Free Web NovelLate at night.
Inside a cave lit by a bonfire.
Yuancherin, who had just endured a round of public criticism, hung her head in dejection. She took the initiative to lay out Vieya’s bedding, served tea and water, and attended to her all night long with the quick hands of a professional maid.
Vieya: smiles :)
The Monster Forest at night was never peaceful, filled with the howls of all kinds of wild creatures.
For a rookie adventurer, surviving even a single night in such a place was a difficult feat.
The members of Fairy’s Wings rotated their watch duty, but as an outside hire, Vieya cleverly did not have to take part—she could lie in her blanket and sleep straight through till morning.
At dawn.
Vieya’s hunger was stirred awake by the rich aroma of meat soup.
“Hehe, little Saintess, are you still angry?”
Yuancherin came in carrying two big bowls of soup. “See, last night while Pus was on watch, he ran into a Mist Pig. We slaughtered it and made a broth to save for breakfast.”
“It smells good. Do you like more meat or more greens? Here—two bowls, take whichever you like.”
“......”
After a short silence, Vieya took the meatier bowl. Just as she was about to start eating, Liufir and the others came filing back in from outside the cave.
“Vieya-sister, she didn’t bully you this morning, right? If she’s still unrepentant, I’ll report her to Captain Luna and have Captain Luna throw her out!” Liufir glared at Yuancherin, her little face full of vigilance.
“You annoying little brat!” Yuancherin gnashed her teeth, though her smile never left her face. “It was just a prank last time. Holding a grudge forever is boring!”
“......”
Chastened, Liufir pouted, sat quietly by Vieya’s side, and ate with her head down.
A while later, bald Arc and straw-hat Kare came in together. Arc was the first to speak.
“Last night I managed to contact Rakaide. It went smoothly—we linked right away. He told me that although the Hero in Mount Aisa has them trapped there, the Hero only roams around the town. As long as they don’t appear before him, they won’t be attacked.”
That should have counted as good news. But their faces remained grim, with no hint of relief.
“But,” Arc continued, “Rakaide said he discovered that all of the time inside the town is in disarray. Every timekeeping tool they carry has stopped working, and the alternation of day and night has no pattern.”
“He suspects that Mount Aisa’s time has already been scrambled by some unknown force, turned into a looping, interwoven historical remnant.”
Arc paused, took a deep breath, and then added, “And the most important thing—by observing this distortion, they found that the Hero always patrols around the shrine at the center of the town, circling it endlessly.”
“Patrols?”
Luna’s already furrowed brow deepened. “That means there must be something of great importance inside that shrine. Important enough that ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) the Hero patrols it day and night, guarding against anyone peeking at its secret?”
Arc said nothing.
For a moment, everyone in the cave fell into silence. They were curious and afraid, yet their eyes glittered with excitement.
For every adventurer, greater danger often meant greater reward.
“No delay. Pack your things and prepare to move out,” Luna said as she rose.
“This may be far more dangerous than we imagined. But we are adventurers. We cannot retreat—especially not while our comrades are still waiting in danger for us to rescue them.”
“Move out!”
A flock of crows passed over the forest canopy as Luna’s group stepped from the cave.
“Vieya-sister, are you all right? You’ve seemed distracted since earlier... Is it lingering aftereffects from yesterday?” Liufir asked. “Sigh, if only Menesis-sis weren’t trapped in that town. Her healing is amazing.”
“Tch.” Yuancherin snorted and quickened her pace, pulling away from Liufir.
“I’m fine.” Vieya yawned. “Just didn’t sleep well last night. By the way—do you have a grudge against her?”
Vieya cast a glance at Yuancherin ahead.
“No, no grudge!”
Liufir waved her hands quickly, worried of being misunderstood. But she sighed and admitted, “Lin-sis is actually a good person. It’s just that sometimes what she does is hard to accept. Even when told, she doesn’t change. When it happens often, people get annoyed.”
“Is that so? Mm, I’m so tired...” freewёbnoνel.com
As time passed, the drizzle began to fall again.
Since Luna led them along the same trail they’d used during the retreat last time, they met no other travelers and no large monster packs.
What bothered Vieya, though, was that the deeper they went into the Monster Forest, the fewer monsters they encountered.
Something was clearly wrong.
She had lived in this forest for a short time before, and it was never like this—the deeper you went, the fewer monsters? Impossible.
Was this due to some internal demon rebellion?
Or... did something happen during Hero Rotisha’s suppression campaign with her knights?
“This isn’t right,” Vieya muttered to herself.
“Vieya-sister, what’s not right?”
Liufir broke off a big leaf somewhere and held it over her head as a rain shield.
“It’s too quiet here,” Vieya said strangely, looking at Liufir. “You don’t seem like an experienced adventurer.”
“S-sorry!” Liufir bit her lip. “I only joined Fairy’s Wings a year ago... My grandpa knows the Captain...”
Ah, a connection-hire.
I’ve seen plenty of those.
Suddenly!
Luna halted at the front. The others stopped one after another.
Trailing behind, Liufir quickly ran along the narrow path to the front exit.
An ancient town and long-abandoned mining machines stood under the gloomy clouds. The drizzle draped Mount Aisa in a mysterious veil, like that of a phantom banshee.
The tangled mine tunnels crisscrossed like a spider’s web, spreading out from the main road.
The sight involuntarily made Vieya think of the Spider Cave scene from the old 1986 Journey to the West.
What the hell.
When I left here, it was nothing but ruins—bottomless mine shafts everywhere, not even a single intact building.
The gatehouse stood at the town’s entrance.
The party headed straight for the guard post. Just as Luna prepared to enter as before, she suddenly stopped.
She held her breath, raising a hand to signal everyone not to rush.
Then, after hesitating for a moment, Luna stepped up to the window of the guard post and knocked. ƒrēewebnoѵёl.cσm
Doo!
Doo!
Doo!
“Hello, is anyone there?”
