TBVL 07

Looking for the Backer of the Betrayed Villainess – Chapter

07

She immediately threw herself over the edge of the cliff.

Even the flow of air brushing past her body felt like pain.

As she was falling, she took out a pill made from a processed hair-dye potion and put it into her mouth.

Now everything depended on her luck.

“Fa… rm… Damn it… ngh. The subspace…”

It was at that moment.

Summoning the subspace ‘Farm’.

Somewhere in her fading consciousness, it felt as though she heard the sound of flowing water.

Then everything went black.

It was a breathtaking view.

I was running wildly across a hill covered in fresh green grass, and no matter how fast I ran uphill, I never felt out of breath.

It felt as though I had wings on my legs.

At the end of the hill stood an enormous mountain, while colorful birds flew among majestic trees.

Clouds wrapped around the mountainside. Perhaps immortals live somewhere up there, I thought as I turned around.

Something suddenly grabbed my ankle with tremendous force.

—This is not where you are meant to come.

A booming voice echoed through my head.

The next instant, an overwhelming pressure crashed down upon my once weightless body.

It felt as though I were being slammed somewhere.

Darkness swallowed everything.

“No…!”

“Oh my, are you finally awake?”

In that instant, it felt as though my hearing had returned, and the world became vividly clear.

The faint scent of medicinal herbs and an unfamiliar warmth gently enveloped me.

My throat burned with pain, and I coughed violently.

As though waiting for it, a bowl of water was brought to my lips.

I greedily drank it down.

“You slept for three whole days. Frostbite, scratches and torn wounds all over, coughing up blood without stopping, and burning with fever… I really thought we were preparing a corpse. I also splinted your ankle.”

The one handing me the bowl was a kind-looking middle-aged woman.

I couldn’t make sense of the situation.

Where was I?

“This is a clinic. I’m the owner here. My name is Maria.”

The woman—Maria—spoke as though she had read my mind.

The first thing I felt was relief.

I had escaped that place alive.

That cabin was no longer my home.

An exhilarating joy filled my entire body, making my heart pound as if it would burst.

But then I heard something even more astonishing.

“You were found along the river in the southern part of the Grand Duchy.”

What?

“…The Grand Duchy?”

“Yes, the Grand Duchy of Wintergarten.”

My eyes widened.

Thinking it might be a dream, I pinched my cheeks hard.

The pain was real.

“This… this is really Wintergarten?”

“Of course.”

While I had been unconscious for a brief moment, I had somehow already reached my destination!

An unbelievable stroke of luck filled me with delight, though at the same time, something about it felt strangely unsettling.

As I mulled over the situation and sat up—

“Cough! Hack…”

Another mouthful of blood spilled out.

I wiped my lips with my sleeve as the metallic scent stung my nose.

It seemed the poison still hadn’t been completely neutralized.

Pretending to search through the bag neatly placed beside my bed, I reached inside.

A potion I pulled from my inventory dropped into my hand.

I took out the potion, its center shimmering with a tiny golden ether, and drank it in one gulp.

Almost immediately, the discomfort in my body settled.

“…”

For some reason, everything around me suddenly became quiet.

Maria’s presence had gone completely still.

The moment I turned my head in confusion, she practically screamed.

“Th-That couldn’t possibly be—”

Maria stared at me with eyes wide in shock.

Come to think of it, my potions had probably been banned from sale two years ago.

Surely they didn’t punish people simply for using them… right?

“Ah, I bought this a long time ago—”

“A p-potion! Where did you get that? Did you find it nearby? These days it’s incredibly hard to find anyone who uses or even sells them… And that’s a genuine, properly made potion!”

Maria’s eyes practically sparkled.

Startled, I instinctively leaned back.

Maria quickly stepped toward me.

I handed her the bottle and asked cautiously,

“Rumors?”

“They say it’s connected to dark magic, that it has terrible side effects… things like that. Where did you get it?”

“…Dark magic?”

I asked casually, but my heart dropped like a stone.

Dark magic?

There was no way my power—my abilities—could have originated from something so vile.

Not even in the kingdom that had completely abandoned me had anyone ever claimed my potions were the product of dark magic.

To me, it was a tremendous insult.

“Who says such things?”

“Well… there are disturbing rumors spreading through the kingdom, and several reported cases.”

Maria quickly took the potion bottle and hid it deep inside a drawer.

The movement was so natural that it looked like something she’d done many times before.

“More importantly, Lord Tinte, the Grand Duke’s personal physician—”

Just as she finished carefully hiding every trace of it and was about to answer my question—

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Someone pounded violently on the clinic door.

“Maria! It’s terrible! Something terrible has happened!”

Maria stopped mid-sentence and got to her feet.

I was dying to hear the rest of what she had been about to say, but the visitor sounded so frantic that I forced my curiosity aside.

Maria hurried to the door and flung it open.

“What—what happened?”

“The Maline Blacksmith’s Forge is on fire!”

“What?”

“We don’t have enough hands! The flames spread everywhere… huff… We need a doctor! Hurry!”

For a fleeting moment, the thought How does a blacksmith’s forge catch fire? crossed my mind.

But seeing Maria turn pale as she hurriedly packed her medical bag drove every other thought from my head.

“I-I have to go. Miss, could you rest here? The emergency treatment is finished, so you should be alright.”

Desperation filled the face of the man at the door.

The air surrounding him carried the thick smell of smoke.

I checked my condition one more time.

I had only just woken up, my strength was lacking, and I certainly wasn’t in good shape.

But I could still move.

I got up and followed Maria.

“…I’ll come with you. You said you’re short on people.”

“Huh?”

“I’ll help however I can.”

“No, you’re a patient too!”

“Call me Rita. And… I don’t have any money for medical fees. I’ll do whatever odd jobs I can.”

A brief argument followed.

Naturally, I won.

There wasn’t really any other choice.

The situation was simply too urgent.

Maria handed me a thick coat and a robe, looking worried.

I gave her a thumbs-up as if to say, Trust me.

Just in case, I borrowed a piece of cloth and tied it behind my head to cover part of my face.

“Maria, hurry!”

Maria immediately ran outside with the villager.

I followed behind at a slower pace, taking in my surroundings.

Old houses.

Bare winter trees.

Magic lamps that had just begun to glow.

Evening was falling.

Finding the fire wasn’t difficult.

A massive pillar of black smoke rose into the sky, visible even from afar, and everyone was rushing toward it.

The closer I got, the stronger the smell of burning became, accompanied by people’s desperate screams.

“Ahhh! Father! Father! Please wake up! Please!”

“A doctor! Is there a doctor? My wife’s condition is strange, please…”

“Maria, over here too! He’s not breathing!”

Despair, as black as the smoke, clung heavily over the entire area.

Maria, who had arrived first, was already drenched in sweat, rushing everywhere with a face tense from panic.

A few physicians wearing white robes with white sashes around their waists could be seen here and there.

But there were far too few of them.

“Here, please help over here too! Aah! Selin! Selin!”

Someone grabbed my hand.

They needed help and had simply seized the nearest person.

The woman who held my hand sobbed uncontrollably, as though she could see nothing else, running beside a stretcher.

I followed after her.

A physician barked rapid instructions while moving swiftly.

“Soak a soft cloth in cyan juice! Hurry!”

“Selin! Stay awake! Don’t lose consciousness!”

At a glance, Selin was in terrible condition.

She looked no older than fifteen.

Blisters covered her body, suggesting at least second-degree burns, with some areas appearing even more severe.

“Gasp… hng… It hurts… it hurts…”

“Selin! Selin, please!”

I bit my lip hard.

My stomach still churned slightly, and my ankle throbbed.

Then my mood suddenly plummeted.

“I-I guess… this is… really… the end…”

“Why are you saying something like that?”

“I just… hng… wanted… to live… a little longer…”

“Don’t be ridiculous. You’re not going to die.”

Fragments of a long-buried past surfaced in my mind once again.