Darkness seemed ready to swallow even the last of her courage, but the tiny elf, hunching her neck, gripped the strap of her satchel and wiped away the tears before her eyes with the back of her hand. No matter where this was, since she had promised Shade that she would bring back a surprise and strength, she could not be frightened away here.
She bit her lip hard, forcing herself to recover from her terror, then cautiously proceeded down the corridor.
As her vision rapidly returned, she spotted a flicker of firelight ahead after taking only two steps. After a brief hesitation, she endured her fear and continued toward it. She soon saw that it was a bonfire beside a huge breach in the corridor wall, with four strange figures seated around it.
They all appeared dazed and vacant, like soulless corpses.
The firelight cast the four strange figures' pitch-black shadows across the corridor, and those shadows swayed with the flickering bonfire. Seeing this in the darkness, Emilia felt the courage she had just gathered beginning to fade again.
In particular, she noticed that among those four shadows, one had a terrifying tail, one had sharp claws, one had enormous eyes unlike those of a human, and one... one was fairly normal, though it seemed to be imitating someone familiar to her heart.
Emilia wanted to stop and turn in another direction, but unfortunately, the dazed people by the bonfire also noticed her breathing. Those people, like corpses resurrected from a story, turned their heads and stared directly at her.
The firelight illuminated everyone's faces: the green dragon maid with the large tail, the Gray Wolf Witch who had just been unconsciously sharpening her claws on the ground, Miss Maze, holding a book and wearing glasses, and—
"Iluna?"
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