The darkness of the veil quickly passed, and in its place, a bright light fell upon me. It was coming from a sun, up in a blue sky, brushed with thin white clouds that slowly moved across it. Under my paws, I felt a soft, green grass that sprouted from the dark brown earth. And not too far away from me, a lush forest, full of tall and green trees spread; all of them surrounded by bushes, flowers, and the sounds of animals.

Behind me, the dark veil from where I came stood as strongly as ever, stuck on a rock wall that spread up and to the sides for as far as I could see, and it, too, was full of branches, roots, and plants.

“Thank you, Goddess!” Eleanor cried. She was on her knees on the grass next to me, holding her face between her hands as loud sobs came out of her. “I’m outside!”

However, as joyful as she was, there was no way we were outside of the Void Dungeon, for two reasons. First was that the world wasn’t reacting to my presence like last time, and second was that the connection to this body from my original one remained the same. This was still cutoff from the outside world.

It was after sobbing for a while that Eleanor finally remembered to look for me. Her face was full of tears and her eyes were red from crying, but there was a joyful expression on her face from the idea of being free… I wasn’t sure how I was going to let her know, but I had the feeling that she would soon figure it out.

“Kyun!” she exclaimed, crawling over to me, and quickly grabbing me just like a cat.

“Kyun! Kyun!” I replied in annoyance, but she wouldn’t listen as she embraced me just like a cat.

“You’re free too!” she joyfully said, holding me in place for a few seconds where I struggled to free myself, with no success. She was much stronger than I expected… But she quickly realized that I didn’t like to be touched and finally let me go. “Sorry, sorry. I forgot you didn’t like to be touched like that… But aren’t you happy that we’re free?!”

I shook my head. I was never trapped here, and she wasn’t free.

“Huh?” she replied with surprise. “You aren’t…? Does that mean that you want to go… back…?”

I shook my head once more. There was no need for that. I was still curious to explore this whole place. She appeared confused, but she would understand soon enough when we move forward and likely nothing from her normal life appears, so I took a few steps ahead of her, stopped, and looked back at her

“Kyun,” I softly let out, hoping for her to move.

“Eh…? I don’t understand you… But okay! If you’re willing to still come with me, I’ll be happy to take you along!” she happily exclaimed, stood up, cleaned the grass off her dress, and skipped a couple of steps to be next to me. “I wonder what kind of face father would make when he sees you.”

Her father, huh. I haven’t checked on the world ever since I stepped into this Void Dungeon. Perhaps if there was somewhere for me to put this cat-like body to rest for a moment, I could see how things are going outside, as right now, I require a great amount of focus to keep my control and sight over this body.

“Well, no time to waste!” she exclaimed and looked forward at the forest with a smile, but she refused to move as she turned to look behind at the mountain and then at the forest once more. She furrowed her eyebrows and then placed a finger on her chin as she seemed to consider something. “Though… I don’t know where we are exactly or how to get home… Oh well, I’m sure that if we manage to find a river, we’ll eventually get to a town. This Void Dungeon wasn’t so far away from Duke Wither’s land, after all.”

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After mentioning the Duke’s name, her face lost the joy she had a moment ago as she looked down at the grass. Her eyes got sharp, and she clenched her hands. It was clear that the image of the Duke’s daughter crossed her mind, just like the thing that she did to her by throwing her in here. Perhaps the idea of revenge was something that was already taking root in her mind, and now that she was thinking she was free, it wouldn’t surprise me if one of the first things she did was to think of a way to get even.

However, she wasn’t free, and it wouldn’t do her any good to think about those things when she didn’t know what kind of dangers there were in this place, so I placed a paw on her skirt and pulled it a couple of times, causing her to look at me with a bit of surprise.

“Oh! Sorry… I was thinking about—about something else. I should focus on getting home,” she said, but I could still see some anger in her eyebrows.

Eleanor turned her face to the sky, closed her eyes, spread her arms to bask in this strange sunlight, and took a deep breath with a smile on her face. After a few seconds, she let out the breath and finally moved into the forest.

The forest did seem to be just like any normal forest of the outside world, with trees that wouldn’t be strange to see; grass and dirt that could very well be used to raise crops; and flowers and sounds of animals that were just like those of any other place in the world.

There was a soft smile on Eleanor’s face as she passed by the bushes, pushed aside branches, and moved around trees. She was happy to feel like she was in the outside world, but I just couldn’t help but feel like there was no way that this Void Dungeon would have this strange sanctuary without a reason.

The sound of a bird flapping caused us both to turn to look at where it came. Not too far away, in between the branches of the lush trees, a dark brown bird landed on a thick branch. It was about the same size as an eagle, but it was far too fat to be one.

“A chicken?” Eleanor asked, tilting her head, followed by a gurgling sound from her stomach. “Do you think we can… get it?”

It didn’t quite have the same red comb that a chicken would have on its head, but it did look like one. It could be a good idea to try to catch it… if it wasn’t for the magic power that the thing was letting out. It wasn’t nearly as powerful as the monsters that Eleanor faced and defeated before coming here, but I wasn’t sure about how it would use that power.

Eleanor looked at the chicken-like bird, reached for her sword and carefully took it out, trying her best to not make any loud noise. She slowly, and quietly approached the tree where the bird had decided to sit, and her focus was set on the bird’s fluffy butt.

A weak Wind Spell formed on the edge of the sword, and she prepared herself to launch it. She took another step, gripped the sword, and her breath got steady. The bird remained ignorant of what Eleanor was about to do.

She prepared the sword to attack, but just as she was about to swing her blade, a shadow moved from between the trees under the one where the chicken was sitting. It was about the same size as the chicken, and much faster than Eleanor could react as it reached her in the blink of an eye and pushed her away after crashing into her.

With a yelp, Eleanor was sent flying into a tree, and the spell she prepared disappeared once she landed on her ground.

I expected a follow up by whatever had attacked her, but the thing remained in place. It was another bird. This one looked just like a rooster, standing tall and proud with its chest puffed out and a mix of brown, black, and green feathers.

The hen that Eleanor was hoping to hunt was now standing on the branch and looking down at her with an unconcerned look in its eyes, while Eleanor looked surprised at both birds.

“W-what the—” she exclaimed as she stood back up.

Chickens weren’t supposed to be this strong. Perhaps now she could start to realize that she wasn’t in her normal world.

And to let her know about that, the rooster-like bird created a blue magical aura around its body, which also caused its eyes to glow yellow. It was preparing something else to get rid of Eleanor.

However, she didn’t react, as she just looked incredulously at the bird. After no more than a handful of seconds, the rooster leaped in the air and beat its wings. From them, the same kind of Wind Spell that Eleanor was preparing was fired, but this one was much stronger than whatever she was getting ready, as a powerful torrent of wind came out of it.

Eleanor crossed her arms to protect herself, but the strength of the wind was so powerful that she was sent flying into the air, and away from the spot. Her screaming voice faded as she flew away in the distance. To make sure I didn’t lose sight of her, I willingly stepped into the current, allowing myself to be thrown away along with her.

As we were sent flying, I only wondered if after the fall she would notice how strange that was… But first, she had to survive the landing.