I Became the Keeper of a Suspicious Forest - Chapter 45

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 45

 

After landing safely, he first checked on the woman. Despite wrapping her as much as possible, glass shards that he couldn’t cover were stuck to her cloak.

 

“Are you okay?”

 

“….”

 

She seemed quite shocked, frozen stiff without moving at all.

 

“Are you hurt by any chance?”

 

“…No. Put, put me down.”

 

Following her request, he slowly set her upright and carefully removed the glass shards from her cloak.

 

“I’ve snuck in secretly many times, but I’ve never jumped down like this.”

 

“What?”

 

“I was saying I learned a new method thanks to you. Thank you for saving me.”

 

She quickly rattled off words he couldn’t understand, then frowned. Then, she put her hand inside her cloak and clutched the area near her heart.

 

Sionel urgently wrapped his arms around her shoulders.

 

“Are you injured by any chance….”

 

“Wow, they’re all here!”

 

The woman pulled out gold coins from inside her clothes and continued speaking in an extremely excited voice.

 

“Since we went through hardship together, I’ll share them with you.”

 

“I’m fine.”

 

“Wow, I was struggling to make that offer despite my poor circumstances. I’m grateful instead.”

 

Even without seeing her face, he could feel her emotions just from her voice. He realized for the first time that such rich emotions could be expressed through voice alone.

 

Actually, such overly honest behavior went against noble virtues, but she probably didn’t think of him as a noble.

 

That’s why he didn’t feel any particular aversion either.

 

“Hey, hey!”

 

There were people he had momentarily forgotten while lost in thought. Sionel and the woman looked up at the room where they had been just moments before.

 

Guild members were huddled together, sticking their heads out through the broken window. With dilated pupils, they were pointing at the woman with their hands—or rather, at the gold coins she was holding.

 

Among them, a sturdy woman who came to her senses first shouted.

 

“What are you all doing! Catch them!”

 

At the woman’s command, the men rushed out in a crowd. Hurried footsteps could be heard from inside the guild.

 

“Well then, it was nice meeting you, let’s each go our separate ways!”

 

The woman hastily stuffed the gold coins away and started running in the opposite direction from where she had come earlier. Then, Sionel gently grabbed her arm and led her.

 

“This way is better.”

 

The men chasing them from behind ran after them, but Sionel and the woman blended into the crowded town square.

 

“Isn’t this too much of a temporary measure? We’ll be caught soon.”

 

“Just hiding for a moment is enough. I’ve already reported to the village guards in advance.”

 

“Earlier you said it was a guild where common sense doesn’t work.”

 

“Those who will make common sense work will also be moving together.”

 

The reason Sionel could move around freely was also because Roen had organized people from the ducal house to directly exert influence.

 

Soon, Roen would completely overturn the guild together with the guards, and then those men would also be caught quickly.

 

“Just stay quiet like this and it’ll be fine.”

 

“Ugh….”

 

Just then, someone came staggering out of the alley right in front of the town square where they were.

 

The man couldn’t even control his body properly, and walking was the best he could manage. Then two other men came out in the same condition.

 

They were the three guild men he had knocked down in the alley earlier. Sionel and the woman, who recognized them first, stopped walking.

 

“Huh?”

 

Among the three, Volke, who was in relatively better condition, belatedly spotted them. He also noticed other guild colleagues in the distance who were looking for someone.

 

Volke looked at them suspiciously, scanning them from head to toe.

 

Two figures wearing shabby cloaks.

 

One had red hair slightly sticking out from under his hat, and the other was wearing unusually clean and high-quality leather shoes that didn’t match his worn clothing.

 

Just like those damn bastards who had made fools of them one by one.

 

“What’s wrong?”

 

“You… you bastards!”

 

Those who had followed him out looked strangely at Volke, who was pointing somewhere and venting his anger, but soon they too recognized their identities.

 

“Damn bastards!”

 

At the same time, the woman scattered powder once again.

 

“Aaaaah!”

 

“Stop!”

 

“Over here! These bastards are over here!”

 

As they fell to the ground screaming from the same trick, the guild members who had been chasing the intruder also noticed.

 

“There they are!”

 

Sionel grasped her hand and led her into the deep alley. As they weaved through the narrow alleys, her cloak became disheveled, but there was no time to worry about it.

 

They squeezed their bodies into the gap between the hay-filled cart warehouse and the wall. Soon, large men reached the vicinity.

 

“What? Where did they go already?”

 

“Split up and search.”

 

Even after the footsteps grew distant again, they held their breath.

 

“….”

 

“….”

 

Sionel raised his arms and twisted his body to avoid touching her, but it wasn’t easy in the narrow gap.

 

Thinking that he was failing to maintain proper etiquette toward a lady in various ways today, Sionel sighed.

 

“Please bear with it a little longer. It’ll all be over soon.”

 

Instead of answering, the woman looked at his face. While receiving her piercing gaze from under the cloak and feeling puzzled, Sionel soon noticed his unusually light head.

 

‘Oh no.’

 

He belatedly put his hat back on, but the woman had already seen his face.

 

Though he wore a wig on his head and covered his face with a scarf, only his eyes were truly his own.

 

‘Did she recognize me?’

 

“You.”

 

The woman, who had been maintaining silence, spoke up.

 

“Haven’t you seen me somewhere before?”

 

Perhaps thinking it was a strange question to ask when she hadn’t revealed anything about herself, the woman’s voice gradually grew quieter.

 

“No matter how much I think about it, it bothers me.”

 

“…As far as I know, no.”

 

Suddenly, the image of a young lady with crimson hair came to mind, but he immediately dismissed it. That couldn’t be.

 

The shy noble lady had been youthful like a girl, and her voice had been full of vitality without a care in the world. But the woman before him felt weary from her very voice, like a housewife who had experienced all the hardships the world had to offer.

 

She wasn’t a noble lady either.

 

“Don’t let a single person escape! Capture them all!”

 

The voice of his aide, Roen, could be heard. Meanwhile, the situation outside had mostly been resolved.

 

“I think it’s safe to go out now.”

 

The woman obediently followed Sionel’s words. Since those chasing them were gone, the woman tried to leave immediately, but Sionel blocked her path.

 

“I trust you’ll return the remaining gold coins, excluding the amount the young lady suffered in damages.”

 

“…Are you perhaps the city guard?”

 

“Something like that.”

 

“You wouldn’t know if I took more, would you?”

 

“I trust in your conscience.”

 

“You really know how to make someone’s conscience sting properly….”

 

Though grumbling, the woman counted the gold coins one by one and handed the rest to him.

 

“Can I go now?”

 

He briefly looked behind her.

 

These alleyways were dark and had many vagrants scattered about, making the security poor. It would be better for her to go safely with him, but she didn’t seem like she would stay if he tried to detain her.

 

Instead, Sionel pointed to the bright main road behind him.

 

“I won’t stop you, so take the road with many people.”

 

As he watched the woman’s retreating figure leaving the alley as he suggested, she suddenly turned around.

 

“Thank you!”

 

Leaving her greeting behind, the woman turned around again and her cloak came off.

 

Rose-colored hair that had deepened further by absorbing the sunlight flowed down, and she disappeared from view.

 

Even with that still eye-catching hair color, what truly captured his gaze was something else entirely.

 

He did not overlook those tender, young sprout-like eyes that had passed by in just an instant.

 

Sionel’s world had changed drastically from the day his uncle betrayed him, so the memories he had previously treasured began to fade one by one. The memories related to Ponia were the same.

 

However.

 

He would no longer overlook them. He would not forget.

 

Those purely clear leaf-colored eyes, that beautiful hair containing the sunset, that excessively honest attitude, that perceptiveness that always recognized him first

 

All of it pointed to only one person.

 

Finally, the locked dam had burst.

 

The one who had flustered him with her bold confession.

 

That eccentric forest keeper who had saved him on her own whim and approached him on her own terms.

 

Even their chance meeting where they didn’t recognize each other.

 

“It was all you.”

 

He had finally found her.

 

And feeling the water droplets, he opened his eyes completely.

 

He saw the forest keeper leaning over him with wet hair, checking on him from various angles. And gradually, her green eyes filled with shock.

 

“Are you conscious?”

 

“It was you.”

 

For this moment at least, he couldn’t feel the fever that had been consuming him.

 

Sionel pulled her toward him.

 

Ponia Harbel.

 

I’ll never let you go again.

 

* * *

 

“The fever is going down, but he just won’t wake up…”

 

She kept touching his forehead to check his temperature, when Sionel suddenly opened his eyes. Ponia quickly moved closer to him.

 

“Are you conscious?”

 

“It was you.”

 

As if he had been conscious the entire time, he continued speaking. Then he suddenly pulled her toward him.

 

“Eek!”

 

Why did a sick person have such strong grip strength? Ponia was helplessly pulled in.

 

Let me say this again—Sionel was really, really strong, and Ponia was completely defenseless.

 

So.

 

Smooch.

 

This mishap occurred.

 

“…I’ll never let you go…”

 

It happened in an instant. Though the moment of contact was brief, that didn’t make it disappear.

 

“…”

 

Ponia straightened her posture and looked around for answers from someone since she couldn’t accept this situation at all, but no one gave her any answers.

 

Sionel had closed his eyes again, and Chad, who had witnessed the scene, also had his mouth hanging wide open.

 

Clatter.

 

The empty spoon fell from her hand. Ponia blankly touched her lips that were still warm.

 

Wh-what just happened to me?

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————