Chapter 22   – Encounter

Skye Editor: thursdays PR: sj_myself

◈❖◈

“Baraha!”

Yuriel jumped off the platform with a look of bewilderment.

“Why are you here? Wait, before that, why are you trying to take the lift during an emergency? You used one to kill a monster before. Doesn’t it scare you?”

Baraha was a researcher who had studied monsters back in Mogris.

A self-proclaimed researcher.

He had appeared every so often to analyze Yuriel’s prophetic dreams. He would ask her a variety of questions, then disappear for months at a time once he collected enough information.

I thought he was a commoner. What’s he doing here in the capital and the alchemists’ tower? Don’t tell me, was he an alchemist this entire time?

Baraha was the reason Yuriel was afraid of lifts. He had cut the head of a monster with a snap by shoving it in a freight lift and slashing the wire. Even though the victim had been an evil fiend, it was a gruesome death.

Yuriel thought anyone who witnessed such a sight would become frightened of lifts…

Baraha responded slowly with a blank look. “I’m not scared, but… If I have to describe how I feel right now, I’d say it’d be scarier if we can’t escape from this tower, Yuriel.”

….But if anyone were to be an exception, it would be Baraha.

Unable to find a semblance of fear in his eyes, Yuriel felt some of the tension inside her subside.

“Ah, I see. Well, let’s get down first.”

Whenever she was next to Baraha–even if it was in the middle of a dangerous situation–she felt her senses grow dull. It might have something to do with that dumb, expressionless face of his. She wondered how Baraha and Raphlet–who both sported black hair and were always expressionless–could give off such different auras.

Yuriel felt her rapidly beating heart return to its regular rhythm.

She would have to wait to ask Baraha, whom she met in Mogris, what he was doing in the capital once they safely evacuated from the tower. She grabbed his wrist, pulling him to get back onto the lift.

“Huh? What, are you not going to get on?”

“Wait.”

He didn’t budge. Instead, he stared vacantly at the roof of the lift. Yuriel followed his gaze and heard a sound like something was cut.

The wire that had been supporting the lift snapped. With a loud noise, the lift went crashing down. The space it had been occupying was now completely empty.

“Yeah, it looked like it was going to fall,” Baraha said, finally answering her earlier question. There wasn’t a hint of emotion on his face.

Yuriel’s hand quivered uncontrollably as she saw the lift plummet right before her eyes. Her heart started to thump wildly in her chest once more.

Baraha hunched down and lowered his larger frame, perhaps noticing her ragged breathing. Meeting her eyes, he gently caressed her neck and asked, “Is it hard to breathe?”

“Y-Yeah…”

“Hm, is it because you’re scared? You’re not dead, and it doesn’t look like you’re injured anywhere either. You’re fine. There’s no reason as to why you should have trouble breathing,” he murmured like a person who didn’t understand emotions.

“Oh, you even have a gun. Then you don’t have any reason to be nervous. That’s great, Yuriel,” he added.

“You know about guns?”

“I’m the one who invented them… Hm, did I never tell you?”

Yuriel’s breathing evened when she heard the unexpected response. Probing her neck with his long fingers, Baraha narrowed his eyes slightly before getting up.

“If you’ve calmed down now, let’s go. Looks like we’re going to have to take the stair–”

“How are you so calm? Do you know where the emergency escape route is?”

“No. Since I don’t really care if I live or die…”Yuriel’s eyes flashed at his overly languid demeanor, but when she heard his ridiculous reply, her face grew red. She shouted, “Then why didn’t you just get on the lift and crash with it!?”

“Because you don’t want to die.”

Yuriel’s eyes widened.

Baraha continued, “Should we have just died together then? I don’t actually care either way.”

When she heard more of his absurd words, Yuriel swung her hand down on his back. Hard.

“You’re the whole reason I’m even back up here in the first place!” she yelled as she repeatedly smacked his back.

If you’re going to die, die by yourself! Don’t drag someone else with you! I’m going to live for a long time while supporting Raphlet!

“It hurts. Stop hitting me…”

“It doesn’t look like you’re in pain at all!”

“Not me–you. Your hand is swollen,” Baraha said slowly while turning around. Yuriel’s hand hung lifelessly in the air. She had paused her ministrations of hitting him when she finally noticed her red, swollen palms.

“What floor are we on?”

“Twenty-seven.”

“Seven…?”

“No, Twenty-seven. Let’s go down.”

Just how many floors does this tower have…?

Yuriel held a look of confusion as Baraha dragged her along. Spotting her faltering form, Baraha grumbled and scolded her.

“Do you want to fall off and die? Put strength in your legs and walk properly.”

“Stop talking about dying. It’s scary.”

“Death isn’t what’s scary, Yuriel. It’s being unable to die and having to live while being taken advantage of forever.”

“Oh, I see.”

Agreeing with the odd words Baraha spouted, Yuriel climbed down the stairs. Immediately after she put strength into her legs, his grip on her wrist loosened. He let go of her completely as soon as he confirmed that she was able to walk properly on her own.

They came to a halt when they got to the twentieth floor, seeing the stairs that were destroyed.

“Baraha, isn’t there a room full of monster cores around here?”

“Hm… This is the twentieth floor. Hmm, the room full of monster cores… That room is probably on the sixteenth floor,” he replied in an unconvincing tone.

He had plopped down on the floor as soon as he saw the ruined stairs, looking like he had already given up on his life.

“Why do you ask?”

“I saw the cores in that room explode because a monster came in with bombs on its back.”

“Ah, did you have another prophetic dream? Did you take a nap?”

“No.” Yuriel took a seat next to Baraha and asked, “You said you made this?”

“Yeah.”

“You’ve fired one before, right?”

“Yeah,” he repeated flatly, chin resting on his hand as he watched her remove the safety lock on the gun that she’d been carrying this whole time.

“That monster is going to appear here soon, and you’re going to shoot it since I’m not quite experienced with this weapon yet…”

“Why should I?”

“…Huh?”

“I don’t want to shoot,” he said, his tone resembling that of a whining child. He placed the gun down and turned the hand that was supporting his chin. With the back of his hand now pressed against his cheek, he slowly blinked and repeated, “Not gonna shoot.”

Yuriel felt a sense of bewilderment rise up inside her again.

Just what in the world was this man’s problem? Of all people she had to run into here, it just had to be Baraha.

She pulled at her loosened braids, and when Baraha stretched his hand towards her–as if he found her state humorous–she slapped it away. He rubbed his hand as he took it back, but not before grazing the ends of her hair first.

She gave him one more glance before staring at the giant hole in the wall.

Raphlet was most likely still below them. Since she had told him of the monster with the bombs, he probably wouldn’t leave until he took care of it.

Right now, Yuriel was on the twentieth floor. It was a good spot to fire at the monster.

It wasn’t that she didn’t trust Raphlet. It was because if there was an opportunity to help him in any way, she wanted to take it.Yuriel released a sigh and took back the gun she had handed to Baraha.

“Do what you want.”

She couldn’t force him to shoot if he didn’t want to.

She confirmed the safety lock once more. It was properly off.

Baraha watched uneasily as she assumed a poor stance. Eventually, he found himself unable to hold back from intervening.

“…If you hold it like that, you’re going to injure your shoulder.”

“Huh?”

“That…your wrist–your wrist is twisted too.”

“Where?”

“Here–and your arm… Why is your posture like this?”

Yuriel was situated two steps below Baraha on the staircase, so the latter lightly tapped her wrist with his foot.

“You said you’re not that good at handling a gun yet.”

“Yeah.”

“Then why are you in such a position? Do you want to hit your face with the recoil?”

After lowering the foot that was tapping her wrist and arm, Baraha raised himself up. He positioned himself so that he was pressed right against her, enveloping her from behind.

Long legs popped out from either side of her. Baraha muttered to himself as he fixed her arms. Once he fixed her upper posture, he got up and grabbed her waist to lift her to her feet.

“Are you going to shoot that thing?” he asked as he stared ahead.

One monster stood out among the approaching horde in the distance. It was the monster that was carrying the bombs.

“Y-Yeah, t-that one,” Yuriel stuttered quickly. Baraha nodded and then pushed her back, causing the body that had been tilting backward to stand straight again.

“Can I shoot now?” she asked once she felt his hand leave her back.

“Yeah.”

Baraha was making an expression that looked relieved, like he had done his duty.

Baffled by the subtle brightness on his face, Yuriel let out a small smile. He had refused to be the one shooting, but he still readily fixed her posture.

As the corner of her lips twitched upwards, Baraha tilted his head slightly.

“If you don’t shoot now, it’ll be too late.”

“Ah.”

Broken out of her reverie thanks to his warning, Yuriel focused her gaze on the monsters that appeared larger and larger as they neared. She took in a deep breath and held it as she pulled the trigger.

A louder than usual sound rang out next to her ear.

“Ah, they changed directions. They’re headed towards us now. Guess we’re going to die.”

With her ear still recovering from the deafening noise, Yuriel picked up Baraha mumbling something, but she wasn’t able to make out the words and rubbed her ear with her shoulder. She fidgeted as she saw the monsters rushing towards them.

“I missed!”

“Yeah.”

“Ba-Baraha!” she shrieked.

Her posture–which she had only just been able to correct–faltered due to panic. Though she managed to regain her senses and reposition herself, her stance still looked uneasy in Baraha’s eyes.

He let out a sigh before taking the gun from her hands. He pushed her to the side with his foot, nudging her to stand behind him with his chin.

“Stand behind me and cover your ears.”

“Huh? Why?”

“Hurry.”

Yuriel nodded. She followed his command and clung to his back. After confirming that Yuriel covered her ears, Baraha exhaled and pulled the trigger.

After the sound of several consecutive shots, an explosion went off. The heat from the bomb that had detonated in midair made it all the way to the stairway the two were in.

Baraha threw the gun away before turning around to grab Yuriel, encircling her in his arms.

Blown away by the blast, the two were sent plunging to the ground.

◈❖◈

T/N: edit: I’ll be taking a temporary hiatus until mid-late January. More details can be found on discord