TN: Please read my translations only on my website nyx-translation.com since I never give my permission to any site to host my translations. And if you like my translations, please support this site on Ko-fi, and join our Patreon to read up to 6 chapters ahead for this novel!
Here’s the chapter. Enjoy~
Chapter 322 – Caution
I couldn’t gauge the distance or size, but the Mind’s Eye that I had activated instinctively confirmed that it was undoubtedly a “monster.”
(Ah, so it was targeting the “upwind” direction…)
I could guess its intent from the skill name. But before I could fully process it, my vision blurred, and my consciousness began to cloud.
Despite the relief that we had passed through the high-risk zone, I alone hadn’t let my guard down.
Rather, I suspect that I was just continuing to search for enemies because I refused to accept the fact of “betrayal”…
Even so, I never expected a monster to attack from outside the range of my Investigations skill.
When I came to, all I could hear were snores. The carriage had stopped moving.
The coachman, the nearby guards, and even the horses were all unconscious, as if their consciousness had been harvested.
If this continued, I’d be taken down too.
The moment that thought struck me, I clenched the dagger hanging at my waist.
“Not on my watch.”
To resist, I forcefully thrust the blade into my left hand.
“Guh… Gih… Hih… Sleep? No way…”
A brutal awakening brought on by pain.
Yet, a smile still slipped out naturally.
Finally. Finally.
Peering in, I saw the unowned skill: Sleep Dream Scales Lv5.
The very thing I’d longed for had finally appeared within reach. There was no way I’d let it slip away now. There was no way I’d become its prey again.
Ah, this overwhelming drowsiness.
Was it because I hadn’t slept at all last night, or was it simply the skill level?
My Sleep Resistance level 4 was struggling to resist it.
Unlike the others around me, I didn’t fall instantly, but relentless, intense sleepiness kept assaulting me, threatening to carry my consciousness away.
“Hold on… hold on… absolutely… devour…”
There are ways to break this stalemate, but I deliberately refrain from using them.
I do this to maximize this opportunity.
Resolved, I clenched the dagger tightly in my left hand and gently closed my eyes.
▽ ▼ ▽ ▼ ▽
“Truly, a beastman who never learns…”
Midway up a mountain in the southern reaches of the Orial Mountain Pass.
A man peered down at the road below through a long-range magic tool from behind a rock. He murmured this as he confirmed the motionless carriage.
Just as he had been told, it was an eight-horse-drawn covered wagon with panels of different sizes.
Judging by the dirt on the canopy, this was definitely the target.
That left only one question: Were they all asleep?
He looked up and saw a magical bird flying toward him.
“Hey, how’d it go?”
“Kyuaah!”
“Good, good. Everyone’s in dreamland. Well, then. It’s time for work and dinner. Roton and Eton, keep watch around us. Watch both the east and west sides of the road, just to be safe.”
“Kyuuaa!”
“All right, then. Let’s go.”
Bwaaah…
With that cry, dozens of soldier ants and bayblizzards surged forth from holes that suddenly appeared in the ground.
The man mounted his griffin, spear in hand, and led the charge down the mountain. The monsters that had emerged followed swiftly, racing down the mountainside.
Meanwhile, Quad’s merchant caravan remained completely stationary.
Everyone lay collapsed in place, fast asleep, not a soul moving.
The man confirmed the caravan’s state.
“All right, don’t eat yet. Leaving traces will be troublesome. First, transport the horses and people to the nest. Once they’re fed, immediately hitch up the wagons and move.”
A sense of unease halted his instructions.
The man remained mounted on the griffin, which hovered in midair and surveyed the entire scene from a slightly distant vantage point.
It was precisely this elevated view that allowed him to notice a pool of blood forming near the central carriage.
Looking closer, he saw a human lying half-slumped over the coach box, asleep. A dagger was thrust into his left hand and held in place by his right hand, as if he had pushed it in himself.
“Damn… What a hassle.”
He clicked his tongue sharply.
The client had strictly ordered him to leave no traces. Creating a blood pool in such a conspicuous spot would immediately reveal that something had happened.
However, if he let the Soldier Ants carry it away in its current state, the blood trail and scent could easily lead straight to their nest.
“…Should I just feed the kid to them here?”
As far as he could tell, it was a child.
That would be impossible for the soldier ants or the Bayblizzard, but a griffin, which could grow to about four meters in length, could swallow it whole.
That would be appropriate, he decided, and…
“Griva, go eat that kid. Don’t tear it apart.”
For some reason, the man didn’t go himself but descended to the ground and sent only Griva, the griffin.
This action was an almost unconscious caution.
The man himself was not particularly aware of it.
Dream Theater is a special monster that displays tremendous power in limited situations.
The Sleep Dream Scale Powder it possessed did not force someone to sleep, but rather amplified existing drowsiness. This trapped the victim in their dreams, making it difficult to wake them.
Therefore, the man deliberately did not attack on the first day when there were many places to hide. Instead, he kept the group on alert to wear them down.
On the evening of the second day, after setting out early in the morning while sleep-deprived and walking alertly along the mountain path, their fatigue peaked.
Yet, the surroundings offered good visibility, and they were nearly at the rest stop—a moment when one might mentally let their guard down. That was the timing he chose.
Even the mercenary guards who had participated last time, regardless of rank, had their equipment stripped without resistance using this method; their bodies became monster fodder.
Under normal circumstances, there was no way they could resist.
But somehow, this child showed signs of resistance.
Perhaps the inconsistency of resistance through self-harm made the man unconsciously wary rather than dismissing it as a child with little sense of danger.
Yes, it was purely unconscious caution.
The man watched the child, thinking he would swallow it whole without any trouble.
“G-Griva!?”
He never expected the great sword that suddenly appeared to cut his griffin partner in two.
If you like my translations, please support me on Ko-Fi and subscribe my Patreon to read up to 12 chapters ahead for this novel!