“Hmmm~ no~~…s-stopp itt~~….eh…?”

After tickling her for two whole minutes, Leila finally woke up to see Charlotte’s face up close.

“Fufufu~ maybe I should start calling you sleeping beauty from now on fufufu~”

“Eh…what’s going on…?”

When she looked around, it was dark and she couldn’t recognize the place.

“Lotte, maybe I should do the explaining….”

Without waiting for Leo to finish speaking, Charlotte cut him off “Listen carefully. Right now, we need to be extra careful. Do not, under any circumstance scream. Remember, never make any loud noises.”

Leila tilted her head in puzzlement. Waking up and suddenly being told not to make too much noise…what was going on?

Leo sighed and then took over “Leila, listen. We were kidnapped, but thanks to lotte’s quick thinking and actions, we somehow managed to escape.”

“Wait wait wait, what?” even though she was surprised by his words, she still kept in mind Charlotte’s warning.

“All you need to know is that the people who kidnapped us are dangerous. Right now we’re inside the 4th floor of an underground dungeon. I was already told that you don’t know how to fight or any magic, so as much as possible, stay close to those two.” Charlotte than casted the night vision spell on her as well.

After they had run away, going up would be dangerous. And even though going further down was also dangerous, at least, as long as they avoided the monster’s dwelling area, then they were safe. Charlotte then led them to a ‘safe room’ in a secret passage. There, they found a lake. They didn’t know from where the light came from, but a green-blue light shone on the water’s surface and there were also a lot of light crystals hanging on the walls.

But that still wasn’t enough as it was dark nonetheless. After Charlotte casted the spell, Leila gasped at how much clearer she could see. It was as if the sun shone down here.

After they had put down Leila, charlotte suggested to wake her up immediately as she needed to know this much.

Now that they were all conscious, Terence and Leo turned to Charlotte. She knew that they wanted an explanation.

“I’m sorry. I know what you guys want to know, but I can’t tell you. Even if I want to, it’s something that I just can’t.”

It’s not like she didn’t trust them, but even if she did tell them it would only make them more confused. Right now they couldn’t afford to be careless.

“You won’t tell us even if that breaks the trust between us?” Leo asked, there were both anger and confusion in his voice.

Leila was still confused and didn’t know what they were talking about.

“Whether you trust me or not is your own decision. But, as I had said, this is something that I can’t tell you guys, and not that I don’t trust you not to.”

Everything about her was weird. From the knowledge she possessed to the way she fought. These were things that a daughter of a duke shouldn’t know or be capable of.

“u-um…” it was silent. Only the sound of the water streaming could be occasionally heard.

Leo and Terence let out a sigh and shrugged their shoulders.

“In that case, I guess it can’t be helped.”

“Huh…?” charlotte was both surprised and confused

“Like Leo said, it can’t be helped. Everyone’s got their secrets and you’re our friend. So we trust you.”

“You guys….” If they were going to be angry with her or hate her or even abandon her, she would understand, but “…are idiots, you know that?”

“Oi! Is that something to say to your friend!?”

“What if I was a spy or what if I actually led you to a trap? Are you retarded? Is this how the future king should behave?”

Her words were as harsh and blunt as ever, to the point that it didn’t surprise them anymore after knowing her all this time.

“Hey, what’s going on you three?”

Leila jumped in between Charlotte and Leo and Terence. They let out a small laugh and Leo replied “Don’t worry. Its nothing.” and acted as though that conversation never happened.

“Okay, since you said this is an underground dungeon, do you know what kind of monsters lurk here?” Terence asked the question that had floated in his mind for a while, to which Charlotte blinked her eyes and said “….I think it would be for the best if you didn’t know.”

“Hey, can’t you just tell us at least that much?” he really wanted to know

“If I did tell you, you would just panic even more. Don’t you know the saying [ignorance is a bliss]?”

“So it’s bad? You can tell me if it’s bad at least right?”

“Terence, let’s just take her words for it, okay?”

“…fine.”

“Anyways, we should be safe for the time being. They probably wouldn’t have even imagined that we would go deeper in the dungeon instead of going trying to escape immediately. Monsters don’t roam around here except for lost ones maybe.”

“…alright. Then?”

“We should rest.”

““Hah?””

Since she woke up, Leila felt like she had been left out on things, so she just crouched down and pouted as the three made plans.

“Yes. You guys should be tired and I mean psychologically. If we keep going, before your bodies break down, your minds will. Also, I can feel a healing effect coming from the lake so this place is perfect for resting.”

The reason she came here was also because of this. In the game, there were always two to three safe zones on each floor that also had healing effects. She wasn’t sure whether that part would be the same, but after professor Kana’s guidance on magic, she had learned how to sense the mana around her. Now, whether the place had negative energy or positive energy and even being able to detect the presence of others with mana, she was able to do it.