Someone's Savior
The one lying on the ground didn't move an inch.
'…No way, right?'
A chill ran through my veins.
I didn't even bother retrieving my sword—I sprinted straight toward her.
Frantically, I opened my inventory, pulling out every potion I had and fumbling to remove the caps.
"Hurry, hurry…!"
Why wouldn't they open? My hands were trembling so badly I couldn't get a grip.
In the end, I tore them open by brute force.
Then I started pouring them like a madman.
"Damn it, how did you get this hurt?"
Blood was still pouring from her left side, and her arm was split open down to the bone.
Her face was swollen and bruised beyond recognition.
Eve's ragged breathing told me she was barely clinging to life.
"Then pour more potion!"
"Haa… haa…"
At least she was breathing.
"Here, Eve—drink this. Drink the potion, come on!"
I didn't think. I just started emptying every potion I had over her.
Gulp, gulp.
Then suddenly—
"…S-stop."
Eve turned her head away, rejecting the potion.
But I grabbed her jaw and shouted.
"Hey! Don't give up!"
She coughed weakly and shook her head.
"That's… not it, idiot."
"What do you mean, not it?!"
"You trying to pickle me in potion or what?"
"Huh?"
With a trembling, blood-covered hand, she held out a Medium Magic Storage Scroll.
"It's… a healing spell. Just… keep me safe while it works."
…What?
"Hey! If you had something like this, you should've given it to me earlier!"
"Shut up. My head's pounding…"
Eve gasped for breath.
This was no time for jokes.
I immediately pressed the scroll to her and tore it open.
[Scroll activated.]
[Healing Magic: Perfect Light]
Zzzzzz…
The stored magic began to flow.
As radiant light poured down, Eve's external wounds began closing rapidly.
Her pained expression slowly relaxed as the agony faded away.
I nodded.
'Yeah… Perfect Light will do it.'
That healing spell, powerful enough to require a medium scroll, was no joke.
It could easily erase severe injuries and most status ailments.
Only then did I let out a sigh of relief.
'I really thought she was dead.'
And then—
"..."
Embarrassment hit me like a delayed explosion.
Up until my fight with the Kishiris priestess, I'd managed to stay cool-headed, but afterward…
'I completely lost it.'
I'd dumped so many potions on Eve that the ground she lay on was drenched.
God, how much money did I just pour out?
And thinking about it calmly…
'A level 43 player isn't gonna die just from a stab in the side, right?'
Unless there was a special debuff.
Even if they were in critical condition…
'As long as you stay calm and cast a heal, they'll recover.'
That's what being a player meant.
At least, that's how it worked in the game World Abandoned by God, the one I'd thrown my whole life into.
…But now that this was reality?
I didn't know.
Still, treating a living person like they'd just need a healing spell and all would be fine—
that felt a little off.
But then again, it was working…
'Ah, screw it.'
I gave up thinking about it.
I didn't even have the energy to question things anymore.
Was this still the game world—
or had reality itself turned into a game?
"..."
It was a question that haunted me, but I couldn't answer it now.
'Anyway, Eve's alive.'
That's all that mattered.
I exhaled a deep breath of relief.
"Cough."
A sound behind me—
I turned instantly.
A girl stared at me with dazed blue eyes.
Those navy-blue eyes.
"E-Eve."
Seeing the faint light return to them, my tension finally unraveled.
She'd almost died bleeding into the dirt…
'But I saved her.'
I sighed again and again, relief washing over me.
'Thank god. Seriously, thank god.'
At least for this moment, I was grateful we were players.
But then, unexpectedly—
"W-what happened?"
Her voice trembled as she spoke to me.
Blinking, trying to make sense of the situation—her eyes looked painfully lost.
"D-don't tell me! You gave up on them, didn't you?"
"..."
"No, right? Giroshan, don't tell me you abandoned the kids to come for me—?!"
As her senses returned, Eve's whole body began trembling again.
"No!"
Tears spilled down her face in big drops.
"T-the kids! What about the cabin?! Why are you here?!"
"Uh, well…"
I scratched my head.
Eve clearly thought I'd abandoned the children to come save her.
But that wasn't true.
While heading back to the cabin with Kals, I'd had a new idea.
'Thinking about it… only one person really needs to be at the cabin to manage the situation, right?'
And that person didn't have to be me.
Kals could handle it just fine.
A simple change in perspective.
'Since the Wave's already started, Kals can go back to the cabin, wake the kids, and prepare to defend it.'
Meanwhile, I'd regroup with Eve, assess what happened, and move on to the next phase.
In quest terms…
'I basically combined the "Rapid Flow" route and the "Detached Unit" route.'
Something like that.
'Sure, things got a little tangled.'
But our mission hadn't changed at all.
'Wait for the Ultra Wave to begin, stop it, then strike back.'
Simple as that.
Once I realized that, the plan adjusted itself instantly.
'Your Excellency, I think this actually makes things easier.'
'Seems that way. Just be careful—I've got the shield now, so don't get burned.'
'I trust Lady Sui can handle that much on her own.'
'…Hopelessly proud bastard.'
And that's how we split up, Kals and I.
At this point, all I had to do was wait for Kals's signal from the cabin.
But Eve, completely unaware of all this, was crying her eyes out.
'…What on earth is going through her head?'
Curious, I decided to hold my tongue for just a moment.
"Why the hell did you come here?! Why?! You should've gone to the kids! Even if I died, you should've saved them instead, you idiot!"
"…Hm."
"When did I ever ask you to save me? Did I tell you to let all the kids die just because I needed saving?! Obviously saving sixty children takes priority, doesn't it? So why did you do it? Tell me!"
Her tear-filled eyes glared at me, blazing with pitiful fury.
And then—something completely unexpected came out of her mouth.
"Those kids aren't disposable extras you can throw away after using! I don't know what purpose this game from your world served, but I won't accept that kind of thing!"
…Huh? What?
'Game from your world?'
I blinked and stammered.
"W-what do you mean by that? Is there… another world or something?"
But Eve didn't care what I said.
She only kept glaring at me with eyes full of hatred.
I sighed.
'Guess that's enough for now.'
If I stayed silent any longer, I really wouldn't be able to patch this up.
"The truth is…"
I briefly explained that I'd sent Kals back to the cabin.
"…What?"
Eve's face, stained with anger and grief, twisted now with outrage—
though beneath it, I could tell it was relief and joy in disguise.
"Hey! Are you kidding me?! You should've said that first, you bastard!"
"Argh! That hurts! Maybe think about the difference in our levels?!"
"Shut up! If you'd thought of that earlier, you wouldn't have tricked me like this!"
…She really cared about those kids, didn't she?
The energy rolling off her was completely different now.
Moments ago, she'd been half-dead and crying her eyes out—
now she was smacking my back so hard it echoed like a drum.
'I'll never understand her.'
After enduring several rounds of back-smashing fury, I finally managed to speak again.
"So what did you mean by that earlier?"
"What?"
"You said something about the game from our world."
"Oh…"
There had definitely been more behind that line.
The fact that she said your world implied that there was an our world—and maybe another one beyond that.
And if she talked about this game, World Abandoned by God, having some kind of purpose…
'Then she knows something about what it was really for.'
But that was as far as I could get from one sentence.
I had to hear it directly.
'What the hell did she mean?'
The world I'd fallen into, the world I'd lived in—and perhaps another world beyond both…
For someone suddenly dropped here like me, that was vital information.
"I asked what you meant."
"Well, um…"
As I pressed her again, Eve bit her lip with an awkward expression.
'Why's she hesitating?'
What kind of secret could possibly make her stall like that?
But her next words were disappointing.
"Sorry. I just said it without thinking."
"Without thinking?"
"Yeah, slip of the tongue! Really sorry! I don't know anything about that kind of stuff."
"..."
But her ears turned bright red as she said it—blatantly suspicious.
I snorted inwardly.
'You're a terrible liar.'
Still, it meant she didn't want to talk about it now.
Should I push further?
After a moment's thought, I just nodded.
"Alright. Let's say you don't know."
"H-huh? I'm serious, I don't!"
"Got it."
I answered flatly and turned away.
I hadn't expected a straight answer in the first place.
'This isn't something she can just explain right now anyway.'
Whatever it was, she clearly knew something—
and that meant I could dig into it later.
There are no permanent secrets. That's one of my creeds.
"…?"
Seeing me back off so easily, Eve actually looked flustered.
"Hey, you're not mad, right?"
"Not. At. All."
"..."
Leaving her looking uneasy, I went to collect my sword and arrows.
My old blade, already chipped to hell, I swapped for one of the priestesses' swords instead.
As for the arrows—
'One's broken, but the other's reusable.'
Though honestly, pulling it out of a corpse didn't feel great.
'Also…'
I realized something strange.
Just as I was wondering about it—
"…Thanks."
Eve spoke suddenly from behind me.
I raised my head from staring at the dirt and turned around.
Amid the grim, corpse-strewn scene, she was smiling awkwardly.
"Thanks for saving me. I never actually said it."
"..."
My mind felt unusually clear—thoughts and emotions flowing vivid and sharp.
'Thanks…'
That word stirred a weird tickling in my chest,
as if something not mine was knocking softly from inside.
"Yeah."
To shake off the feeling, I plucked a single thought from my head and spoke.
"Then answer me honestly about one thing."
Eve's large eyes widened, trembling.
She seemed afraid of what might come next.
But this was important—something that couldn't be ignored.
I pointed at the corpses.
"Those priestesses weren't Vareshan's attendants."
"…!"
"You… killed Vareshan in advance, didn't you? To stop the incident before it happened?"
"H-how did you—?!"
Even without the cliché line, her face said it all.
I sighed heavily.
"So that's why everything got tangled up. Because Walarakas came instead of Vareshan?"
The whole picture fit together in my head.
Not the standard strategy, but close enough to a known variation.
"…You really don't miss anything, huh."
Eve hung her head, looking like a guilty criminal.
Thanks to that, we were suffering for it now.
"Wow, out of all people, you messed with her? That woman's a lunatic. Nice job."
"How was I supposed to know?!"
"If you don't know, don't touch it. Don't gamble unless you're sure. Haven't you learned that?"
"What the hell's that supposed to mean?"
We were bickering like that when—
Fweeeee!
A sharp whistle split the night sky.
I turned toward it—
a crimson flare had risen far in the distance.
Kals's signal.
Simple meaning:
'Your Highness, the defense has begun. Move now.'
In other words,
the long-awaited Ultra Wave had begun.
And my experience-harvesting party—
'…was just getting started.'