It's over now.

Those were Elise's thoughts at that moment.

At that moment when she reached her physical limits and Kain arrived, she thoughts she was saved.

His silvery white hair shinning in the night gives off a beautiful light that looks like it saved me from the dark.

In such a situation, is there a woman who won't feel anything? Not likely.

She thought from the bottom of her heart that if they both came back home safely she would do anything for him.

After she couldn't run anymore, he lifted her and carried her like a princess, at that point Elise was confused and couldn't distinguish fantasy from reality.

Despite the situation they are in, Elise's heart started throbbing faster when she realized that she had fallen in love.

If this was a story, they would return safely and spend a sweet night.

However, this was different from a story.

The men gradually shrunk the enclosing net as the number of thugs doubled.

The dream of them returning back home safely shattered as desperation started kicking in.

And, that moment came at last.

Kain was running fast while holding her, but he was driven into a dead end.

At that moment, up to 100 thugs had gathered in front of them, ascertaining their demise.

What will happen from now on? Although her future was easy to guess, Elise shook her head at the thought.

Surely she will become their toy. Though a concrete idea is not imaginable, it's easy to guess that being raped normally could be considered luck.

Then what will happen to Kain? It's likely he won't escape unscathed. He may end up dead as a result of the beating and torture. Or they may let him leave alive after disabling him for life.

Sometimes, there are cases of men that strayed off to the slums and have their hands and feet broken. There are times when even their eyes are crushed or their genitals cut.

It's so horrible, it's not something a human should do.

Elise begins to imagine. Kain being found tomorrow morning with hands and feet broken and his face swollen.

No matter what, she has to stop that from happening, she thought.

Why is he here? If asked, he would probably answer while smiling, that he came here looking for her because she was late. He is just a good-natured boy that was involved in this situation due to bad luck.

Even now she can remember. The boy grinning happily as he was watching at his status card. And when she asked what was so funny, he embarrassedly said that he had gone up in LV.

Perhaps he is still low LV, he still has a future full of opportunities. In that future he might even fulfill his dream of becoming the best adventurer.

And her future will be to become a plaything for those thugs. A miserable future that would be worse than death. However, it's not like she has no choices left, there is one thing she can change.

That is, Kain's future.

She must avoid having his future crushed at any cost. Only that will be unacceptable.

So Elise got off from the boy's warm and kind arms.

The cold autumn wind attacks Elise as she separates from him.

That cold hints her future, but Elise trembles not due to the cold, but due to her future.

"Elise?"

Kain's questioning voice was heard from her back.

At that, Elise looks back, and she gathers her willpower to make a good smile.

While printing his appearance in her mind, she starts wondering if her smile is a good one.

This will surely be the last time she will smile in her life. From now on, there is absolutely no way she will laugh ever again.

So she wanted to show her best smile so that he can remember her forever.

And when she turns to look at the thugs, she started talking.