nesis had spoken seriously just now — it wasn’t humility, nor was it anything else.
She simply had a clear recognition of herself. She had no ability to bear the weight of others’ hopes or futures anymore, and she didn’t want anyone else to lose their life because of her decisions.
“Oh...”
Vieya drew out a long nasal tone, sounding both puzzled and intrigued.
She looked at nesis for quite a while before brushing off the dust on her clothes and explaining,
“I’m the cleric that Captain Luna hired for twenty thousand gold coins. Just now, while I was investigating a well, the bottom suddenly collapsed, and then... well, here I am.”
After finishing, she spread her hands helplessly toward the two in front of her, completely embodying an innocent, harmless little rabbit.
“You’re that outside help Arc ntioned?”
Rakaide glanced at the delicate girl before him, then sighed wearily.
“She looks even less reliable than he described. Are you of age? Do you have a guardian’s permission? Should we be worried about the Adventurers’ Guild accusing us of hiring child labor?”
“Arc? The bald one?”
Vieya blinked in confusion, but seeing his tired, grave expression, she frowned. “Are you thinking sothing like, ‘How could we ever run a proper adventuring team with people like this’? Are you looking down on ?”
“Ah... I didn’t expect you to know mind-reading, young lady.” Rakaide deflected with a dry complint.
Feeling insulted, Vieya replied coldly, “What you just said is as rude as going to a brothel only to have the girl you picked tell you that you’re greasy and powerless.”
“Pfft...”
nesis spat out the water she had just been rinsing her mouth with and looked at Vieya in disbelief. “Aren’t you supposed to be a cleric?”
Rakaide: “My...”
“My na is Vieya now, not ‘young lady,’ thank you.”
Vieya changed the subject. “Anyway, I need to know — why are you two digging a hole down here?”
“We’re just widening an old mining tunnel that was already here.”
nesis shook her head and explained, “There’s a Hero guarding the surface. We can’t fight him, and we don’t dare to try, so we decided to dig through underground instead.”
“A Hero?”
Vieya paused. “Can you take up there to have a look? The spot I fell through has collapsed, and I don’t recognize these tunnels.”
“...”
nesis hesitated for only a mont before shaking her head firmly. “No. It’s too dangerous. I can’t speak for the others, but the Chief Hero’s strength is close to divine. Even if he’s now just an empty shell, we have to treat him with extre caution.”
“Close to divine? That’s a thing? Why have I never heard of that before?”
Vieya’s tone was half amused, half curious. “You didn’t just make that up, did you?”
“Just think of it as a special rank that applies only to the Chief Hero.”
nesis gave her a look that clearly said, What would I gain from lying to you? She brushed it off casually and brought the topic back to business.
“Rakaide and I plan to check out the shrine the Hero guards. He shouldn’t show up there. Want to co with us?”
“I’ll go!”
Vieya nodded imdiately. At the ntion of the shrine, her once-smiling face turned anxious.
“The sooner the better. I’ve been missing for too long — Liufir and the others must be panicking out there.”
“Then let’s head straight ahead,” said Rakaide. “The sooner both sides regroup, the sooner we can get out of this damned place. This bounty is way too much trouble.”
The three of them set out at once.
The path was safe — no unexpected incidents. They quickly broke through the blocked passage.
Before long, the well where Vieya had fallen reappeared in sight.
Vieya twitched her lips. “So your plan was to crawl out from here all along...”
“Yeah. We’re almost out.”
Moonlight poured down, illuminating the three figures at the bottom of the well as they looked up toward the outside world.
But nesis didn’t look happy at all. Her young face was clouded with deep worry.
...
anwhile.
Because of Vieya’s sudden disappearance, Luna and her group had built a temporary camp right beside the well.
By now it was evening, and thick black clouds covered the sky.
“Relax, Ye-sis is super strong. She’ll be fine,” said Kare, sitting cross-legged by the campfire.
“I know Miss Vieya is strong,” Liufir murmured, her expression troubled and her voice low. “But no matter how you look at it, wandering alone through a completely deserted town at night — she must feel scared at least a little, right...?”
“I just went down the well earlier to check,” said Pus calmly. “There’s nothing unusual inside. The walls and the bottom are solid. I even knocked around to make sure there were no hidden chanisms or secret passages.
And even if there were, Miss Vieya wouldn’t vanish without saying a word. So I conclude she’s probably run into the sa situation as nesis and Rakaide.”
“Makes sense.”
Arc picked up the thread, adding what he knew.
“In the last ssage nesis sent us, she ntioned that the current Mount Aisa Town is very likely in a state of overlapping ti-spaces.”
“The records do say the Demon King who fell here had dominion over ti and space,” Luna nodded.
“Overlapping ti-spaces?”
Yuancherin twirled a strand of her tea-colored hair between her fingers, her eyes deep and amused. “Well, that’s interesting. It ans multiple versions of Mount Aisa might have rged through certain passages. We could open any random door and vanish from our current ti-space, only to appear in another.”
As she spoke, she slowly walked up to the well and covered her mouth with a chuckle.
“Who knows, maybe right now Miss Vieya is standing at a well in another ti-space — and since she can’t find us, she’s thinking it’s haunted, rolling on the ground crying and screaming, hehe...”
Splash!
Among the three, Vieya was the first to jump out of the well.
She steadied herself and imdiately began scanning her surroundings — then a question mark practically appeared above her head.
“?”
The courtyard was desolate and silent, overgrown with weeds and dust. Not a trace of Liufir or the others could be seen. It looked as though no one had set foot here for years.
“What’s wrong?”
nesis, climbing up behind her, asked as she ca to Vieya’s side and nudged her lightly with an elbow.
“Didn’t see them?”
“Hey, stop poking ... that hurts.”
Vieya ignored her, pacing back and forth through the courtyard. Then she lifted her head — the full moon hung high in the sky — and, as if struck by sudden realization, a strange thought rose in her mind.
“Why do I... not quite rember how I died? No, that’s not right... Flaviel shouldn’t have died either. The Holy Sword clearly avoided her vital point...”
“You know,”
nesis suddenly stepped up beside her and poked the distracted white-haired girl in the waist again. When Vieya shivered all over, the younger woman continued with a smile,
“Our people say the Chief Hero fell here because he fell in love with soone he shouldn’t have. Just like how fish of different kinds can’t live in the sa sea, a Hero and the one he loves were never {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} ant to be together.”
“...”
Vieya slowly turned her head, staring at the irritating nesis. “What do you an by that?”
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