Chapter 16
‘That… is that Luka?’
Her whole body trembled like a leaf in the wind.
She needed something to hold herself up, so she pressed one hand to the ground—
and felt something strange.
“Kyaaaaaa!”
What her hand grabbed was red hair.
It was Jade.
Jade, who always handled Creatures with calm ease—
was now a pale corpse.
What… what is this…!
“No… this isn’t real, right? It’s just a dream, right?”
Yeah, this can’t be real!
Trying to convince herself, she forced her body upright.
But then—something brushed against her heel.
Slowly, she turned around—
and saw another shocking sight.
“No… no!”
Isis… had gone cold.
“Noooooo!!!”
She screamed, voice breaking in tears—
“Ah!”
—and jolted awake.
Her chest rose and fell rapidly as she gasped for air. Her racing heartbeat slowly began to calm, and her blurry vision cleared.
In front of her was Isis.
Alive. Breathing.
“You looked like you were suffering, so I woke you up—”
“Isis!”
She threw herself into his arms, hugging him as tightly as she could.
She needed to feel that he was really there.
His body was warm beneath her touch.
His breath tickled the skin near her neck.
He was close enough that she could even faintly hear his heartbeat.
Yes.
Isis was alive—right in front of her.
Ah…
Only then did she finally relax her arms, relief flooding her chest.
“…Isis?”
“Ahem. Never mind that—did you have a nightmare?”
“Yes. I think the shock from seeing that corpse this morning still hasn’t worn off.”
Isis handed her a cup of water.
She took it without hesitation and drank deeply.
As she lowered the cup, he reached up and gently brushed the corner of her eye with his fingertips.
“Drink some more water, then lie back down and rest. It’s still not Larianah’s watch shift yet.”
“…Okay.”
She smiled faintly at Luka, who was peeking nervously from the cave entrance.
It was her way of saying, I’m fine, don’t worry.
“What time is it now?”
“…Half past midnight.”
Half past midnight?
They had started resting around 9 p.m., and the next watch shift was at 1.
Even if she lay down now, she’d have to get up again in thirty minutes.
And she was far too awake to sleep again anyway.
“…Isis, you should sleep first. I’ll take the next thirty minutes since I’m already up.”
“I can’t let you—”
She shook her head firmly.
Even if he didn’t show it, Isis had been taking longer watches than everyone else.
He often covered for others, sometimes ten, sometimes thirty extra minutes.
Thanks to him, she’d even gotten nearly half an hour of extra sleep before.
He was definitely the most exhausted one among them.
“Don’t be stubborn. You should rest too, Isis.”
His eyes widened slightly. Then he gave a soft, breathy laugh.
“Then maybe Luka should—”
“I’m fine! You sleep, big brother Isis!”
Luka nodded vigorously beside her, backing her up.
With both of them insisting, Isis reluctantly lay down.
[Affinity with ‘Isis Clentine’ has increased by 2 points.]
[Current Affinity: 23 / 100]
The increase in his favorability confirmed it—
he really had been exhausted, even if he’d tried not to show it.
Within a minute of his head touching the ground, he was fast asleep.
Sleep well…
She carefully pulled a blanket over him and moved to sit beside Luka.
“Luka, are you tired?”
“I’m fine.”
He said that, but he looked pretty drowsy.
Well, Luka had used the most skills today after all…
Silence settled over them.
She thought briefly about opening the chat window, but…
It’s one thing when I’m alone on watch, but if I start staring into space while someone’s next to me, won’t it look weird…?
So she just stared blankly at the stars scattered across the night sky.
After a while, she quietly spoke.
“Luka.”
“Yes?”
“How did you meet Isis?”
“…Huh?”
It was a sudden question, but she was just curious.
She had been picked up by Isis—
was it the same for Luka?
“Ah, it was really just by chance.
We happened to end up fighting together.”
“…Fighting?”
“There was a Creature Wave. Everything was chaos.
We just kept fighting to survive, and the ones who made it out alive met that way.”
A Creature Wave.
She had heard about them, but never experienced one.
Even the Creatures near the Marquis of Drain’s estate were said to be leftovers from that incident.
“Back then, the only survivors were me, Isis, and Jade.”
“…!”
So that’s where the three of them met.
But if it was a Creature Wave, the Creatures would’ve swarmed any populated area—
and only three people had survived?
The casualties must have been catastrophic.
“After the situation settled down a bit, he asked me.
If I wanted to go with him.”
“I see…”
“It’s already been two years since then.”
Two years.
The Creature crisis began three years ago… so that lined up.
“Then, before you met Isis, how did you live?”
“I was in another survivor camp. Stayed there about a year.
But then… a Creature Wave hit the neighboring town.”
“…Ah.”
She sighed.
She didn’t need to hear the rest.
If only three people had survived back then, the others must have been wiped out.
“Jade was in that camp too.”
“You were close before?”
“No, not really. We only exchanged greetings sometimes.
You know how Jade can be kind of intimidating—it’s hard to approach him.”
“That’s true.”
She agreed immediately, and Luka laughed softly.
“I never thought I’d get this close to him.”
“…”
“Really… I didn’t.”
She didn’t know what to say, so she stayed quiet.
In novels or dramas, the protagonist would probably add something heartfelt here—
but she was supposed to have lost her memory, so she couldn’t.
The silence stretched.
Then, after a while, there was a rustling sound behind them.
“Hey.”
It was Jade.
“What, why didn’t you wake me if my turn’s up?”
“You woke up right on time. I got up early and switched with Isis.”
“Yeah, he’s been pushing himself too hard lately.”
Jade trudged over.
He woke up exactly on time even without being called—like clockwork.
She greeted him, impressed.
Luka, who had been sitting up, quickly swapped places with him and lay down.
His head hit the ground, and he was asleep instantly.
Jade dropped onto the spot Luka had just vacated, sitting down with his usual careless air.
She found herself staring at him.
The bulky muscles, sharp eyes that seemed perpetually annoyed with the world—
he looked like the classic “bad boy” type you’d find in a romance fantasy novel.
Not my target, though.
Despite his rough exterior, he was actually more of a tsundere type.
He’d grumble and complain, but always ended up helping anyway.
Once I figured that out, he actually became easier to deal with.
“Hey.”
“…What.”
Jade frowned at her sudden address.
The abrupt change in her tone seemed to catch him off guard.
“Uh… can I talk casually with you? Use informal speech?”
He let out a short laugh.
“I already talk to you that way. Why shouldn’t you?”
“Okay, then I will.”
Much simpler than Isis, at least.
She smiled awkwardly, and he spoke again.
“What did Luka say?”
“…About what?”
“Never mind.”
Wow, his instincts are sharp.
He must have picked up on the subtle tension earlier between her and Luka.
“I just asked how he met Isis.”
“…And what’d he say?”
“A Creature Wave. He said only three survivors remained from the camp you and he were in.”
“Two.”
“…Huh?”
“Isis wasn’t part of that survivor camp.
He just happened to pass by.
The ones originally from that camp were only Luka and me.”
“…”
