Chapter 120: I Don’t Think They’re From the Same World as Us

Zoyra’s POV

Why is my body so hot?

She could feel her skin, damp and burning beneath her clothes, and instinctively turned her head to look at the others around her.

Jin and Arthur were in the same state. They were drenched in sweat and struggling to walk and breathe, with a difficulty she had never seen in them before.

Since when has it been like this?

She looked at the earth doll walking ahead of them, trying to understand the situation, to analyze it, but the little thing was fine. It simply kept moving forward, step after step, without the slightest sign of fatigue.

Still not understanding what was happening to them, Zoyra turned her gaze to their surroundings.

The ground had turned into a swamp. With every step, their feet sank into thick mud they had to wrench them out of, and each movement took a little more effort than the last. The air was heavy, damp, almost tropical, and the heat clung to their skin without ever letting up.

The vegetation didn’t make things any easier. It was so dense that they had to stop constantly to push aside branches blocking their way, and enormous roots jutted out of the ground everywhere, so thick that they had to step over them one by one. Even for rank-C adventurers, this path was exhausting.

And in the middle of all this, it was almost impossible to get their bearings. The trees hid everything, there was no vantage point from which to look into the distance, and they didn’t even know where their objective was. They had long since lost the trail cleared by the other party of adventurers, without even understanding how, and they had already been walking in vain for several hours.

Maybe they had been going in circles all this time. Maybe they had covered only a few thousand steps. Here, there was no way of knowing.

Their bodies might have been strengthened by training and mana, and their experience might have been considerable for their age, but this march had proven extremely hard. Between the oppressive heat, a place that was absolutely not made for humans to travel through, and the lack of clear information or even a simple direction to follow, it was all weighing on them enormously.

But why didn’t we notice any of this sooner? Why am I only realizing it now?

Zoyra could feel that something was off. There was something deeper behind all this. She wasn’t certain of it, but her intuition was telling her so, and she chose caution.

A few minutes later, when they came across a fairly flat patch of ground, she spoke up.

"Everyone, let’s stop here for now."

Then, remembering something, she immediately turned to Frelja and Arielle. They were the rank-S adventurers, after all, and she had just made the decision for everyone.

"Um... if that’s all right with you?"

"No, that’s fine. You’re right, given the state of the group, let’s rest a little," Frelja replied.

Aaaaah...

Zoyra let out an inward sigh of relief, touched by Frelja’s understanding and kindness. Because despite their armor, neither of the two women seemed tired, unlike the rest of them, but they hadn’t said a word about it and had simply agreed, for the good of the group.

She gave them a grateful nod, then let herself drop to the ground. Jin and Arthur did the same.

They slowly caught their breath. Jin dismissed his earth doll with a wave of his hand, which, oddly enough, seemed to... disappoint Frelja.

As for Arielle, she had already wandered off a little way without anyone noticing.

BOOOM—

Zoyra jumped, and so did the two boys. They turned their heads as one, just in time to see an enormous tree slowly tip over, then crash full-length into the mud, shaking the ground all the way under their feet.

Arielle stood beside the trunk.

Before their eyes, she calmly removed one of her gloves and tucked it into her belt. Then she held out her hand, fingers pressed together and perfectly straight, and brought it down on the massive trunk.

The wood split cleanly.

She did it again, and again, and with every strike, a plank came loose, a curve took shape, a piece of wood fell at her feet. Her movements were precise and steady, without the slightest hesitation, and little by little, something took form in her hands.

Wh-wh-what is this woman?! With her bare hands? Seriously?!

When she came back toward them, she had put her glove back on and was carrying a chair in one hand. Not some crude camp chair hastily put together, but a true nobleman’s chair, with a tall, finely carved back, rounded armrests, and ornate legs, its still-pale wood gleaming faintly in the light filtering through the trees.

Jin watched her walk past, mouth hanging open.

"Um... are you sure we’re living through the same thing?"

No one answered him. But Zoyra understood exactly what he meant.

They were out of breath, lost, covered in mud and nearly at the end of their strength, after only a few hours in this impassable dungeon. And on the other side, Frelja was humming cheerfully, her disappointment over the vanished doll already forgotten, watching Arielle approach with her chair.

Arielle set it down carefully right behind her.

"Here you are, my— Frelja. Please, make yourself comfortable."

Frelja sat down with a small sigh of satisfaction, legs crossed, without seeming the least bit surprised.

Arielle set off again at once, came back with the rest of the trunk in her arms, and arranged it in a small pile in the middle of their patch of ground. Then she held out her hand, and a fireball shot from her palm and lodged itself in the wood, which burst into flame all at once.

"Fire magic, now...?" Jin asked.

Once again, no one answered. They simply kept catching their breath as they watched the scene, and above all, what a so-called rank-S adventurer was capable of.

Arielle then walked over to the pond beside them, its water dark and murky, covered in a thin greenish film. She stopped at the edge and murmured something.

"Purification."

And before their eyes, the entire pond instantly turned perfectly clear. They could now see the bottom, the pebbles, and even the roots plunging into it.

But before they had even recovered from their surprise, Arielle dealt the finishing blow, the one that made their mouths fall open far wider than necessary.

A teapot appeared in her hand, out of nowhere. Then a small pouch of dried herbs, which she poured inside. She drew water from the pond, set it to heat over the fire, and waited calmly until the teapot began to steam. Then a porcelain cup appeared in Frelja’s hand, and Arielle filled it.

"A Nine Meadows tea, with its dew herbs, its moonflower, and its silver sage, exactly as you like it, my— Frelja."

Then she made a small glass jar appear, filled with a gleaming golden substance, and dipped a spoon into it.

"And here is the Mana Honey of Anubia, just as you like it, my lady."

She added a spoonful to the cup and stirred gently.

Frelja raised the cup to her lips, tasted it, then sipped slowly.

"Perfect, as always. Thank you, Arielle."

Of course, the two women had completely forgotten that they were supposed to be playing the part of rather mercenary adventurers. Their relationship as servant and mistress had taken over again without either of them noticing.

And while the three youngsters were still in a state of shock, Arielle turned to them. Three cups appeared in her hands, which she filled one by one, before adding a spoonful of golden honey to each. Then she held them out.

Us too?!

Zoyra still managed to get something out.

"Th-th-thank you!"

The other two immediately followed suit.

"THANK YOU!" Jin practically shouted, with a bow.

"Thank you very much," Arthur said, more shyly.

Arielle poured herself a cup in turn, and they all drank their tea in silence.

At the first sip, Zoyra couldn’t hold back an exclamation.

It was, by far, the best thing she had ever tasted in her entire life.

And for a moment, she was no longer in that swamp.

She was standing in the middle of an immense meadow, beneath a perfectly blue sky. The grass was soft and cool under her bare feet, and a light breeze set it rippling all around her, all the way to the horizon.

Then the scents arrived, one after another. First the freshness of dew on the blades of grass, then the sweet softness of a pale flower opening at her feet, then a deeper, almost woody note, coming from a tuft of silver sage a little farther away. Nine meadows, nine different scents, and each one came to rest on her tongue before giving way to the next.

Then a small crystal bee landed on her shoulder.

It was translucent, and sunlight passed through its wings, setting tiny golden glints dancing across them. Zoyra turned her head toward it, and the bee looked back at her, then gently rubbed its head against her cheek.

Zoyra burst out laughing. So did the bee, in its own way.

The two of them sat down in the grass side by side and watched the sun without a word. And as the honey melted on her tongue, the fatigue left her body piece by piece, the ache in her legs, the heaviness in her shoulders, the stifling heat of the swamp. Her mind, too, emptied itself of every worry she had gathered since morning, until nothing was left but calm, gentleness, and that little bee humming against her shoulder.

Little by little, the three youngsters came back to themselves, each slowly emerging from the world the tea had carried them off to. And all three of them felt completely refreshed.

It was Arthur, who wasn’t usually the type, who spoke up first.

"What is this tea?! I’ve never tasted anything so divinely good in my whole life!"

"Isn’t it?" Frelja said simply, as proud as if she had made it herself.

"And why do I suddenly feel so good? It’s like all my fatigue has vanished, and everything else along with it!"

That’s true! Why?

Zoyra, who could also feel her body and mind fully restored, tore her eyes away from her still half-full cup to look at Arielle.

"Nine Meadows tea soothes the body, chases away fatigue, and purifies the blood of the air’s toxins," Arielle explained in a calm voice. "As for the Mana Honey, it is harvested from a Queen of the Crystal Bees. It calms the mind and regenerates mana."

"What?! A Queen of the Crystal Bees?!"

Zoyra had almost shouted. The hand holding her cup had started to tremble, and beside her, the two boys were in the same state.

"Yes? That’s what she said," Frelja replied simply, with perfect indifference, before taking another sip.

But Zoyra could no longer hear anything. Her mind was already racing, and her gaze had fallen back onto the cup, which she was now holding with both hands so as not to spill a single drop, despite her ceaseless trembling.

A-a-are you telling me that... that... this cup I’m holding costs as much as a house?!

Queens of the Crystal Bees were only rank-B monsters, but they were as rare as they were impossible to tame.

Anyone who found a hive had to face the queen and either kill her or die trying to get her honey. Every harvest was therefore unique, and an already rare product became rarer still. And to top it all off, these bees couldn’t be found on this continent, nor in the south, but only on the eastern continent.

In other words, the cup she was holding in her hands was worth more than everything she had earned since becoming an adventurer.

Her hands began to tremble even harder.

Then she took a sip.

And everything faded away at once.

She was back in the meadow, beneath the blue sky, and her little crystal friend was landing on her shoulder again, buzzing happily.

Maybe... it’s worth the price after all~