Chapter 135: The Hellhound Strikes Back

Kent let out a quiet sigh and looked at Daphne.

His voice softened.

“Daphne, liking someone means that two people are willing to entrust their hearts to each other. It means caring when the other person hurts.”

“You deserve someone who can give you his whole heart.”

“Not someone like me, whose heart already belongs partly to someone else.”

“You’re a wonderful girl.”

“But that goodness of yours shouldn’t be wasted on me.”

“I don’t understand!”

Daphne pouted.

“I just like you.”

Kent met her eyes seriously and lowered his voice even further.

“Daphne, you’re still too young.”

“The world is enormous, and there’s still so much waiting for you to experience.”

“One day, you may meet someone far better suited to you than I am.”

He paused.

“But there’s something else you need to remember.”

“Some people may approach you simply because they think you’re pretty, or because you seem new and interesting to them.”

“They’ll say beautiful things and act devoted for a while.”

“But once that excitement fades, they’ll turn around and leave.”

“Someone who truly cares about you will want to know what you think, what you want, and what frightens you.”

“They won’t care only about how you look.”

“So promise me something.”

“Keep your eyes open.”

“Don’t mistake a little temporary attention for genuine affection.”

The brightness in Daphne’s eyes seemed to dim.

At first, she tried to keep smiling.

The corners of her mouth moved slightly, but the smile never quite formed.

Her shoulders slowly sank.

Her fingers twisted unconsciously at the edge of her clothes until her knuckles turned pale.

“Oh...”

Her voice became very quiet.

“So that’s how it is.”

She turned her face away and stared at the ground.

Her eyelashes lowered, and for a long while she said nothing.

After remaining silent for some time, Daphne suddenly rubbed both hands across her face.

When she looked up again, her eyes had curved into a smile.

It was almost as though she had taken that small piece of sadness, crushed it into fragments, and hidden it somewhere inside her sleeve.

She sprang to her feet and brushed off her clothes.

Her voice became bright again.

“All right, then!”

“But I’m really not that little anymore.”

She lifted her chin.

“And if I already have someone like Brother Kent beside me right now, that’s still pretty wonderful!”

“Then when I grow up, I’ll just find someone like you.”

“Hehe!”

She grinned as though nothing had happened.

Only when she turned away did her steps become just a little quicker than usual.

Kent watched her for a moment.

Then something occurred to him.

“And if you’re really not little...”

He paused.

“Why do you still call me ‘Brother Kent’?”

Daphne was a Dark Elf magic archer, and like most archers of her kind, she wore fitted leather armor designed for freedom of movement.

Such equipment minimized anything that might hinder an archer’s agility, allowing the wearer to move swiftly and draw a bow without restriction.

Kent, on the other hand, wore the loose robes of a mage.

Mages were generally treated more like stationary artillery on the battlefield and rarely needed the same freedom of movement.

Only now did Kent actually take a proper look at Daphne.

Her leather armor emphasized the light, athletic build of someone trained for speed and precision.

Her posture was straight, her movements quick and graceful, and the pale skin visible at her neck reflected the faint magical light around them.

Despite everything they had gone through, she still carried the unmistakable vitality of youth.

Kent found himself looking a little longer than he intended.

“Hehe...”

Daphne glanced sideways at him.

The instant she realized Kent was looking at her, she straightened with obvious satisfaction.

Kent immediately realized what he was doing.

His face turned bright red.

Daphne stared at him in surprise for a moment.

Then she burst into laughter.

“Hehehe!”

The more she laughed, the hotter Kent’s face became.

After spending all that time saying such serious and responsible things, he had somehow managed to make himself look suspicious again almost immediately.

Kent could only groan inwardly.

So much for sounding mature.

Once Daphne saw that Kent’s face had finally returned to its normal color, she stopped teasing him.

Still, she tightened her hold around his arm, almost leaning her entire weight against him.

Dark Elves had always been a race that loved and hated openly.

Daphne did not think there was anything strange about what she was doing.

Kent, however, felt increasingly like some suspicious old man.

Strictly speaking, his current body was not even eighteen yet.

But the soul within it belonged to someone who had already lived into his twenties.

On this continent, every race had a formal coming-of-age ceremony, and marriage was only permitted after that ceremony had been completed.

Among humans, adulthood officially began at fifteen.

There was a harsh reason for that.

The average lifespan of commoners was only around fifty years.

Part of this came from the ruthless exploitation imposed by the nobility upon the lower classes.

Disease, plague, famine, and natural disasters claimed countless lives as well.

In many ordinary families, only one child out of three would survive into adulthood.

Illness could take a child’s life at any time.

Healing magic and medicinal potions certainly existed, but those were luxuries available almost exclusively to the wealthy.

The greatest obstacle was simply money.

Even a low-ranking priest might charge several gold coins to cast a basic healing spell.

Yet many commoners could work for decades without ever managing to save even a single gold coin.

That was why the human coming-of-age ceremony took place so early.

Elves were entirely different.

They generally did not hold their coming-of-age ceremony until around eighty years of age.

Dwarves reached adulthood at roughly forty.

An elf could live for at least a thousand years, while dwarves commonly lived for more than three centuries.

Elves also found it extremely difficult to produce offspring.

Fortunately, some elves could also be born from the Tree of Life, though the true process behind that remained a closely guarded mystery.

A typical Dark Elf couple might raise only one child over the course of their entire lives.

Many never had any children at all.

Only an extremely small number would ever have a second.

Dwarves were far more fertile than elves.

But among the major races, humans possessed by far the strongest reproductive ability.

And that enormous population was one of the main reasons humanity produced so many powerful individuals.

Take an elven couple and a human couple over the same span of a thousand years.

The elves might produce no more than six descendants in total.

The human couple, however, could easily become the ancestors of a clan numbering well over a thousand people.

With such an enormous difference in population, the number of exceptional talents born among humans would naturally be much greater.

For that reason, every race on the continent treated the coming-of-age ceremony with great importance.

Once men and women passed that ceremony, even the way they dressed would change.

The differences were usually reflected in clothing and hairstyles.

Among Dark Elves, for example, adults traditionally wore their ears fully exposed.

Daphne, by contrast, still kept most of hers hidden beneath her hair, with only the pointed tips visible.

That custom had another reason behind it.

Among elves, one traditional gesture of courtship involved gently touching the other person’s earlobe.

Kent had to admit...

it was a rather unusual custom.

And so he continued forward in a strange mixture of discomfort and happiness.

His steps became almost mechanical as he trudged through the cavern.

The more he thought about it, the more he felt as though he were becoming morally corrupted.

Of course, he had conveniently forgotten one important fact—

in the eyes of everyone else in this world, he himself was still technically underage.

“All right. Let’s rest here for a while.”

Eventually, Kent and Daphne reached the bank of an underground river.

The cavern surrounding it was broad and open.

Various kinds of mushrooms grew between the rocks, while fresh moss covered large patches of the ground.

Transparent fish could occasionally be seen swimming through the dark water.

Kent immediately decided that this was a good place to stop.

He took several pieces of fresh Earth Lizard meat from his spatial ring.

The meat was surprisingly decent when properly cooked.

Then he pulled out a tent, along with a set of unused washing supplies.

Judging from the contents of the spatial ring, its former owner had clearly been someone who knew how to enjoy life.

Kent even discovered several bottles of wine, together with an assortment of seasonings and tableware.

The inscriptions engraved on some of the utensils indicated that they had been made more than ten thousand years ago.

Kent stared at them for a long moment.

Then he quietly put them back.

No matter how useful they might be...

there was absolutely no way he was going to use ten-thousand-year-old tableware for dinner.

“Little girl, you handle the cooking here. I’m going to wash up first.”

Kent tugged at his clothes with obvious disgust.

“Just smell me.”

After his body had been strengthened, the recent battle had forced out a large amount of impurities from within him. Now his whole body felt sticky and uncomfortable, and there was even a faint, unpleasant odor clinging to his skin.

That was one of the reasons Kent had chosen to stop here in the first place.

Daphne obediently nodded.

She moved to one side, set up a magic-crystal stove, and began roasting the Earth Lizard meat.

As the meat cooked, she carefully turned it over and spread seasonings evenly across the surface.

Kent, meanwhile, walked to the riverbank and disappeared behind a large boulder not far away.

He quickly stripped off his clothes and entered the water.

The location was ideal.

As long as Kent straightened up slightly, he could still see Daphne from behind the rock.

More importantly, he continued maintaining the illumination spell.

The light served as a deterrent against weaker magical beasts, and many creatures of the underground world possessed a natural aversion to brightness.

Daphne, meanwhile, felt strangely happy.

She devoted herself completely to preparing the food.

Kent had selected the two strips of lean meat running along either side of the Earth Lizard’s spine.

Using the dagger she carried with her, Daphne carefully scored the meat, rubbed seasoning into the cuts, and roasted it over the magic-crystal stove until the surface turned a rich golden brown.

Big Nose sat nearby, constantly twitching his enormous red nose.

His eyes never left the meat.

He paced anxiously around the stove, clearly desperate for a bite.

“AWOOO!”

A sudden roar shattered the peaceful atmosphere.

Daphne jumped in fright.

Before she could even react, an arm wrapped around her waist and lifted her off the ground.

Someone had grabbed her and was already running.

Daphne opened her mouth to scream.

Then she caught a familiar scent.

It was Kent.

She turned her head quickly.

Sure enough, it was him.

Big Nose was already fleeing as well.

The fat little creature had somehow managed to snatch a piece of roasted meat into his mouth.

He ran after Kent with surprising speed while devouring the meat at the same time.

Even while eating greedily, he showed no sign of slowing down.

The instant Kent had heard that roar, he had recognized it.

A Hellhound.

And Kent had absolutely no confidence in fighting a high-level magical beast like that right now.

He had only just finished a battle and his body was still somewhat fatigued.

More importantly, aside from the dragon lance, he lacked real combat experience with most of the weapons in his possession.

Facing a Hellhound under those circumstances would be foolish.

“AWOOO! AWOOO!”

Then Kent heard something that made his expression change completely.

There was more than one roar.

Two additional voices answered from behind.

And these new roars were deeper, louder, and far more oppressive.

Clearly, this was not a lone beast.

It was an entire family.

Kent immediately increased his speed.

From the sheer pressure contained in those two roars alone, he could tell that the creatures behind him were no weaker than Level Eight.

Thud!

Thud!

Thud!

Heavy footsteps began pounding through the cavern behind them.

Kent’s heart sank.

Of course.

The one thing he had hoped would not happen had happened.

He glanced over his shoulder.

Two enormous adult Hellhounds were charging after them, each possessing three heads.

Beside them ran a smaller creature with only two heads.

A family.

And the two-headed Hellhound was staring directly at Kent with unmistakable hatred.

Kent recognized it immediately.

It was the same Hellhound he had injured before.

The two larger three-headed beasts were almost certainly its parents.

Kent groaned inwardly.

This was bad.