The Protagonist Already Knows

On the crimson-red banner, a figure with two curved golden horns sat atop a massive throne, his head resting on his palm as he stared down at me.

As I glanced backward, Carissa stumbled out of the portal, another arrow already nocked in her bow.

Shaking my head, I muttered.

"Don’t use mana."

Now that we were truly in the Dreg Realm’s capital, there were probably thousands of demons above A-rank who had the knowledge and skill to sense human mana signatures from miles away.

Putting away her bow, Carissa curiously glanced around the empty stone-brick room for a moment before asking.

"What...now?"

Hearing the distorted voices through the walls of the room and the thousands of footsteps sounding through the shaking ceiling above us, I...didn’t know what to say.

It was only a matter of time before the information about us traveling to the capital city reached the Dreg forces here, but we couldn’t even move from this room without being instantly caught.

One step outside this room, and the voices we were hearing through the wall would instantly recognize us.

I had prayed...hoped that the portal would take us to an isolated part of the capital, but it hadn’t.

After all, this should have been a relatively unused portal, leading to a small town.

And yet...based on the constant thousands of footsteps above us, it seemed we were right below the main street of the capital.

Thus, the words inadvertently left my mouth.

"Nothing...we’re dead."

I knew this whole thing...traveling into the Dreg Realm and escaping as F- and E- ranks was impossible, but things had been going so well that I had gained at least a bit of hope.

But...at this moment, it all vanished.

That was what I got for getting my hopes up...wasn’t it? This whole thing was never supposed to be possible.

Carissa’s venomous tone instantly sounded.

"...what? What are you saying? You were the one who said we could escape, right?"

Looking down at the ground, I simply closed my eyes and said.

"Congrats on your death."

"Fine...you can give up and die. Some of us have things to live for."

Clicking my tongue, I spat back, the reality of my death setting in.

"What? Finding your brother? What are you going to do, search the entire realm for him? Get over it, he’s de-"

"Prick, shut the hell up."

I silently sheathed my Dao as Carissa walked forward, placing her ear on the door of the room.

"Look, we can just wait till it’s silent and le-"

Cutting her off before her hope could grow, I said.

"Then what? Walk into the streets filled with Dreg Demons?"

Rummaging through her pockets that she had stuffed full earlier, Carissa dropped various bottles, bandages, and frozen rations to the ground.

Gazing at her, I couldn’t help but regret coming.

I had come here to save her...and in the end, both of us were going to die for no reason at all.

If I had known she was going to come to the Dreg Realm regardless, I wouldn’t have come...no, that was a lie, wasn’t it?

Because if I were there with her...perhaps, there was a chance...just a little one of us both escaping.

I couldn’t have continued living back in the human realm, knowing I had left her to die when the two of us could have survived.

After a few minutes, I sat down on the ground, and Carissa shortly followed.

Thus, the two of us...simply waited for our deaths.

As we sat across from each other, both our bodies trembled uncontrollably, our palms shaking.

Because we knew...at any moment, the door to this room could open.

After a few moments of silence, she glanced up at me and asked.

"Hey...why don’t you use your gift to escape?"

Meeting her trembling amber-brown pupils, I leaned backward.

"I can’t just leave you he-"

Instantly interrupting me, she glared at me and practically yelled.

"Tell me why."

A smirk creeping onto my face, I looked away and answered.

"To escape, we need to get into the Dreg Castle and figure out where and when the next Gate Crash is going to occur."

"I doubt I have either the time or speed to get to the Dreg Castle from here...I’d probably materialize in front of a crowd of Demons and instantly die."

Seeing as both of us were about to die, I also added.

"Also, I wasn’t ly-"

"You never stop, do you?"

Clasping her hands together as if it were a done fact, Carissa stood up and said.

"We need to get to the Dreg Castle, right? ...But where is it?"

"...?"

Ignoring the fact that she made getting to the Dreg Castle seem easy, I tilted my head and looked at her with my eyebrows raised, confused.

"You can’t feel it?"

"Feel what?"

"..."

Looking to the right and up, I instantly felt an overwhelming sense of foreboding and dizziness overtake me, as if I were looking at a grim reaper.

Naturally, I assumed only the Dreg Castle could emit such a presence.

However, it took me a moment...But I soon realized the feeling felt somewhat familiar, like that of when I had faced the wraith.

Following my gaze, Carissa curiously asked.

"...? What are you looking at?"

Ah...there was a wraith inside the Dreg castle, wasn’t there?

Sighing, I simply answered.

"The castle’s over there."

At this point, I didn’t care much about appearing suspicious when sharing knowledge, and thankfully, Carissa seemed to accept my words at face value without questioning my source.

Perhaps...if it were her, she could find a way out.

As Carissa seemingly gazed at the air before her, I also pulled up my status menu to pass the time.

===Status Menu===

[User: Ash Fell]

--> Rank: F+

--> Strength: F-

--> Stamina: F-

--> Intelligence: F

--> Speed: E-

--> Mana Pool: F-

--> Luck: G

[Gift: Death’s Ledger] / [Rank: EX] / [Element: Death]

--> [Your eyes may...]

---> [Souls Reaped: 1]

--> [Gifted Ability: Anubis’s Ferry]: [Turn Intangible for a short period of time.]

[Skills]

--> [N/A]