On the first floor of the Return Inn, right next to the kitchen, was a small but meticulously tidy bedroom. This was the sanctuary of Lady Basha and Lian. A simple cloth curtain divided the room, and the mother and daughter slept on single beds on either side. In the silence of the night, their steady breathing intertwined.
"Mom, are you asleep?" Lian lay flat on her back, tightly gripping the edge of her blanket. Her clear eyes stared at the blurry ceiling in the dark. Her voice was as soft as a sleep-talker’s, carrying a hint of longing to confide. "Today’s stew was really fragrant and piping hot. Mr. Raine ate it with great satisfaction, and even that fierce-looking Mr. Redbeard scraped his bowl perfectly clean at the end."
She paused, a touch of anticipation weaving into her voice. "Mom, do you think Dad and my brother can eat piping hot stew like this in a place as cold as the Northern Territory?
"As long as your stomach is warm, your body must be warm too, right? The wind and snow there wouldn’t be able to freeze them then, could it?"
On the other side of the curtain, Lady Basha’s body trembled slightly. But she did not respond, only making her breathing heavier as if she were already fast asleep.
Lian did not seem to expect an answer. Remaining immersed in her own thoughts, her tone grew soft and nostalgic. "If Dad comes back, his hair must be all white, right? Just like the canopy of that old holly tree at the edge of town. Would he even recognize me? When he left, I was only this tall." She gestured under the blanket. "Back then, I didn’t even reach his thighs!
"And my brother! Has he already found a pretty girl from the Northern Territory to be his wife? Maybe... maybe they even have a little baby! In that case, Mom, you’d be a grandmother! And I’d be an aunt!"
She couldn’t help but laugh softly at the scene she had woven. That laughter was exceptionally crisp in the quiet room, carrying a trace of heartbreaking innocence. Behind the curtain, Lady Basha remained silent, but the knuckles of the hand clutching her blanket had long since turned white.
CREAK, CREAK...
A sudden rustling noise drifted into the room from outside the door. It sounded like a nocturnal rat bumping into some sort of utensil, or perhaps a dull, scraping sound.
"Ah!" Lian abruptly sat up in bed, her face instantly blooming with pleasant surprise. "Is it Dad and my brother? Did they come back? I’ll go open the door for them!"
She moved as fast as a cheerful fawn. Without even waiting for Lady Basha to voice a protest, she haphazardly threw on her coat and ran barefoot out of the bedroom, rushing into the pitch-black hall.
Almost at the exact moment Lian ran out, the locked window in the kitchen was quietly pried open. A burly figure wrapped in a heavy black robe was struggling to squeeze in through the window with an eerie silence that completely contradicted its massive size. Right behind it was a second equally tall Shadow. Their giant feet were terrifyingly light, making almost no sound. The third one seemed a beat slower. Its nose, hidden beneath its hood, twitched vigorously, as if attracted by the lingering aroma of the stew pot.
The sound of Lian’s departing footsteps still echoed in her ears, and Lady Basha’s heart instantly sank. That was absolutely not the commotion of her family returning. She violently flipped out of bed, grabbing her coat and throwing it on with an Agility far exceeding her usual self. Immediately after, she bent down without hesitation and swiftly pulled out a Hand Half-Sword from the deepest reaches under the bed, its blade gleaming with a cold light. This had been left behind by her husband, Olik, when he departed. It was a companion that had accompanied him through countless adventure journeys.
Burning with anxiety, she charged out the door with her sword in hand, only to face a pitch-black hall where she couldn’t even see her own fingers. Before she could adjust to the darkness or find a chance to light a lamp, a blurry black shadow lunged right at her face!
Basha’s heart nearly stopped. The muscles all over her body tensed up instantly, and she prepared to swing her sword subconsciously. But in the final split second before the blade swung upward, she borrowed the moonlight filtering through the dilapidated ventilation window to clearly see that young, confused face mere inches away. It was Lian.
"Mom?" Frightened by her mother’s defensive posture, Lian asked in a small voice. "Why did you come out too?"
"You didn’t open the door, did you?" Basha’s voice carried an uncontrollable tremble. She yanked her daughter to her side, her eyes vigilantly sweeping the surrounding darkness.
"No." Lian shook her head, the confusion on her pale face deepening. "The sound stopped as soon as I ran out. I thought I misheard, so I came back."
"That’s good, that’s good." Basha’s taut nerves relaxed for a fraction of a second. Perhaps it really was just some wood making weird noises from the night cold, or a few nocturnal rats biting each other over food in the trash bin.
However, before she could fully exhale that breath of relief, an unimaginably massive Shadow appeared silently behind Lian. In the hazy glimmer of light, a Two-Handed War Axe glinting with cold steel was hoisted high by a giant palm covered in coarse black hair, instantly enveloping Lian entirely before she could even turn her head!
"My daughter!" Lady Basha let out a heart-wrenching scream. In this moment, all her fear transformed into the frenzy of a mother beast protecting her young. Without any room for thought, she used all her strength to shove Lian aside, tightly gripping the Hand Half-Sword as she crashed into that terrifying behemoth!
CLANG!
An ear-piercing collision of metal rang out exceptionally loud in the silent, pitch-black hall. Lady Basha felt the webbing between her thumb and index finger split open, a tearing agony shooting up her entire arm. Her sword strike, imbued with all her Power, merely sparked a small cluster of embers against the opponent’s Giant Axe; it failed to even marginally slow the downward cleave.
The tremendous force jolted her entire body, sending her staggering backward. She crashed into a chair and knocked it over, looking thoroughly battered. The Shadow let out a low, disdainful roar, seemingly enraged by the provocation of this "little bug." Beneath the shadow of its hood, dark yellow pupils locked onto her.
"Run! Lian! Run!" Lady Basha braced her back against a wobbling table. Ignoring the blood dripping from her hand, she raised her trembling sword once more and screamed at her daughter, who was frozen in place from shock.
Lian was terrified by her mother’s shrieks and the shadow of death looming so close. Scrambling up from the freezing floor on her hands and knees, she gritted her teeth and dashed toward the stairs, driven entirely by her survival instincts. Mr. Raine was on the second floor, along with Sister Kaelin and the other Adventurers. She had to hurry and get them to come down to save her mother!
She stumbled and crawled up the stairs. Just as she opened her mouth to cry for help, she abruptly clamped both hands tightly over her mouth. A few meters ahead of her, another exceptionally tall and burly giant Shadow was clumsily trying to pry open a tightly shut door.
Then, the Shadow slowly turned its head.
The pale moonlight shone through the hallway window, illuminating a hideous, terrifying face. That was absolutely not a human face. Its dark brown, coarse skin was covered in warts. A gaping maw stretched almost to the base of its ears, with jagged yellow fangs protruding past its lips. Thick, foul-smelling drool dripped continuously from the corners of its mouth like beads falling from a broken string.
There was no roar, no warning. A flash of pleasure, the kind a Predator shows upon discovering its prey, swept across that ugly bestial face. The very next second, the massive body twisted violently, lunging straight toward the helpless Lian.