BOUNDED BY MOONLIGHT のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 61 - チャプター 70

The rain had stopped sometime in the early morning, leaving the forest heavy with the scent of damp earth and moss. Mist curled lazily between the trees, wrapping the world in a strange, dreamlike haze. Elora walked slowly, her boots sinking into the softened soil, each step echoing in the hollow quiet.Joel was just ahead of her, his figure tall and steady, his shoulders broad beneath his dark coat. She could see the faint movement of his hand resting against the hilt of his blade, the way he always did when he sensed danger. He glanced back at her once, offering a faint smile—the kind of smile that told her everything was going to be fine.But the forest didn’t feel fine.The trees seemed… wrong. Too tall. Too close. Their trunks were crooked, their branches gnarled into unnatural shapes that twisted together above her head like skeletal fingers blocking out the sky. Even the ground felt untrustworthy, soft in places where no roots should grow. And when she looked too long at the sp

The air felt heavier now, thick enough that Elora had to consciously pull it into her lungs. Each breath scraped against her throat like ash. The shadows between the ruined houses seemed to stretch and ripple, almost like they were breathing with her, mocking the rhythm of her pulse.She clung to Joel’s side, her fingers tightening on his arm as her eyes darted over every jagged corner and gaping doorway. Even the silence here felt wrong—alive, waiting.Joel moved with slow precision, each step calculated, his blade angled slightly forward. His voice, when it came, was a whisper barely louder than the rustle of the mist.“Don’t look too long at anything. Sometimes… these ruins look back.”A chill crept down Elora’s spine. She forced her gaze upward, away from the yawning blackness of the doorways. Instead, she fixed on Joel’s back—the solid, steady shape of him, the way his shoulders stayed squared even when the darkness seemed to press against them. She counted each measured step he

The warmth felt dangerous.It wrapped around Elora like a heavy cloak, coaxing her to sink into it, to stop running, to stop questioning. Every part of it was crafted to soothe—soft air that smelled of fresh bread and pine resin, the faint sweetness of honey cakes drifting from unseen kitchens, golden dusk frozen overhead like time itself had been painted across the sky.Children darted through the streets, their laughter high and unbroken, ribbons trailing from their hands as they chased one another between stalls overflowing with fruit. Merchants called out their wares, voices bright, melodic, rhythmic. The fountain she’d seen cracked and broken only moments ago now gurgled with clean water, its basin overflowing with wildflowers.The entire settlement breathed—alive, whole, untouched by ash.And in the center of it, Joel stood.Her breath caught at the sight of him. His hair was a little longer than she remembered from the ruins, strands falling into his golden eyes. He stood in th

The dead did not breathe was an odd thing for elora to think.That was the first thing Elora noticed as they began to close in.No rise or fall of chests. No puff of white in the frigid night air. Just silence—an oppressive, smothering kind of silence—broken only by the faint drag of limbs over the forest floor.Joel shifted, placing himself between her and the closest one. His stance was controlled, almost eerily calm, but she could see the tension in his shoulders, the subtle way his weight shifted to the balls of his feet. He was ready to strike—not out of fear, but because hesitation would kill them.“Elora,” he murmured without glancing back, “stay behind me. No matter what happens.”She nodded, but the sound of her own pulse in her ears was so loud she wasn’t sure the gesture even registered. Her fingers twitched toward the hilt of the short dagger at her side, but it felt like the most useless scrap of metal in the world against… whatever these things were.The one in the cente

The clearing erupted into motion.Shadows tore forward from the tree line like water breaking free of a dam. They weren’t men, not fully, though they wore the shape of bodies. Limbs jerked unnaturally, bending too far back, snapping forward with sickening precision, as if invisible strings yanked them into place. Their mouths gaped open, soundless but hungry, their hollow eyes lit with a faint, unnatural light.The air thickened, each breath a struggle, heavy with frost that had no business in this summer night. The temperature dropped so sharply Elora’s teeth chattered. Her lungs burned, every inhale like swallowing glass.Joel stepped in front of her. His blade caught the moonlight in a blinding arc, a sliver of vengeance poised to strike. His stance shifted, all tension and coiled power, every muscle honed for survival.“Stay behind me,” he ordered, his voice low but edged with steel. It was the voice of someone who knew he couldn’t afford to be ignored.Elora’s heart beat so fast