The Nymph Wants to be Plundered - Chapter 83

Remembering something, Lya quickly returned to her quarters, pushed aside her bed, and pulled out arrows she had hidden near the wall.

Even at a glance, they were a few poorly shaped arrows. These were arrows that Polyxene had made for herself but discarded because she didn’t like them. Lya wanted to imitate everything about Polyxene, but she thought she didn’t need to resemble her arrow-making skills.

Still, the reason she had kept these discarded arrows was, well… she just wanted to. It was a small desire to possess Polyxene’s traces entirely.

‘It wouldn’t be right to put them together with those, would it?’

Lya glanced back and shook her head.

Her quiver had a unique structure that could be opened and closed with a lid, which was possible because she made her arrow shafts shorter than others. Polyxene’s arrows would obviously stick out and prevent it from closing, and they might also cause unnecessary rumors, so she felt they should be put away.

After organizing various things, Lya took Polyxene’s arrows to the incinerator to hide them, and watching them burn brightly, she suddenly felt rage rising.

“…No.”

Why should I hide, why am I acting like an assassin with something to conceal? I simply fulfilled my duty as an elf and as a guard! Disciplining the nymph is a rightful duty.

Suddenly, a strange courage raised its head from her chest.

‘I’ve done nothing wrong. Yes… let’s go. I’ll go on my own feet and report what I did, how that arrogant nymph committed such a deplorable act. That’s right, I won’t leave it be. I…! I will do it.’

And so, overtaken by impulse, Lya ran to the knights protecting the king and bravely confessed. That they must immediately drag out and punish the nymph who dared to intrude on sacred ground, or rather, according to her incoherent words, the one who had boldly stepped in with dirty feet. If they confronted her now, she would reveal in detail what that creature had done wrong!

However, Lya’s brave confession scattered uselessly like the smoke of a candle blown out with a puff. This was because Evelyn, the subject of her accusation, was lying sick and unconscious. The debate over cause and effect was consequently postponed indefinitely.

Therefore, she fell into the situation of being imprisoned in the underground dungeon for an unspecified period, an outcome no one had anticipated.

***

“…….”

“Evelyn.”

A heavy silence descended upon the king’s bedroom.

Even the spirits that usually hovered around caring for Evelyn were quiet, and the World Tree, which occasionally extended its branches to make sounds by rubbing the tips of its leaves, was holding its breath.

Cassis’s quiet call failed to draw her innocent gaze. With her pale face, she did not even twitch her eyelashes while keeping her eyes closed.

“Evelyn?”

Even after calling twice, the sound he desperately wished for—the rustle of sheets as she rose—showed no signs of happening. Cassis clenched his fist tightly, but nothing changed because of it. She was still asleep.

It was truly a feeling of frustration he had not experienced in a long time. In front of the sacred ground, although Evelyn had collapsed, she had retained a faint consciousness, and her condition had undoubtedly improved as he steadily supplied her with vital energy.

Was it because he had made a careless judgment?

It had been fine when he brought her to the Hall of Glory, his bedroom, and gently probed her cracked lips with his tongue to provide more potent vital energy. Her cheeks, which had shown signs of life even as she painfully coughed, had somehow become emaciated.

“…Evelyn.”

Even though he had called her name hundreds of times today with desperation, she gave no answer. More precisely, she was unable to respond…

“Damn it.”

Finally, an expletive he rarely uttered in her presence escaped through his teeth. Despite knowing she would be clearly frightened if she heard his muttering, he had no choice.

Even in this situation, Evelyn’s eyelids remained quietly immersed in darkness. After experiencing repeated bitter failures, Cassis began to seriously reflect on himself.

What had he done wrong?

There was nothing of the sort.

In the current situation, he was none other than being optimized for caring for a nymph. Before she was attacked by that arrogant intruder who violated the castle’s rules, she had been fine, and the vitality flowing through her body from two consecutive days of sensual pleasure had been sufficient.

And yet…

‘Does the deterioration of the physical body have such a significant impact?’

It was a natural principle that, regardless of the amount of vital energy, the body’s shock had to be counted separately as a living being. Moreover, although Evelyn was a nymph, her initial physical body originated from a human, which would have made it worse.

Cassis, who had held her injured form days ago, had failed to think of this. He had been complacent and ignorant. At the time when he should have been most vigilant, he had mistakenly believed they had overcome the major crisis and acted with unwarranted ease. He should have immediately turned over every bookshelf in the library to find a way to save the dying nymph as soon as he brought her to the Hall of Glory.

The self-reproach and regret-filled bitterness from this realization continued to torment him. Just looking at Evelyn’s deathlike, prostrate face felt as if his fingertips were being sliced by a knife, drawing blood.

“…It’s because of my inadequacy that you…”

He could not bring himself to finish the sentence.