The ground was clingy—sticky with substances Alira would rather not mention—reluctantly letting go of the soles of her boots with every step.

  She kept balance, a relatively easy task for a cat-girl, on a platform that was just a bit wider than her boot, forcing not just her but everyone to catwalk. Her tail was wrapped around her leg to prevent involuntary lingering, her hands tugged to the front, pressed against her chest as a precaution toward any accidental touch of the wall on her side painted with thick layers of dark brown slug.

  Raine was at the front of the line, striding fast along the narrow path as if a wrong move didn’t mean falling into the river of unpleasant things on the side. Lillian followed close behind Alira; if not for Calix at the back, Lillian would’ve yielded to her instincts as a noble to escape filth and run back out. Alira knew that from the sound of her gagging now and then. Fortunately, she didn’t have to worry about her vomiting on her since Lillian had already emptied her guts before they even entered.

  The group of four went deeper into the tunnel in a long, straight line, their footsteps bouncing off the walls along with the quiet flow of muddy stream. By the time the path split into two routes, they were likely below the edge of the town.

  “Which way?” Raine asked before coming to a stop.

  Alira couldn’t see past his shoulder to get a full view ahead. The Academy hadn’t detailed the exact route to the Retriever’s base in the novel. In fact, Raine had discovered on his own later on that it was hidden in Astrail’s underground sewers.

  “Left,” Alira replied without hesitation. It had to be. Most people were right-handed, so they’d instinctively turn right. The cultists would choose the less likely route. It was simple logic.

  Besides, left felt...right. Correct. Proper. She could almost hear a whisper calling out for her, a pull, in that direction. Alira was a certified Prophet now—a real one as far as the Judgement Scroll entailed. A seer should always trust their intuition and gut feeling. So, of course, it was left. It had always been left.

  Raine took the left turn without a word. Alira bent her torso slightly to the side to see the way over Raine’s figure. The same tunnel with two platforms on the sides of a sewage canal stretched ahead, only this time, she couldn’t see its end, shrouded in pitch black despite the bright light from Raine’s artifact and her mild night vision.

  Alira was fairly confident about her choice. A weight settled in her chest, ensuring they were in the right direction. Her only concern at this moment was the reason for Calix being here. What exactly is he up to? While she didn’t have to worry about him attacking her, she still had to keep an eye out for whether he might be plotting against Raine.

  Lost in her own thoughts, Alira didn’t notice the fact that Raine had come to a stop at the head of their human train. She bumped hard, face slamming onto his broad back. With a sharp gasp, Alira quickly stabilized her footing with a tight clamp of Raine’s shoulders. Before she could grumble, Alira felt Lillian bump into her from behind with her heels crushing her boots.

  Lillian waved her hands about, spinning, as she lost her footing. She fell, headed straight into the sewer water, failing to grab onto anything in time. Alira saw from the corner of her eyes that Calix just stood there without a hint of him moving to help anytime soon. With a click of her tongue, Alira twisted her torso to extend her hand out, barely catching Lillian on her wrist. The two girls bent down awkwardly as if they were in the middle of some fancy dance move.

  When she first arrived in Staywes, Alira had accused Lady Goddess of having a weird taste for making her a cat-girl countless times. These few days, however, she’d been counting her blessings an equal number of times.

  Bless the strength, agility, and sense of balance boosts that come with being half a cat.

  Alira picked herself and Lillian back to her feet, not without shooting a glare at Calix for his indifference.

  “You alright?” Alira asked. Lillian was pale as a ghost, still in the middle of her life flashing before her eyes. Lillian breathed in, then her face distorted at the smell. At least, it seemed to help her recover as she managed to nod slowly.

  “Good,” Alira said. “I think you can let go of my hand now.” Lillian followed Alira’s gaze to where she had a death, almost bone-crushing grip on Alira. Clearly, she was determined to go down together.

  She hurried to let Alira go at last, turning away as she mumbled what could conceivably be an apology or a thanks.

  Alira snapped back to the front. Raine was still rigid in his place, head turning as if he was doing neck exercises. She stubbed the tip of her boot into his shin, knowing he likely wouldn’t even feel it.

  “What’re you doing?” Alira hissed.

  Raine turned to the side, glancing behind but not directly at Alira. “I guess you didn’t see the exact location. It’s here.”

  It’s here? The cultist base? Alira looked around. There was nothing out of place. She couldn’t imagine the cultists just lining up here, side to side, to cook up all their treasonous and blasphemous shenanigans.

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  { You and your mana-blind nose. Even I can smell the rot all the way here. }

  Oh.

  Mana was the essence of every existing matter. Fellsworns, those who’d pledged to the Outer Gods such as the Mother, were regarded as dead to Staywes and thus, they carried decaying mana. The very thing that caused Corruption to Staywes’s souls. The Fellsworns usually had the smell of death and resentful betrayal of their sin. At least, that was what the textbook of the Theology module said.

  Alira didn’t smell anything particular on any of the cultists she’d met, though. The same way she can’t smell anything here other than shit and piss.

  She looked back toward Calix. Now that she was actually looking at him, he wasn’t just standing there but was also seemingly busy trying to pinpoint something. If not, then he was pretending to be doing so.

  Well, let’s hope they sniff it out fast... She certainly didn’t want to stay here all night.

  { To your right. }

  Alira was pleasantly surprised to see, or hear, Xia being helpful for once. That was until she remembered the fact that to her right was nothing other than the sewer canal. Was he talking about the platform on the other side of the canal? She didn’t see anything there either. Maybe there was a door of some sort hidden in the wall...

  { Down, sweetie. }

  Down...?

  Right. Down. Fuck. Was he saying it was down...there? In the shit water?!

  “It’s in the water,” Alira said, hoping her voice sounded calm to the others. “This’s as far as my guide service goes. Whoever wants to see the cultists' lair can go ahead. I will wait right here.”

  Alira was worried about Raine and Calix clashing swords of ice and crystal, but actually, she wasn’t that worried. Nope. They shouldn’t have a reason to kill each other at this point in the plot anyway—it was still early on, and Raine had yet to make himself the enemy of the duchy.

  As long as Raine was alive and capable of doing alchemy, Alira wouldn’t ask for more.

  “Come with m—” Raine asked.

  “No way.” Alira shook her head decisively before he could even finish. “I’m already doing more than I need to. Allow me to jolt your memories; your reward for becoming a Lesser Alchemist is information about the Retrievers, something you couldn’t find out from the mercenaries. I present you this! Go fetch it yourself, boy.”

  Alira heard her own voice echo throughout the tunnel, along with a laugh inside her head. Xia was back to being his not-helpful self.

  “...Fine,” Raine said. Ruffling sounded as he took off his coat, dropping it on Alira’s arms like she was a coat rack. She’d only subconsciously received the coat. But fine, she could do him a small favor. Raine curled his fingers, gesturing for her to open her hand.

  “W-What?” Alira asked. She wasn’t a hundred percent certain that he wouldn’t just grab her and dive into the sewer. Raine was still a Ravon. And she already had two pennies from each time a Ravon messed up her plan.

  Raine simply grabbed her hand, shoving a cold object into her palm. What the...A ring? Is this a proposal out of nowhere? Before diving into a shitty hellhole? Alira took a double look at the rusty ring with a cloudy gem that looked like those fake plastic gems. Very little chance for her to say ‘yes’ to this. Raine was squinting his eyes in disapproval as if he could hear what she was thinking.

  “An artifact,” he explained. “If the gem glows, it means I need your help. Whether you come for me or not...is up to you, of course.”

  With that, he swung a foot and fell straight into the canal with a large splash. Alira jumped, and even with all the superpowers of a cat, she still couldn’t escape the crashing wave of sewage. She half-groaned, half-squalled, feeling her pants soaking and dripping into her boots.

  Fuck you! This was definitely on purpose. He could have moved further away or at least warned her.

  Only when both Alira and the water surface had regained their calm did it finally hit her that Raine had completely disappeared into the water. Alira reluctantly turned her head down. The water looked shallow. Yet there was no movement of a person in it. As she noticed the chunks of pollutants in the water, a random thought came to her.

  Raine actually trusts me quite a lot...

  For all he knew, she could’ve been bullshitting—pun very much intended, even if it might cost her language points and make her etiquette teacher, Madam Trisa, faint—about there being something in the water. No question. No ‘are you sure?’ He plunged right in.

  The longer she spent time with him, the shakier her understanding of the protagonist became.

  I thought he was supposed to be one hell of a distrustful character with a chronic trust issue...

  Alira stopped herself from thinking any further. It didn’t matter. The only thing she needed was his ability to break her from his father’s bind. She gave herself the much-needed reminder that all of this was only for her to go back home.

  “Hm?” Alira answered as she felt a nudge on her arm. She shifted her eyes away from where Raine had vanished to find Lillian handing a clean handkerchief.

  She stretched her hand as far out as possible, waving her hand and the handkerchief. “Hurry and take it!” she said, her voice muffled behind her palm.

  Once Alira grabbed it, the girl took three steps back, the furthest she could be from her. Just before she would bump into Calix, who was all zoned out, counting the stains on the ceiling. To her surprise, Calix didn’t follow Raine. She’d assumed he was following for cultists' business, but there was also the slim possibility that he was merely keeping an eye out for her.

  Man, whatever.

  Alira tried her best to space out as well, letting her mind wander off wherever it wanted to kill them while praying for Raine to come back out sooner rather than later in one piece. It didn’t last long. She tried ever harder when she felt a warmth inside her fist, the one that was clenching onto the proof of Raine’s proposal.

  She pressed another hand on top. If I don’t see it, it is not happening. Then, a blue glow emerged from the gaps in her fingers. Lillian gasped out of concern about her crush’s safety, and it sounded like a death knell to Alira.

  Alira sighed.

  Shii—t.