Irene Decided to Die - Chapter 175
As soon as Irene disappeared with the child and the man with red hair appeared, Lani screamed and bolted away. The man tried to catch her, but was momentarily halted by a dagger thrown by Noah.
During that brief moment, Allen rushed in, and Lani and Noah narrowly escaped with their lives.
“Heretic!”
“Well, I didn’t come here to fight this time.”
Said the red-haired man, Luciel, but Allen showed no mercy, swinging his sword with force. He intended to punish the heretic before him, but stopped when Lani urgently spoke.
“The saintess has disappeared!”
Allen quickly assessed the situation.
“Call for reinforcements!”
At his command, Lani and Noah ran again. Soon after, priests and holy knights began to gather, and Luciel’s expression turned annoyed.
“This wasn’t what I had in mind.”
With a deep sigh, Luciel used his abilities once more. Just as Allen was about to drive his sword forward, Luciel’s body vanished.
“What… what happened?”
Grein, who had arrived late and was panting heavily, asked.
“The saintess has been kidnapped,” Allen replied, then turned to Lani and Noah for more details.
“My goddess, what is happening?”
King Guy of the East was summoned immediately, and a large force was mobilized. There was no time to hesitate. Troops spread out in search of Irene, and finally, they discovered traces of a barrier.
“There’s no one here.”
But the heretics had already vacated the area. All that remained were the townspeople, broken by brainwashing and violence. Allen clenched his teeth as he confirmed this.
The sky had long since turned gray, signifying that something had happened to the saintess. After a relentless search, they found strands of black hair torn off near the cliff.
It seemed the last place the saintess had been was at the cliff’s edge. Looking down from the cliff, the expression on King Guy’s face was one of utter despair.
‘No, the saintess must still be alive.’
Allen clung to that last shred of hope. Two people were still missing: the saintess and the Northern King, Burt. If the two were together, the saintess might still be safe.
Those who had initially come to capture the heretics were now transformed into a search party.
“From now on, we will search for the saintess. If you find even the smallest trace, report it immediately,” Allen instructed.
He repeatedly emphasized the importance of finding her, and then brought in a local hunter who knew the terrain well. Together with the King of the East, they planned to descend the cliff.
‘Please, let her be safe.’
Allen prayed, over and over again, to the goddess.
* * *
The moment she felt herself enveloped in a warm embrace, a powerful shock hit. Most of the impact had been absorbed by Burt’s body, but that didn’t mean Irene had escaped unscathed.
As a result, she lost consciousness.
[Wake up.]
Someone was desperately calling for her. It was the goddess, who should have been sleeping.
[Wake up!]
With that final cry, Irene opened her eyes. Her eyelids felt heavy, but she managed to force them open.
‘Where am I?’
She remembered falling from the cliff, but everything after that was a blur. And this was a place she had never seen before.
She ran her hands along the walls and felt moisture under her fingertips. She noticed light coming from one direction, so she headed that way, only to be greeted by the sound of dripping water. It seemed she was in a small cave near a river running below the cliff.
‘What happened at the end?’
Her head throbbed painfully. Just then, she sensed movement from deeper within the cave. That’s when she remembered—she hadn’t fallen alone.
‘Burt!’
Burt had absorbed most of the impact, allowing her to survive. Irene quickly moved toward the source of the movement. There, she found the silver-haired man, Burt, collapsed.
“Burt?”
Her trembling voice called out to him, but there was no response. Irene placed her hand on his back. His clothes were soaked, and it took her a moment to realize—he was bleeding.
He must have struck something during the fall. If it had been anyone else, they might have died already. Even without his abilities, Burt’s physical strength as a king had kept him alive.
Irene bit her lip hard and slapped both of her cheeks with her hands.
“Get it together.”
She was the only one who could treat Burt right now. Struggling, she managed to remove his soaked shirt. As soon as she removed it, the sight of his wound became clear.
Though the blood wasn’t actively flowing, the gaping, pale wound terrified her. It reminded her of something she had learned during her studies at the temple.
‘When a person loses a lot of blood, their body begins to cool. And when nearly all the blood has drained, the body begins to die. At some point, the blood stops flowing altogether because there’s no more left to lose.’
The essence of life is in the red blood. Once that’s gone, even a Saintess wouldn’t be able to save them.
“No.”
