"I"ll finish it immediately."

I looked at Freed"s back as he said it while facing Andre.
His back felt so reliable I wasn"t anxious in the slightest.

―― Freed sure is cool.

That"s my fiancée for you. That"s exactly what makes me want to boast about him to anyone and everyone.
I think I"m amazingly lucky.
Still looking at Freed, I earnestly thought so.

I succeeded in escaping from the place where I"d been confined through a vent, and without really thinking anything, I advanced following my gut feeling. Thanks to crevices in the stone air duct, even though it"s dark, light sometimes enters, so I can more or less see in front of me. Thinking about Cain using such places, I realized that a.s.sa.s.sins have it hard too.
After all, it"s considerably dusty. Because draft pa.s.ses through it, it"s not that dirty, but it still isn"t a place I"d want to use if I had a choice.

"Eww. I don"t want to use such places often. Impossible… Ah-choo."

My nose feels itchy from the dust. I"m tired of crawling forward. I want to go outside already, but I can"t get close to anything that seems like an exit. If somebody was there, that"d be the end. If I"m not careful, I"ll be returned to that room. And what"s more, I"ll be suspected for erasing slimes and the vent"s existence will get exposed.
I want to avoid at least that.

"Uu… That"s bad."

My nose felt itchy again. I stopped for a moment wanting to do something about this itchiness, but I couldn"t bear it.

"Hya… Uu… Ah-choo!"

Perhaps as the recoil from enduring, the sneeze came out quite loud. At the same time the area underneath me began to shake.

"Eh? Eh? Eeh? Did I do something?"

I just sneezed a little. And yet everything continued shaking. It was clearly beginning to collapse.

"Hii, hiii."

I tried moving my body to escape, but my arm cleanly came through stone.

"Gyaa!"

It"s the worst.
Even though I struggled, naturally it had no meaning.
The chain reaction of collapsing continued in this place, and in the end I fell together with stone turned to rubble.

"Hyaaaaaaaa…"

Afraid of what could happen, I instinctively closed my eyes.
What if I"m high up and I get seriously injured? I was considerably afraid, but luckily somebody caught me.

"Huh?"

In an instant my body froze. I thought it might be Andre.
However, I felt irresistibly comfortable. Feeling nostalgic I fearfully raised my face. Before my eyes was a man I very much wanted to meet.

"…"
"Lidi!"

While I was so surprised that I couldn"t make a voice, Freed called my name.
For a moment I thought it was an illusion, but I understood it was the reality from the tight embrace. In that instant I clung to Freed.

"Freed!"

It"s not a hallucination. I"m not imagining it and it"s not another person either.
It"s really Freed. Smelling his body scent that thoroughly attracts me, I became convinced.
I don"t know why Freed was where I fell, but at any rate, I understood that apparently, I could meet the person I wanted to meet the most in the quickest way possible. Looking into Freed"s blue eyes, I felt so, so happy I teared up.
Aah, it"s the real thing.
I"m happy. Once again I thought that I"m satisfied on his side, and I"d hate anybody but him.

Afterwards, for some reason we ended up talking to Cain"s acquaintance who had barged in, Apostate, but thanks to Freed"s skillful reactions it finished without anything serious happening.
And that"s how we arrive at present――.

―― Hahaha. Yup, even if I say so myself, it was a really lucky development.

While recalling this and that from before and feeling moved by my own luck, I watched Freed get down on his knees next to Andre, who collapsed limply, and lightly slap his cheeks.
It appears Freed is trying to wake Andre up.
However, Andre remained unconscious and showed no signs of waking up.
He seems to be in a dangerous state where his divine power is about to go rampant. I"m truly clueless about that, but Freed said so a while before.
While I was wondering what to do, I saw Freed draw the divine sword.

"Freed?"

When I asked him about what he was doing, Freed returned the answer.

"The sword I"m holding has been pa.s.sed down from the founder. Naturally, it"s got a good affinity with divine power. It can absorb Andre"s leaking divine power to a certain extent."
"I see."

Hmph, I nodded. Suddenly, Andre"s figure shone white and brightly illuminated the surroundings. I reflexively closed my eyes from the overly dazzling light.

"Eh? Eh? What? What"s happening?"
"… So it"s already started."

A few seconds after Freed spoke, something like wind pa.s.sed me and I heard a huge explosion behind me.
When I opened my eyes and looked back to see what happened, the wall behind splendidly disappeared. It turned into a fine pile of rubble.

"Eh… Eeh?"
"Lidi, calm down. It"s alright."
"Eh, yup. But… Eeeeh?"

Despite being fl.u.s.tered, I again turned my gaze to Freed. He was holding the divine sword sideways as if to protect me. I"m sure he is actually protecting me. Looking closely, I was wrapped in something like a large faint golden coc.o.o.n.
It"s the same color as Freed"s golden sword. I understood it"s probably something like a magic barrier.
It was so beautiful that I tried to touch it. But realizing it"d be terrible if I mistakenly erased it, I hurriedly withdrew my hand.

"… Andre acc.u.mulated so much. It"s progressing quite fast."

Muttering that it"s bothersome, Freed took out something from his breast pocket. He opened Andre"s mouth and forced him to swallow it.
Andre"s throat made a gulping motion.
Having confirmed that, Freed returned to me.

"Is, is it okay already?"
"It"s enough. All that"s left is to endure Andre"s attacks until the medicine takes effect. That"s fairly difficult though."

Saying that, Freed entered the golden coc.o.o.n. The coc.o.o.n didn"t stop him. As Freed reached out his hands, I obediently settled inside his arms.

"You said medicine. Which one?"
"That"s… Aah, wait a moment. I better increase the barrier"s strength a bit more."
"Eh?"

Almost simultaneously with Freed"s words, something like shockwaves came concentrically from Andre, who was still s.h.i.+ning.
Freed separated from me, again protected me behind himself, and held his sword sideways. The sword shone white, and in response the coc.o.o.n"s color deepened. As if something was colliding with it, the coc.o.o.n shook, and I heard more explosions behind.

"The released magical power is getting stronger and the intervals considerably shorter. Lidi, are you okay? Aren"t you scared?"