Stigma Effect

head of the monster and digging through the dead body to find the core, nausea came over.
It seemed that it wasn’t just Helio’s feeling.

Helio encountered several times in which the knights who had finished subjugation groaned and shed tears.
They hid out of the sight of their comrades and let out a desperate cry as if they had killed their own people.

It did not make sense that those who were accustomed to subjugation felt the opposite of killing now.
The knights were proud of killing monsters.
They were the ones who raised the head of a monster and smiled brightly at the many people they had to protect.

The knights’ change was a plague that was secretly spreading beneath the surface of Albraka.
It was a disease that only those who have transplanted a monster’s nucleus will suffer.

If a person with pity for monsters was discovered, those with plagues will be treated like the way history has dealt with them.

They will be expelled from Albraka like those who had been quarantined and burned without leaving a corpse, and will be stoned by those who risked their lives to protect them.

Just like the people did to Yuriel.

Helio pretended to be ignorant of this strange plague that the knights began to suffer from.
He, too, could not escape from the emotions that began to spread quickly.

A strange belief held over his head that if Yuriel returned to Raphlet, everything would be resolved.

“I am in charge of tracking Miss Yuriel.
Raphlet.
When the pursuit team returns, they will report to their Commander first, so calm down.”

Helio looked like a loyal subordinate.

“Did the pursuit team find any traces of Yuriel?”

“… Traces of the monster eating food were found.
As you know, monsters don’t need food, Raphlet.”

“… That means.”

“I think it is a trace that the monster moved to protect Miss Yuriel.
If you pursue it, you will find her quickly.”

Helio said in a confident tone.

With that alone, it was not difficult to guess where Yuriel was going.

It was not a paved road and it was a disturbing movement without knowing where it was headed, but there was one goal at the end.

The place where Raphlet and Yuriel lived together, Yuriel was going to Mogris.

Helio, who saw Raphlet’s fiercely shiny eyes, added a meaningful statement.

“By the way, I remember hearing that the forest in the estate of Mogris is very vast.”

The light made from the monster core began to flicker as if it had exhausted all its power.
The lights that had been repeatedly turned off and on quickly lost their light.

In the darkness where it was hard to see each other’s faces right in front of them, Helio looked at the lamp that turned off.
He felt his chest tighten and he opened his mouth.

“It is said that even if there are monsters or people hiding, no one will be able to find them.
Is that correct, Raphlet?”

Helio waited for Raphlet’s reply.
After a while, when the darkness became so familiar that Helio could discern Raphlet’s face, Raphlet finally opened his mouth.

“For tomorrow’s subjugation, Commander Helio, please take the overall command.
I will take on the rear support.”

“How many troops do you need?”

He muttered with a noble face that Yuriel liked and wanted to protect the most.

“Alone is enough.”

＊＊＊

“Oh, cold.
It’s cold!”

Yuriel hugged her trembling body and jumped out of the lake splashing water.
While she was washing her body in the cold lake, the monster lying on the shore of the lake raised itself.

The monster put a cloth in its mouth, which had been draped across the low twigs, and approached her.
Yuriel muttered as she received the cloth brought by the monster.

“It was fine in the summer, but it gets a little cold in the autumn.”

The monster growled briefly as if giving an answer.
When Yuriel wiped away all the water on her body, she was used to the way it put its body tightly together as if to convey warmth.

Yuriel put on her clothes, wrapped around her slightly convex stomach, and buried herself in the fur of the monster.
It was easy to move because she wasn’t full yet, but she was worried that something was wrong.

Even if she wanted to find a doctor, it was difficult to find food and clothes because of Yuriel’s information in each village.
The first time she visited a clinic was a few days after leaving Albraka.

She went to the house of a doctor who lost his sight where he lived alone and received treatment.

‘It must have been about three months.’

She couldn’t tell that she was going to be over eight months pregnant.

‘Yes.
Just stay as healthy as you are now.’

After leaving Raphlet’s side, it seemed as if the child’s time had stopped.
Yuriel received some medicine from the doctor who said she was okay and left.

The animals hunted by monsters were used to pay for the medical expenses.

The blind man mistaken it for a large hunting dog that Yuriel was carrying.

Yuriel put her cold feet together and rested her face on her lap.

It took a very long time to return to the Mogris Estate, unlike when she went to the Imperial capital, but she was soon arriving in Mogris.

A dense forest began to appear.