Chapter 245 (Patreon)

Kana had surrendered to sleep at noon, which in itself felt like a historical event worthy of documentation. Her head had tipped forward slowly, stubbornness waging a losing battle against exhaustion, until gravity finally claimed its prize and guided her forehead gently onto the wooden table. Sunlight filtered through the narrow village windows in soft bands, laying warm gold across her hair and shoulders, blunting the sharp edge that so often defined her presence. Without the alertness in her eyes or the tension in her posture, she did not look like the academy’s strongest student. She looked so normal at her age. Younger, even.

The girls gathered around the table with the curiosity of researchers who had stumbled upon a rare phenomenon.

“I saw Suri sleeping like that once,” Elle York said thoughtfully, folding her arms as if reviewing archived evidence in her mind. “During one of my classroom inspections. Your head fell forward exactly like that. I assumed you were pretending.” Her lips curved faintly. “I didn’t realize Kana is like that too.”

Rin shook her head with immediate certainty. “No, this is different. Usually it's Suri. Then sometimes, the three of them at once. Like it’s coordinated.” She gestured at Kana’s slumped posture, sunlight glowing along the line of her cheek. “But this? She’s alone. That’s new.”

“I know the reason.”

Boris’ voice entered with the triumphant tone of someone unveiling a profound revelation.

All three girls turned toward him at the same time, expressions sharpening in synchronized suspicion.

“What is it?” Yuri asked, narrowing her eyes.

Boris crossed his arms, clearly pleased with himself. “Last night, she tried using my spear. Underestimated the weight. You need real muscle to handle something like that. She probably got too tired because of that.”

“Stop lying,” Suri shot back without hesitation. “Kana handled that strange curved blade from the empire just fine. Because it looked like a large dagger. And she grabbed your spear before too, she can’t use it.”

Boris scratched his cheek, grin faltering slightly under scrutiny. “Well… she did force it at first. But she pulled it off.”

Then the atmosphere changed, something rippled through the room.

Suri’s shadow, cast by the afternoon light, stretched longer than it should have. Its edges thickened and darkened, peeling upward from the ground as though the floor itself had grown depth. The shadow detached in a smooth motion, folding inward before rising, shaping itself into something solid. Limbs emerged first, then torso, then the faint outline of a face. Darkness condensed into form until Lex stepped forward from the shade, brushing imaginary dust from his sleeve as though emerging from a doorway rather than the absence of light.

He scratched behind his ear, expression mildly irritated.

“My ears are still ringing from that skill,” Lex muttered. “And you people talk louder than battlefield drums.”

The girls blinked in unison.

Kana, meanwhile, shifted slightly in her sleep, exhaling softly as if nothing unusual had occurred at all. Her hand twitched once, fingers curling faintly.

Even unconscious, she somehow remained the center of it all.

Sunset had arrived.

The last light of day poured over the village like molten copper, sliding across rooftops of stone and timber, catching on windowpanes and wagon wheels before finally retreating toward the distant mountains. Inside the chief’s house,the warmth of afternoon dulled, replaced by the cooler hush of evening.

Kana’s eyes opened.

For a brief moment she lay still, her cheek pressed against the wooden table, strands of hair stuck to her face. Then it came. That familiar surge. Not loud. Not explosive. Yet undeniable. Energy slipped into her limbs like ink filling the veins of a page. Her heartbeat slowed down as if following a specific rhythm, she felt strengthened. The dull haze that clung to her during the day evaporated as if burned away by an unseen flame.

She rose slowly, rolling her shoulders back. The stiffness that had plagued her at noon was gone. In its place was clarity. Sharpness. The world felt outlined.

Rin noticed immediately.

“I thought you were going to sleep until tomorrow,” Rin said, half teasing, half relieved.

Kana flexed her fingers. Even the air felt different now, thinner and easier to cut through. It was as though the night itself recognized her.

Across the room, Lex ended his quiet conversation with Kier and Monde and approached her. There was no panic in his expression, but there was heaviness. The kind worn by someone who had survived enough missions to know enthusiasm could be more dangerous than any enemy.

“I heard about your intentions,” Lex said, voice calm but firm. “This plan of yours. It’s too risky. Too dangerous.”

Suri folded her arms, chin lifting. “I don’t think it’s more dangerous than what we faced in that dungeon. I saw the men at the mine. They’re not that strong. Honestly, sending Kana alone might be enough—”

Yuri and Elle clamped their hands over Suri’s mouth in perfect unison.

Elle forced a polite smile that did not quite reach her eyes. “I think you need us. If the missing villagers are injured, someone has to treat them properly.”

Yuri nodded quickly. “It’s a week of travel at least. Maybe more if they’re hurt. You can’t carry everyone yourself, Kana.”

Rin stepped closer to the table, her expression bright in a way that suggested both courage and youthful recklessness. “We survived a high level dungeon. Not just survived. We cleared it. Compared to that, rescuing villagers from criminals in a mine sounds manageable. Let’s make this vacation worth remembering.”

Lex fell silent.

His gaze swept across them one by one. Young faces. Determined. Some stubborn. All far too capable for their age.

He exhaled slowly.

“Fine,” he said at last. “But we use the modified [Teleportation] scroll. If needed. No unnecessary heroics.”

Then he turned to Kana. “So what’s the plan, leader?”

Kana stood fully upright, stretching her neck until a faint crack echoed in the quiet room. The faint dimming of the sky outside seemed to wrap around her like a mantle. The subtle glow in her eyes sharpened, reflecting the lantern light in a way that felt almost deliberate.

“It’s simple,” she said.

She rested her hands on the edge of the table.

“I go straight. You follow.”

Lex stared at her for a long second. “That does not sound like a plan.”

Kana did not argue. She simply looked at Suri. “The layout.”

“Yes, leader!” Suri responded with exaggerated enthusiasm, pulling out the large parchment and spreading it across the table.

Ink lines crisscrossed the page, mapping slopes, entrances, ventilation shafts, guard rotations, supply paths. Notes crowded the margins in Suri’s neat but hurried handwriting. The mountain was not just stone on that parchment. It was a living structure. A trap waiting to close.

Lex leaned over the map, tracing a tunnel with his finger. His brow furrowed.

“My partner will arrive soon,” he said. “We should at least discuss this with him before making a final decision. When are you planning to leave?”

“Tonight,” Kana answered without hesitation.

The word hung in the air.

“It’s more than a week of travel,” she continued, voice steady. “We’ve already lost days. Every hour matters.”

She glanced toward the door, where the sky had darkened to a deep violet. “We’ll use horses. We move fast.”

“You’re rushing,” Lex warned. “You need to slow down and think this through.”

Kana drew in a slow breath, then looked to Suri again. “Tell him what you saw.”

Suri’s playful expression vanished completely. She stepped forward and tapped a large, shaded circle near the center of the mine’s diagram.

“There’s a shaft here,” she said quietly. “A big one. It’s filled with bodies. Miners. A lot of them.”

The room went still.

“Whatever they’re digging,” Suri continued, her voice no longer light, “it’s killing people. And they’re replacing them constantly. That’s why they keep capturing new ones.”

Lex bent closer to the parchment, his expression tightening as calculation replaced hesitation. His fingers pressed lightly against the paper, as though feeling for something beneath it.

“I think I know what they’re extracting,” he murmured. “If I’m right…”

His gaze shifted, distant for a moment.“... This could benefit the kingdom, whatever we find there might be crucial missing information the king is currently trying to address.” he finished softly.

He straightened, and the faintest smile curved his lips,“Very well,” Lex said. “We rescue the villagers. And we collect samples.”

Kana’s lips twitched upward.

Outside, the final sliver of sun slipped beneath the horizon.

The village dimmed. Lanterns flickered to life. Shadows lengthened and intertwined.

And in that growing darkness, Kana felt whole again.

….

The village gates stood open behind them, yawning like an old mouth reluctant to speak its farewell. Evening settled slowly across the rooftops, violet light pooling between houses and clinging to the edges of thatched roofs. The air smelled of damp soil and woodsmoke. Crickets had already begun their thin chorus, stitching the coming night together.

They gathered just beyond the last fence post, a tight cluster of youth and stubborn resolve.

The village chief stepped forward, hands clasped behind his back in a posture that failed to hide his worry. Deep lines carved his face, and tonight they seemed deeper. “You all should come back alive,” he said, voice gruff but unsteady. “Your mothers are going to kill me if something happens to both of you.”

Suri grinned and reached up to pat his shoulder twice, as though comforting him instead. “Don’t worry, Chief. We’re stronger than your son.”

The chief glanced sideways.

Boris stood several steps away, scratching the belly of the lizard as if the entire expedition were a minor inconvenience while Thorne chirped in blissful ignorance.

“I agree,” the chief muttered dryly.

The group divided with quiet efficiency. Plans discussed in daylight now turned into movement. The first group mounted horses, leather creaking, metal buckles chiming faintly. These were the students, joined by Lex, Kier, and Monde. Their silhouettes looked older atop saddles, taller somehow, as though responsibility added inches.

The second group arranged the two large wagons behind them. Heavy wheels reinforced with iron rims. Thick canvas covers tied down and ready to shelter the rescued miners they hoped to bring back. The wagons looked less like transport and more like promises.

Kana tightened the strap on her saddle. The sunset brushed her features in amber, but the softness from earlier had long since vanished. The familiar sharpness had returned to her eyes, the kind that measured distance and threat in the same glance.

Horses snorted and shifted. Hooves scraped against packed earth.

Suri swung herself onto her mount with confidence that lasted precisely three seconds.

The horse reacted immediately, neighing sharply and rearing halfway as if personally offended by her existence. Suri grabbed for the reins, legs clamping down with more enthusiasm than technique.

“Stay still!” she hissed.

The horse seemed to interpret this as a challenge.

It twisted sideways, attempting to shake her loose. Suri leaned forward, nearly horizontal for a moment, hair whipping across her face. The students watched with varying degrees of concern and suppressed laughter as she wrestled the animal’s neck like it was a stubborn classmate refusing homework.

After a solid minute of chaos and indignation, the horse froze.

Its ears flattened. Its breathing slowed.

Elle shifted in her saddle, worry creasing her brow. “Is Suri going to be alright? It’s a bit hard to ride a horse when it’s your first time.”

Kana forced a small smile, though it carried an undercurrent of long-suffering familiarity. “No. It’s not her first time.”

However, Suri’s horse stood perfectly fine now. As if it became all of a sudden obedient to her. 

Kana adjusted her grip on the reins. “Let’s just say she has her own way of riding a horse.” She paused, watching as the animal refused to make eye contact with its rider. “Scaring it might be the right term.”

Suri patted the horse’s neck proudly.

The horse flinched.

A ripple of laughter passed through the group.

Beyond the fields, the road stretched into shadow, winding toward the mountains where miners had vanished and secrets waited beneath stone. The sky darkened from violet to indigo. One by one, stars began to pierce through.

Kana looked ahead, posture straight.

“Let’s move out.”

Hooves struck the earth in unison.

The village grew smaller behind them, lantern lights flickering like distant embers. Ahead lay more than a week of travel, uncertainty, and whatever had carved that terrible hole in the mine.

Post note:

Have a great week ahead!Hope you enjoy the chap! 🙂