Let’s Block the Ruined Route in Advance Chapter 108

“Andrew!!!”

 

Star appeared before Andrew could even hit the ground, his body doubled over the demon.

 

“Where did it come from? This isn’t a stacking place.”

 

“Andrew, wake up, don’t fall asleep! I’m going to heal you now!”

 

Eileen snapped out of her confusion. There was no time for this.

 

“Clothes first!”

 

Eileen summoned the life force of the vegetation. Once Andrew was conscious, Laquerta tore off his robe, revealing a gaping wound from his shoulder blade to just above his pelvic bone. At first glance, it looked serious, and with trembling hands, Laquerta began to use his healing powers.

 

“Stay awake. Don’t fall asleep.”

 

Eileen, who had sent a messenger to Cordelia through Star, wiped a nervous frown from her face. She’d seen many wounds in her time in battle, but the wounds of someone so close to her were not easily adjusted to.

 

Stifling a groan, Andrew opened his mouth cautiously, his face a mask of disbelief.

 

“Oh, no, ugh. I’m okay.”

 

“You can’t be okay, why did you jump in there?”

 

Laquerta bit his lip tightly as he spoke angrily in frustration. His friend had gotten hurt trying to save him. He didn’t know what to say at a time like this.

 

“Alas, they are both crying.”

 

Andrew looked up at his two sobbing friends. Their identical expressions made him want to laugh, but his back hurt too much to do so.

 

“That’s really good.”

 

The friends he had before he found a master who recognized his worth. More afraid of losing his friends than he was of the demon, Andrew pushed through the burning pain and didn’t feel an ounce of regret.

 

“I’m glad Laquerta isn’t hurt.”

 

Relief washed over him, and he dozed off. A drowsiness so drowsy that he could barely hear Laquerta’s cries for him not to fall asleep.

 

He closed his eyes and saw darkness.

 

 

***

 

 

Aire sat up, the stack of papers Gavil had handed him disheveled in front of him.

 

“Simultaneous terrorist attacks?”

 

“Yes. There’s more than one family affected.”

 

Dozens of estates in the southwestern region of the country have suffered simultaneous attacks. 

 

The problem was that it wasn’t just terrorism, it was demonic terrorism.

 

“Demons appearing out of nowhere, even in places that don’t overlap.”

 

Aire lifted the paper as if to tear it to shreds. There was one thing they all had in common. A small glass bottle resembling a perfume bottle was discarded.

 

“The first round of tests have been completed at the tower, and they say it’s a special kind of vial that contains both magic and energy. It seems to contain a small demon, magic and energy, sealed inside and exploded at once, creating a temporary environment for the demon to survive.”

 

Aire lifted his head as if holding back anger at the words.

 

A demon small enough to be sealed in a small bottle was not difficult to remove, but that was for someone with combat skills, such as a knight or mage. The fact that the victims of this incident were mostly civilians was proof of that.

 

“So it was mainly in the manors where there were relatively few disasters.”

 

“Yes, the ones close to the lord’s residence were mostly taken care of by the knights, but the farmhouses.”

 

Aire ran a hand through his prickly hair. The hand he’d been dealt when his plan to create a cataclysm with Athrox had been thwarted before it had begun was worse than he’d expected.

 

“They want to instill fear in the people that they never know when or where a demon will strike.”

 

The magic that would be unleashed as soon as the belief that the swarm would be stopped was replaced by the fear of the unknown and unpredictable was not something to be taken lightly.

 

“We need to get to the palace.”

 

Something had to be done.

 

 

***

 

 

“Oh, my God.”

 

Andrew opened his eyes in the guest room and squinted. His back still hurt, but it wasn’t unbearable. He stopped moving and just blinked, realizing that he was alive.

 

He must have realized he was not in his room.

 

He was lying in a lavish guest room, a stone’s throw from the scene of the crime, with his dignity intact. He was thinking he was thirsty when the door opened and the man who entered shouted.

 

“Andrew, you!”

 

Laquerta spotted him and threw down a tray of wet towels.

 

“Are you okay?!”

 

“Yeah, my back is fine, but my cheek hurts for some reason.”

 

The man who had slapped Andrew’s cheek to keep him conscious averted his eyes.

 

“When you get hurt badly, your whole-body hurts.”

 

“No, more like my cheek.”

 

“That’s the way it is.”

 

Laquerta poured a cup of water, still avoiding eye contact, and handed Andrew a glass.

 

“The wound is healing nicely. Professor Aaron took a second look, so don’t worry.”

 

“I’m not worried.”

 

“You are!”

 

Laquerta, looking as if he’d been overwhelmed, stammered, then slumped into the chair beside the bed.

 

“Thank you for saving…”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“Don’t do it again.”

 

Andrew didn’t respond to that, but just as Laquerta was about to speak up again, Eileen and Cordelia opened the door and walked in.

 

“Andrew, you’re awake!”

 

Eileen breathed a sigh of relief and rushed over to him.

 

“I was really worried about you. I’m so glad you were with us.”

 

“Yeah, thanks for saving me. I didn’t get a good look at it when it fell, but you took it out in one fell swoop, didn’t you? That’s pretty impressive, Eileen.”

 

Eileen rubbed the bridge of her nose, feeling unnecessarily embarrassed. It hadn’t been long since she’d heard about the similar incidents from Aire, and she’d gotten nervous, but seeing Andrew awake and unharmed had cheered her up.

 

‘I freaked out when I heard that Urzar had changed his tactics. I’m so glad Andrew was with me.

 

My heart sank as I realized that if the timing hadn’t been right, I could have lost Andrew or Laquerta.’

 

Eileen examined Andrew, fighting the urge to ask the World Tree. He looked fine, except for a faint handprint on his cheek.

 

“If I’d been faster, you wouldn’t have gotten hurt.”

 

Eileen couldn’t help but let the words slip out with a hint of bitterness. She thought she was pretty familiar with battlefields by now, but Andrew’s wound seemed to show her inexperience.

 

Andrew looked at Eileen, who looked a little defeated, and smiled weakly.

 

“You’re traveling across the country every day to rid the world of such creatures, I know it’s hard, and that makes me admire you even more.”

 

Turning his gaze to look at Laquerta for a moment, he continued.

 

“It hurt when I fell, but I wasn’t scared, because I saw you, the people I trust the most.”

 

He paused, then grinned mischievously.

 

“If you’re sorry, I’ll just pretend I hurt you all beforehand, and you can stop hurting me now?”

 

At the insincere remark, Laquerta lunged at Andrew again. Eileen, watching from a step behind the two of them as they bickered, smiled.

 

“Aye, it’s worth a fight to keep it like this.”

 

It was a tumultuous scene, but watching it made her feel surprisingly calm.

 

Cordelia went first to inform Professor Aaron that Andrew had awakened, and several of the students from the special class joined in visiting the ward. They had taken a liking to him after his experience in Verotanis.

 

Andrew smiled as the room filled with well-wishers.

 

The ugly duckling of the Roswin family was no longer lonely.

 

 

***

 

 

“Shit. Shit. Damn.”

 

Gray Dolta finally abandoned the special squad on the third mission. It wasn’t uncommon for him to drop out when the stakes were raised, but to walk away with nothing to show for it, having lost his connection to the Marquis of Kamar, was a stinging blow.

 

“Damn it. Why should I risk my life for a bunch of useless humans?”

 

His father’s disappointed gaze lingered in his mind.

 

“I’m the only one they’re mad at! This is how they all live.”

 

He bit his nails nervously.

 

Neumann with his talent, Lucian with his talent, Felix with his talent.

 

“If only I had that damn talent, I would have stayed there forever!”

 

When Neumann had been there, it had sucked the life out of his self-esteem, his inferiority complex was too thick.

 

To cope with his frustration, he retreated to a cottage on the outskirts of town under the pretext of recuperation. Away from the humans who looked down on him, he found that lashing out at the staff gave him a little breathing room.

 

It was late one night when someone came to visit Gray as he was quietly rotting away.

 

“Yes?”

 

The man, whose mouth was barely visible through his tightly pressed hat, smiled wickedly at him.

 

“Do you need something special?”