He Became the Only Ally of the Abandoned Warrior

When Lin casually pointed inside the dungeon with his thumb, Tigrea cautiously asked.

“Are you okay with this?”

“As you saw yesterday, it seems to be well-cleaned.”

“Understood.”

The mage took out a small staff from inside her robe.

“I’ll protect you if necessary.”

“……”

“What’s wrong?”

“No, it’s nothing.”

“I’d like an answer.”

Under her persistent questioning, Lin awkwardly scratched his cheek.

“I just dozed off for a moment.”

“I’m not a fool. In fact, I’m rather smart.”

Lin, who was feeling a bit awkward, finally confessed.

“It’s just that this is the first time a party member has said they’d protect me.”

Tigrea’s eyes shook significantly.

She recalled the time when, during the Demon King subjugation journey, the porter barely held on with a small shield.

During truly dangerous moments, Lucy or Arsil would kick him away to save him, but afterward, he was showered with endless curses.

“From now on, I’ll protect you.”

“That’s reassuring, especially with Lucy around.”

“The hero is irrelevant.”

She was the one who said she would protect him, so why was Lucy being mentioned? The mage wanted to sulk, but she remained silent, knowing she too had neglected him in the past.

The path inside the ruins, which had once been a palace, was quite winding.

And with all the twists and turns, there were many dead ends and item chests.

Although there were no grand treasures, the small potions and crude iron scraps they found were still valuable.

Even during the day, it was the same.

“Wow, these are goods imbued with the ancient kingdom’s aura. If you extract them properly, you can make excellent enchantment materials.”

When Lin showed the items he obtained thanks to Denarua yesterday, the Golden Carriage Postman quickly calculated and suggested a price.

“This is what it comes to?”

“That’s all for items with the aura of an ancient kingdom?”

“Hahaha.”

When Lin protested, the postman laughed shamelessly while tapping on his abacus.

“Do you have anywhere else to sell them?”

Of course not.

Lin had no choice but to sell the items at a price lower than the market value.

However, since the market value itself was quite high, his wallet quickly became full.

“Do you offer postal services?”

“Are you asking a postman if he offers postal services?”

“Then send these 78 gold coins to the High Elf Nydrian. The sender is Investor Lee.”

“Express delivery or super-express delivery?”

The postman sneakily offered two expensive options.

But there was no way.

“Just regular express. Here’s the letter too.”

“As you wish.”

This guy, he’s quite money-hungry for a postman.

Well, that’s why he drives a golden carriage.

Anyway, thanks to him, Lin earned a good amount during the day and was able to send investment funds to Nydrian.

To gather more funds and for the upcoming class change, Lin needed to secure as many items as possible.

Although Lin and Tigrea proceeded through the dungeon with tension, thanks to Denarua’s thorough cleaning the previous night, only monster corpses and bloodstains remained.

“Ooooh!”

And, as if to show off, there was a pile of items neatly stacked together.

Lin unconsciously opened his mouth in admiration.

It was undoubtedly Denarua who had prepared this.

“Thank you!”

“Who are you thanking?”

“The goddess of fortune.”

Somewhere, it seemed that the goddess of fortune chuckled shyly.

“Do you need help?”

“No.”

Lin widened the entrance of the porter’s bag as much as possible.

By pulling it wide open and flipping it over the pile of items, all the items were sucked into the porter’s bag in one go.

“Amazing.”

“Even though it’s an inventory, it’s a special item given by the goddess.”

The piles of items were scattered throughout the area.

As the two continued to leisurely collect them, they came across a giant door blocking their way.

It was a door full of strange symbols.

Tigrea examined the symbols on the door for a moment.

“It’s a magic circle from the ancient kingdom. We’ll need a key.”

This was the place.

Beyond this door lay the event path for individual enhancements.

Having achieved his goal, Lin immediately lit a campfire on the spot.

Lighting a fire inside a dungeon was something he would normally never do, but that’s how much he trusted Denarua.

How could she be so different from the black-hearted Adora?

However, Lin didn’t forget that Denarua was also a member of the Demon King’s party.

“Finally, we get to have a proper rest.”

“Is it okay to stay here?”

“Even if we go back, all we’ll hear are disgusting noises.”

Without any further argument, Tigrea sat down near the campfire.

Once, she had sat like this with Arsil, just the two of them, but it was much warmer now.

“Are explorers always this self-serving?”

“They tend to be, but this place is particularly bad.”

“They reacted so indifferently to the death of a fellow member.”

Indifferent, and even hostile, they had mocked the dead.

“There was even a party that tried to kill their fellow members.”

It felt like a cold dagger had been thrust into her.

Tigrea wanted to make excuses, but when she saw him quietly watching the fire, she gave up.

There was a logical reason.

Lucy was too arrogant and violent.

But no matter how much she rationalized it, trying to justify it to Lin, who had risked his life to save her, was an insult.

“When I was young, I grew up in a desolate place where everything was lacking, but I was able to endure because I had comrades who supported each other.”

“……”

“But over time, one by one, they left. Some left to find their own paths, some betrayed us, and some died because of that betrayal.”

The mage just listened silently.

“I thought about it carefully. The reason I felt uncomfortable around you. The reason I felt a barrier with the other party members.”

The crackling campfire helped Lin organize his thoughts calmly.

“It’s not just because you were indifferent and ignored me. It’s more because of the cold-heartedness and selfishness that cast aside a comrade who had been devoted to you all.”

When his sincere gaze turned to her, Tigrea flinched.

“Lucy still suffers from nightmares if I’m not around. She wakes up crying, searching around to make sure you all aren’t there, and then looks for me.”

Swallowing was difficult, and her stiff body was hard to move.

Her lips felt dry and parched.

“You asked if Lucy and I like each other. If I like Lucy, and if Lucy likes me. You said you wanted to observe us to see if it was affection.”

The mage, who always brought uncomfortable truths to light, was now the one hearing a harsh criticism herself.

“Lucy is dependent on me. After losing everyone she relied on, she has nowhere else to lean.”

“……”

“I don’t think the saintess, the archer, or you, the mage, would have changed so suddenly just because of a simple transaction.”

What Lin was about to ask now was something that even the memories of Lee, the reincarnated person, didn’t contain.

He knew what they were offered to betray Lucy.

But Lin suspected that there was another reason that caused them, despite their close bond, to turn their backs.

“Why did you do it?”

Only after Lin asked did Tigrea manage to open her mouth.

Her dried lips cracked slightly, but she didn’t feel the pain.

The mage, who was focused entirely on explaining herself as sincerely as possible to him, hesitated for a long time.

“I thought it was an opportunity.”

“An opportunity?”

“When I received the special item from the goddess, she asked me what my wish was.”

[What is your wish?]

Lin remembered that he had heard the same words from the goddess when he was granted the porter’s bag.

Although the memory was vague, like a mosaic, he clearly remembered that such an event had occurred.

“I told her I wanted to know what true love was, and the goddess said the opportunity would come at the end.”

But the conclusion was different.

The goddess had taken some action on Lin.

There was no promise of when the wish would be fulfilled.

“And on the day we left for the final journey to defeat the Demon King, Linefold came to me.”

The shield knight had asked the mage if she really wanted to understand what love was.

Suddenly reminded of the goddess’s words, Tigrea listened carefully to the shield knight’s proposal.

If, after truly defeating the Demon King, Lucyena showed signs of becoming a new threat to the world, she should be eliminated.

If she did so, he would help her with her research.

He said she could explore the relationship between himself and the crown princess, who were truly in love.

“I thought that was the opportunity.”

“……”

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Lin’s gaze was sharp.

Tigrea, feeling her legs go numb, continued to confess.

“Like someone blinded, I was overwhelmed by the desire to seize that opportunity. Every time the hero acted recklessly, I kept rationalizing it, convincing myself that this was inevitable. As if I was under some kind of spell, I deliberately, forcibly created reasons.”

That was all there was to it.

Lin waited a bit longer, but she seemed to have said everything she wanted to say.

“You were the first to cut off Lucy’s leg, weren’t you?”

Once again, he stabbed deep into her conscience.

Unable to hold back, she let out a groan.

It hurt.

His criticism.

It scared her.

His contempt.

“…I was wrong.”

“To whom? To me?”

“I was wrong…!”

“No, you’re apologizing to the wrong person.”

“I was wrong….”

“Not to me.”

Lin was angry.

His cold anger didn’t flare up like the campfire but weighed heavily, tightening around Tigrea’s conscience.

The mage, pale, struggled to calm her rapid breathing.

“It was wrong of me not to treat you properly, aside from the hero.”

Her guilt forced her to beg for forgiveness.

It made her desperately want to be forgiven.

“No, it’s fine. I wasn’t hurt at all.”

Suddenly, Lin froze as if struck by lightning.

He remembered.

The wish he made to the goddess.

[I don’t want to be hurt anymore.]

And after that, he really hadn’t been hurt.

His heart had become stronger.

It had become perfect.

“You must be the first to apologize to Lucy.”

“I will.”

“Yes, let’s make sure of that.”

Lin took something dry out of the porter’s bag and threw it into the campfire.

The flames flared up brightly.

“After that, I’m sure we’ll become close. Lucy included.”

“I will.”

Tigrea, who had repeatedly vowed, cautiously glanced at Lin before asking.

“I want to ask for your forgiveness too, Lin.”

“I told you, I wasn’t hurt.”

“But I want to apologize to you…”

Lin shook his head firmly.

There was no way.

He clearly remembered what they had done.

Saying he wasn’t hurt was undoubtedly a sign that he wouldn’t even accept an apology.

Tigrea briefly covered her face with her robe sleeve.

“What’s wrong?”

“I think some ash got in my eye…”

“Should I help?”

“It’s okay…”

Her shoulders trembled behind the sleeve.

Sometimes, a faint sniffle could be heard.

Despite the fact that the mage, who had once been a mere doll, was becoming more human, none of the chains wrapped tightly around Lin’s heart budged.

But that didn’t mean Lin wanted to push the mage away.

She, too, had been born into a tragic life.

But if they wanted to close the distance between them, there were things they had to address.

Not just Tigrea, but the entire hero’s party.

“Let’s go back.”

After the campfire had burned out, the moonlight took its place.

When she wiped her eyes with the rough fabric of her robe sleeve, it stung.

But what hurt more was the fact that her apology had been rejected.

‘I don’t want to be hated.’

The warmth she had felt during the day was now giving way to regret and guilt, though the mage wasn’t yet aware of it.