Forbidden Ground

"Ribbit!"

A shrill croak rang out abruptly, shattering the stillness by the lake. The young witch and wizard, who had just been pressed together, sprang apart as if struck by lightning and looked around in panic.

Not far away, the cobra had somehow slipped down from the rockery. It had a spotted frog's hind leg clamped firmly in its jaws. The poor amphibian seemed to have only just crawled out of its burrow and had yet to adapt to the bitter cold of the frozen landscape. Its movements were sluggish, and in a moment of carelessness, it had fallen victim to the long snake's ambush.

Perhaps because they had long been exposed to the Magic World, both the cobra and the spotted frog possessed remarkable resilience against nature—especially the spotted frog. Though its hind leg had been bitten by a venomous snake, it still stubbornly clawed forward with its two forelegs, struggling toward Life Force and refusing to yield to Death God's scythe.

"Ribbit! Ribbit! Ribbit!!"

The frog's front claws were smeared with black mud, foam dribbled from the corners of its mouth, and its screams rose ever higher. Even with most of its body swallowed into the cobra's belly, it still refused to abandon its hope of living.

"What a noisy bastard."

The young scholarship student muttered a curse under his breath. He had no intention of lending the frog a hand—he felt that not stuffing the amphibian straight into that long snake's mouth already counted as great mercy—but then he realized that his reaction seemed somewhat politically incorrect. He could not help casting a worried glance at the Gypsy witch beside him.

Fortunately, the witch did not seem to have heard his quiet curse. Her cheeks were slightly red as she looked toward the center of the lake.