(Naruhito POV)
I saw nothing. It was dark around me, so I couldn't see anything. I could feel Midori hugging me tightly, and I could feel the air hitting my body as we fell into the hole. I knew we would die. We were supposed to die since we had failed the test.
(Splash)
Water... We fell into a lake. We can survive this! I held Midori tightly and started swimming toward the ground, where I could see some torches glowing in the darkness. I felt some bodies—dead bodies. Those who failed the test fell here and died in those waters.
I have to get out fast, I thought. We can't stay here forever.
I swam toward the torches and found a small altar.
I managed to swim out. I placed Midori gently on the ground and asked her if she was okay. She didn't answer. I was afraid. I had made a wrong choice, and I had now lost the only one who would listen to me regardless of the circumstances. I can't let that happen. I removed her shirt and started hitting her chest over and over again until she finally started coughing out the water. I then closed my eyes and gave her back her shirt.
(Slap)
She slapped me. "Idiot," Midori said, and then proceeded to hug me. "You are okay... Thank God," she exclaimed.
I smiled. I hugged her back, happy that she had survived. It was something beyond just caring about a stranger; she was someone I wanted to keep alive. Someone I cared about. Our happy moment was disrupted by some demi-humans who had been cursed by the dragons. Three of them, with a height of one hundred and seventy centimeters and half of their bodies made out of stone, attacked us. I drew my first sword (apparently, both of my swords were still on my belt; I didn't lose them in the fall) and tried to counter a demi-human as Sebastian had taught me. I managed to parry two hits, but on the third one, my sword broke. I took my second sword—the magical one—and sliced him in half. A mixture of stones, blood, and a white liquid flew across the place. I dashed forward and cut off the left hand of the second creature before kicking it and dropping it to its knees. I slowly placed my sword on its neck, and then with a quick movement, I cut off its head. The strange white liquid stained my clothes.
"Huh? Naru, help!!" Midori screamed.
The third one had moved past me and attacked Midori. It bit her hand and was putting pressure on her legs and stomach. I ran toward it, dodged its attempt to hit me, and pierced it with my sword in the head. It twitched a bit and then stopped moving. After I was sure it was dead, I dropped all of them into the lake and stepped closer to Midori to check her wounds.
"You are turning 11, right Naru? What an amazing birthday gift... Right?" Midori said, with a clearly sad look on her face.
"We both survived; that's good enough," I said. I have to find a way out... I thought.
I started walking toward the torches and found a small altar. It had some strange language written on it... The same as the one on Sebastian's black katana.
I couldn't read it at all, but out of instinct, I cut my left hand and dropped some blood inside the altar. Midori was caught off guard and told me not to wound myself.
A stone on my right moved and revealed a hidden path... A path to some chambers, as we found out. The moment I got there, Midori was nowhere to be seen. I panicked and called for her, but instead, I saw Aiko.
"You killed my sister. The wound she got from the demi-humans killed her, and you did nothing to protect her. I disgust you, Naruhito."
Huh? What's going on? Why is Aiko here... Wait, is Midori dead?
"She... is dead?" I asked, trembling.
"We all are dead." Sebastian appeared from behind me.
"All because you couldn't make the right decision. The moment you failed the test in the lake, we all got killed. Now our bodies lie in the lake next to the others," he said.
My eyes widened. "You all... died?" "Yes, Naruhito, you killed us."
"I..." I tried to talk, but I was speechless. I reached for my sword and placed it near my throat. They all died because of me, because I didn't want to step on a body. I have to go meet them... to apologize.
"Come with me, Naruhito; cut your throat and come with us."
(Slash)
Blood flew across the room, and a scream could be heard. A demi-human was on its knees, holding its now-cut shoulder.
"Why did you hit me? You would hit Midori?" the demi-human asked.
"No, she would blush if she ever said things like these," I said, placing my blade on its throat.
"Hmm, I see. Good luck then."
"Good luck?" I asked, but then it crumbled to pieces.
"Naru?" a voice called from behind me. I turned around just to see Midori. Was she really Midori? Or should I cut her head just to see another demi-human?
"Midori, would you marry me when we grow up?" I asked suddenly.
"Huh? What's this out of the sudden? M m marry..." she said, blushing, being red like an apple.
"Okay, you are Midori."
"I know that; what's going on?"
I explained to her what happened, and she told me that she found a text in our language on the wall. It said that I failed to walk the path to success and that I had another chance. The last one. I will have to pass three trials, and then I will be strong enough to go to the north. Apparently, I had passed the first trial already.
~~
(Megumi POV)
"It's been three months already, Megumi; we should leave a message and move on," Aiko told me. Three months. Two months more than what we were supposed to need to get out.
"Still, I can't believe not even Seb came out," I said. "Megumi, Sebastian is powerful but not almighty. Even he, a member of the Onihito family, seemed to be afraid of something inside the mines."
"Seb!!" she called, hitting the table. "He asked us to call him Seb."
"Okay, okay, Megumi, Seb. But anyway, we should move on," she told me.
"Okay... Let's go leave a message."
The inn had two floors. We walked the wooden stairs to go to the reception, where a young lady no older than seventeen was sitting there, waiting for customers. Her blond hair was tied back in a high ponytail, and her blue eyes seemed to have lost their brightness. Probably because of all the dead travelers she had seen.
"Good morning. We would like to leave a message," Aiko said as she rushed to find a pen.
We both left our message for our three friends and left the inn via a road that would take us to the northern capital, a place where black banners with red ravens were said to hang everywhere. We took a carriage, and we were told that the trip would take a month and a half.
Inside the carriage was a boy around fifteen years old who had brown hair and brown eyes. His skin was pale—too pale. Probably he wasn't eating enough food due to poverty or out of grief for his dead companions. I had also been eating poorly, and Aiko was scolding me for that, but I wouldn't listen.
I took out some bread and gave it to the boy. He looked older than me, so I didn't say my name until he told me his.
"Yuu."
He took my bread and said, "Yuu... My name is Yuu."
"Megumi," I answered, with a dead look in my eyes.
"Where are you from, Megumi?" "Kamakura's temple," I said.
His eyes lit up. "Kamakura... You are from Kamakura?" I raised my head.
"Yeah, why?"
"I'm the child of a farmer. I was born and raised in Kamakura," he said.
I opened my mouth to speak, but Aiko spoke first. "What's the situation in Kamakura?"
"It's been frozen. They moved the capital to the south to avoid an attack from the ravens because their sigil was drawn in the center of the city with the body parts of a monarch."
"Ugh, so that was Seb's parting gift..." I said.
"Did they kill anyone?" Aiko asked.
"No, only those who fought back..." he said, with hate in his eyes.
"I see," Aiko said.
"Why are you this far north, Yuu?" I asked him.
"My parents fought back against the traitors and were killed and impaled. I heard from a priest in the temple that a lord had escaped and was planning to take back the kingdom. He told me to search for him in the land of ravens in the north and side with him," Yuu said.
"Hanzō..." Aiko said.
"My father sent you, so we would stick with you," I said. "But the lord is still inside the mines. We left a message for him and left to find the ravens." Yuu's face darkened again. He came here to seek a lord who was probably dead. I don't think that they are dead, but that's the most likely scenario.