“We’ll Definitely Come Back to Save You!” — It’s Been Three Years Since I Was Left in the Most Difficult Dungeon, Isn’t It About Time for Help to Arrive...? - 68-69

Chapter 68: Dash

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“Heave—ho”

I sheathed my sword and firmly caught Lazuli as her full weight came falling down into my arms.

“Are you alright?”

“Eh…? Eh, y-yes…………”

Lazuli stared wide-eyed, repeatedly glancing between her curled-up body and my face.

“W-what………!? I’m being carried……!?”

“You don’t like it? Sorry, I couldn’t think of any other way to save you.”

“No, it’s not that I dislike it or anything……! It’s just, in my dragon form, no one could possibly carry me like this…… So, it’s kind of embarrassing…………”

Unlike her usual high-and-mighty attitude, Lazuli blushed and averted her expression, which in turn made my palms holding her start sweating nervously.

“……What’s with that lovestruck look on that lizard’s face? Is she picking a fight? Should I just melt her right here?”

“……And Athos, stretching his nose and sniffing Lazuli… That woman’s scent…………. No… I have to put him somewhere safe, seal him away, and overwrite Athos with me…………”

The malice radiating from afar instantly drained the warmth from my body, and just as I bent my knees to set Lazuli down—another shockwave rippled through the entire cave.

“—Whoa!?”

“—Wait! Athos, where are you touching… Kyaaah!”

Bad luck struck as the tremor hit right when my balance broke. I barely managed to keep Lazuli from falling, but she suddenly stiffened from the unexpected touch and loosened her grip on the egg. Because she still had some strength left, Lazuli’s hand grazed along the egg’s surface as she slipped down, sending it bouncing upward into the air.

“This is bad……!”

That egg was the only one in the nest. If it cracked, the mission was a failure. To catch it, I would have to set Lazuli down and free both hands. That split-second delay meant I wouldn’t make it in time.

As anxiety smothered any remaining composure, a cloak swept across my vision, intercepting the falling egg. Its owner wrapped it up just before it hit the ground, narrowly averting disaster.

“…Whew, that was close…”

Seeing that the egg bore not even a crack, Midi slowly stood. Her silver hair dulled with mud swaying faintly.

“—KUEEEHHH!!!”

Distracted by the nest’s shaking until now, the Domagros turned at her movement, as if realizing what they needed to prioritize, and all rushed to attack her at once.

“Nice catch, Midi!”

Thanks to her resolve, the mission’s success had survived by the thinnest margin. Now it was my sword’s turn to hold that fragile chance together.

“—Lazuli!”

“I know! Here, hold on tight! We’re going to make a run for it!”

Hugging Midi (and the egg) under one arm, Lazuli dashed back down the path we’d come from, disappearing once again into the darkness.

“Alright! Hel, let’s escape too—Hel?”

Hel, who had been hiding with Midi behind the rocks, was nowhere to be seen. Had she been attacked while I wasn’t looking? No… The current Hel wouldn’t possibly fall behind to mere Domagros.

“KUEEEHHH!!! KUEEEHHH!!!”

This is Hel we’re talking about. She will be fine… More importantly, I need to help the two of them first.

With no time left to dwell on my fleeting worries, I cast them aside, cutting down the leading Domagros as I sprinted after Lazuli and Midi.

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Chapter 69: The Devil’s Footsteps

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Deep in the nest, while the battle over the eggs was raging, three men lay in wait halfway along the path to the exit, hiding themselves and waiting for Athos’s party to return.

One checked the traps they had set up to halt movement, another smeared his knife with a deadly poison that could paralyze the entire body in an instant with just a graze, and the last prepared for the decisive moment by sweeping the escape path clear.

Not a word was spoken. None was needed. In the darkness, the men understood what they had to do with nothing more than glances and the movements of their hands.

『…Come anytime. I’ll snuff the life out of you.』

It was all for the sake of completing the mission. Living in the underworld, failure was not permitted. The assassins’ pride, sworn in silence, melted into the poison and flowed to their fangs. 

All that remained was to sink those fangs into their target with that poison. That would be the end of it—or so they all believed without a doubt at that moment. But—

“—!”

One of their comrades suddenly widened his eyes and lifted his head. Without speaking, his posture told the others that the trap had been disabled.

『They’ve noticed us… It’s not to our advantage to face them head on. Switch to the backup plan.』

He gave the signal with his eyes—but the one he was signaling to was nowhere to be found. Just a moment ago, he had been right there. His body should have been right there.

It wasn’t.

At the same time his brain caught up to this anomaly, a metallic crash rang out from the opposite side. The comrade lying in wait to spring the ambush was fighting something.

—Clang!

The brief spark that flared in the darkness was the first and last from that comrade. His poisoned fangs were stripped away first, then his arms for striking back, then his legs for fleeing. Bit by bit, his body was twisted into something grotesque.

“D-Don’t come any closer—!!!”

With a scream, the comrade desperately hurled the Molotov cocktail he had concealed, but the figure subdued even the flames themselves, erasing every spark that touched their body into nothingness.

Before he knew it, his comrade had lost nearly every part that defined him as human. It was more accurate to describe him as a slab of fresh meat. Like soup bubbling at the seams, he collapsed onto the stone ground with a wet thud.

“…What in the world…”

“—That is my line.”

When he turned his trembling gaze toward the voice that had answered him, he saw a woman—or rather, a demon cloaked in human skin—stride forth through the flames as if nothing had happened. In her hand, she toyed with the lifeless remains of his comrade as though they were nothing more than fruit.

“Haah… Really. It was the right call to have Master restore my magic. Not only traps, but poisoned knives too… What exactly was your goal here?”

The demon twirled her sword in the air, its blade already melted into sludge, then released a foul mist from her palm. The mist clung to the remaining hilt, dissolving it as well until it became silver soup, glistening as it ran over the ‘fruit’ she rolled in her hand.

“…You see, I’ve dealt with tens of thousands of humans harboring murderous intent toward me, so I’ve grown a bit sensitive to suspicious movements like yours. Well, though in this case, it seems I wasn’t the one you were trying to kill.”

Without waiting for a reply, the demon began speaking on her own, then casually crushed the “fruit” in her hand. A wet, visceral squelch. Bright red pulp. Thin juice running down. Just watching it was enough to make one sick.

“—Answer me. Why did you target that person?”

In the gaze of the demon, which contained both cruelty and compassion at the same time, I, the assassin, instantly understood that I had no chance of survival.

“…Who knows.”

At the very least, let my end be with the pride of an assassin—

“—Embrace of Blight: Shagna Embrace.”

The demon’s fingers, her hands, her entire arms enfolded my body. The vessel was consumed in an instant. Flesh, blood, resolve, fear, resignation—all of it, including my pride, became worthless, sinking into a sea of mud.

Slowly, the footsteps of the devil grew further and further away. 

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