Chapter 7

What? Why is she running away?

Startled, Revelin jumped to her feet. “There wasn’t any ‘running-away female protagonist’ keyword in the setting!”

I’m not some obsessive, regretful male lead, am I?! Why is she running away? Just as Revelin sprang up from her seat to bring Sophia back, Suddenly, she felt a sensation as if space itself was being severed, and the ground shook violently.

“Gasp!”

Startled, Revelin hurriedly grabbed the workshop’s shelf to avoid falling over. Even though her feet were firmly planted on the ground, she felt like she was floating in mid-air.

In an instant, her surroundings turned pitch black, and thick demonic energy billowed around her, making her stomach churn with nausea. Feeling as dizzy as if she were floating in empty space, Revelin squeezed her eyes shut.

—Kieeeeeeeh!

Before she could even grasp the situation, a bizarre, eerie cry echoed from afar. Revelin snapped her eyes open and jerked her head up.

A magic beast. Revelin’s shoulders twitched upward. The other side of the workshop window was pitch black.

A contaminated zone. Just as the original story began, a contaminated zone had broken out.

However, a problem had arisen. “……I’m all alone?”

Revelin scanned her surroundings with an absurd expression. There was absolutely no one around, neatly and cleanly. Her maid and knights were waiting far away, so they naturally weren’t here, and Sophia, who had fled in a hurry, was nowhere to be seen—not even a single strand of her hair.

Unable to continue her sentence, Revelin let out a hollow laugh. “This wasn’t… what I had planned, you know?”

Her original plan was to get caught up in the contaminated zone together with Sophia, secretly perform a tiny bit of purification just like the original story, leave everything else to Sophia, and then! Slip away stealthily, return safely, and check if her rank had gone up!

Revelin would be safe! Sophia would awaken as a Level 2 purifier and become widely recognized! The original plot wouldn’t change!

That was what was supposed to happen, and yet!

“Um? What am I supposed to do with this all by myself?”

She had been abandoned entirely alone in a contaminated zone. In the original story, it took quite a long time for the knights and mercenaries to arrive.

That was because a contaminated zone also broke out almost simultaneously in the territory of a neighboring marquis’s household. Judging by the danger level of the contaminated zones, this place ranked higher, but it had been pushed down in priority simply because it was an area inhabited by commoners.

“……Don’t tell me I’m going to die in place of the workshop owner?”

No. Her brother had said that even if she got dragged into a magic beast’s nest, she could find a way to survive as long as she kept her wits about her.

So, as long as she kept her wits about her!

—Creek-crack!

A magic beast must have landed on the workshop’s roof, because the wooden framework supporting the roof gave way and sagged downward.

I don’t… have a way to survive, though?

To avoid provoking the magic beast, Revelin clapped a hand over her mouth to muffle her breathing. Suddenly, a memory flashed back of her academy graduation exam, where she had almost been chewed to pieces by a magic beast. Her heart sank straight to the floor.

It felt as though someone was gripping her heart tightly with their hand, making it hard to breathe.

No. Revelin opened her eyes wide.

If I die here! Both my brother and my father will die, too.

I am an important person who has to save our family!

Wiping the sweat soaking her palms onto her thighs, Revelin checked her surroundings. She spotted a large chest of drawers inside the workshop.

Here. She crawled stealthily and approached it quietly. She opened the drawer doors and pulled out everything inside. It was packed with strange items.

A brooch? Why on earth would someone keep something like this in here?

Crawling quietly inside, Revelin closed the cabinet doors.

Sophia had hidden right here and waited until the magic beast disappeared. As time passed, the workshop would collapse, but luckily, this chest of drawers where Sophia had hidden remained safe. That was why, after the magic beast moved further away, Sophia had come out and purified the contaminated zone.

Good. I’ll do just like Sophia.

Anyway, her goal wasn’t to purify this entire area, but simply to check the condition for raising her rank. To purify this contaminated zone, you’d need at least six Level 5 purifiers.

Even if you could enter a contaminated zone from the outside, you couldn’t escape from the inside until the purification was complete. So, once the magic beast moved away, she just needed to purify the contamination a little bit and hide safely until people came looking for her.

My plan of leaving the rest of the work to Sophia fell apart, but it’s fine. I can survive.

Revelin tightly clasped her two cold, shivering hands together.

From atop the workshop roof, the sound of a magic beast stomping around heavily could be heard. A moment later, accompanied by a loud crashing sound of something breaking, the workshop collapsed.

“……!”

The chest of drawers shook violently. —Thud! Crash! Boom!

The sound of falling building materials was deafening. Fearing she might let out a scream, Revelin clamped her hand over her mouth and squeezed her eyes shut.

Unlike the original story, she had worried that the cabinet might get smashed to pieces, but thankfully, it remained safe.

Outside the cabinet, she could hear the sound of the magic beast running around, searching for prey. Exhaling a trembling breath, Revelin calmed herself down and strained her ears to listen to the outside sounds.

Her hands trembled uncontrollably. A long time passed.

The sounds of the magic beast outside gradually faded into the distance. Revelin didn’t move rashly; instead, she waited for a safe moment. When all sounds had completely vanished, Revelin quietly opened the cabinet door.

The surroundings were dead silent. Checking her surroundings, Revelin carefully slipped out.

There was no magic beast in sight. Good.

Scanning the area, Revelin bent down and pressed both hands against the ground. Then, just as she had done when purifying a person contaminated with demonic energy, she channeled her power outward. The thick demonic energy, rooted deep inside the ground like a tree, fed on her purification power and gathered toward Revelin’s palms.

As if it were alive, the sticky demonic energy thrashed and writhed like a crawling thing, fighting back.

“Gasp.”

For Revelin, who had lived her whole life as a Level 10 purifier, this was an unfamiliar sensation. The chilling demonic energy crawled up her arms. Her body felt numb, as if chunks of ice had been shoved inside her.

Yet, refusing to yield, she channeled her power into the ground to fight back. The strength rapidly drained from her trembling arms.

“Hah, gasp.”

Her breathing was ragged. She couldn’t hear any other sounds in her ears. In the original story, Sophia didn’t struggle this much, but I guess it’s different because I’m a Level 5 purifier!

Of course, the original novel had mentioned that Sophia also had a hard time for a few days after purifying a contaminated zone all by herself, but it had been described in a holy and beautiful way.

Unlike the harsh reality of Revelin, a Level 5 purifier!

If it’s this agonizing and my rank still doesn’t go up, just you watch.

Revelin squeezed her eyes shut and concentrated. “Ugh, ugh.”

It was similar to when she had purified Chedwin. The demonic energy circulating through her body was as cold as ice, and using her power made the inside of her stomach feel scorching hot, as if she had swallowed burning fire.

Cold and hot. The sensation of her body freezing and then melting away was entirely novel.

Her vision blurred and cleared up repeatedly. She could feel everything contaminated and rooted deep within this earth all at once. She had no idea how much time passed as she unraveled the tangled, mismatched knots of demonic energy and purified them.

By the time she came to her senses, her energy was completely exhausted.

“Gasp.”

Just how much time had passed? Revelin jerked her head up.

She remembered hearing during an academy class that if you concentrate too much on purification, you lose all sense of time, so you must be careful. Her plan was to purify just a tiny bit of the contamination and hide, but before she knew it, she had kept purifying until her energy bottomed out.

Stop. I need to stop right now.

If you use purification power beyond your limit, the purifier can die from overload. Revelin’s exhausted arms and legs trembled uncontrollably.

Since Revelin had no prior experience with purification on this scale, this was her first time facing such a situation, making it hard for her to control her output of power.

Just as she was about to cut off the power flowing into the ground, the cry of a magic beast rang out.

—Kieeeeeeeh!

Following the sound, she whipped her head upward. It was a magic beast with its wings spread wide. Their eyes met.

I’ve been spotted.

Spotting its prey, the magic beast’s eyes flashed viciously. Opening its jaws wide, the magic beast lunged toward her in an instant.

The progression differed from the original story. Sophia had managed to escape without being caught by the magic beast, but Revelin hadn’t.

Because it takes me longer to purify than Sophia.

That difference had created a different outcome. As expected, just because you know the original story doesn’t mean everything goes your way like the female protagonist.

It would take more time for the knights to be dispatched to this contaminated zone. She needed to run. Revelin hurriedly pulled her hands off the ground.

Her knees buckled powerlessly as she tried to stand. “Gasp!”

Furthermore, abruptly cutting off the purification power she had been overusing made her head spin with dizziness.

“Hah, whew, hah.”

Every muscle in her body went limp, leaving her unable to even twitch a single finger; she could only manage to gasp for breath.

With great difficulty, Revelin lifted her head to check on the lunging magic beast. Even though she could see the magic beast approaching at a terrifying speed, she remained slumped on the ground, completely unable to move.

Don’t tell me I’m going to die like this?

She could see the magic beast’s sharp teeth. Memories of being chewed to pieces during the academy exam flooded her mind.

The agony of sharp teeth tearing through her skin and the terror of facing death crawled all over her body like parasites.

The magic beast drew closer with its jaws gaping open. Revelin squeezed her eyes shut, bracing herself for the pain that was about to hit.

“……”

She squeezed them tight. “……?”

Yet, no pain came.

What? Revelin slowly opened her eyes.

The magic beast, which had been charging fiercely just moments before, was frozen right in front of Revelin with its jaws wide open.

“Huh?”