HPV 28

The force most intimately tied to nature eased Banwes’s pain without causing any side effects. His torn skin healed so quickly it was visible to the naked eye.

I was tempted to keep watching his stunned reaction a little longer, but things on the other side were moving even more urgently.

Paronai, gripping his sword anew, had found the hiding monster with Penzey’s support and was relentlessly trying to land a fatal blow.

Unfortunately, Paronai could not deliver the killing strike.

Something suddenly burst out from the other side of the cave like a bear.

If it really was a bear, then it was the first time I’d ever seen a pure white one.

The sight of a bride, with a shredded wedding dress fluttering around her, driving her fist into the monster’s torso was chilling to the bone.

Even the normally stoic Yurichen seemed startled; the veil he had just drawn from his chest fluttered slightly.

It was the exact vital point Paronai had been aiming for.

Paronai lowered his sword and stared at the bride we had been searching for with an incredulous look. His mouth hung open, as if he might drool if left for a moment longer.

Taking advantage of the moment, I finished healing Banwes and casually put some distance between us, as if nothing had happened. Letting the matter quietly fade away.

As the monster collapsed, frothing at the mouth, the bride slowly turned her gaze toward us.

Paronai flinched instinctively.

A small voice escaped the bride’s lips.

“Are you the ones who came looking for me? Has the village gone into an uproar because of me?”

It was a question hardly worth answering. The bride would know better than anyone.

We had assumed she’d been kidnapped by monsters, and while that was technically correct, none of us had expected the bride to beat the monster to a pulp and escape on her own.

As the first ones to find her, we were now obliged to listen to her side of the story.

“No one in the village knows. Not even my parents. That I have a different kind of strength than others.

What happened today… I made an enemy out of a monster.

I didn’t realize there were monsters with this much intelligence. I must have stirred resentment when I beat up their kin in the nearby forest.”

It must have been a monster from outside the area.

Harboring a grudge against a powerful human, it had waited quietly, then tried to slaughter the couple on the happiest day of their lives.

“I had to chase it down and finish it off before it could escape.

I put Siyan to sleep with a sleeping powder and planned to take care of it quickly and return… but it took longer than I thought.”

Outside, dawn had already broken.

The bride’s face darkened, likely recalling the chaos she had caused.

Though her confession was sincere, half the group wasn’t really listening as we walked out of the cave.

The only one truly paying attention was Paronai — and even then, his focus was elsewhere.

“By the way, how are you so good at using your fists? I needed a sword just to aim for that vital spot, but you did it with your bare hands!”

The bride jumped back as if she’d been deeply misunderstood.

“That sounds like you’re calling me a thug!

I don’t hit people! Not even animals!

I only get mad at cursed monsters. It’s okay to beat up monsters, right?”

There had been a reason she snuck out at night rather than formally becoming the village’s sheriff.

It was because of her fiancé.

“Siyan is very timid… If he found out I was running around punching things every night, he’d be terrified of me.

He can’t even catch a single mole digging up his crops.

Once, when I caught a rat stealing food with my bare hands as a child, he screamed and didn’t speak to me for two days.”

The bride, who could defeat monsters with her bare fists, now looked nervous.

The fear that the person she loved might come to fear her was unlike any other.

At that moment, Paronai took a deep breath and marched up to her, speaking more solemnly than ever.

“How can you be sure?

Your husband didn’t know you snuck out every night, right?

Then how can you be sure you know everything about him?

Can you really say for certain that he would reject you?”

Surprisingly, it turned into relationship advice.

Penzey jabbed Paronai in the ribs with an incredulous look, and Paronai’s face turned bright red.

“I know! I’ve never even held a girl’s hand!

I’m sure advice from someone like me sounds ridiculous.

But your husband said, over and over, that as long as you were alive, nothing else mattered — that he just wanted you to come back safely.”

The bride’s lips trembled.

At the mention of her husband, she became visibly emotional.

Seizing the opportunity, Paronai quickly smiled.

“There’s no time to waste worrying. If it were me, I’d run straight to him first and figure everything else out later.”

Without another thought, the bride sprinted toward the village, not caring that her dress was getting even more tattered.

She ran without pausing for breath and threw herself into the arms of the equally disheveled groom.

“Zhihis…”

Without asking anything, the groom wrapped her tightly in his arms and kissed her forehead.

Seeing them, it was clear their future would be just fine.

Watching the two of them, I fell into thought.

‘Marriage always seemed like something for when life was more settled.’

I had vaguely hoped for it: A partner to share a bed, meals, joys, and burdens with.

But in my imagination, the seat beside me was always shrouded in black smoke.

I couldn’t picture their face, their personality, or any details about them.

Maybe I couldn’t imagine it at all.

Someone who could learn everything about my past and still choose to stay.

‘I probably won’t be able to get married. I’m way too flawed.’

I was drifting through gloomy thoughts like a cloud when, for some reason, the sensation still lingering in my hands resurfaced.

The blood that had dripped from the man’s injured shoulder. The shiver that ran through me as it gently returned to its original form.

I didn’t know why it came to mind now, but remembering the way the man had looked at me cleared away the dark clouds.

‘It’s a contradiction. Even though Banwes didn’t exactly live like a decent human in the past, and now struggles just to button his own clothes, I never assume he’s doomed to be alone forever.’

If I wasn’t going to see Banwes as hopeless, then I ought to be a little more forgiving toward myself too.

‘Still, who would I even burden with myself? Maybe I should just give up on the idea of being a husband altogether.’

We left the village without delay. Yurichen regretted the time we had wasted, and in a way, Penzey agreed.

He wasn’t interested in beautiful women who already belonged to someone else.

After the healing was over, Banwes and I didn’t exchange a single word.

The silence had held up well, but thanks to my pathetic stamina, the moment inevitably came when I needed to be carried.

“Carry me.”

I tapped his knee with mine, urging him to lower his back.

He was still wearing his singed shirt, and unlike before, showed clear reluctance.

If he didn’t lower himself, I couldn’t climb onto his back.

“You just keep treating me like some mule or donkey, and now you’re getting even more brazen about it.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Don’t you get it? I’ve done way more for you. One round of healing isn’t nearly enough to pay it back. Not twice, not three times. You’ll have to keep doing it endlessly.”

“So, are you saying you don’t want to carry me?”

I had no idea why we were having this argument.

If it were just the two of us, maybe, but not with the others watching.

Besides, the conversation was starting to tread dangerous ground.

I spun on my heel dramatically and approached Paronai instead.

“Pao, will you carry me?”

I even used the affectionate nickname Penzey liked to call him. It worked beautifully.

“Sure.”

Paronai grinned in satisfaction.

He slung his holy sword to the front and offered his back to me.

Silently praising the merciful heart of the hero, I leaned forward and wrapped my chest against his back.

“Oh boy…”

Penzey let out a strange sigh behind us. I had no idea why.

Paronai, carrying me, marched proudly at the front as usual.

Banwes seemed to be walking somewhere in the middle, while Penzey whispered to Yurichen, suggesting they lag behind as much as possible.

Still no clue what that was about.