HTWBB Chapter 23

The school of fish swimming toward her suddenly plunged downward at a certain point, as if something had yanked them under in an instant. It wasn't a large wave, nor was it a massive creature like a whale passing by. Rietta sharpened her senses.

Meanwhile, a turtle that had been leisurely flipping its body as it passed suffered the same fate in a similar location. Something's wrong. The moment Rietta had that intuition, she immediately turned around.

Alarming enough to set her nerves on edge, the current she felt against her skin was accelerating too rapidly. The strange phenomenon that had sucked in the fish seemed to be gradually approaching her. No, it actually was close.

'Ugh.'

The moment she thought it was already too late, she felt a strong pull. A groan that failed to become sound bubbled and trapped itself somewhere in the vast sea. Rietta reflexively pulled her legs back, somewhat flustered. They wouldn't budge. When she quickly turned her head, she saw something coiled around her ankle.

Long seaweed that had mixed in with the sea creatures was gripping her ankle like a rope. Conversely, no matter how much she stretched her arms, she couldn't move forward. On land, it would have been enough force to make her fall flat.

Rietta had no choice but to draw her dagger. She tried to bend down immediately, but the pulling force was too strong. Even stretching just her arm downward, the length was hopelessly insufficient to cut the seaweed. Then suddenly, with a clunk, it stopped as if it had caught on something.

'What?'

It was a bad sign. Sure enough, the seaweed that had been silently swaying toward the surface quickly changed direction, just like the fish and turtle from before. With her ankle caught, Rietta began to be helplessly dragged downward.

This time she was truly flustered. Her hair, disrupting her vision, fluttered in brilliant coral. She felt the air that had filled her lungs rapidly depleting.

As her magic reserves ran dry, the spell that had allowed her to breathe underwater came undone.

"...!"

Rietta, who had been struggling to somehow break free, frowned at the sudden pain she felt. A rough piece of wood from who knows where mercilessly jabbed her side. Because it had penetrated fairly deep before pulling out, her closed mouth involuntarily opened.

Not missing that gap, seawater rushed wildly into her nose and mouth. Large and small air bubbles drifted around her. Rather than thrashing about like a drowning person, she simply let the strength leave her body. It was due to old habit.

Further resistance would only drain her strength and be meaningless.

'Never... give up, Rietta. We are...'

A voice like the one from when she had sunk against her will echoed in her ears. Rietta vowed never to open her eyes again as she was driven into the bottom of the deep sea. Thus she fell into a long sleep so deep she couldn't even feel the passage of time.

Then one day, something unknown touched her in her deep sleep. That longed-for voice occupied her mind like the hallucination from that time. As if telling her to wake up now. Right, she mustn't let go of consciousness...

Rietta, who had been helplessly sucked toward the bottom, belatedly closed her mouth again. But it was completely useless. As her breath was blocked, her consciousness gradually faded.

She barely lifted her eyelids to check below. A round hole large enough for two adult men to enter was gaping open like a bottomless pit.

The moment she passed through that unknown space, Rietta completely lost consciousness. In her darkening vision, something very massive and long seemed to briefly appear.

It felt like being buried deep in an easy chair, or perhaps riding a slowly moving swing. A pleasant comfort slowly rising and falling at regular intervals. Rietta unconsciously buried her face deeper.

The soft fabric touching her cheek shifted slightly and became a bit more comfortable. She had experienced something similar to this exactly once in the past. It had been less firm and much narrower, making it somewhat uncomfortable. Why had that happened.

As she struggled to think with her slowly turning mind, some more time passed. Her pitch-black consciousness gradually brightened at some point, like a candle being lit. Rietta blinked as if squinting.

"Awake?"

A low voice flowed softly in through her open ears. Her half-open vision was slowly swaying up and down in time with her body.

Rietta stared blankly at the small lights floating nearby, then slid her eyes across. Black hair and the white neck extending below it. The voice had come from there.

"You really are high-maintenance."

Rietta reflexively felt around her waist. Fortunately, her sword was in place. When she let out a small breath, whatever was supporting her legs tensed with strength. She was hoisted up once, and she raised her head.

A small laugh sounded, and the face that had been facing forward the entire time turned at an angle toward her. Only then did Rietta recognize, a beat late, that she was being held in someone's arms.

"Are you going to tell me not to hold you this time too?"

Dark violet eyes held a faint hint of laughter. This was someone not unfamiliar.

"...Abel?"

"So you remembered."

He was someone harder to forget than to remember in many ways. Especially those excellent features.

Rietta coughed briefly and spat out the remaining seawater. Each time her body heaved, she felt stabbing pain in her side.

She remembered the piece of wood she'd seen just before losing consciousness. When she glanced down, she saw her clothes roughly torn and stained red.

Though she couldn't see the wound properly, fortunately the bleeding seemed to have stopped since nothing more was seeping out.

"Why are you here?"

"That's what I should be asking. I thought this before too, but..."

He crookedly lifted the corners of his mouth.

"Are you perhaps insane?"

"You're consistently lacking in manners."

Abel nodded his head without the slightest hesitation. Rietta had no energy to retort, so she turned her gaze away sharply.

They were walking through a very narrow, pitch-black cave. Occasionally the sound of dripping water could be heard. The surroundings were nothing but wet, shiny gray stone.

Rietta briefly gave her attention to the spheres of light floating around. Even while advancing relying only on those tiny lights, Abel didn't hesitate. Rietta, who had swallowed a sigh, let her stiffly held head drop against his chest with a thud.

She wanted to get down to the ground immediately, but her body had no strength. Abel, who had momentarily slowed his pace, opened his mouth again.

"From the looks of it, you didn't end up here by accident. You must have deliberately ridden that strange current."

"Go on."

Everything smelled of water. Because wind was passing through, one might mistakenly think otherwise, but this was definitely not a cave on land. Whether Rietta answered half-heartedly or not, he continued speaking without hesitation.

"You must have jumped in after taking a few inadequate measures, but that's not normal behavior for a human who dies without air, is it?"

"So you're saying I'm insane."

"Were you perhaps planning to die?"

"No."

Despite her definitive denial, Abel showed no sign of believing her. However, Rietta was sincere. At least for right now, she had no such intention.

It was true that when she'd jumped off the cliff, she'd thought it would be fine if her breath stopped like that, but she hadn't even considered deliberately throwing away her life. If she had, instead of leaving a note under the marigolds, she would have packed all her belongings and disappeared.

When the voice echoing through the narrow space disappeared, only the light sound of footsteps filled the silence. Rietta paused briefly before looking up at him.

"Did you follow what you're looking for?"

"No. But seeing you say that, it seems you did chase after something."

Rietta didn't believe he had no purpose. Why would anyone come alone to a remote cave like this, which may be on some island or large rock somewhere in the sea?

Moreover, this was a place where being swept up by the abnormal current could endanger one's life. At the gaze staring suspiciously at him, Abel met her eyes with an impassive look.

"If you tell me what you're after, I'll tell you why I'm here too."

"You said I'm human. You said I'm insane."

"If you weren't human, you wouldn't be insane either."

At the riddle-like exchange, Rietta felt no value in continuing the conversation.

"Forget it. Where is this?"

"Who knows. I could tell you if you're curious."

This time she didn't answer. Once her strength recovered, she could look around on her own. Abel glanced at her obvious attempt to ignore him, then readily provided the answer.

"Let's say it's a rocky island somewhere in the western sea."

"An island?"

He nodded. Normally it only had space for a couple of seagulls to perch, but twice a day a fairly wide area was revealed above the water surface—a very small rocky island. Unless one rode that strange current Rietta had crossed on, it would be impossible to arrive this quickly and difficult to find.

Their current location was a sea cave beneath that island, where air entered certain parts, allowing them to breathe. Having explained that far, Abel jerked his chin toward the cave ceiling that seemed about to touch his head.

"This is my first time coming up this high too. This was the only place to bring you."

Those words didn't mean that he had brought her from a place where she had been lying sprawled out. It meant he had pulled her up while she was drifting in the sea. Rietta couldn't understand his actions.

"You and I didn't end on good terms."

"We didn't."

"Why did you save me?"

Abel fell silent. Rather than an unexpected question, it seemed he himself wondered. He appeared to think deeply for a while, then replied peacefully.

"Because I wanted to."

Rietta dismissed the insincere answer just as carelessly. There was no reason to press for detailed explanations, nor was she that curious.

In any case, as long as she was alive, that was enough. She soon recalled her most important objective.