Chapter 144: Exception

“I think… This should be enough for now. They should be on the verge of dying of hunger there.” Dante stored the corpse of a cow-like beast in his ring.

He turned around, looking at Ruby, who was observing him with shining eyes, with complex emotions.

“We can return now.” Dante said before summoning his wolf and helping Ruby get onto its back.

Only one day had passed since he returned to the treehouse.

In that time, all he did was mostly eat as many meals as he could, which were made by Ruby after she insisted, and sleep on his bed without a purpose.

He was exhausted. His body was okay and far better than before, but his emotions and mind weren’t as lucky.

He had given up on helping Ruby, at least for now.

Maybe he could free her after reaching a higher rank and understanding the enslavement sigil properly, but for now, he had no way to fix his mistake.

Giving up was just the most logical thing to do for the sake of his sanity. It brought him some relief that he hadn’t known he needed..

However, after resting for a long time, he decided to finally help the poor camp that was starving to death.

Thanks to his new ability, Shadow Swap, Dante was completely capable of saving them.

So, for a few hours, Dante searched for edible beasts and slaughtered every single one of them. They weren’t really enough to save the entire camp, but Dante could simply wait for the cooldown to bring more food later.

He only had to show the camp’s commander what he was capable of to make a deal with him.

After reaching the treehouse, Dante looked at Ruby and said: “I will swap places with my shadow now. He’ll help you to safely reach the town where your goods are supposed to be.”

“Yes, my lord. Thank you for your concern!” Ruby nodded immediately.

The next moment, Dante focused on activating his new ability.

His core suddenly trembled violently, causing a faint pain in Dante’s head. After a second, an inky-black sphere covered the place where Dante stood.

Dante squinted as his vision changed. At the same time, a blank mask appeared on his face.

¢¢¢

In the camp, Elizabeth tilted her head while looking at Fafnir.

“A gift…? What do you mean?”

Fafnir had just told her that he had a gift for her and the commander, which confused her. Why would he want to give a gift to the commander? Were they that close now?

Instead of explaining, Fafnir expanded his height and took her hand, walking with her to the commander’s tent. She followed him without any further questions despite being curious, walking slowly because of how tired she was.

Although she was fed better than the other soldiers—thanks to the food that Fafnir provided her secretly—she was still significantly affected by the lack of food after the commander reduced her food rations.

And even with that, she was doing better than the other support soldiers. Some of them could barely move now.

At the commander’s tent, the guards looked at Fafnir and Elizabeth suspiciously: “Why are you here now? The commander didn’t inform us to expect a visit, especially from… the healer.”

They were already used to seeing Fafnir, but Elizabeth was a surprise for them. They knew about her, of course, but she had never visited the commander with Fafnir.

“H-he says that he wants to give the commander a gift.” Elizabeth tried to explain calmly, but without the ability to see the guards’ face, she was a bit nervous of their reaction.

“I see…” one of the guards nodded: “I’ll talk to the commander quickly.

The guard entered the tent for a few moments before returning.

“You can enter, and the commander hopes that you have a real reason to be here.”

The guards stepped aside, leaving a way for Fafnir and Elizabeth to enter.

After entering the tent, Fafnir’s eyes landed on the commander, who was sitting alone tiredly, his eyes red as though he didn’t sleep for days.

“So… a gift you say, huh?” The commander rested his head on his hand: “What is it? Some food that you got secretly?”

Fafnir left Elizabeth’s hand and walked forward, turning his form into a shadowy humanoid form. Then, he used his mana to write in the air:

“My master wants to help you, be grateful.”

“Hmm?” The commander finally frowned: “Your master wants to help me? Will he send us more shadows like you?”

Hearing the commander, Elizabeth blinked with puzzlement.

Fafnir shook his head and didn’t explain further.

For a few seconds, he just stood still. They stayed like this until the commander finally shattered the silence.

“Is this a joke—!”

All of a sudden, an inky-black sphere covered Fafnir’s figure, hiding him from the commander’s vision.

The commander’s body tensed immediately. With no hesitation, he enhanced his body and grabbed a spear, ready to fight if he saw anything wrong or protect his own body if the sphere exploded.

However, unlike his expectations, the sphere didn’t cause any harm.

It disappeared slowly, but the figure that appeared wasn’t the shadow that he had met several times so far.

It was a man in a black outfit, wearing a strange black mask that didn’t reveal his eyes, and had silky black hair that reached his shoulders.

He looked so ordinary to the commander with nothing special about him, but he didn’t dare to underestimate this man.

“You…”

“Yes, I’m the owner of that shadow.” The masked man, Dante, answered honestly.

“D-Dante?” Elizabeth sensed the figure of Dante, uncertain if her suspicions were right.

“Yes… it’s me.” Dante sighed, opening his arms as if expecting what was going to happen.

And just like he expected, Elizabeth didn’t waste a second before jumping to him, giving him a big hug.

“It’s you, it’s you, it’s you! I missed you so much!” Elizabeth hugged Dante firmer, though her strength was now so weak to bother the current Dante.

Seeing the short woman who was now hanging from his neck, Dante felt his depression fading away.

All the heavy emotions, all the guilt, and all the self-hate were replaced by a sense of relief and joy.

’Greed wasn’t wrong about my emotions toward her…’

Dante indeed saw her as a close friend, or maybe even as a family.

For a moment, Dante was glad that he had followed the opportunity that Ruby had found. Maybe Greed became stronger and Ruby was enslaved because of it, but on the other hand, Dante had gained the ability that allowed him to see Elizabeth face-to-face.

’Was it truly… was it worth it?’

Dante wanted to answer himself and say “Yes!” But doing so would be no different from becoming like Greed.

Accepting this would mean that Dante had finally decided to be selfish and that he stopped caring about others.

He didn’t want to be like that.

Even if he benefited from it, that was all against his will. If he had the choice back then, he wouldn’t have done that.

While Dante was drowning in his own thoughts, Elizabeth had hers as well.

She hadn’t seen Dante for a few months, and he had changed so much!

’He is taller and his body feels stronger. Did he increase his vitality that much?’

As a blind woman, she focused on all small details that her other senses detected.

She noticed his physical features, she noticed his strength, she noticed that he for some reason had a sweet smell, and she even noticed his mask.

But most importantly, she noticed his calming voice, which was the reason she didn’t recognise him immediately.

That was due to the new effect of Demon of Temptation.

His voice changed almost completely, turning into a charming voice that brought calmness to whoever heard it, especially girls.

“Ahem!”

The commander suddenly made a fake cough, finally reminding Dante of his existence.

Dante turned his face toward him, feeling how skinny Elizabeth now was, and said: “I don’t really care about you and the others, but Elizabeth’s life depends on your survival. I can’t let you attack the giants now and endanger her life.”

“You know that I have no other choice, right?” The commander sat on his chair: “Even I barely eat now. A lot of soldiers will die if we don’t attack.”

“I can’t stop this just because your friend is included. I’m the commander of the whole camp, not only her. She can’t be an exception.”

“Thankfully, I have a solution.” Dante casually brought Elizabeth to the ground and offered: “As you can see, I can take the place of my shadow, which allows me to travel between two places.”

“I’ll provide you with all the food you need, so you won’t have to fight the giants and just wait for help.”

“Wait, you can?” Elizabeth’s grey eyes shone brightly.

The commander’s eyes sparkled for a moment before he frowned: “I don’t really believe that it is just a ’gift’. What do you want in exchange?”

“Only one thing…” Dante answered: “I want her to be an exception.”

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