embraced him with her entire body to keep him upright.

“What’s happening!”

Then she noticed Damian’s body was burning up.

“It seems there was poison on the nails.”

“Do you know how to detoxify it?”

“There’s no way to know what poison it is. And my healing potion works only on external wounds… it has no antidote effect.”

Vivi’s face paled.

“We have to find a way. I had an alchemist among my guards; we can capture him and…”

“It’s too dangerous.”

“…”

“We must move. This place is too exposed.”

***

Fortunately, they found a solid path in the swamp, worn down by human footsteps. Vivi and Damian followed it, wary of contracting further infection by venturing into the swamp.

“There’s a village! There’s a village ahead.”

An abandoned village that looked at least a decade old came into view. In their urgent situation, they couldn’t be choosy about where to rest.

Vivi led Damian into the most intact house she could find and laid him down.

“I’ll go find something useful.”

Exhausted, Damian did not respond.

Vivi searched the empty houses for anything usable. She managed to find a pot and some bowls that seemed in good condition. While gathering books to use as fuel, she came across a notebook with recipes for homemade medicine and her eyes widened.

Flipping through the notebook, she checked the recipes and searched for a poison that matched Damian’s symptoms.

The wound turned green and symptoms of a high fever developed.

On Gorondis arrow poison and its antidote…

When she found a recipe for the corresponding antidote, her face lit up.

“Heaven is on our side.”

She memorized the necessary ingredients and rushed back to Damian. He struggled to rise, but Vivi forced him back down.

“Stay here. I’ll be back soon with some herbs.”

Damian responded, his consciousness fading.

“…It’s not safe.”

Vivi insisted.

“If you die, I die too. We can’t be worrying about danger now.”

“…It’s not safe.”

Reaching his limit, Damian then lost consciousness. It pained Vivi to see him like that.

She propped his body against the wall and laid him down straight.

Rolling up her sleeves, Vivi stepped outside.

By the time she returned with the herbs, dusk had nearly fallen.

Her legs and forearms were a mess, covered in mud and bug bites. Yet with her mind so occupied, she had no time to clean herself up.

Damian was still unconscious.

“Just a little longer…”

She started a fire for the decoction and set water to boil. The recipe was relatively simple, and she tended to Damian while the herbs steeped.

Damian remained still, soaked in sweat.

Vivi fetched abandoned cloth from the village, boiled it, and removed his shirt to wipe the sweat.

“…….”

She was struck silent by the scars of his past etched on his body.

How could all this have happened to the body of a teenage boy?

She ran her fingers over his abdomen. The rough texture confirmed they were real scars.

She could only imagine the unimaginable pain he must have endured to become so hardened.

Damian mumbled incoherently, seemingly out of his right mind.

“I will… protect you…”

Vivi placed her hand on Damian’s cheek and stroked it gently. Was he seeing phantoms? A surge of emotion welled up inside her. The man who had always been so strong and unshakable now seemed pitifully vulnerable.

Then Damian uttered a name.

“I’ll protect you… Liza…”

“…Liza?”