episode_0083

“Things have definitely gotten serious.”

The appearance of the Hero, an otherworldly person, and his companion, the high-ranking succubus Ermel. Their arrival was clearly a momentous event and a crisis.

“Can you stand up?”

“Yes. Thanks to Killua-nim…” With Killua-nim’s magic, all the toxins in my body were detoxified, and I stood up lightly, my body feeling much lighter.

“Alright. Then carry me on your back.” Then, Killua-nim, who had been sitting on the floor, suddenly extended both arms towards me, asking for a piggyback ride.

“Are you sure?” I remembered the time we escaped when she had lost her magic. I had tried to carry her on my back when she sprained her ankle, but she had vehemently refused. So I asked her intentions again.

“Surely you don’t mean to make me walk through the forest path with these bare, wounded feet?”

“Back then… didn’t you try to descend a dangerous slope even with a sprained ankle?”

When I brought up the story of that time, which had now become a memory, Killua-nim let out a small laugh.

“Both you and I have changed a lot since then, haven’t we?”

“Well… I don’t think I’ve changed at all…” Even as I said that, I turned my back to Killua-nim and lowered my posture to carry her as she requested.

Then Killua-nim wrapped her arms gently around my neck without hesitation, pressing her body close.

“Oof.” I lightly grasped Killua-nim’s thighs on my back and straightened up from my lowered posture.

“You’ve changed a lot. Your body has become stronger, and your personality has become a little… bolder, I guess?” As if to prove her point, she lightly massaged my shoulder.

As Killua-nim said, compared to the time when I only worked as a secretary, my flesh and skin had toughened to the point where I could call it muscle.

“Killua-nim too…” To reciprocate her praise for my changes, I tried to think of how she had changed.

But no matter how much I thought about it, Killua-nim, the White Mage, was still the same White Mage as before.

It was just that…

“I think I’ve come to know Killua-nim better.”

“What? You? Me?” Surprised by my words, Killua-nim let out a small laugh.

But I remained unfazed by her laughter and calmly spoke the words that came to mind.

“You are affectionate, kind, and considerate… and sometimes, you possessed a maiden-like sensibility.”

“Ahahaha! That’s hilarious~” My words must have truly amused her, as she slapped my back, bursting into laughter.

Killua-nim, who had burst into refreshing laughter, let out a small sigh as if to calm her slightly ragged breath from laughing. Then, still wrapped around my neck, she entrusted her entire body to my gently swaying back as I walked, and said,

“It seems I’ve come to know you better too, no less than you know me.”

“It’s an honor.” I responded plainly to Killua’s murmur, which held an undeniable subtle lingering attachment and a mix of love and hate.

As I walked, I saw her hands wrapped around my neck.

Her clasped hands, as if revealing the swirling emotions and worries in her heart, were constantly fidgeting.

Trying to ignore that fidgeting, I continued walking, and the outline of the Hero’s house came into view.

“Hey… Jazel.” Killua-nim, who had stopped her fidgeting hands, called out to me, her face resting on my back, as if she had made up her mind.

“Please don’t misunderstand.”

“Yes, I understand.” Her warning brought back a déjà vu of the moment I was planning how to rescue Ariel from the slime.

“To erase the high-ranking succubus’s marking… I need one more of my fragments.”

“……” At Killua’s words, I felt a tingling sensation on my forehead where Ermel’s marking was left.

“To do that… I think we’ll have to leave together.”

“We, together, you mean…” At her words, my feet, which had been heading towards the Hero’s house, stopped abruptly.

Perhaps expecting my reaction, I felt her clasped hands, wrapped around my neck, tighten as if anxious.

“Yes. As long as the marking remains, the succubus will continue to come to exploit you. If you keep being exploited, your body will gradually weaken… until finally, only a shriveled mummy remains.”

“Is there no other way besides finding the fragment?”

“Shaking off the succubus by your own power is also a method.”

At Killua’s words, I bit my lower lip hard.

Shaking off the succubus by my own power? And not just an ordinary succubus, but a high-ranking one that even Killua-nim was wary of?

Even as I watched Ariel, whom I truly loved, being taken from before my eyes, I couldn’t shake off the succubus.

Killua had merely mentioned that such a method existed.

“Then… what will happen to Ariel?” “……” I had been gnawing on my lower lip for a moment, then asked her the question I feared most. But even Killua-nim seemed uncomfortable answering my question, as she rested her forehead on my back and took a small, deep breath.

“The changes in fate caused by the succubus are temporary. But… if time passes, that change becomes permanent.”

“Permanent…”

The journey to retrieve the fragment would by no means be short. Eaton Village was in the southern region of the continent. The closest fragment was in Belton City, the continent’s center. Just traveling from Eaton Village in the south to Belton City in the center would take at least two months. Even if we managed to retrieve Killua-nim’s second fragment somehow… After such a long time, more than two months, the Hero and Ariel would undoubtedly have become an inseparable couple, beyond any intervention.

“And the otherworldly Hero is also a dangerous existence.” Following that, Killua-nim brought up the Hero’s dangerous nature.

“Most otherworldly people are self-centered and selfish, and they believe that their own concepts and common sense are superior, forcing them upon others.”

As she said, looking at the Hero’s actions, using his companion and subordinate succubus to steal Ariel from me, one could feel their selfishness and abnormal common sense.

Even the Golden Empress, who first used fraudulent contracts, which didn’t exist in this world. These otherworldly people were bringing concepts and common sense from their own world into ours and abusing them.

“Falling into the sight of such guys will not bring any benefit… and my own situation will become quite dangerous.”

This was a Hero who used a succubus to take Ariel from me and intended to manipulate her as he pleased.

What would happen if such a Hero encountered Killua-nim, the White Mage? I could clearly see his eyes gleaming with greed and lust.

“Can’t we defeat the Hero?”

“I’m sorry… In the past, I could have handled him easily, but with my current power, it’s impossible.” Killua revealed her helplessness to me in a voice trembling with quiet anger.

No matter that she was a White Mage, it was impossible to face a Hero who wielded strange powers received from a goddess with only a handful of magic.

Understanding her situation, I bit my lower lip until blood seeped out, and nodded with difficulty.

“Alright. Let’s go together.”

I did not make a foolish choice, dangerous and with very low probability, to save my lover like Rai.

What Killua told me was impossible was clearly genuinely impossible or extremely difficult.

Stubbornly insisting would not only put Killua’s life in great danger, but I was also in a situation where certain death was foretold by the succubus’s draining.

I chose the best method Killua suggested: to go together to find the second fragment and remove the high-ranking succubus Ermel’s marking and her influence over Ariel.

“I’m sorry this is the only method I could think of…” Killua was genuinely grateful for my choice, but also apologized for having to force such a choice upon me.

“No. If it weren’t for Killua-nim, I wouldn’t even have thought of such a method.” I resumed my steps, which had paused, towards the Hero’s house where Killua-nim’s belongings would be.

“I would have despaired at the loss of Ariel, become powerless, and died as a snack for the succubus.”

“……” Perhaps having nothing more to say to my words filled with resignation, Killua simply rested her forehead on my back without a word.

By the time I reached the front of the Hero’s house with her on my back…

“Oh… so we meet again? Our ill-fated connection is quite persistent, isn’t it?” The Hero, whom I thought would be in the village. Kwon Sanghoon was walking towards us, waving his hand with a sly smile.

Beside the Hero, Ariel, with a slightly tense expression and an awkward smile, was lightly waving her hand as if giving a perfunctory greeting.

“Wh-what are you doing here!?” Surprised by the appearance of the real Hero, who had come all the way to the Hero’s house deep in the Lime Forest, I moved my body as if to hide Killua on my back and asked why he had come here.

“It’s nothing. I just came to resolve the issue because there was a report of someone impersonating the Hero.”

Was it another oracle given by that Goddess?

“We just need to get a promise that he won’t call himself the Hero… it’s nothing serious.” Ariel, by the Hero’s side, seemed to not want to make the situation serious, so she calmly revealed their intentions for coming with the Hero.

The Hero brazenly wrapped his arm around Ariel’s shoulder in front of us, as if she were a great trophy.

“Anyway… who is this beautiful lady with silver-white hair on your back? You’re quite lucky with women for an ordinary NPC.”

“Sanghoon… watch your mouth!!” The Hero instantly recognized Killua’s presence on my back and drooled as if coveting her silver-white hair.

At the thoughtless Hero’s remark, Ermel appeared like a mirage behind him, pointing out his slip of the tongue.

“So it was those guys…” Killua, on my back, simply tilted her head slightly to the side and glared at Ermel and the Hero alternately with a tense expression.

“Perception hindering magic… truly a nasty one.” The reason Ermel’s presence vanished like a mirage was the perception hindering magic. Without magic power or knowledge of magic equal to or greater than hers, it was almost impossible to notice her presence.

“Mysterious silver-haired lady from deep in the forest… perhaps a Sage-like class? Status open!” “Haa… seriously…” Knowing that only we were there, the Hero boldly uttered his strange habit without trying to hide it. Ermel sighed as if disgusted with the Hero and hid her presence again.

“Ah… it’s the damned status window!!!” But the moment the Hero uttered those strange words. Killua-nim instantly saw through the true nature of his words. She was so startled that I could feel her gripping my shoulder tightly.

However, the Hero, perhaps surprised by the status window that only he could see appearing before his eyes, did not react to Killua’s exclamation.

“Ma-magic level 5…?! Ancient Knowledge level 5, and more than 8 unconfirmable platinum-grade talents…” The Hero’s eyes trembled as he looked at Killua, as if he had discovered an enormous treasure.

“And she’s a virgin!!” Following that, his astonishment instantly transformed into immense greed and lust.