Chapter 92
Why did I come here?
To win the favor of the elves and prevent them from going to war, and to have the Meteon Sword repaired.
Then, what should I do with the elf in front of me whining that he would die if he couldn’t drink water right away?
There was only one correct answer.
“Here, I’ll give you some water.”
Bavery lifted Sannanta’s gas mask. His lips, parched from thirst, reached out eagerly and drank the water in a rush.
When was the last time he drank water so freely, instead of taking only tiny sips when he thought he might die? The relief felt almost like being reborn to Sannanta.
“Thank you. Really, thank you, Bavery.”
His eyes, still clouded by the remnants of madness, shone with sincerity.
“Just saying thanks?”
“I will repay the favor you’ve done for me. I swear it in the name of my mother and our sacred tree.”
Bavery closed the bottle and returned his gas mask, pretending not to notice. She asked casually,
“What’s your mother’s name?”
“Her name is Sineraria.”
Just as I thought!
Bavery inwardly celebrated her own perceptiveness.
“Sineraria? You mean the elf leader of the Great Forest?”
Though his expression and voice were awkward, the gas mask somewhat hid it.
Sannanta, failing to notice her shameless acting, nodded proudly.
“Why would the son of such a great elf become a water thief?”
However, he froze at Bavery’s blunt question. The pale skin glimpsed between his gloves reddened with shame.
“I’m sorry. I lost my mind. I promise I will never do such a thing again.”
Bavery doubted the sincerity of his promise. If he got thirsty again, he might demand water aggressively.
Still, she untied the rope that had bound him to the tree.
“Doesn’t matter. I can just knock you down again if needed.”
She held out her hand. Sannanta took it and stood up.
“You are… really strong.”
Sannanta spoke genuinely, impressed. His combat skills weren’t on par with his twin, Virgata, but he had always been confident. Yet, he felt embarrassed at how easily he had been subdued.
“Your strike was as fast and precise as my friend who recently died.”
“Your friend fought?”
“Yes. Though older for a human, he was likely the strongest among humans.”
Bavery tilted her head in doubt.
“That’s strange. I thought I’d officially been the strongest human since I was eighteen.”
Technically, there might have been no one able to beat her even before that. But she had become known as a Dragon Slayer at eighteen, so she modestly said so.
“If you had been thirty years younger and lived in his era, you wouldn’t have said that.”
No matter how strong, no one could compare to him. Sannanta waved his hands to dismiss it.
Hearing someone say that so casually, Bavery’s pride flared, raising her eyebrows.
“That’s because you haven’t seen my true strength. Want me to show you now?”
At her boast, Sannanta laughed loudly, then widened his eyes and spun around.
“Why is that evil thing here?”
Fear trembled in his voice.
Bavery checked for ghosts, but there was nothing—just a large tree.
“Trees in the forest are natural, aren’t they?”
“No… maybe it’s just a hallucination. I’ve been on this island too long.”
Despite his words, he nervously kept glancing at the white object atop the mountain.
Kuur grew anxious as he checked the hole in Armistry.
The hole was worse than he had feared. Even he wouldn’t have lasted long there; Bavery couldn’t possibly survive.
‘I shouldn’t have brought her. Even if I insisted it was the king’s order, she would have refused to come.’
But regret was useless. The water was already spilled.
He had no choice but to adopt a second-best strategy: leave her somewhere relatively safe and head alone toward the Black Heart.
“First, let’s check the overall situation on the island.”
He made a detour under some excuse. As a result, he discovered that the opposite side of the island, blocked by mountains, wasn’t heavily contaminated.
The coast and ponds were relatively safe. Bavery could stay there without immediate danger.
Now, the problem was: how to get her to wait calmly.
“Your Majesty, it’s impossible for you to go inside. How about I pour the magic stone into my mouth and you wait here?”
Kuur tried honest persuasion. Bavery gave no response.
“You sit quietly and have your servant do it. That’s what a king does, right?”
Even with his soft voice, she remained silent.
Was he angry?
“I know you care for me, but I worry about you too.”
Kuur landed briefly on a mountain to check for Bavery. She wasn’t where she should be.
“Bavery…!”
Had she fallen somewhere? Surely not from the hole. She had been securely on his back when they moved to the other side.
Then she must have fallen somewhere in the forest. Kuur spread his wings, ready to fly.
At that moment, black liquid erupted from the hole across the mountain like a volcanic eruption. The liquid splashed over the city, the mountains, and even the forest.
Kuur decided to fly to the hole first.
He didn’t know how long it would take to find Bavery, and if she were hit by it, it would be over.
“We need to deal with that first.”
With the Black Heart in his hands, he had a way to find her instantly.
He gritted his teeth and plummeted vertically toward the hole.
“Why did Bavery come here alone?”
On the way to the coast, Sannanta asked.
“And you?”
“I came to stop Armistry’s evil power.”
“Same reason, then.”
“Oh, so Bavery is from Buiro?”
“No?”
Sannanta stopped and looked back at her. Most humans, except those from Buiro, were indifferent to Armistry’s affairs—they didn’t feel its influence.
“Do you have some special connection with Buiro?”
“Not really… well, I did form a connection while I was there.”
Because it became my land.
Bavery nodded silently.
“So you didn’t care at first, but after spending time in Buiro, you couldn’t ignore it. That’s why you risked your life?”
She hadn’t said that out loud.
Bavery blinked at the excited Sannanta. He slumped and began sobbing.
“I’m really sorry. Trying to attack someone as good as you… I’m really, really trash!”
Bavery was flustered at his sudden self-blame. She wanted to let him cry and then go find Kuur.
But he was Sineraria’s son. She decided to patiently comfort him.
“You called someone your friend, then cowardly ambushed them from behind. That’s true.”
“How should I apologize… sniff, sniff…”
Just agreeing made him more distressed.
“I’ll forgive you if you come back safely.”
And tell your family that Bavery Lance wasn’t a warmonger, but a genuinely good person.
Bavery, hiding her true intentions, reached out her hand. Sannanta, once without hope or dreams, sparkled.
Helping him up, he gained strength to reach the coast.
“This is the boat I made!”
He proudly showed a small, crude raft woven with silver ropes.
“It’s sturdier than it looks. To carry you, I’d need to add a few more pieces of wood.”
“This isn’t the time!” Sannanta grabbed a pointed rock near the raft, still with some wood debris.
“We have to move fast to escape!”
He headed straight for the trees and started chopping with an axe. The raft’s wood looked worn, probably reused to make the raft.
“The boat’s fine. Got matches?”
“Matches? To make fire?”
Bavery nodded.
“You’ll need fire at night, but we can finish the raft today.”
“Even chopping all day, I doubt we could fell a tree.”
“At first, I was clumsy. But now, I can cut one in an hour.”
Sannanta spoke soothingly, softening his voice.
“If you help, it’ll be even faster.”
He handed Bavery a hand axe, pointing to the other side of the tree to chop together.
Bavery tossed the axe aside.
“What are you doing?!”
He ran to grab it, sounding hurt, as if a friend had been abandoned.
“You don’t need to make a boat.”
“Then how will we escape? You need a boat to get out!”
“Shut up. Give me a match.”
Bavery’s commanding tone flustered Sannanta.
“If you don’t want hard labor, sit there. I’ll make the boat. But I can’t give matches.”
“Oh, matches.”
Bavery picked up a red match from the ground. Sannanta patted his pockets in panic—his should-be supply was gone.
“No! That’s the last match!”
“Don’t interfere. This is all we need to get back.”
“I’m not a magician! How can I—”
Sannanta tried to snatch the match. Bavery held it behind her and pushed his chest with the other hand.
“I’m not a magician, but my companions are.”
Technically, not magic—they’d just fly back. But if they lit a fire, the smoke would signal Kuur to find them.
“Companions? You had companions? Why didn’t you say?”
“You didn’t ask.”
Bavery confidently struck the match against the stone.
“What? Why isn’t it lighting?”
It didn’t ignite, so she struck it repeatedly.
“You need prepared wood to start a fire. You can’t just randomly strike!”
“Oh, got it.”
She collected dry branches, and finally, the match caught fire.
At that moment, the ground shook with a tremendous crash, as if waves were rushing toward the coast from the mountain.
“Ah!”
“No, XX!”
Before they could dodge, the ground waves hit them, tossing them a body-length into the air before crashing down.
Sannanta groaned but regained composure, looking around. Trees had fallen, rocks rolled—the area was devastated in an instant.
“Fire!”
The match went out too.
“I said it was the last match! What now…!”
As he complained to her, a powerful wind hit him. Turning slowly, his face went pale.
A white dragon stood on the mountain. He hoped it was another hallucination.
“I found you.”
It even spoke.
“R-Run!”
Sannanta grabbed Bavery’s hand and ran.
