Holy Night: My Husband is Definitely a Paladin - Chapter 46

Translated by Elphie

“…?”

Michael stopped in his tracks.

“Why are you letting go of my hand?”

“I thought it might be okay now that we’re safely inside. I was worried that if you kept holding onto me, it might hinder you once a monster appears.”

“I’m not that weak.”

His voice sounded disapproving.

“Oh…It’s not that I doubt your abilities, Sir Michael. I just feel like I would be getting in the way.”

Just like before.

Irene swallowed hard, finding it difficult to get the words out. Michael didn’t say anything, which made her feel even more uneasy.

She added, “If my rank were higher, maybe it would be fine, but with my level of purification, it’ll take me a long time to heal you…And if a monster appears, I’ll likely end up being a hindrance.”

She had started babbling out of nervousness, blurting out the reasons why she thought Michael had left her to face dungeons by himself in the past.

Then, Michael’s usually placid face looked troubled.

“Is that what you’ve been thinking?”

“…”

“That’s not the case. I just want you to…”

In that moment, a sharp sound of wind cutting through the air echoed in the distance.

Michael drew his sword in one swift motion—so quick that the movement was invisible to the eye—and swung it forcefully into the air.

Clang!

Before Irene could turn her head, a loud noise echoed, and something collided with Michael’s sword and bounced away.

Thunk!

It slammed into the wall with a dull thud.

“That’s…”

Irene looked at the thing thrumming as it was embedded into the wall.

“Spikes?”

It was as long and thick as an adult woman’s arm, but the shape clearly resembled that of a sharp spike.

A moment later, a creature with several of these spikes on its body crawled out from behind a nearby rock.

“Stand behind me.”

Michael spoke in a calm voice as stepped in front of Irene.

“I’ll finish this quickly.”

* * *

Oh my god.

Irene gulped in astonishment.

Michael’s statement that it would be over quickly wasn’t an empty boast.

‘Doesn’t an intermediate dungeon run take 5 hours, if not more?’

But no matter how she thought about it, it didn’t seem to have taken more than an hour to defeat all the monsters and find themselves standing in front of the reward room.

Irene looked at the nearby corpse of a fallen monster. It was one of the common monsters she’d seen in the Monster Compendium in the archives. But there was something different about it.

‘So this is a creature from an unstable dungeon.’

Unlike monsters in regular dungeons, those in unstable dungeons had a subtly ‘unfinished’ appearance. Some parts of their bodies were not properly attached, or their forms were blurry like incomplete drawings.

It was fascinating to see something that she had only read and heard about now directly in front of her.

“Irene.”

“Yes? Yes!”

Irene turned her head to the voice calling her.

Just outside the reward room, Michael was waiting for her, wiping the demon blood off his sword.

“I would like us to check the rewards together.”

Irene tilted her head, a bit confused. Today’s dungeon was not of her choosing. So, all the rewards here belonged entirely to him. It was puzzling why he insisted on checking them together with her.

Still, there was no reason for her to refuse.

‘It is rather fun.’

Irene was human, too, and opening a chest with no idea what to expect was pretty exciting. And she was curious about what rewards an unstable dungeon might offer.

As they entered the room, she saw a rather large chest in the corner.

“Wow…”

Having only been in low-level dungeons, this was the first time Irene encountered such a large chest.

Standing in front of it, Irene glanced back at Michael, wondering why he wasn’t opening it. He smiled and gestured to her.

“Open it.”

“But this is yours, my Lord…”

“It’s fine.”

He urged her to open the chest, as if it belonged to her. Seeing no reason to object, Irene sat down in front of the chest and carefully lifted the lid.

Inside the chest was…

“…a ring?”

It was a round, silver band with a design so clean that it could have simply been cut from a circular piece of metal. Not only was there no gemstone in it, but it wasn’t even engraved. Instead, the outside was full of scratches, large and small, as if it had been rolling around the chest for years.

Irene muttered to herself as she looked at the ring, which was unlikely to look any better even if she cleaned and polished it.

“Is this an artifact…?”