On the Dark Staircase stretching endlessly into the distance, two figures stood hesitantly.
"Um... did we take the wrong path?"
Shining the flashlight down the still-endless path ahead, Ke Nai turned to look at the person beside her, who remained utterly unruffled, and spoke timidly.
"Of course not. I believe in you. Keep it up."
Bai Zhi gave the Red-haired Girl a thumbs-up, his face full of perfunctory encouragement.
Ke Nai: "..."
Nearly ten minutes had passed since they arrived here. During those ten minutes, Ke Nai had confidently dragged Bai Zhi along in an experiment involving walking backward.
...And then nothing happened.
Meanwhile, the two of them, walking backward on the stairs the entire time, looked exactly like Fools...
As time went on, a certain Witch's confidence steadily dwindled. Her steps became increasingly sluggish until she finally came to a complete stop.
"...I was wrong."
After staring for over ten seconds at someone looking at her with utterly sincere eyes, Ke Nai decisively lowered her head and respectfully offered the flashlight in her hand back to him.
Whatever else happened, backing down first could never be wrong.
"Where were you wrong?"
Making no move to take the flashlight, Bai Zhi folded his hands across his chest and gave her an unapologetically sidelong look.
He might not hold grudges, but she wasn't a loli. Why should he give special treatment to anyone who wasn't a loli?
"Uh... acting on my own?"
Ke Nai looked up at him.
"That's only part of it. Your bigger mistake was giving up too soon."
Curling his lip, Bai Zhi backed down another five or six steps as he spoke, then stopped on one particular stair.
"This was our previous starting point."
"The starting point..."
After a brief pause, Ke Nai tilted her head to