The Female Lead Saves the World - Chapter 274

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Yeo Joo Saves the World
Part 2, Episode 95

“What… what is this?”
I couldn’t believe my own eyes.
Why was Sa Ma Young standing between me and the creature?
Why was blood pouring from a gaping wound through his chest?
“My lord!”
“My lord!”
Sa Ma Young’s retinue rushed toward him from all directions.
Oh Young In, arriving last after desperately blocking the Giant Mantis’s successive attacks, managed to wrench the creature’s foreleg free from Sa Ma Young’s chest.
“Both of you—fall back!”
The moment Bang Wi Jin’s barrier successfully contained the female creature, Woo Jun Kyung shouted, and Oh Young In immediately scooped me and Sa Ma Young into his arms, sprinting toward the rear.
“Cough!”
Even in that brief span, Sa Ma Young coughed up blood.
There was no time to waste.
“I need to treat him! Put us down somewhere safe!”
After confirming Sa Ma Young’s condition as he coughed blood once more, Oh Young In finally came to a halt in one corner of the Grand Cathedral.
Sa Ma Young’s state was critical.
The foreleg of the Giant Mantis—thick as a wooden stake—protruded clean through his chest.
I laid him on his side and assessed what I could discern visually.
Mercifully, the razor-sharp claw had pierced the right collarbone area, not the left where his heart lay.
His S-rank physique had held firm; otherwise, he would have been cleaved in half and perished on the spot.
Gritting my teeth to banish the horrific image, I turned to Oh Young In and asked.
“Do you have a blade?”
“Right here.”
Oh Young In handed me a short dagger, perhaps a hand’s span in length.
Seeing its wickedly sharp edge, I returned it to Oh Young In, who was far more practiced with weapons than I was, and instructed him.
“We need to remove his clothes. The wound must be fully exposed—cut them away.”
“Understood.”
As Oh Young In swiftly and methodically sliced away the garments, I retrieved wound-healing potions from my Subspace.
Five bottles of the highest-grade potion that Im Chung Soo had specially prepared for me before we entered the Gate.
I laid the potions out for immediate use, and just then, Sa Ma Young—who had lost consciousness briefly—opened his eyes.
“I… Yeo Joo.”
His crimson gaze fixed upon me, but it was hazy and unfocused.
“You… are you alright?”
“Who are you looking at right now!”
Fury surged through me.
“I’m wearing a defensive item! So why are you blocking it with your body!”
At my reproach, Sa Ma Young merely chuckled and replied.
“I can’t ignore your danger.”
“Sa Ma Young, you really…!”
Finding my exasperation amusing, Sa Ma Young—who had been smiling faintly—suddenly coughed up a torrent of crimson blood.
Even as the floor became stained with his blood, Sa Ma Young’s crimson eyes remained fixed solely on me.
Beep— beep—
The discordant sound effect made my stomach churn.

⟪ ♥ 64 : Desire ⟫
⟪ ♥ 65 : Desire ⟫

This was all because of affection.
Because of his high affection, Sa Ma Young threw himself in front of danger for me.
No—it was because of me.
Because I had pretended not to understand what the rising affection meant, even though I knew full well.
“Woo Jun Kyung!”
I pressed down on Sa Ma Young’s chest with both hands as blood continued to seep out, shouting urgently.
“Don’t let any monsters get through here!”
“Yes!”
“And Oh Young In.”
“Give your orders.”
“When I say so, pull it out.”
I pointed to the severed foreleg of the Giant Mantis still embedded in Sa Ma Young’s body.
Perhaps this very limb was plugging the wound, which was why Sa Ma Young was still breathing.
But to save him, I had to remove it.
“…Yes, understood.”
Oh Young In rolled Sa Ma Young’s body to the side and positioned him at an angle to expose the Giant Mantis’s foreleg, while I uncapped a wound-healing potion and prepared it.
“Sa Ma Young, just hold on a little longer.”
Instead of answering, Sa Ma Young’s eyes widened beautifully.
Looking into those eyes—redder than blood—I spoke to Oh Young In, who waited only for my signal.
“Now.”
Crack!
With a sound just as horrific as when it had pierced through, the Giant Mantis’s foreleg was wrenched free.
“Cough!”
I quickly laid Sa Ma Young back down, and as I poured the wound-healing potion onto his gaping chest, his eyes flew wide open and his entire body went rigid.
The agonizing pain I had experienced when using a trauma potion on my burned ankle was still vivid in my memory.
Even if they had undergone refinement to include anesthetic components, that excruciating agony that robbed one of reason could not have completely disappeared.
Yet I was pouring such things into his gaping chest wound.
I couldn’t even begin to imagine the agony Sa Ma Young must be enduring.
But despite everything, the speed at which blood gushed forth far outpaced the potion’s healing effect.
This wasn’t enough.
“Keep pouring the potions in.”
After sliding the box of trauma treatment potions toward Oh Young In, I retrieved a vitality elixir from my Subspace and downed it in one gulp.
Then, trembling through the agonizing pain, I met his bloodshot eyes that wouldn’t leave me and activated my skill.

[ Skill ‘Body Restoration’ activated. ]
[ Current Health: 75/150 ]
[ Due to the effect of ‘Vitality Elixir (A)’, health will not decrease. ]

Boom! Crash!
Screeeech!
Amid the desperate cacophony of battle as we fought to pin down the S-rank monster’s legs, I prayed with all my heart.
Don’t die because of me.
Don’t die, Sa Ma Young.
“It’s… it’s working!”
Oh Young In was right.
As the premium trauma treatment potion and my skill worked in tandem, the blood that seemed like it would never stop visibly slowed, and the wounds began to close, bit by bit.
That’s it.
Sa Ma Young would live.
Relief flooded through me, and I spoke to Oh Young In.
“This is stable now, so go help the others.”
“Yes. I entrust our lord to your care.”
As I watched Oh Young In’s retreating figure dash toward our comrades, a feeble voice reached my ears.
“Yeo Joo.”
“What is it?”
“It hurts.”
“You have a hole in your chest—of course it hurts.”
“Heh.”
Sa Ma Young tried to laugh but winced sharply as pain shot through him.
“The fact that you’re still breathing is remarkable enough. Just stay still.”
“Okay.”
Sa Ma Young answered obediently and closed his eyes.
While his wounds healed slowly but steadily, my hands continued to tremble uncontrollably.
Perhaps sensing this, Sa Ma Young gently placed his hand over mine, as if to soothe me.
“Thank you.”
His blood-soaked hand, still wet and not yet dry, felt painfully warm against my skin.

* * *

Sa Ma Young, fully recovered from his injuries, rejoined the battle.
As Sa Ma Young and his allies, moving with flawless coordination, launched their assault—darting through the air as though they had never been wounded—even the S-rank Giant Mantis found itself helpless against their onslaught.

[ Hemeres Temple Occupation Force has defeated ‘Giant Mantis Female (S)’! ]
[ Quest Complete! ]
[ Successfully reclaimed the Temple from monster occupation! ]

“Thank you, brave warriors!”
“Huzzah! Huzzah!”
“The wicked have all perished!”
The Priests wept tears of joy.
When I had suddenly intervened and worsened the situation, I had wanted to do something drastic about it, but seeing them celebrate like this, I felt grateful that everyone had survived after all.
Once the Giant Mantis fell, the Bishop, supporting his aged frame, emerged and kept his promise.
He presented a small wooden box to Sa Ma Young.
“This is a sacred relic of Hemeres Temple. Please accept it.”
It was the Quest reward.
Sa Ma Young accepted the wooden box without a word and immediately handed it to me.
I carefully opened the box.

[ Hemeres’ Blessing (A)
: A treasure of Hemeres, the god of verdure and growth.
Awakens the latent potential of the one who shatters the orb. ]

I had obtained the item I so desperately desired, yet strangely, joy eluded me.
Without a word, I tucked the box into the Subspace, when the Bishop uttered something unexpected.
“Now I shall guide you heroes through the ‘Door’.”
“The ‘Door’?”
“Another sacred relic passed down through the Hemeres Temple. It is the blessing of Hemeres that connects our Temple to the outside world. This way, please.”
The Bishop led us to another chamber deep within the Grand Cathedral.
The moment I stepped into the small yet ornate room—more lavish than anywhere else in the Temple—I saw something familiar upon the dais.
“A Gate?”
The black fissure hovering in the void was unmistakably a Gate.
….
In that moment, though no one spoke, I understood instinctively.
Once we passed through that Gate, this world within the Dungeon would cease to exist.
“Let’s go.”
Sa Ma Young was the first to step beyond the Gate without so much as a backward glance, and his subordinates followed silently in his wake.
I was the last of the raid party to remain.
“Return safely, hero.”
I gazed for a moment at the Bishop, leaning upon his staff with a deep bow.
I had known from the beginning.
That this world within the Gate was merely a ‘fragment’.
Yet that knowledge did nothing to ease the weight in my chest.
“…Farewell.”
I bowed in return and surrendered myself to the Gate.
Along with the presence of the camera crew following behind, a cold wind suddenly struck my face.
I found myself back on Seon Yu Island in the depths of winter.
And the first thing to greet me was a familiar, tender voice.
“Welcome back, Yeo Joo.”
Kang Han approached with steady steps, wrapping a soft white scarf around me as he spoke.
The gentle fabric against my skin seemed to dissolve the tension that had gripped my entire body.
I looked up at the face I had found myself thinking of whenever I saw that great tree whose eyes resembled his.
“I’m home.”

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