When I woke up that morning, I felt a strange cold at the tips of my fingers. It wasn't anything magical, nor any obvious bad omen. It was just… uncomfortable. Even so, the flame in my chest reacted, as if it had awakened before I did. I still had no idea why, but it left me uneasy.
The inn was silent because everyone had gone to bed late. After the mission in the Northern Valley and the near-complete disaster that was trying to help transport minerals, we were exhausted. Vespera was sprawled across the bed as if she had fought twenty ogres. Elara was sleeping in a position that any healer would say was fatal for the spine. Liriel… well, Liriel looked like she was meditating, but I knew she was just pretending so she wouldn't have to wake up early.
I got up first. I'm always the first to get up. Always.
I went outside to get some air and found a few adventurers talking near the mission board. They were pale, as if they had seen a ghost. One of them was holding a mug with trembling hands.
I asked what was going on, and the oldest one replied:
"Did you feel the tremors last night?"
I shook my head. "Tremors?"
"Something light, almost nothing," another explained. "But they say it came from beneath the city, more toward the eastern side. People are saying there's something living down there."
I almost laughed, because Vailor had always had ridiculous rumors like that. But something in their expressions didn't seem exaggerated.
"Maybe it's just goblins," I commented.
"I wish it were," one of them replied, swallowing hard.
The flame in my chest stirred again. As if confirming that they weren't goblins.
When I returned to the room, Vespera had finally woken up. Or rather, she was sitting on the bed, holding her bow and staring at the wall as if she were planning to shoot it.
I asked what she was doing, and she replied, "I'm trying to understand why that arrow missed yesterday."
"Because you miss all of them."
She narrowed her eyes. "Very funny."
Elara woke up right after, rubbing her face with an expression of pure suffering. "Why do I feel like I slept on top of a moving cart?"
"Because this bed is awful," I replied.
"You're the one getting weak," Vespera added.
Elara raised an eyebrow. "Want to test that?"
The morning argument was interrupted when Liriel opened her eyes and proclaimed, "I heard everything while I was meditating."
"You were sleeping," I said.
"Deep meditations look like sleep, but they aren't sleep," she insisted.
"You were snoring," I replied.
She blushed and looked away. "That was the spirit of light beside me."
No one believed her.
When we went downstairs, the guild was especially busy. It seemed that the conversations about the tremors were spreading quickly. Even the Guild Master had a more serious expression than usual.
He called me over as soon as he saw me.
"Takumi, I need you to stay alert. Something strange is happening beneath Vailor. We've received reports of cracked walls, small cave-ins, and some animals fleeing."
"A big monster?"
"If it were just that, I wouldn't be so worried," he replied.
The flame inside me pulsed again. Not in a threatening way, just… alert.
Liriel stepped closer. "The underground reacts to bad energies. It may be a dormant entity."
Vespera snorted. "Or you're being dramatic like always."
"I am a goddess, I feel these things," Liriel shot back.
"You're a useless goddess," Vespera replied immediately.
"I have my S-class light magic," Liriel said, lifting her chin.
"That lasts what? Two seconds?" Elara added.
The argument was starting to grow, so I put my hand on the heads of the three of them and pressed lightly, pushing them down.
"Enough. The Guild Master is watching."
The three of them went quiet instantly.
The Guild Master smiled, almost as if he were used to this scene.
"Anyway, Takumi, there's no official mission yet. But I want you to stay alert in the northern forest. The tremors seem more common near there."
I agreed. On the way out of the guild, the flame inside me moved as if it were trying to look around. A strange sensation, as if something distant were watching back.
We headed toward the forest. It was a sunny, calm day, with a light breeze. Nothing that matched the idea of some threat hidden underground. That only made the feeling even more uncomfortable, as if we were walking through a beautiful painting that hid cracks beneath the surface.
When we arrived there, everything seemed normal. Fallen branches, leaves swaying, some animals running between the trees. However, as we moved forward, the silence became more noticeable. Not an ordinary silence, but a heavy one.
"Did you feel it?" I asked.
"Nothing special," Vespera commented. "It's just quiet."
"Too quiet," Elara corrected.
Liriel extended her hand, as if searching for some sign of energy. "There is something echoing in this place. But I can't identify it."
I approached one of the large stones in the forest. I touched the surface. Cold. Far too cold for a hot day like that.
The flame reacted immediately, burning a little stronger.
"Takumi?" Vespera asked.
"There was… something here," I replied. "But I don't know what."
We walked a little farther until we found a recent fissure in the ground. Loose soil, crack marks, and some exposed roots.
"This really doesn't seem normal," Elara murmured.
Vespera crouched down to examine it. "If it were just a landslide, it wouldn't look like this. Someone or something passed through here."
Liriel brought her face closer to the fissure. "I feel ice."
I immediately looked at her. "Ice?"
She nodded with unusual seriousness. "It's a cold, deep energy. It doesn't belong to this forest."
The flame inside me responded with a strong vibration, as if it were trying to scream something I couldn't understand.
I took a deep breath. "Let's keep investigating. Something big is moving around here."
But no matter how much we searched, we found nothing beyond small signs: faint footprints that vanished quickly, patches of frozen earth that made no sense, and stones with marks that looked like… claws.
The flame burned inside me, restless, nervous. It wasn't fear. It was anticipation. As if something were approaching, even though it was still far away.
When we returned to Vailor, the sun was already setting. I walked through the streets thinking about what we saw and what we didn't see.
People laughed, talked, lived normally. The city was calm. But that calm felt as fragile as a thin layer of ice.
As we entered the inn, Liriel whispered, "Something is watching you."
I stopped.
"What do you mean, watching me?"
She hesitated. "I felt a presence when you touched the stone. It was directed at you. Not at the group."
Vespera crossed her arms. "Why is there always something after Takumi?"
Elara sighed. "Honestly? Because his life is complicated."
I tried to laugh, but I couldn't. The flame pulsed again.
Something in the underground was awakening.
And somehow, it was connected to me.