"Monsters get stronger at night, Amy."
Only then did I recall my sister’s words, staring at the monster with a sinking feeling. So that’s what she meant by stronger—did it mean the powder wouldn’t work on them anymore?
We were surrounded with no way out. But the Gllylus only watched us cautiously, not daring to rush in. It must have been because of the powder I had scattered earlier.
"Nox, what do you think?"
"Is there an easy way to take them down?"
I hesitated, looking at the Gllylus, before answering.
"Gllylus look intimidating, but they’re not actually that strong. Can you see it? There should be a red gem on the forehead of the lion’s head. If you swing at it, can you aim for that?"
"I’ll try."
At that moment, a Gllylus lunged at us, but Nox’s sword cut through it, slamming it to the ground. The monster collapsed and didn’t move again. I shuddered as I spotted the shattered red gem.
…Is he really suffering from memory loss?
But Nox didn’t look pleased despite cutting it down in a single strike.
"I don’t think we can keep this up."
"Huh? Aren’t you fighting well?"
"That’s not the problem. I hear more of them coming."
At his words, strange, shrill cries erupted from the forest. Ahead, behind, and to both sides, all at once—the cries of Gllylus. My spine tingled at the thought of facing them all.
"They’re not too close yet. Which way do we need to go?"
"Uh, do you see that white cloth? Over there. If we run for about five minutes, we’ll make it!"
"Hold on tight."
"Huh?"
The next moment, Nox scooped me up and ran. Even carrying me, he was unbelievably fast. Thankfully, no Gllylus appeared in the direction I pointed, but dozens of them were chasing us from behind.
Being held like this, I could see clearly.
"Nox, Nox, turn right here!"
"Got it."
Running without even a hint of labored breathing, Nox moved like a wolf. I clutched at his clothes, afraid of slipping. Ahead, dense trees blocked the way, and in the distance, I spotted a small, cozy house—just like the one my sister and I lived in.
But I couldn’t tell where the safe zone began, and stopping too soon could be dangerous. Scanning our surroundings, I noticed a thorny tree ahead and called out.
"Nox, there—turn around that tree at eleven o’clock, just once!"
"What?"
"It’s fine. If we just rush straight in, it might be dangerous. It’ll only take a second!"
Nox, running fast, curved around the tree like a racing car taking a sharp turn. I quickly hooked my bag onto the sharp branch, tearing it open.
Bang!
By the time Nox finished his circle, the Gllylus were almost upon us.
Screeeech!
But their claws never reached us. They fell to the ground, writhing in agony.
Breaking free from the Gllylus pack, Nox leapt over the fence of an isolated house. I knew the fence marked the beginning of a safe zone.
Creeeeak, screeeee!
The eerie cries of the Gllylus who couldn’t enter echoed nearby. I took a deep breath, my chest rising and falling quickly.
"Haah… haah…"
…Nox was the one who had been running while carrying me, so why was my heart racing?
"My god, that was terrifying! Nox, are you okay?"
"…As you can see, I’m fine."
I lifted my head, froze as I looked at his face, but there was nowhere to escape—he still hadn’t put me down. Instead, his strong arms tightened around my waist.
I lowered my gaze, unable to meet his eyes.
"I’m sorry… It feels like I just made things more dangerous."
"Why are you apologizing?"
"Huh?"
"You warned me about the danger. Isn’t this just part of what you warned me about?"
He sounded genuinely puzzled by my apology.
I remembered—this man was emotionally dull, a person who acted only by logic and reason. Yet, there was something strange in his calm voice.
"And why are you helping a stranger you have no ties to?"
"That’s…"
"Feeling pity or sympathy isn’t enough reason to risk yourself."
His hand tilted my chin up, forcing me to meet his eyes. Under the moonlight, his amethyst eyes shimmered like powdered jewels.
"From the moment you saw me, you’ve been kind to me. I can’t understand it."
His half-lidded gaze captured me completely. His strong arms held me in place, his solid thighs trapping me so there was nowhere to run. I shrank back under the intensity of his gaze as his fingers gently brushed along my chin.
He spoke softly.
"Are you helping me because it’s me?"
"Huh?"
I blinked at him, confused, and he rephrased.
"I’m asking if I’m special to you."
The detached yet relentless look in his eyes overlapped with that of the boy who once asked if it was okay for him to stay by my side.
Special…?
I pressed my lips together, tracing the furrow between his brows with my gaze as if that might help me find an answer. For a moment, his piercing stare didn’t frighten me—it only surprised me.
Of course, Nox was special. He was the male lead of this world. The world revolved around him. His disappearance must have thrown the Grand Duchy into chaos, while the Crown Prince was probably celebrating in his absence. More than that, he commanded countless soldiers, holding the northern frontlines.
Whether you liked him or not, too many important people cared about his absence for him not to be special.
"Of course… you’re special."
"…"
"How could anyone not care about a child lost alone in the forest?"
I hesitated, lowering my gaze as my words trailed off. The last expression I caught on his face looked slightly dangerous.
"Of course, I was surprised when you suddenly turned into an adult at night…"
I couldn’t exactly say, You’re the male lead, and my sister dies because of you. If someone suddenly told you, "This is a fictional world, and you’re the protagonist," who wouldn’t think they were crazy?
Nox, especially, was far too rational to believe that.
My head, which had been drooping, was lifted again by his hand. Nox held me firmly, forcing eye contact.
"…You were surprised because I got bigger."
"Yes."
"Is that all?"
His eyes shone like amethysts in a cave, vivid even in the dark. I tilted my head, staring at him.
"What else should there be?"
Since he wouldn’t let me go, I gave up and just looked at him quietly. His expression shifted subtly, his eyes narrowing, his lips parting as if to speak.
"Forget it."
I didn’t understand why his brows knitted so tightly.
Nox ran a hand down his face as if untangling a mess of knotted threads, but when he finally released me, his face returned to its usual calm, as if nothing had happened.
"Since we’ve arrived, let’s find that book you mentioned."
"Ah… y-yes!"
I hurried after his long strides, but even by the time we reached the front gate of the isolated house, the distance between us hadn’t closed at all.
Hmm, his stride is huge, huh?
Suddenly, I wondered if this was how it felt for little Nox when he had to chase after me.
The size of the isolated house wasn’t much different from ours. Well, considering the limits of a safe zone, you couldn’t just build something enormous anyway. It did have an extra floor compared to our single-story house, so that was one advantage.
‘Is that the vegetable garden my sister mentioned?’
Wild herbs grew everywhere. If it had been daytime, I might have gone into a frenzy collecting them. Not that it would’ve mattered—I wouldn’t have had anywhere to store them all… Still, as someone running a household, you can never have too many ingredients.
Creak.
When we opened the door, dust swirled up into the air.
My sister once said that a magician’s house might have expansion magic or space-distortion spells to make the inside huge, but apparently, that wasn’t the case here.
"There’s so much dust."
"Looks like it hasn’t been used in a long time."
"Yeah. At least eight years, I’d guess? It’s been empty ever since my sister found it."
We stepped into what looked like a living room; the furniture was covered in thick layers of dust. My sister had once speculated that there might be cleaning spells in a magician’s house, but clearly, this place was truly abandoned.
The first floor had only a kitchen and living room. When we went up to the second floor, we found a study, a bedroom, and what looked like a storage room, all with their doors wide open.
"Let’s start with the closest room, shall we?"
"Let’s."
The bedroom was first. Other than a bed and a small table, it was completely empty. The curtains had holes in them—maybe intentional, maybe just torn and left that way. There wasn’t a single book, only dust, so we moved to the next room.
The storage room was the same—filled with various household items, though I noticed some beakers and equipment that looked like they might be used in a laboratory.
"Nox, can you tell what this writing says? I can’t read it."
"It’s not a language—it looks more like formulas."
So these weren’t just ordinary containers, then. Adding a little imagination, they were probably magical tools of some kind. But we couldn’t use them even if we understood the formulas, and I had no idea how they worked, so we left them and closed the door.
"Last is the study. There’s no way it won’t be here."
Unlike the calm Nox, I pushed open the half-opened door with a serious expression.
Cough, cough!
"…We should open the window first."
"Y-Yes! Cough!"
The study was filled with far more dust than the other rooms, and the window was much smaller. If we stayed too long, I’d probably die sneezing before finding anything, so we needed to finish quickly.
I covered my nose with my sleeve and scanned the room.
"There aren’t as many books as I expected."
The mostly empty shelves surprised me. Some of the titles were novels or history books, making it easy to sort through them. With Nox’s help, we pulled every book off the shelves and sorted them. As expected, only three books were worth keeping.
"…I knew there weren’t many, but I didn’t think there’d be only three."
"The magician who left might have taken the others."
"Ah, that makes sense."
I nodded, staring at the three books. Even if there had been piles of them, I would’ve had to choose carefully—there was only so much I could carry back. With how thick these were, I could probably take just one.
"Which one should we take? All the titles sound impressive."
"…What? You can read these?"
"…Huh? Y-Yes. I can see them just fine…"
I blinked at Nox, confused, glancing between the book in his hand and his puzzled face.
"That one says ‘The Origin of Spells’… Why?"
"I can’t read it."
"What?"
I stared wide-eyed at him, pointing at the book.
He couldn’t see it?
I looked again at the clearly legible letters and suddenly realized why.
"Amy, you learn remarkably fast, don’t you?"
My sister had been the one teaching me. She gave me basic lessons in the common continental language and foreign languages, but… honestly, I could read them before she ever explained their meanings. Since when?
Since the day I realized this was the world inside a book.
"Oh my, you figured it out just by reading? Our Amy is so clever!"
Not only the writing my sister taught me but even unfamiliar languages I’d never seen before were clear to me. Sometimes I’d even read difficult foreign words aloud before she could explain them.
"There are bits of ancient script mixed in—how can you read that?"
"Ah, this writing? Well, daytime Nox can read some of the words too."
"What do you mean?"
"Eh? Didn’t I tell you? I’m the one teaching daytime Nox to read."
"Ancient script?"
His head tilted slightly, his gaze practically saying, Why bother with something so pointless? I shrank under it.
"W-Well, I was teaching him the common language anyway…"
…I had only taught him out of boredom. How was I supposed to know this was a rarely used language when I could read it so easily? And my sister only ever said, “Wow, you’re so smart, Amy!” no matter what I read.
Anyway, for whatever reason, I could read this book, even if it was written in strange words that Nox found difficult. I read a few other titles aloud as a test, and after studying me with an unreadable expression, Nox finally nodded.
"This one will be best to take."
After hearing the titles of the other books, he picked the first one I’d read. It was thick enough that I had to hug it to carry it.
"Let’s find something to wrap it with."
Saying he’d seen some cloth earlier, Nox left for a moment. In the meantime, I looked down at the book. It was bulky, and I noticed the spine was slightly warped, so I opened it at that spot.
Thump.
"Huh? A necklace?"
Something had fallen out. Picking it up, I guessed it had been wedged between the pages like a bookmark, making the book bulge.
"‘Matari’… That’s what it says."
The flat pendant had a strange design, like two bats overlapped upside down. As I stared at it, it suddenly gleamed.
Whoooosh.
A burst of dazzling light filled my vision. Startled, I dropped the necklace, but by then, the dimming light had already wrapped around my hand.
"…W-What the…?"
The glow vanished just as quickly.
I stared blankly at the spot. What was that light?
If it came from this book, then maybe it was some kind of magical item related to it. Slowly, I slipped the necklace into my pocket just as Nox returned.
"What happened?"
"N-Nothing…"
The light had been bright, but had he not seen it? I glanced at him cautiously, but he just took the book from me.
"Oh, I can carry it myself."
"…"
Instead of replying, he lifted his head toward the sky.
"We should head back before the sun rises."
"Ah… R-Right, how much time has passed?"
Through the window, the sky was already paling. It was nearly dawn. If we left now, we wouldn’t be too late.
We left the other books for another time and headed down to the entrance.
Creeeeak.
Our lips pressed tightly together—or parted slightly in shock.
"…"
"…What do we do now?"
Gllylus surrounded the fence, packed so densely it was almost black.
Creeeech, screeeech!
The chilling chorus of their cries made me instinctively clutch at Nox’s sleeve.
"…Do you, by any chance, have some sort of ability that attracts monsters?"