“Ahh!”

“Rella!”

The screams burst out of both Tatiana’s and my mouth simultaneously.

We both dashed toward where the cloud of dust was rising. Though Tatiana was closer, my use of wind allowed me to reach the spot faster.

The thick dust began to settle, revealing the sunken ground.

“What on earth…”

It wasn’t a small hole. Beneath the caved-in earth, there was a hollow space that looked like a cave.

Suddenly, I felt the ground beneath me give way. Instinctively, I grabbed Tatiana’s waist, who had just arrived beside me, and pulled her back as I jumped away.

The ground beneath us crumbled.

“W-Whoa!”

Tatiana let out a strange scream.

Almost at the same time, the ground began collapsing again.

Once, then again—I kept jumping back.

By the time I landed a bit further away, the ground beneath us had fallen, as if a giant snake had tunneled through it.

“… Oh my… Rella, Rella…”

Tatiana's body trembled.

“It’s okay. I saw her standing just fine earlier.”

Maybe Rella was just annoyed at the dust, or maybe her pride was hurt from falling into the ground. No, perhaps that wasn’t it.

She might have actually enjoyed falling underground.

She was shaking her wings, spinning around in place.

At first glance, it looked like she was upset, but now that I think about it, she might’ve just been having fun.

Like she was on an amusement park ride.

“Thank goodness.”

Tatiana's body went limp, seemingly relieved.

Suddenly, Tatiana's body stiffened slightly.

I also thought, Oh, right.

My arm was still wrapped around her waist.

Naturally, Tatiana’s feet dangled in the air.

There was a considerable difference in height between us, after all.

“Sorry, am I holding you too tightly? Is your stomach hurting? Or did I break something?”

Tatiana’s face turned red.

Panicking, I quickly let her go.

The thought that I might have overdone it made me a bit horrified.

“N-No, I’m totally fine. It’s just, I don’t know why I’m even saying this…”

Tatiana was rambling.

If I had seen a reaction like this in my past life, I would have thought she was just flustered or embarrassed from physical contact with a man.

But now, with my current appearance, I could never make that mistake.

I knew it wasn’t embarrassment; it was fear.

Though Tatiana was a witch and didn’t seem afraid of me, that was only when we hadn’t made any contact.

No matter how justified the reason, being suddenly embraced by a large man is enough to scare any woman.

Even I would be scared.

I naturally took a step back from her.

“I know it was urgent, but I’m sorry for pulling you so suddenly.”

“No, no, really, thank you. I could’ve fallen into that hole and gotten seriously hurt—it’s pretty deep. I might’ve even broken a leg. Thank you so much. And my reaction was a bit strange because, well… It’s just that I’ve never been this close to anyone other than my mentor…”

Tatiana's face flushed red, her eyes darting about. Even though her words lacked conviction, it made sense considering that she had lived in the woods for twenty years with hardly any interaction with others.

If a frightening-looking man like me suddenly hugged her around the waist, it would make perfect sense for her to be startled or even faint.

She’s probably just trying her best to make an excuse.

She must be genuinely kind.

Judging by her actions up until now, she really was kind.

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And her gratitude was definitely sincere.

Not wanting to make her feel more awkward, I gave her a gentle smile.

“As long as you’re not hurt, that’s what matters. I’ve got quite a lot of strength, you know.”

“Not at all, it didn’t hurt at all,” Tatiana nodded for no reason.

After giving her one more reassuring smile, I turned my gaze to the large underground cave.

Somehow, Rella seemed to have claimed this massive cave as her new playground.

She was covered in dirt, hopping around everywhere.

She looked just like a little dirt-covered ball rolling around.

Tatiana, finally calming down, looked at Rella and muttered.

“I heard about it, but phoenixes are really resilient, aren’t they? The ground caved in so much, but she doesn’t look hurt at all.”

“Indeed.”

Rella seemed perfectly healthy.

Maybe she knew she couldn’t get out on her own since she couldn’t fly, but she had completely forgotten about me and Tatiana, and was thoroughly enjoying exploring the cave.

I wasn’t sure if this playful behavior was just a baby bird thing or her natural personality.

But with such a carefree nature, it made sense that she’d survived in that deep forest even after losing her mother.

“….”

My mother carries a heavy burden, but in this case, I suppose it’s my burden.

Either way, Rella didn’t seem injured, but I still wanted to make sure she was okay and feed her, so it was about time to bring her back up.

Besides, I was worried she might wander into some dangerous spot.

I glanced at Tatiana before jumping down.

“Step back a bit. The ground might collapse again.”

Tatiana nodded seriously, taking a half-step back.

Half a step.

That’s not really what I meant by stepping back.

But the spot she stood on seemed like solid ground, so it was probably okay.

I jumped down into the cave.

The cave looked even more spacious up close.

I’m not sure if all caves are like this, but it was at least as tall as I was—pretty high.

It’s quite deep.

From the outside, it looked like a giant snake had tunneled through.

But from the inside, the cave wasn’t just a single path—it branched off in different directions.

It’s not entirely unusual for there to be such a cave underground.

There was a similar snake tunnel in the forest where I used to live.

Snakes don’t usually make burrows themselves, but there are some snake-like beasts that create tunnels like these.

The snake in our forest was eventually caught and turned into jerky for me and my mother to eat.

Tasted like dried fish, pretty good actually.

But now wasn’t the time for those thoughts—this cave was the real concern.

If there was a snake like that living here, we couldn’t just leave it.

We’d have to catch it.

Those snakes usually prey on beasts in the forest, but they’d also eat humans if given the chance.

With this cave so close to the city, it could venture toward the outskirts in search of food. We couldn’t just leave it alone.

And if it laid eggs and reproduced nearby, that would cause a lot of trouble.

Maybe I should report it to the guild first.

Or perhaps I should head to the lord's manor.

As Rella let out chirping sounds, I carefully examined the ground as I walked.

Something’s not right.

The cave looked similar to the snake tunnels I’d seen with my mother, but it felt different.

Snake tunnels were just burrows dug into the ground, but this had an almost architectural quality—like something man-made.

My instincts were whispering that this was bad.

Suddenly, I remembered what Tatiana had muttered when we entered the forest.

She had said the forest felt eerie.

I quickly made my way over to Rella.

She had been jumping around, having fun, but she was just about to rush toward another hole.

I swiftly reached out.

First, I’d get her out of here, then check the cave.

Rella was quite popular with animals—so much so that even small insects tried to go after her—so it would be dangerous to leave her here.

I was about to lift off with her in my hand when she made a disgruntled chirping noise.

She flapped her wings in protest, struggling a bit in my loosely cupped hands.

“You little one, this place could be dangerous, so behave yourself,” I said, poking Rella's head with my finger.

That’s when it happened.

Something glinted inside the tunnel Rella had been trying to enter.

Although I was strong, I was still an ordinary person with ordinary eyesight.

There was no light in the pitch-black cave, so I couldn’t see what was there.

But that…

My brow furrowed instinctively.

A small amount of light caught part of a shape, casting a faint outline in the darkness.

If my eyes weren’t deceiving me, that shape looked human.

With Rella still in my cupped hand, I approached the dark tunnel.

Just as I thought—a corpse lay there.

It was too dark to see the face, but judging by the arms and legs, it was a man.

The glint had come from a small dagger at his waist.

“….”

It wasn’t just one body.

There were at least five more bodies lying in a row further into the tunnel.

I couldn’t see beyond that in the darkness.

There might be even more bodies further inside.

Snakes swallow their prey whole.

They don’t leave corpses like this.

This was definitely not a snake tunnel.

Sigh.

I let out a soft breath.

A stench filled my nose—an odor trapped in the cave.

There was a weak smell of decay, mixed with something metallic and pungent.

This wasn’t good. This was really not good.

It was too dark to see clearly, but the bodies that I could see had shrunken, mummified skin.

Yet the rest of their bodies were swollen.

The fingers, and even the vague outline of their torsos, looked puffed up.

It didn’t seem like they were just bloated from decay.

It was like someone had stuffed them with padding—not gas, but something solid was filling these bodies.

They hadn’t simply died.

This was probably something much worse.

“Is something wrong? Rafa, is there something over there?” Tatiana's voice echoed from where she stood a little distance away.

Her voice seemed to spread through the eerily quiet forest.

Should I examine it?

Or just report it to the guild?

I was conflicted.

“There’s a corpse here. And it's not just a regular corpse.”

“….”

I heard the sound of dirt slipping behind me.

At the same time, Tatiana let out a small scream.

Turning around, I saw Tatiana awkwardly sliding down, clutching onto tree roots and clumps of dirt.

She had been trying to come down.

But without the courage to jump down, she had tried to lower herself with tree roots and ended up sliding down instead.

“What are you doing?”

I quickly grabbed her waist and set her down.

Tatiana nodded in thanks.

“Thank you.”

“This place is dangerous. We should leave.”

“The corpses… I… I think I might know what this is. If it’s what I think, this is very urgent.”

Tatiana’s face twisted into a pained expression.

She must be hoping that her guess was wrong.

With no other choice, I took her to where the corpses lay. Tatiana clung to my clothes and leaned closer to examine the bodies.

After a moment, she picked up a nearby branch.

She stretched it towards the body, her arm trembling so badly that the branch wobbled in midair.

“Um… Could you maybe open its mouth? I’m too scared to do it myself.”

Doing as she asked, I used the branch to slightly open the corpse’s mouth, revealing several things that resembled rice grains.

Except they were much larger.

They were about the size of my pinky finger.

Tatiana’s body began trembling uncontrollably.

“T-That… that… those are… probably… No, definitely… those are…”

“What is it?”

Even without asking, I felt like I already knew the answer.

Although the size was different, I’d seen something like that back on Earth.

Tatiana looked up at me, her entire body quivering.

Her eyes were filled with tears.

“It… It looks like… cannibal… ant… eggs…”

Yes, aside from their size, they looked exactly like ant eggs.