“…First, let’s take a break. You might feel the same, but I’m completely exhausted from the fight as well.”

After the battle with Beatrice, I did my best to stabilize Yoon Si-woo’s condition with my powers. Finally, I could catch my breath, and before anything else, I decided to rest.

I was in a state of utter fatigue, practically on the verge of collapsing after pouring out every ounce of strength during the fight.

“Ugh.”

So, thinking that I’d take a break, I plopped down next to Yoon Si-woo. He still looked dazed, perhaps still struggling to come back to his senses, and turned his head to look at me lying next to him.

“…Hey. This isn’t a dream, is it?”

“…What kind of ridiculous thing is he saying all of a sudden?”

I couldn’t help but laugh at Yoon Si-woo’s strange words. However, the next moment, I had no choice but to wipe the smile off my face.

“…Guh.”

“Ugh, hey. Why are you suddenly crying…?”

It was because Yoon Si-woo was showing tears. This was quite shocking to me. Yoon Si-woo was someone with strong mental fortitude, so it was rare for him to show such weakness.

In fact, he had never shed tears in front of me before. So I wondered why he was acting this way all of a sudden.

“I thought it was over because of me… I failed, and I thought I couldn’t protect you, Scarlet, or anyone else… I thought everything was over because of me…”

Listening to him sob and speak made me realize why he felt that way. Yoon Si-woo had taken on the lives of all humanity in his fight. But in the end, he couldn’t defeat Beatrice.

I couldn’t even begin to imagine how terrible he must have felt when he was defeated, carrying such heavy responsibility.

“I’m sorry… I promised I would win for you. But I couldn’t, and I couldn’t keep my promise… I’m so sorry…”

Yoon Si-woo repeated his apologies, tormented by the self-reproach of losing in a battle where the future of everyone hung in the balance, and tears streamed down his face.

I approached him to comfort him and called his name.

“Yoon Si-woo.”

As I called out, he looked at me with pain in his eyes. I slowly took his hand and asked,

“How does it feel? My hand, is it warm?”

I wiggled my hand as if to let him feel it, and Yoon Si-woo slowly nodded at the question.

“I can feel it. Your hand is warm.”

I raised my hand in front of Yoon Si-woo, who nodded, and murmured,

“And that’s proof that we both survived.”

“……”

“That’s all that matters. So, you don’t have to feel sorry at all.”

When I said that with a faint smile, Yoon Si-woo quietly murmured.

“…I see. Then that’s enough.”

With that, Yoon Si-woo muttered and let out a small smile. Seeing him stop crying and smile meant he had calmed down enough, so I decided to lighten the mood by teasing him a bit.

“See? You should be happy as a guy instead of crying like that.”

“…Ugh, can you pretend you didn’t see that? I’ve shown you my embarrassing side.”

“Eh, I don’t want to. I’m going to tell everyone how Yoon Si-woo was blubbering.”

“…Please don’t do that. Seriously.”

He looked a bit embarrassed, with a slight flush on his cheeks as he said that. We were momentarily chuckling and exchanging playful banter.

After having a good cry, Yoon Si-woo finally seemed to have regained his senses, his eyes now sparkling with curiosity, he suddenly turned to me and asked a question.

“…By the way, aside from everything else, how am I still alive? Honestly, I thought when the backlash hit, I’d never open my eyes again.”

Ah, I guess he’s asking that first.

From his perspective, it would be strange to wake up perfectly after being so certain of death.

But explaining that would inevitably lead to explaining my powers too. I preferred to keep that topic vague, so I jokingly replied to Yoon Si-woo.

“Ah, well, you could say it’s thanks to my proper first aid. If I hadn’t done CPR in time, you’d be wandering on the path to the afterlife by now.”

Immediately after saying that, I regretted it.

“…CPR?”

Upon hearing my response, Yoon Si-woo’s face hardened significantly.

He looked more serious than he ever was, even when hearing a terrible dad joke.

His intense reaction made me wonder if I had said something horribly wrong, but as I thought about it, I understood why Yoon Si-woo would react that way.

Even if there are topics I want to avoid mentioning, it’s never okay to make jokes about serious matters related to life.

Yoon Si-woo would particularly take it hard because he knew better than anyone that something like first aid couldn’t help his body.

The more I thought about it, the more I felt sorry, so I quickly apologized to Yoon Si-woo and came clean.

“I’m sorry; that was a joke. Actually, I’ve awakened a new power. I healed your body with that ability.”

However, perhaps because of the previous joke, he looked deeply hurt. Yoon Si-woo stared at me with such a heavy gaze.

“…So, what about the CPR?”

“…Huh?”

“Did you do CPR or not?”

“…I mean, I did, but it didn’t have any effect…”

At that moment, Yoon Si-woo slammed his fist into the ground with an incredibly enraged expression.

“Eek! I’m sorry! I won’t do anything unnecessary from next time…!”

I was genuinely frightened and trembling from the pressure coming off of Yoon Si-woo as I mumbled in panic.

What the heck… Why is he so angry?

Did something go wrong with my first aid…?

While thinking that, a story I’d heard a long time ago suddenly crossed my mind.

It was about someone who had tried to do CPR but ended up breaking ribs because they pressed too hard.

I looked down at my hand absentmindedly.

Now that I think about it, I had been so flustered when I was doing CPR earlier that I might have been applying full strength without thinking.

Especially considering I was powered up as a witch.

Should I be thankful that Yoon Si-woo’s ribs were intact?

…Or maybe they really did break and then healed.

…Yoon Si-woo might be angry because he figured out the reason for the chest pain he’d felt after regaining consciousness.

Next time, I should be careful….

With that thought, I reflected deeply in my heart.

After a brief commotion, Yoon Si-woo and I managed to take a breather and regain some energy.

During that break, not a single word was exchanged between us.

It wasn’t the right moment to bring up the CPR topic, and Yoon Si-woo seemed too downcast for conversation.

I would have mentioned my powers if that would help, but feeling so awkward being silent next to Yoon Si-woo made me uneasy.

If there was something else to do other than resting, I could have suggested we part ways for a bit.

With the only remaining task being to find the sacred relic revealed by Beatrice, and taking into account that Ari had retreated to her egg form, I was stuck right next to Yoon Si-woo.

Finally, the long moment of suffocating silence was interrupted by a savior.

“Lady Scarlet! Young Master Yoon Si-woo!”

“Ah, Sylvia!! Over here!”

Leading the exploration team that would search for the sacred relic, Sylvia had arrived right on time. Inside, I cheered as she landed and dashed over.

“Is everyone alright?! Is there any place you’re hurt?!”

“Yeah, we’re okay. We definitely defeated the Witch of Sloth. There’s no need to worry.”

“Thank goodness. I thought something terrible had happened!”

“Hmm? Why?”

As I asked, Sylvia turned to look at Yoon Si-woo beside me.

His face was full of sorrow, as if someone had died.

What on earth was going on with him?

While I tilted my head in confusion, Sylvia could no longer restrain her curiosity and asked Yoon Si-woo.

“…Um, Yoon Si-woo, did something happen?”

“It did. A very sad thing…”

Surely, he wasn’t still holding onto the loss to Beatrice. No need to worry about it.

I sighed and lightly tapped Sylvia on the shoulder.

“Don’t bother with him. It’s nothing serious. More importantly, we’ve got a rough idea where the sacred relic is, so let’s find it as soon as possible.”

“Got it. So where should we search?”

I pointed a finger at a certain spot.

With a slightly stiffened expression, Sylvia asked,

“…Over there?”

“Yeah, over there.”

What I pointed to was a huge hole where you couldn’t even see the bottom.

Now, it was time to go in there and find the sacred relic.