Reincarnated as an Elf Prince-Chapter 128: Strange Events (4)

Kel groaned. "Why is it always me bleeding when we do this?"

Ren didn't answer.

Kel turned his head, eyes barely open. "I'm just saying. Maybe next time one of you gets haunted."

Ardan muttered, "Haunted?"

"Yes," Kel said. "By whatever that was back there. It followed us. Don't lie."

Lindarion didn't look away from the water.

'He's not wrong. But he's not really useful either.'

"Your name's not really Kel," he said without turning.

Kel hesitated.

Then sighed. "No. Not really."

"Then what is it?"

A beat.

Kel looked at Ren. She didn't move.

"Does it matter?" he said finally.

"Yes," Lindarion said.

Kel scratched his jaw with a shaking hand. "Fine. Meren. It was Meren. A long time ago."

Ardan stopped pacing. "Why change it?"

Kel gave a tired shrug. "Don't like being followed."

Ren laughed softly, just once.

"Didn't work," Lindarion said.

"No," Kel said. "Didn't."

Lindarion stood. Brushed frost off his knees. He didn't look at Ren yet. Not directly. Just let his eyes pass over her in pieces. Coat. Boots.

Fingers twitching like she'd just thought of something clever and decided not to say it.

"Tell me the truth," he said finally. "Why was he out there alone?"

Ren tilted her head. The cloud cover made her skin look even paler. Her eyes didn't change.

"I told you."

"No," Lindarion said. "You danced around it."

She smirked. "Maybe I just like dancing."

'Gods. She's worse than the professors in the academy.'

[Core Recovery Complete]

It hit all at once.

His spine straightened. His breath deepened without effort. Every muscle shifted slightly, like they remembered how to move right again. Even the cold didn't bite the same way.

The system didn't say anything.

'Finally..'

It didn't have to.

He felt steady.

Kel didn't.

The guy was breathing shallow now, but his hands were steadier. Still bleeding, but slower.

Ren walked closer to the river. Her boots left no print in the snow. Lindarion didn't miss that.

She stared at the water.

"It doesn't remember," she said.

"What doesn't?"

"Anything. You can scream into it, cry into it, bleed into it. Doesn't matter. The current forgets. That's why people like it."

Lindarion watched her. Her voice hadn't changed. But something under it had.

"Did you come out here to forget something?"

"No," she said. "I came to make sure someone else couldn't."

Ardan turned his head slowly.

"Vague. Ominous. Fantastic."

Kel winced. "Can we not do the cryptic thing right now? Just once?"

Ren didn't answer.

Lindarion turned his eyes upstream. Something flickered on the far side of the water.

A shadow.

Gone by the time he blinked.

Ren saw it too. She smiled.

"Still watching," she said softly. "Good."

She didn't sound worried.

And that was the part that worried him most.

The wind circled once, slow and low like it had forgotten how to rise. It curled under his collar, brushed the side of his throat.

Not cold. Not warm. Just… interested.

'This wind is listening.'

Behind him, Meren groaned. "Can we move? I'm gonna start hearing things in the ice."

"No," Ardan muttered. "You already are."

"Cool. That's great. Love that for me," Meren said, quieter now.

Ren didn't move. Still standing at the river's edge, her coat straight, her hands buried deep like she was trying not to touch the world too much.

Lindarion watched her shoulders. They didn't tense. Didn't settle. Just stayed exactly where they were, like she was waiting for a conversation to catch up.

'She's not scared. Not tense. Not frozen. Just… still. Like this part of the forest asked her to stay and she said okay.'

He shifted a few steps to the right. Her coat didn't so much as twitch in the wind.

'Why doesn't the cold touch her?'

Her right hand hadn't moved since the ruins. He was sure of it now.

'No fidgeting. No reaction. She's saving it. For what? Is she insane?'

The river cracked.

No splash. No break. Just a soft crunch like a jaw setting itself.

Lindarion looked across.

The shadow was there again.

This time it wasn't flickering or pretending.

It just stood.

Tall. Thin. Wrong.

Like someone had drawn a person from memory and lost interest halfway through.

He didn't move. Not yet.

But his breath slowed.

'That's not a scout. That's not even camouflage. It's just… showing off. What the hell?'

Ardan's sword cleared the scabbard like it had done this before. No alarm. Just routine.

Meren shrank further into the tree.

Ren smiled. Not wide. Just enough to confirm she was still enjoying herself.

"Took it long enough," she said.

Lindarion stepped forward. Just far enough to be between her and it.

Not to protect her. Just in case she didn't plan to dodge.

"You expected that?"

"Yes."

He waited. Nothing else came.

'And there it is. One-word answers. Nothing seems to be urgent for her unless she's the one causing something.'

She tilted her head. Just slightly.

"But it's not what I thought. Smells different."

Lindarion felt the bottom drop out of his spine.

'Don't say it. Please don't say it.'

"Ancient magic," he said before she could.

The second the words left his mouth, the weight in the air pressed tighter.

Not just around him. Through him.

'Perfect. Brilliant. Now it knows we know.'

"Not local," he added quietly. "Not recent."

"Correct," said the shadow.

The voice didn't belong to it.

It wasn't deep. Wasn't distorted. Wasn't even loud.

Just clear. And far too close.

Like it had been waiting for its cue.

'God damn this forest.'

Lindarion's fingers hovered near the inside of his coat. He didn't need to look to feel the warmth again, low and steady in his chest.

The system didn't speak. It never did now. Back when he was brought into this world the system was so chatty and chaotic.

However it had quieted down way too much, not even giving him any tasks he could complete.

'I'll figure it out later, It's not important for now.'