13 The Cry Princess Cave

The cave was located in a forest between Herbugh and Achbale. It's only one hour of walk from Herbugh. According to Hannelle, it's going to be two hours of walk to Achbale but if we're lucky enough, we can hitch a hike to there.

On the way to the cave, we encountered a few weak beasts which were slime and horn rabbit. Hannelle uses this as a chance for me to train my fighting skills. With those weaklings, certainly, I did defeat them excellently.

We also did come across with Sting bee and Hyena. According to Hannelle, those are class D beasts. I did felt scared at first but Hannelle convinced me that she will assist and ask me to just focus on the battle. Just from a few encountered, I manage to finally get used to fighting. It's true what people usually say that you'll get much better through experiences.

And when she used a sword, she always looks so cool, I can't take my eyes off her. From her movement, she makes it look so easy and makes the beasts look super weak. But in reality, she was the one who is strong. What does she do and has to go through to be that strong?

I already got the feeling from the stares when we were in the hunter guild. Not that kind of envy or resentful stare but admiration and respect. I'm so lucky to be able to associate with such an amazing person.

My luck was so incredible to the point of making me so afraid. Please luck, don't ever leave me.

When we reach the cave's door, Hannelle told me to always be on guard and walk behind her. I was told to wait for her instruction to activate the darkness magic.

The entrance of the cave was narrow and uneven so it was hard to walk on. It's also so dark that I can barely see to walk.

Hannelle forbids me to use any kind of magic apart from dark magic because the Cry Princess is very sensitive to magic. We also cannot talk since the cave wall will reflect the sound wave and eventually will reach the Cry Princess ears.

This Cry Princess definitely sounds like a bad idea.

Hannelle told me a story about the Cry Princess before we entered the cave. People said that she was a princess of Richfield kingdom a long time ago. She was so beautiful. Whoever saw her will be charmed by her beauty till it felt like they were being hypnotized.

Because of her ability, the king and the queen scared of her and they send her away to live in the cave by her selves. The princess was crying all day until there were no tears left but blood coming out instead. Afterward, people don't know what exactly happens but the princess was haunting the cave until today.

When I heard the story, I felt sympathy for the princess. Hannelle said that it's related to charmed magic. Whatever the reason may be, How could a parent chase their child away? What a messed up story.

I don't realize how far did we walk into the cave but at a certain point, the narrow path ends and we reach an open area. There's a bit of light come from some kind of stone scattered along the wall in this area.

From this point onwards, the path is quite dangerous. It's like a path along the cliff. But, from the clear sound of water flowing, I can guess that there's a river flowing down there.

We continue to walk until I saw three floating fire not too far from us. I bet those are the fire bat we are looking for. Hannelle told me to wait here with hand sign so I do as told. From afar, I can see Hannelle is fighting with the fire bat without any sound. I just can hear the sound of 'swoosh' and 'slash'.

When she successfully killed the beasts and gathered the loot, she immediately walks back towards me. As soon as she's near me, my eyes widen from the sudden appearance of white smoke behind Hannele, at the exact place where Hannelle fight the fire bat. Seeing my shocking face, she quickly turns around and gave me a sign to start to activate the darkness.

A soft and pleading cry started to echo in the cave. I immediately chant inside my mind.

[O~ Fairy of Darkness, grant me the power to unite with the night.]

But in order to complete the spell, I have to actually say it. I slowly open my mouth.

"Darkness."

Heard my voice, the Princess turn towards us and let out a high pitch scream but as a thin membrane of darkness already covers me and Hannelle, the Cry Princess lost us.

A beast that has the appearance of a beautiful woman yet looks so scary with her pale skin and her white hair is so long it reached the ground. Red tears are flowing from her big fully black eyes. I don't know if those are her fingers or nails but it's long about 5 inches each and moves them as if she was dancing. From the looks of it, It's not a beast it's a ghost! I remember the ghost movies from my past life. Most of the ghost looks just like her.

She's been wandering around aimlessly looking for the presence that she senses before. Hannelle instructs me to slowly move to the corner of the wall to avoid colliding with the princess.

When she was walking right beside us, her face was so close to me as if she knew I was there.

Is this darkness magic really going to work against her? You don't lie to me right Hannelle?

Doubted started to accumulate within my mind. I cover my mouth to hold my breath. It fears me if she suddenly senses my breath and started to attack.

Right after she walk pass by us, she started to slowly disappear. But her creepy cry remained.

Soon, we started to walk back to the entrance of the cave. Hannelle told me to hold the darkness spell after we are completely sure that the Princess really will not appear again. With the princess cries still resound, it felt like we were still being chased by the princess with a creepy soundtrack in the background. Every time I want to hasten my pace, Hannelle stop me and told me to relax and walk slowly.

I wish we could run so that we can quickly get out of this ominous place. I want to scream my heart out but it depressed me that I can only do that inside my head.

****

"Aahhhhhhhhh!"

As soon as we are out from the cave, I scream and ran as fast as I can to distance myself away from that cave. I swear I will never enter that cave. Even if people said there's a mountain of gold inside, I would never want to experience that eerie experience ever again.

I lie under the tree shade after the cave was out of sight. Hannele who is finally catching up with me squat down beside me while laughing wholeheartedly.

"You don't have to run. It's not like she will follow us outside."

I look at her feeling annoyed. She looks so relaxed. Does she not know fear?

"Who knows she might sometimes come out from the cave."

"but she's not. She is a creature who was attached to the cave forever."

"Really? You sure?"

Hannelle just nods her head.

"Now, It's already past noon. Let's find a safer place to have lunch first. After that, we will go straight to Achbale."