The Protagonist Already Knows

Chapter 56: Gate Crash [1]

But...there was nothing.

No clumps of mana...only a few red dots spread through the forest.

As I glanced backward at the Dreg Palace, my vision immediately turned a...pure crimson-red, my eyes burning as if someone had poured soap into them.

Overloaded, my mind exploded with pain, as my intangible body free-fell toward the ground.

Phasing through the dirt ground, I managed to regain control over my body as the sight of the Dreg Palace vanished.

Narrowly flying up in time, I re-materialized with the lower half of my body still stuck in the dirt ground, barely avoiding suffocation.

Panting while my eyes still stung with pain, I quickly removed myself from the ground and stood back up, downing another potion before grabbing Carissa again.

There was no way to check the time in this dimension...for all I knew, the gate crash could occur at any moment now.

All I could do was use Anubis’s Ferry every 5 minutes to make sure I didn’t miss the gate crash.

Lifting Carissa on my back, I stumbled toward one of the red dots I had seen.

Surely, the Dreg Demons guarding the gate crash had to be relatively close to the gate crash itself.

After walking for a couple of minutes and making sure I wasn’t too close to any of the red dots with Anubis’s Ferry again, I leaned against a nearby tree and gently placed Carissa on the ground.

Seeing her eyelids flicker open, I expectantly looked at her, but she just mumbled deliriously.

"A-am I d-dreaming...?"

As she looked up at me, I silently nodded my head and drank another potion, feeling my body start to shake again.

At this point, the potions weren’t really helping me or increasing my stats; rather, they were just acting as painkillers.

Somehow raising her arm, Carissa pointed her shaking hand at me as if I were a criminal and said while shaking her head.

"H-hey, h-how many i-is that!? Y-you can only drink o-one a w-week!"

Placing my mark on her and feeling no anxiousness or fear but rather confusion and a tingle of excitement, I quickly realized that she wasn’t completely conscious.

Thus, I shook my head and enthusiastically answered.

"My first of the week!"

However, she instantly said back, straining her voice as she attempted to yell, but a whisper only came out in the end.

"y-you liar!"

"...?"

"S-stop lying!"

Grabbing onto my leg and pulling herself toward me, Carissa raised her hand and attempted to reach into my pockets.

Instinctively, I blocked her hand but...

"M-move! I s-said m-move!"

Seeing her about to pass out from straining her body so much, I clicked my tongue and removed my hand, allowing her right arm to reach into my pocket.

Like a child upon finding a piece of candy, Carissa’s face immediately lit up as she grabbed an empty glass bottle from my pocket.

"I k-knew it! N-now what!?"

Shrugging my shoulders as she looked at me, I just answered.

"Oh, did I say 1? I meant 2!"

Feeling...sadness stemming from my mark, I looked at Carissa weirdly, as she rubbed her eyes...

"S-stop lying! STOP!"

Not knowing what to do as the sadness only grew...to the point where I even felt like crying, I hesitated for a moment before leaning downward so that we were on equal height.

Raising my hands like a caught criminal, I desperately said, my voice trembling from her sadness.

"I-I’ll s-stop!"

Just like that...the sadness vanished, instantly replaced by pure joy and bliss.

"..."

As the two of us smiled at each other, I had no idea what to say, so we stood there in silence.

Up close, I could see the severity of her condition: a tremor ran through her body every so often, she had to focus her entire body just to keep her eyelids up, and the purple veins on her face had spread all the way across her cheeks.

Perhaps noticing my gaze, Carissa suddenly said.

"W-what are you looking at!? D-Don’t lie!"

"...your eyes."

Finishing the 5-minute countdown in my head, I sighed and glanced up at the sky.

"You should sleep, I’ll be r-"

However, before I could even finish my sentence, Carissa interrupted me, her arm instantly grasping my shoulder.

"Y-you’re leaving me!?"

"..."

Feeling the sadness return, I quickly said, as if I were comforting a child.

"No, no, no...I’m just checking on something."

Gazing at me, her almond-brown pupils trembling, Carissa paused for a moment before releasing me and asking hesitantly.

"P-promise?"

Sighing, I answered.

"Promise."

"...h-how do I know y-you’re not lying!?"

"..."

Extending her right hand, she pointed her pinky finger toward me and continued.

"N-no lying!"

"...yeah."

Nodding my head, I wrapped my pinky finger around hers and gently pushed our two fingers downward.

"I promise I won’t leave you."

As a smile spread on both our faces, Carissa retracted her hand and slowly fell back.

In the next moment, as if at peace, her eyelids shut, and her unconscious body slumped back against the tree.

...

...

...

Finding no signs of the gate crash after many more five-minute intervals, I drank another potion, treating it more as an energy drink than a medication, as Carissa rested below me.

Over the past five hours, she had been completely unconscious...no muttering, no childish bouts of consciousness, or even any movement.

If not for the occasional anxiety or fear my body felt from her mark...I might have already thought her to be dead.

Was she...even going to survive until the gate crash?

"..."

However, at that moment, as if responding to my question, I felt my entire body start to tremble uncontrollably.

Instinctively, I glanced downward as Carissa’s eyelids flickered open.

Curious as to what I was going to get this time, I hesitantly gazed at her...but only a forced, fierce voice sounded from below me.

"Y-you brought me here!? I-I told you to leave me!"

"..."

"H-hand me over to the Dregs...u-use me as a bait, I-I’ll infiltrate the palace f-from the inside to f-find him, then!"