55. 11 Days Later

Once upon a time, when Red was called the Vengeful Red-Hooded Assassin, she had murdered hundreds of humans, both good and bad at the facility she was once contained in. She recalled the pale walls that confined her. The tales that shared the same prison, and the people who experimented on her for a purpose she never understood.

Red’s gaze darkened suddenly. The world around her became silent. The Huntsman’s mouth moved, but she did not hear a word leave his lips.

Her mind went back to the moments she broke free from her containment unit. How she mercilessly fired bullets down halls as long as several kilometers. Among them were but mere clerks who had done nothing wrong to her.

And yet, in her infinite hatred…

I took them down. Down, all the way down into the depths of the facility until they became nothing but meat. My bullets never missed. They told me fairytales, pretending that they were tales of the real world.

//////// ////////

The warning brought Red back to reality. She returned just in time to witness the tears in the Huntsman’s flesh repair.

“Gagh… Ngh…!” Snow clawed at the ground. Red, damp spots appeared on her back through her clothes.

She had taken the Huntsman’s wounds for him again…

“Aaaah! Gah… it hurts… Mister… We’ll… save you…”

… and again…

“AAAAAAAAGNH! AAAAAAAARGH!”

… and again.

They were now a week into the Forest of Everlasting Envy.

The unbearable agony of having one’s bones, flesh and organs rearranged was known to Snow. Red cradled their heads as she struggled to find a way to help them. The despair was palpable.

Snow’s cries of anguish summoned unwanted attention each time she tried to keep the Huntsman alive. And despite all of this –

“Red… use your lap for Snow. Cradle her head with both of your hands. Hold her tight.”

“But what about you, Mister?”

“… Snow is still a child in my eyes. How can I call myself a proud Huntsman of the Green Rangers if I dared to take the comfort of a child away?”

He smiled. That smile contained untold agony. As powerless as he was, and as difficult as it was for him to even form a single word – Red regarded him as strong. Even after nearly a week of navigating the forest, he had not once complained.

“A child…?” Red was confused.

“Yes. A child… still naive and inexperienced to the gifts and curses of the world. Just like you. Don’t look at me like that, little Red. Aha... You’re just like the children… once they became eager to learn about my name. Such children… learn quickly who they can and can’t trust…”

“Mister…”

His one and only concern was Snow, but it also extended to Red. He spoke with gratitude. His words couldn’t form completely with the amount of dried blood and scabs in his throat.

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Even so, his appreciation for their existence managed to reach Red.

Red clasped onto Snow’s hand. Her grip was monstrously strong for someone incapable of hurting others.

It… hurts…?

She was shocked.

“Snow was a ravenous girl when we first met. I had to protect her. But it often felt like I had to protect others from her.”

“How come…?”

“Red eyes. They are the product of her blood.”

“Blood?”

Red noticed Snow’s sharp fangs again.

“Have you heard of the term Honored One?”

Honored One

“No.”

“Ah… Understandable. It won’t be long then… You’ll hear it from Snow when she’s ready to tell you.”

It didn’t matter if Snow ended up never telling her at all. All Red wanted was for her to stop screaming. Her pain, her agony… it caused an ember of emotion to burn in her chest. The throes that Snow felt also affected her emotionally.

Her powerful grip eased. The pain was beginning to subside. But Snow didn’t let go of Red’s hand. She kept it next to her as if it was the only thing keeping her sane.

* * *

When the Huntsman’s legs became too riged to use, Red wove a net of hacked brambles for him to rest on. She dragged him and a perpetually exhausted Snow the rest of the way. The Healer immediately used up her Mana as soon as she had enough to cast Healing magic, leading to a cycle of consciousness, immeasurable pain, and unconsciousness.

Red was the only one who was not affected by the trials of the Corrupted Zone. Her mentality hadn’t changed either. It was a testament to her mental resilience.

But she kept on questioning whether she was supposed to be devastated like Snow.

In the end, Red could only answer to that with:

Someone has to keep on moving forward no matter what. We can’t slow down. We all want to survive.

Eat, drag, Heal, rest, fight – The cycle was unending. Snow did not have enough Mana to cast [Cleanse] for days on end. They sawm in their filth, but no one commented on how Red never needed to relieve herself.

The eleventh day saw them only manage to bring down three Sweet Thorns. Red plunged her blade into the throat of the 50th kill. The Heart of Poisoned Miracles had replaced their Adam’s apple.

Once again, it was thanks to Snow’s diary that she was able to discover it so quickly.

“Halfway done…” Red bellowed a long sigh.

“Just halfway.” Snow whispered with enthusiasm as she carefully hugged the Huntsman. “50 more… and everything will be ok.”

“… Aha…”

Red rummaged through the innards of the Sweet Thorn, taking what she could. A gemstone of Specific Nex hadn’t appeared for days now, leading her to suspect that they had seen the entire tale the Queen of Sweet and Bitter Thorns had to offer.

“At least until we find that dumb Corrupted. Agate. Should we tear its limbs off first or just drive a bullet into its heart and call it a day. Or night!”

Murmurs came from Snow and the Huntsman. She could barely hear their voices as she took what was morally edible and chomped away.

“Taste doesn’t get better, but it’s no so bad after a week. Gotta throw the brambles with blood on them. Humans don’t eat humans. Human blood is also icky. So irony. Eww.”

She complained.

“Bwut Smnow dowsh eawt da bwod. (But Snow does eat the blood).”

Truth be told, Red didn’t care if she ate human meat or drank their blood. She only considered it wrong because humans did, rather than the reason stemming from a true, moral understanding of why it was wrong.

Snow didn’t seem to mind. At least when it came to blood. In fact, Snow actively sought out the brambles that contained blood.

“Maybe she likes the irony taste. I heard liver is irony. Is it called irony because iron also tastes irony? If that’s true, then why is spicy food called spicy when spice comes from chilly plants? Shouldn’t it be chilly food?”

Agate didn’t answer. Red considered it was because Agate was simply uneducated in the intricacies of the language of Elysia, unlike Red who had Snow as her Commonsense teacher.

What she didn’t consider was that Agate probably had a malfunction after hearing that.

“But chilly food… also makes sense. Why can two words mean the exact same thing? Isn’t that kind of redundant? Oh! I know! I see. How shocking. Language… no, words are like bullets, huh. You shoot the bullets that make sense in the moment. Amazing…”

Stars twinkled in her eyes as she came to this shocking realization.

“Gotta head back to Snow. Then… onwards to the light.”

Each Sweet Thorn they destroyed caused the remaining ones to emit an even brighter glow. She could clearly see the last 50 shining in the distance like false stars.

“I remember that light. I chased it and it took me to the Still Unloving… Is this light a universal thing?”

She didn’t think so. Red didn’t have one as a Corrupted, nor did she remember the Queen of Sweet and Bitter Thorns having one the last time they fought. What irked her was that these false stars didn’t lead to a better place, unlike the ones in the skies.

Instead, they lead people towards their deaths.

Just as she patted her body down, a strangled, whipping sound came from deep within the forest.

“Something’s moving in the forest!” Red announced immediately.

Her instincts kicked into overdrive now that an anomaly had appeared. She moved back towards the others, ready to defend them at all costs.

However –

– The messages stumped Red entirely.