Almost two days had passed since they left.
The cart kept rolling down the dark road, while V and Noah were asleep.
Eri sat near the back, staring out through the opening of the cart.
She'd been trying to sleep for a while, but it was useless. So she decided to keep staring at something as bright as the moon until her eyes finally gave up.
The forest was quiet. Except for the creak of the wheels and the sound of V and Noah breathing, there was nothing else.
V was sprawled out like a starfish, hogging most of the space, while Noah was curled up tightly in the corner.
"Na!"
Hearing the tiny voice, Eri looked around in confusion.
She saw Little Noah standing right in front of Noah's nose, kicking at it with his little foot over and over.
"Hey, stop bothering him…" Eri murmured, scooting closer to pull Little Noah away.
But when she got closer, she noticed something off.
Noah's face was tense, sweat dripping down his temple, fists clenched tight—he was trembling.
"He's… having a nightmare?"
Eri leaned a bit closer. "Human… wake up. You're having a nightmare, I think."
When calling him didn't work, she moved right beside him and gently shook his shoulder. "Noah—"
Before he could even wake up, his body reacted on its own—his hand shot up and twisted hers hard.
"H-hey! It's me!" Eri winced in pain.
Noah blinked rapidly, snapping back to his senses. He immediately released her hand. "Ah… sorry!"
"What was it?" Eri asked worriedly. "You were having a nightmare, weren't you—"
The sudden whinny of horses cut her off.
The cart jolted to a stop.
Neither Noah nor Eri had any idea why they stopped in the middle of the night. Mister Wood hadn't stopped once the entire trip, so what now?
Maybe a monster blocked the road? Or something happened to him?
As possibilities raced through Noah's head, he crawled toward the cart's exit to check.
But before he could step out, Mister Wood was already standing right there.
"Unload the cart," he said firmly. "This is my limit. You'll have to go the rest of the way on your own."
Noah sighed, clearly annoyed, and jumped down from the cart.
Eri followed right after him.
Mister Wood sat back down on the driver's seat and continued:
"There's about eighteen hours left till you reach a port town. Just keep following this road. Once you're there, go to the lowest basement floor of the tallest building near the docks. The man in charge is known as Bigbro. Pay him, and he'll get you into Valkani."
With that information, Noah started walking—dragging Eri along by the wrist.
"You're not taking your sleeping friend with you?" Mister Wood asked flatly.
Noah lazily waved his hand. "Feel free to dump him in the middle of nowhere."
Eri, still being pulled, suddenly stopped and turned to Mister Wood.
"Thank you sir… for everything," she said with a small, kind smile.
But Mister Wood's expression darkened.
"How shameless… You know you don't even have a life permit, yet you still dragged others into your selfish mess. All you had to do was accept death." His tone was harsh as he flicked the reins and drove away...
—with V still asleep inside the cart.
"The hell's wrong with him?" Noah muttered, his face twisted in annoyance.
But Eri looked calm—almost too calm—just watching the cart fade away into the trees.
"Do you think… they're okay?" she whispered.
"They're fine," Noah assured her, starting to walk again. "That wooden bastard's a Guardian. If something happened to his boss, he'd die too."
Eri gave one last look toward the vanishing cart before quickly catching up to Noah.
"I swear, when Master finds out we didn't wake him, he's gonna scold us so bad!"
"Let's just pray to angels some monster eats him first,"
-
A Shadow Knight quickly entered the inn, the hallway lit by torches.
He started walking toward the stairs, but when he saw the Captain sitting down in the hall, he quickly changed direction and went straight to him.
"Captain, you always sleep in your room. Did something happen that brought you here?" the knight asked.
Lu, his head tilted back staring at the ceiling, didn't bother answering. Just silence.
The knight suddenly remembered why he had come to Captain Lu. "Ah, yes, Captain! One of the carriers came here with ten boys," he said, placing a sheet on the table in front of Lu. "It's reported that bandits stole their cart along the way."
Lu lazily tilted his head down, staring at the sheet, his expression—as always—completely unreadable.
"Hmm… how much longer till I retire?" he muttered, flat and bored.
The knight looked at him, confused. "Sir, you always say that—but you never actually file the request."
Lu didn't even react. He just kept staring at the paper, not reading a single word.
That was Lu's usual habit. He barely moved, barely spoke—and when he didn't rest, things only got worse.
The knight awkwardly scratched the back of his neck. He had no clue what to do with the boys outside, and right now he didn't even know how to deal with this half-alive captain.
"Umm… Captain, why don't you just go upstairs and rest in your room?" He asked again, hopelessly.
Lu's answer was silence again.
The carrier entered the inn, the boys trailing behind him.
The knight looked at them, sighed. "Fine, I'll take care of tonight so your group can stay here. At least until the captain gets some rest. because right now he looks a bit… out of it."
Aro's gaze landed on Lu, and he quickly looked away, turned to face Eric.
At that moment, he realized he'd overreacted way too obviously, and to cover it up, he gave Eric a really awkward, toothy smile.
Eric noticed Aro's nervous reaction, found it a bit suspicious, but didn't press it and let it go.
-
In a room, Maya lay on the bed, eyes closed.
She rubbed at her head to ease some of the pain.
Slowly her hand slid down to rub her heavy neck as well.
But when her fingers hit cold metal around her neck, her eyes shot open.
"Ah… a— a collar?"
She sat up fast and looked around the room.
A wooden wardrobe, a table and chair, and a torch hanging on the wall were the only things in the room.
She frowned and got up, heading for the door. "Perfect. Just what I needed in life—becoming a slave!"
She quietly opened the door halfway, stuck her head out, and peered down the dim hallway.
Several people were going into other rooms on the floor.
At that moment Maya and Eric's eyes met. Both of them froze, wide-eyed with shock.
Eric glanced around cautiously and stepping silently, made his way to Maya's room.
It was weird for both of them to meet again like this.
After all, Maya was Eric's only childhood friend and like an older sister to him—since Eric couldn't go to school or make friends.
Also, the Queen had been bedridden for so long, so Maya was the one who'd always been there for him when he was a kid.
Right up until Eri was born and the Queen died, then they lost touch.
When Eric entered, Maya quickly shut the door. "Eric, what are you doing here?"
"Ask yourself the same thing!" Eric snapped, his eyes darkening at the sight of Maya's collar. "Are you kidding me? They made you a slave?"
Maya touched the collar again. There was no way she could get used to the weight and cold pressing into her neck.
"That Severan and his damn right-hand dog barged into our place," Maya grumbled angrily. "But don't worry—Eri had already left."
At the mention of Eri's name, Eric froze. "E-Eri… Eri was with you?! Is she okay?! She didn't get captured? Hurt-"
Maya raised her hand to shut down Eric's wave of questions. "Calm down, boy! She came to us out of nowhere—with two people named Noah and V."
Eric frowned and fell into thought.
He definitely recognized who V was, but Noah… the name just sounded familiar—he couldn't place where he'd heard it.
He sighed and pushed his thoughts aside.
"W-What about your parents? Are they... okay?" Eric asked hesitantly.
The idea that Zaskar had gone to one house… well, the outcome was already obvious.
At the memory of that night, Maya's gaze trembled.
She quickly looked down.
Her throat tightened, she fought hard not to let a single tear fall.
It would be ridiculous to cry in front of him.
Eric's jaw clenched at the answer he already guessed, and he tenderly placed his hand on Maya's head.
Though Maya pushed it away like always.
She hid her sorrow behind a scowl and crossed her arms.
A few seconds of silence passed, then Eric spoke again.
"So… what are you gonna do about your owner?" He glanced at Maya's collar again.
"Don't care… I'll find a way" Maya said, annoyed. "To destroy this collar I'll have to kill him anyway."
.
.
During this conversation, Lu stood behind the door, leaning against the wall.
"Hmm… how much longer till I retire?" he muttered.
-
"When you left me there, didn't you feel even a tiny bit guilty? Do you have any idea how terrifying it is to be alone in a dark forest full of monsters? Didn't your heart ache even a little? How can you two ungrateful brats call yourselves my disciples? You think I'll let you off that easy? I'm gonna beat some sense into you!"
V was still walking beside Noah, ranting and ranting without stopping.
The sunlight made the endless sea shimmer. The harbor was a bit crowded, yet the sound of waves could still be heard.
Ships and boats lined up across the docks. Travelers, merchants, sailors, wanderers—everyone busy with their own lives, chatter filled the air.
No one cared about a girl hiding behind a few crates, trying not to be seen by the sea.
Noah massaged his temple, clearly done with V's endless complaints.
He turned around for the tenth time, glancing at Eri—who still refused to step out from behind the crates.
"Eri… it's just the ocean, okay? It's not gonna eat you! What's so scary about it? You've seen a lake before, right? This is just… a bigger one!" Noah said again, exasperated.
Eri pulled her hood further over her head, peeked at the sea again, then ducked back down. "I can't see the end of it! If we go in there, how do we know we'll ever come out?!"
Noah let out one last hopeless sigh, then started walking toward a tall building nearby.
"I'm going to talk to that Bigbro guy. You two stay here till I'm back."
He reached the building—at least, its entrance looked normal.
[Fast Peon Company]
It seemed like some delivery or shipping company. Lots of people were going in and out.
Inside, Noah scanned the area carefully.
Two symmetrical staircases led up to higher floors, with two elevators in between. One of the elevators had a warning sign: [Out of order – upper access unavailable]
He opened the working elevator and scanned the buttons—no basement floors.
The broken one was no different
Noah wasn't sure how he could get down if everything here only went up.
He started pacing, glancing from one hallway to another, guessing maybe one of these doors led to some hidden stairs down.
But before he could think too far, he realized Eri was suddenly standing right beside him.
"You—?" He grabbed her arm, pulling her closer, scanning the people around to make sure no knights or soldiers were nearby. "Didn't I tell you to stay put?"
Eri pulled her arm free, crossing her arms. "How could you just leave me alone with that giant ocean?"
"We've got bigger problems right now!" Noah grumbled. "The elevators only goes up, and there's no damn stairs going down!"
"But that one says it doesn't go up." Eri pointed at the broken elevator and walked toward it.
"That's because it's broken! Come back before you break something else—"
But Eri ignored him and stepped right into the 'broken' elevator.
Noah sighed, defeated, and followed her in.
He pointed at the buttons. "See? Floor 1, 2, 3, and so on. There's no way down—"
He stopped talking when Eri suddenly pushed against the back wall of the elevator—and it opened like a secret door.
Both of them just stared at the hidden staircase spiraling down behind it.
"It said 'doesn't go up,' so must go down," Eri said simply.
Noah blinked at her, speechless.
He couldn't believe that was the real meaning of the sign—and worse, that Eri was the one who figured it out.
He didn't even bother replying, just started walking down, and Eri quickly followed.
The stairwells seemed endless.
Every time they thought they'd reached the bottom, another set of stairs continued further down.
And the lower they went, the louder the noise got—laughter, shouting, the hum of a crowd.
At one landing, Noah paused to catch his breath, while Eri kept going easily, not even tired. That annoyed him.
'How the hell does this girl have more stamina than me? She spent her whole life locked up!' he thought, glaring at her.
Finally, they reached the lowest floor.
Noah hesitated, then shoved open the double doors.
The sound hit them immediately—yelling, cheering, chaos.
A thick cloud of smoke filled the massive hall. The stench of alcohol stung their noses.
Crowds surrounded tables, cheering and drinking as two men fought brutally in the center.
Nobody noticed the two strangers who had just entered.
"What the… that wooden bastard forgot to mention Bigbro's a damn pirate," Noah whispered, frowning at the wild scene.
Eri stepped forward, eyes sparkling. "This is so cool!" she grinned in awe.
Right then, a huge knife flew past her face, slicing through the top of her hood and pinning her cloak to the wall behind her.
Eri's grin only widened. "That was so cool!"
"Seriously?" Noah muttered in disbelief.
The entire hall had gone silent now—everyone staring at Eri, her white hair fully exposed without the hood.