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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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“No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no…”
She couldn’t understand anything.
Frozen in terror, Perinne could do nothing but be dragged towards the stake that had just consumed her comrade, her mind paralyzed with fear.
“I don’t want to die…”
She didn’t want to die.
But all she could see were the grotesque creatures surrounding the stake where Brown, a member of her party and a priest, had been burned alive, their strange forms chanting in prayer.
Perinne instinctively knew that she would soon follow in Brown’s footsteps.
“I don’t want to die.”
A voice whispered.
Perinne wanted to cover her ears to block out the internal whisper, but with her arms restrained, all she could do was struggle.
As death loomed closer, tickling her ears, Perinne felt her lower body become wet.
But she couldn’t feel any shame.
The searing pain of her burning skin, signaling her impending doom, overwhelmed any such trivial emotions.
“P, please…”
The smell of burning flesh filled her nostrils.
Perinne instinctively held her breath, trying to deny the approaching future.
Even if it was a futile struggle, she wanted to live.
Her tears had already dried up, but still…
“Please, anyone… save me…”
Countless names flashed through her mind like a panorama.
The vassals of the Nereid family.
Her father.
The knights who had protected her.
And… the members of her party who had been caught in the dimensional rift with her.
“!&@*!#(!”
A roar erupted, and she felt a sense of weightlessness.
The fire was getting closer.
Perinne squeezed her eyes shut, bracing herself for the excruciating pain, refusing to acknowledge her unwanted demise.
“…It’s not hot.”
The blue-haired girl opened her eyes to the sensation of flesh against flesh.
Her eyes widened in shock as she saw the unexpected figure before her, her mouth agape.
“Wh, wh, wh, wh, wh, who… who are you?”
“Questions later. We have to run!”
Sif, carrying the surprisingly heavy Perinne, ran with all her might.
The task assigned by her employer, Johann, was to “take Perinne and get as far away as possible.”
She wondered how he planned to deal with those monsters, but she pushed those thoughts aside.
Countless grotesque creatures were closing in on them.
“Ugh, what did this island do to deserve this? Oh, and what about the others?”
“…I, I don’t know… I, I was caught in the rift… and only Brown and I…”
“Is Brown the one burning on the stake?”
Perinne weakly nodded.
With a troubled expression, Sif placed Perinne on top of the ruins surrounding the stake.
She figured they had run far enough.
Johann’s appearance in front of the stake had drawn the attention of all the grotesque creatures.
Sif looked around to check for any pursuing creatures and sighed in relief.
It was impossible for her to continue running while carrying Perinne.
She was just a cat-beastkin with slightly enhanced physical abilities, after all.
“That person is…”
“He’s my employer. He told me to take you and hide, so I did, but what is he trying to-”
Before Sif could finish her complaint, a deafening explosion engulfed them.
Perinne and Sif instinctively covered their ears and looked towards the source of the explosion.
The grotesque creatures were burning.
The fire that had spread to their bodies was roasting them alive, twisting their forms in agony.
But it was too late to extinguish the flames.
Sif clicked her tongue as she watched the stake and its surroundings be consumed by fire.
‘Now I understand why he told me to run.’
If they had stayed, they would have been caught in the explosion and would have been dancing their last dance along with the grotesque creatures.
Relieved that they had avoided such a gruesome fate, Sif spoke to Perinne, who was cowering on the ground.
“Can you get up?”
Her tone was blunt, but Perinne didn’t mind.
The experience she had just gone through was too shocking to be bothered by such things.
Perinne turned her gaze away from the burning stake, its air heavy with the stench of charred flesh, and looked up at Sif.
“Ye, yes…”
It was unpleasant and damp.
It wasn’t until she stood up, swaying unsteadily, that Perinne realized her skirt and underwear were wet.
She hadn’t been aware of it in the face of imminent death, but the uncomfortable sensation of wet fabric against her skin couldn’t be ignored.
A blush crept up her cheeks.
Sif ignored her and stared at Johann, who was walking out of the inferno.
Johann, having turned all of the grotesque creatures into kindling, brushed the dirt and ash from his shoulders.
“I need to make them thicker next time.”
It was good that he had wiped out all the monsters by detonating the pre-mixed explosives he had planted around the stake, but even though he had used his skill to burrow into the wall, he couldn’t completely block the noise and impact of the explosion.
It was more powerful than he had expected.
‘Still, the performance wasn’t bad. I was a bit worried when I bought the explosives smuggled from the black market, but this is definitely worth researching further.’
Relying solely on his Crafting skill wasn’t enough to make up for the lack of firepower.
The Crafting skill was heavily influenced by the surrounding materials, and he couldn’t use materials he couldn’t process himself.
Satisfied with the decent results, he turned towards Sif, who was waving at him.
“Johann! What do we do now?”
“We’re going back to camp!”
Johann looked at the sole surviving heroine with complex emotions.
“Where is this…?”
“It’s our camp. It’s safe here, so rest assured.”
“Is, is there a place where I can wash up…?”
“No.”
As if there would be such a place?
It might look decent, but there was no way such amenities existed here.
It would be a pain just to set up a system to draw groundwater.
“Sif, lend her some of your clothes. It must be uncomfortable for her to stay like that.”
“Do you think our sizes will match?”
“If not, just cover yourself with my clothes.”
I had brought plenty, so lending her one wouldn’t be a problem.
I turned away from Sif, who was rummaging through her backpack, and looked at Perinne, who was still trembling.
“Perinne.”
“How do you know my name…?”
“It’s not easy not to know the daughter of the Nereid family.”
“I, is that so…?”
Perinne’s voice was hoarse.
It was natural, after all the crying, screaming, and shouting she had done.
I pulled out my canteen and placed it in front of her, continuing to gather information.
“I have a lot to ask. Did all of your party members enter the rift?”
“Ye, yes. We were all caught together… and ended up on this island…”
“Where are the rest of them, besides the one who was burned? Are they dead?”
“I don’t know… I, I was only separated with… Brown…”
Brown? The priest?
“So you’re saying you don’t know the location of the other party members?”
Perinne simply nodded, too exhausted to speak.
It seemed I needed to adjust my objectives.
If all of Lewis’ party members were inside the rift, then finding them was my top priority.
I had decimated the grotesque creatures in the north with explosives, so their numbers should be reduced for a while.
We had to search the rest of the island, excluding the north, and gather as many survivors as possible.
“Perinne, while you’re here, I expect you to follow my orders.”
“Ye, yes…”
A noble lady wouldn’t go back on her word, right?
I took out my telescope from my backpack, stood up, and went up to the roof of the camp.
I had intentionally built a three-story structure, so I could secure a wide field of view from the roof.
The blue horizon shimmered in the sunlight.
It felt strange to be looking at the peaceful ocean from a safe place after fighting grotesque creatures just moments ago.
What kind of island was this that could rival the hellish conditions of the deserted island I lived on?
“…Since it’s inside a dimensional rift, this must also be part of a dungeon…”
A dungeon of this scale.
Perhaps it wasn’t a dungeon, but a separate island outside the dungeon that we had been warped to.
That possibility couldn’t be ruled out. After all, there was a cave in the center of the island that screamed “dungeon.” Dense trees obscured the entrance from our camp, but the cave was the only suspicious feature.
…Let’s forget about the cave for now.
Our priority was to search the island for Lewis’ party.
“Nothing unusual…”
As soon as I lowered my telescope, I heard a faint explosion.
It wasn’t as loud as the explosion I had caused by scattering explosives around the stake, but it was still loud enough. I hurriedly turned my head towards the direction of the sound and saw a plume of smoke rising faintly from the south.
“Our next destination is set.”
The south, huh.
I immediately went down to the second floor, where Sif and Perinne were resting, and said,
“Sif, get ready. We’re going south. I heard an explosion.”
“Wh, what about me…?”
“Stay here and rest. You’ll be safe here.”
Busy, busy.
As always, I slung my shovel over my shoulder and jumped off the second-floor railing.
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[Your Text Here]
As expected, the minute he ends up on another island he pulls another girl.