—Cold
An icy numbness spread through the girls' limbs as the sound of the stream rang out.
Slosh... Slosh...
The waves continued to flow around her as the river carried her battered body downstream. She drifted through shallow rapids, occasionally striking submerged rocks before finally becoming lodged against a pile of driftwood near the muddy shore.
Time quietly passed…
Eventually—
"…Cough!"
Rotell's eyes suddenly snapped open. She grimaced. While violently rolling onto her side, she coughed up mouthful after mouthful of river water. Each breath burned like fire, and her lungs convulsed violently. Her chest rose and fell heavily, her figure sharply outlined by her soaking wet clothes.
"…Cough-cough! Ah-ugh!"
She continued violently retching until only saliva remained.
"Haa... haa..."
Soon, she stopped, her face filled with bitterness. Bowing her head, she remained there for a long while, unwilling to move. The afternoon wind blew across her soaked body, making her shiver uncontrollably.
After what felt like forever, she planted both of her trembling hands into the muddy riverbank. Slowly and sharply pained, she crawled onto dry ground, dragging her broken body out of the water. Each movement sent waves of agony through her shoulders, ribs, and legs, not to mention her broken arm. Bruises covered nearly every visible part of her body. Several fresh, still-bleeding wounds had reopened during the fall, staining the soaked remains of her clothes a dark red.
"…Damn it!"
Rotell felt as if she had been cursed. She hadn't been this unlucky for many, many years! It was exhausting. She had never felt so aggrieved in her life. What did she do to deserve this?
"Damn it…"
Rotell struggled to stand on one knee before finally forcing herself upright. Her body immediately swayed, but she caught herself against a nearby tree, remaining there until the dizziness subsided.
Then, and only then, did she begin inspecting herself properly.
Her cloak was gone, and most of her inner garments beneath her armor had either torn away during the fall or been shredded against the rocks. What remained barely covered her body; the inner fabric was so torn that her chest was partially exposed to the chilly air. The lion-themed light armor hung crookedly from a broken strap, while several other protective pieces had disappeared altogether.
She looked like she had been ravaged.
"…Seriously?" she muttered in distress, her cheeks twitching. While covering her chest with her remaining good arm, she staggered forward.
"I'm practically naked…" She smiled bitterly, letting out a self-deprecating laugh.
"This is actually a new experience for me."
After letting out a long sigh, she began checking the rest of her gear. Her hand instinctively reached toward her waist, but there was nothing. Her sword—it was gone.
She closed her eyes for a moment, then took a deep breath.
"…Wonderful!!!" She cursed!
Slamming her good foot into the ground, she cursed a few more times before checking her storage bags next. She opened them up. A few crushed rations remained, but they were completely soaked. There was no medicine, and some of her emergency pills had dissolved and then vanished into the river. There was a spare set of clothes, but it was thoroughly drenched. As for her camping supplies, many of the items were ruined, including her flint and steel.
She searched every pocket one last time before giving up.
"…Hm?"
Carefully, she pulled out a tightly folded piece of parchment. This was a map that Mellia had been filling out, which she had handed to Rotell before they separated. Although damp, the waterproof wrapping had protected it surprisingly well. Relief washed across her face.
"…At least you survived," she grumbled. A half-complete map was better than nothing...
Then, she remembered something else—Petra's medicine!
Her eyes turned.
While desperately digging through her remaining supplies, her fingers eventually brushed against a glass surface. Against all odds, the series of strange things she had bought at Poppy's Potions were all still intact. Rotell stared at them before letting out a tired laugh.
"My own medicine washed away, but the strange little girl's survived. How about that?" She really didn't know what to think right now.
Could she gamble?
Would she gamble?
Was she willing to open the equivalent of Pandora's box?
With her body in this state, if she didn't heal soon, she would likely hit a dead end…
She carefully tied the remaining bottles to a belt.
The wind blew again. Her soaked armor gripped uncomfortably against her skin, which was heavy enough to feel like it doubled her weight. Rotell looked toward the unfamiliar forest ahead. The terrain was still very hilly, but vast stretches of dense woods filled the landscape.
She looked back at the roaring river one last time.
"…First things first, I need to find somewhere to dry off…"
She began her search…
-
After an unknown amount of time—
Rotell had staggered away from the riverbed and entered the shallows of the forest. She found her way forward, eventually tripping and tumbling into a shallow cave. She leaned against the cold rock wall, listening to the distant roar of the river outside. Beyond that, the sound of dripping water echoed throughout the small cave, while a cool breeze carried a lingering chill inside.
She shivered.
For some time, she simply sat there in the dark.
Eventually, she used the rock wall to help herself stand back up. In her mind, she knew that her first task wasn't resting, it was survival!
She quickly left the cave to gather several broken branches that had landed near the entrance, then dragged over a few loose stones to build a crude windbreak and blocked the entrance of the cave. The shelter was far from impressive, but it was enough to conceal a small fire from anything hunting outside.
At least, to those weaker monsters…
Next came the difficult part.
She crouched back down, placed a bundle of dry moss beneath several thin twigs, and began rubbing two sticks together. She held one stick in her good hand, while the other was firmly held between her feet. Although she looked a bit pathetic, this primitive method was her only option due to her complete lack of magical talent. Even for a Golden Core cultivator, if you could pass magic but had absolutely no elemental affinity, casting spells was hopeless. Rotell was one of these extremely rare cases where she could wield almost no magic at all. Growing up, she was a bit embarrassed, but in truth, she had a secret. Since she was young, she would dream, dream of past lives, dream of a 'her' that was not her.
It was exactly this dream that drew her to the path of swordsmanship…
The 'her' in her dream was intermittent, and it only appeared a few times, but each time it appeared, she felt as if a piece of herself was more and more complete. Like watching a movie, she saw the tide of history, the path she would walk, and the war that would bring down the empire.
…This was also the reason she was so harsh on her third sister…
Regardless of the despair she would face, she knew that whether it was true or not, a dream or an echo, Rotell needed to become strong, so strong that she could take fate into her own hands.
This was her vow since she was young!
But…
Rotell looked at her current situation and didn't know whether to laugh or cry. She felt as if the harder she tried, the deeper the chains became, and the quicker she was pulled towards the path in her dream.
—The Silver Swordsmen
Why did she need to walk a road of regret and revenge?
Why did she fight just to lose everything?
No! She wouldn't believe it! She would definitely find a way out!
She gritted her teeth! Back and forth, back and forth!
Tick-tick-tick!
Back and forth… again. And again. And again...
Nothing.
She frowned.
Tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick!
Rotell: "…"
Damn it!!
Boom!
Her aching body protested every movement, but out of sheer rage, she managed to create a miracle. A small ember ignited before her eyes, and the fire quickly began to catch.
"…There!"
Rotell actually felt a bit embarrassed by how much of a grand accomplishment this felt to her. She carefully lowered her head, crouching down over the fire.
Gentle breaths.
Foof-foof-foof!
The ember slowly brightened and dimmed, and moments later…
Crackle… Da-da-da—Crackle!
The tiny flame finally came to life, and a warm orange light filled the cave. Rotell let out a quiet sigh before slumping down to sit beside it. She felt all the energy drain from her body as the warmth slowly returned to her frozen fingers and feet.
Without wasting any more time, she began removing the battered pieces of armor that still clung to her body. One broken shoulder guard, then the damaged breastplate, followed by the shredded leather straps beneath. Each piece landed beside the fire with a dull clink. Steam immediately began rising from the soaked equipment. After that, she swiftly stripped her underlayers, then she carefully spread her remaining clothes across several nearby stones, allowing the fire to dry them little by little.
Looking down, she realized she was nearly naked and sighed. Only after clearing her gear did she unwrap the blood-soaked bandages around her shoulder.
"…I'm still bleeding," she muttered, frowning. She wondered if this delayed clotting was a side effect of completely retracting her spiritual energy. She had never done it before, not many people had, because it was incredibly rare for a cultivator to need to suppress their aura so absolutely.
Ultimately, it didn't matter. She cleaned the wound with river water before opening one of Petra's strange medicine bottles. She had to take a risk, and she knew it.
"…Hopefully this isn't another bizarre drug."
She thought about finding a wild animal to test it on first, but her current state left her with no choice. It was too risky to go out, because she was nearly a cripple. Fortunately, the pale green liquid merely stung for a brief moment before a wave of refreshment washed over her. After confirming that her injury was very slowly starting to knit together, she quickly replaced the old bandages, pulling on the only underwear she had while waiting for the rest of her clothes to finish drying. They weren't particularly comfortable, but they were a start.
The crackling fire continued burning.
For a long while, Rotell simply watched the flames while leaning to the side, her mind turning.
—Where were they now?
—Had Cirsen survived her fall from the cliffside?
—Where should she go to look next?
She lowered her eyes. Searching aimlessly felt foolish, yet abandoning them felt even worse. Beyond the cave entrance, a few faint tremors occasionally echoed through the mountain. Somewhere far away, something was still fighting. She knew that there was no lack of danger, and this danger seemed to far exceed the scope of what they had predicted.
Rotell stared into the fire. She still didn't feel entirely safe, but healing had to be her current focus.
After several more minutes, she finally reached into her pouch and unfolded the dry map. Her finger slowly traced the edge of the parchment as she studied it. This was a newly drawn map, so it naturally didn't cover the entirety of the secret realm, but Rotell examined it nonetheless. She simply needed something to distract her mind while she healed.
-
Night quietly descended.
The small fire crackled softly inside the cave, casting flickering shadows across the stone walls. Outside, the distant roar of wild beasts occasionally mixed with the sounds of distant battle, reminding Rotell that even after escaping that serpent, she was far from safe.
She slumped over.
After everything she had been through, her mental state had taken a heavy hit.
She quietly tore off a small piece of bitter dried meat before forcing herself to chew. It was tough enough to make her jaw ache, and the rain-soaked bread didn't taste much better, but she finished both without much complaint. Washing it down with a sip of water, she finally felt some warmth return to her core. After eating, Rotell picked up a flat stone and carefully sharpened a rough rock that she had collected earlier. A crude knife could never replace her sword, but it was better than facing another beast empty-handed.
Scrape!
Scrape!
Scrape!
She sat in her underwear, scraping away.
Although her hand had started to shockingly recover, her repeated injuries left it faintly crippled. She would likely need much stronger medicine after leaving the secret realm to heal it completely. Regardless, it was functional enough to allow her to use both hands to fashion this improvised weapon.
Scrape!
Scrape!
Scrape!
The repetitive sound echoed through the cave.
A long time passed.
Once she was satisfied, she turned to the rest of her belongings, which were laid out beside the fire. Using a piece of charcoal, she carefully wrote something down on the back of the parchment map, occasionally shaking her head. When she was finally content with her notes, she began to pack everything away before looking outside.
Beyond the shadows of night and the rolling forest hills, a faint pillar of pale white light rose toward the sky. She could barely see it over the horizon, and it had been far too dim to notice during the day, but it finally gave her a clear direction.
Even from this immense distance, it remained visible, like a wisp of smoky light.
Rotell quietly watched it for a long time before lying down beside the dying fire. Her crude knife rested safely within the crook of her arm. One eye slowly closed, but her awareness never truly faded.
Slowly, she fell into a light sleep.
Outside, distant monsters continued calling through the darkness, while the lonely glow of the Trial Pillar quietly waited for those who could reach it.
That night, she did not dream…
* * *