Chapter 16: Where the Grass Path Bleeds
Niel lay completely flat on his back, staring blankly up at the vast sky above.
To his surprise, the thick, dark rain clouds that had been looming overhead slowly began to vanish, parting to let the brilliant sunlight shine warmly across the open terrain.
"What a beautiful view," Niel uttered softly to himself, a small sense of peace washing over his aching body.
Just then, the sound of rustling grass echoed from the slope. The purple-haired girl came sliding down from the crest of the steep hill, stumbling slightly before reclaiming her footing and making her way over to where Niel was sprawled.
"Hey, are you okay?" She stood over him, casually holding her hands behind her back. Her small shadow crossed cleanly over his face as she looked down at him. "You've gotta be careful how you watch your step out here in the grasslands."
Niel's golden eyes met her purple ones. "Grasslands?" he repeated, his brow furrowing as he sat up straight, brushing loose dirt from his silver hair. "Are the grasslands a completely different location from the main village?"
The purple-haired girl looked at him in a long, deadpan silence before finally shaking her head. "You must be a total outsider if you don't even know that much." She let out a loud sigh before extending her arm, pointing out toward the endless, undulating sea of green grass around them.
Niel's eyes followed her hand, taking in the breathtaking landscape.
"This is actually what the village is famous for," she said, her usually sharp tone softening into a rare moment of respect. "The Greenland—an endless sea of perfect green grass. But that's not the only thing this place is known for."
Niel fully turned his body to face her, crossing his legs as he sat anchored in the grass deeply listening to her every word.
"This land is a deadly maze," she explained, her voice dropping into a serious register. "It's famous for permanently separating families and bringing quiet deaths to travelers. The grass itself is a trick for a person's eyes. From a distance, the blades all appear perfectly aligned with one another, giving you the complete illusion that you are walking along a simple, flat green road."
She stepped closer, counting on her fingers. "But in reality, there are tons of sudden hidden hills, drops, and completely different looping pathways."
A heavy silence fell between them as Niel placed his hand thoughtfully on his chin, letting the spatial mechanics of the maze sink in. "That is... incredibly unfortunate. But I must ask, do people still actively travel to this location?"
"No," she answered flatly. "This perimeter was completely shut down years ago. No one comes out here anymore. If a person were to get lost deep within these trails, it would be almost impossible to escape. Not even the Blade of the Dawn, Sir Adam, could successfully navigate his way out of here."
A massive bead of cold sweat instantly dropped down the side of Niel's cheek. A wave of sudden, sheer panic etched itself completely across his face.
But his dread didn't stay there for long.
"Yorokobe, shounen!" her voice suddenly broke through the grim silence, dropping a playful phrase that cut through his panic. "Rejoice, boy! You should be shouting for joy that you were found by the only person alive who could ever rescue you from a place like this."
She placed her hands on her hips, her small chest puffing up with an unyielding, prideful confidence. Smiling brightly down at him, she gave a low, exaggerated bow.
"I, Liana Asmaria, will personally guarantee your absolute safety!" Her eyes gleamed with a sudden, mischievous glint. "All for the very small, reasonable price of some money."
Sky stood battered and bruised, her body slightly leaning against her sword for support. Her breathing was incredibly heavy, her lungs burning as her eyes narrowed fiercely to glare at Mario. He stood entirely unbothered, untouched, and uncut, casually twirling his heavy blade in his hand.
"You damn liar..." she muttered under her breath. Refusing to let her exhaustion show, she lifted her blade and locked back into her custom stance.
"This is the seventh time now," Mario said, his tone dropping. "Aren't you getting tired of this pointless battle?"
Despite his dismissive words, she completely refused to back down. She stood her ground, aggressively tightening her two-handed grip on the hilt of her sword. Seeing her stubborn resolve, Mario sighed in heavy annoyance.
"Look, you're a very talented person," he admitted, his eyes squinting as he watched her form. "In a few years, you might even surpass the level of your elder sisters and myself. But for now... you're still far too weak."
He raised his sword effortlessly, repelling a sudden, blinding sword strike from her before taking a smooth step back to dodge a follow-up horizontal slash. His face flashed with genuine irritation. "Stop being so damn stubborn!" he yelled, launching a lightning-fast counter by planting his heavy boot right into her stomach.
But to his absolute surprise, Sky did not crash to the dirt this time.
Instead, she glided seamlessly backward, her boots sliding through the loose mud. She held her sword perfectly steady, actively controlling her center of gravity to absorb the kinetic force of the kick. She skidded a few meters across the ground before halting on a dime, snapping right back into her lethal combat stance yet again.
That's eight times now... Mario muttered to himself, his heart rate spiking slightly as he realized she was adapting to his pacing mid-fight.
Sky held her sword close to her chest. She closed her eyes, inhaling a single, deep breath to steady her racing pulse.
Mario frowned at her sudden, quiet pause. His posture stiffened, his grip on his own hilt tightening instinctively.
In a sudden, blindingly fast motion, Sky's entire demeanor shifted. She dropped her frame low, leaning down as the razor-sharp tip of her sword pointed straight at Mario's throat.
Mario's red eyes widened in shock. He immediately snapped his weapon upward to intercept the incoming trajectory.
Sky exhaled. Her black eyes snapped open as she launched herself forward like an arrow. Leaning low to the earth, her blade grazed along the dirt before she unleashed a devastating, upward crescent slash.
Dammit! Mario thought to himself as the raw momentum of her blade physically forced him backward. Switching her entire fighting style mid-battle just to confuse her opponent?!
He channeled his core strength, executing a heavy parry to deflect her weapon away from his body. He stumbled backward through the loose dirt, desperately trying to reset his feet into a proper defensive form. But Sky's relentless, rapid-fire barrage of sword slashes made it almost impossible for him to adapt properly to her rhythm.
This fighting style... I know it all too well, Mario realized, sweat dripping down his neck as he continued to block and counter her furious sequence of strikes. Locking his red eyes onto her fierce black ones, he didn't just see a young trainee anymore. He saw the ghosts of Sir Adam and Lady Snow perfectly mirrored in her form. She's finally using it... her family's signature fighting style. The Blade of the Dawn.
Seeking breathing room, Mario executed a desperate rear leap, instantly creating a meter of distance between them. But Sky didn't give him a single second to breathe. She closed the gap almost immediately, raising her hands to clutch her sword tightly against the side of her cheek. Her fiery, unyielding gaze glared straight into his soul as she launched a fatal, forward thrust.
SLICE.
Mario twisted his head at the very last millisecond, the tip of her sword grazing cleanly across the side of his cheek, drawing a thin line of blood.
A fighting style that possesses absolutely zero defense, Mario analyzed rapidly, the thrill of the battle rushing through his veins. The wielder stays constantly on the offensive, delivering non-stop pressure to ensure their opponent never gets a chance to retaliate.
But Mario was a captain for a reason.
As her blade slid past his face, he exploited the single flaw in her rush. Moving with the seasoned reflexes of a veteran, Mario reached out and caught her wrist mid-extension. He yanked her body violently forward, pulling her in close until his lips were inches from her ear.
"But used recklessly," Mario whispered coldly, "it leaves a lot of openings."
Before she could even pull back, Mario drove a brutal, heavy punch straight into her gut. Without letting go of her wrist, he used his crushing leverage to slam her entire body down, driving her hard into the dirt ground below.
Sky coughed loudly, the thick dust scattering around her groundbound frame.
From above, Mario took a few steps closer and sheathed his sword with a distinct click. "Well now, missy... that was completely unexpected," he said in a smug tone, a confident smile playing on his lips. "I must say, you really surprised me." He raised his hand, casually brushing off loose, cut strands of his black hair.
His red eyes fell over her as Sky desperately tried to push herself back onto her feet, but her muscles failed her. She ended up slumped onto her knees, completely exhausted.
"I can see why you didn't use that family style to begin with," Mario continued, looking down at her. "It completely drains your stamina, and more."
A heavy silence fell between them until Sky finally spoke up. "You're... such a damn liar," she muttered under her breath.
"Liar?" Mario repeated.
Before he could continue, she sharply cut him off. "You said you'd stop holding back! But you didn't... you didn't even look like you were struggling at all." Her cold, black eyes shot up to lock onto his. "I absolutely despise people like you."
Hearing her accusation, Mario leaned back, a soft, weary sigh escaping his lips. "I see what you mean. But little Sky, you completely misunderstand. I didn't go easy on you because I thought you were too weak. I went easy because it is simply my way of fighting."
He shrugged, his expression turning neutral. "I don't hold back, but I also don't possess a state where I fight at a set 'full strength'. My opponent's strength dictates how strong I am. If I face off against a legendary warrior, I fight on their level. If I face off against someone weaker than me, I match their level. It's just how I am."
Sky looked on in calm, stunned silence, absorbing his words. So this is the terrifying reality of the Order of Beasts... she thought bitterly, lowering her head as the sheer power gap sank in.
Hearing this, Mario's proud smirk widened. "That's right," he said, huffing his chest out with immense pride. He casually moved his hand behind his head to grip his ponytail—but his fingers grabbed empty air.
He blinked. He tried again, frantically moving his hand behind his neck, before spinning his entire body around in confusion.
His gaze dropped to the muddy ground. There, lying perfectly still in the dirt, were the long, dark strands of his formerly tied hair.
A cold bead of sweat instantly dropped from the side of Mario's cheek. His red eyes widened in absolute, stunned horror. Sky looked up at him in confusion, but her bewilderment didn't last long; her eyes tracked his gaze to the ponytail lying on the ground, and a sudden, bone-chilling shiver ran straight down her spine.
Mario slowly made his way toward the severed hair. He dropped heavily to his knees in front of it, lifting the dark strands up with both of his hands as if he were cradling a corpse.
"Huh... how...?" he muttered in complete, broken confusion. His mind raced frantically, trying to retrace the seconds of the battle until a sudden realization struck him like lightning. When Sky's blade grazed past my cheek... it didn't just draw blood. It cleanly sliced off my ponytail.
Mario's breathing grew incredibly heavy. Thick, violent veins violently popped out across his forehead and face. He slowly turned his head back around, glaring down at Sky with a terrifying, visible murderous intent.
Sky flinched hard under his gaze. Mario rose to his feet, drawing his sword with a furious, unhinged expression. Desperate, Sky tried to reach for her own weapon, but her body completely failed her—she was entirely drained of strength. She struggled to drag her fingers across the dirt, her eyes flickering with panic toward Mario, who now loomed directly over her, raising his lethal blade into the air.
And just as he was about to strike—the cold ring of steel pressed firmly against Mario's neck.
Loid stood right behind him, his blade perfectly level. "That's enough, Mario."
Loid looked at his partner with a rigid, unyielding expression. I'm sure if I hadn't stopped him, Loid thought to himself, Mario would have, without a shadow of a doubt, killed Sky right then and there.
"Loid, why do you stop me?" Mario asked, his voice a low, terrifying vibrate. His blood-red eyes stared directly into Loid's grey ones. "You do know what this means, right?" His voice grew progressively louder, cracking under the weight of an unhinged, rising panic. "Because of that girl... my pride and my rank as a knight is permanently severed!"
Standing his ground with absolute tactical rigidity, Loid didn't budge an inch. "I'm stopping you from doing something you'll regret later."
"Regret?" Mario repeated, the word leaving an incredibly bitter taste in his mouth. "I'm sure the only thing I'll regret is not killing that wench right now."
Despite his furious words, the heavy atmosphere shifted slightly. Mario calmly lowered his sword, the tension in his shoulders dropping as an empty, dead silence took over. He shot Sky one final, venomous glare before turning on his heel. Without another word, he began walking down the dirt path toward the exit of the village, his silhouette growing smaller.
Loid stared at his partner's retreating back, a calm settling over him as he lowered his blade. He turned his attention down to Sky, preparing to assess her condition, but before he could utter a single word, his eyes fell upon the long strands of Mario's black hair laying abandoned in the dirt. A cold pang of profound pain ran through Loid's heart as the reality of the situation hit him, but he chose to actively ignore it.
Taking a few deliberate steps toward Sky, Loid stretched out his hand to help her up. "Miss Sky, I hope you're not too badly injured. I was sent by your father to bring back Mario. Unfortunately, now, convincing him to stay at the homestead is going to be completely impossible. I wouldn't want to return to your father entirely empty-handed."
Sky stared blankly at his outstretched hand before forcing herself up on her own knees, stubbornly refusing the assistance. "No, thank you," she muttered coldly.
Holding her aching, bruised arm tightly against her chest, she turned and walked off in a completely different direction. Loid was left standing entirely alone in the empty street. A soft, heavy sigh escaped his lips, and he placed his palm flat against his face, rubbing his temples in deep exhaustion.
His mind drifted back to the seconds before he had arrived at the perimeter. He vividly remembered Captain Adam's deep voice calling out to him from the courtyard. Adam had explicitly ordered him that if Mario and Sky engaged in a fight, Loid was to stand back and strictly observe the battle first. Only if things got completely out of hand was he legally allowed to step between them and stop it.
Captain... Loid thought bitterly to himself, staring down at the empty dirt path. This is the first time in my entire career that I regret following your orders. If I had just stepped in a few minutes ago... this nightmare wouldn't have happened.
Meanwhile, along a steep, rising road on the upper edge of the village, Sky walked with her head hung low. I really messed up, she thought to herself, her conscience heavily weighing on her as she reached the higher ground of the path. I was too reckless. I was too stubborn to give up, and it resulted in me completely ruining that man's life.
Suddenly, she was abruptly snapped out of her dark thoughts by the sound of lighthearted, happy humming echoing through the air.
Her gaze drifted toward the edge of the green grass path that intersected with the dirt road she was walking on. Stepping into view from around the bend came Niel. He was wielding a bright, incredibly happy smile, casually holding a single vibrant orange flower in his hand as he hummed softly to himself.
Sky and Niel both froze instantly. Their eyes locked onto one another in absolute, stunned surprise.
"Niel...?"
"Sky...?"
They each muttered the name of the person they least expected to encounter on this strange, quiet path.