<Episode 23>

Despite my protests, I glared at Jaeger as he tried to cut the rope, breathing heavily.

“Don’t cut it!”

“If you keep this up, we’ll all die here!”

Jaeger raised his voice, clearly panicked as he was being pulled in up to his chest in the sand.

My legs trembled, and beads of sweat dripped from my forehead. I gritted my teeth and squeezed my eyes shut. The rope was gradually slipping from my grasp.

“Let go!”

I was barely holding onto my fading senses when I heard Jaerer’s shout again.

Being only human, I felt my resolve wavering for a moment.

‘Damn it, damn it!’

I bit my teeth and tightened my grip on the rope.

Don’t joke around; who would let themselves die here? Who wants to ruin my dreams again!

“For your sake, you can’t die here! If you have the energy to give up, then pull the rope!”

I won’t let you die here, no matter what.

At that moment, the Crown Prince, who had been staring blankly at me, suddenly frowned and laughed as if it was ridiculous. A bead of sweat dripped down his red eyebrows.

He didn’t seem very composed either, considering he was nearly submerged in sand.

“I have no choice. Duke, take care of this for a moment.”

“What are you trying to do?”

“Your Highness!”

Despite our protests, the Crown Prince swiftly tied the spare length of rope around his waist and buried his body in the sand.

Thud—!

It all happened in a matter of seconds.

The sand vibrated, and a mole’s hand suddenly popped up from a little distance away.

Soon after, a heavy body shot up with a splat.

As the bleeding mole fell, Jaeger threw his sword, waiting for the moment.

Thud—!

The mole impaled by the sword twitched briefly before breathing its last.

Thanks to that, the sand quickly stopped sinking, and the surroundings fell silent.

Once Jaeger emerged from the sand, we all stared intently at the spot where the Crown Prince had disappeared.

‘Where’s the Crown Prince? Is he dead?’

My mind went blank at the thought.

Swish, swish—.

I heard a sound as if sand was pouring away from somewhere.

I looked down at my feet with a wary gaze.

Confirming that nothing was wrong, I tilted my head in confusion.

Suddenly, the feet behind me sank deep into the sand.

Huh?

As I blinked in surprise, my body tilted.

The other leg was being pulled into the sand as well.

‘No way…’

As I quickly turned my head, I spotted a desert mole buried in the sand, peeking out with just its eyes showing.

Koo-ooh!

The squealing mole disappeared into the sand.

Ah, I had forgotten.

The monsters appearing in the Abiran Desert were not just scorpions.

“Damn it!”

I wasn’t the only one panicking.

The male leads were also being pulled into the sand.

The Crown Prince was using his spear to brace himself, while Jaeger stood firmly, using his sword as a support, but the depth of the sand only grew deeper.

‘By the way, where’s Sien?’

I turned around in a hurry. Sien was being pulled into the sand without any resistance.

“Wow, Ria, am I really going to die like this?”

‘What are you doing, looking so calm about it!’

I rummaged through my pouch to quickly find a rope.

I extended my arm holding the hammer and hooked the end of it onto the signpost.

Gripping the hammer with both hands, I shook one leg free and, while balancing on my knee, pulled the other leg out.

Barely escaping, I hurriedly tied the rope to the post.

“Catch it!”

I threw the rope toward where Sien was.

As he caught it and threw it to Jaeger, it quickly reached the Crown Prince as well.

As soon as I saw that, I braced my legs and pulled the rope with all my might.

‘Ah, damn!’

Although not much time had passed, it felt like my facial and neck veins would burst.

I leaned back, pulling with all my strength, and Sien began to be pulled toward us.

He climbed up, still wrapped in the blanket, and once he made it up, he sat down, panting with a pale face, and then looked at my hands in surprise.

The taut rope had scraped off the skin on my hands.

“Ria, there’s blood on your hand…”

“Just help me already!”

As Sien wrapped the rope with the blanket and helped pull, it became easier, but the two male leads still hadn’t managed to come out.

The rope was being pulled by Jaeger, who saw us and held up the sword he had plunged into the sand.

“This won’t do. I’ll cut the rope, so you two escape first—”

“Ugh. Just try cutting it!”

It felt like my body was burning, my vision spinning, and my hands stinging.

As I struggled to save them, how could they be the ones to abandon me first?

I sat down, letting out a sigh of relief.

“Are you okay, Ria?”

Sien patted my back from behind.

I weakly shook my head and glared at the Crown Prince.

‘What’s with making people worry, honestly.’

The Crown Prince and Jaeger stood side by side, brushing the sand off their bodies.

The Crown Prince, shaking his head vigorously, looked at me and grinned.

“You’re more scared than you look.”

“Wasn’t I about to die? You don’t think I should be surprised?”

I shot him a glare and brushed the sand off my body.

Jaeger, too, shook the sand off as he sheathed his sword. Luckily, it seemed he had thrown his supplies far away, as he carried a fully intact food backpack while looking at me with an unreadable expression.

“What’s wrong?”

“…I’m not inclined to say this, but thanks to you, I survived.”

“Is this the first time I’m hearing a word of thanks?”

“I didn’t say thank you. I just stated a fact.”

‘Ugh, maybe I should have just left him to die.’

Yet, without realizing I was glaring wide-eyed at him, I simmered silently behind his back.

‘Hah….’

I sighed, brushed off the sand, and collected my hammer.

At that moment, Sien, who had been inspecting the sand around us, approached me holding something.

“Is this yours, Ria?”

What he handed me was a traveler’s notebook, A6 size.

“No, I’ve never seen it before.”

But as I said that, I quickly grabbed it upon seeing “Hayton” stamped on the edge of the leather cover.

“It’s definitely mine.”

It seemed it must have come out when I was retrieving the rope.

“Looks like you’re keeping a diary?”

Sien, who had seemed quite bored despite crossing the line earlier, spoke in a languid tone.

“Yeah, well…”

A diary?

I had vowed to write a diary every January 1st for the past ten years, but I had never filled more than five pages of the notebook.

I turned my back to Sien, inspecting the notebook from front to back, puzzled.

‘But this is strange? I don’t remember putting a diary in when I was gathering my things?’

Was it already in the spatial pouch from the start?

That seemed to be the most likely possibility right now.

I opened the thick notebook, which was slightly ajar.

I flipped through the pages, but they were all blank.

‘What’s this? Did he buy a diary just for his New Year’s resolution?’

As I was thinking that, I suddenly spotted a line scrawled diagonally across one of the pages.

Seeing it made a question mark appear in my mind.

[ I must go to the Sacred Zone, absolutely ]

?

??

???

What business could a mad scientist, who had been kicked out of the tower, possibly have?

Of course, he was human too, so he could visit the graves of his ancestors. However, considering his limited social connections, there was no one he would think of specially enough to make that trip.

At least, that was the case in the original story.

And it said he “must” go, right?

‘Then it means there’s a specific purpose…’

I frowned, tapping my temples, and suddenly felt a chill at the assumption that popped into my mind.

The heat of the desert seemed to dissipate, and the beads of sweat that had formed on my skin began to cool.

No way.

‘Is the zombie mist intentional, not an accident?’

I had come to the Sacred Zone for research, and afterward, had it been deliberately spread?

As I thought that, I screamed internally.

In the original story, it was said to be an accident. But thinking about it, it seems strange. How could a hidden laboratory of his allow the zombie mist to flow into the Sacred Zone?

I pressed my throbbing forehead and squeezed my eyes shut.

‘Calm down, Redria. It’s all just speculation.’

After all, in the original story, it was stated that it wasn’t intentional.

Even so, my heart pounded in my chest.

“Ria?”

At that moment, I jolted at the sound of someone approaching from behind.

I instinctively panicked and tore the remaining part of Hayton’s message, putting it in my pocket.

“What’s wrong, Ria?”

“Oh, it’s nothing.”

“Then that’s a relief. Let’s hurry up.”

Fortunately, Sien didn’t seem to have seen the contents of the notebook. He passed over my anxious reaction without a word.

“Lady.”

“Are you not coming?”

As I turned my head, the two remaining male leads stood at the front of the hall, waiting for me.

I put the notebook back in my pouch and headed toward them.

‘Let’s stop thinking about it. Premature assumptions are nothing more than delusions.’

Even as I thought that, the crumpled note poked at my thigh, consuming my nerves with every step I took.

* * *

“Eep…”

As the rabbit collapsed in a sprawled position, the male leads and I glared at it.

‘Hey, do it right.’

The rabbit whined, trying to get back on its feet. With its round tail and long ears sprawled out on the ground, it looked incredibly cute, but that didn’t change the fact that it was annoying.

When we had just emerged from the trap, the rabbit had been caught eating a squirrel right in front of us.

We glared at it, our eyes blazing.

‘Who had to go through all that just for you to have a feast?’

After holding it down for about ten minutes, the rabbit looked up at me, whining.

I felt my heart soften.

Should I let it off the hook?

“Come here.”

“Eeek…”

As I waved my hand, signaling for it to come, the rabbit slowly approached me.

It crawled onto my inner thigh, and I gently patted its head.

“Don’t touch traps again. You might get caught for real next time.”

“Kyuu!”

Seeing the rabbit nod with its front paws up was so cute that I couldn’t help but smile as I glanced around.

It had been about an hour since we escaped from the trap and taken a break.

We were all preparing for battle.

Jaeger was polishing his sword, the Crown Prince was practicing with his spear, and Sien was…

‘Hmm, sleeping.’

Anyway, since we had enough rest, it was time to move west as originally planned.

“Everyone, pay attention.”

I woke Sien and unfolded the map, which revealed four shadows over it.

“Before we cross over to the western Dawn Forest, let me explain.”

Most of the Empire’s citizens would know, but still.

I pointed to the dashed line marking the border between the Northern Sacred Forest and the Western Dawn Forest.

“Crossing this border means entering the Western Dawn Forest.”

To the west, the Dawn Forest was separated from the typical forest, with the area of the Dawn Forest being smaller.

However, just because it was smaller didn’t mean we could relax.

In the Dawn Forest, there existed a time of ‘darkness’ where one couldn’t see even an inch ahead.

In the Northern Sacred Forest, there was the saint’s graveyard, while in the Western Dawn Forest, there was the tower master’s graveyard.

Because of that, the Sacred Forest was protected by a barrier, shielding it from zombies, but the Dawn Forest experienced irregular “dark” times, plunging it into darkness even in broad daylight.

‘If that’s the case, we’ll be lucky.’

At those times, the land would shift like waves and morph chaotically.

In other words, once we stepped into the Dawn Forest, we could not afford to let our guard down.

I shook Sien awake, who had been dozing off.

“And, Tower Master, for safety’s sake, let’s look for the previous tower master’s remains when there’s no ‘darkness.’”

While the other male leads seemed curious about that, I chose to ignore it. I deemed it unnecessary to share my promise with Sien with everyone else.