Don’t Be Holy! - Chapter 42

He had a brief dream.

Although he expected to see Chris Palmer, strangely, the woman who had just been captured appeared instead.

It was odd, since he didn’t feel the same level of guilt toward her as he did toward Palmer.

‘I’m Eir.’

And that wasn’t the only strange thing.

It seemed to be repeating events from when they first met, but everything was subtly different from what he remembered.

Back then, to gain the woman’s favor to stay at Hecate’s house, he had listened to her name and responded with nonsense about it being pretty, but in the dream, he muttered disapprovingly with an arrogant attitude, ‘What an excessive name.’

Moreover, the incident with Alupu was different too. He clearly remembered hesitating before going to save her, but in the dream, he was carefully explaining to her how to catch Alupu.

‘You must strike straight down from above, right in the center of the head. There’s a tiny gap there, and if you stab it correctly, it dies instantly. The key is to maintain your composure.’

‘Maintain composure.’

The woman muttered while adjusting her knife. The Rubel in the dream took one more look at her before moving on to the next person.

While he seemed to have felt some sort of pride in watching her trying so hard to learn, honestly, such an emotion made no sense.

Why would he feel such emotions toward others? He had always been surrounded by hard working people, so why would he suddenly feel proud just because she was repeating his words and concentrating?

‘This is nonsense.’

It felt artificial, as if someone had forcibly overlaid these feelings.

Rubel watched the continuing dream with suspicious eyes. The dream showed various scattered scenes before finally showing the scene from three years ago, when they first received the witches’ attack.

At that time, Rubel was overwhelmed fighting against both the endless attacks of magical beasts and the sudden appearance of witches’ spells. Everything fell apart in an instant. Many people were lost, and as a unit leader, he had acted terribly.

Rubel barely managed to watch himself giving orders with an agitated face.

He hadn’t realized it then, but watching in the dream, he could see himself being pushed back like a fool. He could also clearly see the witch chanting spells while targeting him.

‘He’s going to die at this rate.’

Some witches fought using the terrain, so it was best to avoid places near water, corners, and cliffs. But three years ago, he knew nothing of this and was being pushed toward a cliff, unable to see beyond the enemies pressing in front of him.

He could see the witch seizing the opportunity to chant her spell. The cracking cliff was about to collapse…….

‘This seems similar to back then.’

Unlike the previous scenes that differed slightly from his memories, this was definitely similar to what he remembered.

And soon, someone…….

Just as the ground collapsed, a hand pushed him. It was a gesture with no regret or attachment about saving him. Rubel lost his balance greatly and stumbled forward, quickly turning around to see who had saved him.

Unlike the past where he could only see the flowing priest’s robes in the updraft, now he could see Eir’s tiresome face falling dramatically beyond the cliff.

Eir’s face, with eyes tightly closed, seemed to say ‘remember me forever for saving your life.’

It was the first time he felt so cold watching someone save his life.

Rubel watched her coldly before opening his eyes.

‘If you’re going to brainwash someone, at least do it properly.’

It was so crude it was almost laughable. Rubel bent over expecting to retch like he usually did when under mental spells, but strangely, nothing happened.

Was it so subpar that there wasn’t even a rejection response?

Despite seeming like a long dream, not much time had passed when he opened his eyes. Thankfully, contrary to his expectation of having an arm torn off by monsters, his body was intact.

It was fortunate that the number of monsters had decreased, whether due to the spell being completed or not. Only after dealing with all of them did Rubel go to the grave.

He was slightly worried there would be no trace, but there was Eir, looking more intact than Rubel himself, sleeping quietly. Despite all the chaos, she was sleeping like a child, breathing heavily.

“This is ridiculous.”

Rubel let out a disbelieving laugh and reached toward Eir. What was the point of pretending to sacrifice her life to save him when she was just sleeping here? While she was lying here sleeping, Rubel had been working hard alone.

He irritably pressed the back of her head. It was his way of venting his frustration. But at that moment, among her disheveled hair, he discovered something on her exposed nape, and his face froze.

An inverted crown shape, which could also be seen as tree roots.

It was a witch’s mark.

***

She regained consciousness, but Eir opened her eyes late.

She hesitated, unsure whether it was safe to open them or not. Especially when recalling her last memory, she couldn’t help but wonder if this was truly a place where people lived, or if something worse than death awaited her.

‘I definitely felt like I was being sucked into the grave.’

She clearly felt that chilling sensation of darkness sweeping through every corner of her body, just like when she was cursed.

Until she was caught instead of Rubel, she thought she would become a sacrifice for the spell, but contrary to her expectations, it seemed she had directly received the spell into her body.

‘Then what kind of spell was it?’

Though she didn’t know much about witches or spells, she knew that most spells typically took something away.

Even the collapsing ground was caused by completely removing moisture from parts of the earth, so if Eir had been caught in a spell, she must have lost something.

So what exactly was it?

Life? Yes. Limbs? Intact.

Eir, still with her eyes closed, felt around not only her limbs but also her eyes, nose, and mouth.

Well, as long as her body was safe, that was enough. Don’t expect too much. They say even if you get lost in a darkness-consumed forest, you can survive if you keep your wits about you.

Eir muttered this dozens of times before finally opening her eyes. She opened them with an almost forceful “Yap!” but strangely, her surroundings were familiar.

Though it was dark, faint light filtered through the door crack. The wardrobe visible in that light, the small nightstand, overturned books, and discarded flowing nightclothes were unmistakably items from her room. No, this was her room.

‘What’s this? Am I still not awake from the illusion?’

She jolted up in surprise, but as soon as she raised her upper body, her eyes met something even more terrifying, and she let out a scream.

“Aaack!”

“Finally awake?”

Rubel responded calmly, as if used to women screaming at the sight of him.

Eir looked again to make sure she wasn’t seeing things, but sitting across from the bed in a small chair, with wet hair hanging down and looking at her askew, was none other than Rubel Shinote.

“Why are you here?”

“Because I brought you here.”

“Me? Then this isn’t an illusion?”

“If you don’t believe it, here.”

He suddenly drew a dagger from his waist.

Eir tightly closed her eyes, fearing he might stab her, but nothing happened. When she quietly opened her eyes again, Rubel was holding up his divine energy-infused sword with a look of exasperation.

The white-glowing sword was sacred in itself, and just looking at it seemed to bring peace to one’s mind.

“The light isn’t wavering. This must really be reality.”

Eir said this with a sigh of relief. Rubel quietly furrowed his brows. It was extremely rare for someone to know how to distinguish reality from a witch’s illusion using divine energy.

Another weight was added to the scale of judgment in Rubel’s mind, tipping toward this woman being a witch.

Whether Rubel viewed her suspiciously or not, Eir expressed deep relief at finally returning to peaceful daily life after that chaotic incident.

“Ah, I’m so glad. You don’t know how tense I was.”

She dropped her tense arms and exhaled deeply, leaning forward as if collapsing. Rubel checked again for the mark that had been on the back of her neck, but there was still nothing there.