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“Umm…

I groaned softly and shifted. As I moved, the cloth beneath me rustled. Shaking off the drowsiness with a deep breath, I opened my eyes wide and sat up.

What lay before my eyes was the same cave scenery. Outside the humid and cozy cave, the early morning sun sparkled.

After admiring the sunlit forest for a moment, I stretched and stood up.

‘Ah, I dozed off yesterday.’

I had held the unstable Rainer in my arms to comfort him, and in doing so, I had dozed off. My body, still recovering, seemed to crave rest desperately.

‘Now, I feel completely recovered.’

I let out a short yawn and swung my arms in a stretching motion. One of the most beneficial aspects of my quick recovery was my training. Just taking a nap helped alleviate the effects of the venom I had been poisoned with.

‘Is Rainer off for a walk?’

Since I had felt Rainer leave the cave even while sleeping, it didn’t surprise me to find him absent now. I sharpened my senses for a moment, guessing he wasn’t too far away, and began to pack my things to exit the cave.

“……Kashmir?”

“Oh, you’re awake?”

Responding casually to the familiar voice behind me as I folded up the blanket, I turned my head.

There stood Rainer, half-naked, with wet hair drying under a towel.

‘••••••What the hell.’

I, facing his body, froze as well.

It seemed like the gods had crafted Rainer by grafting the face of a strict archangel with the body of a lustful demon. Honestly, I had expected his physique to be quite good after holding him, but there was a vast difference between my assumptions and seeing it for real.

His skin was a color similar to a latte, neither tanned nor pale. Defined physique. Broad shoulders. Firm muscles evident at a glance. Distinct abdominal muscles that seemed to have been chiseled by a sculptor. The scars all over his body hinted that he hadn’t easily attained the title of Sword Expert.

And the tiny droplets of water trickling down that body.

‘That face with that body… Isn’t it the most compelling evidence of the unfairness of the gods?’

I found myself lost in thought, gazing at Rainer’s body. I had seen muscular bodies as a mercenary, but I could confidently say that I had never seen a figure like that, almost like a work of art. As I slowly lifted my gaze along his upper body, I met his golden eyes filled with embarrassment directly.

Exchange of glances. A brief moment of silence.

“I-I didn’t mean…”

“I had no idea Kashmir would be awake!”

We both jumped simultaneously and started to explain ourselves.

“So, I didn’t tease Rainer, I just, um, saw you unexpectedly!”

“I couldn’t bear to let Kashmir see me in a dirty state, so I got up early to wash by the lake. I honestly didn’t expect Kashmir would be awake!”

“However, to be honest, Rainer’s body is… it’s hard not to look at such a body as a human being!”

“I had no impure thoughts about seducing Kashmir with my body! …Well, I might have had a moment of that… but it was a mistake this time, I swear!”

In the midst of each of us trying to jabber out excuses, there was no way the conversation would continue. Both Rainer and I were flustered, and an awkward confrontation ensued.

‘This is maddening.’

Watching Rainer’s upper body turn red up to his neck, I couldn’t help but feel my own face heating up. Feeling flushed, I raked my hair back.

As a mercenary, I had seen male bodies more than once or twice. Mercenaries tend to strip off their clothes at the slightest hint of warmth. Even though I often took on requests alone while living as Mir, I wasn’t entirely unacquainted with group requests. I had lived with rough mercenaries, and seeing a man’s naked body had never been a big deal.

‘But why…

Why am I so flustered just seeing an unclothed upper body? It felt oddly out of place. Rainer seemed excessively flustered, and that might have made me flustered too.

“W-what! You should dry your body first! What’s that indecent display!”

I shouted with a hint of heat rising in my brain. To be honest, the image of droplets flowing between his defined muscles was too seductive, and I had involuntarily gazed at it. When I managed to look up and meet Rainer’s eyes, who was now completely red, he quickly started drying his body with the towel.

‘Calm down, Kashmir Crisis.’

Trying to regain my scattered thoughts, I took a deep breath. Rainer, too, seemed to be slowly regaining his reason.

“And put on some clothes.”

“Understood.”

“Should I take them off for you?”

“Y-yes… Huh?”

Rainer seemed to vacantly respond, then suddenly paused and looked at me with wide eyes. I was so busy calming my own hot neck that I had answered without thinking.

“Well, I’m currently wearing Rainer’s shirt. If you need clothes, I can take mine off if you want…”

“What kind of crazy talk is that!”

I thought I had regained my composure, but it seemed we were both still out of our minds. Rainer’s face, which had seemed to calm down, turned red once again, and I heard a curse for the first time from his lips. I was flustered at hearing that curse and muttered foolish nonsense without engaging my brain.

“No, I mean… what, I can take off my shirt too! Just because Rainer has muscles doesn’t mean I don’t! I have abs too, and biceps! My trapezius is pretty solid! I won’t lose to Rainer!”

“I know! I’ve already seen your body!”

‘Huh?’

Rainer shouted while blushing, and I stumbled into incoherency. It was a very strange thing to hear.

“What happened…?”

I asked with a bewildered expression. Rainer, who had paused looking at me, seemed to grasp what he had just said and gaped in shock. He threw his towel aside and hurriedly walked towards me.

“No, that’s not it!”

“No!”

“I accidentally saw Kashmir while he was washing in the lake! I only peeked to avoid touching you when I helped you take your clothes off, and I closed my eyes when washing you! Please don’t misunderstand!”

‘Ah, that time.’

If that’s the case, then we had already resolved that issue yesterday. My head stopped for a moment at the mention of having seen my body, but upon realizing the truth, I quickly regained my reason.

“Ah, got it. First, let’s put on some clothes.”

Having just hunted Harabana, I was even more tired now than before, and I swept my bangs aside, pointing out the ridiculous cause of this stalemate. Watching Rainer, who had been anxious in front of me, slowly regain his sense, he quickly turned his back and took out a spare shirt from his pocket.

‘Really… why did I behave that way?’

The sight of us both confused and rambling was not me at all. I covered my blushing face with both hands out of self-reproach and embarrassment.

“I’m fully dressed now.”

Perhaps Rainer also needed some time to calm down; it was long after he had changed about ten times that he finally spoke up. Now that I had fully regained my composure, I lowered my hands from my face, trying to erase the embarrassment from the nonsensical things I had just said.

Though Rainer, who had washed up and put on a clean new shirt, looked radiant, his ears were still burning red and betrayed his embarrassment.

“Rainer, I seem to have made a lot of blunders just now.”

“……I feel the same.”

An awkward apology passed between us. The silence lingered for a moment before I broke it.

“……Shall we head to where the purple barrier was? We should get going to the barracks soon.”

“Ah, yes. We should.”

Rainer nodded vigorously and quickly began to organize his things. I waited for him as he bustled around, thinking about the lake where he washed.

‘……Why was I so embarrassed? It wasn’t something to be this flustered over.’

I still felt a bit flushed at the back of my neck.

“This is the place.”

Following Rainer, we arrived at a pathway a little away from where we fought Harabana. I had harbored hopes of finding the body of Harabana during our walk, but of course, it had completely vanished.

‘It’s said that a monster controlled by black magic has its remains vanish within an hour after its death due to being cursed.’

A cursed creature like a monster meeting the ultimate cursed magic of black magic meant that any monsters controlled by black magic were the worst type of existence that even the sun deity Raga could not save.

‘However, part of that monster, once severed, reportedly doesn’t disappear, no matter how much time passes.’

That’s why Rainer and I were able to consume Harabana meat without issue.

After explaining briefly to the bewildered Rainer, who was confused by the giant Harabana’s disappearance, we arrived in front of the barrier.

‘The barrier from the original work.’

It was not surprising, as I had anticipated it. I squinted my eyes and briefly touched the translucent barrier shimmering with ominous purple light. Although I didn’t receive any electric shock-like stimulus from it, just touching it for a moment was unpleasant enough to make me feel quite queasy.

“It’s a powerful barrier.”

“Yes. Even my aura couldn’t break through it. It’s a form of barrier I’ve never seen before, and just looking at it is quite unpleasant.”

Though his usual expression was unchanged, Rainer seemed subtly displeased as he nodded.

Both Rainer and I were aura users. Aura is merely mana transformed into a type of wavelength, leaving the purest form of mana intact. Thus, those who used aura could be said to communicate with mana in the most unfiltered way.

Mana is the flow that moves nature itself. Hence, swordmasters are among the beings closest to nature, alongside dragons and fairies.

However, black magic processes and distorts mana in a cursed fashion. Black magic is the easiest way for humans to gain power, yet the more it’s used, the more it ravages the user’s soul.

‘Aura and black magic are fundamentally opposed.’

It made sense that Rainer and I felt disgusted by the aura of black magic.

‘But I have to persevere.’

Suppressing the sickening feelings, I placed my hand back on the barrier. The barrier felt cold and stiff, like a corpse undergoing rigor mortis.

Crack.

Pouring my mana into the barrier, I began to read the flow of mana within it. It was my first time analyzing black magic, so I struggled for a moment, but once I grasped the format, it became much easier.

“This is the interior of the barrier. This barrier prevents the presence within from leaking outside while also barring movement from inside to outside. However, entry from outside is free. Seeing as Rainer couldn’t break it, it seems it requires one to be a swordmaster to shatter it. It appears a considerable level of sorcery has been enacted.”

I quickly pulled my hand back with a shiver of discomfort. It was just as it had been in the original work.

‘Father and Lord Noah Einhart must be hunting near the forest entrance. After all, my father looked hesitant to follow the emperor’s lead, and Lord Einhart wouldn’t be one to take an interest in hunting.’

The barrier was located deep within the forest. If they had approached near it, they would undoubtedly have sensed something was amiss; however, seeing as there hadn’t been any commotion, it was likely that they were just hunting formally near the entrance and remained unaware of the barrier’s existence.

Quietly listening to my words, Rainer pondered for a moment before speaking with a serious expression.

“If what Kashmir said is true—”

This place is like a trap.

Entry is free, but exit is impossible for even swordmasters, and those outside cannot know what transpires within.

It was undoubtedly a finely crafted trap.

“Then we have just one issue.”

I murmured calmly, turning my body towards the ominous sensation that was starting to manifest to the north. Rainer stiffened, as if sensing the ominous signs, and looked in the same direction as me.

It wasn’t far off. About 3 kilometers away. Two individuals. And…….

One monster tainted by black magic.

“Who is the sacrifice of this trap?”

This was a story I had already foretold. I knew the answer.

The sacrifice of this trap was my friend.

Without either of us needing to say it, Rainer and I began to run.

 

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