Hello, Readers! I am celebrating my birthday with extra chapter updates, so please enjoy this special chapter release of 4 bonus chapters! 🥳

(Lurelia’s Birthday Bonus – Update 1/4 🎉)

♡ To all readers who purchased these chapters before my Birthday: I can’t express this enough – Thank you for your support. (*ˊᗜˋ*)/ᵗᑋᵃᐢᵏ ᵞᵒᵘ*

“Kugh, keurk!”

Lambert’s sturdy body collapsed with a painful groan.

He clutched his bleeding abdomen with both hands, trying to stop the bleeding.

“You idiot! Can’t you even dodge an attack properly?”

Baron’s barking voice buzzed in his ears. It felt like he might lose consciousness at any moment.

Losing consciousness on the battlefield meant defeat and death. Lambert forced strength into his flickering eyelids.

At that moment, the person who came to mind was ‘Yerena’.

“Sir Lambert! Are you alright?”

Perhaps due to his dazed state, he even heard her phantom voice.

That cheerful call and tone, so out of place on this blood-splattered battlefield, rang clear in his ears.

Even knowing she wasn’t there, Lambert looked around.

It felt like Yerena might appear from somewhere and provide guidance while watching his condition.

But Yerena was nowhere to be seen.

Lambert desperately recalled their kisses while thinking of Yerena who wasn’t by his side now.

He wanted to kiss Yerena right now. He wanted to corner her until she could barely breathe, to strongly imprint his existence on her.

Why? Why did he miss that insignificant Guide this much?

‘Yerena… Are you really alive?’

Why did he desire her survival this desperately?

Lambert’s head drooped down, still unable to understand the nature of his feelings for Yerena.

He could hear Baron nearby calling for Yerena’s replacement Guide.

Lambert didn’t want guidance from another Guide. Moreover, his matching rate with temporary Guides wasn’t very high.

“Baron, forget about treatment, I…”

The response came not from Baron, but from someone else.

“You’re so weak.”

“….”

The owner of that familiar voice was Benjamin.

Appearing quietly, he leaped forward and began showering the Komodo with purple spheres.

Lambert watched the scene intently through his blurry vision.

Soon, the Komodo that had exhausted all participants fell.

It was because Benjamin had targeted the Komodo’s weakness that Lambert had never been able to figure out.

Even after the monster’s death, Benjamin stood there as if frozen. This was completely different from his usual behavior of leaving the battlefield immediately.

Benjamin’s gaze was fixed on the shredded corpse of the Komodo.

“Why are you late again? Huh?”

He responded to Baron, who had somehow appeared beside him and was chattering again.

“When its weak point is found and limbs are cut off, it will ultimately perish helplessly.”

“Who are you talking about destroying? Me?”

“….”

“You think you can destroy me? Huh?”

“Haah…”

When would Baron ever realize his place? Benjamin shook his head.

He thought about ignoring or beating Baron as usual, but on a whim, he gave a proper answer.

“Duncan Scott.”

Benjamin wanted to destroy Duncan who had crawled up to his position. Thoroughly. So that he would never dare to challenge him again.

“I’ll make him kneel at my feet.”

“Duncan? The Center Director?”

“….”

“Benjamin, I’ve hated everything you’ve done until now, you know? But this time, for the first time, I like what you’re doing.”

“….”

“So how do you plan to destroy him? Is Duncan really hiding Yerena?”

The conversation ended there. Benjamin kicked off the ground and flew into the sky.

“That bastard!”

Lambert, who had been silently listening to their conversation, tried to leave the battlefield, ignoring Baron who was cursing Benjamin.

“Hey! Are you leaving without getting treatment?”

“….”

“Are you ignoring me too? Huh?”

A wound like this… his self-healing ability should be enough to handle it.

Thinking this, Lambert applied his enhancement ability to his legs.

He wanted to escape from this place where he had received help from Benjamin and where Yerena kept coming to mind.

He was confident he could return to the Center alone.

However, the wound seemed deeper than he thought.

Lambert, who had been crossing the sky, had to land on the ground before getting far. He didn’t even have the energy to use his enhancement ability on his legs.

He stumbled along and lost consciousness in some forest.

Until the moment he passed out, Yerena’s phantom flickered before his eyes, making Lambert smile unconsciously.

“Yerena…”

He called her name desperately.

***

“Yerena…”

This made it the third time the unconscious Lambert had called my name.

‘Is he really unconscious? He must be crazy.’

I couldn’t help but be suspicious.

As if sensing that I was hiding here, Lambert repeatedly called my name.

But I couldn’t say he was conscious.

If he had known of my presence, wouldn’t he have come to capture me right away?

Given Lambert’s personality, it made no sense for him to just lie there quietly.

But.

“…Yerena.”

Lambert called my name desperately once more.

If a stranger heard it, they might think it was someone calling for their beloved.

It felt like Lambert missed my guidance. Though that couldn’t possibly be true.

Just then, someone spoke from behind me.

“Does it concern you?”

It was the Guildmaster I had been anxiously waiting for.

“H-Honey! You startled me.”

“Shh.”

The Guildmaster cautioned me despite being the one who surprised me.

I asked in a small voice.

“What should we do with Sir Lambert?”

“Would you like him to die?”

“…No. I don’t want him to die.”

“Then I’ll have my subordinates who came with me move Sir Lambert to the Center.”

“He won’t die during the transfer, right?”

The Guildmaster spoke indifferently as if it wasn’t his concern.

“He’s a strong Esper, so he won’t die. It’s not our business, is it? They should be grateful we’re even helping.”

“….”

“But well… having lost so much blood, some parts of his body might not function properly.”

The Guildmaster’s tone remained calm even while saying such frightening things. They seemed indifferent to whatever happened to Lambert.

But I couldn’t be as cold-hearted as the Guildmaster.

I was worried about Lambert. Even though he hadn’t done anything particularly good for me.

Whether it was hate-turned-affection or what, I felt I couldn’t turn my back on him in his crisis.

“Honey. I may not be a good person, but I should at least help stop his bleeding. I can’t let him become disabled.”

“Are you confident you won’t reveal your identity?”

“A brief guidance should be fine. When the unconscious Lambert wakes up, he won’t even realize he received guidance.”

If the bleeding stops, self-healing should be possible to some extent. I could predict this accurately with my Guide experience.

The Guildmaster nodded slowly.

It was a reluctant permission.

I pulled my hood down low and emerged from the tree where I was hiding.

Up close, Lambert looked even more terrible than from afar.

His pale face and blue lips reminded me of a dead person. It brought back memories of others’ deaths I had to face when I was deployed as a Guide.

Their desperate cries and gestures begged for survival in those critical moments when their breath was fading. And my inability to save them.

A sharp pain shot through the depths of my heart. Though I had witnessed many deaths, I still wasn’t used to death.

My desire to quit being a Guide wasn’t solely because of Yerena’s predetermined death.

I wanted to escape from places where life and death intersected.

‘Lambert’s death…’

Although we had fought countless battles together, this was the first time I’d seen him this broken.

No, perhaps he hadn’t been seriously injured before because I had guided him diligently.

I hoped he would realize my importance, even if belatedly.

But it was too late for such realizations now.

The ‘Yerena’ that Lambert knew was already placed in a coffin and buried deep in the ground.

I gently held Lambert’s fingertips. Then I breathed warm energy into his cold fingers.

Soon, as the blood gushing from Lambert’s stomach gradually stopped, I let go of his hand.

Even though I had only guided for about 1-2 minutes, some color had returned to his face.

This was the extent of my mercy.

I quietly retreated and approached the Guildmaster.

“Let’s go back now.”

The Guildmaster just nodded.

The atmosphere seemed to have turned somewhat cold.