Let’s Make Saving a Habit - Chapter 29
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
Chapter 29
I rubbed my eyes in disbelief and looked again, unable to accept what I was seeing.
But nothing had changed.
Seven eggs still lay scattered on the ground, exactly as before.
“Rosemary… where on earth did you get so many eggs?”
“Hehe. Well, you could say this was my means of survival…”
She meant she’d lived as a pickpocket when she was on the streets.
I was caught between whether to praise her or scold her for this.
Misinterpreting my silence, Rosemary added cheerfully.
“Oh! I put appropriate pebbles in the other children’s pockets.”
“Well, that… was well done.”
For now, since we were in the Battle Royale, I praised her—after all, the ends justified the means in this situation.
“But Rosemary, you can’t steal from others like that once we’re outside, understand?”
“Of course! I’ve already washed my hands clean now!”
…Though for someone who’s supposedly washed their hands clean, her body seems to remember the old ways far too well.
“Rosemary, but why didn’t you break the eggs right after stealing them?”
Judging by how slowly she moved while carrying them in her pockets, it would have been better to smash them on the spot.
After all, having someone else’s eggs didn’t help me—I couldn’t exchange them for my own.
“Oh, this? I was planning to throw them if anyone got close. I can’t very well throw stones, can I?”
The way she said she couldn’t throw stones so cheerfully made my head spin. I felt a slight sense of betrayal.
I thought only Raspi was like this, but who would’ve guessed they weren’t twins for nothing…
I realized I’d need to watch over these two very, very carefully to keep them from going down a dark path.
With Rosemary’s eggs divided between Raspi and myself, we resumed our journey.
As we wandered through the Forest, we tamed every monster we encountered and brought them along with us.
I was thinking we’d gathered a reasonable number of monsters.
Bang—!
A signal flare exploded in the distance, and red smoke billowed up into the sky.
It was the sound announcing the start of the Battle Royale.
The moment the competition began, Raspi spoke to me as if he’d been waiting for this.
“Tania.”
“Hmm?”
“From here on, could you leave everything to me?”
“What exactly are you planning to do?”
“If you remain here under the protection of the monsters, I will eliminate everyone else and return. So that you can claim victory.”
Raspi seemed to think that bringing Rosemary and me along would put us at a disadvantage in many ways.
It wasn’t a bad assessment.
Rosemary was still an ordinary person who hadn’t awakened her abilities, and my “Foresight” power wasn’t useful in combat.
“Sure, go ahead.”
I accepted his proposal and decided to actively do nothing.
As I readily agreed, Raspi’s face brightened slightly, as if grateful that I trusted him, and he added his final words.
“If someone comes here, you just need to escape while Rosemary buys us time.”
Wait, she’s your own sister, and you’re telling her to use herself as a shield and run?
Yet Rosemary seemed entirely unbothered, clenching her fists tightly as her eyes gleamed with determination.
“Just trust me, Hero! I’ll make an excellent decoy for you!”
…Isn’t that usually something the hero is supposed to say?
Rather than argue with her, I burst into hearty laughter and responded in kind.
“Then I’m counting on you, Princess.”
“No! You’re the hero who will soon make me a duchess!”
“…U-uh, okay.”
Was my role that of a hero or a princess? I honestly couldn’t tell anymore.
I had no idea which tune I was supposed to dance to.
The adult Rosemary from the previous timeline definitely didn’t have this kind of personality.
She’d been far quieter and more composed back then. It made sense—her brother’s disappearance and death must have profoundly shaped who she became.
I gazed at the pristine, unblemished Rosemary before me and let my lips curl upward.
“Big brother, go crush all those small fry and come back!”
“Understood. Tania, I’ll be going now.”
Raspi left behind half of the tamed magical beasts as our guard and departed without hesitation.
[Overlaying the current perspective onto Perspective 1.]
I dropped onto a nearby tree stump and watched his receding figure fade into the distance.
Truth be told, despite what I’d said about doing nothing….
I harbored no illusions that Raspi would eliminate Elysion.
Elysion was an opponent I could never defeat through brute force alone.
So while the others’ eliminations could be achieved with Raspi’s help, Elysion—only Elysion—I would have to eliminate myself.
✦ ✦ ✦
Left behind with the monsters Raspi had abandoned, I spent the time in leisurely conversation with Rosemary.
“…So I boldly told them I couldn’t read, and they started suspecting how I even got into the Talent Cultivation Institute!”
“Gasp, and then?”
“I told them, ‘I just guessed randomly and somehow passed.'”
“They didn’t say you didn’t deserve to be here or anything like that?”
“Ahem. I told them that random guessing is a skill too!”
“Puhaha! Our Rosemary, you’ve got nerve and brains both intact!”
I was in the middle of hearing how Rosemary had been getting along at the Talent Cultivation Institute all this time.
A rustling sound came from nearby, and I felt a presence approaching.
“Found you!”
A boy with a disagreeable temperament grinned wickedly at us.
At a glance, we looked weak enough that he’d surely marked us as prey.
“Hand over your eggs right now and get lost if you don’t want both of you to get hurt.”
I rested my chin in my palm and chuckled with amusement.
“You’re the one who should leave this place.”
“Ha, what right do you have? Do you think this is your territory or something?”
“Sorry, but this is the elderly seating area.”
“If you’re weak, just tear up scrolls and stay quietly in the Safe Zone!”
The boy was an Ability User who wielded fire—flames wrapped around his hands as he charged at us.
Tsk. I’d given fair warning.
I clicked my tongue and pointed at him with my index finger.
“Krugs, block him!”
Immediately, the monsters scattered around the area sprang forward and blocked the boy’s path.
“W-what!”
Startled beyond measure, he stumbled backward on his rear.
“H-how are there so many monsters gathered in one place….”
Of course, monsters abnormally congregating in one spot would easily draw attention from others.
That’s why I’d kept the monsters scattered and hidden around us.
I looked at the terrified child and kindly explained again.
“I think there’s been a misunderstanding. This isn’t the elderly seating area—it’s the NO-weaklings seating area.”
“W-what?”
“It means weaklings like you aren’t allowed in.”
“W-who are you calling weak!”
As the boy screamed without grasping the situation, Rosemary stepped forward.
“You! Hand over your eggs for the hero while I’m being nice, then get out!”
“I-I don’t have any eggs!”
“Haha. Don’t you know you get beaten worse when you’re caught lying?”
“Are you stupid? Of course I hid them! Who carries them openly?”
“What…. So you really are just a worthless husk?”
Rosemary’s expression grew noticeably crestfallen.
Hiding the eggs? Of course she couldn’t have failed to consider it.
Even the perpetually cheerful Rosemary had suggested it to me.
“Wouldn’t it be better if we hid our eggs and moved, sir?”
“No. It’s safer to keep them with us.”
“Why?”
“This island almost certainly harbors Egg Worms.”
If we deliberately hid eggs across this vast expanse, who could possibly find them? It would be like searching for a needle in a sandstorm.
Duke Papiope is no fool. She would have certainly taken precautions.
Therefore, this island had a high probability of being inhabited by the massive worms known as ‘egg hunters.’
Egg Worms.
Wherever eggs existed—buried underground or nestled in trees—Egg Worms would track them down with uncanny precision and devour them indiscriminately.
Their sense of smell was extraordinary; their ability to locate eggs was truly exceptional.
Once an invasive species, Egg Worms had seen their populations plummet dramatically and had become increasingly rare.
It began after rumors spread that Egg Worms were deliciously appetizing.
Perhaps for that reason, Egg Worms avoided any area that reeked of human presence.
In other words, carrying the eggs was far safer.
The moment Fire Boy’s egg left his hands, its fate was already sealed.
Yet Rosemary seemed angered by Fire Boy’s provocation.
“Eggs… there are some. Two of them, actually.”
Rosemary’s innocent yet eerie gaze fixed upon something in the distance.
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————