Chapter 341 – Nihilism.

“Rather than that, Erika, what about the rescue team?”

Usher suddenly remembered the reason he sparred with Gideon and asked Erica. He was relieved at the end when he was told that he could join the rescue team, but it would be pointless if they left first.

“Chi, I’m still preparing.”
“Really? Thank goodness.”

Her girlish sullen voice bothered her, but she was relieved that her rescue party hadn’t left yet, so she looked at her grayness with her displeasure.

“As expected, Usher likes Nausicaa better than me, right?”
“Ugh, Erica. You said it wasn’t like that.”

She tried to talk, embarrassed by Erica’s voice, but she spoke faster.

“Then what am I going to do when Usher goes to rescue her?”
“What do you plan on doing…”

Usher then realized something she hadn’t thought of yet. Tolerably she didn’t want to leave her alone, but it was clear that her rescue party would be a dangerous undertaking. Because the wizard, and nothing else, was the enemy. He bit his lip, recalling, albeit briefly, the image of Jude he had met face-to-face with Yakaf a few times. His anger rose beyond fear as he remembered the audacity of the man who had tormented Belka countless times before demanding to be brought back from the Holy Land as if it belonged to him.

“No.”

Belka couldn’t protect her properly either. But now, in such a dangerous situation, he couldn’t take Erika to Parz.

“Erika, please stay here as well.”
“Maybe there are other kids like that?”

At the girl’s words, Usher flinched. It was because he remembered the guys Kayaba had left where the Gigantopithecus had been, even without going into detail. The guy who raped her was dead, but in the end he couldn’t protect Erica properly. If he hadn’t met the mermaids beforehand, she would have lost even Erica.

“But it’s not possible. At least I’ll ask Uncle Kayaba or Sister Diana…”

As long as they are by Yakaf’s disciples, Erika will be safe too. She thought if I left her, she would be fine. She can’t let even her go through the same thing as Belka.

“Boout! Usher is an idiot!”

Unless the girl puffed out her cheeks and got up and ran out of her carriage without saying that. She left him alone.

“Wait a minute! Erica!!”

Usher hurriedly got out of bed and ran out of her carriage to find Erica, but she was nowhere to be seen outside her door. So it was just when she was about to run to find her Erica.

“Hmm? You woke up just fine.”

Hearing her voice from behind, he turned to see Kayaba, a knight in armor decorated with red decorations. There was a woman next to him who seemed to have seen it somewhere, but she had no time to care about her.

“Cardinal… Mister?”
“Just call me Kayaba. I’ve seen her like that before, so she won’t have anyone to complain about.”

Seeing him talking when he called it awkwardly, Usher nodded roughly and asked.

“Did you not see Erica? She just got out of the wagon!”
“If it’s the girl who’s always been by your side, I’ve seen her slip through the wagons.”
“Thank you!”

Hearing the story, he immediately tried to find Erica.

“Wait a minute, the rescue party just finished preparing to depart.
“Ugh.”

If it wasn’t for his words. Usher wanted to go after Erica right away, but he also felt that he couldn’t miss the rescue team. He finally looked back at Kayaba as he pondered what to do.

“If you ever find Erica, can you protect her while I’m gone?”

Maybe it was a good thing It seemed that if I ran after the girl again and faced her, she would settle for comfort, saying that there was no point in missing the rescue team anyway, and that she would stay here comfortably. It occurred to me that it would make her Erica safer if she left with her rescue party while she was gone. Although that was possible only when Kayabasa himself asked for it.

“Yes, I will protect you until you return.”

He nodded her head as she nervously watched the gap in the helmet. Usher turned her steps away from chasing Erica, grabbed the weapons in the wagon, and walked toward Gideon and the rescue party.

“That child…”
“Sister? Do you know that child?”
“Huh? Uh. I’m sure I came to buy underwear with two girls.”

Without hearing the voices of the woman and Kayaba coming from behind.

“You came in time.”

Shortly after arriving at the place where he first met Gideon, he immediately found Usher and spoke to him. However, there were two more unexpected people beside him. With Rachel, a woman with light azure hair fluttering in the cool night breeze.

“With Rachel, you.”

It was Kane, a knight wearing armor with orange decorations. All of a sudden, he was the first paladin that Usher encountered and competed with when climbing the holy ground underground with Yakaf, so he was nervous, so Gideon opened his mouth.

“Unexpectedly, three paladins joined the rescue team, so we decided to change the rescue plan.”
“Three?”

Usher looked around them more, but the paladins were nowhere to be seen except for Rachel and Kane. I was puzzled by that, so when I felt a hand touching his nose and backed off in surprise, Rachel smiled wryly and stretched out her finger.

“Are you talking about you?”
“Yes? But I’m a paladin…”
“But the one you used earlier must have been the power you gained from drinking the Holy Grail water, right?”

It was certainly true that he obtained it by drinking the water of the Holy Grail that Jacob had given him. But isn’t it strange to be called a paladin?

“Be a little more proud.”

It was when he was nodding his head at Rachel’s words, feeling the incomprehensible complexion in his heart.

“Enough of small talk. Now I’ll explain the plan.”

When I looked at Gideon’s words, he showed me the map of Parz and talked.

“We are divided into groups of two each. We will return to the outskirts of Parz.”

There were small arrows drawn on the map as if they were drawing the route they should take.

“Wait a minute. Two-in-one?”

Usher said he was surprised at the number of rescue teams that were so small that he had expected, and Gideon looked at him and said,

“Wizards can also manipulate humans. Magic is difficult even for wizards, but the more rescue groups there are, the higher the chance that someone will be manipulated by him.”

What came to mind at those words was the image of Aison, the king of Parz, following Jude’s orders. Back then, it was disgusting that his son had kidnapped her just because he wanted her Belka.

“But paladins are different. At least they can’t be controlled by wizards, and they can escape from the direct effects of magic on their bodies.”
“Ah.”

Usher recalled that Yakaf had said the same thing. He said he could at least get a chance to win against a mage.

“That’s why I changed the plan to a small number of elites. In case the rescue team members are manipulated, the possibility of the plan being revealed can be reduced.”
“All right.”

When he was convinced, Gideon went on to explain the plan.

“In this process, it is important to remain unnoticed as much as possible. At least one of the two must enter the ruins unnoticed.”

The arrows continued, and the point pointed to was a symbol of unknown meaning that was spread over an ambiguous place on the outskirts of Parz. It must be a relic.

“Most of the people who fell behind in Parz will be hiding there, so join them and find the time to escape. That will be enough, right?”

It was a simpler plan than I thought, but I couldn’t think of any other good way, so I decided to go with it. However, it was Kane who was in the same group as him.

“Ugh, why did you make a group like this?”

It would have been better if either Gideon or Rachel were in a group, but Usher protested seeing them tied to one group.

“I heard the story, and he fought once.”
“It is, but it is.”

I thought it would be better to change someone if they knew.

“That’s why it’s structured like this. If you’ve risked your life in a fight, you’ll know about the number of opponents that much. Rather, it’ll help to match your breath.”

I had no choice but to listen to him and agree. And what they seemed to be riding were Hildisbinies carrying a wagon loaded with some luggage.

“Wagon, wouldn’t it be better to ride only Hildis Beanie to go into hiding?”
“By the time we escaped, the food was already running out. We don’t know when the next opportunity to escape will come, so we have to take care of people’s food.”

Listening to Gideon’s answer to Rachel, Usher obediently climbed into the wagon. In my heart, I wanted to ride a Hildis beanie, but he couldn’t tame it, and there was only one Hildis beanie. He didn’t want to stick around with someone who was just uncomfortable. Usher looked around as he silently climbed onto Hildisbini’s back, as if that was also the case with Kane. Many people, regardless of race, gathered to see them depart, but the girl was nowhere to be seen.

“Really. What am I doing?”

Reuben wandered aimlessly along the beach, and after realizing that she was just wandering around, she turned her steps and headed for the people. No idea really came to mind. I was at a loss as to what to do next and how to live my life.

“When did you ever think of this?”

He laughed at himself and only sighed. Far from thinking about such things in the first place, wasn’t it all that I had been living by running errands, earning money, and thinking about how to solve one meal in the future? He hated seeing himself depressed now, as if he had a grandiose plan. No, wasn’t it very much? Because in a few minutes of falling in love with the girl she had just met, he pictured her future with her.

“Oooh, Usher is an idiot! An idiot! A crap!”

Like the owner of a lovely voice that seems to be angry with a lot of drugs that I hear suddenly, but also seems to be doing aegyo because of his unique loud voice.

“Fool! Fool! Fool!”

As Reuben unknowingly followed the voice and quickly stepped forward, what caught his eye was Erica’s back, trampling on the sand for no reason and venting her anger. When he saw her legs shining white in the moonlight, he involuntarily swallowed his saliva. I thought I had given up, but I couldn’t figure out why my eyes kept going like this.