DADM 20

chapter 20

“Is that the pain of the curse? Then if I pass my holy power to him…!”

Siena, who had been about to run straight to Arthur, suddenly stopped. The “Tears of Dawn” hanging from her bracelet was still a dull gray.

“My holy power is still completely drained… I can’t calm the Grand Duke’s seizure.”

This time, death was truly right in front of her.

Siena trembled. At the same time, anger rose inside her at this complete mess of a situation.

“Shouldn’t a transmigrated person normally remember something useful from the original story by now?”

Like the monster’s weak point. Or how to get help.

“Sigh… getting angry at the air won’t help.”

At times like this, the best option was to bow down to someone superior.

With desperate hope, Siena clasped her hands together.

“Please save me, my middle-school self! Lady Iroha! Author!”

There was a brief moment of embarrassment between calling out “Lady Iroha!” and “Author!”, but she swallowed it. Surviving was more important.

“Author! Beautiful goddess!”

She even added some flattery through gritted teeth.

“……”

But her desperate prayer clearly did not reach the goddess’s ears. No brilliant idea came to her, no matter how long she waited.

Right then, the monster let out another low, threatening growl.

“Grrrrr……”

Siena slowly turned her head toward the sound.

Stiff black fur covered the monster’s entire body. The only part of it that wasn’t black was its yellowish eyes.

Those eyes had been staring at Siena for quite some time. Occasionally, it tilted its head.

“But… why isn’t it attacking?”

Looking closer, its eyes were covered with a thin film—like the pale layer that forms on old milk.

“Could it be that it can’t see well?”

As Siena held her breath and stayed still, the monster seemed to relax its guard.

While observing it carefully, Siena frowned.

No matter how she looked at it, the monster seemed strangely familiar.

“If not for those crazy eyes and that huge size… it would just look like a fierce dog.”

At that moment, an absurd thought filled her head.

If it’s a dog… couldn’t it be tamed?

“Should I… try it?”

In many novels, a saintess can easily control monsters.

And this was a world inside a novel. A novel she herself had written in middle school. Maybe even a ridiculous solution might work.

“Wasn’t the way I became a saintess by feeding Kim Shiba already far from normal logic?”

With that thought, Siena looked down at her palm.

“Right. It’s do or die anyway.”

At times like this, confidence decides everything.

Siena began to hypnotize herself.

Siena.

Former beggar. Current saintess.

“And from now on… dog whisperer!”

With firm determination, she raised her head.

Just as she was about to boldly stretch out her palm toward the monster—her lips already rounding to shout “Paw!”—

Something gently tugged at her sleeve.

“What?”

It was Arthur’s black horse, Cojeom.

After letting go of her sleeve, Cojeom slowly shook its head from side to side, clearly trying to stop her.

Seeing that, Siena suddenly came back to her senses.

“Ha… right. Even if there’s no solution, shouting ‘paw’ at a monster isn’t it.”

Even if this was a novel written by her middle-school self, that wouldn’t work.

“The author was in middle school, not an idiot.”

She glanced again at the monster.

Just moments ago, it had been busy crunching on a bird. Now that it had swallowed the flesh, it opened its mouth wide and yawned.

Inside its mouth were three tight rows of dagger-like sharp teeth.

“If I stretched out my hand and it bit me with those…”

She would have to change the novel’s title to The One-Armed Saintess.

Taking a deep breath, Siena steadied her thoughts.

She gently placed her hand on clever Cojeom’s body and whispered inwardly,

“Thank you, Cojeom.”

His sharp eyes and slender legs stood out to her.

“Wait. Why didn’t I think of this? I can just ride Cojeom and escape!”

This was a chance.

A chance to survive granted by the goddess.

“So there was a way out after all!”

“Ugh….”

At that moment, a painful groan came from behind her.

Siena’s heart dropped.

“Oh… he’s still here….”

She froze.

Could she help a man much taller than herself onto the horse?

“……”

After quickly calculating in her head, she slowly shook her head.

It would be hard just to support him, and if the horse carried both of them, no matter how fast it was, the monster would surely catch up. Anyone could see that both she and Arthur couldn’t escape together.

“Grrrr….”

As if irritated by something, the monster suddenly lowered its body as if about to pounce.

She could feel Cojeom’s heartbeat pounding beneath his soft fur. Siena’s own heart began racing wildly as well.

“Should I just close my eyes and run alone?”

But if she did, the Grand Duke would die here.

He would never survive those sharp claws and teeth alone.

“But do I even have a reason to stay loyal to him?”

Arthur had saved her from a bandit—but that was only because he needed a saintess to ease his own pain.

“That Grand Duke would take me and throw me away the moment he gets the chance. He’s a selfish male lead who only thinks about himself!”

But…

“He hasn’t actually done that yet.”

Whenever she tried to make up her mind, another voice rose from inside her, as if her heart were split in two.

Honestly, she wanted to run away immediately. Her desire to live was that strong.

After hesitating for a moment, Siena gave in to that desire.

“I’m sorry, Your Grace.”

Just then—

“Go.”

A voice, barely gathered together, rang out.

Siena’s face instantly flushed red. It felt like her cowardly thoughts had been exposed.

She couldn’t bring herself to look back.

Even without seeing him, she knew. Arthur lay with one cheek pressed against the muddy ground, forcing his voice out through pain.

“At least you… run away.”

Siena bit her lip tightly.

Her hands gripped the horse’s mane.

Slowly, she turned her head toward Arthur—to say goodbye.

A cold wind blew.

And then—

“Wait… is that…?”

Unexpectedly, near the base of the fallen tree where Arthur had collapsed, there was a way to survive.

Siena’s eyes widened.

* * *

Something rang sharply inside his ears.

His vision had long since blurred from pain. Arthur knew this feeling.

“A seizure.”

Even his arms and legs, once strong like tree trunks, would not move. He had to grit his teeth just to stay upright. Blood seeped from his lips.

“Even after meeting the saintess…”

Staggering as if poisoned, Arthur let out a bitter sigh.

“I must have gotten too excited.”

When he held the saintess’s hand, the sense of release that spread through his body had been unlike anything else in the world.

It was different from easing pain with holy water. If holy water was like precious drops falling onto the tongue of someone dying of thirst, then the saintess was…

Like plunging headfirst into a clear blue lake on a scorching summer day.

“I got drunk on that feeling… and used my power too easily.”

Hadn’t he acted like an unbridled wild colt?

The memory of slicing off the carriage roof in one stroke made him let out a faint laugh.

“Ugh….”

A terrible headache struck him then—like someone had shoved his head into a box and was crushing it.

Arthur flailed his hand in the air. If only he could grab something—anything—to hold himself up as his body collapsed.

It would have been nice if someone had held his hand.

But there was nothing.

After that, everything looked pale and hazy.

Arthur felt the cold mud against his cheek. At this moment, he was completely alone. During a seizure, he was nothing more than useless baggage.

Helplessness rose up to his throat.

“This has happened before…”

The day the curse first manifested.

He had been abandoned once before.

The memory of that day was still vivid.