“It’s taking quite a long time…”

Ahil looked up at the sky, holding back his desire to look back. The sun was already setting completely over the mountain, and it was almost evening.

Soldiers and knights lit lamps around the wagon. The light was bright around Leon’s carriage, but only the mountain path shone brightly and the inside of the bushes was still dark.

“Lady! Not yet?”

Ahil became nervous and eventually urged Dana.

cack-

However, it was so quiet that only the shrill sound of a bird rang once, and it gave him chills. He turned around even though he knew he shouldn’t.

“Lady?”

While speaking in a low voice, he grabbed a lantern hanging by the wagon. Suddenly, a knight and soldiers next to him stared at him.

“Sir Ahil?”

“Hang on. Something’s weird.”

Ahil deliberately made loud footsteps and went into the bushes where Dana had disappeared.

“Lady! Where are you?”

He shouted while holding the fire, but he couldn’t hear any answer. He had an ominous feeling.

“Everyone spread out and look for the lady! Hurry up!”

With the carriage empty without owners standing in the middle of the mountain path, they began to dig around. They thought Dana might have just collapsed suddenly and could not answer, so they became anxious.

However, it was not easy to expand the search range by relying on lamps in the dark mountains.

“Sir Ahil, this number of people is too much. It’s too late at night. Moreover, the humid weather is likely to rain soon.”

“No, you have to find her! If you don’t find her…”

“But we still need to reinforce our numbers!”

“Oh, my…”

Ahil issued an order again as if he had decided to swear in a frustrating situation.

“Go to the capital and report this to His Grace, and tell him to go to Tertius Castle as soon as possible and hurry to send as many soldiers and knights as possible. Show him this.”

“Yes, I see.”

“I’m leaving right now.”

Ahil sent a knight to Leon and handed over a horse and his ID card to the quickest soldier.

“The rest of us will continue to search!”

* * *

Droplets of water trickled down her round white forehead and rolled over her scratched cheek.

As soon as Dana became conscious, the first thing she noticed was the smell of wet soil. And about half of her body was submerged in water.

Perhaps because of the wetness, she felt extremely tired, so she couldn’t open her eyes yet.

“This is… Where is this?”

Dana, who was trying to gauge with her eyes closed, heard a rumble from above.

“Did you plan something today? Do you know because it rained last night? Is there a bear that slipped?”

“What do you think will be caught by that? It would be a relief if there was at least one rabbit.”

“Wait a minute, hey. What’s there?”

“What?”

piles of dirt poured over her head several times. Dana finally opened her eyes.

Light came into the dark pit, and the two men looked carefully inside in surprise.

“A… A person…!”

“What? Why is there a person here? Are you alive?”

“Hey! Can you hear me?”

Dana tried to move her body, but it hurt so much that she couldn’t lift a finger because she bumped everywhere.

“Save me…”

However, she barely made a sound, squeezing strength from her will to live. The two men began to panic when they heard the sound.

“Oh, hey… I mean…”

“Wake up and pull the rope over there!”

“Oh, okay!”

“Wait there! I’ll get you out soon.”

The pit was dug to catch mountain animals. They seemed to have never dreamed that a person would get caught in a trap that they set up poorly by amateur hunters.

The two men whined and pulled the rope over the trees on both sides. Then the net laid in the pit slowly began to rise.

When the person inside was revealed, the two screamed a little more surprised.

“It’s a girl.”

“Hey! Are you okay? Wake up!”

Dana was put on the ground, and the men untied the nets that surrounded her. However, while being raised, Dana had already fainted and was unconscious.

The men were even more embarrassed. It was because the clothes were wet and heavy, and the inside was visible.

“What should I do? She’s a woman, so we can’t just mess with her.”

“Let’s take her to the dormitory first, Lisa is the only woman, so she’ll do something about it.”

“Oh, okay.”

They took off their clothes and roughly covered her, and then headed for a small cabin just below the mountain with Dana.

When Dana opened her eyes, she could see a familiar face there.

“Sarah, are you awake? I thought I’d never run into you again. What’s going on this time?”

That person was Lisa. She had shorter red hair and a skinnier figure than before, but she was not unrecognizable.

“Lisa…”

As soon as she woke up, Dana opened her mouth with an earnest look, and Lisa focused on her mouth.

Dana clapped her lips and suddenly raised herself and grabbed Lisa’s arm.

“Lisa, I… Ouch.”

“Sarah, don’t overdo it. You hurt your body everywhere… Calm down and lie still because you’re not going anywhere.”

“Lisa, Haa, my name is Dana. It’s Dana Deniz.”

Lisa opened her eyes wide in shock at the sudden news as she laid Dana down again.

“Dana… You’re Dana Deniz? You? Suddenly?”

“Lisa, that’s why I contacted you… As expected, you didn’t get it.”