Chapter 9: Purple roses bloom (2)

In an adventurer’s party, the supporter’s position is usually in the center or rear of the front line.

Since the supporter’s role is not to fight directly but to handle the party’s chores and carry their luggage, they are either completely absent during battle or are protected by the party.

We are on a journey to face the Demon King!

The Demon’s army.

Even if you are a supporter with poor combat ability!

Not participating in basic battles is nothing but a lack of ability as a member of the hero’s party.

Not long after starting the journey to defeat the Demon King, Sylvia Sylvester insisted on YooSeong’s participation in the battle.

The reasoning was that since it was a hero’s party, it was natural that basic battles should be possible.

In fact, the statement itself was not wrong.

On the way to face the Demon King, the most powerful evil in the world, there are territories teeming with demons, so it is true that it is better for all members to have combat power for the safety of the party members.

YooSeong, who Sylvia mentioned, also agreed with Sylvia’s opinion.

Starting from the next battle, supporter Han YooSeong?

I think you should also be in the vanguard.

The next words were nothing short of telling him to go out and die.

The non-combatant, alchemist YooSung would be in the vanguard?

Even a slight brush would hurt and he would die if he moved.

Even though Sylvia, a former knight captain, could not have been unaware of this, Sylvia forced YooSung to be in the vanguard.

When the words to be in the vanguard came out, YooSung reflexively looked at Sylvia’s face.

A contemptuous gaze and a silent pressure to give up were placed over Sylvia’s purple eyes.

‘Captain Sylvia wants to send me out..

It had not even been a month since they started their journey.

In order to be as helpful as possible to the party, he took on all sorts of chores, and he also took on any helpful tasks such as finding lodging, preparing for camping, cooking, and conducting preliminary information research.

Even though they were chores, they were not easy for any of the party members to do.

Everyone hates me.

No one, except for his friend Seyun, said thank you.

No, he hadn’t really expected to hear any thanks. All he wants is to be recognized as a member of the warrior party.

He ignores you when you talk to him.

If he does something that doesn’t please him even a little, he uses that as an excuse to spew out hateful and contemptuous words.

It didn’t seem like this on the day of departure, but after only a week, the attitudes of the party members completely changed.

Yooseong was no exception. Unlike his energetic appearance before, he had been timid like someone suffering from depression for the past month.

I agree.

While others are fighting for their lives, that piece of trash… no, Han Yooseong just watches from behind, doesn’t that make sense?

Honestly, I thought Han Yooseong didn’t fit in with our party that carries out the orders of the goddess.

Why don’t you just leave the party without causing trouble?

Karen and Leah agreed with Sylvia’s opinion, adding a word each. Stand in the vanguard.

If you can’t do it, leave the party.

What are you all talking about!?

How can a supporter lead the way?

And even if it’s not a battle, Yooseong is still very helpful!

Who prepared the food you’re eating right now?

The tent you’re sleeping in?

Seyeon stood up and opposed the opinions of the three.

But.

Yooseong grabbed Seyeon’s arm and shook his head.

I will do that.

At Yooseong’s answer, which he spoke with a forced smile, the three people’s expressions crumpled, revealing their discomfort.

‘If I was going to give up at this point, I wouldn’t have even set off.

However, Yooseong had no intention of giving up at this point.

The day after that argument, Yooseong went out for his first battle.

“Huk.. gasp.. ugh.”

He was a complete embarrassment.

Since it was the land of the demons, the one-horned mines nearby attacked the warrior party, and Yooseong went to the vanguard and fought them as he had promised.

Bam-!

“Whoa!”

No, to be exact, he didn’t fight them, but rather struggled to avoid getting hit and dying.

Keuuu-!

Die, human!

His opponent was several times stronger than Yooseong, and his skin was tough, so his defenses were also high.

Crunch-!! Crunch..!

“Keuuuk..!?”

While the sword that Yooseong lashes out with barely leaves a lasting mark on the opponent’s hide, Mine’s attack causes minimal fractures even if it grazes them.

“Die!!!”

Phuuk-!

Gulp..

This human.. bastard..!!

However, Yooseong was more agile than his opponent and specialized in a fighting method called hit and run.

Hit and run.

Continuously dodge and then strike the opponent’s vital point.

The method is very simple, but not easy.

Unless you are overwhelmingly more skilled than your opponent, it is nearly impossible to dodge all attacks, and you have to sneak in between the gaps in their attacks and aim for the vital point.

It is an extremely dangerous fighting method, like performing acrobatics without a safety device.

Phuuk…!! Gulp..!

“Huk.. Huh..”

If it weren’t for the training he did with Sylvia Sylvester every day before setting off on his adventure, Yooseong would have died in his first battle.

Sylvia was the one who pushed Yooseong into the vanguard, but Yooseong survived because of the hit and run fighting method that Sylvia thoroughly taught him.

‘I can do it.. I can fight too…

Although his shoulder was dislocated after being hit by the one-horned demon, the fact that he not only survived the first battle but also defeated his opponent strengthened his fading will.

And that evening. I have something to tell you.

Han Yooseong.

Sylvia Sylvester called Yooseong.

Up until now, Sylvia had ignored him when he spoke to her or clicked her tongue when he made a mistake, so Yooseong was puzzled by the fact that Sylvia had called him after such a long time, but he obediently followed her.

And when they arrived at a clearing in the nearby forest, Sylvia, who had been walking continuously, turned around and looked in this direction with her arms folded.

What is it..? I see a few swords nearby.

Oh, by any chance!” Sylvia had been nearby during today’s battle.

That means that Sylvia must have seen Yooseong’s battle.

You defeated the demon in the way you trained with Sylvia..

“Is she praising you for that?”

The Sylvia that YooSung knew was someone who would praise and be happy for even the slightest achievement in training, as if she had really achieved it herself.

In the battle that she showed today, she had practically replicated the method she had trained with Sylvia, so maybe she would praise her for being great. YooSung, who was tired of the intentional ignoring and inexplicable bullying of his party members, took a step towards Sylvia with that thought.

“..”

“Han Yoo Sung. How many mines did you kill in today’s battle?”

“Ah.. one.”

When Sylvia asked with a cold expression, YooSung instinctively felt something bad and answered.

“Huh.. one? The other party members fought at least ten, but you’re saying you killed one by yourself?”

“So that wasn’t a compliment, but another reprimand.”

YooSung, who was discouraged again, swallowed his saliva and opened his mouth to look straight at Sylvia.

“I’m sorry… This is my first battle today..”

“Working hard? No need. Let me get straight to the point. Get out of the Han YooSung warrior party. A weakling like you is of no help to the party.”

Sylvia, who never once called anyone other than herself ‘weak’, is calling Yooseong a weakling and telling him to leave the party.

Yooseong felt miserable and the words “I understand” came to his throat, but… If you don’t give up, you’re not a ‘weakling. The words Sylvia had said in the past flashed through his mind.

“I won’t give up….. I’ll work harder. I’m weak now, but I’ll hone my skills to be helpful. Didn’t Captain Sylvia say that if you don’t give up, it’s not the end?”

But.

What returned to Yooseong was not Sylvia’s answer, but a longsword.

“Take it.”

“Captain… Why a sword?”

“To make up for your lack of skills, you’ll need training like in a real fight.”

“Training!”

Yooseong’s expression brightened at that word.

Training was physically arduous, but the training he remembered was the enjoyable times he spent with Sylvia.

Of course, the fact that it was a real sword and not a wooden one was a concern.

‘But you said it was training, Thinking that Captain Sylvia would not do anything that would harm him, Yooseong bent down and picked up the sword that had fallen to the ground.

Chhaak-! “Huh?”

Thud….The moment Sylvia’s sword cut through him diagonally and red blood splattered, he felt that his thoughts were wrong, “Kuaaaaak..!”

As the pain that felt like his body was being torn apart rapidly clouded his mind.

“Training similar to actual combat will definitely help. I won’t use an auror.”

Ssic.. Sylvia poured the red potion, forcibly healing the wound.

“If you feel like giving up, feel free to tell me.”

Crunch-..!

“Kuaaaaak!”

From that day on, ‘training’ was no longer a pleasant image for Yooseong.

It was just torture in the name of training.

“Today too…?”

Yooseong felt puzzled by the word ‘today too’ that Sylvia spit out.

After defeating the Demon King, he left the Griffin Castle right away despite the victory banquet and everything, and he had never come to see Sylvia Sylvester because he was embarrassed to see her.

But Sylvia Sylvester’s tone was just like when she came to see me before.

“Meteor… Meteor…”

Sylvia Sylvester kept calling the name ‘Meteor and stamping her feet while pressing her body against him.

‘Not only his appearance, but his insides are also messed up.’

Her eyes were unfocused and hazy.

Even at a glance, it seemed like she was hallucinating, making it difficult to make normal judgments.

Then how did she notice that I came in..?’

Feeling suspicious, Yooseong looked at the purple smoke flowing around him and belatedly realized why Sylvia was able to find his location.

Stealth armor’s environmental assimilation is the ability to assimilate and hide the wearer according to the surrounding environment.

‘But in such a fluid environment… traces remain.

The assimilation of the stealth armor was repeatedly released and fixed due to the continuously flowing smoke.

Of course, the release and re-assimilation were also changes that were difficult to notice in units of 0.01 seconds.

“Huh… Haa… Haa…”

Even though she was drunk, Sylvia was still Grandmaster’s unmanned body.

Shh- Meteor, who had completely released his hiding by touching his core, grabbed Sylvia’s shoulder, who was rubbing her face and moaning.

“Meteor?”

Sylvia Sylvester was beautiful to begin with.

But what is her current appearance, which maximizes her beauty as a woman?

Her sly and sexy smile is no less than that of a succubus who is said to bewitch the men of the Demon King’s Castle.

Her originally muscular arms and legs have become elastic and developed due to the drugs and alcohol, and her muscles have loosened up to a certain extent, becoming a voluptuous and sensual form.

Her abs visible through the fluttering, translucent fabric are not a minus, but rather an even more attractive element.

“..Meteor, you can do whatever you want. Anything.”

Even with just her body, her face, which is pure white without blemishes, silver hair, and purple eyes, continues to tempt me, as if it were an afterimage in the lavender smoke.

Any man who saw Sylvia now would embrace her body and kiss her luscious purple lips.

Thud- ‘It’s so awkward…. YooSung pushed Sylvia away from his body.

Now, in YooSung’s eyes, Sylvia looked like a snake, not a beautiful woman.

It wasn’t really like a snake, but rather like a frog seeing a snake trying to eat itself.

The trauma from the past combined to make it extremely awkward and uncomfortable to face Sylvia.

“Today… Is it because I took a stronger drug? More than usual. A little more. I feel like Yoo Sung is real! Yeah… That’s how it feels.”

Even though she was pushed away as if rejecting him, Sylvia didn’t seem offended at all.

Instead, she was patting the shoulder that had just been grabbed, and a satisfied smile spread across her face. …Sylvia Sylvester knows she’s under the influence of drugs.

With what Sylvia had just said, YooSung knew that Sylvia Sylvester wasn’t completely hallucinating.

Perhaps it was natural.

A warrior who had trained in Aura had their bodies strengthened, making most poisons ineffective.

Even if they were infected with poison, they could easily drive away the poison with their own power.

‘So Sylvia Sylvester isn’t driving out the drug of her own volition..

No, is she relying on the hallucinations of the drugs even more?”

“Sylvia Sylvester.. Why are you taking drugs? That’s clearly not helpful to you and it’s weakening you at the same time?”

Since Sylvia still seemed to have a little bit of reason left, Yoo Sung asked with pure curiosity.

“Because I can see Yoo Sung,”

“_”

YooSung’s expression suddenly crumpled as he watched Sylvia bending down and speaking with seductive gestures.

He felt the discomfort from the first day he met Karen Redleaf creeping up again.

Sylvia opened her mouth again with a smirk on her face as if it was nothing to openly express her discomfort.

“I learned makeup to show you YooSung. I tied my hair up to show you Yoo Sung. I wore clothes that seduce men to show you YooSung.”

Sylvia said as she slowly ran one hand down the glossy skin from her chest to her lower abdomen.

“You said you’d look beautiful in a dress..? That’s why I did all that because I wanted Yoosung to look good. Because I realized that Sylvester? The Knight Commander? Swordsmanship? All of that is unnecessary.”

As she said that, she brought the hand that was sweeping her body to her face, rubbed her purple lips with her finger, licked them with her tongue, and… slurp.

“I only need Yoosung.”

She approached Yoosung and touched his lips with the finger she had just used before, then took it off.

“Today is really strange.. You didn’t call me stupid or look at me with contempt. I don’t understand why Yoosung is so kind today, because I’m so stupid.”

Yoosung didn’t answer Sylvia’s question, tilting her head.

He just felt a complicated feeling, seeing the person he used to like and the bad relationship he had with her so ruined.

“You can just ignore it.. I’m just a victim… You can just ignore it.”

“If you feel guilty about me, wouldn’t it be better to come to me in person and ask for forgiveness?”

Like Karen Redleaf.

Thud-!

Sylvia suddenly knelt down at that question and wrapped her arms around her shoulders.

“How! How could that be?! What I did to YooSung… to YooSung! Is something that can never be forgiven? YooSung will hate me, detest me, and think of me as a trash woman. But how can I go to YooSung and ask for forgiveness?”

Sob… Sob…

Sylvia suddenly began to cry as she wrapped her arms around her shoulders. Her eye makeup smudged with tears and flowed down her white cheeks as black lines.

“What if those actions… weren’t of your will, Sylvia?”

Yoo Sung asked again while looking at Sylvia like that. Sylvia slowly shook her head with tearful eyes. ”

… Even if it wasn’t of my will.

It’s just my ‘weakfault for being foolish and doing such a terrible thing to someone precious to me.

” YooSung clenched his teeth and clenched his fists as he watched Sylvia speak with wavering eyes and a trembling voice.

Before going on an adventure, I knew enough about Sylvia Sylvester to understand all of her actions that I see now.

Sylvia, who does not forgive herself for her own weaknesses, thinks that being manipulated by something is her own ‘weak’ fault, and so she chooses to endure all the guilt and ruin herself without even asking for forgiveness.

‘Really…

The goddess who did something.

The three who left behind an unforgettable nightmare from the past.

And their pitiful yet unforgivable situation.

“They’re all beggarly.”

Stepping forward, Yooseong reached out his hand as he cried.

Swirly..

“?”

He took off the purple eye patch that Sylvia was wearing.

What was in the place where the eye patch was covering was a completely white eyeball.

It’s not that the color of the pupil was white.

Sylvia’s eye that the eye patch was covering had completely lost its light and was horizontally slanted.

It’s necrotic

“Why didn’t you heal the eye?”

The divine power of this world can even reattach severed limbs.

Even if the eye had necrotic, it could have been healed.

“Payment.. Yes. This is payment. Yooseong.”

At Sylvia’s expression as she smiled strangely, Yooseong recalled the memory of that day.

Thud.thud..

That day when it rained under the gray sky.

I’ll tell the party members that she returned injured.

I can see his back as he turns away, putting away his bloody sword.

Ahhh..

There’s only halfway to the Demon King’s Castle left.

Now I have the ‘skill to endure it… …

How did I endure it!

How did I get here..?

What made me kneel down, which I had been enduring, was not Karen Redleaf’s magic or Lea Forte’s curse, but Sylvia Sylvester’s sword strike.

Uuuuuuu!!

I screamed at the frustration of not being able to see the end of my journey, more than the pain from my blinded eyes.

Even though I had crossed the line of death hundreds of times, the damage accumulated on my body was not something that could be recovered.

My head had turned ashen and there was no place on my body that wasn’t bandaged.

In reality, I was dragging my body, which couldn’t move, with only my mental strength, when Sylvia’s sword blinded my eyes, saying, “I won’t tolerate you going with me anymore!

No, this kind of blindness is nothing compared to the pain I’ve been through so far.

I just need to pour myself a pation and get up as if nothing happened and join the party again.

It’ll just get a little harder.

I can’t.do this anymore.

Gulp.

After shedding what I can’t tell if it’s rainwater, blood, or tears for a long time.. ..

Let’s go.. go back.

After the rain stopped, he got up from his seat and returned to the castle alone.

That was the end of Han Yooseong, the supporter of the warrior party.

Swish..

Yooseong opened his mouth while tying the eyepatch that had fallen off with his own hands and covering Sylvia’s blinded eyes.

“There’s no price to pay. Let’s heal your eyes and go back to being the Sylvia Sylvester we were before. And let’s live like we don’t know each other. Like we never knew each other. Isn’t that the only way it can be done? Captain.”

The purple eyes that had been watching Yooseong’s mouth and face blankly speaking returned to focus at his words.

“Really..?”

“Let’s never see each other again.”

“Yooseong! Wait…!”

Sylvia got up from her seat and tried to grab Yooseong.

Swish…

Yooseong’s figure turned to dust and disappeared like a mirage.