For a moment, I fell silent.

"...I see," I eventually said, nodding awkwardly.

Prolonging the silence would only make things more uncomfortable. Besides, her answer was pretty much what I expected.

After all, she had already mentioned that manifesting only her head was a way to accelerate her descent.

Oddly enough, I appreciated her honesty.

She could have lied, brushing off my concerns by saying she had no intention of harming humans, assuring me it was safe to leave her be.

Instead, she chose to answer me directly and firmly:

if she were freed, she would become my enemy.

No deceit, no pretense—just a straightforward warning.

That honesty forced me to deliberate.

Hmm…@@novelbin@@

Destroying the altar seemed like the obvious choice.

I might be a fugitive from the knights, but I was still human, and my hatred for demons was more than enough justification.

And yet... I hesitated.

It wasn’t sentimentality—I’d only spent a few days with her.

She was just a disembodied demon neck; what attachment could I possibly have?

No, my hesitation stemmed from practicality.

She had created this Forbidden Forest, after all.

Destroying the altar and sending her back to the demon realm might cause the forest to normalize, cutting off the mana sustaining it.

That would be inconvenient for me.

This forest was as much my haven as it was her fortress.

It had shielded me, provided me with resources, and kept the knights at bay. Without it, I might not have survived this long.

It’s this forest that’s holding back the knights, I thought.

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