【Caw—!!】
The next second, a hoarse crow’s cry echoed right by Nolan’s ear!
The symbols on the wall twisted and warped at that moment, transforming into a massive black-violet crow that charged straight toward the face of this fifth son of a viscount!
“Eh?!”
Nolan had no time to react to this sudden change!
Facing the crow’s sharp beak, he could only instinctively raise both arms to shield his face!
Through the gap between his arms, Nolan could just barely glimpse the crow’s eyes…
Those were a pair of deep purple-black eyes, as profound as a cloudless night sky, in which…countless shimmering starlights seemed to reside!
Such…beautiful eyes…
Thud!!
“Nolan!”
Someone caught him as his body swayed!
In that moment, Nolan felt the crow before him instantly dissolve into a swirl of purple-black mist!
It crashed into his face!
And in the very next instant, vanished without a trace…
“Ugh! Cough, cough, cough!!”
Right then, Nolan felt as if he’d just opened a chest sealed for hundreds of years, and was choked hard by the dust that burst out…
He instantly felt dizzy and lightheaded, and in his ears…he heard indistinct, unrecognizable whispers.
It was a sound like branches snapping, or a heartbeat…something that made one uneasy.
“Nolan! Are you alright?”
“Nolan!”
The calls of his companions by his side jolted Nolan awake again.
The moment he regained his senses, the first thing he did…was look at the crow symbol on the cave wall…
It…was still there, neither becoming corporeal nor flying out.
“Nolan…don’t scare me like that!”
Loki was nearly in tears at this point.
He’d known this operation would be dangerous, and that they’d have to be extra careful after entering the mine, but…
He hadn’t expected Nolan to suffer such a strange incident even before they went deep inside the mine…
“Are you two…alright?”
Nolan shook his head hard, then looked at Blue Crow and Loki beside him.
“Of course we’re fine…”
“So Nolan, what exactly happened to you?”
Huh?
Seeing their reactions, Nolan gradually realized something.
It seemed that only he had witnessed the crow’s appearance just now.
The others…even everyone else in the Mercenary Company, hadn’t seen a thing.
What…was going on?
Could it be that the mural only targeted the first person to see it?
But that couldn’t be…
The first to see the mural had been Loki, and he hadn’t shown any abnormal reactions…
“Walston, when we came here last time, was this mural here?”
Nolan pointed at the crow mural before him and asked.
“Uh…I really didn’t notice. Maybe…it wasn’t?”
Blue Crow also thought for a moment, then answered uncertainly.
Last time, he’d only been thinking about scouting the way inside and how to guide the Mercenary Company deeper into the Cave-Dwellers’ settlement.
As for the things on the cave wall, he hadn’t paid any attention at all.
After all, this place used to belong to a group of Miners, and now it belonged to a group of Cave-Dwellers—neither of whom were the type to create meaningful murals.
“None of that matters right now. What’s important is—what happened to you just now?”
Blue Crow shook his head slowly, and together with Loki, helped Nolan back up.
“I just…saw a crow fly out from there…and crash into me, then it disappeared.”
Nolan pointed at the mural on the wall, stumbling over his words a bit.
A crow?
The two looked at the ambiguous mural on the wall…
Now that Nolan mentioned it, the mural did look like a crow.
But…no matter how you looked at it, a stone mural couldn’t just fly off the wall, right?
“Nolan, you must be too nervous.”
After looking the mural up and down, Blue Crow reached this conclusion.
A mural can’t fly, nor could it become a real crow.
Perhaps, his friend had been under too much pressure after doing something that crossed his moral bottom line, and was having hallucinations.
Sigh…
Good kids can really be a hassle sometimes…
“Is that so?”
Now that he was fully awake, Nolan himself wasn’t sure if he’d hallucinated.
He could only instinctively reach out and touch the mural before him.
Sure enough…there didn’t seem to be anything special about it, just a carving done with a chisel, not even particularly fine work.
“How do you feel, can you keep going?”
Blue Crow looked at the eager group members behind him, then back at Nolan in front.
As the saying goes, strike while the iron is hot.
Now was the best time to venture deeper into the mine.
Once this momentum faded, these noble sons and daughters would be scared of this and that again.
“I’m fine, sorry for worrying you.”
Nolan shook his head, let out a long breath, and finally…glanced again at the crow mural.
“Alright, then…let’s keep moving.”
Blue Crow spoke as he turned to reassure and encourage the others…
“Nolan, are you really okay?”
Compared to Blue Crow’s focus on the big picture, Loki was clearly more worried about Nolan’s condition.
“Don’t worry…It just seems…I was a bit nervous, that’s all. Let’s go, it’d be embarrassing to fall behind…”
Nolan patted Loki’s shoulder, then stood up and walked toward the main group.
As he watched Nolan’s back, Loki seemed, for just a moment…to see a black-violet…bird perched on his friend’s shoulder?
“Huh?”
The boy blinked, rubbing his eyes.
But when he looked again, there was nothing there…
Nolan’s shoulder was perfectly clean, not even a speck of dust, let alone a bird…
Could it be…he’d gotten so worried that he was hallucinating too?
Loki scratched his head, his expression a bit dazed…and followed after Nolan.
“Lady, we’ve arrived!”
Amisa’s voice came from the front of the carriage, snapping Ireya out of her thoughts.
Have we arrived?
Her legs, wrapped in white silk, slowly moved off the Footstool.
“Alright~ Your punishment…ends once you put my shoes back on~”
As she spoke, Ireya stretched her dainty feet forward.
“Yes…Lady.”
After lying on the ground for so long, Jenny was drenched in fragrant sweat, but she… looked full of spirit.
Whew…
One hand gently cradled Ireya’s foot, while the other picked up the Boots from the ground and put them on the Lady.
Tap tap!
The moment the Lady’s boots stepped onto the carriage floor, it meant…
This adventure was officially about to begin!
Huff!
The carriage door opened, and the first to step out was the team’s leader in everyone’s eyes—
Miss Jenny.
“Miss Jen…huh?”
“Miss Jenny! What happened to you?!”
Seeing the golden-haired girl with a faintly satisfied look on her face, but with clearly damp hair tips and underarms…everyone was momentarily bewildered.
“Hmm? Ah…It’s nothing, just did a little pre-battle warm-up in the carriage.”
Jenny’s ability to think on her feet was impressive; she just smiled gently in response.
“Ohh! As expected of Miss Jenny!”
“Indeed! Why didn’t I think of that…”
Her words instantly sparked a round of praise.
That’s how it is, dealing with nobles…
Those who like it love this kind of flattery…those who don’t, just find it troublesome.
In the past, such flattery was something Jenny could only dream of.
But now…she just wanted to get away from these people quickly, and catch up with the Lady, who had gotten off the carriage from the other side and was already walking slowly toward the mine entrance.