"I... are we really going up there?"

At the foot of the hill, Arag, feeling as tiny as an ant, stared at the staircase that seemed endless and shrank back a little:

"Doesn't it feel like we're being reckless? If Freya blocks us up there, won't we have nowhere to run?"

The giant tower stood atop a tall hill, and the road to the top seemed to be only this narrow staircase.

If Freya rushed up and stabbed them in the backside on the hilltop, then even if Moen sprouted two more pairs of wings, there was no way he could get everyone here out.

"No, I don't think Freya will come after us," Moen said.

"Eh? Why? Doesn't she care a lot about you and Miss Lea?"

"As for the reason... it's probably my intuition."

"Huh? Intuition? Is this really the time to rely on something that unreliable? If you ask me, we should find a place to hide, wait until the Death Contract Writ expires, then figure out a way to rescue the other saintess candidates, and team up against Freya. That would be safer."

Arag found Moen's explanation and behavior rather absurd.

They were clearly on the run, yet had come to such a conspicuous place; it was like lighting a bonfire in a forest crawling with magic beasts and shouting, I'm over here.

Was this because the enemy's methods weren't cruel enough, or because they weren't dying fast enough themselves?

But Moen said nothing more, just shook his head and stepped onto the stairs.

Lea didn't hesitate at all and followed behind Moen.

She trusted Moen completely, not even needing to ask for a reason.

Seeing this, Arag's cheek twitched. After hesitating for a moment, he gritted his teeth, hoisted the over-one-hundred-pound dead weight on his back, and stepped onto the stairs with difficulty.

...

Half an hour later.

"D-damn it."

By the time the noble mage Arag clambered onto the final step on hands and feet, he was exhausted like a dead dog. He began to regret never learning any stamina-boosting magic and wished he were a rough-and-tumble fighter instead.

"A-are you... okay?"

Lea asked worriedly, "Do you need me to use Holy Light to restore your stamina?"

"N-no... no need."

Arag waved his hand. "We're already up here. Miss Lea, you'd better conserve your strength. I'll be fine if I take it slow."

A mage's stamina might be poor, but fortunately using magic didn't require much of it.

"Mr. Arag is doing his best too," Lea said with a smile.

"Sigh, with a powerful enemy at hand, I can't very well lie down and sleep soundly like this woman, can I?"

Letting out a bitter sigh, Arag suddenly recalled the earlier scene, pounded the ground hard, and growled in hatred:

"It's all that bastard Freya's fault! She's a saintess candidate, yet she colluded with the dark god to murder her companions—what a piece of work! And to think I trusted her so much before!"

"No one... could have seen that coming."

At that, Lea also looked a little downcast.

She had told Moen before that she actually admired the girl who had saved many and was said to be the closest to the saintess's seat.

Yet now, looking back, that idol of hers had already colluded with the dark god, harmed her companions, woven conspiracies, and become a complete villain.

"But... why would Freya do that? She's a saintess candidate. What good does colluding with the dark god do her? Right, Moen... Moen?"

Lea sought an answer from Moen, only to find that Moen had zoned out and hadn't heard a thing.

Pouting, Lea tugged on Moen's sleeve.

"Ah, sorry, I got a little distracted."

Moen came back to himself and scratched his head apologetically.

Lea blinked and asked curiously, "You've seemed out of it since just now. What are you thinking about?"

"Mm, just stealing a moment to recall some details from earlier."

"Elaborate."

"Just a post-battle review, nothing much.

And besides..."

Moen turned his head and looked into the distance, his expression gradually growing solemn: "This isn't the time to be thinking about that, is it?"

After they climbed the stairs, the entrance to the giant tower appeared before them.

But when they saw that so-called "entrance," even Moen, who prided himself on being rock-steady at critical moments, couldn't help the twitch at the corner of his mouth.

...Another door?

And just like the one in the catacombs earlier, it absolutely did not look like a dignified door that brute force could break...

Do people in this world like these game-like doors so much—the kind that say "Cannot pass from this side," making players grind their teeth?

No... this was the type where you crack the puzzle with great effort, only to get door-open ganked by the boss hiding behind it.

Don't tell me a Prisoner is going to pop out again in a moment.

He felt like he had PTSD about doors now.

"Lea, sorry." Moen patted Lea on the head.

"It's okay. This is what I should be doing."

With a reassuring smile, Lea walked to the door without hesitation.

She could sense that Moen seemed to have grasped some key information, so... she couldn't drag them down either.

A firm light flashed in her eyes as Lea's hands glimmered again. She placed them skillfully upon the gate and began to unlock it.

But... after only a few seconds, Lea was disappointed.

It wasn't that the door was more complicated than last time, but that no matter how she analyzed it, nothing worked.

The entire door felt welded shut.

"This door... can't be opened?"

Lea grew a little anxious. If they couldn't even get the door open, then...

"Hm?"

At that moment, as Lea flusteredly searched for a solution, her movements suddenly halted, and she slowly turned her head to look at Moen and the others.

"What's wrong?"

"Um..."

Lea cocked her ear, as if listening to something:

"Do you... hear any strange sounds?"

"Sounds?"

Moen blinked, listened carefully, then shook his head:

"Aside from the drooling sleep-talk of the self-proclaimed elite Lady Faye, I don't hear anything."

"Could it be another trap?"

Arag looked around warily, afraid a few hellhounds would suddenly leap out again.

"No, there's definitely some kind of sound. Maybe I'm mishearing it. The sound is... is..."

Lea held her breath, filtering out the messy wind, breathing, and heartbeats around her, and then that ethereal, somewhat familiar voice finally became clear:

"Save... save me..."

"Save us..."

"It hurts so much... save us..."

This is...

Lea's lips parted slightly.

The lament of the broken souls inside those monsters from before?

No, that's not right...

This sound seems like... a dream.

Right, it was the noisy, collective cries for help that she heard in her dream on the first night she came to The Lost Land!

And now, this isn't a dream—it's reality!

Lea quickly told Moen all of this.

Upon hearing it, Moen frowned: "Cries for help that only Lea can hear... No."

Moen glanced aside at Faye, who was mumbling in her sleep, "What's the damn racket? Don't bother this old lady's sleep."

It wasn't that only Lea could hear it; only the saintess candidates could!

"Is that sound coming from inside the door?" Moen suddenly asked.

Lea pressed her ear to the door, but soon straightened up, her little head turning ever so slightly. Though her ears didn't move, she put one in mind of a vigilant little fennec fox.

"The sound isn't coming from inside the door, but... from this direction."

Lea pointed in a certain direction.

Moen's eyes lit up. He exchanged a glance with Lea and said without hesitation:

"Go. Lead us toward the sound!"

Abandoning the door, they followed Lea's guidance, circled around the giant tower, and reached the edge of the hill.

Below their feet was a cliff far higher than they'd imagined, with only a few jutting rocks—extremely treacherous.

Arag carefully glanced down, his face a bit pale: "A-are we going to climb down from here?"

"Mm."

Lea nodded, "The sound is coming from down there."

Moen thought for a moment, then crouched down: "Lea, get on."

"Eh?"

Lea froze for a moment, then realized what Moen intended. Her cheeks flushed slightly, but she obediently climbed onto Moen's back.

As those slender, soft hands looped around his neck, Moen's body tensed a little.

The sensation on his back was indeed excellent.

Unfortunately, he could only feel the sensation up top; as for the butt below, there was no time to appreciate it.

As before, Moen grabbed Arag with one hand and Faye with the other, and, with Lea on his back, made nimble leaps along the cliff.

Soon, Moen reached a small rock-and-dirt ledge. After setting the others down, he quickly swept his gaze over the surroundings.

"Is that... a cave?"

Not far away, beneath the shadow cast by a protruding rock, there loomed a cave about waist-high.

They approached, and after listening carefully for a moment, Lea said with certainty, "The sound is coming from inside."

Moen's gaze sharpened as he began to size up the cave.

The cave was not large—barely passable for a person. It looked extremely deep, with no end in sight, pitch-black.

Most importantly...

Moen ran his fingers along the cave mouth and said, "This cave... seems to have been hewn by human hands."

"Hewn by human hands?"

Their breathing instantly grew heavier.

Ever since entering the inner region of The Lost Land, their biggest question had been where the natives of this nation had gone.

And now, it seemed they'd finally caught a lead?

"Should we go in?"

Craning his neck, Arag looked into the pitch-dark cave and involuntarily swallowed:

"I think we should be cautious. What if it's a trap?"

"A trap..."

The step Moen had just taken suddenly drew back.

"What is it? Did you find something again?" Lea asked nervously.

Moen did not answer. He merely stepped back a few paces, stood at the edge of the platform, and looked around.

"Freya... really didn’t give chase."

From this height, the flesh-and-blood jungle at their feet was fully in view, yet it was eerily calm at the moment; only the bright moon in the sky remained as pristine as ever.

"Huh? Didn’t you say your intuition was they wouldn’t come after us?"

"At a time like this, how could I possibly rely only on something as unreliable as intuition? Are you stupid?"

"..."

The corner of Arag’s eye twitched. Bastard, how about you recall what you just said?

After thinking it over, Arag decided to drop it—he couldn’t beat him anyway.

"In any case, if Freya comes after us right now, I'll dive into the cave at once, but she just didn’t come."

"Moen, you mean..."

"Don’t you think... our escape was a little too smooth?"

"Eh?"

Lea said blankly, "But wasn’t it thanks to that move of yours that we managed to get away?"

"That move of mine is indeed strong, but I still need the chance to use it. I just carefully replayed it all in my head and realized..."

With a grave expression, Moen said, "If I were Freya, all I’d need to do at the first moment is have half the people under my control launch an attack on MoenCampbell, instead of backstabbing to clear the field. In that case, no matter how strong MoenCampbell is, there’d be no chance to turn the tables, much less escape right under her nose."

"This..."

Lea thought it through. "Maybe Freya didn’t expect you to have that kind of move, so she got careless? She did look like she already had victory in the bag."

"Careless... huh?"

In Moen’s mind surfaced that face which seemed to wear a gentle smile at all times.

His lips twitched, but he couldn’t smile.

"So, Moen means that Miss Freya deliberately let us go and guided us here?"

"Yes. From what she said and did, that’s possible. Of course, there’s also another possibility."

Moen looked into the distance. "She really was careless for a moment, like Lea said, and the reason she hasn’t come after us... is that what she’s doing now is more important than catching up to me."

Freya... or rather, the God of Love—what exactly do they want to do in this The Lost Land? This was something Moen simply couldn’t help but care about.

After all, that old scheming bastard, the God of Love, actually risked so much to slip in right under the Church’s nose. They were definitely not here for sightseeing and to experience the local customs of a foreign land.

So...

Moen turned his head and looked at that cave again.

Now came the choice.

Should he gamble, bet on the third, tiniest possibility, and enter the cave?

Or, as Arag said, wait until the Death Contract Writ’s nullification wears off, find a way to rescue the other saintess candidates, and then join forces to stop the God of Love?

"A choice, huh..."

Moen rubbed his temples, head pounding. At the root of it all, they still had too little information.

If only...

"Oh my, young man, you seem to be troubled. If you pray to the great God of Magic right now, the God of Magic might respond to you~"

Suddenly, an unfathomable voice rang out, disrupting Moen’s thoughts.

Moen fell silent for a moment, then reached out and gave a smack to the perky butt of the woman lying on the ground, and said coldly:

"Speak plainly."

"I have a way to monitor Freya."

Faye, who had woken up at some point, spoke meekly under a certain particularly icy gaze.

"Monitor?"

"This."

Feya tossed Moen a small mirror. As ripples spread across the clear surface, Moen looked and saw his own reflection vanish, suddenly becoming several other familiar figures.

Freya and the others.

"This is..." Moen’s breathing quickened.

"Hmph hmph."

Faye, lying on the ground, planted her hands on her hips and sneered:

"You think you can piss off yours truly, a dual elite—both a saintess candidate and a magic prodigy—and still run? Not that easy. Even if that bitch Freya is dragging the others off to get a r**m right now, I can still watch her clear as day!"

"Amazing, Faye, you really..."

Moen, excited, reached out to clap Faye on the shoulder, and then... got sprayed full in the face with her blood again.

"Anyway, the mirror is my last gift, so the rest is up to you, Mr. Moen."

Faye threw Moen a wink and, before that icy gaze could fall on her, promptly fainted again.

"..."

Moen was silent for a moment, then called Arag over. "Take Faye and go find a safe place to wait."

He didn’t know whether this cave had any traps; the two of them together had basically zero combat power, so it was better for them to get some distance.

"A safe place?"

Arag looked around. In this damned place, you could flip over in your sleep and fall off a cliff. He had no choice but to look up, wearing the bitter look of a designated gofer. "You think I can climb up there carrying this dead weight?"

Moen thought it over and felt he might have been squeezing the gofer a bit too hard. He was about to personally take the two of them up first...

"[Levitate]"

The word fell.

The two of them silently turned back, just in time to see Lea silently withdraw the small hand with which she had cast the levitation magic.

"Tsk."

After a brief silence, Arag muttered "damned couple" under his breath, then rode the levitation up with Faye.

Moen looked at Lea’s little ears, tinged with crimson. He said nothing, just smiled a touch more easily and sat down beside her.

Then he lowered his head, looked at the mirror in his hand, and got down to business.

"Let me see, then, Freya—what exactly is it you intend to do?"