NOVEL NEXT chapter 53
53 – Nightmare 6
“Second, if your life is in danger, abandon me and run away.”
“No, I refuse.”
Startled by the sudden confession, I spoke firmly.
I could never abandon Loki and run away. Absolutely not.
“Sigh….”
Upon hearing my resolute answer, Loki let out a sigh. I flinched at the sound, but my heart remained unchanged.
“Johanna, you risk your life for others without hesitation.”
Loki spoke softly.
“But you’re not just anyone……”
I tried to deny Loki’s words, but he interrupted me with a low voice.
“Listen to me till the end.”
“Alright.”
“If it were someone other than me, someone you’ve never met before, and they were in danger, would you still refuse to risk your life?”
“Well……”
After hearing Loki’s words, I couldn’t say anything.
Helping others. It was a natural thing to do.
But risking one’s life was something I had never done before.
Because Loki asked me seriously, I couldn’t casually answer.
Unable to respond, I stayed silent, and Loki approached.
“Even if it’s a lie, tell me. That you won’t sacrifice your life for others. That you’ll live for yourself.”
Loki spoke as if he was certain.
That he would die while helping others.
“Loki, won’t you risk your life for someone else?”
The only thing I could say was to ask Loki the question.
“…I can risk my life for someone else. But not when it involves saving someone I don’t know.”
“What if I’m in danger?”
“I’ll risk my life to save you. Even if I die trying to save you, I won’t regret it.”
After hearing the question, Loki spoke without hesitation.
“The meaning of risking my life for you is just that. That’s why I can’t stand seeing you sacrifice yourself for others by risking your life.”
“…………”
“There are many people in the world who need your help. But I need you more than all those countless people.”
“………..”
“So if you ever risk your life for others, I will do everything in my power to stop you. Even if hundreds of people die as a result, I don’t care.”
It was confusing.
The face is flushed.
I know it’s not the right situation for this, but my face turned red on its own.
“…………”
I didn’t say anything to avoid revealing that my face had turned red.
I’ve received confessions many times before.
From minor nobles to princes of kingdoms.
When they confessed, they embellished their feelings with various words.
There were those who claimed they could pluck stars from the sky and those who said they would die if their confession was rejected.
There were people who claimed they would make me the happiest person in the world and those who vowed to protect me with their lives.
Maybe because I had a keen sense, I could immediately tell.
That they were all lying.
They were people who confessed based on my appearance, martial arts skills, or family background, hoping for something.
And.
Because of my keen sense, I could tell that what Loki is saying now is all true.
Thump, thump, thump, thump.
My heart is beating too fast.
This has never happened before.
Afraid that Loki might notice, I held onto my heart.
But strangely, feeling my heart beat faster felt better.
“Where does it hurt?”
It’s so different.
The usual Loki and the Loki right now.
He was always shameless, but now it was shameless in a different sense.
“I-I’m okay. Let’s just go in quickly.”
I said to Loki with a trembling voice.
I accidentally cut off my words.
My face turned even redder.
“Just a moment.”
Loki took out two boxes from the air.
Inside were different potions.
One was a fairly good potion that I had seen a few times before. But the other one was a potion I had never seen before.
The potion shining in golden light looked like the best quality even at a glance.
Swish.
Loki took both potions at the same time.
I was surprised to see that.
“Wait!”
If he ate the potions without any preparation, they might turn into poison.
“Let’s go in.”
However, Loki was unfazed.
No, he seemed even more energized, as if he had absorbed the elixir in a short span.
“Put this on before entering.”
Loki handed him a black robe without questioning why.
Probably to conceal his face and academy uniform.
.
.
.
Squelch. Squelch.
With every step, an unpleasant sensation rose through the shoes.
The piercing stench also intensified.
Squelch.
Johanna and Loki stopped simultaneously.
It was because they heard footsteps.
Whoosh.
The owners of the footsteps were two individuals.
Skull patterns adorned their clothes.
Even though they approached, they didn’t notice Johanna and Loki.
Thanks to Loki using his unique magic to conceal their presence.
“Sigh, bringing in another child this time?”
“They’re just kids; they haven’t even tasted the world.”
“We have an academy here; can’t we just recruit students from there?”
“If that happens, we might as well bring in a noble schoolgirl… hehehe.”
Having overheard the conversation, Loki and Johanna exchanged signals.
Nod.
Swoosh. Swoosh.
Two swords painted beautiful trajectories in the air, and as a result, two heads fell to the ground.
Instant death.
Originally, Loki couldn’t cleanly kill like this, but after taking two elixirs, Loki’s strength became incomparable to before.
Normally, taking an elixir wouldn’t make one instantly stronger.
But all the elixirs were enhanced through Loki’s spatial manipulation.
Moreover, the clown mask Loki was wearing amplified the elixir’s abilities by more than 100%.
.
.
.
Since then, Johanna and Loki have killed quite a few people adorned with skull patterns.
Neither of them hesitated to kill such trash.
“Intruders!!!!!!!”
The voice echoed through the sewer.
It seems like they’ve found the body.
“Let’s run.”
Nod.
The two of them leaped into the depths of the sewer.
It’s meaningless to move quietly once they’ve been discovered.
“Intruders…!”
While running, someone spotted Yo-hanna and Loki, but Yo-hanna’s speed in swinging her sword was faster than shouting.
As they went deeper, they encountered more people wearing clothes with skull patterns.
Murmuring.
They could hear quite a few voices ahead.
“Close your eyes and block your ears.”
When Loki spoke, Yo-hanna closed her eyes and used mana to protect her eyes and ears.
She knew what Loki was up to.
The dagger with the ability to produce light and sound that Loki used when fighting Lofree.
Loki threw the dagger with the sound-producing ability towards the direction where the sound was coming from.
Zeeek!
“Screaaam!!!”
A tremendous noise and light spread through the dark sewer.
More than ten people were all covering their ears and shouting.
Yo-hanna and Loki couldn’t miss that opportunity.
Whip.
“Scream!!!”
Swoosh.
“Ughhh!”
Every time the two swung their swords, someone died.
Killing those who were helpless and couldn’t do anything while clutching their eyes was too easy for them.
Johanna and Loki didn’t stop, even when there were people in front of them.
They just ran, slashing with their swords.
“Ugh.”
“Groan!”
“Save…cough!”
The screams of people echoed through the sewers.
All of them were people who enjoyed hearing others scream.
Pause.
Loki and Johanna, who continued running without stopping, came to a halt.
“Who’s there? Please, save us.”
“It hurts too much, get us out of here.”
“I’m hungry….”
There were dozens of children.
They were all dressed in identical clothes.
No matter how you looked at it, they were ordinary children.
Thud.
Johanna tried to run towards the children, but Loki blocked her with his hand.
“Loki?”
Johanna was surprised when Loki stopped her and surprised again when she saw Loki’s hand.
Loki’s hand was trembling.
Thump, whoosh.
Loki leaped, swinging his sword to pierce the heart of a young child.
“Loki! What is this…”
Johanna, startled, stopped mid-sentence.
There was no sense of vitality at all from the children.
“It hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts!”
“Ahhhhh!”
“Save me!”
The reaction of the child stabbed with the sword was strange, and the other children also felt peculiar.
‘No way.’
Necromancers.
Those who control the dead.
Johanna understood why the children had no sense of vitality.
It was because the children had died a long time ago.
Shivering.
Those kids, it’s all just a joke for the necromancer with them.
To move forward, you have to cut down those kids.
I knew it in my mind, but my body wouldn’t move.
“Save us!”
“We haven’t done anything wrong!”
Yohanna had killed quite a few people.
But they were all villains.
Protecting the innocent.
That was Yohanna’s belief.
Those kids are nothing more than corpses. Even after brainwashing herself with that thought several times, her body wouldn’t budge.
“Yohanna.”
Those kids were just kidnapped by the necromancer…
“Yohanna!”
When Loki called out loudly, she finally snapped back to reality.
“It’s okay, I’ll kill these kids. You just stay still.”
Leaving those words behind, Loki began to cut down the kids.
“Crack!”
“Please, save us!”
With each kid falling, others screamed in horror.
Nevertheless, Loki didn’t stop. No, he couldn’t stop.
Yohanna realized it was because of her.
“Hoo…”
She took a deep breath.
She couldn’t afford to be a hindrance when she came to help.
Swoosh.
Drawing his sword,
Thud.
He struck the ground.
Whoosh.
Piercing the child’s heart.
“Haa… haa…”
.
.
After killing all the children, Yohanna and Loki arrived at a certain door.
“Loki, inside this…”
“Yeah, inside here is the real necromancer who made those children like that.”
Even outside the door, the aura of death was palpable.
Yohanna prepared herself.
She could never forgive the necromancer who made the children like that.
“Loki, I’ll go in alone now.”
“Johanna, I’ll enter alone.”