Find the One Who Abandoned Me - Chapter 87

“So, he lied to me back then.”

He must have lied, thinking she would cry even harder if he told her he had fallen off a cliff. Instead, he probably made up a story, something safer like being ambushed in a relatively secure area and getting injured due to a moment of carelessness. But the truth was clear. Back then, he was more skilled than he was now, and he wasn’t the type to let his guard down so easily.

“Wait a second,  if that’s true…”

Calliope suddenly lifted her head and looked around.

“Someone must be here.”

And just as the thought crossed her mind, a sharp sound—shwick—pierced the air. Something swift and sharp had sliced through the wind. Calliope, still unable to fully grasp the situation, couldn’t figure out where the projectile had come from.

“No!”

It was then that Isaac suddenly reached out. Though clearly suffering from a concussion, he threw himself in front of her and blocked the dagger aimed at her head. The blade was now lodged deeply in his forearm, gleaming in the darkness.

“A-ah… ahhh…”

Letting out a sound that was neither a cry nor a scream, Calliope gently grabbed his wrist. Rustle, rustle. She heard hurried movement in the shadows leaves brushing against each other.

“R-Run… you have to get away…”

“Don’t say things like that, please.”

Rather than run away alone as Isaac had urged, she began fumbling through her clothes, searching for the pouch that held her magic scrolls. Pulling out the first one she found, she tore it open without hesitation.

Fwoosh!

Darkness engulfed the area. The scroll she had used contained a Dark Light spell, which obscured the enemies’ vision and prevented anyone other than the caster from leaving the area for a short time. With all her strength, Calliope began dragging Isaac, who could barely stand on his own.

“I have to get us out of here.”

Even if they couldn’t move far, they had to get somewhere their pursuers couldn’t find them easily. But with her barely reaching 160 centimeters, there was no easy way she could move someone like Isaac, who stood well over 190.

She pulled out another scroll. Holding it up close to see, she found what she needed. Rip.

“Physical Enhancement Magic.”

The spell would boost her physical strength by thirty percent. With that, she might be able to move him more easily. But something felt wrong. Isaac, who normally endured pain well, wasn’t responding at all. His skin, through his clothing, felt unnaturally cold.

“No… it can’t be…”

She managed to drag him under the cover of a tree that blocked sight and used another scroll to spark a small flame. Then she examined Isaac’s condition.

“Poison. Just as I feared.”

His lips had turned a purplish hue. It couldn’t be frostbite in such a short time—he had definitely been poisoned. She inspected the wound where the dagger was embedded. Sure enough, the skin around it was turning violet.

“An… antidote scroll…”

Frantically, Calliope searched through her pouch, but she already knew the answer. She hadn’t bought an antidote scroll. She had only prepared for a simple assassination attempt—not a complex ambush involving poison.

“No… no, this can’t be happening…”

Muttering like a madwoman, she flipped through the scrolls until she found the emergency communication scroll. Without hesitation, she tore it open. Her shallow breathing began to slow.

“Yes. Calm down. I have to stay calm.”

Clasping her trembling hands together, she tried to steady herself. Her carelessness had led to this situation. If she hadn’t come along, Isaac wouldn’t have had to protect her, wouldn’t have been injured, wouldn’t have been poisoned. If only she had left him alone like she had in the past.

Her jaw trembled, her teeth chattering audibly. The fear that he might die because of her began to eat away at her resolve. She fought to shake it off.

“The knights… they won’t sit still. They’ll come for us. I’ve already sent the emergency signal…”

Rustle. Again, the sound of someone brushing past the leaves. Calliope instinctively grabbed Isaac’s sword. Normally, she wouldn’t even be able to lift it properly, but with the enhancement spell, she could at least aim it in one direction.

Her eyes adjusted to the darkness. Figures cloaked in black began emerging one by one from the trees, their eyes glowing with fury, likely irritated by the Dark Light spell.

“I have to protect him.”

Calliope glanced at the magical item attached to Isaac’s sword.

“Good thing he bought that. Who knew I’d be the one to use it…”

Holding the sword with one hand, she reached into her pouch. Snap. Just as one of the enemies stepped down hard enough to break a fallen branch beneath his foot, she bit down on a scroll and tore it.

Clang! Clang, clang! Multiple blades were deflected. The Scroll Shield spell had activated instantly. Calliope finally caught her breath. The shield’s strength was that no attacks could penetrate it from the outside—but the downside was that she couldn’t strike out either.

The shield would only last fifteen minutes. But she had a plan. While rummaging for more scrolls, she counted the number of black-clad assailants surrounding them.

“Eight in total.”

This isn’t all of them. The rest must be watching, waiting for the right moment.

Calliope pulled out a Fire Scroll—a flame spell that activated five meters away from the caster. Ssshhk! Without hesitation, she tore it open.

BOOM!

A loud explosion burst in the distance, and towering flames erupted in vivid red. A scream rang out—clearly one of the assassins.

Crackle, snap. The magical fire didn’t spread outward. It simply consumed everything within its set radius. But the drawback of this magic was obvious.

“Now the ones lying in wait will be more cautious. They won’t charge in as a group. And they definitely know now—Isaac can’t move.”

Once she confirmed through the flickering firelight that all eight had been dealt with, Calliope dragged Isaac away and relocated them to a new hiding spot—somewhere shielded on both sides and behind by trees. There, she tore a strip from her skirt and tied Isaac’s sword securely to her hand.

“Retreat isn’t an option. If I try to carry him and run, I’ll be slower—and we’ll definitely be caught.”

Keeping Isaac behind her, Calliope tightened her grip on the sword and stared ahead.

“This is all my fault.”

Her breathing wavered—and stopped.

“That’s why… I have to protect him.”

Her crimson eyes blazed like the flames she had just summoned.

“He’s mine. Even his life belongs to me. No one else can have him. No one. Not ever.”

From that point on, Calliope had to face each assassin one by one, using whatever scrolls she had left to counter their attacks. Some threw daggers tied with branches to distract her. It worked—she wasted precious scrolls reacting to false threats.

CLANG! CLANG! With the boost from Isaac’s sword’s magic stones and her remaining scrolls, Calliope managed to hold her own. She blocked incoming daggers and parried blades. But her fingers, no—her whole body—was starting to go numb with cold.

Every time she felt herself slipping, she looked back at Isaac. She’d already covered him with her jacket long ago.

“Someone needs to get here. Please… soon.”

Then another figure lunged at her.

She gritted her teeth and met the attack head-on. CLANG! The heavy clash of steel rang out, and she opened her eyes wide, refusing to back down. She had already taken out eight with the fire spell, three more with her sword—eleven in total. But still, another assassin stood before her.

“Were there more than Isaac expected? Or was even that a lie?”

She clenched her jaw. It didn’t matter. What mattered was right now.

She had to protect him.

Behind her, Isaac’s groans were growing weaker and weaker. The image of his pale, poisoned face fueled her desperation.

“The poison they used… it’s probably the kind meant to paralyze, not kill. They wouldn’t use something deadly in a fight like this—too risky for their own men.”

Assassins rarely used deadly poisons in open combat. It was too dangerous to their allies. Calliope clung to that hope as she reached into her scroll pouch—

—and froze.

“I… I used them all.”

Her fingertips trembled slightly, but she kept her face steady. She locked eyes with the assassin standing before her. Up until now, she had survived with the help of scrolls. But now… she had nothing.

“No time to be afraid. Just focus on winning.”

The fire in her eyes refused to go out. She tightened her grip on the sword, still bound to her hand, and raised it.

“Come on.”

Her voice was calm, low, and dangerous—her eyes glowing like a beast in the dark.

“I’ll rip you apart.”

No one touches what’s mine.

At that same moment, in the Marquis’ estate—

The emergency signal from Calliope had thrown the entire household into chaos. They had always known the assassination attempts might resume—but not like this.

“What about the knights? Have we heard from them?”

“No, sir. Communication’s been completely cut off.”

“Damn it!”

Illan clenched his teeth in frustration. He had assigned over twenty knights to her, yet they hadn’t been able to act. Without knowing the situation, his worry only deepened.

Summoned on short notice, Circe stood with her fists clenched tightly.

“We need a mage skilled in tracking. We know the general location where the signal came from, but if she’s moving, we won’t be able to find her without real-time magic.”

“It’ll take time to find a mage at this hour…”

“There is one place that always has mages ready.”

Ilan frowned deeply.

“You’re not suggesting… the Glayderth family?”

“Yes. The Duke of Glayderth’s lieutenant is a mage, isn’t he? If we ask for help, they could find her location immediately.”

“But they’re Glayderth. They’re part of the noble faction!”

“Right now—!”

For the first time, Circe shouted. The whites of her eyes flushed red, violet irises filled with fury.

“Right now, that doesn’t matter!”

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