Chapter 57: White Moonlight and the Masked Man

“Holy crap, this red one… is also… poisonous.”

“Is this the Protagonist Halo? How did he manage to… bring back… every single fruit being poisonous…”

Half-conscious, Amivy heard a familiar voice mumbling beside her.

‘Who is that voice? What is he saying?’

‘Oh, it’s Kevin Caerslana. Is he worried about me?’

‘My head is so heavy…’

Having regained consciousness again, Amivy struggled to get up.

The struggle caught Ian’s attention.

Then Amivy heard a very familiar line.

“Oh! My God! Prince Arthur, you’re finally awake! Are you okay? Thirsty? Here, have some water…”

It was the same words, the same ‘attentive care.’

But Amivy felt like she had seen this scene many times before.

“Kevin, you…”

She tried to ask, but Ian interrupted her again, once more holding a strikingly colorful unknown fruit that looked incredibly ‘delicious’ to her lips.

Feeling like she was trapped in a time loop, Amivy couldn’t resist Ian’s ‘enthusiasm’ and was forced to take a bite of the brightly colored unknown fruit.

“Kevin (chew chew chew), I feel like (bite) you’ve (chew chew chew) already said what you just said many times? (swallow)”

“Oh? Is that so? How could that be? It must be Your Highness’s imagination. Oh, by the way, Your Highness, you only need to eat half. I need to keep the rest as a sample…”

With that, Ian directly took the colorful fruit from Amivy’s lips.

Amivy: “?”

‘What is this guy doing? Why can’t I finish a fruit?’

“Your Highness, how do you feel now?”

After Amivy completely swallowed the last bit of pulp, Ian, who had been squatting beside her silently observing the symptoms, spoke up.

“Huh? Feelings? What feelings can a fruit give? If I have to say, it tastes very sweet, and then a little spicy and my head… dizzy…!”

As the familiar drowsy feeling hit, Amivy’s memories came flooding back.

She finally remembered!

This bastard was using her to test poison!

“Kevin Caerslana!!!”

Watching Amivy fall straight back down before she could finish her sentence, Ian gained new insight into the half-eaten colorful fruit in his hand.

Just before Amivy’s consciousness completely sank into slumber, she heard the last sentence…

“It seems this one is the fastest-acting fruit of all… I just wonder how long its effects last…”

After that, Amivy fell into a deep sleep.

After her consciousness fell asleep, in her dream, Amivy recalled her life in the slums.

One night, she had just scavenged a half-hard piece of bread from the market’s trash heap and carefully hid it in her clothes, preparing to slip back to the shabby hut she lived in.

Suddenly, several thick hands covered her mouth and nose.

When she woke again, she only saw a dirty sack.

She was now on a bumpy carriage, surrounded by the soft sobbing of similarly young children.

And the kidnappers’ furious cursing:

“All of you, shut the up! What are you crying for?! So annoying! I don’t know what the boss is thinking, coming to the slums for supplies. How much can these unwanted pieces of trash be worth?”

“Shh! Keep your voice down. I heard that some cultist gave our gang a huge sum of money, and they specifically asked for these slum trash.”

“A huge sum? How much?”

“At least this much!”

“Ten thousand?”

“Ten thousand. In gold coins!”

…

After that, the kidnappers went on with their dirty fantasies, and Amivy stopped paying attention.

The turning point came on a rainy night.

Because of the muddy path, the carriage had to stop outside an abandoned post station.

The guards hid under the still-intact eaves to drink and warm themselves, letting their guard down slightly.

Amivy, who had grown up in the slums, always kept a rusty knife hidden on her, as a better-than-nothing self-defense tool.

Luckily for Amivy, these traffickers despised the dirtiness of ‘low-grade goods’ and didn’t search them.

The sound of rain masked the subtle scraping.

After an unknown amount of time, her wrist loosened.

Amivy was so thin that she could squeeze out through a broken corner of the cage.

The icy rain instantly soaked her thin clothes, but she didn’t care; barefoot, she desperately rushed into the dark rain curtain.

Soon, shouts and footsteps of pursuit came from behind.

The mud made her stagger; darkness and fear forced her to run headlong.

She ran and ran, her skin scraped by the forest thorns, the soles of her feet torn by dead branches and gravel.

Until she saw sunlight, and the shouts and footsteps behind her had disappeared.

Exhausted and weak, the young Amivy collapsed in the middle of some wild mountains.

Too weak to stand up, young Amivy thought she would die in this unknown wilderness.

But a faint medicinal scent drifted over.

Amivy trembled and forced her eyes open.

In the haze, she saw a figure walking toward her against the faint morning light.

The figure was very tall, with flowing black long hair dancing in the backlight.

Was… it a deity?

With this last question, the nearly unconscious Amivy was gently lifted up.

The embrace was not very soft, even somewhat firm.

The medicinal fragrance filled her nose, and only this scent was deeply etched into her memory.

But this dream memory was a little different.

This time, the deity in the dream spoke.

This was the first time in so many dreams that Amivy heard ‘her’ speak:

“…Here… how… is there… a little child… Good thing… I have… some… medicine left… for… Ao… li… ya…”

This was the first time Amivy heard ‘her’ speak, but the voice felt very familiar.

‘So… ‘she’ said something back then?’

As Amivy’s consciousness was still struggling to recall, a warm stream with a familiar herbal soup taste was fed into her mouth.

This familiar taste instantly reminded Amivy of the medicine ‘she’ had fed her on the day she was rescued!

It was ‘her’!

Could it be that ‘she’ was beside her now?!

“Alright… like this… it’s done… Gotta rely on… the family secret recipe… good… now next is…”

That voice sounded again, and this time, Amivy was certain.

The ‘her’ who had once saved her was right here beside her!

‘I must see ‘her’!’

With intense longing, Amivy struggled to open her eyes.

What came into her blurry sight was a figure very similar to that ‘her’!

The same black ‘long’ hair dancing in the air, the same tall stature, the same medicinal scent!

That’s right! ‘She’ had finally appeared before her again!

She could finally thank ‘her’!

As Amivy’s vision gradually cleared, the blurry figure slowly came into focus…

What did ‘she’ look like?

‘She’ must be a very gentle, kind, and beautiful ‘angel.’

When Amivy finally saw clearly, what appeared before her.

Was a masked man holding a piece of charcoal, preparing to ‘create’ on her face!