Jobless Reincarnation: Sword, Magic Hat and Romance System

Chapter 74 The Desperate Rescue Operation

When a person is experiencing emotional distress, the passage of time seems to slow down to the senses.

Senis felt like she had cried all her tears out.

Her hair was disheveled and draped over her body, her face was dejected, and her eyes were vacant as she stared at the valley in front of her.

Shadows were everywhere.

Almost all the adult men in Buyena village came to help dig out the snow. The bad news brought back to Buyena village in the first half of last night had prompted the operation to begin immediately.

It is the responsibility of the entire village to exterminate monsters. In the event of a monster uprising, the villagers were already grateful for the help of Alan, Paul, and their companions, who risked their lives to exterminate the monsters by venturing alone into the valley.

Everyone grabbed their shovels and forks used to strangle monsters, and under the cover of night, they followed Paul into the forest.

Strangely, there were only a few monsters clustered around the edge of the forest at first, but the closer they got to the valley, the fewer monsters there were. They had been digging since late at night, even outside the valley.

Not a single monster appeared.

"Let's all give it our all!!"

Paul's hoarse voice came from ahead. He looked exhausted, with a stubble beard and dark circles under his eyes that almost completely covered his eye sockets. Even so, he continued digging with great efficiency.

Even so, the snow at the entrance to the valley has not yet been cleared.

It hadn't snowed all day, and the setting sun cast its rays down on Senis's blank face from the mountain stream.

Twenty-four hours have passed since Allen and Hilfi fell into the canyon.

"I shouldn't have let them go into the forest. It's my problem, it's my problem."

"Madam, Allen is very strong, he'll be alright."

"It's my problem, it's my problem."

Lilia looked at Senis's expression; her face was numb, and her red hair was disheveled and draped over her shoulders. Lilia knew that this was just a comforting remark.

The situation was already known to everyone last night.

It wasn't as simple as just being blocked by an avalanche.

The two fell off a cliff halfway down the mountain.

Even if Allen is incredibly powerful, that's over a hundred meters in the air. If they don't find a way to stop their fall immediately, the two of them could very well...

Lilia quickly shook her head, banishing the unsettling thought from her mind.

She reached out and tightened Senis's robe, whose exposed skin had begun to turn blue. After being woken up in the middle of the night, the two ignored Paul's advice and hurriedly wrapped themselves in coats before heading out. They first asked a neighbor to help them take care of their child, and then hurried into the forest.

When Senis witnessed the avalanche burying the valley, she was stunned. Her expression twisted several times before she slumped to the ground and began to weep silently.

After dawn, he kept repeating this phrase, and he hasn't stopped since.

As an adventurer, she should understand even better just how bad the situation is.

And how minuscule are the chances of the two surviving?

As for Rudy, who is usually steady and precocious.

Lilia turned her head to look to the side.

Rudius, wrapped in a blanket, squatted on the ground, looking at the snow in front of him. His expression seemed blank, as if he hadn't woken up yet, and he had a sense of unreality, as if he were detached from the world.

If Senis's breakdown was visible to the naked eye, then Rudeus's breakdown was not so superficial.

The former was still willing to eat, while the latter maintained this posture without changing, as if curling up into a ball allowed him to escape the reality he was facing, and that by lowering his head he could not see the rescue operation in the distance.

This was the first time Lilia had ever seen such a cowardly attitude.

But this is how a child should be.

Because of this, everyone present understood him and let him sit there, since as a child he couldn't be of much help, and as a magician, he was also ordered by Paul not to use magic.

The current situation is that while Rudy might be more efficient using breath magic and fire magic, Paul is afraid of triggering another avalanche. If released sparingly, breath magic is too slow and could cause snow avalanches, while fire magic, after melting the snow, would freeze into ice at the current temperature, further complicating the rescue operation.

So he was left behind here.

Thinking of this, Lilia walked up to Rudy, squatted down, and handed Rudy the bread that was already frozen solid to him.

The latter, looking as if suddenly realizing something, took the bread and politely thanked Lilia.

Then he tucked it into his arms and continued to keep his head down in silence.

Lilia opened her mouth as if to say something, but after a long while she let out a silent sigh.

Rudius had already accumulated several loaves of bread in his arms.

Every time she handed Rudy bread, she would hug him and say things like, "You've worked hard, it's not your fault," to comfort him.

But there was no smile on his face.

He will thank you and can talk to you clearly, but his expression will remain in a daze, as if he is dreaming.

She stared at Rudy for a while, then turned to look at Paul, who was directing the digging in the distance. She took out a new loaf of bread from a basket beside her and was about to deliver it to him.

But then Rudius spoke up.

"Lilia, what were Allen's motivations when he came to save me?"

Lilia was taken aback and quickly turned to look at Rudy.

Rudy stared at the snow beneath his feet, seemingly not expecting Lilia to answer at all, and simply continued speaking.

"If it were me, I would save them too, because just thinking about their corpses possibly lying in front of me like two lumps of flesh would make me regret it. So I would save them. Even if I were unlucky enough to end up as a pile of flesh myself, at least for that moment, I was sure I would save them."

Lilia was somewhat taken aback, and hesitated, unsure of what to say.

Rudy looked up and stared blankly at Lilia.

Lilia felt his gaze was distant, and even though he was looking at her, she knew she wasn't the one he was looking at.

Rudy's slightly puzzled voice drifted into her ear.

"I clearly had the intention to save them, even if it wasn't them, I would have tried to save any stranger. So why was it that in the end I was the one who was saved?"

Lilia was taken aback.

Rudy's voice grew faster and more fluent as he looked at the snow in front of him and rattled off a string of words into Lilia's ear.

"Clearly, I have a lot of magic power. If I unleash my full power in a breath magic spell, I might even have a chance to blow us back to Father. So why am I the one who was saved? And why didn't I save them?"

"I always say that Allen is all talk, but when it comes to myself, all I can do is spout nice things at times like this, and then verbally torture myself. Is that all?"

"I saw it clearly the moment Allen saved me. He didn't hesitate at all? Did he know he was going to die? Or did he, like me, consider making a choice he wouldn't regret?"

"So we share the same awareness, so why am I the one sitting here regretting it? Lilia, I don't understand."

Rudy looked up at Lilia, who was struggling to find a way to interrupt him. Senis, meanwhile, covered her face and lowered her head.

"Or did Allen never consider whether he would regret his choice afterward, and simply did it because he wanted to save me? Is that right?"

As soon as he finished speaking, the air between the three of them froze. Rudy looked at Lilia as if waiting for an answer, or perhaps waiting for Lilia to insult him so he could get the response he wanted.

This somewhat direct interrogation logic reminded Lilia of Allen when the affair broke out.

However, while Allen was interrogating others, Rudy was now interrogating himself.

In the nearly two years since then, has Allen, like a butterfly, only stirred up changes in one person?

Lilia was speechless.

"ah!!!"

Just then, a cry of surprise came from the snow-covered excavation site. Almost simultaneously, Rudy and Senis jumped up from the ground and ran towards it, with Lilia following closely behind.

After the three of them ran over, they, along with Roltz and his wife, who had also arrived looking haggard, were all stunned.

At the location where the excavation took place, the snow had not been removed, but its color had changed.

Beside the shovel that the villagers had thrown away in shock.

The snow there is a sticky, dark purple color.

Everyone who witnessed this scene felt a chill run through them.

(End of this chapter)