McClain truly hadn’t anticipated that he would be so emotionally swayed by this woman.
At first, it had been different.
It was obvious this woman would try to enchant him, so he needed to be careful.
Perhaps he should find an alternative without the mage.
It was clear the atmosphere would only become awkward.
He had been on guard with such thoughts. He had actually been overly sharp and prickly toward her.
Clearly, at first, he had merely found her annoying and irritating.
The way she laughed, joked, and acted friendly with the other members of the expedition except him.
Orlando who acted friendly toward her, the Munash and Muki brothers who behaved as if they’d met their childhood first love, and Jorel and Bertel who pretended not to care while subtly showing interest in her.
It had merely been annoying and irritating.
That’s why he had proposed a contract relationship, thinking that if he declared “this woman is mine” to them, their unnecessary attention toward her would be withdrawn.
But after being rejected, his heart crumbled. He felt angry, anxious, and frustrated. Miserable, pitiful, and devastated.
He realized anew that such turbulent emotions still remained within him.
After that, he found it even more impossible to cut off his interest. Regardless of his vigilance, his gaze kept binding to the woman.
And then that damned hair.
That cursed hair disrupting her round, neat forehead.
That hair swaying gently in the breeze, occasionally tickling her tightly closed eyelids.
He wanted to quickly remove that wicked strand of hair that freely traveled over her upturned nostrils, her touchable cheeks that surely must be soft and smooth, and her moist, red, plump lips, and tuck it behind her small, cute ear.
Such behavior was truly unlike him. The impulsive emotions that surged uncontrollably refused to be soothed.
He felt uncomfortable yet expectant, anxious yet excited, awkward yet elated.
What kind of emotion was this, anyway?
He had bitten the inside of his lip so much trying to suppress his impulses that he could taste blood in his mouth. His legs trembled so much that anyone watching might suspect he had some emotional disorder.
“You crazy bastard……”
McClain let out a hollow laugh and deliberately cursed aloud.
It was a kind of self-defense mechanism to cut off his uncontrollably spreading delusions.
Just then, the woman’s closed eyelids suddenly lifted. The blurry focus in her beautiful brown eyes slowly adjusted to him.
“McClain?”
※※※
When Natalie finished her magic cultivation and opened her eyes, she saw McClain looking at her with a strange expression from across the carriage.
After she unconsciously called his name, the man inhaled sharply with a flustered expression.
“Huh, I, uh, what I just said……”
During magic cultivation, all her senses were completely focused on her internal magical power.
Even if someone spoke to her, she wouldn’t have been able to hear them.
It was a time of deep immersion in magical power and consequently a time when she was exposed in a defenseless state.
Recalling their previous conversation, he seemed to understand this point well.
Yet he had spoken to her anyway. Why?
Perhaps something had happened in the meantime. Maybe an unmanageable monster had appeared.
“What? Did you say something to me? Did something happen while I was……”
Anxiety seeped into Natalie’s urgent voice.
McClain stroked his chest as if relieved about something, then answered with an embarrassed expression.
“No, nothing happened. Did your magic cultivation finish safely? It doesn’t seem like much time has passed……”
“Yes, I’m fully charged now. For some reason, my magical power recovery rate was faster than usual……”
Natalie answered with an awkward smile. Although she answered as if it wasn’t a big deal, she was actually quite surprised by the recovery rate that had more than doubled from normal.
She couldn’t tell whether this was because she had become a person using the status window, subject to the system’s application, or because of the unpredictable environment of the corrupted area.
“Then can you break the spatial barrier right away?”
“Yes, I think I can. I’ll try it now.”
Natalie immediately raised her magical power and began softly chanting a spell.
Magical power like a heat haze rose around her body, then suddenly burst outward with a pop.
Crack! With the sound of something breaking, the scenery visible through the carriage window instantly shattered.
Exhaling a small sigh, Natalie looked out the window with an anxious voice.
“The barrier seems to have broken, but the scenery doesn’t look much different.”
“That’s because corrupted area landscapes all look similar. Now that the barrier has been broken, we should be able to find the lord’s castle soon. Let’s start moving again.”
However, even after McClain sat in the driver’s seat, the carriage remained motionless for a while.
Finding this strange, Natalie opened the small window to the driver’s seat and saw him glaring fiercely at some point in the empty air instead of trying to move the carriage.
“What’s wrong? Is there something there……”
Natalie followed his gaze and immediately stopped speaking.
She had made eye contact with a being hovering majestically in the air, staring at them.
Despite being quite far away, it was looking down at the two of them with brightly glowing red eyes.
Feeling a chill down her spine, Natalie trembled slightly and asked McClain:
“Is, is that a monster…?”
“It’s a demon race.”
“De-demon race?”
“It seems to have found us because of the magical power you just used……”
Hearing his voice, which sounded somewhat troubled, Natalie grew more anxious.
“So, what should we do? Shouldn’t we attack right away? Since it’s floating so high, it would be difficult for you to attack, so I should use magic……”
As Natalie extended her hand out the driver’s seat window as if about to spew flames, McClain restrained her with a dry voice.
“No, it doesn’t seem to have any intention of attacking us right away, so let’s try moving first.”
“Then I’ll strengthen the defensive barrier on the carriage. I’m not sure if it will work against the demon race, but……”
According to the worldview of 〈How to Take the Hero of the Century as Your Husband〉, unlike most monsters that followed their instincts, the demon race were beings with high intelligence and excellent combat abilities.
Moreover, judging by the tremendous pressure she felt throughout her body, this one didn’t seem like a mere low-ranking demon.
Although she was considered quite a talented mage, Natalie found it difficult to confidently say she could easily handle a demon.
“I’m departing now. The carriage might shake a bit, so hold onto the handle tightly. Hiyah!”
Before Natalie could respond, McClain urgently whipped the horses.
Not only did he drive at tremendous speed, but he also made sharp turns that seemed impossible for a carriage. The demon must have been pursuing them.
Feeling as if she were riding a tremendous roller coaster without a safety bar, Natalie gripped the handle beside her seat so tightly that the tendons on the back of her hand stood out.
But soon, at the man’s consecutive screams from the driver’s seat, Natalie had to hurriedly stand up from her seat.
“Ugh!”
“Sir Lindhart! Are you alright?”
“Don’t come out under any circumstances! Absolutely don’t—argh!”
She tried to open the window to the driver’s seat again, but McClain was blocking it with his body, making it difficult to open. Natalie urgently reached her hand through the partially opened window gap toward the man’s back.
“Sir Lindhart!”
Her fingertips felt a damp moisture on his back. After seeing the dark red substance on her hand, Natalie’s voice became more urgent.
“Sir Lindhart! You’re injured, aren’t you? Stop the carriage, I’ll come over there and heal you!”
She felt frustrated, helpless, and frightened. Although she understood they couldn’t stop the carriage, she couldn’t just let him die either.
Perhaps belatedly sensing her touch, the man flinched and stiffened. Then a voice that seemed to be squeezed out with difficulty restrained her.
“No! Don’t come outside under any circumstances! Ugh!”
But despite his urgent plea, the carriage’s speed noticeably slowed.
“Hey, we need to treat you first! Sir Lindhart! McClain!”
Natalie kept knocking on the driver’s seat window and calling him, but no answer came back.
Eventually, the carriage came to a complete stop. Natalie clutched the driver’s seat window, terrified.
She didn’t know what to do.
Surely McClain wasn’t dead….
No. He couldn’t be dead.
Even though he had transmigrated into a game, he was the male protagonist of the original novel. He couldn’t die so pathetically in the beginning.
Clenching her trembling hands, Natalie slowly opened the carriage door.
She needed to go to the driver’s seat quickly and check the man’s condition.
Even if the wound was deep, she could heal it sufficiently.
Having just fully charged her magical power, healing one seriously injured person would be no trouble at all. As long as he wasn’t dead, she could heal him somehow. As long as he wasn’t dead.
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Ravingcrow1118
What impresses me most about the story so far is not the relationship advancement for our main characters, but the fact the horses were not affected by the corruption zone nor were they killed by anything.