R4STWH - Chapter 113
Chapter 113
The saintess, who had been trotting along behind us, received a box from a priest waiting outside the dining hall and handed it to me.
“Here, the clothes you’ll be changing into.”
“Thank you. I contacted you so suddenly, but thank you for bringing my clothes all the way here.”
“I was a bit surprised when someone from the 1st Imperial Prince’s palace barged in this morning, but it’s nothing.”
The saintess said, after swallowing what she had been muttering about.
“Should I go with you and help you?”
“Huh? There’s really no need……”
“I think it would be nice if you did.”
I was about to refuse, telling her to just go back to eating, but Elias stepped in and said.
“There’s no one in this palace who we can trust to entrust you to.”
The saintess, who was looking at him with wide eyes, nodded.
“Okay, then, let’s go together. It’s nothing personal, Sir Crow, but it’s a bit scary to go back there without the two of you.”
She must have felt more comfortable with me than with Zero, Baeksa, or Yumi, since I was the one she had seen the most, after all.
I felt inexplicably good about the change in the saintess, who had been trembling and unable to speak properly whenever she looked at me.
It was when we reached the central staircase to head towards the guest room where we had changed our clothes before.
“Saintess, I apologize, but may I ask you for a favor?”
Elias turned to look at the saintess with a blank expression.
“Yes? What is it?”
“I seem to have lost my handkerchief in the basement earlier. I would like you to go and get it for me.”
“G-go to the basement by myself?”
Elias emphasized his words as he looked at the saintess's eyes, which had widened in shock.
“Yes, it’s a very important matter.”
“U-uh… Uh-huh……”
“Please don’t worry. There will be nothing dangerous there.”
Although she shrunk her shoulders as if she was scared, the saintess ultimately nodded.
She must have thought that there was a reason why she had to do it, even though she didn't know what it was.
“I understand…….”
I watched the saintess go down the stairs with slow steps for a moment, then I turned my gaze to him.
“Elias.”
“I’ll explain it once we get there.”
Although we were quite far from the dining hall, Elias held back his words, perhaps to be careful.
And it was only after we entered the guest room on the second floor that he spoke again.
“I received a quest.”
“Uh, uh?”
I was bewildered and looked at him.
“Is it a quest that you’re allowed to tell me about?”
“There’s no confidentiality clause among the failure conditions.”
He said in a low voice while helping me change.
“And even if there was, there’s no reason why I shouldn’t tell you if you want me to.”
I felt a twinge of guilt inwardly.
Even though I had received a quest to meet Ermitar, I hadn't told Elias anything about him while hurrying to the imperial capital.
In our world, it was only natural not to ask about each other's quests, and we were rather wary of those who went around talking about them.
We believed that there was a high possibility that they were mixed with lies.
I had actually seen with my own eyes a crazy guy who had committed a massacre, using a valuable reward as bait.
However, even apart from those excuses, the possibility that I would have honestly told Elias the contents of the quest was very low.
'Because I don't have the conviction that Elias will believe me until the very end, no matter what.'
Affection and trust were clearly different.
Just because you like someone, doesn't mean you can unconditionally trust them.
If Elias were to misunderstand that I might condone the destruction of this world for the sake of my comrades, would it be my fault or his fault?
I didn’t think it was either’s fault.
We, who were not actually Pairs or bound by destiny, had even less time to get to know each other.
Because I didn’t want to recall most of my life in my own world, I had never told Elias about the things I had experienced so far.
So Elias didn't know any of the processes of how I came to be at this place, and he hadn't had any opportunity to understand me as a person.
I now knew that the somewhat excessive anxiety that Elias showed was also due to that, and not due to any side effects of us not being Pairs.
Since I thought that he didn’t trust me, just as I didn’t trust him, I didn’t try to improve our relationship, even if I felt guilty.
Since it was more advantageous and convenient for me to be like this, I had intended to stick to the current method in the future as well.
And yet, Elias had taken a big step towards me first.
Saying that there was no need for any secrets between us.
“Unlike the quests until now, the purpose this time seemed clear. It called the people in the dining hall ‘plunderers’.”
Elias recited the sentences from the quest he had received, exactly as they were. Everything, including the success reward and the failure penalty.
“So that’s why you sent the saintess to the basement.”
“Yeah. Anyway, once the saintess meets Ermitar and returns, the quest will progress to the next step, and after that, it’ll be easier to figure out the intentions and the purposes contained within it.”
It was a wise decision. Moreover…….
Seeing how big the reward was just for facilitating a meeting between the saintess and Ermitar, I wondered if perhaps at least half of it was a ‘quest for giving a reward’ in the first place.
“Maybe the god of this world chose Elias.”
“What do you mean by that? The god of this world?”
Now that it had come to this, I decided to tell him all about the secret of the quest that I had heard from Ermitar.
“Keep in mind while listening that it might be mixed with lies.”
Everything, including the process and result of how Ermitar came to our world and became notorious as an ‘Evil Dragon’ before becoming the final boss.
“An existence that wanders through dimensions, it sounds like a preposterous story, but yet I can’t bring myself not to believe it.”
“Right? Our world had a much more developed scientific civilization than this place, to the point where we were exploring space. But we couldn’t figure out anything about quests or dungeons at all. To think that an existence that would only appear in myths or folktales was the cause, it’s just absurd.”
“Anyway, if everything Ermitar said is true, it means it’s possible to turn back the time of your world using this world as a sacrifice, right?”
“……It seems so. But of course, I won’t let that happen.”
Elias stared straight at me, who had said that.
“Why……?”
“I wondered if you had a reason not to. No matter the method, don’t you also want to go back? To a time when your world was somewhat livable?”
Had there ever been such a time……?
I don't know about my other comrades, but for me at least, there was no such day.
Even in the oldest of my memories, I was in pain, and even the day I cleared the final quest was very difficult and tiring.
There wouldn't be anything happy if I were to return to any point in time of my life.
“I was much happier living here. Even if I find a plausible method and they all leave, I will stay by your side.”
As I mumbled quietly, Elias’s eyes widened. And then they softened immediately.
“Okay. But if you ever change your mind later and want to return to your world, you have to tell me.”
He said while making eye contact with me.
“I will definitely go with you as well.”
To our world, Elias?
I blinked my eyes and looked at him.
If Elias were to see the emaciated and dirty me, who was very different from how I am now, what would he think?
I had been confident that Elias wouldn’t abandon me just because my face had become a little ugly because I had been mistaken that we were fated Pairs, but now, I no longer had any grounds for that conviction.
But…….
'Even so, Elias will love me.'
For some reason, I had that feeling while making eye contact with him.
Even if it was during a time when I was like a bug rummaging through a trash can, even if my skin was all rotten from the side effects of the experiment, even if I was apathetic monster who knew neither joy nor sadness.
He was the one person who wouldn't abandon me and would stay by my side.
So……even if that was something that wouldn’t ever happen,
“Thank you, Elias.”
I said to him with all my sincerity.
“It’s only natural for a husband to stay by his wife’s side.”
At the smile that was spreading across Elias’s lips, I couldn’t hold myself back any longer and reached out to him.
I was only planning to steal a kiss from his lips, since if I delayed any longer, Yumi and Zero wouldn’t wait patiently, but at that very moment…….
Whoosh-!
Elias's entire body was enveloped in a brilliant light.
Because of the strange color and scent of that power, I could tell immediately.
That the quest had been cleared as a result of the saintess meeting and having a conversation with Ermitar. And…….
'As I had guessed.'
The higher-ranking title that Elias had awakened was clearly deeply connected with the god of this world.
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