Chapter 24
Not long after the rain began to fall, I found the cave with a magic circle drawn inside it.
“They said they set up a barrier in case of emergency. Then the cave should be relatively safe.”
But even a barrier stone had limits. If it was discovered, it wouldn’t last long against monsters.
Holding Valentin, whose body had grown colder from the rain, I entered the cave.
With a beast’s eyes, I could faintly see shapes even in the dark. Thankfully, the cave was empty.
First, I carefully laid Valentin’s head on my thigh.
I hurriedly searched the pocket near my chest and pulled out a white handkerchief. It was a gift from Lady Teller, embroidered with a wolf wishing for safety.
Without hesitation, I wiped the blood from Valentin’s lips. The white cloth quickly turned red.
“What went wrong?”
I couldn’t understand where things had started to fall apart.
Guilt filled my mind. I wished Lucy had been here instead of me.
Of course, the appearance of an assassin and a strange spell cast by a mage were completely different from the original story.
But if Lucy, the heroine, had been here, maybe she could have handled the situation.
“At least she could have healed Valentin while he was in pain.”
With a heavy heart, I slipped my hand into my pants pocket. I felt the cold touch of the blue flare.
“If I set it off here, it will reveal our location to the enemy.”
If I couldn’t use our only way to ask for help, then we would have to wait for the knights to find us.
Valentin’s breathing was becoming more uneven. The blood was no longer flowing back up, but I couldn’t relax.
“What kind of potion was that, to leave him this helpless?”
Carefully, I removed his armor and wrapped him with the dry side of my cloak.
“…Dan…”
His eyelids trembled as he called out faintly.
“Your Grace!”
For a brief moment, I felt relief. But soon his breathing became rough again, and he frowned in pain.
He barely raised his arm to cover his eyes. Each groan that slipped from his pale lips made my chest ache.
“Is his condition getting worse?”
At first, I thought it was a cruel drug that activated only when he used aura. But thinking about it more, it couldn’t be that simple.
I looked down at Valentin, barely holding on to consciousness.
His chest rose and fell heavily. His lips parted with each breath. His body lay limp.
“Ah.”
A small sound escaped my lips.
Seeing him struggling in the darkness made me realize something I had overlooked.
Valentin…
“He hates the dark.”
The moment I remembered that, my hands began to tremble.
When he was young, Empress Elia used to lock him in narrow, lightless spaces. That was why he came to hate the dark.
He survived the palace like a jungle only after he realized how powerful his appearance was. Before that, he had been just an innocent child.
Because of those terrible memories, he always slept with a magic lamp on. If that wasn’t possible, he at least relied on moonlight.
But now, we were in a pitch-black cave with no light at all.
I looked at his tightly clenched fist, his knuckles white from the pressure.
The always proud and noble man looked unbearably fragile.
What was hurting him now? Was he trapped again in that narrow, dark space from his past?
I couldn’t stay still anymore.
“It’s okay. Everything will be okay. I’ll get you out.”
I couldn’t touch him with my blood-covered hands, so I gently patted his hair with the back of my hand.
“If he stays here, he’ll suffocate.”
I had planned to hide him here and go out alone to call for help if necessary. But now I couldn’t do that.
My decision was quick.
I carefully lifted Valentin and walked back the way I had come.
Toward the light.
As I moved through the damp air, I saw a faint glow in the distance.
Rain was still pouring outside the half-circle cave entrance.
I stepped beyond the boundary between darkness and light.
Dim light mixed with rain fell over Valentin’s face. His expression became noticeably calmer.
His breathing was still weak, but it gradually became steadier.
“Valentin?”
I called his name, but there was no response. His eyes remained closed, like a sleeping prince.
I placed him under a small tree rooted near the barrier’s edge.
After leaning his back against the tree, I knelt carefully in front of him.
His pale face, bloodless lips, and doll-like stillness made my chest tighten.
“I’ll save you this time.”
Just like you once saved me from loneliness.
I knew he couldn’t hear me. Still, I wanted to say it.
When I finally looked away, I saw monsters surrounding the cave entrance. Thankfully, the mage was nowhere in sight.
I slowly stood up.
I was afraid. My mouth was dry, and every breath carried fear.
But as I forced myself to step forward, my mind became clear.
There was only one answer.
Fight.
To protect Valentin, I decided to become a perfect beast.
Praying the barrier would hold.
My head spun, and my vision blurred.
A monster shaped like a hippopotamus slammed its hard forehead into me as I drove my claws into its skull at the same time.
Something soft burst in my hand. My brain felt like it was shaking.
Without even checking if it had died, I collapsed forward.
A creature called Caleb was biting into my back like a leech. I reached back and tore it off, my skin ripping under its fangs.
I threw Caleb toward a flying monster called Kiklep.
“Kiieeek!”
The Kiklep shrieked as it fell.
I lunged at a black horned beast approaching Valentin and grabbed its large horn, throwing it into the other monsters.
The ground shook as its heavy body fell.
As I fought wildly, a large circle formed around me.
The monsters seemed afraid. They no longer rushed at me recklessly.
But the fight wasn’t over.
Heat spread through my body. The smell of blood thickened the air. My heart pounded painfully.
Every time I blinked, my vision flipped, and another monster lay dead.
I wanted rest.
A dangerous desire rose within me — to let go of reason and destroy everything.
But afraid I might forget my goal of protecting Valentin, I bit my own tongue to suppress the urge.
A growl kept escaping my throat.
When I looked at my hand, I saw my nails were gone.
I had lost that arm while fighting many monsters at once. But the excitement numbed the pain.
“There are too many.”
From the start, I had thrown monsters away to buy time.
I kept tearing, crushing, breaking everything I could grab.
The battlefield was a complete mess.
“This won’t end.”
More monsters were arriving, drawn by the smell of blood. Finally, I took out the blue flare from my pocket.
I hoped someone would come and at least take Valentin away.
But just as I pulled the string, a sharp beak stabbed into my head from above.
“No!”
I barely stayed on my feet, but the flare fell into the blood-soaked grass.
As I fought off the flying monster, I sensed others closing in.
“I’ll be surrounded.”
After killing it, I looked ahead — and froze.
The monsters had started fighting each other around the blue flare.
If one grabbed it, another would hit it and steal it away.
Confused, I looked at my hand.
White powder was clumped on my black fur.
Ignoring the monsters distracted by the flare, I staggered toward the barrier and crushed the bones of one lingering near Valentin.
“Does this thing attract monsters?”
I searched Valentin’s pocket and found another blue flare I had given him.
I threw it outside the barrier.
Immediately, the smaller monsters rushed toward it.
“I don’t know why, but maybe we can escape now.”
As I washed the white powder off my hands in the rain, I wondered where to go.
The path we came from was dangerous. The mage and assassin might still be there.
Then—
Boom!!
A flare shot up into the sky through the heavy rain.
Bright lights formed circles in the air.
It was a red flare.
