At the End of the Hidden Greenery - Chapter 308

The reason Jiwoo staggered the moment she came to her senses was that she had somehow already been standing.

She quickly steadied herself and looked around.

The bed she had been lying in only moments ago, along with the rest of her husbands, had vanished without a trace. Instead, she was standing alone in some utterly unfamiliar place.

It looked almost like the areas they had seen around the void, a space where bits of rock and patches of bare earth had been jumbled together at random.

If there was one fortunate thing, it was that Kelvar and Silevion were there with her. The others were nowhere to be seen.

Before Jiwoo could even ask where they were, Kelvar spoke.

“I don’t really know, but I think something pretty messed up just happened.”

“Pretty messed up?”

Silevion frowned slightly and clicked his tongue.

“Something completely messed up happened.”

That was the same thing…

“I think the void expanded while we were asleep.”

They had been caught in it? Even with her here?

“I suppose the void’s tendency to feed on people’s will is what caused this.”

There was no other plausible explanation.

The only puzzling part was that even Jiwoo, who was supposed to be unaffected by such phenomena, had been transported along with them.

And this place…

They might have been underground, but the territory was still enclosed and protected by the roots of Ellandos. 

From everything Jiwoo had seen on the way here, the underground had felt less like a cold subterranean world and more like a forest caught in perpetual twilight. Fragrant flowers bloomed, streams flowed, and though it was quieter than the surface, it had still been lush and alive.

The place where they stood now, however, was exactly what one might imagine upon hearing the word underground.

The air smelled of damp soil and moss, while the only light came from faintly glowing patches of luminous moss. Even their voices echoed as though they were deep inside a cave.

“There’s nothing around us. No place where the walls break off, no gaps that look like passages. I can’t even see a tiny crack in the rock.”

Kelvar wet his little finger with saliva and held it up in the air for a moment.

“No wind, either.”

Clap, clap.

He clapped his hands and listened carefully to the echoes, trying to judge their surroundings by the sound.

“I think we’re trapped somewhere.”

“…Trapped?”

“Yes. We’re closed in on every side.”

The luminous moss was the only reason they had any light at all. Considering they were relying on something so meager, it was surprisingly bright, but that did little to make the situation reassuring.

“We were sleeping, and suddenly we ended up inside a hollow?”

“They say voids aren’t logical spaces in the first place. If anything, that makes it more plausible.”

They had only been given limited information beforehand, but given the circumstances, it wasn’t unreasonable to assume they had been swallowed by the hollow.

Silevion, who had been standing a short distance away in thought, finally turned toward Jiwoo.

“Hmm. Then I suppose I should ask you this first.”

“Ask me what?”

“Do you like this situation? Is it your taste?”

Jiwoo couldn’t answer immediately. She had no idea what exactly Silevion was asking.

“Is there anything here that you like?”

“No…? Not really.”

For one thing, this place was far darker and rougher than the scenery she had seen when they first descended underground. 

Maybe it was only her imagination, but even breathing felt somewhat uncomfortable. It was bright enough considering the only illumination came from moss, yet now that she knew they were trapped, the confined space was beginning to feel increasingly suffocating.

Worse, it was extremely cramped. At this rate, there was barely enough room for the three of them to sit comfortably.

“Then…”

Silevion turned toward Kelvar with an indescribable expression, one that seemed to contain equal parts reproach and pity.

“What the hell? You think I’m going to like you looking at me like that?”

“If you have a brain, you’ll remember what we were talking about before we went to sleep.”

“What about it?”

“Jiwoo says she doesn’t like this place, and it doesn’t seem to have anything to do with Jiwoo’s past either.”

A void fed on the will of nearby intelligent beings in order to assimilate itself into this world. If so, the most obvious theory was that the wishes they had casually mentioned right before this happened had somehow influenced it.

Silevion had said he wanted to learn more about Jiwoo’s tastes. Narkreed had said he wanted to know what kind of life Jiwoo had lived before coming here.

“Then there’s only one left. Who was it that said he just wanted to have some fun…?”

Silevion slowly looked around their surroundings.

“I must say, your taste in recreational venues is rather peculiar.”

“What the hell? You’re saying this is my fault?”

“Then do you honestly believe this filthy, aesthetically offensive place reflects Jiwoo’s tastes?”

“You bastard, you’d rather die than admit anything could be your fault.”

Kelvar was the type whose temper showed on his face immediately. As his voice rose, the sound reverberated through the enclosed space, making it seem as though they were standing in a much larger cavern.

“There are limits to what counts as somewhere fun to play! You seriously think I’d choose a hole like this? If you’ve got a brain, use it. What the hell are we supposed to do for fun in a place like this?”

“Wait, don’t fight.”

“Ahem. No, we’re not really fighting…”

Surprisingly enough, despite Kelvar’s swearing and raised voice and Silevion’s relentless sarcasm, they genuinely weren’t fighting. They were actually trying to reason through the problem together.

Their manner of communicating simply made it sound otherwise.

“…If it wasn’t you or me, then it must be Lugarmel’s fault.”

And before long, the two of them reached an agreement. By blaming the person who wasn’t there.

“He was the only one who kept his mouth shut and refused to say what he wished for. This place and the whole situation are both insane enough to suit that lunatic.”

“That does make sense.”

Worse, it was actually a fairly convincing theory…

For one thing, everyone present clearly hated being trapped here. Whatever had created this place, it apparently wasn’t based on any of their wishes.

“Then why is Jiwoo here?”

“Well, that’s…”

“Uh… probably just…”