Chapter 28

His favorability immediately went up by 3%, but in this case, I couldn’t be happy about it.

“Why are you ……”

“First of all, can you move this?”

I asked, glancing at the wooden sword resting on my neck.

“It’s cold.”

“…… Ah.”

With the sound of his voice, he raised his hand to hold the sword aloft.

Swish one.

At this moment, the shadow of the long sword reflected on my body.

I instinctively closed my eyes.

Intuition says he won’t stab me with the sword, but like I said, it’s just intuition.

Splat I

I open my eyes again after hearing a shattering sound, and I see the broken wooden sword being slammed down hard onto the ground.

“You ……”

I looked up and watched as Ikris dropped to his knees, knees into the mud.

“Master.”

“I’m sorry.”

He fell to his knees and apologized.

“How dare I …… to my master ……”

He looked sad like a child on the verge of tears.

“Please punish me.”

Zhexi Zhexi, the rain started to fall harder.

The rain slid down his nose and chin in drops, looking especially pitiful.

But I immediately noticed his eyes fall on the deep red gemstone ring on my left index finger.

I sighed softly and looked at Ikris and the broken wooden sword on the floor.

‘Even though he took the initiative to ask me to punish him, God knows if he would have come back to bite me if I had actually done so.’

The wooden sword was half-buried in the earth while the blade was still exposed facing upwards, so if I accidentally dropped it, it might ……

“Ah ……”

That’s when I snapped back to the option I’d turned off for quite some time.

“If I was playing the game, what a stupid gesture I would be to die in this scenario.”

If I was playing the game I probably would have kept tapping the [restart] button and repeating the scene until I managed to pass it.

Actually, I’m not sure, since I’ve never played this on hard mode.

But I can anticipate it, after all, I’ve been in this world for a while now

If this was a game, then the option was bound to come up now.

‘What would Penelope say if she wanted to survive?’

I coldly scrutinized Ikris who was kneeling in front of me.

Though he was staring pitifully at the ground like a puppy at the moment, I was more curious about what was really going on in his mind.

A man who lost his country in one day and was reduced from a noble to a slave.

Being sold here must have made him feel terrible about his situation. He must stifle his true desires and feign friendliness to an arrogant noble girl he loathes.

I had a hard time guessing what he was really thinking.

Even though no one was there for miles, he wielded his sword with a chilling murderous aura.

From that sight, I could feel how angry and hateful he was.

There was only one thing I could do.

Just like the heroine in the normal mode, as if she had never recognized what a killing aura was, then a

‘Quickly tell him it’s fine, it’s no big deal.’

But no matter how hard I tried to force myself to say that, I couldn’t say even a single word.

‘How can you possibly say something like that?’

I almost died under his wooden sword.

“…… Ikris.”

I clenched my fists and thought of other words.

“Is someone giving you a hard time?”

In order to survive, I had to act friendly.

As long as I’m still the evil servant of this game, Penelope.

“People here don’t get very strict with their knights …… Why are you still doing your training in this weather?”

“Besides, you’re still alone.”

I forced myself to smile and tried to see what he was thinking in case he had thoughts of killing me.

“Hmm?”

I prodded for him to answer.

He went from expressionless to a dumbfounded look at the sound of my voice.

“You’re all wet.”

I gently angled my umbrella towards him in an attempt to shield him from the rain, though it was nothing more than an exercise in futility; he was already waterfalling through by the time I arrived.

Beads of rain hung from his narrow, thick eyelashes.

I reached out and tried to help him dry the rain from his eyes.

“Tell me, who put you up to this?”

Ikris cringed when my fingers touched him, as if he’d been branded with a fiery iron.

He let out a soft breath and answered.

“…… There’s no one.”

“……. ”

“No one asked me to.”

“Then, why?”

“I just ……”

“I just wish to become a full-fledged knight sooner, so I can be by my master’s side as soon as possible.”

“…..”

“That’s why I have to train alone, master.”

His answer caused me to gently unfold a smile.

“That is truly commendable.”

Those gray eyes looking up at me no longer waver.

I looked into his face, which was once again radiating light, and tried to hide my thoughts.

“Should I have them set up a shelter for you? It would keep the rain off the waterfalls while you train. Or is there anything you want?”

“…….”

Ikris shook his head in silence, and I glanced over at his broken wooden sword.

“Ah yes, let me give you a new sword, after all, this one is broken.”

“I wish,” he spoke, interrupting me.” I wish my master would visit me more often.”

His unexpected request caused me to lose my words. I looked at him with wide eyes as he continued.

“Master has never visited me since he left me here.”

“I thought you had forgotten me master.”

He gazed imploringly at find, as if he were begging me for love.

“I thought you were forgetting me, master.”

‘…… Ha.’

I inwardly progressed not knowing whether to laugh at him or my own voice.

I felt unusually uncomfortable even though he was beating others like a killing machine to protect me and was on his knees submitting to me.

Now I could confirm that this discomfort was as if I had put on the mask of a master in order to be able to gain his favor, and Ikris had put on the mask of a loyal dog in order to survive on his own.

”I thought I brought a puppy, but it might actually be a baby tiger.”

I foolishly assumed that Ikris’s route wouldn’t be as crisis-ridden as everyone else’s, and I was so self-conscious that I thought he’d be the safest route that I didn’t even suspect it.

But now I’m not so sure, and it’s my fault for not trying every character’s route.

Even if I had, I couldn’t stop now.

“…… Well, whenever you want.”

[Favorability 25%]

Ikris smiled when she heard my answer.

I could see his breath shivering in the cold weather.

“You’ll catch a cold, Ikris.”

I told him in a soft tone as he straightened his back. At the same time, the umbrella tilted back toward me.

The rain hit Ikris again.

“Stop your training for today, that’s an order.”

I turned around.

Just as I was about to take the first step to leave.

“Master.” Ikris called out to me.

I glanced at him and saw that he was still on his knees.

He didn’t try to hide from the rain, he just looked at me.

“…… Will you give me any punishment?”

“…….”

“…… I almost got my master hurt.”

No, not just almost ……

‘You almost killed me.’

Despite my trembling lips, I forced out a smile.

“Punishing a loyal knight for something petty and pointless is something only a foolish man would do, Ikris.”

“…….”

“And you didn’t mean to do that, did you?”

I didn’t leave him a chance to answer me and quickly walked away.

I knew he was watching me until I completely disappeared from his view.

My one and only bodyguard did not receive my order to get him up again, nor did he receive my forgiveness.

Thank goodness he didn’t interrupt my departure again.

I walked quickly, not caring even if my skirt got wet.

Because of my quick pace, all the scenery flew backwards and forwards, a completely different walking posture from when I first arrived.

‘Ikris’s route isn’t safe.’

The truth I had realized not long ago brought me to the bottom of my mood.

In fact, I wasn’t completely unanticipated.

The favorability of every Raider subject started from 0 or a negative number.

Ever since I started playing on hard mode, I kept dying. This game simply didn’t have an easy route for me to choose.

‘What the hell was I thinking? How confident am I that I can approach him without harboring any scruples?’

I’ll get my neck chopped off by his wooden sword in the rain before I can even get close to him.

Just the thought of that makes me shudder.

“Ah ……”

The sudden headache made my body unsteady and I tried to use the wooden post beside me as support, not realizing that it would wet my skirt. My legs shook as if I had lost all my strength.

I braced myself and stared angrily at the other side of the rain and mist until my head stopped hurting.

“I should meet up with Winter soon.”