CH 193

Chapter 193

Translator: Yonnee

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Appearing out of nowhere, a black snake bit Sera’s leg.

With the black snake’s venomous fangs embedded into her pale skin with all its strength, its tail shivered as its mouth clung on her.

As if it refused to let go, the snake with a black forked tongue opened its mouth wide once again.

Helios did not hesitate to take out the dagger that was on his belt.

And in one fluid movement, he swung the sharp dagger and cut the snake’s head.

Thud.

The snake’s decapitated head fell to the ground helplessly.

“Miss Popo!”

He realized the source of her pain much too late, and as if to protect her, he pulled her into his embrace.

“Agh!”

As she was now in his arms, Sera let out a tearful groan.

After confirming that she was still conscious, he hugged her soft body once more, but she had stiffened in fear.

“Miss Popo, are you alright? Did it bite you again?”

“Uugh… No. There… There are no other bites.”

He slowly pulled away from her.

However, he could see that she was just trying to suppress her groans. Her lips had gone entirely white.

Grip.

An unknown, surging anger prevailed within him. He gripped the dagger’s hilt with all his strength.

Thrash.

The body-less head thrashed by itself.

Both Helios and Sera winced at the bizarre sight of something that’s moving but should not be moving.

Bringing Sera behind him to protect her, Helios once again held the dagger firmly.

Black blood was dripping down the blade, and the beautiful water of the sea flashed with a black glow every time blood trickled down.

Helios raised his arm and stabbed the snake’s head once more.

Finally, its stopped and turned upside down.

The snake’s eyes looked at Sera and Helios with glaringly red eyes.

The black tongue made a deathly sound, and at that moment, it dissipated into black smoke.

“It… just… disappeared?”

Like a person who’s been deprived of the ability to speak, Sera stammered laboriously.

Chills ran down her spine, cold enough that it momentarily allowed her to forget the pain she was feeling.

It’s impossible for it to be a normal snake. Helios thought the same thing, but for the most part, his head had turned completely blank.

A dizzying supposition was obstructing his sight.

The dagger, which he had been holding until now, fell and got stuck in the sand.

“Please show me your leg, Miss Popo.”

Helios fell on one knee, not caring at all about his clothes getting wet.

He asked her with a rather rough tone, and he then examined Sera’s leg.

The porcelain-like skin of her leg under the wet skirt had been clearly blemished by two sharp marks that looked like large dots.

He grabbed Sera’s leg with a rough touch, which was something he wouldn’t usually do.

“W…Wait, Your Majesty—”

However, Helios did not listen to Sera.

Bereft of any composure, he bit his lower lip as he hastily infused Sera’s leg with divine power.

“Wait, please, Your Majesty. It… it hurts.”

Sera muttered with a groan.

As if her voice had brought him back to his senses, Helios looked up. And his heart sank the moment he saw that her blue eyes were welling up with tears.

“Why? Does it feel strange to you?”

Helios’s voice was completely rugged.

His grip as he was holding Sera’s ankle trembled with his full strength poured into it.

“Oh… No, Your Majesty. It’s just, you’re holding my ankle a little too tight, and it… it hurts.”

Sera murmured embarrassingly.

“And… The treatment seems to be finished…”

“What?”

“The bite doesn’t hurt anymore. Other than the ankle you’re holding now…”

“Oh…”

Helios lowered his gaze and wordlessly looked at Sera’s leg, which he was holding.

Just as she said, her skin around his grip had turned white, evidently because he was holding her too tightly.

The wound had also been cleared by his divine power already. No traces were left other than the smudged blood that had stained her skin.

“I… I’m sorry, Miss Popo.”

“No, Your Majesty.”

Helios finally came back to his senses and let Sera go.

But it still felt odd.

Helios’s expression hardly relaxed. He had a nagging hunch that something wasn’t right.

Nothing dangerous should have entered this place as it was strictly being protected by magic.

Even more so if it was a venomous creature such as a snake.

‘And the appearance of the snake…’

It was impossible to consider it ‘normal’.

As it had disappeared without a trace, just like smoke, it’s clear that it was a creature born out of magic. Or rather, black magic.

The way Sera’s skin had turned dark was undoubtedly the effect of a hex.

To be more precise, it looked like a hex to kill its target.

But something was strange.

Originally, poison from black magic should have spread all over the target’s body and should have devoured the target’s body completely, but it most definitely stayed only near Sera’s wound.

Regardless of how he treated it with divine power, it was a hex that disappeared much too easily.

Why didn’t the hex spread?

‘Was it due to me or Miss Popo? Who else could have deflected that insidious creature in this place…’

As doubts swirled through Helios’s mind, his expression darkened. There were more than just one or two things plaguing his thoughts.

“Your Majesty, I really am alright now.”

Once again, Sera’s voice pulled the frantic Helios back to reality.

“There’s nothing for you to worry about, so—”

“Haa… What a relief.”

Before Sera could even finish her words, Helios let out a sigh of relief and immediately pulled Sera into his arms.

Suddenly trapped in his firm embrace, Sera’s eyes went wide with surprise.

She was still very much soaked, but she was tightly clasped in his arms to the point that she couldn’t breathe properly.

“I thought you’d be in such huge danger.”

“Me, too…”

“You can’t go around without an escort knight from now on.”

His quiet sigh, mixed with such relief, reached Sera’s ear.

She thought that they’d separate soon, however Helios held Sera in his tight embrace for quite a while.

Sera didn’t know what to do with her free arms. But in the end, and after much consideration, she hugged him back.