"I will ask him once I see him. Let it be for now." She shook her head, picked up the backpacks and threw them over her shoulders.
"The effect of the herbs seemed to have worn out. At least I can fight now. If I didn't become weak because of the fight with the monster in the cottage then I wouldn't be here now." She gripped her daggers and carefully unlocked the door of the room.
She quickly got out and headed towards the dungeon in which Iris and Kyou were held captive — dungeon no.68
When she approached the entrance of the dungeon, she was met with a guard. The guard, on noticing her, started yelling in rage and alarm.
"Who are you?! What the hell are you doing here?!" He quickly unsheathed his sword and pointed it at Ae Rin but she remained quite and didn't try to make an excuse since it wasn't even possible to do so in such circumstances.
In the blink of an eye, Ae Rin was behind the guard.
"Wha-!?" The guard felt a stinging pain in his chest. He hesitantly looked down to see a blood stained dagger forcing its way out of his armor in the front and then pulled out with great force. He kneeled on the ground in pain as the blood spurted out of his mouth. He looked back over his shoulder and the merciless crimson red eyes of his murderer looking down at him made him shudder in fear. His vision became blurry and soon his head hit the ground.
Ae Rin wiped a small pinch of blood from her cheek that was spilt on her when she plunged the dagger into the guard's chest from behind.
.....
The dungeon was chilly and quite, and the sun had just made itself present. Everyone seemed to be sleeping since it was very early in the morning except for a certain someone who was really restless in her cell.
"What's taking her so long to come and get us?" Iris anxiously paced back and forth in her cell.
Just then, a guard entered the dungeon.
Iris halted in her tracks and frowned. "Wait, why are the guards patrolling the dungeon at this hour? Weren't they called by their superior a while ago?"
The guard walked past the other cells and halted right in front of hers. Iris dumbfoundedly stared at the guard whose cap was pulled unusually low, to the point that half of his face was covered — only the lips and nose were visible. The guard grinned widely at her as he removed his cap.
"Wha-? You?!" Iris looked at her sister from top to bottom in shock.
"Shhh! You will wake the others up! I had to disguise myself as a guard just to be safe. Here, let me open this up." She took out a bunch of keys from her pocket and unlocked the cell.
"Where did you get the armor?" Iris asked as she walked out of the cell.
Ae Rin's expression turned darker, "I killed a guard. He was getting in my way."
Iris looked at her with her mouth wide open.
"What're you looking at? Let's go find Kyou." Ae Rin turned around and started walking forward with a blank expression and Iris quietly followed behind without saying a word.
Something in her mind was just not letting her ask more even though she had a lot of questions in her mind from the time Ae Rin met her. It felt like as if she had become a different person ever since that one 'incident'. She had turned colder, darker and emotionless than she ever was before. All of those dreadful memories of that night flooded back in her mind and even the very thought of those moments frightened her to the core but she managed to shake it off and focus on their current situation.
"You've changed, sister. Sometimes, I wonder who's the more evil of the two of us." Iris thought as her disappointed and saddened gaze wandered to the ground.
....
Soon, they had found Kyou's cell and seemed to exchanged a few words of gladness through their eyes before unlocking the cell and letting him out.
"Didn't think I would meet you again in such circumstances." Kyou smiled at Ae Rin and she returned it back.
"Both of you, take your bags. We need to get out of here soon. The guards of the other dungeons will be alerted about this break - out soon." Ae Rin handed the bags over to them and they started tip toeing out of the dungeon without waking the prisoners up.
"There's the exit! Let's go!" Iris whispered to them and they quietly made their way out of the prison gate and into the thick forest.
"Ah, I missed this fresh air!" Kyou stretched his arms in the air as it gently blew over his face and the warmth of the daylight kissed his cheeks.
"We don't have the leisure to enjoy now. We need to find the Lord. Let's stick together this time and avoid any encounters with guards. And, yes, I picked up a few daggers on my way to protect ourselves." She told as she handed them the daggers.
"Where did you find these?! They seem to be of highly quality...and it's surprisingly light." Kyou asked as he tried out some moves by slicing through the air in different directions using the dagger.
"I found it in the storage room where they kept our bags." Ae Rin replied.
"Rin, how are we supposed to get to the Lord?" Iris asked with a confused expression.
"I-I...don't know. We might find some clue if we keep walking. Let's just not give up yet." Ae Rin patted her shoulder.
And so, they start walking down a path that no one knows what it could lead them to.
They kept going and going through the thick forest until they finally find a way out of the forest.
All of a sudden, Ae Rin who had been leading them all this time, halted abruptly in the middle of nowhere. The others halted behind her and seemed confused.
"What happened? Why did you stop?" Kyou frowned.
"I think...maybe...I found a way out." Ae Rin approached what seemed to be a wall of bushes, shrubs and vines and parted them with her hands. Kyou and Iris gasped as they saw what was behind those vines and shrubs.
"What in the world..." Ae Rin was as surprised as they were when she saw it.
It seemed like they were standing on what seemed to be a bridge and beneath it was a river.
The three came out of the forest and looked around them. The structure of the enormous buildings — or rather, houses – were made using the ancient Gothic style and were elegantly designed.
"It feels like we are in a different era...." Kyou said as his mouth remained open in shock.
"It's strange that no one is around here. We should keep walking. Maybe we'll find out more about this place. And remember to use the dagger if we encounter danger." Ae Rin told them.
They started walking down the bridge and so far, it seemed really quite — too quite for a city to be. They soon caught the sight of a carriage pulled by a couple of horses near an empty road roughly 15 metres from where they stood, and a man in his 40's leaning on the carriage and smoking.
"He seems normal. Maybe we should approach him and ask questions." Kyou turned to Ae Rin expecting her to approve.
"Oh trust me, I have dealt with a 'normal' person like this in the forest who turned into a monster and tried to crack my head open. Let's go that way. We don't have time to deal with any more 'normal' person." Ae Rin scoffed and turned to walk in the other direction.
"Wait! What if he's actually not what you think he is? He is not even armed. I don't think we should miss this chance of asking help from him." Kyou argued back.
"If you are so ready to sucide, then go ahead alone. I and Rin will go the other way." Iris smirked at him as if she had just challenged him to do it.
Kyou glared at Iris and took up the so - called 'challenge', "Yeah, fine then! I am going!"
"No, you're not!" Ae Rin tried to grab his hand and pull him back but she was too late. He'd already started walking towards that man and naturally, Ae Rin was going to tail him to ensure he was safe but Iris tugged onto her sleeve, "Why are you going there? Let him die. He's not even worth it."
Ae Rin flashed a deadly glare at Iris before yanking her hand off and running to catch up with Kyou. Iris was left there, utterly shocked and angered. "Why...Why..? Why are you trying to save him all the time?"
It took her a moment to take it all in and she finally swallowed the anger and started walking towards the carriage.
...
"Hey. Excuse me, sir." Kyou introduced his presence to the man with a smile. The man threw down his cigarette and stepped on it before finally taking a look at who had called him.
From a distance, he doesn't seem too odd but when looked closely, he looked much older than they assumed. His lips were chapped and dark probably due to the vast amount of time he must have spent smoking and his tanned skin was all wrinkly. He wore a brown Irish cap which highlighted his aged features and his lifeless grey eyes proved that he was blind. It was totally to their advantage since he wouldn't be suspicious of their attire. He wore a brown vest coat with a matching tie and loose pants, and a dark brown long coat on top of it.
Ae Rin and Iris had their daggers behind their back ready to attack if anything happened while Kyou was totally unarmed.
The old man smiled at Kyou although his eyes couldn't quite pin down where he was.
"Yes? Who could this be?" he asked.
"We are travelers — travelers from... another place. We kind of got lost while returning back home and we were wondering if you could help us. We want to know where we are and..why this place is empty." Ae Rin interrupted.
The old man didn't say anything as if he was trying to process what she'd just said. After a few moments, he finally spoke up, "Yes, yes, I can help. It would be in your best interest to leave this place because where you are standing right now is a monster hunting region." He pointed towards the forest and continued, "There are many vicious and hunger stricken monsters who are ready to eat you. And I am one of the hunters who kill those monster to ensure people's safety. Since this area is filled with monsters, nobody sets foot here except for the hunters."
"This weak old man's a hunter? What a joke." Iris eyed him from top to bottom and scoffed.
"If nobody lived in this area, why would they build houses here?" Kyou thought.
"People don't live anymore in this area ever since the monsters first arrived in this forest." He replied as if he had just read Kyou's mind. "The monsters stealthily killed thousands of people out here and so, a need for training people to become hunters arose. A hunter organization was built and several people joined as hunters to defeat monsters but unfortunately, they kept growing in numbers and never ended. That is why there are guards inside the forest to keep the monsters in check but the guards usually aren't as strong as us hunters." The man shook his head and sighed. He soon recovered from his dreadful memories of the past and spoke up again, "Come, I'll take you to a safer place."
He got on the driver seat of the carriage and gestured them to get inside it. They thanked the old man but Ae Rin and Iris didn't drop their guard yet. As soon as they settled inside the carriage, a rotten smell filled the air.
"What's this smell?" Ae Rin's suspicions grew considerably.
The man took a while before replying, "Oh, pardon me. It must be coming from that sac. It contains the monster's teeth and skin that I'd hunted this morning. Please bear with it for a while. We will get to the city's market place soon. You can buy maps from there and return to your home safely."
Ae Rin remained quite and kept staring at the sac. Curiosity— her habit— couldn't keep her from opening the sac and seeing what was inside. "O-Oh..." She was slightly disappointed when she saw it was just a bunch of razor - sharp teeth and layers of hairy skin. When she settled back on her seat, Kyou sighed and gave her the I-told-you-so look as if he had already known that this man was harmless.