Eventually, Melissa, her face turning deathly pale, curled up, and the priest grabbed her shoulders and shouted.

“Lady Lucid! Hurry, hurry!”

“Wait a moment. My head hurts too much……”

“Never mind that, just hurry! We’ll all die at this rate!”

The priest shook Melissa’s body rapidly.

This doubled her pain. Melissa wanted to faint right there. She felt like she was dying.

“Kyaaa!”

“Uaaaak!”

“Help me!”

She could feel people screaming from all directions.

Others who had been performing their coming-of-age ceremonies seemed to have been caught up in this too. The surroundings had turned into utter chaos with people fleeing from the monsters.

Melissa knew the situation was urgent.

But when she was in so much pain that she couldn’t come to her senses, when she was suffering enough that it wouldn’t have been strange if she had died long ago, how could she use precognition?

All Melissa could do was struggle not to faint.

‘What should I do?’

“Lady Lucid! Please use precognition quickly! What on earth are you doing!”

The priest’s urging, now turning into anger, rang in her ears. The pain and anxiety made her mind go blank. Meanwhile, the impatient priest dragged Melissa somewhere.

Thud.

Her body was roughly pushed to the ground.

“Qu, quickly use precognition! Save the people now! You’re Saintess Lucid, aren’t you! Isn’t precognition an ability meant to be used at times like this!”

“……”

“Hurry! Everyone will die at this rate!”

The priest acted as if Melissa’s condition didn’t matter at all.

Melissa couldn’t move for a moment after being knocked down. The parts of her body that had scraped against the rough ground stung. Tears momentarily welled up in her eyes. She felt indescribably miserable.

“Haha……”

An empty laugh burst from between her lips.

Right. It had always been like this.

Having spent relatively peaceful years recently, she had forgotten. How terrible Melissa Lucid’s previous life had been. How cruel a life forced to provide salvation was.

But now, even such sorrow was a luxury.

Melissa mustered her strength and raised her arm.

‘I might not be able to use precognition, but perhaps I can cast a barrier……”

It might be possible to temporarily set up a barrier to replace the wall. Of course, since the area was large, she wasn’t confident even this would succeed.

Wide-area magic or long-range magic consumed excessive magical power compared to other types of magic. Naturally, the more difficult a spell was to cast, the more this was true.

The barrier she was trying to cast now was no exception.

It would put considerable strain on her body. Perhaps some part of her body would break down the moment she executed the barrier.

‘But what other choice do I have?’

Melissa rose to her feet, roughly biting her lip.

She bit so hard that her lip tore and blood seeped out, but due to the pain of precognition, she couldn’t properly feel that pain.

Before long, magical power began to gather in both her hands. Sparkling pink energy burst from Melissa’s palms. Sensing the ominous energy, the priest who had been holding her unconsciously let go.

Due to the bright light pouring down, Melissa’s eyelids naturally drooped. Even with her eyes closed, light seeped in.

The surroundings were as if no one was there, not even the smallest sound could be heard. A suffocating silence continued.

Wait? Just a moment.

‘……That can’t be right.’

How could there be no sound after casting such a large barrier?

With a strange feeling, Melissa painfully opened her eyes. She still couldn’t see anything because of the light, but she could sense something by feeling alone.

Namely, that a solid barrier had been cast nearby.

It was fortunate that the barrier had formed safely as she wished, but there was one problem.

‘What is this power?’

She hadn’t noticed earlier, but the light surrounding her, that is, the magical power, was somewhat strange. This wasn’t hers. It felt much stronger and purer.

The magical power that Melissa had released with all her might had somehow returned to her body. But magical power released outside the body wouldn’t return without reason.

Not unless someone deliberately made it so.

Melissa soon thought of one possibility.

‘Is it nullification magic?’

Magic that completely erases another’s spell as if it never happened.

It was a high-level magic that even decent mages from the Magic Tower couldn’t perfectly execute. If someone had performed that magic…

‘No, that can’t be.’

There was no way.

There was no one skilled enough to use nullification magic around her.

She had learned enough about the people here during the six years she had stayed in the north. As far as Melissa remembered, there was no one with such skill here.

‘Besides, I didn’t hear anyone chanting a spell.’

Even if someone really had performed nullification magic, she should have heard them chanting the spell. There were very few people in the world skilled enough to perform such magic without a spell.

‘What on earth is going… wait.’

Come to think of it, don’t I know someone with such skill?

Just as a name was about to vaguely surface in Melissa’s mind, her legs gave way. The barrier had been successfully cast and no more screams could be heard, so a sense of relief washed over her.

Naturally, her consciousness began to fade.

Her strength-drained body began to fall to the ground. Melissa tried to extend her arms to wrap around herself but gave up. She didn’t even have that much strength left.

‘It’s going to hurt terribly when I fall……’

Thinking this, she tightly closed her eyes.

Had someone not rushed over and caught Melissa, that would indeed have been the case.

‘Who?’

A cool scent accompanied by the wind touched the tip of her nose. She tried to properly open her eyes at the strangely familiar yet unfamiliar fragrance, but couldn’t. Her eyelids felt as heavy as if they had large weights attached.

Ah, I need to see who it is.

Perhaps noticing Melissa’s struggle to open her eyes, a low voice descended over her head.

“You can rest now, Melissa.”

Hearing that voice, the strength in her eyes involuntarily drained away.

Yes. She could rest a little now.

Melissa slowly relaxed her body, and at the same time, she felt hands embracing her. The touch was careful, like handling something immensely precious.

Strangely, the moment those hands touched her, the excruciating pain that had been splitting her head disappeared. As if it had never existed.

“Good……”

Melissa murmured softly and peacefully let go of her consciousness.

After that, she dreamed.

A dream of playing in the ducal mansion’s garden when she was very young.

* * *

Melissa completely lost consciousness.

Realizing this fact, the man slowly rose to his feet. Throughout this movement, he was extremely careful not to disturb the body he held.

The man checked several times to ensure Melissa was still breathing. For good reason, as Melissa, lying quietly in his arms, was so light that one might wonder if she was truly human.

Her face had turned deathly pale.

When the man lowered his head slightly, he fortunately heard faint, gasping breaths.

Only then did he exhale in relief.

“Thankfully, I wasn’t too late.”

After staring at Melissa’s face for a long while, the man slowly began to walk. He passed through all sorts of things suspended in the air. From small wooden fragments to large monsters.

It looked like time had stopped.

People watched the scene with bated breath. Not one could utter a sound. The air touching their bodies felt oppressive. They felt that if they breathed too deeply, they would be crushed and burst.

While people were swallowing their saliva in tension, the man, who had been naturally walking while carrying Melissa, turned his head as if he had forgotten something and asked,

“Where is the doctor?”

“What? Ah, doctor…… th, that white building on the right! There’s an infirmary on the first floor!”

The man looked in the direction the people pointed.

There were several white buildings where they indicated. But the man didn’t ask further and turned his head again to speak.

“I’ll take Melissa to the doctor. As you can see, she’s in very bad condition. I’ve cast a barrier, so no more monsters will enter, and I’ve also stopped the flow of time in this area just in case, so please handle the situation. This state will last for at least two hours.”

“Ah, well…… that……”

People looked at the man nervously.

Their gazes all turned to the scene before them.

Monsters could be seen floating in the air. They all had their mouths wide open, showing they were about to devour humans. Their sharp teeth inside displayed a tremendous presence.

People trembled at the monsters’ eyes, which still seemed to be looking at them. They simply couldn’t suppress this fear.

Though they were told time had stopped, what if the monsters suddenly moved while they were feeling safe? What if their flesh got chewed by those teeth?

Thinking this way, they couldn’t move their bodies.

“We, we……”

Perhaps it would be better to ask the man before them.

Surprisingly, he was a skilled practitioner who could stop time. Though Lucid had collapsed, it wouldn’t kill her to wait a bit longer. What would it matter? He could go after handling everything.