Chapter 86

* * *

Eshel rolled up the tent entrance and stepped outside.

“What’s going on?”

“A magician! I heard there’s a magician here!”

The lady who rushed into the campsite spoke.

Juliet, who had followed Eshel out, saw her too. Her clothes were generally clean, but she looked desperate as if possessed by something.

“Where is the magician?”

The people of the campsite reflexively looked towards the tent.

“I-I am Magda. I came from the nearby village Canabel.”

The lady who introduced herself as Magda alternated her gaze between Juliet and Eshel, looking conflicted.

She was confused about who the magician was.

Juliet noticed and promptly stepped back. Eshel sighed and stepped forward.

“It seems that I am the magician you are looking for. What’s the matter?”

However, the next moment, Eshel was taken aback.

Magda had suddenly knelt down in front of him.

“Please save our children! Please, magician!”

Magda explained that five children from her village, including her daughter, had gone missing.

“No, in such a case, you should appeal to the nearby lord, ma’am. How can you just come looking for a magician?”

“But, but…”

Magda explained.

This mountainous area has been called the dragon’s nest since ancient times, and there is a legend that only a magician can save the children when they go missing.

“And, the villagers did go to the lord’s office. But I’m not sure if they can get there in time…”

Magda dropped her head in defeat.

Juliet, growing curious, quietly asked.

“Is there really such an old story?”

Eshel shrugged.

“Well. I’ve heard an old tale about a magician kidnapping children.”

Eshel seemed to ponder for a moment, then casually asked Juliet.

“What do you think?”

Juliet, who was just observing, was caught off guard by the question.

“Why are you asking me?”

“Because neither Walter nor Teo, who are in charge, are in sight.”

Eshel was right.

Walter and Teo were nowhere to be found.

“What does that have to do with…”

Juliet was about to protest, but noticing everyone, including Magda who came for help, was watching her, she closed her mouth.

Since Helen, the owner of the Guild, and her family were not present, it was her responsibility to decide what to do with Eshel, the magician from Marigold. That was the logic.

Juliet was in a quandary.

If she really cared for the campsite, she should have ignored Magda and said her to leave.

But Eshel seemed genuinely eager to help Magda.

“Then…”

* * *

An hour later, Eshelr and Juliet were climbing the mountain.

After much deliberation, Juliet told Eshel:

“If you want to go, you can go and help.”

But Eshel set an unexpected condition.

“You must accompany me.”

‘Why me?’ Juliet wasn’t even a wizard.

Juliet felt a bit aggrieved, but she couldn’t refuse the magician who declared, ‘If you don’t go, I won’t go.’ She couldn’t ignore the desperate plea from Magda to find her child.

“Are we there yet?”

“Ju-just a little further, we will reach the open space.”

Eshel whispered to Juliet in a soothing manner.

“Don’t worry. We have a tracker, so even if we can’t find the children and get lost in the mountains, the people of the campsite will come to find us.”

The plan was simple.

If they find the children, they would rescue them and bring them back to the village, and if they couldn’t find the children, they would return to the village before sundown.

“Here, it’s near here.”

Magda led them to a small, flat open space.

“The children always played around here. But….”

Tears welled up in Magda’s eyes.

The rest was a story they had heard several times.

In the Canabel village, the children were so few in number that about five of them, from this house and that, always stuck together and played. However, they hadn’t returned since two days ago.

‘It’s been two days. Will the kids be alive?’

Juliet and Eshel exchanged opinions cautiously with their eyes.

In Juliet’s view, it was more certain that the children had lost their way while playing in the mountains rather than the dragon having taken them.

Of course, from the parents’ perspective, it was natural to worry about their children.

Even if they were used to playing in the mountains, could young children survive for two days in such a mountain?

“Deyna!”

“Answer if you hear me! Deyna!”

Regardless, the two decided to help Magda look for her daughter as requested.

Fortunately, the rain stopped, but it wasn’t easy to navigate the wet mountain trail.

As Juliet was looking around the forest, she noticed something strange.

“Hmm?”

Something seemed to be flickering in the middle of the dense bushes.

“Eshel, over there, do you see that?”

“What are you talking about?”

As she pulled on Eshel’s sleeve, she felt him pause, as if he had seen the same thing.

Something like a mirage.

“…I think we should call more people.”

Feeling something ominous looming, Juliet whispered towards Magda and Eshel.

Just as they were about to turn around and leave.

“!”

Suddenly the ground under their feet gave way without warning.

Kyaaak!

Screaming, the three of them fell down a steep cliff into a dark space.

* * *

Juliet felt as if her entire body had been shattered.

“Huuk.”

When she barely managed to open her eyes, everything around was dark.

‘Where am I?’

“Ah, you’ve regained consciousness.”

Hearing Eshel’s calm voice, Juliet briefly suspected that she had been kidnapped by this mad magician.

However, once the darkness became familiar and she saw Eshel’s face coming towards her, she realized her misunderstanding and discarded her suspicion.

“Why do you look like that?”

“If you could see your own face, you wouldn’t be saying that.”

With a calm reply, Eshel glanced around once before handing her something.

“Drink it slowly.”

It was a half-empty canteen.

Juliet obediently drank the water that had pooled on the ground. Only after relieving her thirst did the surrounding scenery come into view.

“Where are we?”

“It seems we’re below the mountain.”

“Below the mountain?”

“Do you remember when you said we should turn back? Just after that, the ground beneath us gave way, and when we woke up, we were here.”

Eshel was right.

Juliet realized that the space they were standing in was a narrow crevice on the cliff.

“It seems we fell quite deep as the light doesn’t reach well.”

No wonder. It was rather dark around.

“I don’t know how we’re alive, but fortunately there seems to be some mossy plants at the bottom that cushioned our fall. Plus, it seems to be night now.”

It was an easy-to-understand summary.

Although she felt like praising him, Juliet flinched as she looked around.

“Eshel, are there other people here besides us?”

“Yes.”

Eshel let out a shallow sigh and continued to explain.

“Everyone else is sleeping now. Additionally, we’re on night watch duty.”

In one corner, Magda and five young children were huddled and sleeping.

“The kids are safe.”

“It seems so.”

Eshel’s tone was stiff.

Wondering why, Juliet looked at the other side and realized the reason.

“…Who are those people?”

“They’re said to be members of the Black Mane Guild.”

Juliet’s expression became ambiguous.

“What kind of mane?”

What’s that name?

“Are you asking me?”

After falling from the cliff, Eshel explained what had happened during the half day when Juliet was unconscious.