How To Survive A Cute Ghost Yandere
Chapter 20: Save the Saintess’s life

Chapter 20: Chapter 20: Save the Saintess’s life

The forest felt eerily quiet.

Eiros walked right behind the group, playing his role as an observer, just as assigned. Across from him, the Saintess, offering no help of any kind, had also chosen to stay toward the back so as not to slow anyone down.

The forest they’d entered stretched out behind the academy grounds. It was deliberately maintained, keeping low-level monsters alive specifically to serve as training material for first-year students.

As they walked, Eiros could hear Lovia and Godon joking around together. But his gaze stayed locked on Alen, who’d gone quiet, his expression turning noticeably serious.

’...This isn’t good.’

Eiros knew it well. One of the abilities tied to his Stigmata was the capacity to sense when something was wrong. If a situation was about to take a turn for the worse, his instincts would scream danger.

That sort of thing had happened occasionally in the webtoon, and it was exactly why Alen had become such a formidable fighter—his instincts and gut feeling were nothing short of extraordinary.

Seeing him this pale already said everything.

Something was wrong with this forest.

That thought sent Eiros’s heart pounding harder.

’Is the main storyline about to kick in again?’

His palms were sweating.

The forest rustled, sending a shiver crawling up his spine. A wolf’s howl rang out, making Eiros flinch in surprise.

Up ahead, the bushes rustled faster and faster, something moving with startling speed. Then a wolf emerged, a sharp white horn jutting from its head.

Godon stepped forward a few paces, not bothering with his Stigmata—just wielding a large sword provided by the academy.

Baam—!!

"Hrgh...!"

The massive sword clashed against the wolf’s fangs. Then, with a flicker of pale white electricity sparking from its horn, Godon gritted his teeth and stumbled back a few steps.

Kraa—!!

That pale white lightning crackled through a small radius around the wolf’s body, nearly catching Godon in its range.

At the same moment, Lovia appeared like a shadow. Her blurred form materialized right behind the wolf, a sharply curved blade already in her hand—another piece of academy-issued equipment.

"Hehe...!"

Channeling Soul Essence through the strike, Lovia lunged forward with a stab. Blood sprayed out, and the wolf howled in agony. Without giving it a single moment of reprieve, Lovia yanked her blade free and tore straight through the creature’s body.

A grin spread across her face, splattered with the blood that had sprayed out.

Thud—!!

The wolf’s body dropped to the ground.

Not long after, several more wolves emerged. Alen drew a slender sword, also academy equipment.

Blade drawn, he shot forward with a sharp, focused gaze. The wolf in front of him snarled and lunged. Pale white lightning crackled through the air, but as if he’d already read the attack coming, Alen dodged with ease.

Crackle—!

The lightning cracked apart just like it had with the previous wolf. The moment it stopped, Alen gave it no time to recover, charging forward as the wolf swung its sharp claws.

Alen tilted his head, sword still drawn. In one clean motion, he sliced through the wolf’s throat, separating it from its body. Blood sprayed out brutally, splashing across his face.

Standing calmly, Alen wiped the blood away and turned his gaze toward the three remaining wolves.

They won that fight without much trouble at all.

"See that? Did you see that?! The three of us are honestly more than enough to take down those wolves!"

Lovia grinned, thoroughly satisfied, rubbing the bridge of her nose as she plopped down onto one of the larger, softer wolf corpses.

"Ah, yeah, yeah, yeah, sure, sure, you’re strong."

Alen answered while waving a hand into empty air. His expression still showed no change at all, apart from that same wariness.

Maybe because Alen’s response sounded half-hearted, Lovia launched into a string of grumbling and cursing about this and that, only to get completely ignored by Alen.

"Is the evaluation really just going to be this simple?"

Godon spoke up then.

Making Eiros, who overheard, shrug both shoulders.

"Who knows? They might have something special planned for us the further we go in."

Godon nodded.

"Makes sense. They wouldn’t get a good read on our evaluation if they can’t push us into using our full strength."

After that, the big-bodied student let out a booming laugh. Well, of course, despite how calm he looked, Godon actually loved fighting quite a bit, which sometimes made his personality a little hard to figure out.

"So, should we push further in?" Lovia asked, sounding a bit breathless, clearly tired out from grumbling at Alen, who hadn’t even paid her the slightest attention.

Meanwhile, the Alen in question seemed to be trembling faintly.

"...Let’s take it slow, don’t rush."

"Huh?! Why now? Didn’t you see that? We can handle those wolves easily."

"For once, I actually agree with Lovia."

Godon chimed in, "I mean, it’s only natural to be careful when we first step into the forest. But now that we’ve gauged the monsters’ level, shouldn’t we naturally speed up our pace? It’s not like we’re going to struggle against them."

From any angle, what Godon was saying made perfect sense—if they had no idea what was actually worrying Alen.

At this point, even Eiros couldn’t do anything to help, given that he was merely an observer attached to the group.

Alen’s face looked pale.

"Still, can’t we just be careful, maybe—"

"Hey, hey, hey...!! What’s with you, are you scared? Wow, I never thought Alen would turn out to be such a coward."

Lovia laughed, deliberately trying to provoke Alen into pushing forward faster. But Alen wasn’t fazed at all, letting out a long sigh as he rubbed his face.

Maybe if Alen could actually explain the reason, but that was impossible. If he said it was purely based on instinct alone, there was no way he’d earn their trust for it.

At the same moment, Eiros, who’d only been observing beside the Saintess, suddenly flinched.

His red pupils stared blankly into empty air.

[NEW QUEST]

Objective: Save the Saintess’s life.

Failure: You Will Be Locked in an Empty Room Together With That Ghost.

Goosebumps crawled across his skin, his face draining of color.

"Huh?!"

Without meaning to, Eiros let out a small sound, one the Saintess noticed, glancing at him with sudden concern.

"Um... Is something wrong?"

Eiros glanced at her stiffly, then forced a smile and shook his head slowly.

"Ah, no, sorry, I’m fine."

Then he sank back into his own thoughts.

’The Saintess? Dying? Something’s going to threaten her life? An assassin? Or what?’

His heart pounded as he glanced at Alen. That bad feeling clearly wasn’t wrong.

Something was definitely about to happen today, and somehow, Eiros needed to make sure this particular protagonist—the Saintess—managed to survive it.

But how...?

He didn’t even know what exactly was threatening her life.

After a moment of thought, Eiros wetted his lips and looked at the Saintess.

"Lady Saintess."

"...Is there something I can help with?"

"Yes. Could you try not to wander too far from me?"

The Saintess blinked.

"Why?"

"It’s nothing, I just feel a lot safer not being alone."

Eiros planted a specific thought firmly in his mind. That no matter what happened, regardless of the circumstances, he couldn’t let the Saintess die here.

As for Alen, he was the protagonist—he could surely handle himself just fine. He could look after his own friends too.

Eiros just hoped he could pull off his own part in this.

Then, right then, it was decided.

"Alright, let’s head in. Not too slow, but not too fast either—that’s the deal, okay?"

"Well, that’s a lot better than going too slow. I want to get back home quickly."

***