I stood at the bottom of the stairs and looked down at myself.
Leather armor — light enough to move in, sturdy enough to matter. Round shield strapped to my left arm. The sword my father had given me at my right hip.
Alright.
Outside, the three of them were already waiting in front of the tavern.
Sibel looked me over once.
"Are you ready?"
"Yes."
Libel, who had been leaning against the wall with her eyes half-closed, groaned the moment she spotted the carriage parked by the road.
"Uwaah~ a carriage again? T.S.I.E."
…This Shit Is Exhausting, probably.
"It won't take as long as last time," Cia said. Then she turned to me. "Also good morning, Satou. Ufufu~"
She smiled like nothing had happened.
After the incident the other night, I had expected something to be different. Some kind of awkwardness, maybe. A question left hanging in the air between us.
But i guess her being cheerful and always smiling does suits her after all.
"Let's go," Sibel said.
---
The carriage ride took a few hours.
By the time we stepped out, the sun was already high. The air outside the city was dry and still.
The cave entrance was cut into the hillside ahead of us. A dark mouth in the rock. No sound from inside.
I wonder why we accepted this quest in the afternoon.
Before I finished the thought, Sibel spoke.
"Most monsters inside are active at night, and they sleep during the day. This is the right time to move through their territory. But keep in mind that they might wake up if they hear a loud noise"
"Ah. Is that so."
He was already looking at the entrance, not at me. I thought he could read my mind or something.
"Same formation as we discussed," he continued. "Libel and I take the front. You stay behind Cia and cover what comes from the rear. She's our only healer after all. Libel, light the torches."
"Okey~"
Libel handed one to me and one to Sibel.
The flame caught.
Sibel stepped into the cave first., and then we followed.
---
Inside, the daylight disappeared almost immediately.
Past the first bend, the torchlight became everything. Ten feet of visibility in each direction. Beyond that — nothing.
The air was cold. Heavy. The kind of cold that came from deep stone and didn't move.
We walked in silence.
I kept my pace just behind Cia, with my shield ready, eyes on the dark behind us.
After a while, I asked Sibel.
"Sibel, do u remember the additional message on the quest"
"Yeah. A few groups accepted this quest several weeks ago and never reported back to the guild. If any of them are still alive inside, we get them out."
"That means the monsters on this place are really dangerous"
Libel slowed and raised her torch toward the wall.
"And also full of traps.."
A small mechanism was half-embedded in the stone. Already triggered. The groove still held the remains of a dart — aimed at ankle height.
Cia leaned in slightly. "Did the monsters make this?"
No, the right question might be 'does the monsters smart enough to set traps in this cave?'. But i didn't ask it.
Libel stared at it for a moment.
"…I don't know."
We moved on.
Soon after, the path split ahead — one branch straight, one curving right.
Sibel stopped.
"Libel. What do you think?"
"Hmm, well I think we should take—"
A voice tore through the right passage.
"HEEELP! N — NOOOOOO!"
Sibel was already moving.
"Let's go."
We ran as fast as we can.
The right passage curved twice before opening into a room.
The smell reached us before the light did.
The room is full of human bones, dried blood splatted everywhere. The air is so thick and smells disgusting that it really hits the back of my throat.
Sibel moved inside first, torch raised.
The room took shape slowly.
Rough stone walls. Uneven floor, slick in places. The far wall had iron bolts driven into it. Below them, the ground was dark with old staining that spread wide and had long since dried into the stone.
Bound with rope against the far wall — a woman.
Sibel and Libel went silent.
"…How cruel," Cia said softly.
I stepped forward until I could see clearly.
Her arms were pulled behind her and tied. Without any clothes, we could see half of her body covered in wounds — some shallow, some not. Dried blood had tracked from her hairline all the way down her neck and collarbone. Her head hung low, hair stuck against her cheek.
She was still breathing.
Barely.
Her eyes found the torchlight.
Her lips moved. No sound came out.
She pulled against the rope and tried again. Her whole body strained with it — shoulders twisting, chest heaving — like something was blocking the way between her lungs and her mouth and she was forcing through it anyway.
"Be… hind…"
Sibel stepped closer. "What did you say?"
Her eyes went wide.
Wide and fixed on something past our shoulders.
"BEHIND YOU!!!"
The wall behind us cracked down the middle.
Then burst inward.
A shape came through the gap — low, fast, dagger already drawn — and in its hand, a dagger, angled straight toward Cia.
It's a goblin.