Chapter 49 - Alice

"Hey, are you sure about this?" Arga leaned in to whisper.

She kept herself soft enough so that Alice would not hear us talking while remaining pretty loud in my ear.

"I know it's a little risky but I still think it's the right thing to do. Sorry for putting you in this situation, Arga."

She sighed back and smirked as if she accepted it.

"What do you expect, I can't just leave my first party member on his own. Plus—isn't this a little too close to what we wanted?"

"I guess you're right about that." I said back.

Here's what we learned so far.

Alice is indeed a Dragon but instead of the mindless monsters we expected her to be, she's a different race of monster called 'Elder Dragon'. Neither Arga nor I have ever heard of such a phrase and I doubt anyone back home would have either.

We asked her about it but she didn't seem to have much answers for us, other than elder species are able to talk like she can. From what she mentioned before it doesn't sound like these elder dragons spawn on the lower floors, so I'm still not sure how she got to that room.

Alice said she was brought down here from the higher floors, along with her older brothers. All she mentioned was that she was running from something. That they both looked scared. If she and her brothers were able to come down from another Floor then they must have passed through the Doors. Meaning these Elder Dragons must have something in common with the Wondering Bosses we've experienced before.

I turned back to the little girl walking behind me and frowned.

We don't even know where we're going…she mentioned the higher floors but we aren't even sure we'll be able to survive a trip like that.

"Uhm, Alice?"

She looked up at me with attentive eyes.

"Do you remember anything about your home, possibly where it is?"

She thought for a moment, then pulled an unsure face while trying to recall but ultimately came up empty and shook side to side.

I thought so…

"I'm sorry, I was never allowed to leave the castle so I don't know much about the places outside of my home."

Both Arga and I turned to each other with wide eyes, thinking the same thing.

"A…castle?"

Alice shook her head to answer Arga's question.

"She definitely said castle." Arga rushed to my side from behind and wrapped her arm around my shoulder. She created a small huddle to hone our conversation away from Alice's ears.

"She said castle—so she has to be some kind of nobility or rich girl right?!"

Arga had a crazed look to her, one I had never seen before. It was scary…she looked ready to sell Alice off at a moment's notice.

"So what if she is?" I asked hesitantly.

"Don't you get it, Rei? If she is then there has to be some rare finds or maybe even a bit of cash involved in this quest!"

Arga grew louder and more energetic as she squeezed me tighter. She had become so greed-driven that I could practically see the coins forming in her pupils.

"Arga—let go of me…please!" I pulled away.

Arga turned to Alice and put on a chummy smile. She walked over to her and held out her hand to the little girl.

"It's pretty dark in here, we should hold hands to stay together~" Arga's voice became a lot more cheerful, her words almost sounded like singing.

My mouth turned sour as my disappointment in Arga formed a scowl on my face.

She only thinks about money sometimes…

Alice looked nervous at Arga's advances. She stared at her hand with a jumpy gaze and ran to my side instead. She cowered behind me with her hands tugging at my clothes, just beneath my chest plate straps and shivered in fright.

Arga wore a defeated look on her face which triggered a small giggle to surface from my throat.

"He-he! I'm glad Alice isn't tricked by something so simple." I laughed.

"Uhm…Rei?"

"What's wrong Alice, is Arga scaring you?"

"I'm not scary!"

Alice pointed forward to a looming shadow approaching around the corner of the tunnel. It looked to be coming from another room like the one we had just left.

As I focused on the shadows I realised the shuffling figures of swords and other weapons hanging from the shadow's hands.

It's adventurers!

My eyes lowered to Alice who was still cowering at my waist. I needed to get her out of there before anyone saw her, or else it would be all over.

I knew people would try to attack her once they found out, it was only natural. There's a possibility we could calm them down enough to talk if it was just a few people but—if ASH found out. No chance.

I can't let that happen.

I grabbed Alice's hand and ran. There were two tunnels in the room that lead out into the deeper areas of the Floor. One was on the right while right beside it was the tunnel the adventurers were entering from.

We didn't have time to think about so we raced into the empty tunnel to the right and booked it!

Hoping nobody would be waiting for us further down we ran and ran as fast as we could while holding in any sound from our lungs.