Trashes of the Counts' Families || Trash of the Count's Family || OC

71

Two days later, they were still in the Forest of Darkness. Adara was impatient. She wanted to get to the swamp, where she knew the Dead Mana was. She hadn't told Cale yet, as they haven't had a moment alone since they came into the Forest. They would find out eventually, but it would be highly suspicious to the Whale Siblings if she suddenly knew where to find Dead Mana, which the mermaids use.

She sighed, raising her gleaming sword and bringing it quickly down to remove the blood. They had just entered the inner region, and a group of monsters had come to greet them. But they were dead now.

She walked over to Cale, who was holding the kittens. She put her sword in her scabbard, wanting to move along already. Dead Mana can be found in places with a lot of death, like a graveyard—mostly places where beings have died. In the swamp, there must either be so many corpses they overflow or a corpse from a being with a lot of mana.

She had a pretty accurate guess on which it was.

"Adara!" Witira said, suddenly appearing at her side. Her face was bright, and she was smiling widely. "You can really swordfight! Where did you learn?"

Adara was definitely better at sword fighting than a human should be, and she wasn't a Swordmaster, Witira knew for certain. She was fast and precise; her strikes were always aimed at weak points she could discern in seconds. She could definitely be a Swordmaster, so why wasn't she?

Adara shrugged, taking her curly hair out of the high ponytail she put it in when she heard the monsters walking. "Oh, no one in particular. An old mentor of mine."

Witira stared at her further, eyes lingering on the scars on her face and the one she saw on her chest when she raised her arms. Adara and Witira were wearing masks to prevent any airborne poison from getting to them, but Witira knew what the scars looked like. Did she get those while training? Or in a brutal duel? She's a Noble, right? Do they still do duels? Witira wondered. She hadn't been on land in a while.

She tilted her head, not staring at her scars, but this time at her eyes. They were dark. Witira always assumed they were just dark brown; after all, no human could have pitch-black eyes. But no, Adara's eyes were pitch-black, so dark that Witira could not see her pupil. And those dark eyes were now staring at her.

Cale interrupted the stare-down. "This is now the start of the swamp region," he said.

Witira flicked the blood off her whip, taking her eyes off Adara. "Let us keep moving," she responded.

Adara immediately went to Cale's side, On jumping onto her shoulder as soon as she was close enough. She knew they were close to the swamp. She could almost taste the dead mana. And she knew there was so much of it.

"Adara, slow down," she heard from behind her. She stopped, turning to see Cale and the Whale Siblings behind her. She sighed; she was too excited about so much Dead Mana.

She sobered up as she waited for the others to catch up, realising that the whole swamp was probably Dead Mana. But this swamp was in the Forest of Darkness. It was probably poisoned. She couldn't drink it. She cursed violently in her head, most of the curses directed at the God of Death.

She felt the chill of a godly hand trying to calm her down. She would need to find a way to cleanse it, but she certainly couldn't do it unless the amount was much less than a wineglass, and it was too much work for the Black Dragon. It would be a waste not to use it.

They were next to her by now, and they continued walking, this time in sync. Adara did not let her thoughts wander as she walked, staying close to the group. She barely noticed when the Whale Siblings suddenly stopped walking, tightly holding onto their masks. She barely even noticed the poisonous and rotting smell that quickly surrounded her.