I Will Not Fall For the Villain’s Flirtations - Chapter 55

“……”

Even before hearing his voice, I could guess the identity of the man standing behind me. The now-familiar scent and the solid feel against my back were unmistakable.

When I remained silent, the man slowly lowered his head towards me. I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up as his warm breath brushed against my skin.

“Are you alright, Du?”

“…Keene.”

I shook off his hand and quickly turned around to confirm his face. As expected, the man’s identity was exactly who I had anticipated.

“Why are you here…?”

“Shh.”

Keene, dressed in a priest’s robe, placed his finger on his lips. In the absurd situation, I gaped like a fish.

So, it was indeed him who gave me the ointment back then.

Are the Lucanians and even the Magic Tower after Liche’s relics? How many enemies do I have to face in this expedition?

Boom!

At that moment, a loud noise accompanied the complete destruction of the stalactites on the ceiling. Remarkably, only the stalactites were targeted, preventing a cave-in. I turned my gaze to Peidos Carmel, who had skillfully shattered the trap with his swordsmanship.

Only the male lead could display such skill, no doubt about it.

As expected of a knight representing the Holy Kingdom, he saved the expedition team from danger and urgently scanned the surroundings. His eyes, busy searching for someone, soon stopped on my face. With a sigh of relief, his furrowed brows relaxed slightly, and a shallow breath escaped his lips.

My heart naturally sank at the sight. His evident concern for me stirred up forgotten emotions that began to creep back.

“Heal the injured!”

Finally tearing his gaze away from me, Peidos sheathed his sword and shouted as he looked around. As a healing priest, I snapped back to attention and instinctively looked for Rancho. About 70% of my role was to assist him.

Just as I found him and was about to move towards him, Keene suddenly grabbed my arm.

“Did Peidos Carmel volunteer for this expedition because of you, Du?”

“…What did you say?”

I thought it was a ridiculous joke, but he was dead serious. Seeing that it was hard to get an answer from my bewildered expression, he quickly asked another question.

“Do you know there’s a high possibility that someone orchestrated Du in coming here?”

“What do you mean?”

Again, I couldn’t answer. However, the content made my heart race for a completely different reason than before.

Someone deliberately pushed me to come here?

“…Let’s talk about this later.”

But with so many injured, it wasn’t the right time to continue the conversation. Shaking my head to clear my thoughts, I moved towards where Rancho was.

[Do you know there’s a high possibility that someone orchestrated Du in coming here?]

But those words kept replaying in my head as I treated the injured. Like gum stuck in my hair, the more I tried to shake off the thoughts, the more they grew, leaving me feeling uneasy as I went about my treatment.

* * *

Contrary to the advanced arithmetic and engineering of the ancient era, the traps were very simple yet intuitive. However, they were just as dangerous, making every movement tense as a frightened mouse, leading to one precarious situation after another.

“Du, watch your step.”

“Whoa.”

Every single movement could easily trigger a trap. An arrow shot out when I accidentally touched the wall, and when I misstepped on some kind of device, the floor shifted, almost causing me and a Lucanian healer walking beside me to fall off a cliff.

Just now, I almost stepped on a circular formation that looked like a trigger mechanism, and I swallowed a sigh. Honestly, Keene had been a great help to me on this expedition. If he hadn’t reacted swiftly to the previous two traps, I would have definitely been injured.

I looked at Keene, who was walking two or three steps ahead of me. The ring on his index finger was an artifact that blurred his presence. Thanks to that, no one but me found it strange that an extra priest was tagging along.

Is that ring a cheat item, or are the priests just incompetent? How can a spy walk around so openly without anyone noticing?

As I sent a dissatisfied glance at the green ring that stood out against its magic, Keene lifted his arm to adjust the hood over his head, causing the sleeve of his priest’s robe to slide down.

“…Huh?”

I suddenly noticed something strange. His exposed arm was too smooth.

There should definitely be a second-degree burn mark there.

Of course, it was time for it to have healed somewhat. However, it wasn’t enough time for it to disappear without a trace.

Unless he used healing magic. But isn’t he unable to receive holy power? With a curious mind, I grabbed his arm.

“Du?”

“What is this?”

The wound I examined closely looked as if it had never been injured. Even when I ran my fingers over it, there was no rough texture, which aroused my suspicion.

“You had a burn here. How did it heal so quickly?”

“I’m glad you remember the location of my wounds.”

It wasn’t a small wound; it covered his entire lower arm, so it would have been strange not to remember. Thinking I might have confused it with the other arm, I checked, but it was also clean.

I looked at him with suspicious eyes and asked.

“Did you pretend to be injured?”

“……”

The cunning man rolled his eyes to avoid my gaze. Reading the answer from his reaction, I let out a dumbfounded laugh.

Just in case, I glanced around to see if any priests were looking at us strangely. Although we were within the artifact’s influence, it was better to be cautious as we could still be caught.

Fortunately, since we were following at the back of the line, no priests were looking our way. Turning back to Keene, I narrowed my eyes sharply.

“You said you got hurt by my classmate.”

“It’s true that I met her. I just didn’t get hurt.”

Ironically, his words made me feel relieved. What did it matter if he wasn’t hurt by Prim?

I grumbled, trying to shake off the strange feeling I couldn’t understand.

“Why do such unnecessary things? I really don’t understand it. You just wasted the medicine.”

“I wanted to see Du, but I had no excuse. Next time, I’ll really get hurt and come.”

“No, that’s not what I meant.”

What’s more absurd than his ridiculous answer was his completely serious face. Seeing him look at me as if wondering why I was reacting that way, I burst into laughter.

When did he ever need an excuse to come?

“Forget it. I suppose you’ll say you came here because you wanted to see me.”

“Don’t you think so?”

“……”

I thought I had gotten used to such nonsense by now. Yet sometimes, my heart still felt strangely fluttery. Even though I knew he came because of the relic.

Is it because of that unnecessarily handsome face?

After taking my eyes off the annoying man, I quickened my pace to catch up with the group, having fallen behind while talking. Though I didn’t expect it to be short, this cave was much longer and more winding than I had anticipated.

As we walked and walked, wondering when we would ever reach the end, I finally regained some peace of mind after not encountering any traps for quite some time. I then brought up the earlier topic.

“By the way, what did you mean by that earlier?”

“What?”

“That someone made me come here…”

Realizing what I was asking, Keene let out a low ‘Ah.’ and then asked back.

“Have you ever thought it was strange that Du, who just finished novitiate training, was selected for the expedition?”

“Well, I did find it a bit odd…”

It was something I had discussed with Rancho. Even though I didn’t know the exact reason, I believed there must have been a good one. Logically, it didn’t make sense to send a novice to dangerous ruins where even experienced priests would find it risky.

Of course, after arriving on-site, I suspected it might have been a random draw.

“Du is truly remarkable. It’s not easy to be envied by high-ranking priests during your mandatory service.”

“High-ranking priests are involved?”

“Do you think anyone but someone from higher up could participate in the selection of the expedition team?”

“……”

When I heard the word ‘envy,’ Prim automatically came to mind. She was the only one who constantly viewed me as a threat, even though I wasn’t particularly outstanding before the ordination exam.

But Prim, who wasn’t even a candidate for Great Saint yet, couldn’t possibly wield such power already.

So who could it be?

“And they even managed to get Peidos Carmel to come along.”

“……”

My eyebrows automatically raised at the unexpected mention of someone’s name.

Now that I think about it, Peidos did say he volunteered for this expedition. Does he really think it was because of me?

Feeling absurd, I slowed my pace, and Keene glanced back at me. Looking somewhat displeased, he spoke dryly.

“Don’t get too excited.”