Kallen buried her face in my chest and cried for a long while.
It was a moment when time mattered, but I just patted her thin shoulder in silence.
Long if long, short if short. Kallen sorted through her feelings, and I sorted through my thoughts.
“Hic... I-I’m okay now...”
“Have you calmed down a little?”
“Y-yes. I’m sorry.”
“You’ve got very little to be sorry for.”
Her eyes were puffed up like boiled rice cakes, but she stopped crying and lifted her chin.
Maybe it’s experience with hardship—she pulled herself together fast.
Once I’d checked her state, I moved without delay. We couldn’t waste any more time.
First I took Rami out of my pocket. The lizard who had overdosed on anesthetic hung limp.
“Rami, Rami?”
I gently shook the handspan-long body and put my ear to her damp belly.
Thump-thump. Heart’s fine.
“Piiuuung... pihyung...”
So I’d worried for nothing—Rami was in a deep sleep. No need to try mouth-to-mouth on a mouth the size of a pea.
I transferred her carefully to my inner breast pocket and stood. I went straight to the small window set in the wall.
Looking out, I saw we were inside a long, narrow tower built of smooth-fitted stone. Far below, the ground; above us, the roof right there.
Great. I’m not some long-haired princess. Locked up at the top of a tower.
“Ha... where is this.”
The mutter slipped out of me with the pressure in my chest.
Kallen steadied her shaking legs and came to my side. She poked her head out to peek with me.
All I could see was the same old hateful conifers.
“It’s a Frosteil tree. It grows in the northwestern polar region, and its sap lowers body temperature. It’s used as a rare antipyretic.”
At this point her plant knowledge might as well be an encyclopedia.
I ruffled the orange head, and she sniffled once more and kept talking.
“We fell in the pit near the border, so we can’t be far.”
“That would be something to be thankful for.”
“Will the dragon be okay?”
“He will. From how quiet it is.”
With that temperament, he wouldn’t be quietly taken. If a house-sized dragon had thrashed, even this dense forest would show signs.
For all that Varen has a body that keels over the moment I poke him, a dragon is a dragon.
If he entered the Eterna Nest, he’ll have charged his mana to bursting.
“Do you think... the dragon will come to rescue us—no, you, Ceryl?”
“He probably will. But we need to get out before that.”
“W-why? If we quietly wait for the dragon—”
I scanned the tower’s exterior again, my eyes gone cold.
Crossbow bolts jutted at irregular angles from the smooth °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° stone wall. The small windows on each level weren’t there for show.
Most of all, I remembered what Jed had said right before I lost consciousness.
“This tower is a trap to catch a dragon. We’re the bait. We can’t call him into a well-laid ambush.”
“Ah...”
I shook my head firmly and Kallen let out a low sigh.
She was afraid of escaping a sheer tower with our bare hands, but she understood we couldn’t put Varen at risk.
“Then if we just stay here...”
“I’m bait enough to bring a dragon. Why do you think they dragged you along too?”
Her frightened eyes blinked a few times, then caught up.
She bit her lip and spoke low.
“They’d... torture me in front of you. Because you’d never open your mouth about the dragon.”
“Smart. Whose aide are you again?”
I tried to turn the air with a useless joke, but the gloom on her face didn’t lift easily.
“I’m sorry... because of me...”
“Stop with the sorry already. You’ve got nothing to be sorry for. Quit crying and look for anything we can use.”
I scruffed the floating orange hair. Only then did a bitter smile nick her mouth.
Seeing her look a little better, I checked the interior again.
Nothing on the walls. The room was empty—no furniture at all.
Not thrilled about it, but I searched the corpse’s clothes for anything useful. A ring of keys came out of a pocket, and from his discarded belt I picked up a long leather thong.
“Ceryl, my bag is here.”
Kallen held up a pouch left near the wooden door. The cloth bag she’d worn the whole time in the forest.
We needed anything that might be usable. An unexpected find—and my eyes lit up.
“What’s in it?”
“Herbs and fruit I gathered. I thought I’d lost it—thank goodness.”
“......”
Right. Worst case, you can swing it. Better than empty hands.
But leaving a captive’s belongings untouched? And no one coming except the dead man?
Feeling the same bad premonition I did, Kallen asked first.
“For all the noise... why isn’t anyone coming? Is... is no one here?”
“Who knows. More likely they’re careless. We must look easy.”
A young girl, and a man who looked like he’d never held a sword.
Dragon Hunters had no reason to treat us as a threat.
My head spun noisily; my body kept busy.
With no card to play right now, we had to use even the enemy’s carelessness.
First I wiped the blood off the short knife by rubbing it along my pant leg. I gripped the hilt awkwardly and wrapped the leather thong around my other hand.
Then I went to the door and pressed my ear flat. No footsteps climbing the stairs, no voices.
Breathing tight with tension, I gestured to Kallen.
“Kallen, stick to my back.”
“...Y-yes.”
Hugging the herb-stuffed bag to her chest, Kallen pressed in behind me.
Creak— the old wooden door shrieked. I opened it a finger’s width and checked outside again.
Right beyond the door, no landing—just stairs. A spiral staircase of the sort common in medieval builds: made for defense.
Hearing nothing, I pushed the door wider. Just enough for one person at a time, and I eased through.
I stared up and down the vortex of stairs and hesitated.
Up led to the top. Likely a drop.
Down was jumping into a hunter’s open maw.
A dilemma, but one path had better odds.
“We’re going down. Keep your steps quiet.”
“Huuh... I’m scared, Ceryl...”
I’m scared too.
I swallowed what I couldn’t say and set my foot to the first step.
We went down carefully, quieting our tread. At each floor I stopped.
I stretched my senses thin, listening—still no sound. Which only made it feel like we were stepping into a fire.
Halfway down the tower, the air changed.
One room per floor. From beyond a thick wooden door, a human voice leaked.
I went to the door, set my ear, and closed my eyes. The sounds beyond grew a shade clearer.
“C-Ceryl. Why... it’s dangerous. Let’s just pass.”
Kallen’s whisper was half air, half voice.
I held up a finger for silence and she shut her mouth at once.
I was no less afraid than she was. If I let the tension go, I’d crumple.
But I was doing the dangerous thing to live.
If there was no guard on each floor, Jed’s people were likely gathered on the first. In a tower like this, the only exit would be the ground-level door.
Blocking the path to the exit—an efficient watch. Skilled hunters would know that.
To punch through there, we needed more items. A measly short knife, a leather thong, and a bag full of greenery wouldn’t cut it.
And the “item” I was looking for was more person than thing.
“Ghh... urk...”
Bingo. My eyes opened on their own; a sharp light went through them.
The sound beyond was a groan thick with pain. One voice.
A serious patient, then. I hoped hard it was the man I was looking for.
I pulled the heavy handle. It didn’t open.
This is the sort of thing a shadow lizard would pop in a blink.
“Baby, are you sleeping?”
“Piiuuung...”
No helping it. I wasn’t waking our baby.
I took out the key ring I’d stripped from the corpse. To the eye, all the keys were the same shape.
I picked one at random and slid it into the keyhole. With a clack, the lock opened on the first try.
“...Why is luck bad when it’s good.”
Even with luck on my side, a chill crawled my spine. Since I fell into this world, luck hadn’t exactly followed me.
I shook off the thought and opened the door only halfway, peering in.
“—kh... ugh, ngh...”
In the center sat a big man in a chair. I narrowed my eyes to focus and saw his ankles were tied up tight.
So not a patient—someone in the same situation we were. If so, no need to risk more than we had to.
I clicked my tongue and started to close the door—then something caught my eye.
I checked the bound man again. His head hung so his face didn’t show, but the hair that had fallen forward, I could see perfectly.
Curly, dry brown hair. A back of the head I could never forget.
“Margon? Margon, is that you?”
At my voice, the bound man slowly lifted his head. Brown eyes met mine head-on.
His already-ruined face crumpled all at once.
“Ceryl—why are you here...!”
At that cracked voice, I went straight in. I hurried to him and checked his condition.
The dying look was like Leobin’s, but at least he didn’t look like a corpse.
“Urgh—why did you come here. Don’t tell me... you really came to save me?”
I answered Margon, whose eyes were shining with tears, with an awkward honesty.
“No. I’m captured too.”
