--- [Alex’s perspective] A little while later, at the place the F-rank exam was held
“Alex! I’m so glad you came!” – Leanne
It looks a lot different here from what I remember…
Probably because the colosseum is no longer there…
After having a bit of a breakdown earlier, I didn’t really know what to do.
Honestly, I still don’t know if meeting up with her was the right choice, but I can’t just sit around either…
If the people from The END aren’t as bad as they’re claiming, I need to know.
Of course, everything they say could be a lie, but that’s for me to decide.
The Emperor seemed to imply they were telling the truth, but he could be lying too.
There’s just no way to know for sure at the moment; I need to know more.
This could all be an elaborate trap, and Leanne intends to kill me now that there are no one here who can stop her, but so be it.
It’s a risk I’ll have to take.
Sooner or later, they’ll come for me anyways.
Seth was already too much for me to deal with, so what if they send someone even stronger next?
Worst case scenario, I’m dead no matter what I do.
At least there’s a chance I’ll gain some valuable information, something that might even save me, if I go with her…
But more than anything, I just want to know the truth…
“You haven’t killed me yet… I’ll take that as a good sign.” – Alex
She laughs playfully, thinking I was just joking around…
“I don’t know what happened between you and the Emperor that convinced you to come, but it’s good to see that you still have a sense of humor!” – Leanne
“Right… Well, now that I’m here-” – Alex
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
Before I can finish my sentence, she cuts me off.
“Wait!” – Leanne
She holds her hands up, telling me to stop with both her words and body language.
“I know, I know… You came all the way here for me to answer your questions, but I can’t answer them just yet…” – Leanne
Seriously…?
“Why?” – Alex
“There’s something I want to show you first. A place…” – Leanne
“Is it really that important? Can you not wait until you’ve answered my questions?” – Alex
“It can’t wait, sorry.” – Leanne
“Why?” – Alex
“You’ll understand when we get there.” – Leanne
I let out a sigh…
Maybe this was a mistake after all…
She sees my expression change and tries to convince me to come.
“Look… Like you said yourself, if I wanted to kill you, I would have done so already. You trusted me enough to come here, so trust me just one more time. Please.” – Leanne
I have a bad feeling about this…
“Fine.” – Alex
She raises her hand and a cart of stone appears.
“It’s pretty far away; it’ll go much faster if you sit here and I drag you along.” – Leanne
I reluctantly hop into it, and she grabs the handles.
“Ready?” – Leanne
“Yea- uaaah!” – Alex
I try my best to hold on for dear life as she suddenly takes off.
She’s running so quickly my brain can’t even comprehend the surroundings!
Suddenly, after what felt like forever, but in reality was only a few minutes, we find ourselves in the middle of a forest…
“Where are we?” – Alex
“In the middle of nowhere.” – Leanne
“… What?” – Alex
Oh no…
Following her was a bad idea…
Should I run?
No…
There’s no point; there’s no way I’ll be able to get away from a B-ranker…
I need to stay cool.
Remember, if she intended to kill me, she would have done so ages ago.
“Here! Come!” – Leanne
She waves for me to come.
I go after her, and she continues to go deeper into the forest.
Suddenly, she stops…
“What is it?” – Alex
“…” – Leanne
She looks around.
Suddenly, her face lights up.
“Ah, there!” – Leanne
She walks up to an ordinary tree and starts tapping it in a specific sequence all over.
After she’s done, she leans in and whispers something to the tree.
Has she gone mad…?
Suddenly the ground opens up besides the tree, revealing a set of stairs…
She starts going down them, then stops when she notices I’m not following her.
“Come!” – Leanne
“What is this place? Where are you leading me?” – Alex
“Oh my goodness… Just come! You’ll see in a moment.” – Leanne
It’s not like I really have a choice anyways…
With more than just a grain of hesitation, I go after her.
As we go down the stairs, lights automatically turn on right ahead of us, so we always see where we’re going.
After just a few meters, the ‘ground’ on top closes up, hiding the stairs from the world above…
These stairs are so long…
How far down are we supposed to go?
Whoever built this must have been out of their mind; the architecture isn’t even consistent!
We’re going down a regular straight staircase for a few hundred steps, then suddenly it turns into a spiral staircase for a few hundred more, then L-shaped stairs, then circular ones…
At times, we’re even walking straight ahead on a flat plateau.
But after a tiring amount of walking, I finally see some lights that aren’t the ones right above…
“We’re almost there.” – Leanne
We take the turn around the corner and…!
Wow…
It’s an underground city!
