Chapter 160
“But where is the Blood Demon? I don’t feel its energy at all.”
Kyle asked Sal as if interrogating him, his face unusually furrowed.
“Of course we have to go to the royal castle. Adrianna’s royal castle is right over there, at the highest point.”
Sal raised a finger and pointed into the distance without showing any sign of panic. Because of the smoke covering every direction, it was hard to secure a clear view, but I thought I could faintly see the shape of a castle.
“It’s quite far to the castle.”
Elonen spoke while looking around at the surroundings, which were wrapped in a chillingly heavy silence.
Judging by the wide, well-paved road and the large buildings, I could imagine just how enormous this Kingdom of Adrianna must have been in the past.
And unlike the area near the boundary, where everything had been crumbling down, the deeper we went, the more the buildings maintained relatively intact forms.
That meant we were heading toward the center, where human feet had not reached. The smoke was growing thicker too.
“Perhaps because no human hands have touched them, these old buildings are well preserved. How nice would it be if I had the time to investigate these architectural styles one by one?”
Elonen looked around at the buildings in admiration.
If Gerard was a guy crazy about magic potions, Elonen liked architectural styles. In particular, he seemed to like ancient styles, because his eyes were sparkling as he looked around.
“What a truly unusual combination. I suppose you have to be at least this much to go around making a fuss about killing the Black Flame Dragon.”
Watching that, Sal laughed softly and whispered to me. I glanced around to see if Kyle, who was beside us, had heard, but fortunately, Kyle was busy looking around after Elonen.
“I think I know why you like these guys. They’re all similar to you.”
I was a little confused as to whether saying the hero’s party and I resembled each other was a compliment or an insult.
“What is similar?”
It wasn’t that I was asking because I was particularly offended. It was just that, as far as I could see, there was nothing the hero’s party and I had in common, so I wondered if he was teasing me.
“You all think however you like.”
“Are you trying to pick a fight?”
This time, it definitely felt negative. So when I asked openly with displeasure, Sal burst into laughter.
“I didn’t mean it in a bad way. I mean you see the world through your own firm standards. I actually liked that about you.”
I was chewing over Sal’s words in my head to digest them when Kyle suddenly pulled on my shoulder from behind.
“What are you doing?”
I nearly lost my balance and fell backward, so I snapped and shouted.
“Sal, aren’t you supposed to guide our party? What are you doing all the way back here?”
Kyle lightly ignored my question and spoke bluntly to Sal beside me.
“We just have to keep going straight.”
In any case, right now, the castle that was our destination was clearly visible, so all we had to do was walk forward. But Kyle stubbornly insisted until the end.
“If something goes wrong, we might end up losing the way, you know. If you said you’d do it, you should take responsibility to the end.”
That was also true, so Sal headed back to the front of the party without saying anything in particular.
“Let go—”
I struck away Kyle’s arm, which was still wrapped around my shoulders from behind as if strangling my neck.
“I told you not to move away from Elonen because it’s dangerous.”
“I didn’t move that far. The light is still shining.”
I said that while gesturing with my eyes at the faint light surrounding us. Perhaps Kyle had only said it to say something too, because he did not nag me any further.
“What were the two of you talking about for you to laugh so happily?”
Kyle seemed very curious about the conversations I had with others. Derek had been like that, and Caesar too. At this point, I wondered if I was being watched.
“It was just useless small talk.”
When I answered coldly without even looking back, Kyle came close beside me and whispered.
“I can’t fully trust that guy.”
“I know you can’t trust him because you haven’t known him for long, but he has no bad intentions. I’ll guarantee that.”
It wasn’t as if I knew Sal well enough to boast so confidently, but I didn’t feel at all that he was deceiving us.
“Are you taking his side because he’s your friend?”
I hadn’t said it with the intention of taking Sal’s side in particular, but of course, it must have felt that way to Kyle. I almost never defended someone like this.
