Chapter 16
“Cain, behind you! Look behind you!”
At Ariana’s shout, Cain turned around.
He immediately swung his mace at the beast that had been about to pounce on him from behind.
“Grrrk, grr….”
Before he even had time to confirm the collapsed beast, another one lunged at him from the side.
The blood-red eyes of the beast were filled with murderous intent.
As if bewitched, it knew nothing except attacking the being before it. A monster that had lost all reason.
And this place was full of those monsters.
No matter how many they killed, it never ended.
Like a flowing river, the beasts poured in endlessly, wave after wave.
“Be careful, Cain!”
Protecting Ariana as she shouted toward Cain, Lewis unknowingly frowned.
Things had never been like this before.
Of course, they had never had to face this many beasts at once until now.
Even so, Lewis couldn’t shake the feeling that if this were before, they wouldn’t be struggling this badly.
And it wasn’t only here on the fifth floor that he felt this.
On the fourth floor—where he’d nearly gone mad from illusions and hallucinations and almost died of old age—he’d felt it too.
I’ve been feeling this the whole time.
Reciting attack spell incantations, Lewis pondered what had changed compared to before.
And he found the answer easily.
Far ahead, he spotted the trio that had already reached the third island.
Among them was Felix, the companion they had parted with on the fourth floor.
He had no idea how Felix ended up joining that group, but frankly, Felix’s presence or absence barely made a difference.
If he managed to pull his own weight, that was considered lucky.
So there was no way Felix was the reason the three of them were struggling.
Rosette.
The reason things were so difficult for their group now was undoubtedly because Rosette had been left behind.
We shouldn’t have abandoned Rosette like that.
Leonard’s decision to exclude her from the group had been foolish.
Others didn’t know her worth—but Lewis did.
She seemed incompetent at a glance, but she had an exceptional ability to find items they desperately needed.
However, right before opening the exit on the third floor, Leonard had deemed Rosette useless.
He refused to waste food or supplies on her and coldly abandoned her.
And now, look at the result.
The group Rosette was with had already reached the third island safely.
The only difference between their groups was whether Rosette was present or not.
The more time passed, the more sharply—painfully—Lewis felt that difference.
“Lewis, come on! We have to hurry!”
Ignoring Ariana’s urging, he continued chanting his attack spell.
The second island wasn’t even that far away, yet it felt impossibly distant.
Could they even make it there?
Was it possible?
Right now, it felt hopeless.
What made things worse was that they still had at least five more battles like this ahead of them.
Damn it.
Lewis grit his teeth.
This couldn’t go on.
Casting spells nonstop, he stared toward the third island.
No matter how he thought about it, their group needed Rosette.
She was essential if they wanted to escape safely.
I’m not fully certain, but… she looked like she healed that serious injury on her own.
Rosette’s injury was the main reason Leonard used to justify abandoning her.
But now that it was healed, there was no reason not to bring her back.
They had to bring Rosette back.
Even if Leonard opposed it, Lewis was determined to force the issue.
But before that, they needed to survive this battle and reach the third island—where Rosette was.
The moment they reached the island, Felix collapsed.
“I’m fine….”
No one had asked, but he muttered over and over that he was fine, almost like reciting a spell.
Sigh.
I pulled out a bean and tried to put it in Felix’s mouth.
Well—I tried.
“Give it.”
If Isael hadn’t stopped me halfway.
“I’ll do it.”
“Uh? Oh… okay.”
Snatching the bean from my hand, Isael forcefully pried open Felix’s mouth and shoved it in.
Then he rubbed his hands roughly on his pants, as though touching something filthy.
“At least it doesn’t look like he was poisoned. That’s a relief.”
“Haha… right. If it had poison, I wouldn’t even be alive right now….”
It wasn’t something he should be saying when he had almost lost an arm, but still, it was fortunate in many ways.
We had safely reached the third island, after all.
“Ugh…”
Watching Felix groan in pain, I suppressed a sigh.
We weren’t on good terms, but seeing someone injured this badly still left a bitter feeling.
“Does it hurt a lot?”
“No, I—I’m okay. It’s getting better.”
Felix had been bitten on the arm by a beast that resembled a wolf with two heads.
Even though Isael had cut off one head immediately, the beast had held onto Felix with stubborn persistence.
Isael had severed the remaining head right after, but Felix still received a deep bite wound on his right arm.
“Thank you, Your Highness. If it weren’t for you, I really would have lost my arm….”
“Enough.”
Isael brushed off Felix’s sincere gratitude without interest.
After eating the bean, Felix’s wound began to heal rapidly.
“I’m fine, so leave me alone and go do your thing, Rosette. You’re always so busy… barely get to rest…”
Like reciting a will, Felix closed his eyes.
Whether he fainted or fell asleep wasn’t clear, but at least he wasn’t dead.
Relieved, I checked how many beans were left in the pouch.
Isael and Felix had each eaten one on the previous island, and I had eaten one when I used the vengeful spirit.
And Felix had just eaten another, leaving us with 14 beans.
This is the third island.
We had three more islands to cross before reaching the last one with the door.
Meaning we had to fight beasts four more times.
We have to save beans from now on.
Unless someone received a serious wound, we needed to avoid using them.
We needed beans for the next floor, and the one after that too.
“Isael, are you hurt anywhere?”
“No.”
Isael shook his head and asked back,
“What about you? Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine too.”
As I answered, I examined Isael closely.
He didn’t seem to have any major injuries, but you never knew.
“…You really aren’t hurt anywhere?”
Because I asked again with a doubtful expression, Isael nodded firmly.
“Yeah. I’m fine.”
“You’re not hiding anything, right?”
“No.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. Really.”
Then Isael added with a serious look,
“I won’t get hurt from carelessness like before. Never again. So don’t worry.”
He spoke with such fierce determination.
I had no idea what resolve he had suddenly made, but…
In any case, I was relieved he was safe. I continued organizing the bag.
Then Isael suddenly asked,
“What about you? Are you really not lying about being fine?”
“…Huh?”
Why was he suddenly acting like a paranoid maniac?
“I said I’m fine.”
“For someone who says that, you look like a complete mess. If you’re injured, just say so.”
“…I look like a mess?”
Isael nodded as if stating the most obvious truth in the world.
“Yeah.”
“….”
I was speechless.
Wow. Brutally honest.
I mean—wouldn’t it be weirder if I looked perfectly clean right after fighting a bunch of beasts to the death?
I was about to check my reflection in the river when Isael grabbed me in shock and turned me away.
“Are you crazy?!”
Holding my arms tightly, he scolded me in a burst of panic.
“What are you doing?! It’s dangerous! Don’t you have any sense?!”
“I don’t have a mirror. I just wanted to check from a distance.”
“Ha… forget it. I’ll handle it.”
With a long sigh, Isael began fixing my hair with a very serious expression.
Probably because he was still irritated, his hands were far too rough and not delicate at all.
Still, he took his time tidying my hair and even scrubbed my face with his sleeve.
After a moment, he stepped back, looked me over, then nodded.
“Done.”
Done? DONE?
I just got scolded out of nowhere, my face was sandpapered, and now he says “done”?
My mood dropped straight to the floor.
I glared at Isael with an annoyed expression.
I was going to point out that his appearance was a mess too, but…
Why is he handsome?
…How does he still look fine even when he’s disheveled?
I just quietly closed my mouth.
