Chapter – 15
At that moment, blood suddenly gushed from the mouth of the man holding Dee. She felt the strength in his grip loosen.
The man groaned and collapsed to the ground. Immediately, another arrow flew in and brought down another masked attacker.
Dee’s face brightened. Someone had arrived.
Good! Stay hidden and keep shooting!
As she cheered inwardly, one of the group held a knife to her neck and shouted:
“Stop hiding like a coward and come out! Shoot one more and she’s dead!”
Who’s calling who a coward? Like anyone would come out because of that?
She snorted inwardly—then instantly grimaced.
Kyle, who had been hiding behind a tree shooting arrows, stepped out into the open.
“Let the priestess go.”
HEY! You were supposed to SHOOT them!
The gag was suffocating her; she was about to go insane. Bernaudoc’s men looked baffled and drew their blades.
“So you think that big body of yours is enough? In a fight, numbers win, idiot.”
They sneered, unaware of who they were dealing with.
They rushed in.
Just as Dee was about to thrash in frustration, she calmed when the fight began. Numbers meant nothing to Kyle.
He was overwhelming. Fast and strong. He sensed even the slightest movement of swords approaching from behind.
What slowed him down wasn’t the enemies—it was his effort not to kill them. A blade that would have pierced a heart was redirected at the last moment to stab a flank instead. When there was an opening, one man rushed forward and grabbed Dee again as a hostage.
“D-Don’t come closer!”
Don’t stop!
Dee screamed internally, but Kyle halted and made a proposal.
“Send her to me. Then I’ll let you go too.”
“T-Then back up. Twenty steps. If you do that, we’ll let her go.”
“Okay.”
Kyle stepped back calmly, one step at a time. Dee cursed him furiously with her eyes, but he didn’t seem to understand.
Then Kyle suddenly lost his footing and stumbled. With a crashing sound, the branches covering an old dry well gave way, and he fell straight down.
Almost at the same moment, Dee turned toward the woods and her eyes went wide.
“Mmph! Mmmph!”
“W-What? There’s an animal over there?”
Startled by her frightened squirming, the men glanced toward the direction she was staring at.
In the instant their attention shifted to the empty forest, Dee bolted, throwing herself into the well.
The two of them disappeared into the darkness below. The men stared blankly, then sighed in relief.
“…What the hell. Actually, that works.”
“It’s dark—I can’t see the bottom well. Should’ve brought a pole.”
“And get the villagers suspicious? Hell no. Damn, but what was that monster guy?”
Shuddering, the group tossed some stones into the well. They heard them fall, but no screams.
“Dead already?”
“Well, even if they survived, leaving them like this means they’ll die anyway. We’ll collect the bodies in daylight.”
The men left, satisfied.
A short while later, Dee opened her eyes inside the well. Kyle was wrapped around her, shielding her with his whole body. After the voices faded into the distance, he reached up weakly and removed her gag. The moment she could speak, she hissed in a small, furious voice:
“You indecisive idiot!”
“…So you’re alive. That’s what that means?”
“Ugh! I was dying to talk! What were you doing negotiating with hostage-takers? In a life‑and‑death situation?! And what—were you worried they might die so you didn’t fight properly? I thought you were smart, but I was wrong!”
“Whenever possible, criminals should be handled through legal procedures…”
“Is that something you say now?! This is not the situation for that!”
“You’re more scared of not talking than dying, aren’t you?”
The moment she could talk, she started nagging. Kyle had a feeling he’d lose any verbal battle with her.
Mid‑rant, Dee grabbed his arm, turned him around, and saw the brutal wound on his back from the fall. Tears sprang to her eyes again.
“See? You got hurt…!”
She thought she’d cried enough earlier, but seeing Kyle wounded brought the tears right back.
“You’re seriously an idiot…”
“Stop nagging.”
Kyle scolded her lightly, took out a dagger, and cut the rope around her wrists. Dee looked up.
“But… how do we get out of here?”
Kyle also looked upward.
“Stay here. I’ll be back.”
“W‑Where are you going?”
Kyle tapped the wall, found a protruding stone, and grabbed it. Then he began climbing. His unstable movement made Dee panic.
“I-I-If you fall—K-Kyle!”
He slipped and crashed back down. To make things worse, moss covered the lower half of the well where the water used to be, making it impossible to climb. If he tried again, he’d destroy his body.
Dee tried climbing too, but she lacked the grip strength to hold on. Defeated, she whimpered:
“Kyle. I have a good idea.”
“What is it?”
“We hold a rain‑summoning ritual. Then, when it rains, we float up to the top… Ah, right. I can’t swim. Then only you survive…”
As Dee rambled nonsense, Kyle said:
“People are looking for us. But at sunrise, those guys will also come back. We can’t just wait.”
“S-So we really are going to die here?”
“We’re not dying, Diana.”
“But…”
“Think. We’ll find a way.”
He brushed her hair back, speaking in a calm, low voice.
“You’re good at improvising. Try thinking slowly.”
Dee flinched at his touch, but somehow, being with him made her feel like things would work out. His eyes looked gloomy in the daylight, but in the dark they were as calm as the ocean.
Sniffling, Dee spoke.
“Then… want to do the rain ritual with me?”
“…You can joke in this situation?”
“I’m not joking. And seriously, why is there no water in this well anyway?”
“Most likely the pipe that draws groundwater got blocked. Stones or trash. And the locals here believe in superstit—”
“It’s not superstition. I actually saw a ghost, you jerk. It was scary.”
Normally he would’ve dismissed her instantly, but Kyle compromised for once:
“Fine. Since there really are ghosts here, the people of Gortins believe this well is cursed. They must have thrown huge stones in to block the water completely.”
Still sniffling, Dee asked:
“Then should we dig? If we can get the water high enough to reach the moss, we can float out.”
“To know where to dig, we need to know which direction the water comes from. Remember the big river we saw on the way to Gortins? We dig in that direction.”
Dee looked around and roughly checked the stars, then pointed and began scraping at the ground.
“Judging from the stars and the river’s direction, it should be this way.”
“You can navigate by starlight now?”
“Yep. I’m trying to become a more professional priestess. And also you kept threatening to kill me, so I studied because I got scared.”
Kyle gently pulled her soft hands away from the dirt.
“I’ll do it.”
He grabbed a rock and began breaking apart a boulder in that direction. Every time he broke one, another appeared behind it. Hours passed and no water came, but Kyle kept digging silently. Dee looked up.
“What if I read the stars wrong? Are you going to get mad?”
“No.”
“But then we’re going to die.”
She turned toward him, and Kyle said:
“If you’re right, it’s thanks to you. If you’re wrong, it’s not your fault. Doing nothing is what gets us killed. At least you made us try.”
Dee knew that if she helped, she’d only get in his way, so she sat a little distance away and watched his back.
“I’m hungry. Dig faster.”
“…Just wait till we get out.”
Kyle grumbled and kept digging.
