Chapter 24: That’s not happening.
Chapter 24: That’s not happening.
Natalie ignored her before continuing. " Your carriage has already been properly stocked and taken care of, we can leave at any time, you need only say the word."
Rather than replying immediately, Osborne turned silent.
" I don’t think I have any intentions of leaving." He finally spoke up.
"...?!" A look of bewilderment emerged on Natalie’s face.
" Are you joking?!" Clawdeth on the other hand didn’t take the news lightly.
" Is it possible for me to enroll into the military now." Osborne ignored both of them and spoke directly to the platoon leader.
" W-What?" The man stuttered, taken aback by the unbelievable request.
" I’m saying is it possible for you to accept me into your platoon. I don’t need any fancy positions, a simple foot soldiers rank would do just fine." Osborne said before placing a hand to his chest. " I’m also fine with any form of accommodation. Please! Just let me enroll here!"
" W-Well that, I–" the Platoon leader tried speaking only to freeze up when Clawdeth shot him a spine-chilling side glance.
" Young master... We were explicitly ordered to take you back to the estate with us."
" And like I said, I don’t ever want to go back to that place~" Osbourne’s expression turned nervous.
WHOOSH~!
As if in line with him, the rusted dagger emerged in his hand right then.
" I’m afraid you don’t understand, Lady Guinevere told us that we were to bring you back with us no matter what." Clawdeth didn’t seem fazed by the appearance of the sword.
"...?!" Osborne body jolted in fear when her figure vanished before his eyes in a split second.
The next moment he felt a sharp pain at the back of his neck, before his vision darkened.
THUD
Osborne fell onto the wooden floor face first.
" Ungrateful little piece of shit~" Clawdeth muttered through gritted teeth as she stood behind his unconscious body.
" Clawdeth did you really have to go that far." Natalie said, massaging her temple.
" The bastard asked for it." She retorted. " You! Go get me something to use and tie him up!"
" A-As you wish." The frightened platoon leader left in a hurry, back then, even he wasn’t able to follow her movements at all, which told him that these vassals weren’t your everyday people.
" I didn’t notice he had a magical item on him, but why does it look so filthy?" Natalie squatted next to the dagger that dropped beside Osborne.
" He’s the son of some poor baron, maybe that’s the best they could afford."
" Don’t be rude." Natalie gave her a look.
Natalie reached and grabbed the dagger.
’ Huh?’ but she was taken aback when she realised she couldn’t pull it up in the slightest.
********
Osborne’s eyes shot open.
’ What?’ but to his surprise, he saw that he wasn’t in the Platoon leaders office but a vast grassy plain with a forest in the distance.
What really struck him as strange, was that the sky was blood red.
’ Is this some kind of a dream?’ Osborne wondered.
Thump~
’ Huh?’ He felt his feet hit something as he stepped forward.
Osborne squatted down to get a better look.
He saw a rabbit made of stone in the grass which struck him as odd.
Crack~ Crack~ Crack~
’ It’s breaking apart?’
He watched as the stone statue or should he say the stone exterior, broke apart little by little, revealing a fluffy white bunny hidden beneath.
The bubby shook off the lingering dust from it’s body, before raising its head to stare at Osborne.
’ What kind of dream am I having for a bunny to crawl out of stone–’ He wondered.
He didn’t get to finish his sentence when the rabbit jumped at him.
SHREIIII!!!!
The rodent let out a frenzied cry as it landed on his thigh.
CHOMP~!
" URRRGH!" Osborne groaned.
’ What the fuck?!’ he panicked, grab in the rabbit and tossing it away.
’ Did that rabbit have rabies or something?! Why would it suddenly bite me like that?!’
Osborne felt a stinging pain and looked down to see that the monster had bitten deep drawing blood.
’ F*CK, that hurts~’ he winced in pain. ’ I need to get out of here and find something to disinfectant this.’ he said to himself.
CRACK~ CRACK~ CRACK~
"...?!" Without even being able to finish his thoughts, he heard the sound of stones cracking all around him, over and over and over again.
He vividly remembered the first time he’d heard it.
Osborne felt his heart rate accelerating, his heart beat thumping loudly in his ears.
Shhh-shhh~
Shhh-shhh~
Shhh-shhh~
Shhh-shhh~
Shhh-shhh~
It didn’t take long beforehand he heard the sound of grass rustling all around him.
Without hesitation, Osborne made a break for it towards the forest.
Shhh-shhh~
Crack~
Shhh-shhh~
Crack~
Shhh-shhh~
Crack~
Shhh-shhh~
The rustling sounds grew closer the more he ran, as well as the sound of more murderous rabbits coming awake.
SHREEIIII!!!
One murderous rabbit was able to catch up and leaped forward.
" ARRGHH!!" Osborne cried out in pain as it bit one of his ankles.
He suddenly lost all his senses in his right leg, dropping down.
His face paled at the realisation that the rabbit had damaged on of his motor nerves.
SWOOSH~
But hope came back to him when the rusted dagger emerged in his hand.
Osborne forced himself to sit up straight, holding the dagger tight in his right hand.
He felt a chill go down his back watching a lone rabbit with blood on its mall walk out of the grass he hadn’t flattened from running.
It’s little cute eyes filled with nothing but killing intent as it stared at him.
Just when Osborne felt like he had a chance, more and more rabbits began creeping out all around him.
1, 2, 3, 4...10, 11....20...30...40...60...90....
Their numbers kept increasing and increasing.
With each second more of them could be seen all around him.
Osborne’s face had long since lost its luster as despair threatened to take over.
’...No... please... I don’t want this...’ tears streamed down his cheeks as he sobbed. ’ If this is some kind of dream, I’d really like to wake up right now...’