“Is it really so urgent?” Axer asked. “It’s dangerous to travel at night.”

“Err…so…the thing is…my father…doesn’t exactly know I’m here right now…” Indu sheepishly rubbed the back of her head, refusing to meet Axer’s eyes.

However, what greeted her was his rambunctious laughter as if it were the funniest thing he’d heard. He clutched his stomach, almost rolling across the cave floor. It was so loud Indu feared they would attract unwanted attention.

“I don’t know if I should call you reckless or brave.” Axer’s laughter finally stopped, but his ear-to-ear grin remained.

“Brave.” Indu stubbornly said.

“Then brave it is.” Axer’s eyes twinkled. “I must say, you’re quite courageous. When I was as strong as you, I would never dream of entering a mountain without the necessary equipment.”

“I brought a knife with me!”

“Indu, that knife can, at best, kill a rabbit. If you were to meet anything stronger, you could say goodbye to this life.”

“I-I didn’t think it’d be that bad.” She truly thought so. These mountains were only home to wolves and bears. Even that troll was an exceedingly rare anomaly, and even then, she’d been told it was spotted somewhere a few kilometers opposite the mountain.

When she and her mother used to traverse the mountain path, the strongest thing they’d found was a bear, but as soon as it saw them, the bear scrammed. As such, she’d always believed the mountain to be safe until news of the mountain monster appeared. That was what prompted her to discover the truth.

“No, that’s not true.” Indu thought.

That was only the excuse she had been telling herself in her mind – a justification for her actions that held no weight nor truth. No, the real reason she had done something as reckless as adventuring in the night was simple – she yearned for her mother.

Not a day went by when Indu didn’t miss her mother. Not just her but her entire family as well. Although they had each other to keep strength, the lack of her mother’s presence was a void that couldn’t be filled. She was a glue that tightened and secured a family together, and when it vanished, the family inevitably fractured.

For a few years after her mother’s terrible death, her father fell into a depression. He drank bottles of alcohol at night and threw himself at his administrative duties during the day. Drinking, working. Drinking, working. He followed that schedule for years to relieve the pain of losing his wife, her beloved mother.

Only when Indu couldn’t bear it anymore and fell to her knees, begging her old father to return, did he slowly change to what he was in the past. She had also been grieving, so she understood how terribly heartbroken her father was, but Aniya was only a year old. Indu had to step up and fill the void her mother left in hopes of repairing her fractured family. Even now, ten years after her death, there were still noticeable cracks that could never be fixed.

It had already been months since Indu had gone up the mountain trail to relive the memories of her mother. She could have come earlier or later, but for some reason, she only acted when news of the mountain monster became a hot topic.

“Maybe it was fate. Would I have met Axer if I didn’t go today?” Indu looked at Axer, who was enveloped in a layer of mystery. She had many questions but too few answers, answers she wasn’t sure she could get.

“Alas, it doesn’t matter. After I get to the village, we’ll go our separate ways, never to see each other again.” She shot a sad glance at Axer, who was turned around, so he couldn’t see her expression.

“Here, wear this. Tell me when you’re done so I can turn around.” Axer held out his robe with his right arm, which Indu quickly grabbed.

The robes were much too big for her, but at least they covered every inch of her skin. She quickly donned the garment before calling out.

“You can turn around now.”

He turned, and his eyes widened instantly.

“Wow…I didn’t realize you were this small.” He bluntly commented. It was rude, but Indu overlooked it because of the harsh truth. She was grateful she even had clothes to wear after the troll fiasco.

“At least you won’t be cold as much.” As if noticing Indu’s displeasure, Axer added something else. And he wasn’t wrong. Indu felt much warmer while wearing his robes and hugging the blanket to her chest.

“Ah, this blanket…”

“Keep it. I was supposed to give it to someone, but I’ll procure another one. It’s already dirty anyway.”

“I can keep such a heavenly textile?” Indu felt bad for the one supposed to own this wonderful blanket. She rubbed her blushing cheek against its soft, wooly surface and sighed.

“I think heavenly might be pushing it....”

Indu ignored him and continued snuggling her face in it.

“Didn’t you say you needed to go?”

“Ah!” She withdrew her face from the captivating surface. A blush crept up her face as she turned to face Axer. “L-Let’s go now, then.”

While she and the blanket had an intimate time together, Axer had packed everything. He put out the warming fire and packed everything into a small, brown sack. Streaks of ashes covered where the fire had once been, and the half-burned chunks of wood were left untouched.

Indu took the lead. A soothingly chill breeze brushed past her face as a vast valley blanketed by the beautiful night sky greeted her. The orange moon hovering in the sky provided just the right amount of light to give the land an ethereal presence as if blessed by a deity. The cave’s entrance was about ten feet from the edge, so Indu could see the lush green plants and trees covering the valley below.

She walked towards the edge. About a hundred feet or so down was the path she had originally been on when the troll had attacked. A faint but noticeable red splatter was the only evidence of the troll’s existence. However, looking at it made Indu queasy, and she turned away.

“To think he jumped all the way from here and crushed the troll like that.”

The topic had briefly entered her mind but was swept away after she fainted. Only now, when she saw the distance of the jump and the size of the splatter, did Indu realize how monstrous Axer was.

“Forget about his strength; his body must be incredibly sturdy to have survived a fall of that magnitude.” She turned around to glance at Axer, only to find him only a hair’s distance away.

“Aggh!” Indu screamed and fell backward, but a strong hand grabbed her waist and held her straight.

“T-Thank you.”

“That was dangerous, you know? One wrong move and you would’ve ended up like the troll over there.” Axer pointed in a direction Indu assumed to be the blood splatter but didn’t look at it again as she wanted to keep her food in her stomach.

“You scared me!” Indu pouted and lightly punched his chest.

“Ah. I’m sorry then, my lady.” Axer playfully kissed the hand clutching his shoulder, and Indu realized their position only then. His hand wrapped around her waist while her hand held his shoulder as if performing a noble’s dance.

She hurriedly broke away and turned around, desperately trying to hide the blush growing on her cheek. It was futile, however, as her cheek, neck, and even parts of her collarbone were dyed red. Her physical condition perfectly captured her acute embarrassment.

Even worse was that his entire upper body was bare, and under the faint moonlight, his muscular figure shone. His messy yet dignified black hair draped over his shoulders, covering parts of his chest. The light accentuated his six-pack abs, something that subconsciously made Indu drool.

“What am I thinking about.” She softly shook her head. She wasn’t in his league in the slightest. Their meeting today was a lucky fluke. Axer was destined to marry a stunning, voluptuous woman. At least, that was the only thing she could think of that fit his heavenly physique.

“Say, Indu, how do you plan on walking down the mountain?” He suddenly asked.

“With my feet, of course?” Indu couldn’t understand why he would ask such a silly question. Was there another way to get down a mountain? Wait, maybe...