Chapter 12: End of the Road
Nelly would have preferred to fall into Alice’s rabbit hole; at least then she could leave this damned world. But she just fell heavily into the dirt. Looking around in a panic, she saw tangled, gnarled tree roots. It really was just an ordinary animal burrow.
What was worse…
The spiky-red-haired hero had already fearlessly jumped down after her.
Nelly subconsciously tried to jump up, but a sharp pain shot through her left ankle, and she stumbled and fell back down.
“Wait! I’m not the Demon King!”
The spear tip, which had been about to strike with menacing force, paused suspiciously.
Nelly raised her hands and forced a strained smile. “Do I look like the Demon King to you? I’m the system spirit, No. 1028, Nelly. He captured me. It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Hero.”
“A spirit?” The red-haired boy was clearly dumbfounded.
“Long story short, I was trapped in the castle by the Demon King. Thank you for opening the door. The most urgent thing right now is to get out of here!” Nelly opened the system interface again and couldn’t help but cheer: the system was connected!
She unhesitatingly clicked to use a return scroll.
The reply was a cold, mechanical female voice: “Sorry, this item cannot be used on this map.”
“You really are a spirit…” The red-haired boy’s focus was a little strange. Only then did he retract his spear, clear his throat, and extend a hand.
Nelly used his hand to stand up and, unwilling to give up, began to negotiate with the system. “This is No. 1028, emergency situation, requesting immediate teleportation back to the main city!”
“Sorry, Guide No. 1028, your request has been denied.”
“Why? If this keeps up, I’m going to be captured by that psycho Demon King again! Being unable to complete the mission must be a problem for you guys too, right?” Nelly’s voice rose involuntarily.
“Guide No. 1028, your mission is to kill the Demon King 100 times. After assessment, your situation is not deemed sufficient to hinder the completion of the mission.”
Nelly was so angry she laughed. “So you don’t care if I’m trapped in the Demon’s Lair, or even killed?”
“If the above extreme situations occur, please submit another emergency request.”
By then… it’ll be too late to even connect to the system and submit a request!
Nelly decisively gave up on arguing with the system, gritted her teeth, and turned to ask the hero, “The Demon King isn’t home today. Can you come back another day? Could you please take me back to the royal capital first…”
The red-haired boy hesitated for a moment, then nodded heroically. “No problem!”
He sized up Nelly’s condition and turned around. “You can’t walk. Since it’s an emergency, I’ll carry you!”
This is how a hero should be!
After spending a few days with the bizarrely-minded, temperamental Demon King, to suddenly return to the world of normal people and feel the care of a fellow human being, Nelly was on the verge of tears. She didn’t refuse. The red-haired hero carried her on his back, jumped out of the burrow, and soon they were speeding through the deathly still Demon’s Forest.
The shadows of the trees flew past. Nelly lowered her eyes and thought about her next move. If nothing unexpected happened, the familiars should have already sent word of her escape. The time she had to hide was limited, and the paths she could take were few. It was uncertain how far she could get.
But she would run as far as she could.
Once she left the Demon City map, she could use a scroll to return to the royal capital.
The terrain of the royal capital was complex, making it much easier to hide. Even if Karsus really did chase her all the way there, as long as Nelly was within range of the system connection, she could submit another request to the system in an extreme situation… there was still some chance of winning.
As for the option of killing the Demon King, Nelly hadn’t even considered it—with her combat power and that single, useless skill, succeeding would be a fantasy. And even with this hero’s help, she was still very doubtful they could defeat the freakish Demon King who had cleared the game with shabby equipment.
“What’s your name?” the hero asked at that moment.
It was impressive that he could run so fast without even being out of breath. Nelly twitched the corner of her mouth. “Nelly.”
“Roland,” he replied cheerfully, continuing to chatter, “Why are things so weird… I feel like rescuing a system spirit isn’t usually part of the plot, is it?”
This time, Nelly’s mouth twitched. “It usually isn’t.”
Roland lightly vaulted over a fallen giant tree. “So what’s this about the Demon King being a psycho?”
Nelly hadn’t wanted to say, but the urge to vent overwhelmed everything else. “First, he disguised himself as a hero, waited until we got to the Demon City to trick me into the Demon’s Lair, and then he basically put me under house arrest.” As for the other details, they were too embarrassing to mention, so she decided to keep them to herself for now.
“No wonder the guide spirit who brought me to the Demon City before was muttering about how it wasn’t supposed to be her job, and how she didn’t like guiding other people’s heroes and all that,” Roland laughed, letting out a snort. He looked back at Nelly, his brown eyes sparkling. “So you were my original guide spirit.”
Nelly was also a little speechless. She pouted. “Good thing you didn’t kill your guide spirit just now.”
“Well…” Roland was choked by her words and silently turned his head back to focus on running.
After that brief exchange, Nelly’s mood had clearly improved. During her days and nights in the Demon’s Lair, no matter how she acted on the surface, she had always been terrified and uneasy. And Karsus… he was really not a normal person with whom one could have a pleasant, normal conversation. A conversation like the one she just had would probably never happen between them.
Seeing that they were about to reach the edge of the Demon’s Forest, Roland ran even faster.
But then he stopped abruptly. Nelly, caught off guard, slammed into his back and couldn’t help but let out a muffled grunt.
Roland, however, set her down from his back, took out his ice-blue spear, and his back completely blocked Nelly’s view. His cheerful demeanor was gone, his profile extremely serious, and his voice deepened. “Find a way to slip away, quickly.”
Nelly’s face turned pale. She tremblingly opened the system interface, but before she could connect to the interactive port, with a loud snap, the red words “CONNECTION INTERRUPTED” instantly filled the screen.
It had come to this. She gave a bitter smile, shook her head, and stepped out from behind Roland. Unsurprisingly, she saw Karsus standing about a dozen steps away.
He wasn’t wearing a mask, but his expression was as cold and stiff as a mold, completely lifeless. His deep red eyes rested calmly on Nelly, and the sight alone sent a shiver through her.
She hadn’t expected him to come so quickly.
There’s no escape.
Nelly felt angry and desperate. Why? Why was Karsus doing this to her? Just because of his so-called ‘love’ that she couldn’t even tell was real or fake? Her fingertips dug into her palms, but she felt no pain. In a very low, hoarse voice, she said, “Roland, you should go now.”
“I came for the Demon King in the first place, so this is perfect.” Roland became playful again, whistling as he lowered his upper body into a sprinting stance. He glanced back slightly. “Besides, if I can’t even protect my own system spirit from the start, what right do I have to talk about saving the world? Leave it to me, Nelly. I’m the great hero, after all.”
Nelly’s vision blurred at his words. Her hoarse plea was weak. “But…”
Roland didn’t let her finish. He roared again with full force, “Die, Demon King!—”
The white cape embroidered with a golden cross billowed out behind him, and his ridiculously styled red hair was tousled by the wind. The SSS-rank treasure, the Spear of Extreme Cold, glowed with a chilling and beautiful blue light. Snowflakes began to fall around them, inexplicably adding a touch of gentleness to the terrifying forest.
Nelly stumbled, leaning against the tree trunk behind her, and slowly dragged her swollen left foot. She knew she couldn’t escape, but she had to try, even if it was futile. She couldn’t let Roland’s efforts be in vain.
The blue light suddenly went out.
Nelly looked over and saw the Spear of Extreme Cold bathed in scorching flames, turning to ash from the tip.
She watched as Karsus, expressionless, raised his greatsword with one hand. The blade, as wide as two palms, pierced through the red-haired boy’s chest.
Blood splattered on Karsus’s face, a deep red similar to the color of his eyes.
Roland’s back was to Nelly, so she couldn’t see his expression, but his body went limp, his red hair a mess.
Then, his body dissolved into thousands of light particles and scattered.
Nelly’s breath was still frozen from the brief snowfall. Her face was almost emotionless, her blue eyes wide but slightly unfocused. She suddenly shuddered, finally returning to reality.
Her injured leg finally gave out, and she collapsed to the ground in an extremely unsightly manner.
She struggled unwillingly to get up, but a black cloak and matching leather boots were already in front of her.
Looking up, the black-haired, red-eyed young man’s expression was indifferent, just as it had been when they first met.
He let out a sigh-like sound, two simple syllables with a slight upward inflection at the end, almost like a question:
“Nelly.”