Chapter 103
Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 103
Chapter Title: Salvation Pure Love!
"Ugh... Hah!"
Slowly opening her eyes, Celine remembered the previous situation and bolted upright in a panic.
She had definitely been fighting Alvis.
Then all sorts of interferences had come in, and in the final moment...
Recalling how a familiar voice had rung out alongside a blow to her neck that made her collapse, Celine hurriedly tried to grab her weapons.
Squeeze-
But her body was already bound with ropes, leaving her unable to twitch a finger or toe, and she was lying inside an imperial-style barracks building.
She struggled to break free, but no matter what she did to the ropes, she—who was quite confident in her strength—couldn't loosen the bindings even a little with her own power.
Screech-
As Celine grunted futilely, trying to untie the ropes, the door to her room suddenly opened, and a figure still hooded and masked entered.
"!!!"
The moment she saw Alvis's comrade, Celine recalled the voice she'd heard right before passing out.
- Sorry, Celine.
It had been the last time she'd seen her since visiting the Carrot Duchy, but she remembered that voice crystal clear.
It was definitely Ravi's voice, one of her closest friends from the academy days.
Hearing that voice had shocked her so badly that she'd let her guard down completely, and the last thing she remembered was getting struck in the back of the neck and collapsing.
Seeing Alvis's comrade, Celine thrashed even harder and raised her voice.
"You...! Untie this right now! Where's that bastard Alvis?! Who the hell are you?! Is Ravi really one of you?! No, right?! Tell me it's not true!"
"......"
The hooded figure silently hoisted Celine over their shoulder without a word, ignoring her struggles as they walked out with steady steps.
When the terrorist set Celine down in the open clearing inside the base, she shot to her feet with a look like she wanted to devour them alive and tried to kick the terrorist—but suddenly, an invisible colossal force crushed down on her, forcing her to her knees.
Grinding her teeth and glaring at the terrorists, Celine watched as three of them slowly approached and removed their hoods and masks one by one.
Seeing their revealed faces, Celine forgot her anger and froze in shock, her mouth falling open unwittingly.
A pink bob-cut bunny girl a bit taller than the other two.
A blonde ponytail elf with a somewhat stern impression.
A blonde drill-haired human girl who seemed a tad overconfident.
As familiar faces emerged from beneath the terrorists' hoods and masks, Celine asked in a trembling voice.
"Ravi...? Elfin...? Lenis...? Why... why are you..."
The three looked at Celine with pitying expressions for a moment, saying nothing.
As Celine gradually snapped out of her shock and grasped the situation, she glared at the silent trio and screamed in a highly agitated voice.
"What the hell are you doing here?! Don't tell me that ridiculous joke that you're really the Ebony Shadow Mercenaries!"
The possibility she least wanted to believe.
The descriptions of the terrorists in the reports shared by the imperial troops who had survived after being dispatched to the Carrot Duchy border region matched her friends too closely, but she'd believed without a doubt it was just coincidence.
That belief was now shattered to pieces.
She'd already sensed it in her head during the battle in the hills, but her heart had refused to accept the truth—now it stood inescapably before her eyes as undeniable reality.
"Celine..."
"Celine, just hear us out—"
As the three opened their mouths as if to explain, something welled up inside Celine.
She'd received detailed accounts of the atrocities committed by Alvis and the terrorists, and upon learning they'd ultimately carried out mass murder along the empire-kingdom border, she'd judged they couldn't be left alone and mobilized to exterminate them all.
Yet the targets turned out to be her closest friends from the academy?
And they were following that Alvis—the one they'd all quite disliked, especially Elfin who genuinely loathed him—as their leader?
Learning her friends had become accomplices to vile criminals and committed terrorism everywhere made the three years at the academy feel like they'd all been for nothing.
"Shut up! You filthy traitors! When I heard the rumors, I told everyone it was nonsense, that my friends would never do that! I trusted you! And yet you point your blades at us? You know who the overall commander of the unit you just fought is, right?! It's Brayden! You've just drawn swords on Brayden! How could you?!"
"Celine, calm down—"
"What, are you doing this now out of petty revenge because I'm with Brayden?! We all promised to cheer on and celebrate whoever ended up with him!"
"......"
"Answer me! Why are you doing this here?! Why the terrorism?! Why point your swords at me and Brayden?!"
As the three remained silent, Celine's anger surged even more.
She'd been betrayed by those she thought were friends.
Seeing their base, lowly true faces made even the academy promise to support each other's loves and celebrate whoever got Brayden feel like lies, pretense, and hypocrisy.
Filthy, disgusting criminals. Murderers. Terrorists.
As Celine spat curses at the three former friends, burning with seething hatred, someone emerged from the barracks and spoke.
"It's because you're swinging blind swords without even knowing where you should truly be protecting."
Celine whipped her head toward the voice from inside the barracks.
A tall, somewhat roguish-looking brown-haired young man emerged and approached her.
Recognizing him, Celine twisted her face.
"Alvis...!"
"And one thing you're wrong about—they're here with me because they understand and agree with my will. Not out of jealousy over you and Brayden. Because..."
The young man walked over to Celine's academy friends, lightly smacked Elfin's butt, threw his arms around Ravi and Lenis's shoulders, and slipped his hands into their bosoms.
"Ahh...♡"
"Nnh...♥"
"Because these girls are already mine. So, Celine, how about we chat for a bit after all this time? We didn't talk much back at the academy, did we?"
For a moment, Celine couldn't comprehend the scene before her.
What... what are they doing right now?
That's Alvis.
Alvis is smacking your butts and groping your chests, so why aren't you cursing him out or beating him down—instead, you're accepting it with happy faces?
Celine's mind went blank for an instant, but she quickly pieced it together.
They're all the same—murderers, criminals, terrorists. Wanted fugitives with nowhere to go, constantly on the run; it wasn't all that rare for such criminals wandering the streets to casually hook up.
But she was different.
She had a noble holy warrior as her lover, took care to conduct herself properly, avoided vulgar acts, and always lived with self-cultivation.
She was nothing like these three, who acted no better than whores cavorting with criminals.
With that thought, Celine gritted her teeth.
"I... have nothing to say to scum like you!"
"That won't do."
Watching Alvis smirk and grope the three girls' breasts and butts, Celine was seized by intense murderous impulse.
Without knowing at all what he was thinking inside.
Thud-
'It's seriously putting me in a bind!'
Thanks to the measures Luna took when she was absorbed into me, it had been pretty tame lately, but after over a year suffering from this damn message, what I'd realized was that backlash damage hit me whenever there were signs of heading toward the 'doom fate' that the goddess's power had detected.
Before Luna's fix—which mixed in the Underground Vermin's lingering thoughts—backlash came double-barreled both when escaping 'doom fate' and other times, but now that side was fixed enough not to trip me up mid-battle...
In other words, taking backlash damage now meant Celine was also someone who needed saving from the numerous deaths I'd witnessed.
She wasn't fated to die originally; she'd just fallen victim to the Underground Vermin's schemes...
I barely endured the intense abdominal pain surging through me and pondered my options.
Of course I wanted to save Celine.
But she hated me now, in a different way from the old Elfin.
She saw me as a heinous murdering terrorist, so no words would get through—and just sending her back meant she'd share all our info and bring an even larger subjugation force, so that wasn't an option either.
Above all, if Brayden turned out not to be the decent guy he seemed and was one cause of the doom fate the goddess foresaw, staying with him wouldn't save Celine from death.
In the end, I had only one conclusion.
'Steal her away!'
Staying with Brayden would just twist her fate toward death anyway, so like with Ravi, Elfin, and Lenis, I just had to take her for myself, right?
Keep her under watch so she couldn't run, drag her around, slowly cook her up, and make her mine.
Unlike the other three, she did have a proper boyfriend...
But this wasn't NTR.
It was 'Salvation Pure Love.'