The Hero’s Party Members Treat Me Well for Some Reason

16 – Save Point: Chapter 1

The world splits apart and reassembles itself once again.

Everything came to a halt, and as if it was rewinding, all things returned.

The only thing moving normally in this situation was Ulysses, her alone.

She looked around with a bewildered expression.

It didn’t take her long to grasp the situation.

Well, because it’s so intuitive.

“The time…”.

[Searching for save points!]

[Opening player log!]

“It’s rewinding.”

One day, two days.

It rewinds. She, who was addicted to poison, who was surrounded by bugs, disappeared quickly.

Time that was rewinding had reached the battle with Chungwang without notice.

Her seemingly eternal week disappeared in the blink of an eye.

But the miracles didn’t stop there.

The warrior who was pierced by Chungwang’s thorns disappeared, and the image of the party members surrounded by bugs flickered like illusions.

[Reading log…]

The time that was rewinding so quickly had suddenly become one scene, showing glimpses of the past.

The scene of the warrior being ignored by the party members.

The scene of the warrior bleeding from being poisoned by a venomous insect.

And even the scene of the warrior coughing incessantly after being cut by the Minotaur…

Like a film cut and played, each scene passed by.

Watching this situation, Ulysses could discern one ‘criterion’.

Each of those scenes.

“They are all rewinding around the warrior…”

That’s right.

The scenes being played were all centered around Luke.

Observing this, she floated around like a ghost, merely spectating.

In her mind, she asked him.

“Are you the warrior, Sir?”

The instigator of this spectacle.

She instinctively knew it, having heard stories about knights and studied history since she was young.

Each of the past knights possessed one or two abilities bestowed upon them by the goddess.

And these abilities were truly astonishing, comparable to miracles from the gods.

Yuris believed that this spectacle was the divine power granted by the goddess through the knight, otherwise such a phenomenon would not be possible.

She silently deduced and continued to observe the scenes.

The following scenes eventually began to reveal an unfamiliar side of the knight.

The sight of the knight purposefully getting bitten by bugs to cultivate poison resistance.

The sight of the knight practicing swordsmanship alone late at night when everyone else was asleep.

The sight of the knight hiding alone in a quiet place and crying after being berated by everyone.

The knight she had not seen before was incredibly hardworking and human.

“It’s tough…”

Even though his smiling face seemed like no sharp words could pierce through, it easily crumbled in a place where no one could see.

“Ah… It’s so frustrating.”

When clashes of opinions occurred and arguments broke out, he would go to a secluded place alone and complain.

“There’s not much distance left until the king’s palace… I have to improve my skills before then, somehow.”

Yet, he never let go of his sword.

Getting angry, getting sad, getting tired, all while striving for the future.

As she thought, she couldn’t find any signs of him colluding with the demon army or resorting to any tricks.

“…”

The saint felt her heart stir as she watched that sight.

To put it into words, it was guilt.

The saint, who should have defended the most innocent, ended up causing the innocent to fall into misery instead.

Yuris frowned every time she saw scenes of herself badmouthing or bullying the knight.

Her own reflection from a third-person perspective was so wicked that it was hard to look at it properly.

She muttered with a self-loathing face.

“I’m truly disgusting…”

Of course, there were justifications.

There were undeniable traces of “wicked deeds” left on his body. Hence, she hated him for it as well.

Of course, her actions did not make those deeds disappear, but there was a sense of validity that couldn’t be denied.

In reality, she pondered why he had the traces of wicked deeds, why she felt uncomfortable whenever she saw him.

I still couldn’t understand.

But, as time passed, I couldn’t help but realize it.

[Reading the first log!]

Finally, the scene reveals another warrior from the past.

It was a back alley in the imperial city.

Trash bags piled up like mountains, and cigarette butts and broken pieces of alcohol bottles scattered on the streets.

In that alley, there was a wanderer wearing tattered clothes.

It didn’t take long for the saint to figure out the wanderer’s identity.

‘Ah.’

A hero.

A hero before becoming a hero.

Although his face was bruised and he wore a hood over his head, she recognized him at first glance.

Of course, there was no way she wouldn’t recognize his black hair and red eyes that she had seen for half a year.

He seemed to be thinking about something, staring at the night sky with deep eyes.

‘…They would die without me.’

After a long moment of silence, he opened his mouth.

‘No, it would be fortunate if it just ended with dying.’

One by one, he mentioned the deaths of his party members.

Each of their deaths was terrible and filled with an overwhelming sense of fear.

Yuris, who heard his muttering, felt a shiver for a moment.

‘How does he know?’

Does he know so well about their ultimate fate?

Did he just guess? Or did he hear something from a goddess?

Or maybe…

Various questions arose in her mind.

But those questions didn’t last long.

Because the next scene was even more shocking than that.

‘System.’

Finally, the determined warrior called upon his abilities.

Yuris couldn’t see a system window, but at least she knew that he was seeing something.

Eventually, he began to use his power to offer the most precious thing he had.

That was destiny (因緣).

When he mentioned it as his price, countless lights surrounded him from all directions. Some were so dazzlingly beautiful, while others were as crimson as a chill.

The saint instinctively knew. Where did she see that ‘accomplice of sin,’ and why did she feel discomfort every time she saw him?

It was all because the hero had offered his destiny.

Thus, he became a hero (勇士) and, at the same time, a villain (惡人).

Of course, he had not committed any wrongdoing, but in the future, the world would see him as a villain.

Just as she had.

‘Ah…’

Yuris felt a shiver down her spine.

This emotion… to put it in words, it was a shudder (戰慄).

In the Sun Faith, there has long been a prophecy handed down.

In the distant future, when chaos returns to the world.

A prophecy that says a hero stronger, nobler, and braver than anyone else will appear.

Until now, Saint Yuris had believed that the prophecy was wrong. She thought that the Goddess had made a wrong choice for the hero.

He was not strong, noble, or brave.

No.

She was just too foolish, too blind to see.

He was nobler and braver than anyone else.

How could anyone dare call someone who had chosen to enter hell with their own free will not brave?

How could anyone not call noble the one who sacrificed everything with a single-minded determination to save the world?

“…”

The saint watched the scene as if possessed by something for a long time.

Then, at a certain moment.

Suddenly, the world was dyed in darkness…

[Player Log Accessed!]

[Branch Point Confirmed.]

[Setting Save Point.]

The saint returned.

“Huh?!”

“Um, are you awake?”

“You must be tired. Get some more rest. It will take a while until the hero finishes disbanding the party anyway.”

When the saint opened her eyes, she was inside a tent.

Inside the tent were her fellow party members, each of them either maintaining their weapons, meditating, or taking a break, spending their time in such a manner.

Perhaps because she had just woken up from sleep, the saint’s mind was in disarray.

“How, how is this possible? You all must have died for sure… Definitely at the hands of the bugs…”

It felt like she had just experienced a long nightmare, or as if she had momentarily glimpsed a fantasy.

It all seemed too surreal, and she couldn’t perceive the events she had experienced until now as reality.

“What? Pfft! Yuris, what are you talking about? You haven’t fully woken up yet, have you?”

“…Don’t say such things even as a joke.”

“Seems like you’re still tired. Rest quickly. Physical strength is important.”

“Uh, well, but you all…”

However, after being bewildered for a moment, she realized that this was not a dream.

There was no way a dream could feel so vivid.

The sensations she had felt at that time were still fresh. The despair and the eternal time she had experienced then couldn’t possibly be considered a dream.

Thanks to that, she could quickly accept it.

That she had returned to the past.

*

It had been a few days since she returned to the past.

Due to Yuris’s subtly changed attitude, some of the party members seemed confused initially, but after a few days, it seemed like everyone was getting used to it.

The moment she had returned was just a few days before his body was severed by the Minotaur.

The moment when the official journey to the Abyss began to go awry.

The saint had pondered for several days about how to save him, and she eventually managed to rescue him unharmed.

And now, they were here.

“Poor guy…”

She looked at the hero who had fallen asleep right on top of the pool of blood shed by the Minotaur.

Even now, he seemed to be struggling, but she couldn’t even begin to imagine how it must have been when his body was severed. It was too difficult for her to picture it.

Perhaps it was because the person had survived, but it seemed like the effects of the curse, which had momentarily disappeared, had returned.

Whenever she looked at him, she felt a peculiar sense of discomfort.

“······.”

However.

‘It’s okay.’

She now knows that these emotions are fake.

She knows they are manipulated emotions created by a curse.

Even the guilt and sin still rising behind him, she knows it’s the price he paid.

So, she could endure this level of discomfort.

She looked at him and quietly clasped her hands.

“May blessings be with your future.”

She can’t rescue him from the path he chose.

She can’t be a shield to keep him from suffering.

She’s too weak for that…

But at least she can offer some support.

Maybe not a shield, but she can be an umbrella to shield him from the storm.

She decided to bless his future as he walks into hell for who knows how long.

The Saint, Yuris von Yugrasia, made up her mind.