I Reject the villain’s ending.

Episode 78.

Leo’s teleportation shuttle brought us comfortably away from the hunting grounds.

‘Silence, Invisible.’

‘Magic?’

‘Basic sound muffling and invisibility magic. If we run into enemies out here, I might as well be prepared, don’t you think?’

‘I’m a saint here, so what are you worried about, Sir Leo, even if your body is split in two, as long as your heart beats, I’ll keep you alive.’

‘You said I’d be a brat when I left home. Why did I come here and risk my life like this?’

Leo’s regret is palpable, but the rat is already in my hand. I’m not going to let go of these high-level workers easily.

I’m going to squeeze every last drop of blood out of him, hehe.

He smirks and looks around.

‘Pink, are you feeling any of it?’

‘Not a little, but there are more of them than I thought. Fifteen, maybe sixteen, and I think there’s one vague being in the mix.’

Iros closed his eyes and frowned, then opened them with a sigh.

‘What? Is something wrong?’

‘No, no. Not really, but it’s a little creepy. The other enemies are moving, but the one blurry thing is nothing…….’

‘Nothing?’

I repeated the words like a dodo, and Iros smirked and shook his head.

‘He’s not moving, he’s not doing anything, he’s just standing still, I think we just need to watch out for him.’

‘Good, then let’s start with the closest one.’

‘Uh, Saint, Sir Iros, shouldn’t we start with the weakest enemies? We don’t know how much power they have, and if we go in blind, we’ll get caught…….’

‘We can just teleport away quickly.’

‘After all, I’m the one who’s suffering.’

Magic is your thing, not mine.

I shrugged and blinked, and Leo grunted, making a pained sound.

‘I mean, demi-humans are tricky to deal with, and teleportation is a spell that requires delicate casting and concentration, so let’s move more carefully.’

‘I’ll take Sir Leo’s word for it, for now, our goal is to make the inspection and return undetected.’

‘Yeah, okay. I don’t want to get caught and have things go south.’

If only Iros would say so.

I nodded meekly, checking my bow and dagger and pulling up my cloak.

Fortunately, the weakest of the halflings was nearby, so I headed there first.

Despite the enchantment, I approached it cautiously, muffling my footsteps in case I was spotted.

A man in a black robe that went down to his toes was sprinkling herbs everywhere.

‘What is he doing?’

‘I think it’s some sort of nerve agent to paralyze the horse’s nerves, and since they’ll be traveling on horseback in the hunting tournament, they’ll be sprinkling it all over the path.’

‘And that one? I can’t see it from a distance. Shall we get a little closer?’

‘It might be dangerous, so I’ll send Sir Leo.’

‘Why am I suddenly standing still?! No way, Sir Iros!’

It’s bad enough that I’ve been dragged here in a teleport shuttle, but now I’m being told to go near a potentially dangerous half-elf and see what it’s doing.

Leo looks like he’s on the verge of tears, but I smile sternly and pat him on the back.

‘Have a good trip, Sir Leo?’

‘To a saint!’

‘You know I have faith in you, my lord.’

‘I believe in you, too, my lord.’

‘What do you trust, you bastards, a saint and a guardian after all you’ve done?’

Leo’s eyes narrowed as he shouted, but his steps moved cautiously towards the robed man.

He grunted.

‘I shouldn’t have taken leave. I should have run away. I shouldn’t have left the palace.’

But it was too late, and he was already quite close to the Robed One.

Leo squinted to see what the robed man was doing.

Then he spoke slowly.

‘Saint, he’s spraying poison needles.’

‘Poisoned needles? Are you trying to kill a horse by eating its nerve endings and making it run wild so that it will fall off and kill you? Who would do such a thing knowing that it would catch……!’

I was appalled at the half-human’s behavior and was about to step forward when I heard an even harsher voice beside me.

‘I suppose it doesn’t matter who gets caught, as long as it’s the Saint, and if it’s someone else, they’ll think it’s a win-win since they hate humans anyway.’

Iros scowled, fists clenched tightly, unable to hide his anger and disgust. I looked away unnecessarily.

‘Iros hates to see the people he cares about harmed, which is why he’s had so many run-ins with me.

For a guardian, he’s got a lot of character. I wondered if that righteousness that can be broken but not bent was also a trait of the Guardians.

‘I was only going to do an inspection today. You won’t get into trouble, will you?

Iros was never one to back down from his convictions, and he always fought me tooth and nail.

The results were always disastrous.

‘Hmph, ah! Forgive me, saint, please forgive me. It’s……!’

Ah, on second thought, I wonder if the pink one was deliberately defying me.

I stare at her speechlessly, and when she catches my gaze, her jaw clenches and she takes a step backward.

He clutches his collar tightly with goosebumps.

‘……?’

He looked up at me with a puzzled expression, unsure of why he was stepping back and clutching his collar so tightly.

In a voice that sounded half frustrated and half embarrassed, he said.

‘Saint, it’s good that we’re lovers, but I don’t think it’s right that you should look at me with such perverted eyes in a situation like this.’

‘My, my what?’

‘I can’t take it off here, I’ll take it off when we get home, so bear with me.’

‘That’s not how it works! Who do you think you are, the one who goes off without knowing the time or place?’

I’m just having a little old-fashioned thought, I swear.

Of course, I didn’t say it was a healthy thought. I have a conscience, after all.

In any case, now that Iros’s animosity towards the half-man-half-horse has cooled and waned, I don’t think he’s going to go off on his own again to seek justice.

He breathed a secret sigh of relief and turned his attention back to the road ahead.

‘Let’s pick up some of those poisoned needles. Someone’s bound to get stung at the hunt, and we need to find out what kind of poison it is so we can get an antidote.’

‘Shouldn’t the holy woman be able to heal them?’

‘We have to think about what would happen if I’m not there. For example, if I’m far away, and I can’t run around looking for patients. You never know what kind of attack they might make on me.’

‘Yes.’

Iros nodded and gestured to Leo. Pick it up.

Leo pouted his lips for a moment, his eyes filled with resentment and bitterness, and then, as carefully as ever, he stepped around the half-elf and pocketed a handful of poisoned needles.

He watched for a while as the halfling repeated the same action here and there, then left.

When we went to the other halflings, we found they were doing the same thing, so we collected the needles and nerve roots and hid them in the bushes again.

‘Looks like you didn’t prepare for this one as well as you thought you would. It’s just another assassination attempt.’

Leo grinned and rattled off the various assassination attempts he’d experienced.

‘Throwing him off a horse and stabbing him with a poisoned needle might not kill him, so we’ll need to set up more magical traps around him, like spears and arrows, to make sure he dies.’

‘I don’t know what that kills, my lord.’

‘Uh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to say you had to kill a saint!’

Leo threw up his hands in embarrassment.

‘I was just being a bit sloppy, I guess.’

Leo touched his chin as he watched the halfling spray the poisoned needles.

‘It’s too flimsy. If you’re going to kill a saint, you’d think you’d have more devices, which is why I have a feeling there’s more to it.’

‘…….’

I agree.

It’s too flat and one-dimensional a method of assassination for High Priest Diego to be this sloppy.

It’s too mundane. And imperfect.

‘I hope it’s just me, but we should be more prepared.’

‘At the very least, they’ll send an assassin or raid on the day of the imperial hunt. Maybe they’re so confident in their abilities that they’re this sloppy.’

‘Do you think so?’

‘They wouldn’t set up a trap so casually and expect me to die, especially when I’m a saint, a so-called walking mass of divine power.’

A saint’s body can detoxify most poisons quickly, and unless the poison is extremely strong, it will never die.

As long as I use divine power, I will never die.

So I don’t think the enemies would trust just those poisonous needles.

Leo moved closer to the half-elf, intending to collect more needles from around the bush.

I turned to Iros, trying to sort out the situation.

‘So how many more are left?’

‘Only one unidentified and one moving one.’

‘Moving?’

I scratched my head, and Iros gave me a warm, unhinged smile.

‘It’s moving a bit away from the hunting grounds, but that’s not the area we use for hunting competitions, so I think it’ll be fine.’

‘Then let’s finish collecting the poisoned needles and ask the experts if the poison on the needles is all the same kind or different.’

‘Yes.’

‘Sir Leo, I’ve collected all the needles-’

‘Ah!’

‘……?’

Leo’s short-lived scream made me and Iros’ head turn.

Out of the corner of our eyes, we could see Leo’s pale face, wrapped around his finger.

The finger, rapidly turning purple, could only mean one thing.

‘Poison!

Leo yanked the needle out of his finger and threw it to the ground.

He staggered, and the moment he hit the floor, the spell that enveloped us broke.

The invisibility and silence enchantments on Leo were lifted, and the half-elf immediately spotted the fallen Leo and drew his sword to strike.

A sharp sound rang out, and Leo, who had barely managed to block the blade, gritted his teeth and held on.

‘Lord Leo!’

‘Sir!’

‘Intruder! Saint! Saint!’

The half-elf cursed and tried to slit Leo’s throat.

At that moment, Iros dispersed like a black mist and appeared in front of him, swinging his sword.

‘Crunch!’

The half-demon screamed and collapsed, splattering red blood and dying.

I accidentally struck.