Before Red could finish his sentence, he suddenly felt a powerful force slam into his back, and the next thing he knew, he was sprawled on the ground, face-first.
On his back, Ku Letia looked around anxiously and spoke in a hurry.
“Red, are you okay!”
“Wait, Red, where are you?”
After scanning the area for a bit, Letia finally spotted the dumbfounded Satania standing in front of her.
Their eyes met, and Satania couldn’t hold back any longer.
“Red was fine just now… but I think now he’s not so fine.”
As she spoke, she pointed at Letia’s feet.
Only then did Letia realize that what she’d been standing on wasn’t some soft cushion… but Red’s back.
“Sorry!”
“I can’t sense a hint of apology from your tone at all…”
Red clutched his aching lower back and struggled to his feet.
Just as he’d expected, there wasn’t the slightest trace of guilt on Letia’s face.
She even took off one of her Martin Boots, revealing the snow-white White Stockings inside.
“Maybe wearing shoes wasn’t to your taste. Should I take off my shoes and step on you again?”
“No way!”
Red hurriedly stopped Letia’s attempt to climb up again.
“Another round and I’ll die! I’m not some superwoman like you.”
“Ah…”
Letia paused, then said, “How did you know I prefer superwomen?”
Seeing her like this, Satania was dumbfounded.
Wait…
Isn’t this different from the gentle, refined Priest of the Holy Church I know?
Before Satania could wrap her head around it, Red sighed helplessly and spoke up.
“So why did you come down here too? Did you bring your Cross?”
“I left it in the Cave, didn’t bring it with me.”
“Well, we’ll have to wait until my Magic recovers then…”
Earlier, Red had used up nearly all his Magic to escape the Monster Tide.
Right now, he didn’t have enough left to use the Hand of Gaeboa again to get everyone back up.
Red let out a sigh, but Letia just looked exasperated.
“Hey, shouldn’t you be a little more concerned? I slid down here from such a high place!”
“Oh…”
Red glanced at the Rock Wall.
“Guess I should be more worried about the Rock Wall collapsing, then.”
“You little…!”
Seeing Letia drop all pretenses and show her true face, Satania finally understood what Red meant earlier.
So ignorance really is bliss, huh?
Such a grand, angelic priestess, but it was just a mask for outsiders…
With a sigh in her heart, she once again turned her gaze to Red and Letia, who were bickering.
This scene, this picture.
Satania seemed to understand everything now.
“Are you two the legendary pair of foolish lovers?”
That simple line put a sudden end to their back-and-forth argument.
The air was thick with awkwardness.
After a while, Letia’s face turned red.
“I could accept being a monthly fling for this guy, but as for being a couple—no thanks. I don’t like competing with other women…”
Letia was, of course, referring to Litt.
After all, in public opinion, Litt and Letia weren’t the same person.
But in reality, they weren’t the same person, right?
Letia quietly added in her heart.
After all, the real Litt had never shown her face, always observing everything from behind the scenes.
“Ahem…”
Red cleared his throat and instinctively retorted, “That goes for you too. As a friend you’re fine, but as a partner—forget it. I’d worry any kids we had would starve.”
“Just because I’m not developing now doesn’t mean I won’t later~”
Letia shrugged, a hint of mockery in her voice.
“Men and women aren’t the same. For adults like you, how tall you are now is how tall you’ll be in the future. But for women, with my age, second development and all that—totally not a problem.”
After she finished, Letia even patted her own chest, making a “bang bang bang” sound.
But seeing the two continue, Satania, the third wheel, couldn’t help but remind them,
“By the way, with the situation out there—all those monsters—how can you both look so relaxed?”
“Master once said, enjoy life to the fullest when things go well~ Smiling in the face of fear and death, isn’t that a sign of optimism too?”
Watching Letia pose in a devout prayer, Satania waved her hands in protest.
“No, no, no! I’m not from the Holy Church, but even I doubt your so-called Master would say something like that.”
“Don’t sweat the details. Anyway, we have to wait for Red’s Magic to recover before we can go back up. We can’t just stare at each other down here, can we?”
To get Satania to quiet down, Letia pulled out a Bread from who-knows-where and handed it over.
“Don’t overthink it. Eat.”
Looking at the Bread in her hands, Satania muttered,
“That makes sense…”
But just as she was about to take a bite, Red suddenly clapped a hand over her mouth.
The atmosphere inside the pit went utterly silent.
In the stillness, the three of them could faintly hear the scraping sounds of Insect limbs and the trembling of the ground.
Monster Tide…
…After wandering aimlessly for so long, had finally step by step found this place.
Thump, thump, thump.
The cacophony of footsteps drew closer and closer.
The three of them tensed up, each turning their gaze to the opening above.
Crrrk, crrrk.
That sound, sharp and hard, set their teeth on edge.
It was the sound of chitinous limbs scraping and dragging across rough stone, and just hearing it made one’s scalp tingle.
Given their current situation, if the Monster Tide found them, it would be no different from being dead.
As they watched the edge of the pit, pairs upon pairs of Scarlet Eyes appeared.
Red’s heart gradually sank.
“What do we do, what do we do?”
Terrified, Satania’s face turned pale.
She grabbed Red’s hand and shook it desperately, as if wishing he could sprout wings and fly them out.
Letia, on the other hand, focused inwardly.
The events of the Second Floor Twenty-Seven were still a mess in her mind, but her own fate remained dying to the Monster Tide on the Second Layer Twenty-Five.
So her reaction was comparatively calm.
But the others didn’t know this.
Even Red, seeing those countless pairs of Scarlet Insect Eyes above, couldn’t help but go pale.
Sure enough, in a place this closed off, being found was only a matter of time.
Now, the only thing left was to see if they could force their way out…
Just as Red was about to forcibly use Magic—
“Awooo~~”
A desolate, distant Wolf Howl, as if piercing through countless layers of rock, echoed suddenly from the depths of this underground space.
The instant the sound rang out, the Scarlet Eyes at the edge of the pit—ready to pounce—froze as if someone had hit pause.
All the scraping, growling, drooling—disappeared in an instant.
Silence.
Stillness.
Utter quiet…
Above, the countless pairs of Scarlet Eyes swirled aimlessly in the dark, as if receiving some invisible command.
After a dazed moment, they retreated like a receding tide, not a single one remaining.
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