Lapsa (2)

Snikt!

As Aria wanted to take a step forward, she was stopped by a knife burying itself on the ground in front of her.

"What the-" she muttered, as she looked above, the direction where the knife came from.

Raising her eyebrow, she questioned who the hell would do something like this.

Thud.

However, her questions were quickly answered as the figure of a familiar man landed beside her.

Landing gracefully, Lapsa raised his head, looking around and scanning his environment.

It didn't take a genius for her to realize who threw the knife.

"Are you crazy?!" she yelled, her voice echoing with disbelief.

Lapsa shook his head, his face turning to the corpses. Lapsas narrowed his eye, as he spoke. "I don't think so."

He raised his arms, pointing at one of the corpses as he continued speaking. "It seems like they were killed by a creature with claws. Judging by their wounds, I'm guessing that it was some kind of wolf."

Aria was annoyed by his nonchalant response. Why was he so rude to her? Had she ever done something to him?

"If you're not crazy...why did you throw the knife at me, then?" Huffing, Aria furrowed her eyebrows in irritation.

She paused for a moment, letting out a heavy breath to control her emotions again.

Realizing that getting worked up won't take her anywhere, she lowered her voice. "You seem very rude toward me. Have I offended you somehow?"

Shaking his head, Lapsa's voice turned more gentle. "I think it was just my personal prejudice..."

He massaged his temples, sighing. "I apologize for my rude behavior. I hadn't realized that."

His understanding behavior surprised Aria. Contrary to his previous behavior, he seemed to mellow down, acting kinder toward her.

Maybe he wasn't a bad person at all.

"It's alright. It was partially my fault too. I should've been more understanding." Aria cracked a weak smile, hoping that everything was alright again. She then turned around to the knife, pointing at it.

"What was your reason for throwing the knife? I'm not mad anymore. I am just trying to understand you."

"What a kind person you are." Lapsa's deep voice resounded with a short laugh. He then approached the knife, picked it up, and let it disappear in a purple light — at least that's what it seemed like to her.

He dwelled in his kneeling position for a while, slowly stroking the cut of the knife, seemingly pondering about something.

"I have never heard about a dungeon in the second layer before." He turned around, looking over at the corpses and skeletons once again. "Usually, falling into the void is a guaranteed death."

Aria raised an eyebrow, tilting her head to the side. "..but we are still alive..?"

Lapsas nodded, continuing to explain. "That's the thing. We are."

He then pointed at one of those corpses. "But it makes sense if we compare the ages of the bodies."

"I don't understand?" Aria approached one of the corpses, taking a closer look.

As a saint, she had impressive healing abilities; she was often the contact person for many medical professionals and thus was confronted with many injured or even dead patients.

However, even with all her experience, she couldn't find what Lapsas was talking about.

"It's the ages of the bodies." Lapsas walked to her side, kneeling down as he touched the wound of one of the corpses. "This wound still seems to be pretty fresh..."

"While the corpses seem to be a few days old at best.." He pointed at a skeleton. "The skeletons seem to be a few years old. There is a clear distinction here."

"And that means..?"

"This dungeon only opens at a specific time..." Lapsas lowered his head, resting his forehead on his hands. "..does it correlate with the incident..?"

"That doesn't answer my question, though..?" Aria noted, tapping her feet impatiently. "Why did you throw that knife at me?"

"My apologies. I trailed off." His voice carried the sound of amusement as he cleared his voice. "As I said, falling into the void is a death sentence most of the time. However, as you fell down, I heard a crashing sound, meaning that there actually was ground this time."

Lapsas picked up a stone, throwing it into the air. "By using the sound of the knife, I roughly measured the height of the fall to see if you could have survived it."

He then paused for a moment before looking at Aria.

"Don't worry about you getting hurt. I purposely threw it in front of you to stop you from walking any further." Lapsas raised a finger, pointing at the dark floor in front of them. "There are many traps in a dungeon, after all."

Aria's eyes widened in surprise, not being able to believe what he had just told her. How could someone possess such keen senses?

She put her hand on her lips, stroking them thoughtfully, as she furrowed her eyebrows.

Was he perhaps some kind of lycanthrope? That would certainly explain his fox masks. Maybe he belonged to the fox lycanthropes?

"I am human." Lapsa interrupted her train of thought with a firm voice, seemingly able to read her thoughts. "While I used the sound to locate you and your movements, that doesn't mean that. I only used my senses. Mana exists, after all."

"But I didn't feel any mana being used in the atmosphere, though."

"Maybe try to improve your sensing senses then."

Dismissing the conversation, Lapsas stood up and walked into the hallway. He walked for a while until he suddenly halted.

Lapsas turned his head around, looking at her.

"Don't you want to come?"

Aria had just stared at his back, so immersed in her thoughts that she didn't realize she hadn't followed him.

She just stared at his back, wordlessly.

Although Lapsas seemed to be a newbie, he certainly had at least some experience in this area.

While that wasn't a surprising thing, as mercenaries could have been knights or paladins before their entrance into the mercenary world, Lapsa didn't seem like that type of person.

Knights, paladins, or every other type of trained fighter had a similar aura. They all seemed like people who worked hard to attain their current capabilities.

However, Lapsa didn't look like that. Even though his movements seemed so graceful, the air about him was off.

It felt violent and sad for her.

She couldn't explain in words what feelings he triggered in her, but she empathized with him.

Aria hadn't thought about it before, but seeing his wide back from behind somehow gave him a lonely look-

Almost as if he had been shouldering many burdens on his own for all this time.

She pitied him.

Even without knowing anything about him, she could feel that he was a pitiful person.

Although Arias wanted to find out more about him, now was not the time for such things.

With a heavy sigh, she stood up and formed a weak smile, looking at the dark floor.

She could ask questions later and find out more about him when they spend time together.

However, for now, they had a mission to fulfill and a key to find.

"I'm coming."

She said, as she quickly followed behind, creating a small sphere of light to illuminate their path in a floor full of darkness.