TFPOTRN | CHAPTER 33

~CHAPTER 33~

“Ugh….”

The impact from the fall must have been pretty heavy.

My body ached.

It felt like I had fallen deep enough that staying conscious was lucky.

A cold and damp wall pressed against my back, so it seemed I had been moved to some hidden underground space.

Was it a trap?

I can’t see anything in front of me….

I narrowed my brows and tried to secure my vision, but all I could see was darkness.

I just have to wait until my eyes adjust to the dark.

With a shallow sigh, I leaned back as I was.

Time to sort out what happened.

That trap from earlier was definitely magic.

It happened too suddenly for me to examine properly, but I was sure of it.

Suspicious….

Holy power and mana had always been incompatible.

Even human mages avoided the temple unless necessary.

Demons were even more averse to it.

But a magical trap inside a temple where only holy power should exist?

And it didn’t activate at all when Sian walked through the basement, yet the moment I took a few steps, I fell straight in?

Sian’s voice flashed through my mind.

“The priests inside will despise a demon.”

Was I found out?

I quickly shook my head.

Right now there was nothing about me, either in appearance or in mana, that looked like a demon.

A normal human couldn’t possibly identify me as one with just their eyes.

If so, the trap itself must have been designed to detect “demons” and activate automatically.

Why would something like that exist under a temple?

I hadn’t gained any real answers.

He must be worried sick right now.

Or maybe angry that I ignored his warning and walked in on my own, only to end up like this.

His face, reaching out to me in shock, came to mind clearly.

It even overlapped with the way he had reached out to me back in the ant nest.

I need to get back quickly.

Just then, as I brushed my hair back in frustration, something sounded.

Crunch…

A faint gnawing noise came from somewhere.

“…?”

A rat?, I thought.

In such a dark and damp place, a rat wouldn’t be strange.

But then another sound followed, something completely unlike a rat.

“Uuugh….”

A young voice dry heaving.

I shot upright.

Underground. A child.

Anyone would know instantly.

This must be the child Ifrit had been searching for.

My eyes were slowly adjusting to the darkness, but it still wasn’t enough to make out shapes.

I shut my eyes again, waiting for them to adjust faster.

While I waited, the sounds continued.

Scritch, scritch, crunch…

If not for the occasional gagging sounds, I might have gone back to thinking it really was a rat.

It didn’t sound like a person eating at all.

When I finally opened my eyes again—

“…Hello?”

A child was sitting a few steps away, gnawing on something I couldn’t tell was bread or a rock.

His eyes were hollow, lacking even a hint of life typical of children.

About Latia’s apparent age….

Of course, Latia was a spirit, so age didn’t mean much.

But his outward age looked similar to hers.

Yet he didn’t feel alive.

Scritch, scritch.

He stared at me while mechanically chewing whatever that thing was.

How long had he been trapped here?

Could he even speak?

Would he understand anything?

Would he panic if I approached him too fast?

If I still had my mana, I could at least try something, but right now—

Huh?

As I clenched and unclenched my hands in frustration, I suddenly paused.

My mana… came back?

The situation had been so chaotic I hadn’t noticed, but mana was flowing faintly inside me again.

It was tiny, almost laughably weak compared to what I used to have.

Still…

It was enough to try something.

Trying anything was better than doing nothing.

I measured the amount inside me.

It was small and cute, really.

If my original mana was a phoenix, then this was a baby chick.

Maybe the trap activated because of this tiny mana.

Should I blame it for returning at the worst time, or be grateful it led me to find the missing child?

I let out a faint, helpless laugh and focused the mana in one direction.

Toward the child’s mind.

…Uu… ugh….

Like most people who think in their native language, the child couldn’t form real words even in his own mind.

Only wailing.

But the emotions were clear.

Fear, hunger… longing.

His desperate voice echoed through my head.

After a few more seconds, nothing new came through, so I let go before my mana dried up completely.

Then I pulled the child into my arms.

He struggled at first, startled by the sudden contact, but only for a moment.

As if he had never felt human warmth before, the resistance faded, and he clung to me tightly.

My jaw hurt as I realized I had clenched my teeth.

I need to get him out right now.

But how?

The little mana I had left was barely a speck after looking into his mind.

While I was thinking hard, something exploded above us.

Boom!

A tearing blast rang through the underground.

I looked around in shock, but the sound didn’t stop.

Boom! Boom!

It grew louder and closer, even shaking the ground.

“Oh, great.”

Normally I would have been tense.

But right now, I wasn’t.

There was only one person here capable of making that kind of noise.

What do I do?

He sounds furious.

I must have been gone too long after falling into the trap.

Crash!

Something broke open, and bright light poured in.

Dirt fell from above.

I waved away the dust and winced as my eyes, finally adjusted to darkness, burned from the sunlight.

An all-too-familiar voice followed.

Of course.

It was Sian.

His face was pale as he threw aside his sword and reached down toward me.

The scene mirrored the one from earlier: me swallowed in darkness and him reaching out from above.

I keep ending up like this with him.

I wanted to take his hand right away and climb out, but instead, I turned around.

“Jelena?”

He sounded startled, but I ignored it.

Then—

Thump.

“U… uaa….”

“Him first.”

I lifted the child by the waist and handed him to Sian.

The child wriggled weakly, but he had little strength, so it wasn’t hard to hold him.

Sian’s eyes widened at the child’s condition, but he quickly pulled him up.

I climbed up after them on my own.

Thankfully, the hole wasn’t very high.

“Ha….”

Fresh air felt almost sweet after the stale underground air, and I took a deep breath.

Then—

“Jelena.”

Sian set the child down and walked toward me.

The child hid his face in his arms, unaccustomed to the sunlight.

“Sian, I know you must have been worried—”

Before I could finish speaking—

He pulled me straight into his arms.