Chapter 17
I already knew the answer.
It was because before the regression, I had cut off your head.
The reason I asked that question was simple—I wanted you to throw away all suspicion about me and for us to walk our own separate paths from now on.
Since I wasn’t particularly interested in his answer, I thought that to myself and pulled the sleeping bag up to my shoulders.
“You look like my fiancée.”
What?
Fiancée?
Startled by his sudden reply, I widened my eyes and asked back.
“You resemble my fiancée who abandoned me and married someone else.”
Oh my god.
So Iveliana Rosebellier had been engaged to Lloyd. That was an unexpected setting that never appeared in the novel, and I was completely dumbfounded.
Did this woman really wipe out not only her fiancé, but his entire family as well?
She was truly something else.
“Oh… I see. Cheating on you, Lloyd-nim… she must’ve been quite something……”
He had become a tragic man, dumped by his lover and now waving a sword at her, yet he didn’t seem to care much.
Knowing the full story, I looked at Lloyd’s lonely back and thought,
Lloyd, Iveliana Rosebellier is gone now. Forget that terrible woman and make a fresh start.
Wishing him a new beginning, I slowly fell asleep.
Warm sunlight and the sound of chirping birds greeted me.
From the savory smell drifting through the air, it seemed Briga had prepared breakfast and gone out. The bed was incredibly soft and cozy, and the cool air brushing my face made me not want to leave the blanket.
Outside the blanket is dangerous!
Just then, someone’s voice reached me.
“Wake up.”
Is it time to go to work?
Half-asleep, unwilling to give up this sweet sleep, I mumbled,
“Briga, five more minutes…”
“Hey.”
Briga started shaking me roughly.
“Briga, just five more minu—”
I got cranky and hugged Briga’s head tightly. From the rough hair came a clean, refreshing scent.
Huh? Briga, did you use shampoo?
As I fumbled with the hair, I noticed it was much softer than Briga’s usual stiff hair.
What is this? Did you invent conditioner in this world or something?
Curious, I slowly opened my eyes.
There was no ash-gray hair.
Instead, I saw black hair.
“Ah…?”
Still sleepy, I blinked—and then something flashed through my mind.
“You have been appointed as my personal healer.”
Oh no! This wasn’t my home!
Then the head I was grabbing wasn’t Briga’s, but—
It was Lloyd’s.
The same Lloyd who had been suspecting me of being Iveliana until yesterday.
I let out a short scream, shoved his head away, and jumped up.
Thanks to the high-quality sleeping bag, I had slept as soundly as if I were in my own bed. Out of habit, I had tried to hug Briga and sleep more—never imagining it would be Lloyd.
Lloyd’s hair, which I had grabbed, was now a complete mess like a bird’s nest, and his face was flushed red, whether from anger or something else.
I’m doomed!
I hurriedly bowed over and over again.
“I-I’m sorry! I’m so sorry, Young Duke!”
He had apologized to me yesterday—what if he took it back and started swinging his sword again?
Seeing me panic, Lloyd shook his head.
“…It’s fine. Eat breakfast.”
He pointed toward the campfire. A pot of soup was bubbling gently over the flames.
“Wow! Did you make this, Lloyd-nim?”
He nodded, then ladled steaming soup into a bowl and handed it to me with some bread.
After marching all day on an empty stomach and then passing out from watching his monster massacre, my stomach growled loudly at the sight of food.
“Thank you for the meal!”
I hurriedly slurped the soup.
The moment the rich soup filled my mouth, my background turned into outer space, and two characters floated in my mind.
Delicious!
How could soup be this good? You could open a restaurant with this!
I quickly devoured it. I could confidently say it was even better than the expensive soup from Agnes’s restaurant, the most famous place in Zeronia.
“Young Duke, this is really delicious. You’re amazing at cooking!”
After finishing the bowl in one go and praising him, Lloyd cleared his throat, embarrassed.
“Ahem. Have another bowl.”
He filled my bowl generously again.
For a moment, I thought this was the kind of thing a commoner like me should be doing, not him. I glanced at Lloyd, but he didn’t seem to mind. And since his cooking was insanely good, I obediently kept eating.
Wow. Good at fighting, great stamina, and great at cooking too. Lloyd, you’re top-tier husband material.
My favorability toward him shot up thanks to one good meal.
After cleaning up, I packed my things and asked Lloyd, who was waiting for me,
“Um, Young Duke. When will we arrive at the Dark Forest Holy Land?”
“This is it.”
“…Pardon?”
This empty clearing was the Holy Land?
Shouldn’t there be a huge rock or a monument or something?
Reading my expression, Lloyd walked into the thick grass. Then—poof—he disappeared.
Did he seriously teleport by himself? Panicking, I called out to him.
“Young Duke? Where did you go—Young Duke! Where are you?”
“Come the way I went.”
His voice came from nearby. I hurried into the grass he had entered.
As I pushed forward, I found a transparent barrier. When I carefully put my hand in, it looked as if my hand had been cut off—it vanished.
“A magic device?”
Murmuring that, I stepped inside.
“Wow…”
The scenery changed completely.
What had been a forest turned into a dark sky and a vast plain. Lloyd stood alone in the middle. In the wide field was a stone floor as large as a training ground, and at its center stood a huge cylindrical rock.
The rock was covered in patterns I often saw in the Terina Church.
“This is the Holy Land.”
I looked around and followed Lloyd toward the stone.
“Uh… huh?”
As I got closer, the patterns suddenly began to glow brightly.
“Wow, it’s pretty. Was it always like this?”
Lloyd’s face turned serious.
“…No. This is the first time.”
That’s bad. Lights don’t suddenly turn on for no reason.
While carefully examining the stone, Lloyd suddenly stopped.
“Come here.”
Where he pointed, there was a hole. Inside it, a black, wriggling object squirmed. Just looking at it made my skin crawl.
“Ugh, what is that?”
“Demonic energy is leaking from here.”
Lloyd’s expression darkened further.
Honestly, if I could, I wanted to bring cement and seal the whole thing shut.
Feeling chills, I stepped back—and felt something crunch under my foot. Looking down, I saw a small stone fragment, shaped exactly like the hole in the rock.
“There’s a piece here.”
I picked it up and showed Lloyd.
“Wouldn’t it fit if we put it back in the hole?”
After thinking for a long moment, Lloyd nodded.
I placed the fragment into the hole. A buzzing sound rang out, light appeared—and then vanished. The hole disappeared as if it had never been there.
It healed itself automatically. What a high-tech system.
“Wow, I was right!”
Lloyd nodded again.
After some time, the glowing patterns faded, and the stone returned to how it had been before.
“Then we’re going back now, right?”
It wasn’t much, but it felt like we had completed a mission.
The High Orcs were all slaughtered yesterday, and the leaking stone was fixed. All that was left was to go home.
I stretched and waited for his answer—but there was none.
Looking over, I saw Lloyd staring blankly at the stone.
In the spot he was staring at, a button that hadn’t been there before was sticking out, glowing red.
“What is that?”
“I don’t know.”
It looked like the kind of button you should never press. Nervously, I asked,
“Shouldn’t we go back now, Young Duke?”
But Lloyd ignored me.
And then—
As if possessed, he pressed the button.
And at that moment—
WEEEEEEEEENG!
A loud siren blared from the stone, and the patterns glowed red.
The stone began spinning with a deep rumbling sound. From one of the patterns, a red beam shot out, moving up and down as it tore through the stone floor.
Looking around, it seemed the beam didn’t go beyond the stone floor.
“If we get outside the stone area, we’ll be fine! Run!”
But Lloyd just stared blankly at the red button.
“D-dodge it!”
Seeing the beam approaching us, I shoved Lloyd and rolled away with him.
“Urgh!”
I heard Lloyd groan.
I rushed to him.
“Young Duke, get up! The beam is coming again!”
As the stone rotated, the beam moved toward us at a steady speed. Regaining his senses, Lloyd stood up.
“Follow me!”
I shouted and ran desperately, weaving around the beam and sprinting out of the stone floor.
“We survived…”
Standing on solid ground, I turned back. The beam continued to spin, relentlessly destroying the stone floor.
I looked at Lloyd.
He was gripping his right arm, his brow deeply furrowed. Blood dripped down from where his arm should have been.
“L-Lloyd-nim… where is your arm?”
He silently looked toward the stone floor.
There, lying in a pool of blood, was Lloyd’s severed arm.
