I Became A Squirrel Seeking For The Villain [EN]: Chapter 126

‘I hope Father is doing well.’

I swallowed hard, running quickly alongside Johann.

Noticing my worry, Johann smiled gently.

“Don’t worry, Yurika. He’ll manage just fine. He’s Duke Medest, after all.”

“Yeah…”

We weren’t heading to the central garden right now.

To be precise, we pretended to head to the central garden but changed direction midway.

So, Father would be dealing with Theodore or Rivena in the central garden.

‘They’ll have to split up too if they want to find me.’

I guessed they were trying to lure me with the Alit 풀 [Alit herb], but I already anticipated this move.

That’s why Father deliberately threw the bottle of holy water to Johann earlier.

Seeing that, Theodore and Rivena would naturally assume we were heading to the central garden.

‘Father will be able to handle them… and we just need to hide.’

I was quite taken aback when Meriel was hit by the chandelier. But we decided to execute the next operation immediately.

Our plan was consistent from beginning to end.

Father would handle most of the work, and Johann and I would step back.

We were just pretending to move together to deceive Theodore and Rivena.

‘I’m not going to be played by your plan.’

Father decided to take all the risks.

I was anxious, but Father was a man who made a name for himself as a warrior on the battlefield.

Listening to his war stories, he had defeated even more enemies in much worse situations than this.

‘Theodore can only mobilize his escort knights. Father will be able to handle it.’

Because I had been directly involved all this time, it was even harder to step back at this crucial moment.

But Father desperately pleaded with me, hesitating.

“Yurika, we’ve already lost you once. We can’t put you in danger again.”

Even though it wasn’t the family’s fault, there was clearly room to think that way.

“Besides, our family has only been indebted to you so far. Please, don’t be exposed to danger this time.”

That’s why I decided not to step forward this time. I only decided to play the role of confusing the enemy.

If I pretended to be played by their plan, they would be able to leave the bait for me until the end.

If Rivena and Theodore lost all hope and burned all the Alit 풀, there would be no way to completely cure Mother.

“Let’s go, Yurika. Quickly.”

Johann stayed by my side, taking on the role of protecting me in case of any unforeseen circumstances.

That way, we were taking refuge in a safe place.

Even though the ground was shaking and the temple was collapsing, we knew a perfectly safe place.

It was the secret passage where we had saved Father before.

That place, which must have been Rivena’s laboratory, was underground, so it was perfect for taking refuge until everything was over.

Our plan was for Father to somehow pour the holy water on the Alit 풀 and deal with Theodore and Rivena, and then for Jayden to quickly pluck the 풀.

Once we plucked that 풀, we no longer needed to be in the temple. The rest of the work would reveal the truth as soon as we investigated the source of the magic.

‘They must have thought Jayden disappeared in the chaos.’

In fact, Jayden decided to quietly hide from their sight if something went wrong, as if he had disappeared in the mess.

He was famous as a merchant, but Jayden was also a person who could protect himself well.

He was planning to secretly appear at the crucial moment, take care of Mother, hide, and then pluck the 풀 when Father’s work was done.

Johann and I were not in any of those plans. So now it was our turn to step aside.

“Quickly…”

Johann said, urging me in a low voice.

“If I stay here, I think I’m going to get weirder.”

“Weirder?”

“Just… the instincts I’ve been suppressing keep surging.”

He muttered with a sigh.

“Such ugly instincts… wanting to kill everyone and be with you alone.”

“…Huh?”

“Such terrible things… wanting to destroy this world and leave only you, making you look only at me…”

“Johann, just don’t say it.”

I seriously advised.

“There are things in the world that don’t need to be said.”

Now our role is over. Everything will be fine.

Of course, I didn’t expect that the wizards would run wild in the meantime, and that Rivena would light a scent in the temple that would stimulate the wizards, making Johann a little strange.

“You’re just thinking about it, not going to do it, right? And it’s not because you’re weird, it’s because Rivena lit a strange scent here. So don’t worry too much.”

“…Yeah. If you’re scared of me…”

“No. From what I can see, you seem to have reason, and that’s enough for me. But if you think you’re going to lose your reason, I hope you’ll move away on your own.”

We moved our steps even faster and headed to the secret passage we had gone to before.

We didn’t know much about the experiment Rivena was doing.

But there was one person who seemed to know something about the experiment.

It was Trevor.

I couldn’t have a proper conversation with him for a long time, but if I waited patiently and kept asking, he would throw out clues that would be helpful to us.

“An experiment using time…”

Trevor chuckled, saying that the experiment was bound to fail.

“It can never succeed. Even if it’s almost done, it’s impossible. Especially an experiment using Medest’s blood… You can’t even try to carry out that experiment in Artea.”

“You can’t even carry it out?”

“You need magic to use Medest’s blood in time.”

Trevor explained calmly.

“Medest’s beastman energy is the power to stabilize magic. You can always say that it interacts with magic. In other words, magic is needed for that blood to work.”

“That’s complicated, isn’t it?”

“But when is the mushroom soup coming out? Why is it taking so long? Don’t be complacent just because it tastes good. Of course, the most important thing in a restaurant is the taste of the food, but if you treat customers with this kind of service and they leave one by one, you’ll eventually go bankrupt.”

I couldn’t hear more details, and I couldn’t completely believe it, but it was still a story worth listening to.

It made sense that magic was needed to use Medest’s blood.

For that reason, it made sense that Rivena was constantly cooperating with Theodore.

Theodore was a human being I didn’t even want to see as an ally. Rivena wouldn’t be any different.

If the reason she was still cooperating with him was because of magic, it was somewhat understandable.

“Maybe Rivena will always be with Theodore? Because she said she needs magic.”

I swallowed my anxiety and said cheerfully.

“I wish Father would sweep them all away, quickly.”

“…I guess.”

Johann’s voice, which was as submerged as it could be, was uneasy, but we moved quickly as planned and entered the entrance.

If Rivena was still with Theodore for that experiment, this place was safe.

Unlike the chaotic temple, this place was surprisingly calm and quiet. It was like another world.

“Yurika, should we separate a little?”

Johann said with a sigh as soon as we arrived.

“I think I’m the most dangerous one here.”

“S, should we? Then you used a lot of magic, so just calm down a bit…”

“No. I’ve already calmed down.”

As I tried to approach him, Johann quickly stepped back.

“I’d rather… I’d rather endure it.”

“Huh?”

“My condition is… worse than you think…”

His eyes flickered more uneasily than ever.

The other wizards who rushed at me openly earlier came to mind.

I’m not a wizard, so I don’t know well, but anyway, I knew that this space made the wizards unstable.

In the meantime, Johann used a lot of magic and was stronger than any other wizard. It was obvious that he would be the most unstable of the wizards here.

“Let’s… separate a little for now.”

“Yeah, sure. If that’s what you want.”

When I nodded readily, Johann turned around and hurried away from me.

At the same time, I instinctively turned around quickly and looked towards the entrance. It was the beast’s sixth sense that was activated whenever there was an emergency.

And I couldn’t help but be shocked when I saw the face of the person who appeared alone at the entrance.

“…Rivena?”