Chapter 48

‘The wound is worse than I thought…’

Adam’s clothes were soaked with blood, making it strange I hadn’t noticed earlier.

Still, thanks to his quick first aid, the bleeding had slowed significantly. If it weren’t for the rain, it might have stopped entirely by now.

I tilted my head back to look at the sky.

The downpour, now heavier than before, showed no signs of letting up.

Adam, seemingly satisfied with the makeshift treatment, began to stand.

Caught off guard as I was still pressing the handkerchief to his wound, I found myself rising with him.

“Eve, don’t look back. Take the left path and run. I’ll go right and distract the knight.”

“No! How can you face a knight in your condition?”

I couldn’t let him go. Even if it was dangerous, it seemed safer for me to support him as we escaped together.

I knew his plan made sense.

But there was a chance the knight could pursue me, or worse, attack from a distance with the crossbow. Adam, injured as he was, couldn’t outrun him. If nothing else, I wanted to help create confusion to buy us both more time.

“He won’t leave me alone either. He’ll scour the forest to find me. It’s better to confront him now when the odds are more in our favor.”

“And how are you going to do that without proper treatment? You’re injured, Adam. You’re not in any condition to fight. How confident are you that you’ll win?”

“…”

Adam fell silent.

Even he didn’t believe he had much of a chance.

Before his injury, it might have been laughable to consider losing. But not now.

“Fifty percent?”

“…”

Instead of lying, Adam chose to remain quiet.

His silence made my chest tighten, but I forced myself to shift my tone.

“We should look for a place to hide. I can’t make it back to camp alone.”

Slumping my shoulders and lowering my voice, I hoped to persuade him.

After a moment of hesitation, Adam nodded.

“Then let’s head deeper into the forest.”

He gestured toward the denser part of the woods.

At first glance, it looked no different from where we stood, but I instinctively knew the truth.

That was the boundary of Mia’s Forest.

The golden ropes Adam had mentioned were nowhere to be seen, as if they’d been cut.

Outside, the knight waited to kill Adam. Inside was an endless maze, rumored to trap anyone who entered forever.

My body stiffened at the thought.

But Adam seemed confident, and I trusted him.

Clenching my fists, I stepped forward into the forest.

The first step felt ordinary, but as soon as I placed my right foot down again, the air changed.

We walked further in until we found a small cave, just large enough for two people to squeeze inside.

Adam went in first, and I followed.

The simple shelter from the rain felt like a blessing.

Shivering from the cold, I pressed myself against Adam, his warmth seeping into my chilled body.

Then, remembering his injury, I quickly pulled away.

“If we stay here, won’t they just give up and leave?”

“It would be nice if they did, but I doubt it.”

Adam seemed to have a different plan in mind.

He closed his eyes, focusing intently on something.

I held my breath, trying not to make a sound.

When he opened his eyes again, he stared toward the bushes outside the cave and began to stand.

I panicked, grabbing his arm to stop him.

“Where do you think you’re going in your condition?”

“You’re safe here now, Eve. I need to leave. That knight won’t stop unless one of us is dead.”

His earlier actions, it seemed, had been to track the knight’s movements. Judging by Adam’s reaction, the knight had entered Mia’s Forest too.

Adam picked up the sword he’d placed on the ground and secured it to his waist.

“He might know how to get out of Mia’s Forest.”

“Is that even possible?”

“If it weren’t, he wouldn’t have come in.”

Of course. Adam must have suspected this all along.

“I can handle this on my own. I’ll come back for you later.”

“But Adam, it’s still raining, and your wound’s gotten worse from all this movement.”

Despite the rain washing away much of the blood, his white shirt was once again stained red.

All the effort I’d put into stopping the bleeding had been in vain.

Adam simply gave me a faint, ambiguous smile.

“I’m fine.”

“You’re not fine!”

I couldn’t hold back any longer, raising my voice in frustration.

What was supposed to be a calm conversation turned into an outburst.

Adam, surprised, widened his eyes.

I ran a hand repeatedly through my damp bangs, trying to steady myself.

‘I remember how last time, you brushed it off without treatment and ended up dying of sepsis out of nowhere.’

Right before the game over screen and the subsequent restart, Adam hadn’t uttered a single word about being in pain. There was no warning, no sign.

When the restart happened so abruptly, I thought it was a bug. I combed through gaming forums, desperate for answers, until I found a guide—one of the few that existed.

It explained that if Adam’s wounds weren’t treated in time, he’d die without any indication.

I had assumed he was fine because he’d been joking around right until the end.

But that’s just the kind of person Adam was.

He swallowed his pain to stop others from worrying, even if it festered and killed him in the end.

Knowing that, there was no way I could leave him like this.

“Instead of sitting here, I’ll go find some herbs. I saw plenty of them before we entered the forest.”

“Absolutely not. You can’t go out in this rain. The ground must be unstable. You could get swept away.”

Adam grabbed my arm, stopping me from leaving.

I closed my eyes tightly, exhaling deeply before opening them again.

With him out of sight for a moment, my thoughts cleared.

“This forest isn’t heavily traveled, so the herbs I’m looking for should be easy to find. Your condition is far worse than mine, so I need to take the risk.”

“And what happens if you die, Eve?”

“…”

“I’d rather it be me than you.”

There wasn’t a trace of hesitation in his voice or eyes as he said it.

Even when speaking of his own death, he was calm and composed, as if it were a routine matter.

His unflinching attitude rubbed me the wrong way.

Finally, I couldn’t hold back my anger any longer.

“If you die now, the only ones who’ll be happy are the nobles out there! And I absolutely won’t be one of them!”

Patients are supposed to sit quietly and rest.

Grumbling under my breath, I shoved Adam further back into the cave, pushing him against the rock wall before stepping outside.

Behind me, I heard him calling my name.

Nope. Not listening.

I pressed my hands to my ears and stepped into the rain.

The downpour lashed against my face, but visibility had improved slightly compared to earlier.

‘I definitely saw some herbs on the way here…’

Lowering my gaze to the ground, I ran, determined to find what I needed to treat Adam’s wound as quickly as possible.

The urgency made my head spin.

Where was I? Was I moving forward, backward, or in circles?

‘This dizziness… it wasn’t like this before.’

Just being in the forest felt suffocating now.

“Ah.”

Then, I felt a faint vibration from the ring hidden beneath my clothes.

I pulled it out, gripping it tightly in my hand as I let out a slow breath.

The suffocating sensation eased slightly.

Clutching the ring like a talisman, I continued running.

Miraculously, it felt as though the forest began guiding me, parting its paths just for me.

Earlier, when I was with Adam, it had felt like we were endlessly circling the same spot.

But now, I could head directly to where I wanted to go.

“Found it!”

Before long, I spotted the herbs.

The problem was that they were dangling precariously at the edge of a cliff.

Grabbing hold of a tree trunk nearby, I carefully moved closer to the edge.

‘Just grab it, and I can hurry back to Adam…’

One step, then another—just a little further.

“Got it!”

I gripped the herbs with my fingertips, relief and triumph spilling from my lips as a sigh and a cheer.

“Eveline!”

Before I could react, a strong arm wrapped firmly around my waist.

 

 

 

 

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