Chapter 343: Vera's Tracking, and a Secret?

1. Home
2. /
3. Series
4. /
5. Mind-Controlled by the Villainess? I’ll Turn the Tables and Make Her Mine!
6. /
7. Chapter 343

After coaxing Celia to sleep, Ansu patiently accompanied her for a good while longer.

Only when her breathing had completely stabilized and she let out soft, shallow snores did Ansu's furrowed brow slightly relax.

He stood up, lifted the tent curtain, and looked out at the scarlet sky to the southwest.

Not much time remained in the simulation, yet there were still no clues regarding the exact location of the 【Filthy Heart】...

He prepared to use this time to continue his search.

Lost in thought, he raised his head, searching for that circling black figure among the churning clouds, and waved her down.

A moment later, Altina-Crow flapped her wings and dove, landing lightly on his shoulder.

Her dark, bead-like eyes stared at Ansu. “Those crazy things Vera and Celia were shouting at you earlier... I heard all of it.”

Ansu glanced at her. “You're quite the gossip. I thought you went out to scout.”

“I just happened to hear it while passing by... and I really was scouting just now!” Altina-Crow fluttered her wings slightly, making sure to emphasize her point.

Then, she teased with a voice full of sympathy, “By the way, Ansu, you sure have had a busy day~”

Ansu rubbed his throbbing temples, feeling a headache coming on. “I had no choice... I couldn't just let her keep going crazy. That would truly jeopardize the mission.”

After all, Miss Witch could be their strongest combatant, an MVP powerhouse...

...but she could also be the most dangerous variable, the ultimate keeper of the little black room.

“So, shall we continue exploring?” Altina-Crow tilted her head and asked.

“Yeah, of course.” Ansu nodded, then carefully glanced back at the tent.

After confirming once more that she was sleeping peacefully, he said in a low voice:

“Let's go... but keep the noise to a minimum.”

Altina couldn't help but chuckle, feeling that Ansu was being a bit too paranoid, but she still agreed: “Don't worry~ I'm quieter than a nightingale when I fly!”

The man and the crow stepped back onto the blood-red wasteland, heading southwest toward where the blood mist was thickest.

Visibility along the way was shockingly poor, with only blurry black silhouettes visible beyond ten meters. The wind blew a rancid, rotting stench into their faces, clinging stickily to their skin, making the entire journey feel increasingly frustrating and oppressive.

As they made their way...

Suddenly, Altina-Crow's warning came from mid-air. “Ansu, watch out!”

“At four o'clock, five infected are wandering toward you!”

Ansu immediately gathered his mana.

A cold light condensed out of thin air into a frost-covered magic greatsword. The blade, several meters long, slashed horizontally in an instant.

【Academy Magic - Radial Greatsword (4th Circle)】

The space over ten meters away seemed to be cleanly sliced open. After a few muffled thuds in the blood mist, the five infected, who hadn't even had the chance to reveal themselves, were sliced in half.

“Behind you, Ansu!”

Altina-Crow's voice rang out again, even more urgent than before.

“There are a lot of them this time! They're trying to hunt you down!”

Ansu spun around. An invisible gravity field violently expanded outward with him at the center, forcibly tearing through the churning blood mist and instantly making his vision several times clearer.

On a slope in the wasteland, he saw swarms of twisted monsters surging out from a vast stretch of ruins.

Their bodies were covered in tumors and tentacles, and their finger bones had mutated to be as sharp as knives. Roaring, they lunged down from the high ground with bared fangs and claws.

These monsters, no longer resembling humans, had originally been people—likely the residents of an entire town who had been corrupted together into these 'scarlet infected.'

Moreover, this pack of 'scarlet infected' possessed some degree of intelligence. They weren't charging blindly; instead, they were coordinating to encircle him. Ansu could hear low, rumbling growls echoing from the mist to his flanks.

Thinking quickly, Ansu immediately began chanting a long, obscure incantation. Mana surged in wave after wave, and a scorching sphere of light slowly rose from his fingertips.

【Sunburst (7th Circle Evocation magic)】

“Stop flying around, hide behind me,” Ansu shouted into the air.

Altina could sense the terrifying power of the yet-to-be-triggered spell, so she quickly dove down and landed on Ansu's shoulder once more.

As the spell finished gathering, a thunderous explosion erupted. Blinding fiery light instantly overpowered the scarlet sky, as if a second sun had appeared in mid-air.

The violent explosion swept through a massive area, further pulverizing the ruins. Charred chunks of flesh scattered in all directions, and a choking smell of burning mixed with the stench of blood rushed over them.

For Ansu, who was already a high-tier mage, using a high-tier spell to quickly clear the area was the optimal choice in this situation, even if it consumed a massive amount of mana.

The blood mist dispersed quickly, but gathered just as fast.

Within moments, the thick crimson swallowed their vision once more. Low growls continued to echo from deep within the blood-red wasteland, their sheer numbers sending a chill down one's spine.

“We need to speed up...” Ansu murmured.

The land of the South was well-suited for farming, making it heavily populated with numerous villages... However, that past prosperity had now become an obstacle to their advance.

Countless citizens had been corrupted into scarlet infected, occupying this blood-red wasteland and forming a barrier of flesh and blood.

Fortunately, the coordination between the two was quite good.

Altina-Crow was responsible for high-altitude scouting, her nimble form weaving through the blood mist as she constantly reported the positions and numbers of the infected, while the clearing on the ground was left entirely to Ansu.

The rumblings of mana explosions echoed one after another as the man and the crow pushed deeper into the mist step by step.

...

By dusk, their search had still yielded no results.

Ansu stopped for the moment, finding a sheltered slope to start a campfire.

The flames crackled in the scarlet mist, casting a small ring of warm light against the surrounding gloom.

With a soft rustle of wings, Altina-Crow landed with practiced ease, folding her wings as if Ansu's shoulder were her most familiar branch.

“Guess what I just found?”

She said in a helpless tone, “Vera is tailing us from behind.”

“But seriously... how did she keep up? This is too amazing!”

Granted, the two of them walking ahead had cleared the monsters along the way, making it relatively safe, but with the current visibility, one couldn't even see the path underfoot. A slight misstep could lead to getting lost or falling off a ledge...

Even she had to repeatedly coordinate the route with Ansu from mid-air, yet Vera had actually managed to follow them all this way?

Her tracking skills were honestly too impressive!

Ansu rubbed his temples and glanced back the way they came.

Since visibility was too poor, he raised his hand and cast a gravity spell. As the blood mist swirled away, his vision opened up briefly.

Right behind a clump of withered bushes in the distance, there was indeed a petite figure huddled up as tightly as possible, fully believing she was perfectly hidden.

It really was Vera...

Ansu withdrew his gaze helplessly.

“Who knows... if she wants to follow, let her. We'll ignore her for now.”

Altina let out a giggle. “Honestly, I feel a bit sorry for you...”

Ansu turned his head to look at the large crow on his shoulder.

The journey this far had been anything but easy, and by now, the only ones left with a relatively normal mental state were actually just the two of them.

Taking advantage of the break, a question that had been buried deep in his heart resurfaced.

“Altina...” Ansu began inquisitively, “Why are you completely unaffected? You're clearly the most miraculous one here, aren't you?”

Altina fell silent.

A trace of hesitation flashed through her dark, bead-like eyes, as if she were repeatedly weighing her options.

Ansu didn't urge her, only waiting quietly, but his stance was clear—he wanted an answer today.

In truth, he had a few guesses of his own.

As an elven princess, Altina should possess the highest tier of nature magic. He had never deeply understood this mysterious, primal magic, and perhaps there was some secret hidden within it.

Or... it could simply be understood as Altina having accumulated some sort of resistance from fighting the mana plague for hundreds of years, similar to Radish's constitution?

But no matter what, he felt these explanations fell just a bit short.

“I...”

Altina finally spoke, her voice slightly softer and slower than usual.

“Actually, this is my secret—a secret I've kept hidden for a very, very long time. I thought I would never tell anyone in my entire life.”

She paused, staring deeply at Ansu, her eyes flickering with what seemed to be a deeper meaning.

“But now, we are teammates fighting side by side, and at such a critical moment... if you want to know, Ansu...”

“I can tell you.”

...