I had no idea what had just happened. The scene before my eyes changed in an instant. The shimmering light that had filtered through the dense forest canopy vanished completely, leaving nothing but pitch darkness.
Maybe bats would enjoy this kind of dark environment. After all, ultrasound is their best tool for navigating. Unfortunately, I’m not a bat, and neither is anyone around me.
There were no soul reactions nearby, and my range of movement was restricted. What on earth happened? Wasn’t I just talking to a wild Lamia only a second ago?
With no other choice, I activated 【Justice】 and spread its yellow light in all directions. Finally, I could see what was around me—
Stones were piled up haphazardly in several spots. The stone floor was covered in debris. I myself had fallen right into the middle of several stone spikes, nearly ending up skewered like a blooming flower.
I silently counted myself lucky, then got to my feet and looked around. There didn’t seem to be any sign of light, except for a strange stone wall that appeared directly ahead. The wall had quite a few scratches and markings on it. At first glance, it looked like the wall of some prison, but it actually wasn’t.
One of the characters looked somewhat familiar to me, so I stepped back a little, intending to get a better look at the patterns on the wall.
“Let me see here… this one, uh…” Though I really wanted to decipher the string of characters written along the edges of a five-pointed star pattern, I had never received any proper magical education, so I couldn’t understand the “Ancient Runic Script” at all.
Don’t let my apparent knowledge of magic fool you—it’s limited to the spells I’ve learned myself, like teleportation arrays and attack spells. Though as long as I memorize the incantation, I should be able to cast any spell, right?
Elemental magic might be beyond me, but that’s no big deal.
Ah, if I weren’t trapped here, I wouldn’t be bored enough to puzzle over how to trigger this magic array!
—9:36
It was getting late. I absolutely had to return to 【Cliff】 today. Lady Clearl… I miss her. I want to see her. I want to properly explain to her all the foolish things I’ve done these past few days.
I was about to continue examining the array when I suddenly heard a call—someone seemed to be calling out to me? The words “little girl” echoed around my ears over and over.
Above?
“Little girl! Are you alright?!” It was hard to hear clearly through the stone, but I could still make out the snake-like speech pattern at the beginning. It was that Lamia from earlier.
I was about to shout back when I noticed the magic array beside me suddenly reacted. Like most arrays when triggered, it hummed and glowed, growing brighter and brighter until it nearly blinded me.
I couldn’t even open my eyes, so I covered them with both hands. After a moment, the array finally settled down, and I opened my eyes again…
What is this place?
A gentle breeze brushed past me, carrying the fresh scent of grass. Beneath my feet was cold stone. I looked behind me—it was the same magic array from before. But when I looked forward again, everything before me made my jaw drop in sheer astonishment.
This was clearly an elevated place, because I could see the distant, hazy forest and valleys. Looking closer, there were still patches of woodland, but with clusters of flowers mixed in here and there.
I walked to the outermost edge and leaned out to look. At the foot of the mountain was a small town… but rather than a town, I’d sooner call it a village, because it was just so peaceful and quiet.
Though 【Cliff】 is also peaceful—that’s a fact.
I stood up and suddenly noticed a notice board hanging on a worn stone wall nearby. It seemed no one had cleaned it in a long time—the nearly rotting wooden board was covered in so much moss that I could barely read it.
“Below… uh… what, what village. Oh, Monste. What kind of weird name is that?”
I scratched my head and turned to look at the foot of the mountain. It was too high above the ground—I could even see clouds drifting toward me. If I jumped straight down, even a bird would have to fend for itself.
But I’m self-taught, and I learned 【Intermediate Levitation】. It can help me glide through the air for about five minutes. 【Impression Teleport】 is the best choice—it uses my spiritual power as the medium for teleportation, and I’ve long known that my spiritual power can’t be “exhausted.”
Almost all my spells rely on consuming spiritual power. Aside from certain magics that require true magical energy to fuel, the spells I can use under any circumstances…
“But the mental strain is always my weak point. I wish some kind of accessory could help me offset that.”
I shook my head, gazed steadily ahead, then kicked off hard with both feet.
At first there was nothing unusual, then the rush of air came, sliding along the lines of my body on both sides—
I had jumped. Now I needed to cast 【Impression Teleport】 and, as a safety measure, 【Intermediate Levitation】.
…
To be honest, gliding doesn’t feel good at all. Even though the levitation spell lightened most of my body weight, it still wasn’t as comfortable as true floating.
Anyone who isn’t skilled at gliding would probably end up like me—legs weak and unable to move, forced to rely only on their upper body. That’s just really uncomfortable.
If I hadn’t used 【Impression Teleport】 to speed things up, I might still be in the air looking for a landing spot.
I landed steadily on a stone path… no, not stone—I misread. It was just a layer of dirt that happened to be similar in color to stone. I scraped my toe against it, and the feedback felt exactly as I’d expected.
“Where is this?” Up there, I’d assumed I couldn’t go back through that magic array, so I jumped down without thinking. Only after landing did I remember I should have first tested whether the array still worked.
But since I’m already here, I might as well look around. Maybe I can find another way back?
With that thought, I glanced at my surroundings. The houses were finely crafted from wood, with glass windows. I could see a shrine not far away, and beyond the sky… sky islands… wait, what did I just see? Were those sky islands?!
I snapped out of my shock and looked again, only to spot a boy.
He looked about twelve, with short red hair, wearing a sky-blue vest and brown shorts, and a pair of boots on his feet identical to mine. Looking more carefully, he had a short sword on his back that suited him quite well.
Seeing me staring at him, the boy seemed a bit panicked. He looked left and right, as if waiting for someone to arrive.
“Hello?” I tried throwing out a question, hoping it would help him calm down.
But he only nodded and shook his head… Maybe he doesn’t understand Flame Nation language. What about Mi Nation language or Neon language?
I tried every greeting I knew in every language I was familiar with, but he still only nodded and shook his head. And it seemed that after Flame Nation language, he’d been shaking his head the whole time.
“So it’s because he doesn’t understand too many spoken languages, so he uses body language instead.” Hearing this, the boy nodded vigorously, very much in agreement.
It had been so long since I’d talked with a normal person—or rather, someone my own age—that I relaxed a lot. My earlier tension disappeared instantly.
Before, I’d either been talking to adults or engaged in very serious “transactions.” In my heart, I wished there were less deceit in the world… but that’s just how the world is—filled with so much of it.
The world as I’d thought it was—ugliness outweighed warmth and kindness. But I was wrong. All I’d seen was the sinful side. My preconceived notions made me believe the world ran on self-interest.
Maybe that’s true. Maybe it’s not.
I want it to be false. I really do. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be here lamenting the world’s unfairness.
Only when you’re living the life you desire will you stop longing for a distant paradise. And only when you’re in deep water will you hope for a perfect way out.
“What’s your name?”
“…” The boy listened for a while, but didn’t seem to understand what I said.
“Where’s your home?”
“…!” The boy nodded hard and walked over to take my hand.
I was startled, my heart pounding, thinking I’d done something wrong again. Then I realized—it was just that no one had held my hand in a very long time.
“Are you taking me there?”
“Yes, yes!” The boy nodded hard and kept walking.
I took this chance to look at the village along the way… Sigh, somehow it felt less charming than when I first saw it. I’d thought there would be many villagers around. Why was it so quiet and deserted?
After walking for a while, the boy led me to a wooden house. The structure was designed like a villa, but not as fancy. The wood was dark oak taken from nearby.
The boy pointed at the wooden house and shook my hand.
“Your home?”
“Yes, yes!”
The boy nodded, walked to the wooden door, and knocked. “I’m home!” A line in Neon language followed, and I was confused—so my Neon language earlier wasn’t standard, was it?
Come to think of it, that makes sense. I’d never received proper Neon language education. How could I possibly speak it clearly? But then why could he understand me when I spoke Flame Nation language? Was speaking Neon just a habit?
