Home/I Saved the Villain and Fell Asleep/ch 31

Chapter 31

"Strange. This is strange."

The attacker knelt on one knee and thrust his face toward mine. The way he kept tilting his head was utterly grotesque.

"Fascinating. Too precious to kill."

I wouldn't take a truckload of your "interest" even if you paid me!!

Now I understand why people grab the opponent's hair first in a fight. This really hurts!!

I tried to take a deep breath and put strength into my legs. Just as I was pouring all my power into kicking the bastard, a hand suddenly emerged through the lingering smoke screen.

"Eh...?"

A hand, as if wrapped in black smoke, suddenly gripped the attacker's neck.

"Ghk!!"

Taking advantage of the attacker's weakened grip, I broke free and watched him struggle while sitting on the ground.

The smoke was slowly clearing. The one gripping the attacker's neck from behind was Kali.

"Kali!!"

"Guh! H-how...!"

Kali's hand, clenched around the man's throat, trembled. He didn't loosen his grip—as if determined to kill him right there.

The attacker, his face turning red from lack of air, thrashed wildly, but Kali didn't let go.

I wanted to step back, but my legs wouldn't obey. The man's struggles were gradually fading.

I never thought I'd watch someone die by strangulation live.

"...ry."

"What?"

I faintly heard Kali's voice.

"Die. Just die."

My lips, about to call Kali's name, froze. I held my breath as I watched the body fall to the ground. I couldn't even blink.

"Die. Just die. Disappear. How dare you..."

What fell to the ground was the attacker's headless body. I slowly raised my gaze to where his head had gone.

The head Kali was holding began to corrode, turning black. As it spread from the neck to the chin and reached the eyes, I couldn't hold back the rising nausea and doubled over.

My pounding heart felt like it would burst through my skin.

Kali dropped his hand, and the man's body began to corrode as well. Though the smoke had completely cleared, Kali stood motionless in that spot.

In the silent space, only our breathing could be heard. Kali, who had been so still I wondered if he'd passed out again, took one step forward.

His foot crushed the remains of what had been a man just moments ago. As he slowly approached me, I struggled not to back away.

"Hari."

I needed to answer his call, but my voice wouldn't come. At some point, my breathing had grown ragged.

"Hariella."

Kali stopped a few steps away, slowly bent down, and met my eyes. His black hand—the one that had gripped the man's throat—reached toward me.

Czerban Caelius's second unique magic, Corrosion.

The ability to make everything rot and crumble.

His palm covered one side of my cheek. Even though he must have felt me trembling, Kali continued to stroke my cheek.

"Hariella."

"...What."

"Are you scared of me?"

"Me, of you?"

I wanted to tease him like usual—"Me? Of you?"—but my voice wouldn't come out properly.

"Don't be. Hari."

Even though his voice sounded like a plea, I couldn't bring myself to look him straight in the face.

"Hari."

"Fine! I'm not scared of you! I was just startled! A guy's head, you know, popped right off his body—how could I not be surprised?!"

"I can't kill you."

"What?"

"How could I ever kill you."

In the dream, Caelius had tried to kill me. When I was choking him, he'd said with certainty: "You can't kill me."

But the real you says the opposite—that you can't kill me.

So that really was just a nightmare.

"Who said I'd die? Don't be ridiculous."

Only then did Kali's one corner of his mouth curl up in relief. I let out a deep breath to calm my churning stomach. As I ran my fingers through my messy hair, clumps came out tangled in my fingers.

"...Kali. Would you still like me if I went bald?"

"No. That's a bit much."

Kali muttered as he looked at the clump of my hair that had come out. Was he serious just now?

"Hey, Kali."

"What."

"Did you always know how to use blue flames?"

"Talking about baldness and suddenly asking about blue flames?"

"Th-that. That wasn't you, was it?"

In my vision, something strange appeared that hadn't been there before. It was too round and alien to be called a flame.

"What is this? It wasn't here before."

A blue, cracked mirror-like object floated at shin height.

"Hari!! Kali!!"

I heard a familiar voice from afar and raised my hand, shouting. It was Dad's voice.

"Dad!!! Over here!!!"

The barrier must have been broken—Dad and Aisa appeared. Aisa was carrying two unconscious men dressed similarly to the attacker in both hands.

I was waiting to elbow him in the ribs and ask why he was so late, when Aisa shouted.

"Young lady!!"

At the same time, a silver magic circle spread beneath my feet. It was Dad's magic that nullifies magic. Why suddenly?

"Hariella, look behind you!! It's growing!!"

Following Kali's startled voice, I turned around. Even though I was within the range of Dad's unique magic that nullifies magic, a blue cracked mass was confidently expanding its area.

When I first saw it, it was the size of a soccer ball—now it had grown to the size of a full-length mirror. The problem was that it was right in front of me!

"Wh-what is this?!"

Before I could figure out what it was, Bibi wagged his tail fiercely and approached the sphere.

"Bibi! No! It's not food! You can't just eat it!!"

But Bibi, looking delighted, wagged his tail and leaped into the crack.

"Bibi!!!"

Before I could even be shocked that Bibi had disappeared into the crack that looked like some kind of entrance, a strong force grabbed my body and I screamed reflexively.

"Aaaah!! What?!!"

The moment Bibi disappeared, tendrils shot out from the crack, wrapping around me and Kali and pulling us in. We were dragged in without even a chance to resist.

The last thing I saw was Dad and Aisa running toward me.

"Hari!!!"

"I'm fine...!!"

But strangely, I didn't feel any sense of danger at all. I told Dad I was fine, but I don't know if he heard me.

"Ugh!!!"

My floating body was thrown somewhere. I braced for impact, but I landed on something softer than expected and it didn't hurt.

I snapped my eyes open and checked on Kali, who had fallen with me.

"Kali!!"

"Ugh... What."

"Phew. Thank goodness. I thought you'd passed out again. But seriously, what is this...?"

I pressed on the ground beneath me. It was strangely soft. I thought it was dirt, but it wasn't.

Green... leaves? A leaf could be this big??

I snapped to my senses and lifted my head. At the sight of the alien forest before me, my jaw dropped.

"Wh-where is this?!"

Kali had also come to his senses and was scanning our surroundings. I stared blankly at a dandelion the size of my face.

"How can a dandelion be that big? Is it a mutant?!"

That was definitely the dandelion I knew. But the flower was the size of my face.

And not just that—everything I saw in this forest was gigantic. It looked like everything had been magnified at least five times, up to ten.

"We've become dwarfs."

This must be what the land of giants would look like.

"Where's Bibi?"

He had definitely entered the crack with us, but Bibi was nowhere to be seen.

"Bibi! Bibi?"

Our mischievous white fluffball, who should have come running at my call, was nowhere to be found.

"Even with Dad spreading his magic circle, it didn't disappear. Was that crack not magic after all?"

I stood up and craned my neck. The trees stretched so high I couldn't see their tops.

"I've never heard of a place like this in the empire."

"Neither have I. Could it be another country? Did we travel that far?"

This was a setting that didn't appear in the original story either. If such a unique place had appeared in the original, I wouldn't have forgotten it.

"It's not an illusion either... Anyway, it's clear this isn't where we were."

"What do we do?"

"Let's move. We have to find Bibi."

Kali nodded and stood up.

"You..."

"Ta-da!"

I raised my arm proudly to show him the bracelet, looking him straight in the eye. Kali is still a growing child, and I'm a grown adult—so the fully grown me is taller!!

When we first met, I was taller, but after eating and sleeping well, Kali had grown to about my height. So our eye levels were almost the same—but now, for once, I could look down at him.

"How is it?"

I'm still in my pajamas, but so what?

I spun around once, letting my hair fly, and smiled at Kali—but his expression was oddly subtle.

What? Is it because I'm in pajamas?

"Truth? Or half and half with nice words?"

"...Truth?"

"Hmm, come here."

What's this uneasy feeling?

Kali looked around for a moment, then gestured as if he'd found something. I followed him, and soon we came across a lake. He silently pointed at it.

What... Why is he acting like that? Curious about his strange behavior, I trudged over and leaned over the lake.

"Truth?"

Kali asked me in a playful voice. It sounded like he was asking if I really wanted to know the truth. I volunteered my impression.

"If you just put a flower in your hair, you'd be... a crazy woman with a flower in her hair."

It was true.

Since the attacker had grabbed my hair, my once-tidy hair was flying every which way. I'd rolled around when falling through the entrance, so it was tangled with dust and wouldn't comb out.

My face was covered in sand and black dust, and my sleepless night had left dark circles under my eyes. And my clothes—torn, wrinkled, a complete disaster.

I scooped up some lake water and scrubbed my face clean. Once the grime washed off, it looked somewhat decent.

"Hari. Look at that."

Kali crouched down beside me and stared at something.

I followed his gaze.

"What... is that?"

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