1. I Will Refrain From the Death Penalty
Episode 12
Mixing a violent cough, I barely managed to talk, and then quickly finished my speech. Just in case I was forced to cough up a cough that didn’t come out even after I finished speaking, I slowly rolled my eyes and looked at Leniel.
As always, of course, I thought he would stand there with a smile and a face to see how far it goes, but for some reason, there was no smile on his face.
Leniel, who looked at me with an ambiguous expression, suddenly turned around.
“Let’s go back.”
***
Leniel’s magic was truly amazing. He warped into the alley of the general store at once with me.
If he has such great black magic skills, how strong is Wayne Eyeore? I can’t imagine.
He must have been able to kill the male lead because he was so strong. I don’t know how likely it is to end one’s life by poisoning on such a subject. At that point, shouldn’t there be a setting like that, like eating poison from a young age and developing a tolerance for it?
“Don’t play around and get it sorted out.”
“Yes. Yes! But are you really going to move the store?”
“Yes. He found the location.”
Leniel was sure Dylan wasn’t dead. I, too, didn’t think he was dead.
He was the main character, but he wouldn’t be so vain. It wasn’t that the speed of the wagon was as fast as a sports car. Besides, he’s also a trained knight. Maybe it ended up breaking his bones? Maybe he was seriously injured, but…
“When are you going to move all of this?”
It’s a general store, so there are a lot of items on display, but when do he get all of them? They’re cursed items, so I tried not to touch it as much as possible.
“To be precise, I’m going to warp all the items in this store, all at once, as they are.”
I don’t know much about black magic, but I know how absurd Leniel’s words are now. But I didn’t think he was making fun of me. Leniel was really serious about drawing magic circles on the floor of the shop.
As I stared at Leniel, who was drawing a magic circle with an unknown red liquid, I decided to just trust him.
“Where?”
“To the new store.”
“New store?”
“Originally, this general store has not been open in the same place for more than a year. It’s a bit early, but I was thinking of moving soon, so it’s good.”
He was meticulously touching the magic circle with his fiery fingertips, but soon finished his work and got up. To move them all at once, I think he would have to draw a huge magic circle, but it was smaller than I thought.
Glancing at the magic circle, I immediately turned my attention to packing. I felt a sense of exasperation as I had to pack each one in the box to avoid leaving even a single poison bottle. At first they were terrifying poisons, but now they are precious like my property.
“If we move it to the warp, it won’t break, right? Should I add cushioning material? It’s a wooden box, so if you make a mistake… Oh, I saw that earlier!”
When I saw the box, I remembered the person I had forgotten. The guy who lured me in and sold the box with me!
“I didn’t even think about it before… Hmm, hmm. I was deceived, right? There was a guy who sold me back then!”
From now on, we’ll have to talk without names.
If Dylan went back to find the boy, I didn’t know if Leniel would be sold, not me this time. I don’t know how much the boy knows about Leniel, but if he’s come to this store, he’s probably got to know quite a bit about the world behind him.
And I, who depend on Leniel for virtually everything, had to stop it.
“Yes. I know who he is.”
I made a serious report in my own way, but the reply I got back was very easygoing. You knew?
“How do you know that?”
“It was delivered as soon as you were caught.”
Wow, did you just sit and wait until I was strangled?
Trembling with a sense of betrayal, Leniel, who was wiping his red wet hands with a handkerchief, glanced at me.
“So I wonder what happened to him?”
What happened? How many hours have passed since the boy sold me?
I looked at Leniel.
“Shall I show you?”
It was very eerie to see him wiping the red liquid with a smile on his face.
I forgot about it these days, but in fact, Leniel was an assassin who came to kill me. I shuddered at the new thought. That smile was somehow unusual.
If it wasn’t because he didn’t come as soon as he heard that I was arrested, it was just because he was a bystander.
With a smile on my face that was about to harden, I shook my head vigorously.
“…Nope.”
“Come here.”
Leniel shook his head and called me. He still had a smile on his face, which made me even more scared. I frowned and tried to express my objection as much as possible with my whole body.
“No, I do not want to. I won’t see you.My stomach is weak. I mean, I can’t see scary things and I’m weak.”
“I have no intention of showing you, so come here.”
I stared at Leniel with suspicious eyes.
“Why?”
As I got closer, Leniel relentlessly put his hand through the front where my hood and cloak met. His cold fingers suddenly wrapped around the nape of my neck. For a moment, I remembered being strangled by Dylan, and my shoulder tensed.
It was Raniel’s low murmur that stopped me from taking a step back involuntarily.
“It’s going to bruise.”
He tilted his head at an angle and looked at my neck. There was no force applied to the cold fingers, and it felt as if they were just sweeping the surface rather than grabbing them.
It tickled and it was funny, so I shrugged by myself. At the same time, it felt good as my skin, which had been hot, seemed to cool down.
In the meantime, it seems to have a bruise as Leniel said. I don’t know how serious it is because I can’t see the condition of my neck right now, but just by looking at Leniel’s expression, I could tell that a prominent mark was left. Giselle’s original skin is white, but it’s easy to leave marks, so it’ll be more noticeable.
Tomorrow it might turn blue.
“It’s fine since I escaped from being burned”
“Did he burn you?”
Leniel’s gaze was still fixed on the nape of my neck, even though I responded lightly. I didn’t expect him to show so much interest in my injury, so I was embarrassed.
I was choking for no reason and coughing in vain, but I replied gibberish.
“Well, he said something like annihilating demons. A demon to a sane person. He’s such a devilish person.”
“Right? Isn’t he a devilish bastard?”
When I heard his words of sympathy, my emotions intensified.
But, even thinking about it, he’s a real bad guy! It was the eyes that saw the essence, and everything was a useless lie! A male protagonist who is good only to a female protagonist. After experiencing it firsthand, it was nothing more or less than a double personality!
“Yes! He was choking me so I couldn’t speak and still threatened an answer from me like a complete madman…!”
I spoke violently, then stopped.
…Oh, and Dylan was someone who Giselle loved so much that she never let him get a scratch.
Leniel, who noticed me suddenly hardened, looked at me in the same posture he had been looking at my neck the whole time. When our eyes met, he showed his characteristic smirk.
“Now that I scratched that bastard, it won’t break your heart. Right?”
“I guess so….”
“Now, we should not call him ‘honey’ but a trashy name, right?”
Oh, boss, that was annoying. If you don’t want to hear it like that, just point it out outright, I don’t know why you say it like this again and again.
I raised the corners of my lips awkwardly.
“Yes…”
“Okay.”
His cold hand wrapped around my neck and fell off. A tingling sensation seemed to remain on my skin, so I gently rubbed it. Leniel then said, turning his body.
“Even if he has a broken leg, he is the one who will lead the soldiers down here tomorrow. So we have to move right away. Hold on a little longer. After I warp, we can rest.”
“Oh, I’m fine!”
I almost died, but I wasn’t seriously injured as much as I thought I was.
Despite my answer, Leniel continued preparing for the warp without any response. I started organizing my luggage again. Thinking about the Dylan in the novel I read, it seems like he is going to lead the soldiers here tomorrow, just like Leniel said.
And a few hours later, the magic circle was activated. When a dazzling white light erupted from the bright red magic circle, it finally colored my vision brilliantly.
The landscape then changed.
***
Enforcing large-scale movement magic seems to have been quite burdensome for Leniel as well. His face, which was usually pale, was so tired that no blood could be seen flowing. Cold sweat was dripping from his black hair that covered his forehead.
“Here’s the room where you will be staying. Rest now.”
“I don’t think I’m the one who needs to rest now.”
I retorted weakly, but to no avail.
What if he falls down? If he falls down in a place where the luggage is not organized, he may bump his head into a box and get hurt more seriously.
Reminder: pls do not repost ANYWHERE smh