Chapter 707: A chasm

Isolde was momentarily startled when Elion motioned for her to stand. He raised a small platform from the ground and sat down before gesturing for her to sit on his lap.

When she understood his meaning, her cheeks flushed, and her eyes darted around as though she were afraid the others would tease her.

Regardless, with Elion’s hand gently guiding her, she gingerly lowered herself onto his lap.

Elion drew her back from her awkward position, allowing her to rest against his broad chest before wrapping his arms around her waist and holding her gently.

’She’s so small,’ he realized. After Celeste’s recent physical changes, Isolde was now even smaller than her, though not by much.

Because of his physique, his body easily trapped warmth despite the cold, so easily enough, her body melted into his as he shared his warmth with her.

The feeling of her little ass on his lap was tempting enough, but it was her fragrance that truly drew him in. She smelled like fresh mint and vanilla.

He took in a deep whiff, momentarily closing his eyes as the scent teased his nostrils. Isolde heard him breathe in deeply, but she didn’t quite know what to do, so she twiddled around with her fingers in silence.

"Lucky bastard," Aki muttered, watching their blatant flirting with a jealous expression.

The other guys looked much the same, and for a moment, it was almost as though they had completely forgotten about William’s existence.

Yaana came over and quietly began playing with the fire, the usual bright smile remaining on her face. Eva eventually drifted off to sleep, and Uta was kind enough to put up a tent for her to rest in.

"Where do you guys intend to go from here?" Elion asked after a while, directing his question toward Rina.

Rina smiled wryly. Even though the conversation had barely begun, she could already guess where it was heading.

"We were heading southeast. There wasn’t much to be found farther north, and the temperatures were so terrible that we had no choice but to turn south. That region was hell itself, I dare say..."

Elion nodded. "We came from the landmass in the central region. There’s a massive rift separating it from this northern one."

"A rift?" Rina asked.

"Yeah, an impossibly vast chasm between the two landmasses. From above, it looks like a giant fissure in the earth. And there’s probably a monster down in its depths, though we couldn’t see what."

Just remembering the incessant, bellowing sounds rising from that abyss made Elion’s expression pale slightly.

Whatever had been lurking below, he had felt no desire to descend far enough to get a proper look at it.

He had tried to see with his eyes, but the chasm was too deep; after going down for miles, he stopped before overextending himself, lest his eyes bleed out and go blind.

Yeah, that had actually happened one time.

Kali had suggested that she go down to check, but Elion decided against it. They didn’t want to accidentally wake up some world-ending abomination after all.

Sometimes, it was better to just leave things be, instead of letting your curiosity get the better of you.

"How did you cross it, then?" Rina asked.

"The only way we found was to fly over it." He continued before she could ask the obvious question. "I’m capable of flight myself, and that devilishly beautiful woman we call Kali might not look it, but she’s a Saint."

Rina, the second-year guys, and even Mira and Tessa all shuddered in shock.

"What?" Rina asked. "That woman is a Saint?"

Elion nodded, looking rather pleased with their reactions.

"Who would have thought?" Tessa murmured.

’I hope I didn’t unknowingly offend her or anything,’ Cody thought, his complexion growing pale.

He had been ogling her quite shamelessly earlier, and now that he knew she was a Saint, he genuinely feared for his life.

"Anyway," Elion continued, "if that rift is anything like the others separating the landmasses, then very few people will be able to move between regions, if they can cross at all."

"Wait." Rina’s brows drew together as another thought occurred to her. "If she’s a Saint, does that mean she’s a native of this place?"

There was no way she could have entered this place from the outside, after all...

Elion nodded. "The little girl too. We ran into them on our way north."

"Why north, though?" Rina asked. "Of all the places you could have gone, you chose to come to this dry region? We haven’t even found any treasures here."

Elion shrugged, his arms resting comfortably around Isolde’s waist.

"My girls were here, and I didn’t want to spend the rest of our time worrying about how they were doing." His eyes grew cold for a moment. "Turns out I was right to come, though now I wish I’d arrived sooner."

"You have a way to track them?" Rina asked in surprise.

Elion nodded without elaborating, leaving her uncertain what to think.

His precaution had certainly worked in their favor, but honestly, how clingy did someone have to be to place a tracker on his romantic partner?

She couldn’t quite understand it, though it wasn’t as if she had ever courted anyone herself, so perhaps she simply couldn’t relate.

"I take it you’ll be taking the three of them with you," Rina said after a moment, watching him expectantly.

This was what she had been afraid of. He had killed one member of her team, and now he was bound to take away three more. How exactly was she supposed to make do with just five people?

Things had already been difficult enough when they were sharing the burden among the nine of them, though admittedly, one person had been nothing but dead weight.

"Naturally," Elion answered.

A shameless smile appeared on his face as he continued. "Honestly, I’d expect a group of five second-years from the great flying academy to be able to manage here. There are people from less affluent backgrounds doing just fine with five members or fewer, after all."

Rina’s brow twitched, and a strained smile formed on her face.

In a way, he was right. They would certainly survive, and perhaps even do well with just the five of them, but that didn’t make the loss any smaller.

Tessa had become a dependable partner on the front line, while Mira’s support and judgment had made her a vital member of the team.

Isolde was a great asset as well. Beyond keeping their water supplies replenished, her spells had saved them from more dangerous situations than Rina cared to count.

The three of them worked so well together that Rina would dare say their teamwork surpassed that of many established adventurer groups, much less their own little group of second-years.

They understood when to advance, when to retreat, and how to cover one another without wasting precious moments shouting instructions.

What had initially seemed like a possible babysitting adventure had quickly become a cooperative relationship built on mutual respect and efficient teamwork.

Whatever complaints the other second-years might have had about them, Rina knew how much those three first-years had contributed.

Perhaps another group would have died during their first week in this region.

The constantly changing temperatures, combined with the seemingly endless encounters with desert monsters, were simply too harrowing for most people to manage, especially without a healer to tend to their accumulating injuries.

Losing the three of them meant far more than simply having fewer people to share the work.

Elion could somewhat understand her hesitation. Under different circumstances, he might have invited the remaining second-years to join them, but his own group had already grown large enough, and traveling with so many people brought plenty of things to consider.

There were supplies to account for, different fighting styles to coordinate, and the simple matter of getting everyone to agree when a decision needed to be made.

In a place like this, those complications could quickly become troublesome. For now, he was content to have Mira, Tessa, and Isolde back at his side.