‘Where are the other children?’
Anakin turned her head and began searching for Lute and Kayla.
Moving her steps cautiously, she eventually found Kayla lying face down on a rock like a corpse, and Lute sitting beside her, barely managing to exhale.
“Lute! Lady Kayla!”
Anakin dashed toward them. Artifacts aside, she had to check if they were alive first.
“……Cough!”
Kayla coughed repeatedly, spitting out water, while Lute stared at Anakin with unfocused eyes.
“Are you okay?”
“……As you can see.”
Lute’s face, having weathered the storm, looked significantly older.
Anakin frowned and helped prop up the coughing Kayla.
Kayla, looking like she had just crawled back from the brink of death, finally spoke.
“Have you come to take our artifacts?”
“……No.”
Anakin and Lucien were also far too exhausted for that.
At this point, they desperately wanted to just go back to Tran and rest.
Falling from the cliff had caused serious strain on their bodies.
“Of course, we intended to before we were swept away by the river…… but we’re a mess right now, too.”
The fact that Lucien was even standing upright was a miracle. Anakin looked back at Lute with a weary face.
“Lute. Let’s get out of here together.”
“……Alright.”
Lute nodded and pushed himself up.
Lucien watched Lute with eyes full of curiosity and spoke.
“Wow. You look like you’d fall over if I gave you a light poke.”
“…….”
Lute glared at Lucien with savage eyes.
“You don’t look much better.”
“At least I’m not staggering like you.”
When Lucien sneered, Lute stared at him as if he wanted to kill him.
“…….”
‘Why are they doing this again?’
Watching Lute and Lucien fight pointlessly, Anakin shook her head.
“Are you truly not going to take them?”
Kayla still watched Anakin with an anxious gaze.
Anakin and Lucien had 2 artifacts; their team had a whopping 5.
Naturally, the team with fewer artifacts would be assumed to have more conserved stamina and mana.
She couldn’t understand why they would give up so easily.
“…….”
Seeing Kayla remained wary, Anakin looked down at her.
People tend to get more fearful the more they are cornered.
Anakin lowered herself to meet her eyes as she sat on the rock.
When Anakin’s clear, vivid red eyes met hers, Kayla’s pupils shook with fluster.
It was because an incredible beauty had suddenly thrust her face close.
Kayla could only watch blankly.
“Please trust me.”
“…….”
Is trust something judged by appearance?
No.
The idea that a beautiful person must be good is a narrow-minded view born purely from looks.
Especially since Kayla could see the “color of souls,” she tended to care even less about outward appearances.
Yet, Kayla glimpsed sincerity in Anakin’s eyes rather than her exterior.
Her untainted purity and warm gaze held an aura that not just anyone could possess.
Kayla eventually nodded slowly.
“If it’s Lady Anakin…… I can believe you.”
Anakin beamed at those words.
“Thank you.”
She then stood up to stop Lucien, who was still bickering with Lute.
Kayla stared blankly at Anakin’s retreating back.
She touched her earlobes, which had been burning for a while now.
Only then did Kayla realize she had been unintentionally enchanted by Anakin.
“Since we’ve fallen here anyway, we should get an artifact before leaving, right?”
When Lucien spoke confidently, Lute remained silent but didn’t show signs of refusal.
Likely provoked by Lucien’s constant taunting, Lute had also made up his mind to obtain an artifact.
Indeed, after falling down a cliff, going home empty-handed would be a bit much.
“Then the person with the greater contribution takes the artifact.”
“Fine.”
And so, a temporary alliance to obtain the canyon’s artifact was formed.
Given the scale of this place, it was likely no ordinary artifact.
If so, it might grant more points than the others.
Anakin and the group walked cautiously through the dark, damp canyon.
The sound of splashing footsteps and the unpleasant noise of insects crawling followed them, keeping the children on high alert.
They didn’t know when or where a monster might jump out.
The environment felt like it was hiding at least one boss-level monster.
The waterfall flowing through the canyon glowed with an emerald hue.
It was beautiful but carried a dangerous atmosphere—one that felt as though it might swallow anyone who approached recklessly.
At the end of the canyon, a massive cave appeared.
It grew darker the deeper they went, making it difficult to breathe.
When Anakin created a torch made of mana, the surroundings finally brightened.
“It’s a fork in the road.”
Just like in a common fantasy setting, a split path appeared.
Seeing this gave her a small spark of confidence that they were heading in the right direction.
“What do you want to do? Should we split into pairs?”
At Lucien’s suggestion, Anakin bent one knee and touched the ground.
Closing her eyes and spreading her sensory perception, she felt a bothersome trap coming from the right.
‘But the left…… there seems to be something there, too?’
“There’s something in both. For now, the one that feels ‘bigger’ is to the right.”
At Anakin’s words, Kayla spoke with wonder.
“You spread your perception really wide.”
“……Ahaha.”
Naturally, Lucien turned toward Lute and Kayla and said:
“We’ll take the right.”
“What? Says who?”
Lute frowned, but Lucien shrugged.
“Shouldn’t we be the ones to decide? Be grateful we aren’t taking your artifacts right now. We’re taking it easy on you because you’re half-dead.”
“……You crazy lunatic.”
Lute flared up and grabbed Lucien by the collar.
Lucien really did have a talent for saying the right things in the most irritating way possible.
His words weren’t entirely wrong, but from the moment they declared they wouldn’t steal the artifacts, the initiative should have been equal.
……And Lute was originally a gentle person.
Before he met Lucien, that is.
“Fine. Then let’s spin this sharp pebble. Whoever it points to gets first pick.”
Kayla nodded at Anakin’s suggestion.
“That sounds good.”
Even Lute, who was raging while holding Lucien’s collar, seemed to agree with Anakin’s proposal.
“I should never have let you and Anakin be paired up.”
Lute released Lucien’s collar while still glaring at him.
“Then you should have handled the Evan matter yourself.”
“…….”
‘I really shouldn’t leave these two together.’
Watching them fight all day, Anakin made a mental note.
‘My ears are going to bleed at this rate.’
Anakin spun the pebble on a small rock.
The spinning sharp tip eventually stopped pointing toward Lucien.
Lucien clutched his stomach and laughed.
“Of course.”
“Haha…… looks like it’s us.”
Lute stared at Lucien with a dissatisfied face but eventually nodded as if he had no choice.
“Which way are you going?”
“We’ll go left.”
“……?”
At Anakin’s answer, Lucien looked at her as if asking what she was talking about.
Anakin stood on her tiptoes and whispered in Lucien’s ear.
“The left feels strange.”
At Anakin’s ticklish whisper, Lucien’s face instantly turned red.
“……Alright. Well, if that’s your decision. We’ll take the right.”
As Lute and Kayla disappeared to the right, Anakin and Lucien headed left.
While walking through the cave, Lucien, whose cheeks were still slightly flushed, asked hesitantly:
“What did you mean by the left feeling strange?”
“Just…… a feeling.”
The scale of the trap clearly seemed larger on the right, but she had a feeling the left was the “correct” path.
“It’s my gut. I could be wrong.”
“Hmm…… since it’s your intuition, I’ll trust it.”
“……Don’t put too much faith in me.”
‘But at some point, Lucien started listening to me quite well. Is it just my imagination?’
“Lucien, you hate being wet. Why did you shield me at the cliff?”
Suddenly, the memory of him hugging her tightly just before falling came to mind.
He spoke to her with a nonchalant face.
“Because you’re not in good health.”
“…….”
‘Did you know too?’
Anakin stared at Lucien with an absurd expression.
“Since when did you know?”
“You’re skin and bones. How could I not know when you’re that frail?”
“Don’t joke around.”
At Anakin’s face demanding a serious answer, Lucien opened his mouth.
“Your hormones are unstable, and you run a fever whenever you overexert yourself.”
“Is it that obvious?”
Anakin bit her lip and frowned. Lucien shook his head.
“No. I’m probably the only one who noticed.”
Hearing that made her feel a bit relieved.
It meant Lucien was just exceptionally observant, and others didn’t know.
“That’s a relief. But how did you know?”
Lucien stared intently at Anakin and replied:
“……Because I’ve always been watching you.”
