He who Bends Time-Chapter 80 - prey and predator

Although the thing in her vision was mysterious and she was curious about it, it wasn’t enough to fully capture her attention as the carriage slowly arrived closer to the gates of the wall.

Looking at the massive gate she was approaching, Marian saw a few men standing beside it, inspecting everyone and everything going in and out through the gates.

"Tch, annoying bastards," she muttered but quickly hid deeper inside the carriage before anyone else noticed her.

"I’m not a criminal, but the fact that I’m the Bloody Queen and also the one who entered this world unauthorised can be considered a crime. From the beginning, those in the kingdom never agreed to allow a bloody arena. If it weren’t for them being unable to find that place, the bloody arena would’ve long been destroyed and only remembered in history."

While muttering to herself, Marian went to the corner of the carriage and sliced her arm with a little knife she kept hidden. Using the blood that flowed out, she created a wall of blood in front of her, placing it between herself and the end of the carriage.

"Now if I could just make the blood a bit darker..." she whispered while working.

Just then, the carriage came to a halt.

A few men first looked around the carriage, and Marian heard the sound of them speaking to the person riding the carriage. After a moment, one of the men made his way to the back and peeked inside the carriage, seeing nothing but an empty space.

"There’s nothing in here," he said.

"Alright, you can go. The market’s pretty pricey today, by the way," said another guard to the driver.

Marian felt the movement of the carriage again as it started to pass through the gates.

Once it was clear, Marian waited until the scene of the guard post had disappeared from view through the small hole she left in the blood wall. Then, without delay, she jumped out of the carriage and onto the street outside.

The place she jumped out was not very popular—it was only a village built close to another large city. That had been her intention: to get off somewhere no one would notice. Afterward, hiding her face beneath her hood, she walked among those already moving along the street.

After a long walk, she finally exited the village. Outside, there was a cellar path—or more like a properly built road—that led to the next city. Most of the carriages that had entered through the wall were already heading that way toward the city. However, Marian didn’t follow that path and instead went astray.

The land inside the walls was civilized and properly managed, but there were also spots of forest and other uninhabited areas. One such place was the dry leaf bushes.

The name "dry leaf bushes" referred to these abnormally tall-growing shrubs because, with just one touch, their newly grown leaves would fall off—leaving a very clear trail behind as one walked through them. Marian disliked it very much.

"Fortunately, I’m not the only one making a trail here," she muttered to herself, as along the way she saw countless trails of fallen dry leaves—possibly made by animals, or maybe even by other humans or inhuman beings.

However, unknown to Marian, there was another being that had its eyes on her, hidden deep within the dry leaf bushes. And it didn’t take long for her to realize the abnormal gaze on her.

Zzz!

After moving a few steps and suddenly halting, Marian listened carefully to a sound she heard coming from the dry leaf bush field around her. Without showing any abnormal behavior, Marian continued to advance forward. Then, just like before, she stopped again—and the same sound echoed in her ears, stopping abruptly in response to her halting.

Once more, she moved ahead without showing any concern for the noise and only stopped when she saw another watchtower further ahead on the wall.

"The one I saw when entering was Watchtower Number Two, and this is the third watchtower, if my memory is correct," she thought to herself.

Zzzzz!

The same sound came again as she stood still—and this time it was much closer than before.

"All right, what the damn hell is this?"

exclaimed Marian, drawing out her blood and creating an extremely long, sharp sword. With one swift motion, she slashed it across the field of dry leaf bushes, cleanly splitting the area in half.

Hzzzz!

screeched a long serpent-shaped creature that had been hiding in the dry leaves—now wounded by Marian’s blade. It had been standing extremely close to her, camouflaged in the thick brush. If not for Marian’s seemingly overreactive action, it would have been very difficult to pinpoint its position, as it closely resembled the color and texture of the dry leaves—a clear sign of its attempt to blend into its hunting environment.

"Your voice is annoying," said Marian, swinging back her long blade once again, injuring the creature. She swung it again, this time with much more force, the blade still lodged in its body. Using her strength, Marian slashed hard—slicing the serpent cleanly in half.

"Not even an elite beast, but dares to eye me? Pthu," she muttered, spitting on the creature’s corpse.

After that, she didn’t linger in the area, wary of the accurate guards from the third watchtower. Running away, she approached the third watchtower from a different direction.

Unlike the second watchtower, which was located in a popular area, the third watchtower was built in a more solitary location—for the specific reason of observing the teleportation circle more clearly from the top of the tower.

"Time to show your abilities," muttered Marian, taking out a slime-like creature from her bag.

"After learning that the thing Nick used has a time limit on its perfect camouflage ability, I didn’t even use it in the carriage to hide from the guards—just to save its energy and time," she said, as she stretched the creature and placed it on her back.

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