Forgotten Juliet

* * *

“Ah, mom!”

“Deyna!”

The first to regain consciousness was Magda.

When Eshel just opened his eyes, Magda was joyfully hugging the five missing children.

“Everyone is safe!”

Fortunately, the children seemed to be unharmed.

“Are the kids okay?”

“Yes, magician! Everyone seems fine.”

Magda was happy as she checked on the children’s condition.

With a frown due to a headache, Eshel lifted Juliet, who was seemingly dead or unconscious, onto his back.

“Fortunately. Now that we’ve found everyone, we just need a way out of here.”

“Ah, mister!”

Suddenly, a child who was in Magda’s arms screamed.

Bam!

“Kyaaak!”

“Magician!”

Eshel barely avoided the attack and rolled on the ground.

“Oh c’mon, don’t move!”

Those who were trying to hit his head were unidentified men holding a shovel and a pickaxe.

“What the, what’s this?”

Eshel frowned.

“…Wait, did you just call him a magician?”

Whispers full of fear flowed from the gap among the men surrounding Eshel, each holding a weapon.

* * *

“So?”

Juliet interrupted the explanation.

“Why was that black… guild here?”

Juliet and Eshel were investigating the wall of the cliff.

They believed that since the stone that made up the wall wasn’t too soft, they could climb up if they tried, a suggestion put forth by Juliet.

“In fact, those guys are the main culprits who lured the children here.”

“What did you say?”

Juliet’s voice rose.

“They promised to give money if the neighborhood children picked up strange stones from the forest.”

“A strange stone, what is that-”

Juliet, who was saying that, stopped.

In the surrounding darkness, a small pebble emitting a green glow like a glow stick came into sight when they moved a large stone.

“…A magic stone.”

“Yes.”

Eshel continued explaining.

He said that instead of big adults, the village children fell for the scheme, went down the cliff, and picked up magic stones.

But they should have stopped at a reasonable point, but due to greed, they fell here when the weakened cliff collapsed because of the rain.

Having heard the entire explanation, Juliet looked around once more, tilting her head.

“I’ve heard this story many times.”

Deep in the mountains, a narrow entrance, and a suspicious cliff gap where magic stones are scattered everywhere.

“…A habitat.”

“A monster habitat.”

Both spoke at the same time.

Juliet, who unwittingly muttered, made a mistake, and Eshel looked back at her in surprise. It was knowledge that a layman wouldn’t know.

Juliet quickly changed the subject.

“Speaking of magic stones, do you remember our tracker?”

“The tracker? Did you bring it?”

Juliet rolled up her sleeve.

As she said, Eshel’s face brightened.

“How could you just mention it now!”

“No, Eshel, why didn’t you bring the one you made?”

“…Let’s quickly turn it on!”

While Juliet and Eshel were arguing, the people who had been asleep began to wake up one by one.

“Hey! Mr. magician!”

“We can’t sleep because it’s too noisy!”

But the two didn’t care. If this turns on, leaving here was only a matter of time.

But –

“…It’s not turning on.”

“There’s no way!”

“I think I brought one that wasn’t charged with magic.”

“What are you talking about? You definitely said it was fully charged and gave it to me.”

After saying that.

“…”

The two simultaneously realized whose work it was.

There was only one person who could have accessed the tracker.

“Teo Lebatan, that bastard-“

Juliet vowed not to let Teo go once she got out of here.

* * *

“Are we still far?”

Teo shouted anxiously.

“We have contacted them, they should arrive soon.”

“Don’t worry too much.”

“…Damn it.”

Teo, barely holding back a curse, hurried the magician he had brought along.

“Hurry up and find them!”

“But tracking magic is Eshel’s specialty~”

The magicians were desperate to explain.

‘Useless guys.’

Yet, the three couldn’t even manage to measure up to a single Eshelrid.

The magicians had put forth excuses, claiming that finding Eshelrid’s magic in the forest in the East, from which energy erupted, was difficult, as Eshelrid’s wavelength was so unique.

However, Teo had no interest in their excuses.

“Just come up with some kind of solution right now!”

“We, we’re doing our best.”

Teo held his head in his hands.

It wasn’t out of any particular malice. He was just a little irked. He thought that if Juliet got lost in the forest for a bit, she might get scared.

On the other hand, he had let his guard down, thinking that Juliet would be okay, given that she was accompanied by the head magician. Even if she got lost in the forest, she’d get out quickly, he had said.

However, no matter how much time passed, the two didn’t return.

‘Stupid fools!’

He had sent out search parties several times to no avail. He had scolded the people of Canabel village, but their words were also a disgrace.

“Five children disappeared two days ago. You think we haven’t tried everything to find them?”

“It’s no use. Those taken by the great dragon can never be found.”

“But Lord Teo, this is a waste of time.”

Walter, the chief inspector, calmly tried to persuade him.

“Just wait a little bit longer-“

“I know!”

It was then that Teo realized how horrendous a thing he had done.

* * *

The monster’s habitat was like a subterranean dungeon.

The deeper you went, the more dangerous the monsters and the more abundant the magic stones you encountered.

The most stable way to acquire magic stones was to excavate a mine, but in the East, they mined more magic stones from these monster habitats. Therefore, there were as many guilds in the East who had gathered to mine magic stones as there were sand grains.

However, even so.

“Really. Why is the guild named like that?”

“Is there a problem, miss?”

The man who was the guild master of the Black Mane Guild responded ominously.

Yet, he was clearly watching Eshelrid’s mood. It was only natural to be scared of a magician from the Marigold Guild.

Eshel whispered to Juliet.

“They’re not the best characters.”

“Of course they aren’t.”

They lure children blinded by greed into dangerous places, causing trouble for innocent people in the process.

Juliet coldly stared at the members of the Black Mane Guild.

This habitat located deep in the mountains was clearly an ancient monster’s nest.

The giant ancient monsters, now extinct, made their nests in such deep mountains, where the presence of dangerous monsters usually indicated the abundance of magic stones.

The typical structure of a habitat was a reversed pyramid – it narrowed as you descended, like an inverted pyramid.

“How far do you think we fell?”

Looking up, Juliet asked worriedly.

It was close to muttering to herself, but Eshel, who was beside her, looked up with her and kindly answered.

“It must be at least 30 meters. This deep underground, it would be impossible to be found by passersby. Even if you scream, no one would hear you.”

“Hm? Why are you looking at me like that?”

Well, that was an optimistic outlook.

There were always forests swarming with low-rank monsters near these habitats.

There were plenty in the North. Therefore, clearing these monster-infested forests to ensure the safety of the territory’s people was also an age-old duty of the territorial lords.

“But this is a region where we cannot hope for such things.”

Eshel sighed.

He said it had been a long time since a village like Canabel had been under a lord’s care.

Juliet recalled the story about heavy rain falling until a few days before they arrived at Canabel village.

‘Due to the long rain, the ground had weakened, and because of that, the ground sunk and the entrance was revealed, wasn’t it?’

Juliet thought it was a plausible speculation.

“But this kind of form is rare.”

Eshel furrowed his brows.

“How did it remain undiscovered until now?” He murmured.

Juliet also looked up at the jagged cliff alongside him.

It was also the first time Juliet had seen an ancient monster’s habitat firsthand.

When a habitat untouched by human hands is discovered, the principle is to report to the guild union. If you know what kind of habitat it is, the existence of monsters is not much of a danger.

However, there was no way the unauthorized Black Mane Guild would abide by such rules.

The reason why the Black Mane Guild had secretly entered Canabel village and recruited children to scrape together magic stones, rather than officially reporting what type of monster’s habitat it was and investigating it, didn’t need to be asked.

If they officially reported to the union, the amount of their share of magic stones would decrease.

“Canabel means nest in ancient language.”

“Whose nest?”

Eshel responded with an expression as if asking why she was asking such an obvious question.

“A dragon’s nest, of course.”

Come to think of it, Magda had said something like that.

The legend about a dragon kidnapping children.

As she recalled, Juliet picked up one of the magic stones from the ground.

Outside, you would have to pay a lot of money for these magic stones, but here, they were as plentiful as pebbles.

“The problem is whether we can get out.”

As Juliet picked up a pretty colored and shaped magic stone like a pebble, she noticed something strange.

‘Huh?’

Among the semi-transparent crystal-like magic stones, Juliet found a perfectly spherical black and sleek stone.

What is this?