Ch.52Dragon Clan and Demon Clan (5)

# Dragon and Demon Race (5)

At Lug’s cry, Esmeralda immediately turned her body.

Lug is a demon spy.

Even now, he’s selling information about the hero’s party to the Demon King’s army.

Although they know his intentions, and the information he sells is manipulated.

Lug is clearly an enemy.

“Ugh!”

But Esmeralda had no choice but to save him.

She wasn’t acting based on rational understanding but following where her heart led.

The moment she heard Lug’s voice, Esmeralda could only think about saving her comrade.

Whether he was a demon spy or whatever else.

Right now, he was just someone who needed to be saved.

“Hnnnngh!!”

Esmeralda was being pushed back while hanging onto the holy sword she had thrust into the boulder.

Fortunately, the boulder was pushing rather than rolling, so holding on with the sword embedded wasn’t causing too much impact.

Of course, that was just the boulder.

Esmeralda hugged Lug tighter to protect him from the traps activating in real-time.

Behind her back, the ruins’ traps began flying at them.

“Ugh!”

Though she tried her best to counter with her magical equipment and the minor spells she had learned, Esmeralda knew she couldn’t block everything.

That’s why she told him to duck down while embracing him.

She could endure it, but the physically weak Lug couldn’t.

Even as she felt the pain pounding her back and the aching in her wrist from failing to break the boulder, Esmeralda kept her eyes wide open.

‘I don’t know what’s at the end.’

If someone designed these ruins, they wouldn’t have placed meaningless traps. The force of the approaching boulder was intense, but there was no worry about being crushed to death.

Of course, just being hit would be enough to put an ordinary person at death’s door.

But since Esmeralda had reduced the impact through her holy sword, she could actually stay close to the boulder.

If the only purpose was to push them back and activate traps, there would have been better methods from the start.

Then, most likely, there would be a dead end at the end of this passage.

While responding to traps, they’d be pushed against the wall by the boulder and die trapped.

With such a future clearly forming, Esmeralda needed to come up with some solution.

“Haaaah…”

Even in pain, Esmeralda took steady breaths and gripped her sword.

The sword deeply embedded in the boulder.

It was impossible to swing it. Then the only option was to shatter the boulder without swinging.

Her wrist still ached from when she had thrust the sword into the boulder.

‘Pain is better than death.’

Esmeralda grabbed the holy sword with both hands and poured her strength into it.

She concentrated all the mana she could use at the tip of the sword.

KWAAANG!

Normally a choice for thrusting.

But this time, she exploded the power concentrated at that single point.

Rock fragments scattered everywhere as Esmeralda and Lug rolled across the floor from the impact.

Even in that brief moment, Esmeralda deflected and avoided the activated traps with superhuman willpower.

After rolling across the floor for a while, Esmeralda finally managed to stop.

“Haa… haa…”

Only then did she let out the breath she’d been holding. The burning pain she had felt on her back was gone.

Her body had reached its limit and was secreting endorphins for survival.

So there was no pain.

But instead, a clear sensation was belatedly felt.

“Eek?!”

Come to think of it, she was still embracing Lug. Esmeralda’s face heated up as she noticed Lug tightly hugging her, just as she had told him to.

Not only was his face buried in her chest, but one of his hands was firmly grasping and kneading it.

Esmeralda was so dumbfounded that she couldn’t say anything.

It seemed like he had done it almost unconsciously, so it was hard to get angry.

After all, she wasn’t the only one who had rolled around chaotically. While she was exerting herself, Lug had also secretly provided support using magic.

He must have thought that surviving was more important than worrying about identities. Esmeralda looked down at Lug, who was still clinging to her, with a calmer demeanor.

Then suddenly.

“Ah?!”

Esmeralda jumped in surprise at an unexpected sensation.

Instead of pain, she felt something like a strange pleasure.

Unfortunately, not knowing it was due to the excessive endorphins, she trembled in fear.

‘No way, it can’t be.’

Esmeralda cursed herself for what she felt from Lug’s touch.

The fact that Lug was still continuing his sexual harassment wasn’t the important thing.

‘No, what am I saying?! It is important!’

Esmeralda immediately tapped Lug who was clinging to her.

“…It’s over now, so could you let go?”

She could have forcibly removed him, but she didn’t want to.

It felt like acknowledging the pleasure she had just felt.

“Ah, ahem. Thank you. Hero, to think you would save me like this!”

Fortunately, Lug, valuing his life, immediately detached himself and bowed his head before Esmeralda.

It was true that she had saved him. And the slight guilt he felt for being nestled in her embrace and focusing intently on her chest completely erased any hesitation in his actions.

Demon King’s army or whatever, at this moment, Lug genuinely considered the hero his benefactor.

“…”

Esmeralda, for some reason, adjusted her clothes while looking at Lug who was breathing heavily.

The cleavage between her breasts felt damp, which was unpleasant. Of course, she tried to think it was sweat, but still.

“Huh?”

Was it because she thought that?

Esmeralda only now realized that she was drenched in sweat.

Come to think of it, just because she couldn’t feel pain didn’t mean she wasn’t injured.

Her body had blocked the pain for survival in the face of potentially fatal injuries.

And now that the tension was released.

‘Ah…’

Esmeralda collapsed.

The moment she thought her vision was blurry, her sight went dark.

***

For Esmeralda, injuries of this level were a constant companion.

After all, she was the hero.

She had to face challenges head-on that others avoided as dangerous.

Doing what others couldn’t do, willingly walking paths others refused to take—that was what she considered being a hero.

In the process, Esmeralda had overcome numerous near-death experiences.

Losing consciousness like this was nothing new.

It was commonplace for her to fight with her life on the line on the battlefield, defeat the enemy, and then collapse in that state.

Some might fear losing consciousness like that, but…

‘Oh my, the hero overdid it again?’

‘Esmeralda’s not moving. Should we take her to the village?’

‘Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Esmeralda! Wake up! If you sleep here, you’ll die!’

Because she had comrades she could entrust her back to, she could always give her best. Although one of them was thinking of grinding her into a holy relic, and another considered her just material for magical research.

Nevertheless, Esmeralda could trust them.

More precisely, she trusted the situation of collapsing between two people who would never allow one-sided benefit…

Besides that, there were also many cases where she trusted them simply because they were comrades.

‘Hup! Don’t worry, Esmeralda. I know a shortcut. Just get some good rest, and when you wake up, you’ll be in a hospital bed.’

Yes, Tina.

At least her friend.

Had always been sincere with Esmeralda. She was truly someone whose back she could trust and rely on.

That’s why Esmeralda could cross the line between life and death so many times.

Because she had a friend who genuinely worried about her and comrades who would choose to save her even if it was a calculated action. But there was something even she couldn’t understand.

“Phew… I think that’s enough first aid for now.”

It was the demon spy, Lug, who had no reason to help her.

Of course, he needed to keep up appearances. To avoid being exposed as a demon, acting like a comrade made sense.

But in a situation like this where no one was watching. When she didn’t even have the strength to resist. Even if she died, it would end as an unfortunate accident.

Despite all these conditions being met, Lug saved Esmeralda.

It would have been more reasonable for him to take the opportunity to kill her.

Though the ruins would be dangerous, moving alone would be better than dragging along an injured hero.

“Hehe, preparation is indeed important. The hero’s party doesn’t understand that.”

Although he no longer needed to carry luggage after Millia became able to use spatial magic, he stubbornly insisted on carrying a small backpack. Whether it was the pride of a porter or something else, Esmeralda didn’t really care.

But what about now?

What came out of that backpack were all sorts of herbs and potions.

Yes, literally emergency supplies.

And he was using all those emergency supplies to treat Esmeralda.

They were items originally meant for himself, who couldn’t receive holy power, yet he was using them without hesitation.

‘What are you, really?’

She couldn’t understand such a Lug.

Sometimes he guided her into traps, sometimes he sold information that could harm her.

But then sometimes he threw himself to protect her. He went to great lengths to save her.

She couldn’t understand such contradictory attitudes. What did he really want?

Was he just drifting like a buoy, following the fluctuations in his heart?

Esmeralda found Lug difficult.

She couldn’t understand his stupid yet pure mindset.

‘I’m afraid of you.’

She also felt fear toward someone who made different judgments in the same situation.

‘But…’

He was a necessary presence in this party, but also the one Esmeralda should be most wary of. However, despite that. Despite knowing all of that.

‘I think I’d feel empty without you.’

Esmeralda found herself trusting him despite everything.