Free Web NovelWhenever his thoughts became tangled, Keith unconsciously reached for his rosary.
The familiar texture of the beads grounding his fingers steadied his violently pounding heart, if only slightly.
The knight sank deep into thought.
What did he need to do?
Save Ian.
And how would he accomplish that?
Climb the tower.
The answer came immediately.
The village chief’s daughter had said this tower granted wishes, and Ian had confirmed that the spellbook protecting the Life Vessel was the true source behind those miracles.
Keith trusted Ian.
Was it because Ian himself was trustworthy?
‘.......’
No. Not exactly.
If anything, Ian was profoundly suspicious.
True revelations were always accompanied by signs.
Even a prophecy as catastrophic as the demon realm’s invasion had not descended without warning. A crimson moon hanging in the sky. Swarms of ravens darkening entire cities. Nights where children wept endlessly for no reason at all. Such omens had forced the Vatican to summon its cardinals. Only after they gathered within the grand sanctuary and prayed together did heaven finally respond.
That was how divine revelation was supposed to work.
But Ian?
Ian spoke of revelations without even pretending to pray.
The first time Keith witnessed it, he genuinely didn’t know how to react. Eventually, however, he simply grew accustomed to it. Most things involving Ian were like that. Ian accepted Keith’s doubt and fragile faith without ever trying to persuade or reassure him.
‘Is he truly an agent of God?’
In the beginning, Keith had seriously wondered.
Having spent his entire life within the Vatican, Ian’s irreverence had shocked him. No one in the Holy City spoke the way Ian did. No one behaved the way Ian behaved.
And yet...
Every choice Ian made somehow aligned with the greater good.
He had saved a disgraced holy knight.
When Ian rescued Keith from the Holy Order’s pursuit, he probably hadn’t realized he was saving more than just Keith’s body.
He had also saved the remnants of Keith’s collapsing faith.
And that wasn’t all he saved.
‘My corrupted flesh and soul, twisted by the curse.’
Ian had accepted all of it.
Keith’s hands. His feet. His organs. Even a single strand of hair—there was no part of him untouched by Ian’s grace.
That was why failing to save Ian from Kyarakus devastated him so completely.
It wasn’t merely the shame of failing to protect his lord.
It was because, in that moment, Keith felt his own existence lose all meaning.
Everything he was belonged to Ian.
And if he could not protect Ian, then what purpose did he serve?
God created all things with intention.
Yet Keith felt utterly purposeless.
Unnecessary. freewebnσvel.cѳm
Something that deserved to die.
It felt like the candle burning within him had suddenly been extinguished.
Silence.
Darkness.
Nothing visible anywhere.
Despair.
The first time Keith lost his world, he was still a child.
The second world he’d found—the Vatican—had abandoned him as well.
He had never been granted the luxury of mourning properly. Before he could process loss, he was always forced to adapt to new circumstances. He’d never truly examined the emotions buried within him.
But now, left alone inside the tower, Keith finally had time.
Time to contemplate what it truly meant to lose one’s world.
His armor clinked heavily as he ascended the stairs.
Each footstep echoed against the walls before returning to him.
Ian’s lighter footsteps were gone.
The faint rustle of his cloak was gone.
His calm, confident commands were gone.
Keith was alone.
‘Is he safe?’
Every entrance to the traps had sealed shut.
Keith couldn’t follow him.
If he couldn’t go to Ian, then he would bring Ian back to him instead.
Ian had already explained how.
Keith trusted him.
He would climb higher.
Reach the upper floors.
Make his wish.
Save Ian.
But did Ian—who seemed to understand everything else in this world—not realize that leaving Keith alone like this would fill him with terror?
Or perhaps such feelings simply didn’t matter to him.
...Then again, wasn’t it only natural that saving lives should come before a knight’s personal emotions?
Even if the life being saved belonged to an elf.
A trivial creature.
The image of Ian treating the elf kindly flashed through Keith’s mind.
That irritatingly beautiful face.
Nausea twisted in his stomach.
His grip around the rosary tightened.
No.
...How could the life of a creature like that possibly ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) compare to his own?
“Does virtue still matter if nobody acknowledges it?”
“You and I know it, don’t we?”
“...Yes. We do.”
Hadn’t that been the bond they shared?
When Ian returned after his secret conversation with the mermaid princess, his entire body had been trembling from the cold. Half-asleep, haunted by nightmares, he’d unconsciously revealed fragments of his true feelings.
“I did what I had to do. Even if nobody else knows... I know.”
What kind of dreams tormented him?
Had Ian suffered the same despair Keith once had?
Keith had held him close for warmth and whispered the same words Ian had once spoken to him.
“I know too.”
But now the warmth of that memory felt false.
Coldness spread through his chest.
The staircase ended abruptly.
Ahead stretched a long corridor without doors, swallowed in darkness so deep it seemed endless.
Keith drew his holy sword.
Divine power flowed through the blade, bathing the passage in pale white light.
Holding the sword casually at his side, he dragged its edge along the stone wall as he walked.
Screeeech—
If it triggered a trap, so be it.
And if not, it changed nothing.
The grating noise stirred the creatures lurking deeper within the corridor.
— Gruk?
— Grrrrk?
The foul stench of demonic beasts flooded the air alongside thick reptilian musk.
Their cries echoed all around him.
There were many.
Keith continued forward at the same unhurried pace, making certain they noticed him.
Thud!
Without warning, a massive pink appendage slammed into the ground beside him.
Keith sidestepped it by barely the width of a sheet of paper and sliced downward with his sword.
— Kyaaaaa!
Only after hearing the shriek did he realize it had been a monster’s tongue.
More tongues shot toward him immediately.
Thick and serpentine, they speared into the stone floor in rapid succession. Others lashed toward the ceiling, sealing off escape routes.
Keith stepped onto one tongue that barely grazed past him and lowered his body to avoid another surging upward beneath him.
The monsters recoiled instinctively, retracting their tongues back into their mouths.
One failed to retreat.
Keith drove his sword straight through it.
Rather than severing it, he used the blade like an anchor.
Unable to support his weight, the tongue’s owner was violently dragged forward and crashed to the ground.
The monster reeked.
Its body was grotesque—a horse’s legs, hawk-like talons, the swollen armored hide of a poisonous toad, and those horrific tongues serving as weapons.
Keith vaulted over its enormous head.
Despite the heavy armor covering him, his movements remained impossibly light.
The beast couldn’t track his speed.
A streak of white light flashed through the darkness.
Before the creature could even scream again, its body split neatly in half.
Dead.
Before the spraying mucus from the corpse could stain him, Keith had already moved on.
His white armor remained immaculate.
Boom!
Crunch!
Ahead, more tongues intertwined into a cage-like barrier blocking the corridor.
Keith stepped into the single safe opening between them.
— Kyaak!
Another monster hidden in the rear launched its tongue like a spear.
Keith deflected it casually with the tip of his sword.
Clang!
The impact rang like steel colliding against steel, impossible for flesh alone to produce.
The creature shrieked and withdrew its tongue.
The spiral-shaped tip exploded apart as it recoiled.
Sensing danger, the beasts curled inward defensively, hiding their weak points beneath hardened carapaces. Poisonous secretions dripped from their bodies onto the floor, releasing toxic fumes into the air.
But before the venomous mist could spread through the corridor, Keith had already passed beyond it.
The monsters collapsed behind him like crushed insects.
‘Faster.’
He spotted the staircase leading upward.
Maintaining his pace, Keith ascended steadily.
Even after reaching the second floor, his breathing remained calm. Not a single drop of sweat formed beneath his armor.
Only his heart continued to pound violently.
‘Faster.’
He couldn’t afford to rush recklessly.
To travel far, one needed to preserve rhythm. fɾeewebnoveℓ.co๓
Keith still couldn’t fully understand the emotions consuming him.
Whenever Ian stood beside him, it felt as though God Himself remained near.
But when Ian disappeared, his heart became indistinguishable from hell.
Keith thought again.
Ian was clever.
A skilled archer.
A man capable of purifying curses greater even than those left behind by a Demon Archduke.
If Ian truly valued his own life, he would survive.
...But Ian was not that kind of person.
And his body was fragile.
If anyone understood Ian’s physical limits better than Ian himself, it was Keith.
Ian could throw himself into as much danger as he pleased—as long as Keith was there to protect him.
But alone?
Keith couldn’t endure the thought.
Ian would survive.
He had to.
And when they reunited...
‘I’ll advise him.’
Yes.
He would advise him properly.
‘Lead us not into temptation.’
They needed to remain together at all times.
No matter where they went.
The moment that thought settled in his mind, the aching pressure in his chest eased slightly.
Without Keith beside him, how distressed must Ian be feeling right now?
That simply wouldn’t do.
For an instant, Keith’s eyes glowed red.
Then he cleared the second floor.
In even less time than it had taken him to conquer the first.
