Chapter 188: The Gears of Fate Begin to Turn

At that moment, Arthur, who had been noticed, also raised an eyebrow slightly.

‘Even though he’s just an ordinary person, is this kid’s perception… or rather, his intuition, actually that strong?’

There was no other way. Arthur found it hard to believe that anyone could discover his presence while he was deliberately hiding his form… especially since this kid was just an ordinary human.

‘This… can only be attributed to “intuition”.’

“Was I discovered?” On the ground, the pitch-black shadow seemed to take a human form as it spoke, sounding a bit confused.

Her voice was clearly lacking in strength, sounding quite weak.

These were Arthur and Amisa, who had become separated from the Lady and the others.

The two had chosen not to enter the underground river.

Instead, they returned the way they came and waited in the tomb chamber for a while, but there was no sign of the Lady.

They wanted to go back, but the underground cave had been washed away by the breached underground river until it was unrecognizable.

The already intricate passages were now a complete mess…

In the end, the two chose to trust Ileya and came to the City of Rand to wait for them.

However… unexpectedly, there were two other groups of people in the city besides them…

When they arrived, this group of cultists was cleaning up the corpses scattered across the ground, and then…

They were passively… trapped within this barrier.

Furthermore, they had no intention of showing themselves until the Lady appeared.

But they didn’t expect… to be discovered in advance at this moment.

Thinking of this, Arthur looked at the youth in front of him with a slightly different gaze.

‘Hmm… looks like we’ve been discovered~’

‘Speaking of which… why does he look a bit familiar…’

Inside the shadow, the Head Maid narrowed her eyes, looking at the youth who was clearly being forced to strip.

his facial features seemed to resemble someone… but Amisa couldn’t remember for the moment.

‘He should be someone I’ve seen before and had a deep impression of, but it’s been a long time since I last saw him…’

‘Who is it exactly?’

“They’re here…” Before Amisa could reach a conclusion, Arthur’s voice rang out abruptly.

Boom!!!

Accompanying his voice was a terrifying explosion at the main gate!

The eyes of all the cultists turned toward the direction of the explosion.

Black smoke and dust kicked up by the blast rose into the air, turning this originally blood-red space a dark crimson.

…

“I… I only know this much…”

Loco, whose neck was being held by the Skeleton Soldiers, spoke out everything he knew as fast as he could.

After hearing these things, Ileya fell into a long silence.

‘Was this journey too smooth?’

In the end… he actually gave her such a “big gift.”

According to what he said, after the ritual ended, this ruined city would likely be destroyed.

If they stayed hidden underground, they would definitely miss the truth she was looking for.

That was right… Ileya didn’t believe Taifei’s words.

It wasn’t that she thought this honest and enthusiastic Ratman would lie, but rather… Taifei was likely deceived as well.

There was a huge flaw in the story about his elders destroying that statue.

If the statue depicting six humans and that “Red-Hearted Witch” really represented the founders of the Human Kingdom and the Adventurers’ Guild—the Golden Apple Adventure Group…

Then the seven-person statue must have been a single piece.

‘Would a believer smash the statue of their own object of faith?’

Especially these pious Ratmen.

Therefore… that statue must not have been destroyed, but hidden by the Ratmen instead.

“Hey! Are you guys all right?!”

Just as Ileya was thinking this, Jerry’s voice came from behind…

“Ah! Palin…”

Step, step, step!

Before Ileya could respond, Palin hurried over.

Clearly, if someone hadn’t been holding him back earlier, he would have rushed over long ago.

“Human Sister! Xue’er… where is Xue’er?!”

“Hmm?!” This question caused Holly’s face, which had just begun to relax, to tense up again…

‘Right, my purpose… isn’t my purpose to save Xue’er?!’

‘Just now… because my clothes suddenly dissolved, I was too panicked for a moment and… forgot to chase after them.’

‘But… do I really have the courage to go after them?’

Holly subconsciously asked herself.

“I’m sorry… when I was fighting the opponent, they must have already taken Xue’er away.”

No matter what, Holly, who had failed to fulfill her promise, lowered her head in shame.

“Xue’er…” Palin muttered, his eyes gradually losing focus as he collapsed onto his knees.

“These people are by no means kind,” Ileya suddenly spoke from the side.

“Your companion is likely…”

These words caused the atmosphere in the area to drop to the freezing point instantly!

Not just Palin, but even the other adult Ratmen who had arrived, including Jerry, had their whiskers drooping powerlessly, looking quite dejected.

The reason for the Ratmen’s silence was simple.

Because they were weak.

They could live in this deep underground world by relying on the protection of the “Red-Hearted Witch.”

But wanting to go out and rescue their tribeswoman… was almost impossible.

This was also why the elders didn’t like letting the young people go to the surface.

Faced with this situation, Ileya didn’t speak. She just stood aside with an expressionless face, seemingly observing the structure of the cave.

Or rather, she was…

“Um… Lady…”

Finally, seeing the state of Palin, Jerry, and the other Ratmen, Holly couldn’t help but look toward her Lady.

She knew it was very dangerous up there now, but…

‘They’re here~’ Ileya’s lips curled up slightly in her heart, but she maintained a slight frown on her face.

“The situation above isn’t something we can interfere with. You heard him; above these followers, there are so-called Priests and the Twenty-Four Divine Guards.”

She shook her head, but a thought suddenly occurred to her…

The cultist had confessed that they came to find one of the missing Twenty-Four Divine Guards.

So… was the black-robed figure Holly just killed one of those Divine Guards?

“But… but we…”

Holly clearly wanted to say something more, but in the end, she could only purse her lips.

Just as she slowly lowered her head, a soft, cool little hand gently rubbed the top of her head.

“However, if it’s just to scout the situation first, we can still do that.”

Whoosh!

Instantly, the eyes of everyone in the area focused on Ileya, who had just spoken those words.

Being able to scout meant there was a chance for a rescue!

It was like having a hundred keys before opening a door; there was bound to be one that could open the gate in front of them… it wasn’t as hopeless as before.

“Um, Miss Ileya…” Jerry wanted to say that doing this might be too risky…

But thinking of Xue’er, he forced himself to swallow his words.

It was true that the Ratmen were simple and believed in the will passed down by their ancestors from ancient times… but all living creatures had their own selfishness…

Compared to whether scouting the situation above would put them… or even these humans in danger, he wanted to ensure the safety of the child of his tribe more.