After the initial joy of learning this news, the girl calmed down again.
In truth, no one on this island could truly reach that cliff—not even the Lord, the only Fifth Rank expert in all of Port City.
Therefore, whether the old man's words were true or not, she had no way to verify them.
And within this isolated Port City, its residents were deeply conservative and xenophobic.
Because of her unusual hair and eye color, as well as her somewhat strange dream, the girl was often isolated and rejected by children her age on the island.
They called her a wild child, a mongrel, a monster. They threw stones at her, tore her clothes, splashed dirty water on her, and frightened her with snakes they had caught from the sea.
Until one day, an Explorer who had truly come from the outside world arrived on the island.
He drove away the children who had been bullying the girl and told the curious girl about the outside world.
Then, the Explorer left, and the girl never saw him again.
But on the evening of the day she met the Explorer, the children bullied her even more viciously.
They vented their resentment at being driven away by the Explorer on the girl. They punched and kicked her, then, ignoring her fierce struggles and resistance, tied her up with a rope they had found and threw her into the ruins of a building said to be haunted.
Many people had once disappeared in that suddenly appeared area of ruins. The adults on the island had declared it forbidden ground and avoided it like the plague.
Even if she could have freed herself from the rope, night had already fallen over the island. No one dared walk the streets after dark, so she