It’s Not Night - Chapter 125

Before long, the ground began to shake beneath them. As Andra got flustered, Dean took a quick look down the path they had passed by. He hoisted her up and started to move.

Andra tried her best not to be carried away by him, but because he was someone who had a physique similar to Dustin’s, Dean’s strength was too much for her to go against.

‘To be dragged away like this is like joining Dean’s crazy plan. What am I supposed to do…’

Suddenly, Andra realized that she hadn’t actively tried to use magic as much as Dean. In truth, she had been hesitating to use magic, thinking of other ways to solve things first. But why was that? Andra questioned her own actions. Why did she keep going down the hard way and leaving the easy way?

‘I’m sorry, Dean!’

Andra focused on Dean, who was carrying her. She had to push Dean away from her with one precise, powerful shot.

Just as Andra was about to cast her magic, the magic disappeared. It crumbled like dust at her fingertips. It was the first time since the pattern had appeared on her wrist, so Andra got taken aback.

Dean, who was walking in front of her, smiled and explained.

“You’ve forgotten. You are still trapped in a human body.”

“Dean, you are human too!”

“Can I really be called human? This about it even briefly—you know that’s not the case.”

Dean remained in his relaxed and laid-back attitude. He acted as if he saw through everything Andra was thinking. It offended her. Feeling manipulated in this way was one of her least favorite things.

Such an attitude was reminding her of someone else.

Dustin Airak, who talked a lot and troubled her in so many ways a long time ago.

‘It’s the first time since Dustin that I got annoyed with someone else like this.’

Did Dustin have some connection to Dean, just as she had a connection to Anat? If so, she wondered what that link was, and on what basis the two were divided.

Venting her frustration, Andra tried to shake her wrist as hard as she could, but with how tight the man’s grip was, she did not know how to get it off her.

“It’s futile. No matter how many times you try, the result is the same. Don’t waste your energy on my lowly self and just follow me obediently. As long as you stay by my side, I will guarantee your safety, to the point that I’d risk even my life.”

“You are the most dangerous person to me here.”

“That sounds sad. How could that be? You will never know how much I love you.”

“…Then answer me. Why doesn’t my magic work on you?”

Dean glanced at the pattern on the inside of Andra’s wrist as she questioned.

That pattern. Andra was so startled that she flinched. What, can you see this? Andra was taken aback and Dean continued with a very interesting tone.

“I don’t know what Nera did to you, but any magic gained from a simple contract would not work on me.”

“Nera? Are you talking about the god of greed and conflict?”

Andra glanced at the glowing red pattern on the inside of her wrist. Was this Nera’s power? She was about to think so. Dean nodded his head. Then he spoke as if he was offering a sacrifice to his god.

“Were you unaware? I can feel Nera’s energy from you. And I can feel Basham’s energy. I don’t have to go far to know. Like that time, the two gods must have joined hands to do something bizarre.”

“At that time…”

“But there is definitely something strange. In this world, there is no longer the energy of other gods other than Nera. Just like you.”

What else does this mean? He doesn’t feel other gods? Only Nera left?

Andra looked at Dean’s face with a confused face. She doubted for a moment whether he was lying. However, whenever he mentioned Nera, he secretly showed a deep displeasure, but looking inside, it didn’t seem like he was lying.

“When you say other gods, do you mean the nine gods of the primordial god? Tell me a little bit more about that part. What do you mean when you say only Nera is left?”

It was fairly shameless of her to interrogate the person who was dragging her along. She was asking for an answer very naturally. But Dean didn’t care about Andra’s attitude. Rather, he seemed to take it for granted.

“My God, who do you think led you here? I said it before. There are no coincidences, everything is planned.”

“That means that Nera deliberately cast a spell on me and my partner to lead us here? But why? What is she telling me?”

“It must be to make us meet. Because we are destined.”

After answering well, Andra suddenly came to a strange conclusion, she narrowed her eyes at Dean’s words. What was he talking about, really. But what he said gave her some more lead to think about.

If Nera was the one who shared her powers with Dustin, why did she try to kill Andra and Dustin at the Aslan Ruins? The dungeon, though invited by Nera, was in fact a stage built to kill those invited.

‘She tried to kill me after giving me magic?’

If they hadn’t met a dragon that was Anat’s subordinate, the two might have died before clearing the dungeon while solving the life-threatening riddle in that dungeon.

It was terrible. She didn’t want to go there again. Andra trembled as she looked back at her memories of that time. She was already fed up with dungeons that just made her feel bad.

‘And yet I’m here again, in a dungeon.’

Andra, who had been carried into the tunnel by Dean, had a gloomy expression. At least, monsters didn’t appear in the Aslan ruins, but this dungeon was a dungeon with huge ant monsters that were scary just by appearance. It was really bad for Andra, who had no combat experience.

Right now, with Dean by her side, she moved around the tunnel to avoid the ants. However, she couldn’t be dragged around forever by him. She had to get away from Dean. No matter what, she had no intention of playing as he planned.

‘Anyway, if Nera led me and Dustin here, she must have a purpose. Is the purpose just ‘the end of the world’? For what purpose is Nera doing these things…’

It was the thing she was constantly thinking about. Dean abruptly stopped. At that, Andra stopped her steps and looked in front of her. In a really big hole dug in front of them, there was something moving slowly but with precision.

At first, Andra thought it was a very large rock in a tunnel. It was because it was round and looked incredibly hard. However, she was stunned by the rest of the appearance.

“W-What is that?”

“The master of this tunnel.”

Dean responded with a passing tone, holding the agitated Andra from falling. What Andra thought was a huge rock was actually the queen ant, the master of this anthill.

Its size made Andra think it was indeed a huge rock at first. And around the queen ant, dozens or hundreds of worker ants were busily following it.

‘The ones I saw outside were nothing.’

Andra freaked out as she watched the disgusting ants crawling around. She thought that the ants she dealt with with Dustin were already big and formidable, but they belonged to the small group.

Was it because they are worker ants that protect the queen? All of them had large, hard claw jaws that looked sharp. It felt as if she would break in two at once if caught in the jaws of that claw.

“Where… Where is it going?”

The queen ant was moving somewhere. The wings on the ant’s back fluttered, and she felt that the queen was in a bad mood, though she didn’t know why. Anyone could have known that they would be in bad shape if they provoked the angry queen.

“I’m guessing she’s going to greet her guests who have come to her tunnel. As the master of this dungeon, she has the right to screen out unwanted guests. More than that, even if we don’t move, they move on their own.”

“You…”

As expected, Dean’s goal was to make the ant queen move rather than clearing the dungeon.

To make even more unnecessary sacrifices for her.

Andra gritted her teeth. She also had to get away from Dean as soon as possible. At this rate, she would only be swayed by him as he wished.

“Then, while the master of the dungeon is away, let’s go steal the dungeon egg.”

“…The core? So the queen ant isn’t your goal?”

“It is not the core. It is the treasure of the dungeon.”

“Treasure? Wait…!”

Before Andra could run away, Dean hugged Andra and jumped into the large burrow teeming with the queen and the worker ants. Surprised, Andra held Dean tight and buried her head.

Soon after, feeling that she had landed, and it was quiet all around, she raised her head again. Then, as if they hadn’t seen Andra and Dean, the ants split and passed by them.

“Didn’t I say there was nothing to worry about?”

Again, Dean whispered, leaving a light kiss on Andra’s forehead. The man frustrated her to no end. He was dragging her around here and there and was just moving as he wished without regard to her will. He’s just like someone…

Thinking that far, Andra shook her head and banished the thought. She was starting to make comparisons again without realizing it.

“…Put me down. I know how to walk.”

“Haven’t you walked a lot so far?”

“That’s enough, it’s uncomfortable.”

Why were people always carrying her? Andra murmured as she let out a series of sighs inside. Fortunately, Dean obediently put Andra down. As long as it didn’t get in the way of his plans, he tried to grant Andra’s every request.

Of course, from Andra’s point of view, that was even more annoying. It seemed to be condescending to pay attention to things that were not very important when she was excluded from the really important things.

“I guess the dungeon core… No, the egg must be necessary to go to the ‘end of the world’, right?”

“Yes, it is necessary. That’s why dungeons were created here.”

“If that’s the case, why did you bring me here? Can’t you just leave me alone and go on your own, Dean?”

Dean smiled softly at the question. Then he looped his fingers in Andra’s hand and replied like a sweet lover.

“About that. You’ll find out when we get there.”