Chapter 194

01 “Nn… Ugh…” Cold, icy, and hard. Mariela had a memory of these sensations permeating her clothes. Sometimes she woke up feeling like this. Could she have fallen out of her bed again today? The human survival instinct was nothing to sneeze at; when someone toppled off their bed and slept on the cold floor, they unconsciously drew their blanket to them and curled into the fetal position. Yet, today, the ground was chillier than usual and suspiciously more uncomfortable. The fabric she pulled toward herself clung to her and stole her body heat. Ugh, blanket… Er, huh? At last, Mariela’s eyes opened wide. “Um…I was looking for Master and came to a shrine near a bog… I fell into some water when I opened a door.” Mariela searched her memories, but she still didn’t know what was going on at all. She understood that she’d fallen underground, yet couldn’t comprehend how she’d wound up sinking in a deep pool of water. Could the basement be flooded? If so, where was Mariela now? “I guess…no one helped me?” The alchemist was lying facedown on stone paving that was flatter and firmer than her chest. Both her clothes and her hair were sopping wet, so it didn’t seem like anyone had taken her in or looked after her. She got off the ground, dragging her clinging clothes, which were heavy from the water they’d absorbed. When Mariela used the Dehydrate spell to dry herself, she felt the warm light of the sun, and with a sigh of relief, she loosened her curled body. “Doesn’t seem like much time has passed.” Considering Mariela had woken up on a frigid stone floor, her body wasn’t especially cold. It was likely that hardly any time had passed since her fall. “…But where am I?” As Mariela warmed herself in the sunlight, she checked to make sure she didn’t have any injuries. Some sort of silhouette passed in front of her. “A bird…? Wha…?” The place Mariela found herself in was a spacious circular room made of stones more than twenty paces wide. Overhead was a dome-shaped ceiling, and the walls had large, tall windows facing in eight directions. The apertures rose so high that Mariela couldn’t reach the top of them even if she stood on her toes, and they were wide enough to match the span of her outstretched arms. They had no lattices, curtains, or any such decoration. The warm sunlight filling the room was shining in through the windows, but the weather outside was misty and murky. Since Mariela was preoccupied with whether this place was safe, she paid no heed to the overcast weather. Another shadow crossed past one of the windows. This time, Mariela saw that it wasn’t a bird, but a fish. “A fish?!” When she rushed up to the pane, she saw that it was not churning fog beyond the room, but water. Giant humanoid-looking fish were leisurely swimming through it. Mariela looked up through the window and saw this place was so deep, she couldn’t spy the surface. Something must have been scattering the light, as the veritable ocean beyond the window was so bright that it seemed like either morning or dusk.