Chapter 3

“Rose, you understand.”

“It’s a decision for the village, isn’t it?”

People put a wreath over my head in a beautiful dress. Decorating the sacrifices in the village where they were going to die seemed to protect their own conscience.

In the past year, a lot has happened. As an orphan, people were kind to me at first. But they soon were annoyed at me for getting food from them every time.

A poor child who lost her parents. A child of a traitor who tried to leave the village. My position in the village where I lost my father has changed like that. And I ended up being the sacrifice of the year, having no family to protect me.

“But there were some people who came to the village, what are they doing?”

While the women of the village adorned my hair, I accidentally overheard their conversations.

“You say you’re going on a trip, but now you’re ranting that you can kill the leviathan.”

“What if I just go out and fight the wrath of the monster?”

“So the new mayor seems to be trying to kick them out.”

There were countless of such people. Self-proclaimed heroes who said that they would cut the monster’s head came to our village, but each time the monster’s wrath only prevailed. Perhaps the same will go for those who came this time.

I quickly erased my thoughts about them, as I got on the boat surrounded by people. The men of the village rowed and moved to the rocky island at the sea.

With the rocky island in front of me, I hesitated to get off the boat, but that didn’t change anything. At the men’s constant urging, I reluctantly set foot on the rocky island.

Whew.

The sea water occasionally splashed on my face with the strong wind. Whether it was because of the cold or fear, my body was undoubtedly shaking, and I couldn’t even tell the difference. I never tried to fight as I was quietly tied to a pole by the villagers.

“Rose, I’m sorry.” They hurried away, leaving only one short apology and completely leaving me alone.

Without realizing it, I was watching the boat moving away from me until I turned my head. Am I really going to die? When the child died last year, I couldn’t watch the scene from afar because I was hiding in the house.

After that, the child was never seen in the village, but nevertheless, everyone just thought that the child was really dead. But the feeling that I might die like that boy, and the children before him, struck me with fear.

clack, clack.

The movement of the waves hitting the rocks was gradually increasing.

“It’s okay, I’m not scared, I’m not scared…”

I consoled myself. It’s okay, it’s not scary.

But even that didn’t go away, so I started humming. But the pitch was messed up, because of the crying that was gradually soaking in. At that moment, a voice eloped with my fearful hum. It was a man’s voice, but there was no one here except me. No, I’m positive that it’s just me.

“Who are you, who are you… … ?”

I turned to look for the person hiding on the rocky island, but couldn’t find anything. In addition, I was drenched in the wind that was getting stronger and stronger as the waves hit my body, and I forgot to even think of looking for that man anymore. I realized that it’s time for the monster to come.

The blue waters around the rocky island cast a black shadow. Shortly thereafter, as the sea water splashed up and wet my body again, Leviathan raised his head.

The fish’s dead eyes, like it was freshly caught by the sailors, met my sight. The sparkling green scales reflected the sun and that hurts my eyes. But as it drew closer, the shadows fell and the glare disappeared. Instead, the strong fishy smell of the sea wafted in my nose.

“Huh, uh…”

I clenched my teeth, but a cry escaped. Shaking uncontrollably, I managed to lift my eyelids, and my eyes met with the Leviathan again. As the monster opened its huge mouth, Along with the darkness, there was the smell of a corpse. The monster’s saliva dripped down from it’s upper teeth.

I was so stiff I couldn’t even struggle. This is an intense fear that I had never experienced before engulfed me. I didn’t want to die like this.

‘I don’t want to die, I don’t want to die, I don’t want to die!’

But even with such wind, the fangs of the monster came right up to the top of my head. It was then that I heard a hum.

It was the sound that I thought I was imagining from a while ago. The Leviathan’s jaw, which was trying to take a bite from me earlier, closed and retreated slightly. My eyes turned towards the sound of the song. A man was approaching me from afar, continuing the hum I had been singing.

I guess I hadn’t heard the sound wrongly before. I opened my eyes, which were clogged with tears, and looked at the man. He certainly looked older than me, but he wasn’t a perfect young man.

He was a boy with fine muscles.

It wasn’t a song that hits all of the notes, but it was sweet to listen to. like a nymph’s song. He’s a man with white skin and light blonde hair, almost white, who was slowly walking this way. As the beautiful man smiled, like a nymph disguised as a man, the dimples on his cheeks dented.

Wait a minute. Is he laughing?

“Ah…”

It was the moment when I was just about to feel a sense of incongruity. Leviathan ran towards the man. It only had two legs, but the monster was fast. Revealing its gigantic teeth, the Leviathan thrust his teeth into where the man is standing. It was the moment that I decided to close my eyes because I could not afford see others people’s death

White sword was impaled on the Leviathan’s green body.

Whoops!

A pure white sword pierced the Leviathan’s back. At that moment, Leviathan let out a loud cry and trembled in agony.

Naturally, the man fell after impaling the sword. But before he fell, something happened to the man’s hand. His free hand tossed a crescent shaped weapon in my. I flinched reflexively, but before I could even be terrified, the weapon that flew in and broke the string that had bound me to the pole. I’m now free!

But I couldn’t rejoice, because the man fell into the water with a ‘plop’ sound.

“oh oh oh!”

Leviathan looked around as if looking for the man. It was as if it had completely forgotten my existence. Taking the chance, I crawled into a corner and hid behind a rock.

“ha… … .”

My breath was inconsistent. I was trembling uncontrollably, probably from the fear and the cold. Carefully, I leaned my eyes behind the rock and looked at the Leviathan. Perhaps it wants to find the man, and while bleeding green blood, he turned his head in all directions and jumped into the water.

Is that man still in the water? People can’t survive long in the water… … !

I was afraid that the man who saved me would die. But due to lack of strength, I couldn’t get up and help him.

With the sound of water, a hand went up to where I was hiding. I knew that he was the only person who would come up from the water in this situation, but my body became so stiff that I could not move.

Soon, a completely wet man pushed out his upper body from the water. It didn’t look like he held his breath for a long time, considering he’s a person who had been in the water for a long time, but now it wasn’t a big deal for me.

“Hi?”

In this situation of fighting the monster, the man looked at me and smiled brightly. It was so bright that I ran out of words to say.

“Kid, are you going to just keep staring at me?”

It is clear that his voice is standing on the boundary between being a boy and an adult, and is not yet mature, but it is not offensive to my ears. On the contrary, it was a nice sound.

“Would you mind helping me?”

I came to my senses because of his words. Moving my still trembling legs, I ran to the man and grabbed the man’s arm. However, my gaze soon fell to the creature getting out of the water, and not in the man. A huge shadow appeared on the sea where the man was embracing. It was Leviathan.

“Come up quickly!” As soon as I pulled the man to the island, the Leviathan’s face with its mouth wide open rose up from the water.

“Is the night far out here?”

“If you take your time like that, you’ll be in trouble!”

Without realizing it, I yelled at the boy who saved me.

“I might die!”

“We are not going to die.”

“…”