Chapter – 10
“Anyway, in this state we can’t run far. There’s nowhere for me to hide with my sister, either.”
“W-What? So what are you saying?”
“I was the one who found this spot first. That means I have a right to it too. But if you keep trying to kick me out, I’ll just scream and bring those guys here right now.”
“You—! Are you insane?”
“So either we all die together here, or we each back off halfway.”
The boy, who had looked ready to lash out moments ago, hesitated at the unexpected words.
“We’ll hide my sister and your subordinate here. You and I will watch from nearby and draw them away when we get the chance. How about that?”
“……”
“I have to make sure my sister’s safe, no matter what. And you can’t just abandon your guy, right?”
The boy’s lips twitched as if he wanted to argue back. But in the end, he only glared sharply at Liriope without denying her logic.
“So let’s help each other. That way we can protect the people we each need to protect more efficiently. Better than all of us going down together, isn’t it?”
The boy’s blue eyes pierced into Liriope’s.
Liriope met his gaze squarely, refusing to back down.
A silence followed — only a few seconds long, yet it felt much longer. Finally, the red-haired boy spat out a curse and moved.
“Damn it, you…! Don’t think I’m letting this slide!”
He lifted Calliona from Liriope’s back and quickly pushed her into the gap between the rocks.
“You and your sister — what, do you both grease your tongues or something? You’ve got the same annoying ‘I’m smarter than you’ way of talking!”
A temporary alliance had been formed.
While the boy kept talking uselessly, Liriope hurried to erase the footprints and bloodstains they’d left around the area.
The boy, too, brought over stones the size of his head to block the entrance.
It would’ve been better to find more cover and conceal the spot thoroughly, but there wasn’t enough time. They had to make do and leave in a hurry.
A short distance away, Liriope wrung her damp clothes and let droplets fall deliberately, forming a clear trail of blood. The boy tore off the hem of his tattered shirt and hung it on a dry branch as if it had caught there by accident.
[Huh. They’re working together pretty smoothly… Were they acquaintances from before?]
‘Basic survival skill. Any kid who’s lived outside for a year or more without a guardian — even a five-year-old — would know how to do this much.’
[……]
As they moved, planting false traces, a small groan suddenly came from beside her.
She looked over to see the red-haired boy clutching his abdomen, sweat pouring down his pale face.
“Does your stomach hurt?”
At her question, the boy flushed bright red.
“This—! This is because of that damned magician! It’s not because I need to… you know, go!”
Liriope had naturally assumed it was internal injury from magical transfer, but the boy seemed desperate to deny a far more embarrassing reason.
Had the pursuers’ shouts not echoed nearby, he probably would’ve gone on justifying himself further.
“Hey! Someone come here! I found a blood trail!”
“Where? Oh, you’re right! Looks like someone’s escaped!”
“They’re hurt, too. Well, that figures — no one comes out of an initiation ritual unscathed.”
“Let’s catch them quick and strip them clean!”
Feeling their strength ebb, Liriope and the boy decided to split up and hide for now.
Just before parting, though, the boy — now even paler than before — called to her in a low voice.
“Hey. I don’t know where we are, what those bastards want, or what’s going to happen to you or me. But since things turned out like this, let’s make a deal.”
His words came fast, his tone almost solemn.
“If one of us gets caught or dies, the other goes back to that rock and helps both of the people hiding there. Fair and square. Don’t just save the one you care about, got it?”
Maybe it was a habit from life on the backstreets, but the boy glared at her fiercely, as if forcing her to agree.
Liriope said nothing — she only turned left and crouched among a cluster of nameless weeds and scattered stones.
The red-haired boy took cover behind the trunk of a rotting tree to the right.
Neither spot was ideal, but it was the best they could manage.
“How’s it look? Found anything?”
“Not yet! I think they went this way…”
“Don’t lose them! Damn it, if we mess this up, Jed’ll have our heads!”
From the distance, Liriope and the boy exchanged a glance.
She nodded slightly, and only then did his tense expression ease a little.
Holding their breath, they focused on the faint rustle of movement nearby. Silence fell like a shroud.
The faint smell of dry grass and earth filled her nose — familiar, yet somehow strange.
Time seemed to slow around her. Liriope felt like a mouse hiding from a cat.
Being prey wasn’t new to her.
So unlike the red-haired boy, whose face was drawn tight with anxiety, she wasn’t all that afraid.
Shhhk, shhhk—
Then suddenly, something thick and long — about the size of her forearm — slithered past.
A blue snake, patterned with white stripes.
Its forked red tongue flickered threateningly toward her.
Any ordinary thirteen-year-old girl would’ve shrieked in terror.
But Liriope merely twitched, showing no obvious reaction.
A bead of sweat slid down her pale jaw and dropped onto a grayish blade of grass, vanishing instantly.
‘Wait. Grayish?’
Liriope’s head snapped up in alarm.
When had this happened?
The grass and soil all around them — everything long and thin or once soft — had dried up unnaturally, as if every trace of moisture had been drained away.
Just minutes ago, the earth had been brownish, the grass a deep green. Now, everything had faded to ashen gray.
A chill crawled up her spine.
The voice in her head spoke again, low and grim.
[Hey… I think we’ve stepped into a dangerous zone.]
