I Didn’t Save You To Get Proposed To - Chapter 37

The Cave of The Devil (6)

Heim was right in predicting that Ixion and Elsia would be gone for a long time. Nonetheless, Niel tried not to take his word for it.

Nobody can predict the future. Heim is just a sickly younger brother who enjoys gossiping. In fact, the rumors that the family will go bankrupt this fall are not wrong.

But, frustrated, he paid a visit to Heim.

“Is Elsia alive?”

“I’m not sure.” Heim said as he stretched his blue hair down to his waist and folded his chin with his fair white hands. “I can’t see my sister’s future.”

Of course it is, Niel reasoned. In the end, he won’t be able to answer the most important question. What Heim says is a load of malnourished nonsense. Everyone in the Marquis was mobilized to find Elsia, but there were no results.

Niel also used to participate in meaningless activities with the Knights. But no matter how good a wizard he is, he can’t find Elsia who is trapped in this space.

“What should I do?” Eureen of the Knights, who had joined him on his search team, sighed and said.

“Even if she’s still alive, she’s probably insane, isn’t she? Being trapped in that space with evil monsters—”

“I’m not sure.”

Niel responded solemnly. Elsia, he knew, would have a distinct calm expression. It was obvious that if she didn’t have monsterization going on, she’d be sane.

“It seems that there are other people who are not sane.”

Eureen sighed in response to Niel’s words, looking like ten years old.

“Really—”

Eureen seemed to notice who Niel was referring to right away.

“…What’s the matter with him?”

“Did he eat?”

“He eats it grudgingly, but—”

“Hmm.”

“He has trouble sleeping. They keep telling him that it’s a waste of time. I’ve been serving the Prince for a long time, but this is the first time I’ve seen him like this.”

“If he’s like this—”

“It’s like throwing himself away.”

Niel unintentionally touched his brow as he remembered Ixion, who was running wild to kill all the monsters in Marquis territory. Elsia’s demonization was his concern that he couldn’t tell anyone.

He was worried about whether she would be okay with no one using divine magic for her, no matter how well he calmed himself down. It is said that time goes faster in this world.

Niel was well aware of Ixion’s cruelty in the face of the Empire’s enemies. Even if Ixion finds her, he will immediately cut her if she is turning into a monster. It was also something Elsia was afraid of.

Even if she had been heavily monsterized, they could be slaughtered without even being recognized. It was because Ixion had arrived at a point where there was nothing in sight.

“I don’t want to say this, but—”

Niel said with a nod.

“He’s not crazy, right? Does human reason remain?”

“That’s what I want to ask the Wizard.”

Eureen gave Niel a desperate look, as if he was about to grab his pants. Niel and the Knights of Feltron were never close. Niel was not only uninterested in maintaining friendly relationships with people, but he also did not speak publicly for a long time after he made a big fuss about a few of the Feltron’s female knights.

As a result, Eureen was not close to him, but he had no choice but to cling to Niel due to the circumstances.

“Do you think that if you go to another world a lot, your head will get weird or people will get tired?”

“I’m a wizard. I’m not very knowledgeable about monsters. And, more specifically, the black magic line.”

“But it’s better than us.”

Eureen smacked his chest as if he were suffocating. Ixion would make eye contact with Gvestin whenever he wandered around the monster habitat and slaughtered various monsters.

Unless he’s a moron, he’d have no idea that he only has a slim chance of meeting a specific Gvestin and entering that nest right away. Ixion disappeared for half a day, then demolished the nest and reappeared from nowhere with bloodshot eyes.

He also drove Isith to meet with another Gvestin.

Aiden couldn’t stop him, no matter how terrible his expression was. The search went on because no one dared to tell him, “In fact, Lady Elsia is very unlikely to be alive.”

“No one would go to that world that often.”

“And no one can get out of this world that often.”

Niel turned away with complicated feelings. Aside from Ixion’s ability, he had no choice but to assume the worst.

‘If it looks like I’m going to turn into a monster— you’ll be the first to know. Then don’t wait too long and murder me. It’s true that I want to live, but I don’t want to turn into that.’

He didn’t go to the Marquis, where Ixion was staying. Isn’t it true that he’s arrived at this point after wandering around with him? He regretted over and over that he had been too lazy to find a new place and go to Marquis.

He wanted to hit himself hard at a time when he knew Elsia had been dissatisfied with Ixion since the Count Recesil banquet. They should have just opened a clinic in a small estate where monsters appear with a sign like “Healing Wounds Caused by Monsters.”

He was now unsure whether he wanted to find Elsia or not. He couldn’t even imagine that she, who had turned into a monster, was taken to the Wizard Tower as a research subject, dissected at will, and experimented with various things.

Should he really kill her with his bare hands if she transforms into a monster and he is the only one who recognizes her?

—Is he capable of doing so?

“Because you’re my only friend.”

Elsia clearly had a lonely expression on her face when she said that. He wondered if his expression of thinking about her was as lonely as it is.

*******

Strangely, White didn’t leave my side.

Even though I was walking, he kept following me. In excitement, I clapped to myself. My body will be purified if I stroke White and use healing magic. Even if I go outside, there is no need for me to be in the subjugation group if there are only White.

“Let’s call it a pet hedgehog.”

“Mwa.”

I wandered through the cave, hugging White and healing the wound. Because no monsters attacked me, I felt like I was out for a walk by myself.

“You don’t seem to be very capable, and if you follow me, I’ll feed you and put you to sleep for the rest of your life. I have that kind of ability now.”

“Mwa.”

This small thing can’t eat humans, so I thought it would be enough to give them beef. Actually, I didn’t know if it was carnivorous or herbivorous.

“But if I don’t think it’s going to work— I’ll let you go, so you have to live a healthy life.”

If Ixion becomes angry that I can’t raise him because he’s a monster, I’ll be sent back to the medical team. Still, he was the child I named, and I could never let him die at the hands of Ixion.

When I returned to the location where Gvestin had blocked the entrance, I discovered it had been blocked by a dark cave wall. The entrance appeared to change from time to time.

Ixion said last time, we can go through the maze and find the light.

“We can go through the maze again and find another light, right?”

“Mwa.”

There was a time when it became very clear that it was best to be left alone. It’s a lot safer than when I’m with Ixion.

‘We can just walk around here and find the exit and get out!’

I was surprised as I walked bravely.

“Uh— G-guys.” Because little monsters were following me. “Why, why do you follow me?” The biggest one was only about my knee. It was completely different in size and shape from Ziebel and Gvestin.

When I look at Ixion, no matter how small, I can see with my own eyes that they attack. Even if they lived as parasites in other people’s caves, they had to despise humans.

But they didn’t jump on me at all.

“Am I, by any chance, amazing?”

The little monsters all looked strange in their own way, and they all cried out at me in different ways. I let out a sigh and shook my head. Of course, I didn’t think they’d understand.

“Don’t follow me. What do you want me to do?”

It had turned into a very difficult feeling. It would be more comforting than walking alone, but it just made me feel like a monster.

‘I don’t think Ziebel or Gvestin is following me, what the hell are they?’

“—I’m a human. I’m a human.”

I want to maintain my human identity. I sighed as if I were the Queen of the Monsters.

“Okay, let’s go. You’re free to follow me.”

Even so, it didn’t feel any worse than walking alone, so I hummed and began walking lightly.

******

He felt like he was going to pass out if he didn’t get some more sleep. Ixion staggered out of Isith. He’d been looking for Elsia for 15 days since he came out from the cave alone.

The eyes were horrific, with all the veins bursting, and the face was dark. Because he was covered in monster blood, his outfit was a mess.

“It would be scary if she was alone— There are a lot of low-level monsters—”

He murmured like a lunatic. The thought of her alone in the dark cave seemed to turn his blood backwards. He worried about Elsia every time he entered another Gvestin’s nest because she would be alone in a place like this without a weapon.

Everyone thought Ixion was insane because he drove himself all the time, but he didn’t have a choice. When he took a break, he pushed himself away and remembered Elsia’s last appearance alone in the cave, which had been so painful.

Will he be able to live in this world the way he used to if something bad happened to her? The longer she is gone, the more painful the blood becomes.

At the risk of Elsia getting hurt a little, he should have pushed her first and dealt with Gvestin. In that moment, Ixion kept regretting.