Chapter 34: For My Sake… Please Save That Child!

【You’re the only one who can save me…】

【Please! Please, I’m begging you!】

【I only have half a day left, please—】

…

“Save… me…”

Night was falling.

In the alley where no one should have been, Sal slowly slid down against the wall and slumped onto the ground.

Her pupils trembled as she stared at her blood-soaked hands.

The scarlet blood was still warm.
If she rinsed it, she could probably wash out a strand of long blue hair from it.

“Ah… aaah…”

Her trembling eyes swept across the red and white matter still oozing on the ground and the “eyeball” almost staring right at her.

She was so terrified she couldn’t even scream.
The thick stench of blood in the alley made her retch for who-knows-which time.

(What… what is going on here?)

She had only lost track of her for less than two minutes.
How—how could something like this happen?!

Sal struggled to calm herself.
When she finally steadied her shaking legs, overcome by fear, and forced herself to stand—short legs wobbling as she braced against the wall—

She was met face-to-face with the severed head of Lucía, whose dragon horns had been cut off.
Her expression frozen at the moment of her final scream, one eye missing and one eye staring.

“AAAAAAAHHH!”

This was surely the first time Sal had ever witnessed someone’s death from such close range.

Her body had been chopped into pieces.
Her head sliced clean off…

Her death looked almost identical to the scenes Sal saw in her dreams.

The only difference was that this time, the alley contained a terrified, half-broken-down Sal.

And even now, Sal could still hear Lucía’s tearful, terrified face in the cafeteria that day echoing in her mind.

【I don’t want to die… Please save me!】

The first time she was ever begged like that—what was Sal even thinking back then?

She didn’t remember clearly.

Maybe she thought it was some trick.
Or some kind of prank.

But the only thing she never expected…

Was that Lucía had been telling the truth.

She hadn’t lied—she truly only had less than a day left.

And Sal…

Sal hadn’t believed her.

(If I had believed her… if I hadn’t hesitated…)

Would she…

Have survived?

At that moment, hurried footsteps sounded behind Sal.

She had barely regained a sliver of clarity when a sharp sting hit her neck.
Drowsiness washed over her like a crashing tide.

Realizing something was wrong, she forced herself to turn, wanting to see the culprit’s face before she lost consciousness.

But all she saw was a mysterious figure wrapped entirely in a blood-splattered white coat, face covered with a white mask.

“(Imperial curse) — good thing I prepared for something like this.”

(My eyelids… so heavy… so sleepy…)

“Since you’ve seen me, don’t blame me for killing you… Bad luck for sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong and wandering in here, kid.”

Sal braced herself against the wall, resisting the sleep forced onto her.
She tried to lift the hand with her bracelet.

“Di…vine Lost Descent, born of the world…”

As she recited her broken transformation chant, she felt a warm current pulse from her raised wrist and flow through her body.

The drug’s drowsiness weakened.
It felt like things were turning around.

“Let the holy lightning of the pure maiden’s adornment—”

The ruby’s glow intensified, becoming so bright it nearly swallowed Sal whole.

“This is—”

Through the mask’s eye slits, the intruder’s blue vertical pupils shrank sharply.

“That old man’s—!”

Meanwhile, as the light surged, Sal finally felt it again—
The overwhelming power of a pure-blooded dragon, capable of sweeping aside everything!

Just a little more—if she could just fully transform—

But the next second, a massive force struck her abdomen like a hammer.

“Gwah!”

She spat dragon blood as the mysterious figure’s kick launched her through the air.

Her transformation was interrupted.
And she suffered a second internal blow—injury on injury.

Following the pain came the weakness of having her power forcibly withdrawn due to the interrupted transformation, and the drug’s drowsiness surging back.

Before losing consciousness, the last thing Sal saw was that white mask looming in front of her.

And behind it, mocking blue eyes.

“Don’t worry. We’ll have plenty of chances to meet again.”

“So… I look forward to working with you, little Sal.”

…

Later, Sal woke up lying on a roadside bench outside the academy, with multiple injuries.

Fortunately, while the wounds looked frightening, none were life-threatening.
After basic treatment, she was deemed fit to leave the infirmary.

Awake again, Sal admitted to leaving the school without permission—a violation.

But the academy spared her punishment, considering she was still a new student unfamiliar with the rules, and Natia Vida helped plead her case.

As for the attacker’s identity, Sal still couldn’t give a clear description.
She only said he sounded like a middle-aged man, wore a white coat, and had a white mask.

She even told them she saw Lucía’s corpse.
However… everyone knows how that went.

Even when Sal personally led them back to the alley where it happened…

They found nothing.
Not a drop of blood.
Not a smell.
Not even in the tiniest crack between the bricks.

As if everything that happened last night had never existed.

The dismembered corpse.
The masked man.

Everything seemed like Sal’s hallucination.

Everything except—

Sal instinctively touched her waist.

Only there…
Still faintly hurt.

Ultimately, with no evidence, the investigators had no choice but to shelve the case indefinitely—like the other unsolved cases.
They would send an inspector or two, but in truth, the case had already been pronounced dead.

…

“You mean… you want me to help you find that mysterious man?”

Time jumped back to the present, on the rooftop.

Sal nodded slowly, confirming Rein’s conclusion after hearing her entire story.

“It’s already been over a month.”

“At first, I kept trying to save Lucía head-on. But every time, either the masked man repelled me, or I arrived only to find her in pieces.”

“Later, I tried other methods. But every one of them failed. So—”

Sal sighed, her expression full of desperate pleading.

“For my sake… please help Lucía.”

“That Lucía… who only had one day to live.”