The Original Work Got Ruined After I Quit Being the Sub Male 28

Chapter 28

Meanwhile.

In the place where the startled horses had run off somewhere and disappeared after the carriage was half-destroyed.

The coachman and porter, who remained just the two of them, took care of each other first before setting out to search for the young noble masters and miss.

They were… deathly pale.

Since the terrain around here was rugged with steep slopes, it would be difficult to search if they had fallen deep below, and if they failed to find the noble children alive, returning would inevitably mean death by execution.

Fortunately, they found one person before the night deepened further.

It was Riette, who had been unconscious after getting caught on a thick tree branch extending downward and not falling further below.

“Oh my, miss!”

The two men joined forces to rescue her. After a while, Riette opened her eyes and sat up abruptly, then grabbed her dizzy head.

“Ugh, ah… my head.”

“Gasp, are you alright? You mustn’t overexert yourself!”

“Where is this… Ah! What about Eddie and Cedy?”

“Ah, we haven’t found them yet.”

“The carriage… what on earth happened?”

“Miss, please calm down for now…”

“You need to explain exactly what happened.”

“Well…”

Riette glared with a rarely seen angry, hardened face. The coachman and porter glanced at each other for a moment, then began telling the detailed circumstances of what had happened and how things came to be.

“I was… definitely looking carefully to see if there were any monsters nearby or not. There were no monsters. But suddenly something shining appeared with a flash right in front of us! I was so startled that I pulled the reins…”

“So the carriage tilted toward the cliff like that.”

“Ah, miss…”

The coachman hung his head while sniffling. He seemed terrified that Riette might make a big issue of this incident.

“…Eddie and Cedy still haven’t been found either.”

“Miss, we will definitely find them!”

“Yes, yes! We’ll find them even if it costs us our lives!”

“……”

Riette sighed with a complicated expression. If only she had been harmed in this incident, she would have generously brushed it off and moved on.

But hearing that Edgar and Cedric were still missing made her blood boil.

‘Finding those two is the priority right now.’

Honestly, she wasn’t too worried about Cedric. Riette knew well how strong Cedric was.

If she had to pick something to worry about, it would be that Cedric’s rut period happened to fall right now. She wondered if he had his medication properly with him.

‘Fortunately, forests like this have quite a lot of herbs with pheromone-calming components scattered around… so it won’t escalate to the level of losing his reason.’

If he really lost his reason, the rut of an ‘alpha without an imprinted partner’ was dangerous enough to pounce on anything in sight, but rather, a forest with herbs scattered around like this should be fine.

The biggest problem right now was Edgar.

Unlike Riette and Cedric, who had talent for learning everything through direct physical experience and using their bodies, Edgar was more of the type who excelled at handling music and drawing.

Conversely, you could say he didn’t have much talent for swordsmanship or physical activities. He was a friend to worry about no matter where you left him.

Moreover, since the sun had already set… the time when monsters began moving in earnest was approaching.

“What should I do, Eddie…”

Riette, tormented by anxious and impatient feelings, grabbed her hair with both hands as if tearing it out while muttering quietly.

But she soon gathered her restless heart.

Even during this time, Edgar might be wandering through the forest. She had to rescue him quickly.

‘I can’t afford to be weak.’

As Riette, who had firmly steeled her resolve, jumped up, the coachman and porter flailed their hands in panic.

She urged them to get up quickly and look for the two people, then looked down from the nearby cliff first.

There she discovered traces of the half-destroyed carriage scattered in spots.

“Can’t we go straight down from here?”

“Hmm. It would be better to find a separate path down. If we’re not careful, we’ll get lost too. In the worst case, if we go down recklessly and can’t find our way back, we’ll all be in big trouble.”

It wasn’t wrong.

Riette was letting out a small sigh when it happened.

‘Huh?’

That’s when she discovered a familiar sword lying on a rocky ledge jutting out below the cliff, with its strap broken.

It was the sword Cedric always carried.

Riette, who retrieved the sword with help from the coachman and porter, retied the broken strap and fastened it to her waist.

At least it was fortunate to find a weapon.

‘Come to think of it…’

The coachman’s earlier statement came to mind. Riette turned to look at the coachman and porter following behind her.

“What was that story from earlier? You said something flashed.”

“We don’t really know either. It was too small. Um, it did look like a living creature with flapping wings.”

“We heard some whispering sounds too…”

Riette, who was walking around looking for a way down, tilted her head at their testimony. Even if they had seen an illusion, it was testimony that didn’t make enough sense to believe.

“This isn’t a story you made up to make excuses, is it?”

“Ah, miss! Of course not! We’re innocent!”

The coachman and porter… especially the coachman, who should be most afraid if things went wrong, cried out in terror. At that sight, Riette was pursing her lips in a straight line and casting suspicious glances when it happened.

Suddenly, the porter, who had shifted his gaze beyond Riette’s shoulder, seemed to discover something and greatly startled, grabbing the coachman’s collar.

“Ah, ah, ah, miss!”

Following suit, the coachman also turned pale and pointed with his finger at what was in front of Riette.

“That, that’s it! Flash! That was it!”

Only then did Riette startle and turn to face forward while placing her hand on her sword hilt. Three or four small clusters of light were floating in the air.

Soon something like a melody came riding on the wind from somewhere. Riette recalled that the coachman and porter had said they heard whispering-like sounds.

“Sp, spirits! They must be spirits!”

The coachman and porter clung to each other trembling.

But Riette’s thoughts were a bit different.

She first calmed her startled heart, then approached the lights that were clearly swimming through the air with purposeful movements.

Looking closely up close, they were flapping two pairs of transparent wings. The outline of their appearance was also similar to humans. Soon the light that had approached Riette closely whispered again.

[Please help us.]

Only then did Riette realize their identity.

‘These are… spirits, aren’t they?’

Her eyes widened in surprise.

[Please help us.]

The spirits whispered again in soft, beautiful voices. Riette, who had come to her senses, carefully asked back.

“Help you? What do you mean?”

“…Miss?”

The coachman and porter called her from behind as if anxious. Since the spirits’ voices were too small for them to hear, it must have looked like she was talking to herself.

While Riette briefly looked back at the two men, the spirits surrounded Riette, who was listening to their story, and began chattering.

[There’s a problem with the tree that bears the Spirit King.]

[If things continue like this, he’ll die before even being born.]

[It’s a giant tree, so even monsters can’t do anything about it.]

[We need human power to forcibly extract him.]

She could feel emotions of fear overflowing from them.

‘The king of spirits, huh.’

It seemed that the reason monsters in this area had been sensitive recently was because it was time for their king to be born. Riette pondered in sympathy, but… the answer was already decided.

“We also have people we urgently need to find.”

[……]

“I’d like to help, but it’s an urgent situation.”

It was a gentle refusal.

Soon Riette tried to step past the speechless spirits. The spirits blocked her path again.

[We can’t do anything by ourselves.]

[We need human help.]

[If you don’t help us, we won’t let you pass!]

So Riette also got slightly annoyed. Actually, thinking about it, weren’t these guys also the culprits who caused the accident?

Riette furrowed her brow.

“If I help you, what will you do for me?”

[……]

“We had an accident because of you, and our precious friends are missing. We don’t even know if they’re alive or dead right now.”

Then the spirits looked at each other and said,

[We’re sorry.]

[We don’t sense the smell of death in the forest.]

[They should still be alive.]

[We’ll also help find your friends.]

The spirits came out cooperatively and obediently.

Only then did Riette relax the tension in her brow.

“Then can you find where my friends are?”

[What do your friends look like?]

“One is a man with black hair and blue eyes who’s extremely tall. The other is a man with golden hair and green eyes.”

[We’ll go scout right now.]

[If we find them, we’ll guide you there.]

[So please follow us.]

[Please help our king first.]

One spirit scattered light powder with a flutter and headed below the cliff, while the other spirits circled around Riette urging her.

Riette checked behind her again. The coachman and porter seemed to realize that the situation was taking a subtle turn and were standing quietly, clinging to each other while only looking at Riette.

“We’re moving now. Follow me.”

“Ah! Yes, yes sir.”

“I’ll help, so guide me.”

Riette looked back at the spirits again and spoke. The spirits rejoiced and quickly circled around her, then soon began heading somewhere.

The place they arrived at after moving their steps was the deep center of the forest. There stood one enormously large tree that inspired awe just by looking at it.