******

“Is he still not up?”

“No. As I said, he should be needing a long rest. It isn’t going to be up anytime soon.”

Raphael was still lying on Lia’s lap as she answered Azekiel about the status of Raphael. Two books were placed beside her.

“We can’t force him to get up, but we can’t stay here for long either. Time is of the essence. I’ll carry him with me. Our destination is far. By the time we get there, Raphael might be up.”

Azekiel kept the two remaining apples that were given to Lia and Raphael in his ring. He also placed the two books in the storage ring, using it to the fullest. Since he had the ring, he didn’t need to carry anything in his hands other than Raphael.

He bent forward, inserting one hand under the neck of Raphael. To help him, Lia raised his head a bit from her lap. Azekiel placed his other hand under the knees of Raphael before picking him up.

“He is quite light,” Raphael commented, surprised at the weight of Raphael. It was his first time picking Raphael up, and the man didn’t even appear to have sixty kilograms.

“He does look light, so I don’t doubt you,” Lia smiled. “Despite his light weight, his attacks are quite heavy. I don’t know what that last attack of his was, but the strength behind that… That was something else entirely. I could feel it even though I wasn’t close to him.”

“Yeah. Even I wonder what that was.” Azekiel gazed at the peaceful yet pale face of Raphael. His breathing was finally stable. “Only he can answer when he wakes up…”

Seeing the face of Raphael, Azekiel couldn’t help but smile. This was the face of the man who always appeared to be serious, rarely smiling. However, now that he seemed to be sleeping, his face finally looked relaxed.

Azekiel left the city, carrying Raphael in his arms, back where he came from. Now that he had seen the map, he knew that they had arrived in the wrong direction. To get on the right track, they needed to go back a bit.

Walking back, Azekiel noticed the empty streets. There were no citizens here, unlike when he came here. “I still don’t understand what that old man was. And what was the town we saw before if that wasn’t an illusion.”

“I’m not sure either.” Lia raised her shoulders ignorantly. “But from the way that old man was behaving, he certainly wasn’t an ordinary person. If I were to take a guess, I would say that he was the guardian of this Prison, here to make sure those two prisoners weren’t free.”

“Yeah, but then why would he let them be free?” Azekiel countered. “If he was here to keep them imprisoned, why did he leave? How did they get free? It was only after that old man left when these two were free, so it appeared to be intentional.”

“As I said, I have no idea why he did what he did. But I’m sure the answer lies in the vague words. His conversation with you should be what holds the secret.”

“His conversation with me?” Azekiel shook his head lightly. “It was too vague to decipher anything. However, I do understand a few things. Through the conversation of chess, he was directly talking to me. The king he talked about was me. He knew what I was, and probably even more.”

“The moment he gave Raphael that apple, he also talked about his past and the curse. So not only did the man know about me, but he knew about Raphael and most probably, you as well.”

“You think he was able to read our minds or peek at our memories?”

“It’s quite possible. At this point, your guess is as good as mine.”

Even Azekiel didn’t know how the man knew. All he could do was take a guess.

“In any case, I have a feeling we would be meeting that old man again…”

Azekiel finally stepped out of the border of the town, subconsciously glancing to his left where the apple tree was present before. He didn’t seem too disappointed to find the tree missing.

“As expected, that apple tree is also gone. It would’ve been good if I could get some more apples from it.”

“Are the apples really as miraculous as you claim?” Lia had heard Azekiel praise the apples quite a few times. She couldn’t help but wonder if he really liked them. Were they really that tasty? Since she wasn’t hungry, she hadn’t even tasted it.

“It’s not about the taste. It’s about something more than that…”

Azekiel selected a direction according to the map, going in the direction opposite to the sun.

Along the way, he told Lia all about the specialty of those apples, which even surprised Lia. A single apple that could satiate the hunger of Azekiel was indeed something special. She had seen just how much Azekiel ate after all.

Azekiel walked on foot for six hours straight. He didn’t even slow down for a moment. Each second was important. It was only after he reached the next forest that he stopped.

He had been walking for so long that he had almost given up on hopes of finding a forest and was just about to eat one of the two remaining apples when luckily, he saw a glimpse of the forest in the distance.

If there was a forest, then it was also highly likely that there was going to be something to eat. If possible, he didn’t want to waste those two apples since they were the last he had.

Unlike the last forest, there was no rainstorm over this one. Most of the trees were also intact. In fact, the weather on top of the forest only looked good.

“We will rest for a few hours here.”

He entered the forest and finally placed Raphael down under the shade of a tree. Leaving Lia to take care of Raphael, he entered deeper into the forest to search for something to eat. Thanks to the ring, he didn’t need to carry anything in his hands.

“These footsteps… They appear to belong to some animal. I didn’t expect this place to have animals. If animals live here, then there must be a water source nearby as well.”

Azekiel followed the footsteps, trying to locate the water source. He was sure that if he was going to find anything to eat, it was going to be near it.

Just as he expected, following the footsteps, he soon reached a fruit tree.

Swiss~

Azekiel was just about to pluck one of the fruits when something flew past his ears, missing his ears by barely a few inches.

An arrow struck the tree, missing Azekiel.