Escape - Chapter 42.1

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Chapter 42.1

It was a lie. The tavern was crowded, yet Adeline was the only one who’d voiced her discontent at the blatant injustice. To call something strange in this place, it seemed, was to become the strange one.

“That’s not true.” Sure enough, the fairy denied it in a small voice. Her orange hair trembled as if recalling something unpleasant, then her head bowed, obscuring her face. The conversation stalled.

A pang of sympathy, sharp and sudden, pierced Adeline. What dulled human conscience so effectively? she wondered. Was the belief that this wasn’t real the motive for such cruelty? No. Sometimes, the analysis was backward. It wasn’t that virtuality fostered violence, but that the desire for violence found its outlet in the virtual. Perhaps humans needed to step on someone to survive, finding catharsis, a release from their own gloom, in another’s tragedy.

Disgust rooted her to the spot. Lost in thought, staring at her feet, she heard Damian’s quiet voice. “Adeline, you were the one who wanted to leave quickly.”

The words jolted her back to the present. Slowly lifting her head, she met his gaze, intense and focused. He was right. She could hate humanity later; finding Luce was more important.

Shaking off her dark thoughts, Adeline started up the stairs. The man following her occasionally reached out to playfully tug at her neatly tied ponytail as it swayed in front of him. He stopped, chuckling, when she grumbled. “Stop touching it. I made an effort to tie it properly.”

He’d noticed her somber mood, which wasn’t surprising. It would have been stranger if he hadn’t. He’d been watching her constantly since they met.

They climbed the dozens of steps to the second floor. After scanning the area, Adeline opened a door adorned with a lion’s head knocker. If all had gone well, Luce would be waiting inside. Although more than three days had passed.

Luce was that kind of person. If she found herself adrift, she’d cling tenaciously to safety. Assuming, of course, the Leon people hadn’t harmed her.

The door closed behind them with a click and a thud. Adeline strode confidently forward, only to freeze mid-step.

“No puede ser.” It wasn’t Luce stretching languidly on the sofa.

Bruja spoke first.

***

Bruja had recently returned from the Dungeon of Ruin near District 9. She had some time to kill before the next raid and had come here to rest. She hadn’t expected to encounter these two, especially not in what looked like an ordinary company break room.

“Escuché que… I heard you were dead.” Bruja frowned, muttering as she reactivated her translator.

Eric and Gato hadn’t explained what happened during the raid. As far as she knew, Adeline had died attacking Shade during the operation. Escape only granted one death per player. Bruja never thought she’d see Adeline again.

“Where’s Luce?” the woman asked abruptly, seemingly unconcerned by the news of her supposed death. Bruja finally understood why she was here.

“Your friend isn’t here. He disappeared the same day you left.”

“Disappeared? So you don’t know where he is?”

“Ni idea.” Bruja lifted her palms in a gesture of cluelessness. The meaning was clear, even without a translator.

Adeline faltered, caught off guard. Disappeared? Had he vanished into thin air? Luce wasn’t the type to wander off in an unfamiliar place. Then where had he gone?

If someone like Bruja didn’t know, the only person who might have a clue was Eric. But meeting him again might not be safe. Unlike Shade, he was level-headed, but he wouldn’t be as amicable as before.

Her thoughts went no further.

Skill: Wind-Rivalry Sword (MAX) activated.

In the next instant, a flash of a blade, faster than anything she’d ever seen, lunged towards her. Adeline instinctively summoned her own sword.

Clang! Shing! Clang!

Bruja was faster than she anticipated. Adeline barely parried the blows. Having removed most of her silver armor to rest, Bruja was light and agile, clad only in her breastplate. Her slender blade flickered like a ribbon in the wind, and her dark blonde hair swirled around her like a bird’s tail. Even Adeline, a lifetime practiced with the sword, could barely keep up.

The onslaught of attacks, swift as a gale, was unmatched in speed. Adeline immediately thought of the man who wielded a sword completely opposite to Bruja’s: Gato, with his brutally large greatsword.

Power and speed. They would make the perfect partners. Now she understood why they were together when she encountered Woo Yoone.

Clang! She deliberately parried with extra force, pushing Bruja back. As Bruja regained her footing, Adeline spoke urgently.

“Wait! Why are you attacking me? Even if we have to fight, you can at least tell me why.”