Never Saved You - Chapter 102

Chapter 102

Translator: Yonnee

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What did he just hear?

Without being able to comprehend it entirely, his heart pounded as he heard the words, but he doubted his ears.

His apprehension was only natural. After all, the wind blowing past the cliff was deafening, and the sea of flames continued to rage behind him. The other man’s voice couldn’t be heard properly.

However, even notwithstanding the noise that interfered, Alei had no reason to believe whatever Ian said.

At the sound of those words, instead of making the same expression that Ian was making right now, Alei walked closer to the cliff’s edge, wincing.

“I don’t understand what you’re trying to say at all. If all you’re going to do is just stay there like that, why don’t you just get out of the way? Stop wasting my time and just tell me where Ophelia went.”

“…Do I have to repeat the same terrible words?”

Ian’s answer became increasingly more ridiculous. Almost entirely frustrated, Alei shot back.

“So am I supposed to believe those terrible words?”

As he was walking towards the cliff’s edge, Alei turned and strode straight to Ian.

He had been keeping a straight face until now, but in an instant, his expression became distorted with vivid rage.

“Even if you’re trying to fool me, there’s a limit to certain things. How can you say such a thing in this kind of situation? You said you love Ophelia.”

“……”

“You’re just hiding where Ophelia went—cough—but do you think I won’t be able to find her? Fine. I’m stupid for even trying to ask you.”

Throwing a snide glare at Ian, Alei walked urgently past the other man.

He was told that she went this way, so he’s been chasing after her all this time, trying to find her, yet he couldn’t see her anywhere. He felt rotten about this fact.

‘Ophelia is that kind of person, but how dare you say that?’

Truly. He felt so damn rotten about this.

And even more so because he knew well enough how Ophelia was someone who wouldn’t shy away from death.

He could still remember back then at the imperial palace, how he caught her when she had jumped from a balcony.

He was going crazy just thinking about how easily she could have fallen to her death back then—but that vulgar man over there, even in this situation, how could he say such words like this?

‘…Forget it.’

Just as he told himself earlier, he was a fool for even trying to ask that bastard.

Ian should know better than anyone else that Ophelia wasn’t someone who would easily yield to death.

She was a human being who could compel sirens to do her bidding. Even mages at the magic tower found this difficult to achieve.

When she sent Asello to him, when she was on her way to the temporary temple, Alei wondered if she really thought about nothing.

After all, Ophelia was the one who set this whole area on fire in the first place.

By far, Ophelia should have been the furthest from danger when this fire raged.

‘But Ophelia is the closest one to death…’

The fleeting thought flashed across his mind, but he immediately shook his head so violently, as if to shake the thought off.

From there, his thoughts seemed to jump towards the wrong conclusion. He could feel his heart beating so loudly out of panic.

He just wanted to find Ophelia quickly. To relieve this persistent anxiety.

‘I didn’t want to use this method because it’ll worsen my injuries, but.’

Truthfully, Alei would be able to locate Ophelia from here.

It was a simple task. He’d be able to find her anywhere in this entire forest.

If only Ophelia wasn’t wearing the ring, then it would have been easier to find her uniquely mixed mana signature. And if he was going to use this method, it would surely drain his mana reserves, but there would still be satisfactory results.

Even so, this kind of method was better used if Alei was in a good condition. Searching through an expansive area such as this while he was so ridden with injuries was just crazy.

However, Alei’s rationality was already clouded.

No. Rather, it would be more accurate to say that Alei could no longer push down on this terrible, surging anxiety.

The ominous feeling that continued to creep up his spine made the palms of his hands clammy. His breathing became rough.

Besides that, hearing such crazy nonsense from that bastard added to his fears, and it felt so unbearable not doing anything right now.

Alei now completely ignored his physical condition and immediately sent out a wide array of his detection spell throughout the forest.

The net made out of mana extended from around Alei little by little and began to plunge over the still-burning forest.

However, no matter how much he tried to search the places where the fire did not reach, he couldn’t find Ophelia.

Besides that, he found Sillo, Dillo and Asello bickering and blowing more winds that way.

But he could find not one trace of her.

So from there, it was natural that Alei reacted by stretching the net of mana over an even wider scope. Alei could feel his anxiety lodging at his throat.

‘Where on earth are you?’

At the places where the fire did not reach, at the places that the flames had already left in their wake, at the places where they continued to ravage the land, at the temporary temple that was now deserted.

He searched every single corner of this vicinity, but Ophelia was nowhere to be found.

Growing along with his unease, the net of mana expanded even further without any sign of shrinking.

Until Alei threw up blood.

“Cough!”

So incomparably broken compared to before, his body heaved and retched out blood.

Bent over as though he’d been kicked in the stomach, Alei recoiled as a violent coughing fit came over him.

“Why, is, cough, cough!”

But even when he recoiled and stepped back, his faltering body eventually lost balance and collapsed to the ground.

The cost of letting go of his senses for even a single moment was enormous. As he drew out the immense amount of mana, his internal injuries grew worse far beyond description, making it impossible for him to withstand his current condition.

But Alei spared no time to worry about himself. He went as far as throwing up so much blood while casting spells, but in the end, he could not find Ophelia.

The ominous feeling he’s had since earlier, which he had been trying to run away from, finally caught up to Alei. An indescribable wave of helplessness and despair began to eat away starting from the tip of his toes.

In the midst of this, Alei repeated the same thing firmly.

It can’t be. Impossible. Ophelia wouldn’t.

“You think Ophelia really wouldn’t?”

His words were seized and flung back at him.

Like a fish caught on a hook, Alei raised his head.

With this movement, his tears that were dripping straight to the ground until now soon moistened his cheeks. Only then did he realize that he was crying.

And, only then did he realize how closely the man’s expression in front of him mirrored his own.

A veil-like shadow was cast upon the dark, hollow eyes that were like his. And his expression, which lost all light, looked so fragile that it looked like he would break down at any given second.

Ian, looking down at that similar face, slowly opened his lips and spoke with despair.

His voice, too, as it flowed out, was so devoid of life. Again, it was similar.

“…I can’t tell whether you’re pretending not to know or whether you just don’t wish to know.”

“If you’re just going to say something useless—”

“If you want to acknowledge it after you’ve already split your body in half, then be my guest.”

Here, Alei realized that the grief so clearly stained upon Ian’s face was something that couldn’t have been made up.

And so, too, did he realize that Ian was not trying to deceive him.

“Ophelia is dead. In front of my eyes, she… She jumped off the cliff.”

For the second time, Ian drove the nail down.

The voice that spoke of Ophelia’s death cut into him as though it was the grim reaper’s scythe itself, the pain slashing straight at his heart, destroying it completely.

Ian spoke the words as though they chewed at his own flesh. It’s impossible for it to be a lie. Alei’s despair slowly set in.

Just as the waves would slowly rise to the shore during high tide, just as the sun going past the horizon would usher in the night.

His vision darkened.

It made him wonder if it’s possible for an already dark sky to be even more overcast by the clouds. At the warm liquid that wetted his cheeks, he soon realized that he was crying helplessly.

Alei knew himself well.

If Ophelia’s death had been through a different way compared to what Ian told him, then he wouldn’t have been so torn up like this.

But because Ophelia had taken her own life, Alei, without putting up any fight, let himself drown in grief.

In the end, it was Ophelia’s choice.

If she had been unjustly murdered, then he would instead be enraged. If it had been an accident, then he would have instead blamed it on fate.

Alei recalled what Ophelia often said like a habit.

If the plan fails, then all I have left ahead of me is death.

It was impossible to guess exactly what had happened on this cliff, but it was clear that Ophelia had been in a dire situation where she was so cornered that she inexorably chose to end her own life.

Again, Asello’s words echoed in Alei’s mind.

—Regardless of what happens outside, you can act however you wish. That’s what she said.

—Ophelia thinks that you’re nothing more than strangers to each other.

From the very beginning, Ophelia already had this in mind, and so she let go of Alei first.

So that even if she died, Alei would not be chained down by her death.