The Holy Lady, The Curse - Chapter 8 Part 8

“There should be an escape route on the inside of the barrier.”

Seiden whispered, and Bellota’s eyes widened.

“On the inside…?”

“Yes. There should be a part where magical energy is concentrated and slightly protruding on the reverse side of the barrier. If we find that part and pierce it, this trap will tear.”

Seiden’s quiet voice was incredibly reassuring. Bellota habitually tried to nod but quickly stopped, swallowing her trembling breath. In this small space where the two were trapped, even this small breath sound echoed loudly, causing a tingling pain in her spine where his hand was touching.

“But if we move to find it……”

Bellota trailed off in perplexity. The only way to feel the inner surface was to move their hands. However, if they moved carelessly, this fierce barrier would tighten mercilessly and press down on the two.

Seiden and she were already embracing tightly, overlapping. If the barrier behind her back pressed even a little more, her chest would surely be crushed and rubbed against Seiden’s firm chest. Moreover…

“……”

Bellota held her breath as she felt something very large and hard between her legs up to her thighs. What was pressing against her thighs wasn’t erect as usual due to lack of blood flow, but once she recognized it, it was asserting its presence in a way that could never be shaken off.

That wasn’t all. Bellota’s lips were almost aligned with the tip of Seiden’s chin. If her face twisted wrongly from being pressed, their lips might touch. Seiden, unaware that Bellota was frozen in embarrassment and somewhat heated, calmly continued speaking.

“We won’t have many chances. First, it doesn’t seem to be in the parts visible to me now. I think it’s probably located behind your back, Saintess, or behind my back.”

Even as he said this, Seiden continued to roll his eyes, examining the barrier. Fortunately, he had a sword in his hand that could break this dark magic in one strike. So it would be most ideal if that weak point was located behind Bellota’s back.

“…But if we’re unlucky, it could be located near our feet.”

Realizing that worst-case scenario, Bellota bit her lip worriedly. In such a narrow space, in this position, it was almost impossible to find the reverse side of the barrier located at their feet.

“It would be best if you feel my back first, Saintess.”

Seiden calmly instructed after finishing his calculations, and Bellota, who had been frozen with her face close to his, hesitated fearfully.

“It’s alright. Even if it tightens more from our current state, I can endure for a while.”

Seiden encouraged her in a calm voice, having sensed her feelings. Bellota seemed to make up her mind and carefully felt Seiden’s back. However, even as her delicate hand felt Seiden’s back down to below his buttocks, no protruding magical energy was found.

“Um… it’s not here.”

As soon as the flustered Bellota murmured softly, the barrier trapping them began to tighten slowly.

“Ah…!”

As Bellota gasped in surprise, Seiden tightly embraced her lower back with the hand not holding the sword. Finally, their bodies were crushed together, pressing even closer. Not only were Bellota’s lips buried in Seiden’s neck, grazing his chin, but something so large that she wondered if it might be swollen by mistake finally dug into and pressed against the space between Bellota’s legs.

This time, even Seiden felt the sensation and clenched his teeth tightly. A low breath mixed with surprise, tension, and subtle excitement scattered and seeped back under their noses. The hot breaths that escaped from between their lips couldn’t be expelled outward and mingled, swirling over their faces. It felt as if that breath was turning into an aphrodisiac, seeping into their respiration.

It wasn’t just Seiden who was feeling this strange stimulation. He could feel through his fingertips that all the muscles making up Bellota’s body were tense and stiff.

Seiden tried to hold onto his reason, struggling not to become a madman who would get an erection in this situation. However, the intensity of the barrier’s tightening was much fiercer than he had expected. Seiden gritted his molars without showing it. He had expected to be able to move three or four more times, but at this rate, it seemed they only had one chance left. If they moved any more than that, their bones might break.

“Sir…, now… what should we……”

Bellota, unable to know the exact situation because her face was buried in Seiden’s chest, asked in a voice completely dependent on him. After pondering for a moment, Seiden made a decision.

“Now I’m going to move. After that, when the barrier tightens again, you need to curl up as much as possible and lean into my arms in that gap.”

Bellota slowly exhaled a tense breath in understanding. Seiden, after considering for a moment that if this opportunity also failed, he would have to bear his arm breaking, quickly moved his arm.

Seiden quickly felt Bellota’s back, sweeping down to where her buttocks were. As his large hand narrowly brushed past her tense buttocks, Bellota tightly closed her eyes. And there, a clump of magical energy protruding and writhing was discovered.

“……!”

Finally detecting the clumped magical energy, Seiden used the moment just before the barrier tightened again to move the hand holding the sword with all his might.

As Seiden’s sword roughly tore through the writhing magical energy, at last, the tough leather-like barrier ripped open cleanly, and the bodies of the two that had been floating in the air fell to the ground. This time too, Seiden was safely embracing Bellota, so he absorbed all the impact of the fall.

Bellota buried her face in his chest with a faint scream, but Seiden, without even a moment to catch his breath, detected a monster flying towards her back and raised his sword once more.

As Seiden thrust into the air without hesitation, there was a terrible sound of his sword being deeply embedded somewhere, accompanied by a chilling scream.

Kuhuaak–!

Large drops of blood fell behind Bellota’s back.

“Ha……”

Seiden, who had been looking at what he had just stabbed while lowering his breath, only exhaled the breath he had been holding after confirming that the creature had died instantly. As Seiden applied force to his hand to push back the sword deeply embedded somewhere, the stiffened corpse fell backward with a thud, causing the ground to vibrate slightly.

Seiden gently caressed Bellota’s shoulders, who was frozen in shock and unable to move.

“You can open your eyes now.”

At those words, Bellota, finally coming to her senses, slowly raised her body. Seiden also half-raised his body, which he had fully given to her, and looked at the monster he had just defeated. One of Seiden’s arms was still wrapped around Bellota’s back to prevent her from falling or staggering, and because of that, Bellota was still straddling his lap.

“It’s a kurkroll.”

As Seiden murmured quietly, Bellota’s faint breath weakened again. The creature lying dead with its mouth open and body stiffened was indeed a kurkroll, as he said. It had clearly flown in to swallow whole the demonic energy lingering in the trap that had just contained the two of them. And Seiden had torn through the barrier just before it could land.

Bellota’s frozen gaze turned to Seiden’s sword, which was precisely embedded in the leftmost of the kurkroll’s three eyeballs. Her heart sank low somewhere. Her heart, which had stopped for a while, only began to beat rapidly again when a warm, large hand caressed her face.

“There’s blood on you.”

Bellota looked at Seiden without avoiding his touch, even as she flinched at the sudden contact. She was still straddling him, so the distance between them was too close. Seiden was only carefully wiping her cheek with his large, rough hand, as if his sole purpose was to clean the blood on Bellota’s face.

Only after wiping off as much of the blood splattered on her white cheek as possible did Seiden’s gaze turn to the blue eyes staring blankly at him. And only then did Seiden notice that Bellota’s expression was too stiff.

“Are you alright?”

Bellota fully awoke and nodded at that worried question. She realized she had been sitting on Seiden’s lap for far too long. When Bellota tried to get off, startled, she slipped, and Seiden quickly grabbed her waist and hand.

“Be careful.”

Bellota nodded again and stood up, seemingly embarrassed. Seiden, who had been watching her, finally stood up and looked at the sky. The time for the competition to end was approaching.

“We should head back now.”

Seiden looked at Bellota again and swallowed a sigh. What had just happened to Bellota and him felt like a distant dream.

“It would be better to hear the details on our way back.”

After finishing his words, Seiden immediately took out the last remaining magic stone from his pocket and sealed the kurkroll’s corpse. Bellota watched the familiar monster being sucked into the magic stone in an instant. Finally, having captured the last and most important monster of the hunting festival, the kurkroll, Seiden approached Bellota and held out his hand.

“As you’ve seen, the mountain is a dangerous place, so we shouldn’t be separated.”

Bellota looked at him in surprise. No matter how dangerous it was, this was too much…

“If we don’t return quickly, we’ll be disqualified for exceeding the time limit.”