TFPOTRN | CHAPTER 63

[CHAPTER 63]

“You found her.”

When he turned around, Seria was there.

The distance was too far to see clearly, but fortunately she did not seem to have encountered any monsters.

Otherwise, there was no way she could be walking so calmly.

“Over here!”

Relieved that they had found Seria and could finally leave the forest, Jahar Knox smiled brightly and waved his hand toward her.

Hearing the loud voice, Seria also spotted Noah, Jahar Knox, and Theo, and quickened her steps toward them.

“What brings the three of you here?”

“We came looking for you.”

“What on earth were you doing here?”

“Everyone has been searching for you.”

There was a hint of shallow irritation in Jahar Knox’s voice.

It almost sounded as though he were reproaching her for asking something obvious.

“Ah, I’m sorry.”

“I got lost, that’s all.”

“Well, anyway, it’s fine now that we’ve found you.”

“Noah, let’s hurry and rejoin the others.”

“Shall we…….”

As Noah slowly blinked, his yellow eyes were alternately hidden and revealed.

He was blinking languidly as he observed Seria.

Now that she was closer, Seria appeared completely unharmed, without a single injury.

There was only one thing that felt strange.

“Is your hand injured?”

Seria’s hands were caked with dirt and covered in scratches and abrasions.

Compared to the rest of her body, which was perfectly fine, her hands alone were riddled with wounds.

If she had fallen and rolled on the ground, bracing herself with her hands, her sleeves and clothes would have been dirty in several places.

Yet while the rest of her showed not a single mark, only her hands were injured, which seemed odd.

“…Yes.”

It was obviously an excuse she had come up with in a hurry, but neither Noah nor Jahar Knox pointed it out.

It was more reasonable to say that they simply did not care enough to press the issue.

Noah’s golden eyes rested on Seria for a moment before turning away.

As the Spirit King of Earth, Noah had been granted the “Piercing Eyes” by the gods.

Thanks to that, he could usually discern people without even interacting with them, though it was not an omnipotent ability.

It only allowed him to see the malice a being possessed, or emotions they felt particularly strongly.

When he had first seen Seria, the reason he had described her as “unsettling” was the anger permeating her entire body.

It was insufficient to call it mere anger.

It was rage.

And yet her expression had been perfectly calm.

Noah disliked humans whose inner feelings and outward appearance did not match.

That included those who were skilled at hiding their emotions.

All the more so when she was someone who had come from the temple.

That was why he had given Jerena a subtle warning, calling Seria unsettling.

But now…….

Her emotions have stabilized quite a bit.

Had taking a walk alone helped her sort through her feelings?

Just earlier, her emotions had been swirling as if she might cause trouble at any moment.

I thought she was dangerous, but perhaps she is just an ordinary, immature human.

Come to think of it, there might be circumstances Noah did not know about.

It was only natural for an immature human to struggle to control their emotions skillfully.

Separate from Noah’s personal dislike of people who hid their emotions well, if that too was part of her survival strategy, who was he to criticize it?

Perhaps I’ve grown overly sensitive after meeting nothing but Demon Kings and demons lately.

Chiding his own oversensitivity, Noah withdrew his gaze from Seria.

Cutting off Jahar Knox, who spoke with growing impatience, Noah grabbed Seria by the wrist and seated her atop a summoned spirit.

It seemed there was no more time to delay.

***

“Damn it…….”

A harsh curse slipped out through Sian’s clenched teeth.

That was understandable.

The fact that he had not collapsed despite blood pouring from his side was remarkable enough that his rough language hardly mattered.

“Jerena, when I give the signal, run.”

“Go, and do not come back.”

Sian whispered without turning back, pressing one hand against the wound in his abdomen where blood continued to flow.

As if still trying to protect me, he kept one arm extended in front of me.

Yes.

We had been ambushed.

By something lurking within the forest.

If what attacked us had been an ordinary monster, we would not have struggled like this.

Neither Sian nor I were weak enough to be overwhelmed by monsters.

That was precisely why we had let our guard down.

But what attacked us was no mere monster.

“To think you were in a place like this.”

It was a demon.

And one that had come looking for me.

The demon looked down at me with an air of leisure.

He had green hair and pale skin.

If not for the horn protruding from the center of his forehead, anyone unfamiliar with him might have mistaken his appearance and demeanor for that of a high-ranking noble.

“Do you know how long I searched for you?”

“……Letion.”

I calmly called his name.

Given what I knew of Letion’s personality, showing him any sign of panic would only make things worse.

“……Is he a demon you know?”

“Well, I am a demon too, after all.”

This was bad.

I had not even recovered my magic yet, and now I was facing a demon.

Letion was a demon who, even in previous cycles, often eyed the position of Demon King with open ambition.

I left him alone because he never crossed the line, but to show him myself in such a weakened state…….

It was obvious how he would react.

Worse still, Sian was severely injured.

For some reason, Sian was not using divine power on his own wound.

It would be best to heal him quickly before Letion launched a full-scale attack.

“Why aren’t you treating it?”

“You have divine power.”

“Poison has been injected into my body.”

“It seems to be this demon’s characteristic.”

“If I attempt to heal carelessly, the wound may close while the poison remains and spreads.”

“Then can’t divine power do something about it?”

“For ordinary poison, perhaps.”

“But purifying a demon’s poison with a holy knight’s divine power is difficult.”

“At the very least, it would require a saintess, or failing that, a high-ranking priest.”

Sian added that a holy knight’s divine power was originally meant for defense and combat, not recovery.

“It’s all right.”

“I am suppressing the spread of the poison with divine power.”

“We just need to resolve this quickly and detoxify it afterward.”

Was he trying to reassure me?

Sian even gave me a faint smile.

The frightening part was that even as he explained everything so calmly, his face was growing paler by the second.

I need to send him away quickly…….

No matter how much he suppressed it with divine power, there would be a limit.

We had to do something before it truly became dangerous.

I looked at Letion with a tense expression.

As expected, he was watching me with eyes full of interest.