[Chapter 37]
“You promised not to say weird things!”
“Maybe you’re the weird one for hearing it that way. I was just giving you some advice.”
Deon replied dismissively and immediately walked toward the guards.
Then, a huge hand suddenly yanked the vines that were binding me, pulling me so that I floated in the air, coming close enough that Ian’s nose almost touched mine. My breath stopped. Ian had tried to meet my gaze before, but never this quickly or this close.
“Lemoni.”
Did he notice my frightened expression? A small gleam flashed in his lively golden eyes.
“I haven’t eaten in a long time, so, for the first time in a while—”
“Cut it out.”
His sudden words, low and deep, stopped him.
“There are lots of corpses outside. If you’re going to act like a mosquito, go downstairs.”
The back of the man’s hand gripping Ian’s wrist bulged with dark veins. But Ian kept staring at me.
“I’m a noble, so I don’t eat rotten things.”
“Why should I care?”
These people are fighting again. I was wondering how to stop it this time when suddenly a dagger sliced between the two men and me, embedding itself into the opposite wall. For a moment, time seemed to freeze. I opened my mouth in shock, unable to react, and my frightened heart began to race.
Ian was the one who usually used daggers, but he was holding my wrist right now. Then, who threw it…?
“Stop it.”
As if answering my thoughts, someone appeared just in time.
A woman with striking red hair, like a blooming rose, was draped over her collarbone. Her clear, sharp features were framed by transparent light green eyes, and her lashes shimmered with a reddish tint.
“You two are disgusting.”
She glared openly at the two men, and as if the fight wasn’t over, she aimed the gun she carried on her back at us.
She was clearly no ordinary person. She was the heroine of this world — Railia.
For a while, we had to work hard to clear up Railia’s misunderstanding.
“So, you four are comrades? Who’s going to believe that?”
Railia sat arrogantly, arms crossed, one leg crossed over the other, wearing an expression of disdain mixed with wariness.
“Lemoni, was it? You can be honest with me.”
But I was excluded from her anger. Suddenly, she pulled the wrist she was holding and whispered softly, just loud enough for me to hear, with a gentle smile. I didn’t expect the first meeting with the heroine to go like this. I glanced at Deon and Ian, looking awkward.
“It’s true. There must have been some misunderstanding about what happened earlier.”
“What misunderstanding? That silver-haired guy said he was going to eat you—was that a misunderstanding? Did I mishear?”
Ian smiled awkwardly. I had nothing to say; he was right.
“Or that black-haired guy told you not to move, tightening the bonds—was that a misunderstanding too?”
“Not a misunderstanding, but you don’t need to worry about that.”
A guard who got up late muttered, “Well, he did tighten them,” but no one paid attention. Then someone grabbed my wrist from the other side. It was Deon.
“You should be wary of this side. You threw a dagger suddenly, and now you want to worry about it? How do you explain your double standards?”
“Hmm.”
The woman rested her chin on her hand and stared at us. If this were her first time meeting Deon, she might have been scared, but she faced his red eyes without a trace of fear. I recall Railia wasn’t easygoing in the original story either.
Block D was a place filled with monsters speaking different languages. With no chance for conversation, her choice was force. She taught herself how to use guns and climbed to the top of the food chain.
“Let’s start by revealing our names and affiliations? That might help clear up misunderstandings.”
I smiled awkwardly to break the tension between the two, and Ian, who seemed to understand my meaning, spoke shortly with an unfriendly expression:
“I’m Ian, a first-class prisoner in Block C.”
“I’m Cedric Ville, a guard from the Southern Empire who got trapped here.”
It was the first time I learned the guard’s name. Fortunately, he gave a faint smile, as if agreeing with me.
“I’m Railia, a first-class prisoner in Block D. Of course, there are circumstances behind this.”
“I’m Deon, a first-class prisoner in Block B.”
Deon frowned with distrust but was not someone to cause trouble in communal living. He seemed aware that he needed to combine keys with Railia.
“I’m Lemoni Christina, a first-class guard in Block B.”
After quickly introducing myself, I got to the point.
“You know the Dreis Prison is in chaos now, right?”
“I heard almost all the guards died? Lemoni, it’s lucky you’re alive.”
Her grin left me speechless. I parted my lips and cautiously asked,
“Do you know anything else?”
“You’re Lemoni?”
Railia’s face briefly showed confusion, probably unaware of the ‘monsters’ situation.
“All prisoners and guards from Block A to C have turned into monsters. We fled from them to Block D.”
Her confused expression stiffened slightly.
“Isn’t that something the guards should handle?”
“We don’t know either. So, we plan to escape Dreis Prison and head to the Southern Empire.”
The atmosphere shifted. Her sharp gaze softened as if she hadn’t known the situation.
“The keys?”
“I have two. That’s why I came looking for Railia. With hers, we can escape.”
“…Ha, well then.”
Railia muttered for a moment, then fell silent. Seeing her act so confidently, it was clear the first-class guard of Block D was already dead. Railia was now the master of the seventh floor.
“Since it’s late, let’s sleep for now and meet again at dawn.”
She sighed as if she didn’t want to believe it, untied her messy hair, and began to tie it again. The exposed white, smooth neckline made me momentarily dazed. Wow, she really is the heroine. I naturally lowered my gaze and saw her lashes densely grouped.
Railia fit well with Deon and Ian. But Deon, unaware of his fate, ignored it and stood up.
“If we’re done talking, we’ll stay in that room from earlier.”
He seemed impatient waiting for Railia to finish tying her hair and suddenly grabbed my wrist again. Railia, not missing a beat, put the hair tie in her mouth and grabbed his hand.
“Lemoni, sleep with me. It’ll be more comfortable than sleeping with three men.”
“I think that’s more comfortable too.”
I hurried to speak before another argument started, and the three men backed off with dissatisfied looks. Railia and I moved to the room, revealing a bed worn from age.
“Are you okay?”
She immediately sat me on the bed and cupped my cheek.
“Were you always thin, or did you lose weight? Why do your cheeks look so hollow?”
“…Huh?”
Since becoming Lemoni, no one had ever shown me such warm concern. Embarrassed, I blushed. She smiled, thinking I was cute, got up, and brought something. It looked like a clear soup made by crushing some fruit she had brought from outside. It was a clumsy meal, but since food was running out, it was a rare sight.
“Shall we have a girls’ party?”
Railia, with a down-to-earth attitude that didn’t fit her gorgeous face, drank the soup straight from the bowl.
“What are you doing, not eating?”
“Thank you.”
Since this world’s survival story didn’t have spoons, I awkwardly followed her example and brought the bowl to my mouth. I felt a satisfied gaze from across.
Was Railia always like this? I knew she was confident, but in the original, she mostly got pushed around by Deon and Ian, so I hadn’t thought she was suited for survival.
“By the way, was it hard coming here? Especially coming with a guard and a prisoner.”
“To be honest,”
I wiped my mouth and said,
“It was pretty tough.”
“See? It must’ve been harder without command magic, but you survived well.”
“Oh, the command magic wasn’t undone.”
“Huh?”
Railia’s eyes widened. Hmm. I stayed silent for a moment, thinking it best not to go into details, and shrugged.
“I don’t really know either. It seems like only the two of us haven’t had the contract undone…”
“That shouldn’t be possible.”
Railia still looked curious but didn’t press further. She smiled prettily and wrapped up the conversation.
“Well, if you could use command magic, you wouldn’t have been helpless. That’s good.”
Wow. She’s kind. The first kind I’ve seen since being Lemoni.
“Honestly, I’m glad to have met you, Railia.”
“Of course! Who do you think we are? We’re the ones who survived this place.”
Leaving the three men out of the survivors’ group, Railia stood and rummaged through something. Since she was a fellow woman, I felt a kinship, and it seemed like she wanted to give me many things. I wondered if Railia would have changed like this if she met other female characters in the original story.
“Railia, what’s that?”
I smiled foolishly, feeling like I’d just made a friend, when Railia suddenly pulled a gun from the worn box she was digging through.
