Chapter 171: Our Village Is Actually Pretty Big~

“Hey! Are you still alive?”

Ileya flipped the unconscious Veil over, then shook her body and checked her breathing.

Hmm, no breathing anymore.

But… a dignified Goddess of Death would not die from trivial things like stopping breathing, cardiac arrest, or swallowing more than thirty pounds of river water!

Or rather, this one is ‘death’ itself, existing in the most extreme state of death imaginable.

Sometimes… after magic restoration at night, she would also fall into a similar unconscious state, so Ileya was not panicking at all.

The way to wake her up was actually very simple.

Veil’s five senses were far sharper than those of ordinary people. Correspondingly… her perception of pain was also several times stronger than normal!

All that was needed was—

Ileya expressionlessly dragged her up and slowly raised her arm.

Just give her a little hit, and she would wake up.

But…

The crisp sound never came. Ileya’s arm remained raised high in the air, not coming down.

Looking at Veil’s pale little face and tightly shut eyes, the Lady did not know why, but at the moment her palm was about to fall, she changed from a slap to a pinch instead…

Forget it. It was not like there were no other ways to wake this girl up.

For example…

Recalling the artificial respiration she had learned back in university in her previous life, Ileya knelt in front of the Goddess Young Lady and slowly leaned down.

‘Mm… mm… mm!’

‘That should be the rhythm, right?’

‘This… while saving her… my magic power is getting full.’

‘Huh?! Why is this girl actively clinging back… Is it muscle memory formed from previous magic restoration?’

‘Well… that’s not necessarily a bad thing…’

‘Pfft! Stop clinging… hurry up and spit the water out of your stomach…’

‘Seriously clingy…’

With the Lady’s marvelous revival technique, the Goddess Young Lady twitched slightly a few times, then with a ‘puh’ sound, sprayed out a clear jet of water.

The water arced continuously through the air, faintly forming a rainbow ahead.

However, even after spitting out all the water in her stomach, Veil did not wake up.

She merely half-opened her eyes in a daze and looked around. When she saw Ileya, the sense of relief that flashed through her pitch-black eyes made the Lady instinctively irritated.

After that, this girl actually just fell asleep again.

‘Tsk… why am I suddenly so annoyed?’

Looking at the idiot lying on the ground, soaked all over, Ileya raised her hand again… but did not do anything bad.

Instead, she picked her up and then… carried her on her back.

Just as she had thought earlier, the underground river here most likely connected to the ancient structures of the Delan City Ruins.

That was their original destination. After the others escaped danger, they would probably head there as well.

Only… why did she not just summon a Skeleton Soldier to carry this girl?

Ileya subconsciously thought this, while feeling the idiot on her back pressing her small chest tightly against her back because she was a little cold.

She could not help but chuckle.

Forget it.

Being human… you always end up doing some stupid things.

At the same time.

Somewhere along the riverbank, an unknown distance away after several turns.

Two other girls were leaning against each other, resting against the rock wall to recover their strength.

Reliel was doing fine, but Holly was completely limp, like a noodle with no strength, laid across Reliel’s legs.

As the saying goes, what you take out into the world, you eventually have to pay back.

The doubled attribute effect of ‘Desire Paradise’ had very small side effects, but the price was still paid by the user.

The exhaustion after the burst ended was something the Holy Sword Bearer could not avoid!

Right now, she urgently needed to eat something to replenish her strength!

‘Please… give me a moment…’

But just as the two were resting.

From a dim, moss-covered corner to the side came strange sounds…

“Who’s there?!”

Reliel frowned slightly. Although she remained seated without moving at all, her right hand was already resting on the sword hilt.

‘Please… give me a moment…’

After whatever was hiding in the darkness realized it had been discovered, it clearly did not intend to stay hidden anymore…

Rustle, rustle! Not just this patch of moss, but even several other positions of glowing moss that Reliel had not noticed slowly stood up… as humanoid creatures.

A rough estimate showed that there were nearly twenty such creatures surrounding the two of them…

Looking more closely, that so-called glowing moss was actually the fur on these creatures’ backs.

And at this moment, Reliel finally saw clearly what they were.

They were a group of humanoid creatures with rat heads and coarse gray bristles.

Although they looked quite primitive, the fact that they did not immediately attack the two, nor let out meaningless threatening shrieks…

Suggested that they were a disciplined Divine Kin.

“…”

After so many years as a mercenary, Reliel had indeed seen many bizarre creatures, and tribal Divine Kin were not unheard of.

So at this moment…

Her expression remained calm as she coldly watched the group of Ratmen before her.

“What do you want?”

Her words actually made the Ratmen who had been closing in stop their advance.

“Don’t be nervous, young one…”

At that moment, an elderly individual, clearly more hunched than the others, slowly walked out from the group.

Its voice was unpleasant to hear.

But the words coming from its mouth were not awkward at all.

A Divine Kin that could communicate, and even looked fairly friendly.

Even if they had designs on her and Holly, it would still give them time to react.

This allowed Reliel’s tense heart to relax a little.

“We are not a warlike race.” The aged Ratman slowly walked up to Reliel, and on the face covered in gray fur appeared a very human-like smile.

It even looked somewhat kind.

“This has always been our race’s territory. It’s just that the recent tremor was too intense, and the underground river’s water level dropped, so we came to take a look.”

Natives?

Reliel slowly nodded, indicating she understood.

“Uh… you two must be stranded here, right? My name is Jerry. They all call me Brother Jie.”

His enthusiasm was a bit strange, but it had to be said that this was the best possible situation for the two of them.

“Does this underground river connect to the Delan City Ruins?”

Reliel tried asking.

Clearly, the sisters were thinking along the same lines again.

“Of course! Our village is right beneath Delan City. Our village is quite large. You’re welcome to come visit.”

The Ratman named Jerry spoke as he extended a long, thin finger to point in a direction.

“And if we don’t go?”

Reliel’s eyes still showed no emotion as she calmly stared at the hunched Ratman before her.

“If you don’t go… that’s fine too. But if you do, there’s good food in the village, and warm quilts for keeping cozy…”

Jerry’s tone remained kind and gentle, as if the two were not cold strangers, but long-lost family members.

Although under normal circumstances, one should not casually follow strangers, especially such suspicious ones…

“Maybe… we should go…?” Holly muttered softly, feeling so hungry she was on the verge of collapsing.

Overexertion… really felt awful…

Right now, as long as someone gave her a bite to eat, she would do anything…

“Alright, then we’ll go with you.”

After weighing things briefly, Reliel chose to follow these foreign races to the area beneath the Delan City Ruins.

After all, the underground waterways were extremely complex, and Holly’s current condition was not good.

Wandering around blindly like a headless fly was clearly not wise.

“Great! No problem! Let’s go, then! We’ll head back to the village now and get some food!”

Whether the Ratman was telling the truth or not, they would find out after going there.