When one is emotionally tormented, the passage of time feels exceptionally slow.
Zenith felt like she had cried all her tears out.
Her hair was disheveled and hung over her body. Her expression was dejected, and she stared blankly at the valley before her.
Figures moved about.
Almost all the adult men of Buena Village had come to help dig the snow. When the terrible news was brought back to the village late last night, this operation was launched immediately.
Exterminating monsters was the responsibility of the entire village. With the monster outbreak, they already felt guilty for not properly clearing the monsters out of fear when Paul wasn't around, leaving behind this 'root of disaster.' And the dangerous act of Allen, Paul, and the others venturing alone into the valley to eliminate the beasts made all the villagers feel a deep sense of gratitude.
Everyone grabbed their shovels and the wooden pitchforks used for killing monsters from their homes and followed Paul into the forest under the cover of night.
But strangely, while there were a few small groups of monsters at the outer edge of the forest at first, the closer they got to the valley, the fewer monsters they saw. By the time they reached the valley, they had been digging from midnight until now.
Not a single monster had appeared.
"Everyone, push harder!!"
Paul's hoarse voice came from the front. He looked extremely tired, with a scruffy beard and dark circles that almost covered his entire eye sockets. Even so, he continued to dig with great efficiency.
But even so, the snow at the valley entrance had not yet been cleared.
It hadn't snowed at all today. The setting sun shone from the mountain stream onto Zenith's blank face.
A full twenty-four hours had passed since Allen and Sylphie fell into the gorge.
"I shouldn't have let them go to the forest. It's my fault, it's my fault..."
"My lady... Allen is strong... He must be fine..."
"It's my fault, it's my fault..."
Lilia looked at Zenith's expression; her own face was also numb. Her red hair was scattered over her shoulders. Lilia knew her words were just empty comfort.
The situation had been made clear to everyone last night.
It wasn't as simple as the valley entrance being blocked by an avalanche.
The two of them had fallen from halfway up the mountain...
No matter how capable Allen was, that was over a hundred meters in the air. If he couldn't find a way to stop his fall immediately, then the two of them were very likely...
Lilia quickly shook her head, trying to banish the unsettling thought.
She reached out and tightened Zenith's cloak. The latter's exposed skin was already turning blue. When they were woken up late at night, both had ignored Paul's advice and hastily wrapped themselves in overcoats before heading out. They first found a neighbor to help look after their children, then rushed into the forest.
And when Zenith saw the valley buried by the avalanche with her own eyes, she froze. After her expression twisted a few times, she collapsed to the ground and began to cry silently.
When dawn came, she kept repeating that same sentence and hadn't stopped since.
As a former adventurer, she probably understood better than anyone how terrible the current situation was.
And how slim the chances of their survival were.
As for Rudeus, who was usually so composed and overly mature...
Lilia turned to look to the side.
Rudeus was wrapped in a blanket, squatting on the ground, staring at the snow in front of him. He looked completely bewildered, as if he hadn't woken up, with a sense of unreality and detachment from the world.
If Zenith's breakdown was visible to the naked eye, then Rudeus's was less obvious.
But the former was still willing to eat, while the latter had maintained this posture without change, as if curling into a ball could help him escape the reality he was facing, and burying his head low would prevent him from seeing the rescue operation in the distance.
Lilia had never seen such a cowardly posture from him before.
But this was how a child should be.
Because of this, everyone present understood him and let him sit there, as a child couldn't be of much help anyway. And as a mage, he had been ordered by Paul not to use magic.
The current situation was that although Rudeus's gust and fire magic might be more efficient, Paul was afraid of triggering another avalanche. And if used sparingly, the gust magic was too slow and could cause a snow collapse, while the fire magic, after melting the snow, would freeze into ice in the current temperature, which would only make the rescue operation more difficult.
So he was left here.
Thinking of this, Lilia walked over to Rudeus, squatted down, and handed him the bread that was already frozen solid.
Rudeus took the bread in a daze and even politely said thank you to Lilia.
Then he tucked it into his clothes and continued to look down without a word.
Lilia opened her mouth to say something, but after a while, she just sighed silently.
Several pieces of bread had already accumulated in Rudeus's clothes.
Every time she handed him bread before, she would hug him and comfort him with words like "You've worked hard," "It's not your fault."
But there was no smile at all.
He would thank you and could converse with you clearly, but his expression remained in a dazed, dream-like state.
She watched Rudeus for a while, then turned to look at Paul directing the digging in the distance. She took out a new piece of bread from the basket beside her and was about to take it over.
But at that moment, Rudeus spoke up.
"Lilia... what do you think Allen was thinking when he saved me?"
Lilia was stunned and quickly turned to look at Rudeus.
Rudeus stared at the snow at his feet, as if he didn't expect an answer from Lilia at all, and just continued his own thought.
"If it were me, I would have saved them too, because just the thought of their bodies possibly ending up as two piles of mush in front of me would surely make me regret it. So I would save them. Even if I were unlucky and ended up as a pile of mush myself, at least at that moment, I'm sure I would save them."
Lilia was taken aback, her lips moving, unsure of what to say.
Rudeus looked up, staring blankly at Lilia.
Lilia felt his gaze was distant. Even though he was looking at her, she knew she wasn't the person he was looking at.
Rudeus's slightly confused voice floated by her ear.
"...I clearly would have had the thought of saving them, and not just them, I would have even tried to save a stranger. So why, in the end, was I the one who was saved?"
Lilia was stunned.
Rudeus's words became faster and more fluent. He looked at the snow in front of him, his mouth firing off words like a machine gun by Lilia's ear.
"Clearly, I have a lot of magic power. If I had used my gust magic with all my might, maybe I would have had a chance to blow us back to where Father was? So why was I the one who was saved? Why didn't I save them?"
"I'm always saying that guy Allen is full of pretty words, but when it comes to me, all I can do at a time like this is say some pretty words myself and then berate myself a little. Is that all?"
"I saw clearly the moment Allen saved me. He didn't hesitate at all. Did he know he was going to die? Or was he like me, considering how to make a choice he wouldn't regret?"
"So if we had the same resolve, why am I the one sitting here regretting it now? Lilia, I don't understand."
Rudeus looked up at Lilia, who was struggling to interrupt him but couldn't find an opening. Zenith beside them had already covered her face and lowered her head.
"Or did Allen not even think about whether he would regret his choice afterward, but simply thought of saving me, and so he did it? Is that it?"
As the words fell, the air between the three of them froze. Rudeus looked at Lilia as if waiting for an answer, or perhaps waiting for Lilia to scold him, to get the answer he wanted.
This rather direct line of questioning reminded Lilia of Allen on the night of the affair incident.
But back then, Allen was questioning others, while now, Rudeus was questioning himself.
In these nearly two years, had Allen the butterfly only influenced the change of one person?
Lilia was speechless.
"Ah!!!"
But at that moment, a cry of alarm came from the digging site. Almost simultaneously, Rudeus and Zenith shot up from the ground and ran towards it, with Lilia close behind.
When the three of them got there, they, along with the equally haggard Roles and his wife, and Paul, all froze in a daze.
At the digging site, the snow had not been cleared, but its color had changed.
Next to the shovel that a horrified villager had dropped.
The snow there was a viscous, dark purple.
Seeing this, a chill ran through everyone's heart.
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