Chapter 32

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Chapter 32

Celine stared at the dilapidated quarry across the cliff. Leonhard left without looking back.

“…Phew.”

It will take quite a while to destroy Agathirsus. She should just wait in the meantime. It was fortunate that Black was constantly burying its head in her hands.

“Are you bored, too?”

She muttered at the growing boredom, and then she immediately felt a sense of guilt. It was because Leonhard may be in danger, but she was here, talking about getting bored here.

‘…No, let’s not think like this.’

Celine’s many deaths have taught her how not to be immersed in negative emotions for long. Black shoved its nose into her left side, probably asking for sugar cubes.

“No. I don’t have them anymore.”

Eventually, the sun passed just above her crown and set to the west. It was winter, so the sun would set soon. Celine glanced at the quarry with anxious eyes. Not the darkness, but the fact that his late return aroused her fears.

‘…Would he hear me?’

Leonhard’s stiff back came to mind when she said that it was okay to fail, so he just need to be careful. There were two possibilities.

‘He was surprised or… Maybe, it’s because he doesn’t want to keep it.’

She wet her parched lips with her tongue.

Right then, the gloomy evening sky gleamed with flashes of light. Jumping to her feet, her whole body stiffened with tension. In the meantime, no matter how many monsters she had cut, she had never seen such a dazzling brilliance.

Celine quickly recognized the identity of the light.

‘Fire.’

Leonhard said that it would be safe to take the life of a monster with a sword.

‘If he didn’t kill them for sure, he would be anxious.’

…But now, he seemed to have rushed enough to burn the demons to death. As she gazed at the flashing lights, Celine thought of a rescue signal that a modern-day shipwreck would shoot, and her body trembled.

‘No.’

She immediately denied it.

Leonhard would choose getting wounded over calling her. She knew him so much that she could tell that.

Meanwhile, the sky near the quarry continued to flash as if the lightning struck in succession. Her chest tightened more and more.

—Whiingg!

Black let out an anxious cry and stomped its feet. As she reached out her hand to calm it down, Black ran away from the cliff.

“Black!”

Leonhard’s horse fluttered its mane in an instant and disappeared from her sight.

‘No way…’

She could see Black run away at once as if it didn’t care. At that time, as soon as it escaped, the monsters hiding in the huge rock crevices attacked her. If Black had been a little later, he would have been attacked by monsters.

Celine’s body stiffened.

This was a wasteland, and there was no space for monsters to hide. Nevertheless, there were blind spots.

It was huge, too.

When she slowly approached the cliff with her feet firmly on the ground, she was glancing down at…

‘As expected.’

Her prediction was correct. Three black monsters were climbing up the cliff.

Goosebumps swelled up.

The group of monsters she had seen until now gathered together to protect their leader. The fact that they could afford to climb over the cliff meant that Leonhard was struggling. As if to prove her conjecture, a blue light flashed for a moment in the now completely darkened sky.

Her mouth was dry.

If she crossed the cliff, she would break her promise to Leonhard.

‘…I don’t care.’

Celine looked at the quarry dyed blue with a determined expression.

—Hurr!

The monsters climbing the cliff were engulfed in blue flames in an instant. Fortunately, there weren’t many, so she didn’t have to waste a lot of time.

As Celine waved her hands, a bridge of transparent ice was placed between the two edges of the cliff.

She immediately kicked the ground and ran. She didn’t even have to think about where she was going. Dead and broken monsters all around her became milestones, and the blue light that continued to flash became a compass.

Occasionally, the monsters that stood in her way were immediately burned.

Tens of minutes later.

“Gasp, gasp…”

Taking a deep breath. Although she ran quite a bit, Leonhard’s light seemed far away.

‘I thought I could catch up quickly if I ran fast.’

It was a stupid decision. After all, he was half a day ahead of her so it would take quite some time to catch up with him.

She flopped down on the ground fluttering with dust. If she went on like this, she may die of a heart attack before she even saw Leonhard’s face. Then, tonight, how absurd it would be. She was not an idiot, and she could not die trying to catch up with him.

‘What do we do…’

Celine glared in the dark, so exhausted that she didn’t even turn on the lights. She had no intention of giving up now.

More than anything else, Leonhard needed her.

After a while, Celine, deciding that she had had enough rest, barely lifted her heavy body. She couldn’t delay any longer. Now, the blue light flashed intermittently.

It was impossible to find him in this darkness if that light was no longer visible. She could light up the entire quarry. However, if she used that much power, she would become defenseless against monsters.

Celine ran again.

How long was it? Finally, a source of intermittent flashing light, like a broken light bulb, caught her eye.

‘Leonhard…!’

Celine swallowed up her greed to shout.

Leonhard, covered in black blood all over his body, was wielding Rashir incessantly. There was no gap in the sword’s trace, and the power of the flames rising from the blade was powerful. Dozens of monsters rushing like a massive swarm of ants died in one swing that Rashir created.

Subduing her presence, she approached cautiously.

‘….!’

Celine’s face turned pale.

Scars that could not be seen from a little distance came into her eyes. The fact that the sharp teeth and claws of the monster were lodged in the shoulders and back was only a minor problem. Her mind was dizzy by a visible red wound across her right shin that pierced through.

Upon closer inspection, Leonhard fought with his right leg immobilized.

‘…I guess he couldn’t move at all.’

Her chest plummeted. Perhaps, she was able to catch up with him because he couldn’t move at all.

Dozens of monsters again attacked Leonhard like a tidal wave.

—Bang!

With the sound of an explosion, the demons exploded in all directions.

“Celine!”

Leonhard turned his head to look at her without moving his body.

“Didn’t you decide not to come!”

She lightly ignored his cry, which showed even anger, and opened her mouth, “Are you okay? You don’t look good.”

“I, I am fine…… No, I told you to stay back!”

Instead of answering, she managed to get rid of the tidal wave of monsters that were newly attacking her. Even though her weary body screamed, she wanted to give Leonhard a little rest.

“Get some rest. Don’t be stubborn.”

“…If you promise to go back.”

“Do you know how hard it must have been to get here? I thought I was going to die of a heart attack. If I go back alone, I will really die there.”

“….”

At that, Leonhard bit his lips. He couldn’t think of a single word.

At first, he was angry. It was because Celine made it clear that she would never come after him. When the monsters that should have attacked him disappeared by the power of familiar magic, fear, not joy or relief, reigned over him.

Celine was here.

She was someone who should never be in danger…

However, the moment he heard her worried voice, his anger melted away and his stiff face slowly loosened.

“Sit down.”

Celine’s small hand touched his arm and Leonhard sat down in a rigid position like a doll.

“…Ugh!”

A moan escaped from between his tightly closed lips. The right leg, which had been bitten by a semi-boss-level monster, did not function properly for a very long time.

“The legs, is it okay?”

He was still silent while building a barrier to protect them with Rashir.

Immediately, Celine’s protest returned.

“I can burn it out!”

“…You should realize it’s out of your league, too.”

At his words, her eyes widened and it curved in a soft arc.

“All right. I’m taking a break, too.”

Leonhard carefully stretched his injured leg.

Celine’s voice hardened when she saw the wounds the semi-boss level monster’s claws had inflicted from his thigh to his calf at once.

“…Leonhard. Were you planning to go all the way in this state?”

“It’s almost over.”

He nodded in the direction where she couldn’t see anything, blocked by Rashir, which had turned into a barrier.

“Just a little bit more.”

“How do you know?”

“I entered once before.”

“….!”

He glanced into Celine’s wide eyes and sighed.

“It was literally an entry. For investigation only.”

“Were you alone back then?”

“No.”

She wanted to know with whom he was on his mission. Still, she didn’t ask anymore as Leonhard’s face, which had been loosened quite gently, suddenly hardened.

Instead, Celine gazed closely at his legs.

‘He can’t walk.’

Leonhard could not move even a single step. She didn’t know if he could even move while standing on the handstand.

‘It’s something worth treating… Ah!’

She couldn’t believe that she had completely forgotten about her healing potion. No matter how many things happened, how could she forget such a fraudulent item?

At that moment, she pulled out of a vial, glistening with red liquid from her pocket.

“Leonhard, drink this.”

“…What is it?”

“Just drink it.”

Leonhard frowned.

‘It must have been a drug made by Branche.’

In fact, the healing potion was different from any other medicine of Branche, though for him, who was busy avoiding prescriptions, it looked like a similar drug.

“Go on.”

Leonhard sighed and took the vial from Celine’s hand. It would be better than not drinking it.

‘….?’

It was sweet.

A groan came out of his mouth.

“…Is it a drink?”

“It’s medicine. it’s delicious?”

“It’s not like medicine at all…”

Leonhardt’s words were cut off. He could hardly believe his eyes. The hideous wound that had torn his right leg in half was slowly disappearing before his eyes.

‘I knew it…!’

Celine’s face widened. At the same time, he gazed up at her with a slightly dazed face.

“No way, even such a deep wound will heal right away.”

“…What the hell is this?”

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