Chapter 120
Translator: penny
Chapter: 120
Chapter Title: The One We Should Believe In and Follow - 1
It was a monster she'd never seen before.
No matter how much they attacked it, it kept regenerating, and using hundreds of whip-like tentacles that resembled hooks, it snatched people up, shoved them into its body, and fled. After chasing the monster to the ruins in front of them...
Claire lost her words at the horrific sight before her eyes.
Lifeless, withered, twisted corpses were scattered in front of the ruins.
The people, stripped completely naked without even a scrap of clothing on—
All of them bore hourglass-shaped scars on their chests.
"What in the world is..."
What had happened?
What on earth was going on here?
Had all the people who'd been captured ended up like this?
Tension made Claire hesitate.
Exploring ruins like these alone was dangerous.
She should bring soldiers from the garrison, prepare properly, and then search.
But she couldn't help agonizing over it.
Leventia and Evangeline were both fighting on other battlefields, and regrettably, there were no adventurers strong enough for ruin exploration among those staying at the garrison.
In other words, even if she fetched someone now, it would take quite a bit of time.
If she waited that long, the captured people would...
Claire swallowed slightly and ultimately stepped into the ruins with tense footsteps.
If something happened, she'd use the portal to escape and call for backup—that was the plan.
After she entered like that, a short while later...
The ruin's door closed, and three eyes that hadn't been there before appeared at the entrance.
'Ruin exploration, huh...'
The corridor inside the ruin was made of cold stone flooring, just like the other ruins she'd seen.
Stepping on that stone floor brought back old memories.
It had been during the journey to defeat the Demon King. When Leventia and Evangeline had temporarily left the party for some business...
Scholars had come to the inn where she was staying with the Sage.
They'd discovered a peculiar ruin and asked for help exploring it.
They promised to hand over anything useful for fighting the Demon King without question.
The more they journeyed, the stronger the Demon King's minions seemed to get.
Claire had recognized the need for new equipment, so she and the Sage had explored that ruin together.
'That time, something like this happened too.'
Her boots stopped on the stone floor. Claire stared silently down the corridor.
-Grrr... grrr...
As Claire halted and didn't proceed, the corridor began to change in response.
The stone floor, which had been rippling like it was alive, was actually a slime in disguise.
-Grrrrr...
The slime writhed, raising its body. Watching it, Claire slowly drew the Hero's Sword and swung it at the slime without hesitation.
-Fwoosh!!
Ordinary weapons couldn't damage slimes no matter what. Blunt and slashing attacks had little effect on them.
But the Hero's Sword was different.
-Fwoosh... fwoosh...
Struck by the holy sword infused with the sun's power, the slime began to burn as if hit by a fire-attribute spell.
A flame more powerful than any magic.
The sun's power incinerated the slimes in an instant, and in the place where the disguised slime had been, only a palm-sized small statue remained.
"...This?"
Had it been inside the slime? But it should have been affected by the sun's power—yet the statue was pristine, without a single scorch mark.
"An hourglass...?"
It was a statue in the shape of the same pattern that had been on the corpses earlier.
Hourglass.
What did this signify?
Clutching the hourglass statue, Claire recalled something the Sage had once said.
'Time can't be turned back, and anyone who claims it can is a con artist—so attack them on sight.'
He'd brought it up out of nowhere back then, and she'd wondered why.
But the Sage knew everything. Not a single word he said could be ignored.
So she'd tucked it away in a corner of her memory and never forgotten.
Or perhaps...
She might remember everything he'd ever said.
"...Haa."
Claire thought of Leventia and Evangeline, who had recently returned from capturing a demon at the elves' forest's request.
Their condition upon return had looked quite poor.
The duchy knights who had escorted them to the battlefield explained the situation by saying only that the Sage had joined them for the demon extermination.
What on earth had happened back then?
But there was no way to know. Neither Leventia nor Evangeline...
Both had kept their mouths firmly shut, focusing solely on fighting monsters.
"Haa... Hyunwoo."
She wanted to open a portal right then and go to where Hyunwoo was, to ask about this hourglass and what had happened back then.
But she lacked the face to meet him.
What right did she have to see him?
What right did she have to question and pry from him?
Anyone else, maybe—but she couldn't imagine Hyunwoo tormenting or harassing those two.
As far as Claire knew, he was absolutely not the type.
"For now, let's keep going."
With just this one statue, there was no way to figure out what kind of ruin this was or what that monster was.
If so, there was only one answer.
Press on.
Strength entered her steps as she walked across the stone floor.
How many floors did this ruin have? What traps lay in wait, and what dangers lurked?
- Others might not manage, but you can explore dungeons or ruins alone just fine.
Hyunwoo's advice came to mind.
When she'd heard he'd gone to a dungeon alone before, she'd been quite worried.
But as always, he just smiled leisurely and said:
I can use every skill, so I'm fine.
And you're fine too.
You can retreat via portal if needed.
So explore ruins or dungeons solo until your life is truly at risk.
Your insight and attention to detail—and many other things—grow more when exploring alone than in a group.
If you properly use the huge advantage of being able to escape anytime, you can get stronger that way.
Recalling that unforgettable advice, Claire resumed walking.
From the wreckage of the unidentified monster engulfed in the sun's flames and crumbling, she found yet another hourglass.
The first hourglass statue had come from a slime.
A slime's trait was swallowing anything into itself.
Living things, it melted down for nutrients.
But non-living things?
It just left them inside.
So she figured this statue must have been something the slime had eaten somewhere.
But as she progressed through the ruin and battled, she realized that assumption was wrong.
Because she could obtain these hourglass statues from every monster in the ruin.
It was hard to call them mere junk when just holding one slowly restored her stamina and mana.
She couldn't discard them, so she kept carrying them—and now she had over ten, filling her pockets.
"If only I had an Appraisal skill..."
This was when she missed Hyunwoo most. In a party without an appraiser, he handled that role alone.
He casually appraised items from ruins, dungeons, or monster drops, letting them quickly sort useful from useless and lighten their load.
"Haa..."
Maybe she should have learned it somehow back then?
Not wanting to burden Hyunwoo alone with it, Claire had once asked him to teach her.
He hadn't seemed reluctant at all and tried to teach her, but she couldn't learn the Appraisal skill.
She had no talents outside of combat to begin with.
Regretting that, she'd wanted to use equipment for it somehow, but even that plan fell through.
Magic tools that stored Appraisal were mostly rings, and for the Demon King fight, most of her fingers were occupied with enhancement rings.
Claire looked at her hand. Slowly removing her glove revealed that every finger on her pale hand bore a ring.
"...Hyunwoo..."
Claire stared at the ring on the index finger of her left hand.
Among the rings on her ten fingers, this was the only one unrelated to combat.
No, it wasn't even a magic item—it had no effects at all.
Because this was something he'd given her at a summer festival before their relationship soured, when they'd gone together.
She'd been his partner that day, wandering stalls and playing games.
At the end, watching fireworks by the riverbank.
He'd given her this ring as a game prize.
It was her first time receiving a ring from a man.
Her heart had pounded as she held out her hand, and he'd slipped it onto her index finger.
She'd wished for her ring finger instead.
At the time, Claire had felt regret but let it go.
And someday...
After the world was at peace, she expected another festival where rings would adorn her other fingers too.
It wasn't long before she learned that was a vain hope and dream.
"Ahh..."
Good past memories always dragged along the depressing ones.
Her own mistakes, her own blunders.
The helplessness and cowardice of failing to help a struggling, suffering Hyunwoo.
Remembering that horrific, unwanted past that trailed behind the sweet memories, Claire squeezed her eyes shut.
Even so, she couldn't remove this ring.
Taking it off felt like abandoning all ties to Hyunwoo.
And she wanted to cling to even a gem-like fragment of that beautiful past.
"...This year... it won't happen..."
She'd heard the kingdom capital's summer festival was restarting this year.
The long-suspended festival resuming.
It would be grand and splendid.
But she wouldn't be at Hyunwoo's side.
"Ugh..."
Who would be beside Hyunwoo?
Princess Lucille?
Or Cardinal Veronica?
No, maybe some other woman.
Jealousy surged alongside self-loathing.
I'm the one who didn't help him.
I'm the one who didn't reach out to him in his hardship.
So what right do I have now to wish to be his partner?
Claire shook her head vigorously and started walking again.
And so...
On the ceiling of the corridor she'd left.
Three eyes appeared and glinted.
"...This is."
It was a room like an endlessly long corridor.
No monsters, no traps, no defenses.
So she just needed to proceed.
But Claire couldn't bring herself to step forward.
The moment she entered the room, there were paintings on the walls, and what they depicted was...
"...Me... and Hyunwoo...?"
They were incredibly lifelike paintings.
So vivid it seemed like they'd stepped right out of her.
Why were she and Hyunwoo painted in this ruin?
But that wasn't the problem.
The Claire and Sage in the paintings were far different from their current relationship.
Claire, clinging to the Sage's arm.
The Sage looking at her with a warm, smiling gaze.
An impossible scene was painted there.
So Claire, entranced, shifted her eyes to another painting.
Sitting at the same table, eating. Sauce on Claire's face, which the Sage wipes off with his hand and licks from his lips.
A subtle stir in her chest began pulling at Claire's mind bit by bit.
Normally, she'd notice, but not now.
It was too sweet.
Scenes she'd only imagined—ones she knew she couldn't have—were now concretely laid out before her.
So Claire wandered the room entranced, focusing only on the paintings.
Both holding large paper bags in one hand, but their other hands gripped tight, unwilling to let go even for a moment.
On her ring finger in that painting...
Was the ring she hadn't dared move to another finger.
"Ah... ahhh..."
Paintings of them happily wandering stalls at their first summer festival.
A fall camping trip together.
A cold winter, huddled under the same blanket by the heater as he embraced her from behind.
A spring field of blooming flowers, gazing at each other with affection before slowly kissing.
Paintings.
Paintings.
Every painting in this vast, endless room.
Claire devoured them like a castaway in the open sea gulping down water greedily.
Even if it was saltwater.
To quench an unbearable thirst, she stared only at those paintings.
Her legs, barely holding her up, trembled.
This was an impossible future.
But it was the future she desperately wanted.
If, during the Demon King journey, she'd stepped up for the suffering Hyunwoo.
If she'd blocked Evangeline and Leventia's abuse and reached out to him.
If she hadn't ignored her duty.
It could have been the happy future she'd have had.
Dazed.
The moment she shed a single tear after collapsing there, staring only at the paintings for who knows how long—
-Pow!!
A sharp impact struck Claire's cheek.
"Get a grip?"
That voice was overflowing with reality, enough to yank her from the impossible sweet future.
Writer's Note (Afterword)
See you at 10~!