Evading the Hero’s Party with Full Effort

Chapter 69

Ch.69 Since Cecilia is quite cunning, that would probably be for the best.

Selena examined the collapsed Hans.

“Is Hans alright?”

Her expression grew urgent as she felt his cold body and the damp clothes that were continuously sapping his warmth.

‘He was constantly hit by water earlier, right?’

Hans, who had been continuously doused with lake water in the Arctic, colder than midwinter. It was perhaps natural that he lost consciousness from hypothermia. On top of that, the wind was so biting that his wet hair was freezing together with his clothes.

“Snap out of it, Hans?”

She held his body and shook him, but there was no sign of him waking up.

“This won’t do.”

Selena took a tent out of Hans’s spatial bag.

The poles and canvas were quite heavy, but for her, a demon swordswoman tempered through long training, it wasn’t that heavy.

‘No time, I have to hurry.’

Selena’s heart grew impatient seeing Hans’s face, pale as if he would freeze to death at any moment.

Hurriedly spreading out the canvas, Selena moved Hans inside the tent.

Stomping her feet in the chilly air, Selena soon remembered the magic burner she had placed in the spatial bag and frantically rummaged through the bag.

“Here it is.”

She turned on the magic burner, took out a towel, and began to remove Hans’s clothes.

Because if he slept in cold, soaking wet clothes, something terrible would surely happen.

Her cheeks flushed slightly, but her gaze was determined.

‘It’s an emergency… You have to understand.’

Selena struggled to remove the stubborn clothes, made more difficult because they were soaked and clinging to his body. Thankfully, at least his underwear was dry, which was a great relief.

“Phew……”

Letting out a sigh, Selena used the towel to wipe the moisture from Hans’s body.

“He’s still… cold?”

Having had his body heat stolen for so long, Hans’s body was as cold as ice.

If left like this, Hans wouldn’t survive.

Knowing that, Selena took out a sleeping bag from Hans’s spatial bag.

She carefully placed Hans inside the sleeping bag and then took off her own coat.

Now in lighter clothing, Selena got into the sleeping bag.

“Even after all this… you mustn’t die, Hans……”

Inside the sleeping bag, she hugged his body, warming him with her own.

***

A fragrant scent feels nice.

I’m still sleepy, should I sleep a little more?

Like the fluffy scent of new blankets, this refreshing, pleasant scent guided me deeper into sleep.

On top of that, there was something warmly hugging me.

Perfect… Huh?

What are these hands I feel on my chest?

With a sudden feeling of bewilderment, I tried to sit up, but…

I couldn’t move because something was tightly wrapped around me.

“What is this?”

As I was surprised, a familiar voice sounded in my ear.

“Are you awake now?”

“Se, Selena?”

Startled by her voice, I looked around inside the sleeping bag…

“Whoa!”

I saw a white, delicate hand hugging my chest.

Why am I not wearing any clothes?

Just as I was flustered by surprise and embarrassment.

“Were you very surprised? Your body temperature was too low, I had no choice. Are you hungry? I’ll prepare some food.”

She sat up, dressed in her innerwear.

I hurriedly looked down at my lower body.

Thank goodness… I’m wearing underwear.

Thinking that, I asked Selena what had happened.

“What happened?”

Selena, who was skillfully taking out a kitchen knife and cutting board from my spatial bag, replied.

“We dealt with the fairy and the ice. But you collapsed from hypothermia, so I set up the tent first.”

Saying that, she rinsed the ingredients with skilled hands.

I thought for a moment while looking at her.

Then, we should be able to retrieve the Trident of the Sea God.

It felt a little, no, very regrettable that I went through all this trouble to get the Trident of the Sea God sleeping at the bottom of the lake. Because it’s a useless trident anywhere that isn’t the sea.

On top of that, I almost died for real…

A little later, after eating the soup Selena prepared, I asked her about retrieving the trident.

“By the way, where are my clothes?”

I have a few spare sets of innerwear, but the thick cold-weather gear is the only set I have. It’s not a simple off-the-shelf item but a custom-made one. It was made thick to block the biting wind and cold of the Arctic.

She pointed to one side with her hand and said.

“Ah? Over there, but they aren’t dry yet?”

“Aren’t dry?”

I didn’t understand her words.

Only after touching the cold-weather gear lying in a corner did I realize what she meant.

It’s damp.

“Why? Do you need to go out now?”

I nodded slightly.

Since I have to go into the lake anyway, should I just go out in my innerwear?

But… it would be terribly cold, right?

Just thinking about having to brave this Arctic cold and enter the lake made me feel chills already.

“Then at least wear my coat and go out.”

Selena said, holding out her own cold-weather gear, but the coat she offered looked too small.

Only then, perhaps feeling embarrassed herself, her face turned slightly red.

“Mine is too small for you. What should we do? I can dry it for you by tomorrow, so how about enduring it for today?”

Seeing Selena’s embarrassed face, I nodded.

“Let’s do that.”

After that, she fixed my thick cold-weather gear onto a laundry pole and positioned it above the magic burner.

“It won’t burn, right?”

If that were to burn, it would inevitably cause huge problems for the journey ahead.

I was worried the gear might catch fire, but Selena slightly moved the laundry pole to the side.

“Silly, what if it falls from right above there? We can just move it a bit to the side, right?”

After she skillfully moved the laundry pole to the side, we decided to rest a little more.

And so, the next day, the clothes were properly dry, and I could finally go outside the tent.

But the moment I stepped out, I was greeted by the frozen lake and the lower half of the Queen of the Sea.

“Huh…?”

In this bewildering situation, I approached the lake in surprise and touched it with my hand; it seemed frozen solid all the way to the bottom.

It wasn’t just frozen. It was frozen rock solid.

Damn it, we’re screwed. The Trident of the Sea God is in there, what do I do? Did I use Stella Frost for nothing?

It was a magic I used as a stopgap to immobilize the Queen of the Sea, but I never imagined it would freeze the lake bottom solid.

“Why? Do you need to retrieve something from there?”

I nodded with a despairing expression.

“Yeah, there’s a trident in there. It’s frozen solid, so I can’t get the trident out.”

She also made a troubled expression while looking at the rock-solid ice.

-Tap tap.

Selena tapped the ice to see how frozen it was.

“It seems we need to melt this with flame magic.”

“When will we melt it? If we don’t return quickly, the ship will leave, right?”

If it really comes to it, should I drop a Meteor? Or maybe a Flare?

I racked my brain considering various options.

I seriously considered whether I had to use Kirke’s staff again.

There’s still a little time left, so let’s try melting it with flame magic first. If that doesn’t work, we’ll use the artifact.

Using it will make my head hurt terribly again, but we can’t just leave the Trident of the Sea God behind, can we?

“Haa, it’s one problem after another.”

I let out a deep sigh.

***

Scarlet’s party, traveling by carriage.

Leah was giving jerky to the phoenix, and Cecilia was shedding tears while reading a romance novel.

“Sob… It’s so sad. Sniff…”

Cecilia, leisurely reading a romance novel and crying. One couldn’t help but doubt if she was the same person who, not long ago, spoke of impending catastrophe.

But regardless, for Scarlet, whose heart was still anxious from the statement she had made, that sight was all the more unpleasant to see.

“You’ve been sneaking glances at Cecilia since a few days ago. Is everything alright?”

At Mia’s quiet voice, Scarlet hurriedly turned her head to look at the horse in front.

“Was it obvious?”

“If you look that often, even aside from the blockhead Leah or the ditzy saint, everyone would notice.”

At Mia’s blunt words, Scarlet’s face turned red.

“It’s nothing… Just. I remembered what she said then.”

“That’s right, besides, Priest Hans often lurked around the convent.”

“May I take this? The sapphire resembles my pupils, so I like it.”

Cecilia, who shamelessly insulted Hans and tried to sever her relationship with him. Where did the flower garden usually filling her head go, for her to say such things there?

Imagining the ring being snatched by Cecilia that day made Scarlet feel unnecessarily upset.

‘Ugh… The worst.’

“I thought Cecilia was just foolishly airheaded, but she’s more cunning than I expected.”

At Mia’s words, Scarlet nodded slightly.

“Right? She’s usually spacey, but at times like this, she’s cunning?”

Mia, holding the reins, calmly recalled the memory of that day.

For her too, that memory wasn’t a pleasant one.

In her long elf life, these three were the people she could converse with most comfortably.

But she didn’t like their actions of hiding their intentions slyly and trying to somehow separate each other from Hans.

‘In the end, I’ll be the only one left anyway.’

Mia was confident.

Of course, the choice was Hans’s to make, but unless he was blind or a fool, she was sure he would have to choose her.

Hans would probably get on his knees and apologize for his previous complicated relationships with women.

‘The reason this happened… is probably because I didn’t tell him beforehand that I had made him my companion.’

Mia was under a very big misconception, but her thinking had some logic to it.

Compared to her, their beauty had an expiration date of about 10 years.

In contrast, Mia’s appearance would remain fresh for hundreds of years.

Therefore, she didn’t like this mudslinging fight itself.

Mia, acting with the composure of the victor.

Seeing Scarlet’s despondent appearance, who was the next most normal in this party after herself, and not liking it, she made a proposal.

“Scarlet, how about we cooperate while we’re searching?”

“What?”

Scarlet didn’t understand what Mia meant by her words.

After thinking for a moment, she frowned.

“Patron… no, you mean we should both date Mr. Hans? That’s a bit…”

Since it was that kind of era, it was true that wealthy people sometimes had multiple lovers, but that was because they held a higher status compared to the other party.

For noble partners like Scarlet, Leah, Cecilia, or Mia, there was no precedent, and it had never happened.

Who would want to share the person they love with someone else in the first place?

Since Mia didn’t mean that either, she spoke in a tone suggesting she found the idea absurd.

“Elves only have eyes for one person. We are different from you humans.”

Hearing this utterly common-sense statement, Scarlet thought to herself.

‘Oh my… what was I thinking?’

Embarrassed by her own vulgar imagination that had momentarily crossed her mind, Scarlet looked at the distant mountains and answered in a small voice.

“Then what did you mean by cooperating?”

“I mean we cooperate against Leah and Cecilia while we’re looking for Hans.”

Remembering how she was almost forcibly eliminated from the Hans competition last time, Scarlet brightened at Mia’s words, glanced at the back of the carriage, and said quietly.

“Shall we?”

“Since Cecilia is quite cunning, that would probably be for the best.”

Thus, Scarlet and Mia formed a secret alliance, but they probably never dreamed in their wildest dreams that Leah and Cecilia would soon join that alliance as well.

Review at

NovelUpdate

One for All200[Get access to 20 premium chapters each for over 30 series.

Check out List at Membership page]Unlock next 20 premium chaptersValid for 30 daysPurchase