novelraw Chapter 54
Chapter 54
Ch.54 You despicable bastard!
A stone tower about three stories high.
Selena had finally arrived at the tower and scanned her surroundings.
Just as she’d expected, she saw a gate inside the open tower entrance—and swallowed hard.
‘Dare to steal the power of the gods? I’ll kill you.’
She pulled a staff from her robes and gripped a sword in her other hand.
Even within the ‘Destiny’ game, she was a rare magic swordsman—a notoriously difficult opponent who wielded both magic and swordsmanship simultaneously.
Just as she prepared to enter the dungeon—Hans emerged from it, holding Equality in one hand and walking with weary steps—the same Hans she’d seen the previous day at Edward’s house.
“Huh? What are you doing here?”
At Hans’s tired question, Selena bared her teeth.
“It’s you, isn’t it? You’re the one who took all the divine power!”
Hans replied with a face full of exhaustion.
“What are you talking about? I couldn’t even sleep because of you. Forget it—let’s just go our separate ways.”
“I’ll kill you!”
As Selena swung her small staff to cast a spell—
—Bang!
“Huh?!”
She stood alone in the forest, not at the tower.
“What the hell?! Did you just shoot Equality right away?!”
She sprinted back toward the tower’s location.
The same tower she’d seen just ten minutes earlier.
As Hans emerged again with that same exhausted expression, Selena shouted:
“I’ll kill you!”
She hurled an Ice Spear at him—
—Bang!
—and was instantly back in the forest.
“Damn it! You’ve got Equality, don’t you?!”
Selena charged toward the tower once more, conjured dozens of fireballs, and waited for Hans to reappear.
She stood ready—silent, hidden—prepared to strike the moment he stepped out.
Yes. She was a regression user.
Soon, Hans’s silhouette appeared—and a dozen fireballs surged toward him.
But the spells burst apart just before reaching him, as if blocked by something unseen.
“What bastard dares ambush me like this?!”
—Bang!
Back in the forest again, Selena gritted her teeth.
“Hah?! So you’ve got some magic resistance, huh?”
She rushed back and tried again.
She hid until he exited the tower, then lunged to stab him in the side—but her blade stopped short, repelled by an invisible barrier.
“Huh? You again?”
Hans’s expression instantly turned cold.
—Bang!
Thus, Selena attempted to kill Hans dozens of times—yet failed every single time, returning helplessly to the forest.
She clenched her jaw in fury, then hurled her sword to the ground in frustration.
—Clang!
“You son of a bitch!”
How could she possibly kill that bastard?
Rage made her whole body tremble.
Every attack was blocked—ambushes, frontal assaults, even fog magic to evade Equality. He always knew exactly where she was and hit her without fail.
“Stay calm… stay calm.”
If brute force wouldn’t work, she’d use poison.
Grinding her teeth, Selena waited for Hans to leave the basin.
When he began cooking, she tried slipping poison into his food—
“Miss Selena? What are you doing here?”
‘Huh… how did he notice?’
She’d trained in stealth assassination and was quite skilled.
Yet Hans called out to her as if he’d known she was there all along.
“If you’re hungry, just come join me for dinner—no need to sneak around like a thief.”
He handed her the very soup she’d poisoned.
To Selena, it felt like a threat: ‘Drink it, or I’ll riddle you with Equality until you look like a beehive.’
‘Damn it… he saw through this too?’
She drew her dagger and lunged at Hans—
—Bang!
“Aaargh! Failed again!”
Selena grabbed her lustrous black hair in frustration.
“Haa… haa…”
‘With my current strength, killing him is impossible.’
She didn’t know Hans’s exact abilities, but she assumed he’d grown immensely powerful by harnessing divine power.
So she changed tactics—she’d use seduction.
***
By the time Hans exited the tower, the sun was already setting.
“Wow—came in at night, and it’s night again?”
Maybe it was thanks to sleeping on the chimera’s back?
He felt slightly more refreshed than before.
“Yaaawn… I’m sleepy.”
After climbing the cliff and leaving the basin, he found his tethered horse.
As he prepared dinner at his campsite under the rising full moon, he sensed someone approaching from afar and turned toward the woods.
Something moved between the trees.
Focusing, he saw a black-haired woman wandering through the forest.
Wasn’t that Selena?
Normally, human senses wouldn’t detect her—but wrapped in multiple holy spells, his perception had sharpened to elven levels.
He always kept them active when traveling alone, just in case of surprise attacks.
Anyway… what’s she still doing here?
He didn’t know her circumstances, but she looked lost.
“Hmm…”
Watching her wander while his soup simmered, he fell into thought.
Getting lost in these woods was dangerous—wild beasts roamed, and the forest was vast enough to easily become stranded.
Personally, he resented her for getting him chased out of the village—but not enough to wish her dead from exposure.
Wait—wasn’t she a seasoned adventurer?
Someone who traveled alone should have decent survival skills. How could she get lost in a forest?
That was odd.
He kept observing her as he finished cooking the soup.
He added tomatoes and mushrooms, watching carefully for any suspicious behavior—but she did nothing unusual.
Her hair was soaked with sweat, her face smeared with dirt.
After watching her circle the area for about thirty minutes, he sighed.
“Sigh… Just for tonight. Consider yourself lucky.”
He hated moving, but leaving her to starve here would probably give him nightmares.
He approached Selena and spoke.
“Lost your way?”
Startled by the sudden voice, Selena looked frightened.
“Who’s there?”
“It’s me—Hans. We met yesterday at Edward’s house.”
“Oh?”
Only then did she recognize him.
“You seem lost. I’m setting up camp nearby—why not join me for dinner?”
She frowned slightly at his offer.
“You’re not planning anything weird, are you?”
“Then don’t come.”
What did she take him for? Annoyed, he turned and walked back to his camp.
“W-wait! I’ll come with you.”
Selena hurried after him.
Back at the campsite, when he handed her a bowl of soup, she eyed it suspiciously.
“No poison—go ahead and eat.”
He took a spoonful first, as if to prove it was safe.
Hesitantly, Selena began eating.
Maybe it was the firelight—but her face looked unusually red.
Well, she must be embarrassed. After all, she’d done such a despicable thing to him yesterday.
If he were in her shoes, he’d want to hide his face in shame.
Receiving help from someone you’d just wronged—that had to be mortifying.
Thinking this would deepen her psychological torment, he spoke gently, with deliberate sincerity:
“You seem lost. I know the area somewhat—if you tell me where you’re headed, I can point you in the right direction.”
‘Okay! Go on—feel ashamed! Aren’t you sorry for treating such a kind person so horribly?’
Speaking in the kindest voice he could muster—hoping she’d kick her blankets all night in guilt—only made her face burn even brighter.
He was certain: she was drowning in regret, too embarrassed to know what to do.
She was trembling so hard her shoulders shook!
Fanning her flushed face with her hands, Selena stammered:
“I need to get to the port city of Nook.”
Her answer surprised him.
He was heading to Nook too.
Nook was a nearby port city—he needed to take a ship from there, passing through the North Pole, because the Trident of the Sea God was there.
“I’m also heading to Nook.”
At his words, Selena’s eyes sharpened slightly.
“Where are you going from Nook?”
“I plan to board a ship there.”
She nodded, her face now practically crimson.
“Oh! I’m also taking a ship—what a coincidence! I don’t know this area well… could you possibly guide me there?”
She gazed at him with intense, gleaming eyes.
She was undeniably beautiful.
But why was she looking at him like that?
“Ahem… Sure. We’ll go together to Nook. It’s not far anyway.”
For some reason, Selena kept blushing faintly as she gave a weak nod.
‘Selena… could she be falling for me?’
***
Now traveling with Hans, Selena was bathing in a tub he’d pulled from his spatial bag.
‘He really leaves no openings.’
Since arriving at his camp, she’d already attempted five assassinations—all failed, leaving her seething with rage.
In her mind, she’d buried Hans underground dozens of times—but in reality, every attempt ended in regression.
Despite his foolish-looking face, Hans was clearly an extraordinary powerhouse.
But…
‘Why does he keep looking at me with that sickeningly sweet expression? Is he insane?’
Every time Hans gazed at her with that gentle, caring look, her fury boiled over.
Already frustrated by her repeated failures, his faint smile felt like mockery.
‘Tch. No matter how skilled you are, you must have a weakness. Just wait—I’ll kill you soon and take all the divine power for myself.’
And so, dozens of times a day, she targeted Hans—only to be shot by Equality and thrown back in time, again and again.
She’d even tried poisoning his food—but Hans didn’t die. Instead, he shot her with Equality, his face blank, as if saying, ‘I know it was you.’
When every method failed, Selena finally resorted to a cowardly plan.
‘It’s filthy and dishonorable—but I must steal the divine power.’
She’d abandoned all human dignity just to kill Hans.
Once, while he was relieving himself, she stabbed him from behind—but an invisible barrier blocked her blade.
Hans, stumbling mid-act, twisted his face like a demon and shot her with Equality.
‘Argh! Why won’t you just die?!’
Even her ultimate, dignity-shattering attack failed.
So she resolved to steal Equality itself.
Late that night, she crept toward Hans’s sleeping bag and reached for his waist.
‘Equality should be right here…’
At that moment, Hans looked up at her and said:
“What are you doing?”
“Ah… I… uh…”
“Tch. Are you really that smitten with me?”
Infuriated by his infuriatingly calm remark, Selena swung her dagger—but failed again.
‘You damn bastard!’
In a blind rage, she launched dozens of consecutive attacks—only to be knocked down by Equality each time.
So this time, she tried stealing his spatial pouch to claim the divine power and strike back—but as she fled with the pouch, she discovered something new:
He also possessed Levi’s Dagger.
Using it, Hans summoned black mist to trap her, then shot her with Equality.
Watching him wake the instant she touched his spatial bag—even while asleep—Selena realized:
‘That despicable bastard! He must’ve enchanted the bag to alert him if it’s stolen!’
(Though in truth, Hans had simply taken reasonable precautions against theft.)
And before long…
they arrived at their destination: the port city of Nook.
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