Chapter 23: Remnant
"What a beautiful statue.", Kate remarked.
"Yeah.", Drake nodded in agreement.
"I think we should get out of here, this is a Holy Ground, the flow of time here might be faster or slower than on the outside.", Allen said.
"But then, the only way out here is back to that tunnel full of spiders.", Kate said.
From the middle of the chamber, they searched around for any other way out but saw nothing else other than from where they entered.
Seeing that there was no other exit, Drake asked, "So, we're going to battle our way through?"
"Obviously no, Allen can't even stand properly, we need to find another way.", Kate said.
"Where did all these animals come from? Could they be using a different entrance?", Drake pondered, his sentence created some slight hope within him.
"They are probably just reproducing in here since the curse took over the whole mountain.", Allen's answer broke Drake's hope.
"I guess it's battling our way through the tunnel?", Drake said. His legs twitched when he recalled the numerous spiders sticked on the wall.
"Or let's just wait in this place until master finds out that we're not back for a long time?", Kate suggested.
"No, we can't do that, what if the time flow in here is faster than on the outside? That means we'll probably be here for a long time!", Allen said.
Kate shook her head and muttered, "Is there really no other way to get out of here?"
"Eeek...", the three suddenly heard a screech, they looked at the direction of the sound, and saw a little girl who was carrying a basket of carrots gazing at them. However, the instant they looked back, the little girl suddenly ran away.
"Wait! Wait!", Kate ran over to the girl.
"Leave me here, you're the only one who can catch after that girl, Kate will never catch up, even with her flicker, I'll catch up with the both of you.", Allen said.
"Alright.", Drake helped Allen to steady himself onto the statue; afterwards, he activated his Speed Amulet and rushed towards the little girl.
-whoosh-
Drake ran with all his might, as the little girl was about to reach the wall, the boy overtook her and blocked her way.
The little girl was startled that Drake overtook her, as the former was about to run into an another direction, she saw Kate blocking her way.
"Please, don't kill me!", the little girl dropped her basket on the ground; she covered her eyes then cried and begged for mercy.
"We won't hurt you. We just want to ask where did you come from?", Kate said.
"Really?", the little girl slightly popped out her eyes.
"Yes.", Kate answered.
"But you look like killers with what you a0re wearing.", the little girl said with big, wet eyes.
'Oww... she's so cute.', Kate inwardly said, after which, she slapped herself, "What was I thinking?!"
"Are you okay, big sister?", the little girl asked.
"Yes.", Kate nodded.
"Will you really not hurt me then, big sister?", the little girl's eyes seemingly became bigger while looking at Kate. The latter suddenly felt, as if the whole world was begging to have pity on her.
"Hey, I'm here so did you catch that little girl?", Allen waved from afar.
Kate went out of her stupor when she heard Allen's voice. After which, she nervously gasped for air.
"Are you fine?", Allen slowly walked towards Kate.
"Don't worry, I'm tougher than you are.", Kate pushed him away.
Allen only awkwardly scratched the back of his head, he then saw the little girl and unconsciously blurted out, "Eeek... a lolita?"
"Lo... lita? You called me a lolita?", the little girl's eyes started to moisten again, and she started crying out loud, startling the nearby animals.
"Oh! He didn't mean it, he didn't mean it! Stop crying, you're not a... umm... whatever he just said!", Drake tried to comfort the little girl, but his attempt was in vain.
"You just had to call her like that!", Kate punched Allen in the gut.
"Ugh.", Allen kneeled on the ground as he held his stomach in pain.
The little girl stopped crying for a moment when she saw that Allen was punched, however, she started crying again afterwards.
When Kate saw that, she suddenly got an idea and looked at Allen, "I'm sorry for what I'm about to do."
"It's okay... wait, what are you going to do?", Allen asked while backing away a bit. However, Kate didn't answer and she slowly approached him.
...
A few moments later, Allen was now lying flat on the ground, unconscious. On the other hand, the little girl was laughing so hard that her stomach started to hurt.
Kate patted her hands on each other to remove the dust off her gloves.
"See, we're not going to hurt you.", Kate went closer to the little girl.
"I believe you now.", the little girl wiped off the tears of her face, it wasn't tears of sadness, but tears of joy.
Meanwhile, Drake thought while slowly backing away, 'This girl has a weird fetish, or maybe they are just like that?'
"Laura, where are you?", a muscular man suddenly aopeared from far away.
"Ehh... father?", the little girl realized who it was,l and ran to her father.
"Laura! Where have you been?", the man asked.
"I was just going to feed the animals, but then I saw these three weird people.", Laura pointed to the trio.
"Huh?", the man noticed the three kids.
"Hello mister, we accidentally came in this chamber after we escaped spiders on the tunnel that attacked us.", Kate explained to the man. "Don't worry, we won't hurt anyone."
"Hmm... alright.", the man immediately believed.
"Why did you trust us so fast?", Kate couldn't help but blurt out, she even thought the man was easy to trick just by saying a lie.
The man, as if knowing what was Kate thinking, laughed and said, "You will never be able enter this place if you had bad intentions or are evil, and even if you were able to, you would die immediately after you enter this chamber."
After a pause, the man asked, "So then, what do you kids want?"
"We want to get out of here.", Kate said.
"Oh, come with us first, you can leave by tomorrow or the day after.", the man said.
"But then, we don't have enough time.", Kate answered.
"Don't worry, the time flow in this place is faster than on the outside world.", the man said, then looked over at Allen. "Ehh, is there something wrong with that boy?"
"He became unconscious due to his injuries.", Kate said with a straight face. Allen indeed became unconscious due to this injuries, but it was because of Kate.
"Carry him up, don't just leave him lying down there, his injuries might worsen.", after which, the man signalled the kids to follow him.
Kate and Drake carried Allen on their shoulders and followed the man.
After following the man, they reached a dead end on a stone wall; however, the man and Laura kept walking until they passed by the wall and disappeared.
This surprised Kate and Drake, afterwards, the man called out to follow them. The two kids, while carrying Allen, passed through the illusion and they saw that they entered an another passageway lit by torches.
After a few minutes of walking, they finally reached a smaller chamber.
This time, there was a village inside this chamber, the villagers were living a normal life under the protection of the Holy Statue in the main chamber. As its protection could reach this small community.
"This... I never thought that there'll be a village inside the mountain.", Drake gasped in surprise as he saw everything.
The villagers near the entrance of the passageway saw that there were new people. Their interests were immediately piqued and they looked over the trio.
"Laura, go back to the house, I'll accompany these three to the elders.", the man said.
"But father, I want to go there too!", Laura said.
"No, this is an important errand, go back to the house and help your mother prepare our meal.", the man said.
"Hmph!", Laura snorted in displease, however, she didn't dare disobey her father and left.
"Come on, I'm bringing you three to the elders, you can drop your friend by the healer's home.", the man said.
...
On the way, they dropped Allen by the healer's house and continued following the man.
Before bringing them to the elders, the man, who introduced himself as Vitomir, offered them a tour throughout the village.
Kate and Drake unanimously agreed, during the small tour, they saw cultivated farmlands, small establishments, an apothecary's house, etc.
During the tour, they also found out that the people in this village were remnants of the barbarians who didn't get to escape from the curse on Mount Watchtower. When the curse was about to reach them at that time, they accidentally entered the passageway which led towards the chamber where the Holy Statue was.
"The elders are the people who joined the attack on Mount Watchtower, they could've left already a long time ago through an another tunnel, but they didn't, they said that the resources in here are enough to live even for a small town.", the man explained.
After a pause, he added, "They said to us that the main reason why they didn't leave is because that the nomadic region had scarcity in food, water, and even other basic necessities. My grandfather and grandmother, who were also elders said that they had no choice but to attack the southern region of the Trigurniburg Kingdom, and they already begged to live in the southern region those times, however, the king at that time didn't give them a chance and they were driven away."
The two kids were attentively listening to Vitomir's story. When they were being taught about the history of the southern region, they only knew that the barbarians were attacking the said region because they wanted to kill and plunder.
The both of them were enlightened and thought, 'So that's the reason.'
The barbarians didn't want to attack in the first place, they were forced under such harsh circumstances and due to the denial of the king of the kingdom those times.
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