Chapter 10
“In this state, I can’t escape far anyway. And there’s nowhere for me and my sister to hide.”
“What? So what do you want me to do?”
“I found this spot first, so I have a right to it too. But if you keep trying to chase me out, I’ll scream and call those kids over here right now.”
“You…! Are you insane?”
“So either we all die here, or we compromise and share.”
Caught off guard by Liriope’s words, the boy, who had been about to lash out, hesitated.
“We hide my sister and your friend here, while you and I keep watch nearby and lure those kids somewhere else. How’s that?”
“…”
“I need to keep my sister safe no matter what, and you can’t abandon that kid, right?”
The boy’s lips twitched as if he wanted to argue, but in the end, he only glared sharply at Liriope without denying her words.
“So let’s help each other. That way, we can protect the people we care about efficiently. Isn’t that better than all of us getting screwed?”
The boy’s blue eyes pierced Liriope like daggers.
Unfazed, Liriope met his gaze head-on.
Though only a few seconds passed, it felt several times longer. Finally, the red-haired boy moved, cursing as he did before.
“Damn it, you…! You better know I’m letting this slide just this once!”
He lifted Kaliona from Liriope’s back and quickly slid her into the crevice.
“You and your sister—do you both have oil on your tongues or what? Now that I think about it, your smug, know-it-all way of talking is annoyingly similar!”
It was a temporary alliance.
While the boy rambled unnecessarily, Liriope erased the footprints and bloodstains they’d left behind as best she could.
The boy also dragged a head-sized rock to block the entrance.
It would’ve been better to find more cover to conceal the crevice thoroughly, but there was no time, so they had to settle for rushing away.
Liriope wrung out her damp clothes at a spot slightly away from the rock, deliberately leaving vivid bloodstains. The boy tore a strip from his tattered shirt and hooked it onto a dry branch, making it look accidental.
[You two work surprisingly well together… Are you sure you didn’t know each other before?]
‘It’s basic survival. Any kid who’s lived on the streets for over a year, even a five-year-old, knows how to do this much.’
[…]
As they laid the false trail, a small groan suddenly came from beside her.
Looking closely, the red-haired boy was clutching his abdomen with his left hand, cold sweat dripping as he ran.
“Does your stomach hurt?”
At Liriope’s question, the boy’s face flushed red.
“It’s because of that damn mage’s doing! It’s definitely not because I need to relieve myself!”
She had assumed it was an internal injury from the mana transmission, but the boy hurriedly clarified, as if embarrassed by a humiliating misunderstanding.
If the shouts of their pursuers hadn’t been so close, he might’ve kept rambling with pointless excuses.
“Hey! Hey! Someone come here quick! There’s blood!”
“Where? Whoa, you’re right! Looks like someone escaped!”
“They must be injured. Well, no one’s in good shape right after the Sacrament.”
“Let’s find them quick and loot them too!”
Feeling their physical limits, Liriope and the red-haired boy decided to hide for now.
Just before parting, the boy, looking worse than before, called to Liriope in a low voice.
“Hey, we don’t know where we are, what those bastards want, or what’s gonna happen to you or me, but since it’s come to this, let’s make a deal.”
His words carried a grim weight.
“If either of us doesn’t make it, the one left goes back to that rock and helps both people there. Fairly—not just looking after their own and ignoring the other. Got it?”
As if it were a habit from surviving in the back alleys, the boy glared at Liriope, his tone threatening as he forced the agreement.
Without responding, Liriope veered left, crouching between a pile of unknown weeds and scattered rocks.
The red-haired boy pressed himself against a rotting tree stump to the right.
Both spots were inadequate for hiding, but they were the best option in the moment.
“Any luck finding them?”
“Not yet! I think they went this way…”
“We can’t let them get away! Damn it, if this causes trouble later, Zed will half-kill us.”
From a short distance, Liriope’s and the boy’s eyes met.
Listening to the pursuers’ hushed voices, Liriope nodded quietly. The boy’s expression softened slightly.
Silencing their breaths and focusing all senses on the approaching presence, a stillness settled around them.
The faint smell of dry grass and earth, both familiar and unfamiliar, tickled her nose.
In the static scene, where time seemed to crawl, Liriope felt like a mouse hiding from a cat.
Being in the position of prey was, in truth, familiar.
Unlike the visibly tense red-haired boy, she wasn’t particularly afraid of the situation.
Hiss, hiss—
But at that moment, something the length and thickness of Liriope’s forearm slithered toward her.
A blue snake with white stripes.
Its forked red tongue flicked menacingly at her.
An ordinary thirteen-year-old would’ve screamed in panic.
But Liriope only flinched once, showing no visible reaction.
A bead of sweat rolled down her pale jaw, falling onto the ashen grass and vanishing without a trace.
‘Wait. Ashen?’
A sudden realization made Liriope snap her head up.
Since when had it been like this?
The elongated grass and dry soil around her, as if all moisture had been drained, were unnaturally parched.
The ground, which had been faintly brown, and the grass, once vibrant green, had turned a faded ashen color in mere minutes.
A clear sign of something wrong sent a chill down her spine.
The voice in her head, sensing the situation, warned her quietly.
[Hey… looks like you’ve stepped into a dangerous zone.]
