The Song Of Sword And Magic

Chapter 48: Fleeing From Wolfsburg 

[Translator — Asuka]

[Proofreader — Karane]

After a short break, all of them continued walking through the passageway. There were more twists and turns now as one moment they took a sixty-degree left turn, and the next moment they took a thirty-degree right turn, which was then followed by one more left turn. In this narrow passageway, there was no way they could ascertain the direction. Fern was even starting to doubt that they were going back to Wolfsburg.

In this depressing atmosphere, they kept walking and taking breaks. The passageway seemed to be eternally dark as their torches could only light up the area around them, so they could see nothing in the distance. Time seemed to have been distorted as they couldn’t tell whether it was daytime or nighttime. The passing of time didn’t mean anything for them at the moment.

Fern was starting to be anxious about the possibility that they might never get out of here. His forehead was beaded with sweat, and his breathing became unstable.

“Wait a minute.” After calling out to Fern, Rae moved past Niss and placed her hands on Fern’s head. Rae was shorter than him, so she had to raise her hands as she chanted a spell. A moment later, she lowered her hands and let out a breath. “Being at the front, it’s too much pressure for you. I’ve used some magic to calm you down. I don’t think there’s any danger here, so you should be at ease.”

Fern shook his head, thinking that he was indeed less anxious now. It was as though a basin of cold water had been poured on him, which caused him to calm down. “Thanks, Rae.”

He then started leading the way again. After walking in the passageway for three more hours, they finally saw that the road beneath them was sloping upward. They were excited about this change and no longer depressed as they hastened their pace.

***

The following journey would take them a long time as well, but they all knew that the exit was ahead of them, so they didn’t mind it. After about two hours, Fern stopped in his tracks.

“What’s wrong, Fern?” Niss stopped as well.

“I think… we’ve reached the exit.” While looking up, Fern cocked his head a little to speak to her.

“Really? That’s great. Where is the exit?” Niss asked excitedly.

With the torch in one hand, Fern didn’t answer her question as he lifted his other hand to search around. 

Just then, Rae and Stan reached them as well and realized that there was no road ahead—they were faced with a soil wall. Apparently, it was the end of the passageway.

“That’s it!” Fern suddenly found something as he was grabbing a stone handle that was buried in the soil. “Niss, help me hold this torch.” After passing the torch to her, he grasped the handle with both hands and tried to push it outward.

Seeing that, Stan passed his torch to Rae as well and walked up to Fern before pushing it with him. Finally, the soil above them started dropping as a stone lid was opened by them. After pushing the stone lid away, through the square-shaped exit, they could see that there were countless twinkling stars in the darkness above their heads.

All of them let out a long breath. After walking in this passageway for almost one night, they were finally relieved to see the exit. Niss couldn’t wait to leave. “Let’s get out of here, Fern!”

The mercenary remained calm. “Wait a minute. I’ll go have a look first. If there’s no danger out there, I’ll pull all of you up.”

“Fern, don’t try to lure away the enemies by running away like what you did before.” Rae reminded coldly.

“Don’t worry. I still remember that you left a mark on my body. There’s no way I can run away.” After flashing a smile at her, Fern jumped up as he clenched at the land outside the exit and pulled himself up. Upon getting his right leg up, he flipped over and rolled out of the exit.

After giving it a thought, Niss turned to look at Rae. “You left a mark on him not long after we entered the Source of Magic, right? Is it still effective after such a long time? I have never heard of this magic before. Is it dark magic?”

With a smug smile, Rae leaned closer to Niss and slightly covered her mouth with her hand. “I didn’t leave any mark on his body. I simply touched him with my magic cane and made him think he could never run away from us so that he wouldn’t do anything silly again.”

Finally knowing what happened, Niss exclaimed, “That’s a brilliant idea, Rae!”

Just when Rae wanted to say something, Fern was heard saying from above, “Come up now. We’re safe.”

Fern told Stan to put out the torches in the passageway before pulling them all up. With the help of the moonlight, he put the stone lid back and covered it with soil until it looked just like its surrounding area.

After that, they looked around and realized that they were in a pine forest. Most of the pine needles had fallen, but they were indeed in a secret place.

***

“It’s not easy to dig a passageway like this from outside Wolfsburg.” Stan found it amazing. “You have to understand that even the fiends couldn’t escape from the patrol squad of Doyle.”

“Fiends wouldn’t go underground,” Rae replied impassively. “But it’s indeed not an easy feat to dig a passageway here. I wonder how they handled the excavated soil.” 

“Alright, we’ll leave this question to the people who will use this passageway in the future. Now, we’ll just enjoy this beautiful view first.” Fern interrupted their discussion and pointed at the sky.

Through the tree branches, they could see that aside from the moon and the stars, the entire sky was covered with green aurorae, which further illuminated the night and painted the land green.

Niss was completely immersed in this splendid view. “It’s so beautiful! The world would have been perfect without the Dark Tide.”

Fern stood beside Niss and looked up at the night sky as well. “Just remember that we’re living in a beautiful world, and we’ll defend it with our lives.”

“As long as I’m alive, I will never allow the Dark Tide to invade our land.” Stan swore to the sky.

Rae walked up to them as well and gazed at the sky.

Right then, a breeze whisked across them, which caused them to pull their cloaks closer. Nevertheless, they were enchanted by the night sky and wouldn’t want to leave. At this instant, they were standing on this barren land in the Northern border. It was as though they were the only people left in this world. As their figures blended with this magnificent view, they also became part of this eternally alluring world.

***

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