Chapter 37: Why would someone like him do this for someone like me?
When I opened my eyes, the first thing I perceived was the faint scent of dried blood, a bed, and silence.
It took me a few seconds to remember where I was, but as soon as the memories returned, my body tensed.
I was still alive.
And BaiShe was there.
I had to maintain my role.
I took a breath and prepared to respond with the same calculated insolence, but something caught my attention.
Monster carcasses littered the ground outside.
Dozens, no, hundreds.
I held my breath.
’How...?’
Why had he bothered to protect me?
We didn’t know each other.
He had no reason to burden himself with a stranger.
Was the information wrong?
His level, his temperament, his actions... Nothing matched what I’d read in the report.
And if he bore no resemblance to what I’d been told, how could I hope to manipulate him as planned?
I clenched my fists and decided to change my approach.
He’d helped me without asking for anything in return. Maybe he was sympathetic to women in distress, to vulnerable, submissive souls.
I could turn it into an opportunity.
’I could even use him to find the elixir.’
A glint flashed in my eyes.
Without a sound, I let my body relax, my eyelids grew heavy, and I pretended to faint again.
To evoke his pity.
Once he took the bait, I’d invent a story, a moving tragedy to forge a connection.
Then trap him.
An orphan.
A young girl from a fallen family.
Whatever, as long as it stirred his empathy.
And when I saw his gaze soften, when he whispered a few words to comfort me, I knew I’d gained ground.
It was time to play my ultimate card.
Without hesitation, I sat up slightly and let a piece of my clothing fall, exposing my skin.
BaiShe was a lecherous pervert, wasn’t he?
He wouldn’t refuse.
"No."
A single word, cold, sharp as a blade.
I blinked, frozen.
’What? Is he playing hard to get? Or is he very picky? No, he’s a regular at the Fragrant Flower Pavilion.’
I refused to accept this failure.
I adopted a more hesitant, more fragile expression, and my voice trembled.
"My body... maybe it doesn’t please you. Maybe I’m not enough..."
I left my sentence hanging, feigning embarrassment, before raising my eyes to him, determined to deliver the final blow.
"But if there’s the slightest chance... the slightest chance that you’ll help me find the elixir, I... I’ll give myself willingly. Everything I have, everything I am... I’ll offer it to you."
Silence stretched.
He didn’t respond immediately, and the longer the seconds passed, the greater my unease grew.
Then, calmly, in a voice devoid of hesitation, he declared:
"I have my principles."
My lips parted, but no sound emerged.
I didn’t know what to say, or what to do.
Without strength to confront him directly.
Without an advantage to manipulate him.
Without any way to retrieve the elixir alone.
Failure was inevitable.
I bit my lip.
If I returned without completing my mission... Banishment.
That’s when his voice resonated again.
"I could help you... But for now, you should meditate and recover."
I raised my head, eyes wide.
He had no intention of killing me.
He wasn’t going to abandon me here either.
I didn’t know what he had in mind, or why he was acting this way, but one thing was certain: I still had a chance.
I slowly nodded.
...
The journey began in an almost solemn silence. I walked beside him, feigning indifference, but in reality, my mind was boiling.
The dense forest stretched before us, its gnarled roots forming a natural labyrinth, its thick foliage filtering the sunlight into multiple dancing patches on the mossy ground. It was the perfect place for an ambush.
And yet, despite the obvious opportunity, a part of me hesitated.
Finally, when the level five monster attacked us. Memories of my childhood assailed me, the image of Father, his icy gaze that tolerated no weakness. Failure was not an option, so I tried.
Without warning, I launched my attack.
But he deflected it in an instant.
Before my blade could reach him, my wrist was seized in an implacable grip. In a breath, I was thrown backward, my back slamming hard against a tree trunk. My body trembled, not with fear, but with frustration.
BaiShe was far too powerful for me.
He looked at me for a moment before turning away, as if my attack had been nothing more than a mere formality, a speck of dust brushed aside with a flick of the hand, and then he fought the monster.
I didn’t try to kill him after that.
I refocused all my attention on our goal: the elixir.
Days passed.
And against all odds, a strange feeling was born within me.
I had never known anything like it before.
For the first time... I felt protected.
Me, a Succubus, who had to kill from the age of seven, who had never known the warmth of a home, who only knew how to survive on my own... For the first time, someone was getting hurt for me, taking risks for me.
And he had nothing to gain from it.
Why?
’Why would someone like him do this for someone like me?’
These thoughts looped in my mind as I watched him, his impassive face, his focused expression as he avoided the labyrinth’s trapped mechanisms, carrying me like a princess.
"You’re far too naive..." I murmured, resting my head against his chest.
A genuine smile, perhaps the first in years, brushed my lips.
Over the days, I had come to know him.
BaiShe was an honest man. Too honest. He focused on his goals, never paying attention to trivial details.
The Ancestral Families were known for their arrogance. Yet, he allowed me, a stranger with no prestigious lineage, to speak to him with such familiarity.
He might seem cold at first glance, but in reality...
He was protective.
He was talented.
And...
’Handsome.’