CH 37

Chapter 37 – To the Island of Lost Souls (4) 

“They are here!”

As I shouted excitedly, 

Kwaaang!

A hole in a wall formed.

“Did we really have to do that? I mean the door is right there.”

I heard a familiar pout behind the hole.

“We don’t have time!”

And the polite , yet stern voice that I had been waiting for.

“What is this place?”

The crowd with Mary and Arje coming from the wall looked around and had their jaws open.

“Arje!”

When I called Arje, she snapped out of the mode and opened her jaws once again seeing who I was with.

“Elves!”’

From Arje’s words, the pirates took a hint of each others’ identity.

“Why are those guys here!”

“How did they get here!”

Then, intense swearing followed afterwards.

“Hey! Who do you think you are to take my bunny?”

Mary pulled out her sword and got angry, but Bonnie remained calm.

“Isn’t that funny coming out of a pirate’s mouth?”

Mary rolled her eyes from Bonnie’s remark then waved her sword in mid-air.

“Anyways, give me back my bunny!”

But Bonnie shrugged.

“Try taking her, if you are truly a pirate.”

Mary yelled at all the members after hearing Bonnie.

“Run at them! Get rid of those elves!”

“AYE!!”

Mary and her crew started to run towards the altar, and the elves started to shoot catapults that they were holding.

Shooooo!

But those arrows flamed up and became ashes from the shield of light that Arje threw.

“Captain! They have a sorceress on their side.”

After seeing magic, the elves turned to Bonnie.

“We have a sorcerer on our side as well.”

Bonnie looked at Andrew.

“I want you to undo the frozen spring.”

Then Andrew looked at Bonnie dumbfounded.

“I use magic to freeze things. There is no such magic to unfreeze it.”

Then Bonnie shrugged and placed the end of the blade against my neck.

“Then, go find one.”

Andrew sighed at Bonnie’s words. Andrew seemed to get ready to attack Arje and Mary’s crew, probably because there really was no other way. However, it did look as if he was trying to delay as much time as possible.

“You will open this casket.”

Then, Bonnie took me, who was captured quietly, to the front of the casket.    

“Are you sure about this?”

From my question, Bonnie placed the blade even closer to my neck.

“Okay, fine.”

I opened the casket acting as if I didn’t want to. Truthfully, it didn’t matter if I were to open it, because it wouldn’t end everything.

Krrrroom!

The moment I opened the casket, the whole temple shook as in an earthquake, as expected.

“What the?”

In that moment, Mary and the other pirates who were running, and the elves who were getting ready to fight, all paused.

“Told you! It’s mad because you broke the temple!”

Mary blamed Arje.

“No! It’s not my fault!”

Arje was flustered and looked around for a bit, and pointed to me with the opened altar.

“Arje! Mary! Everyone get out of here through where you entered!”

I immediately told Arje and Mary to run.

“Huh? But…”

Arje opened her mouth, but before she could finish, rocks started to fall from the ceiling.

“Ahhhh!”

The elves went under the altar to avoid the rocks, but

Kwazzzzkkk!

As the rocks fell, they crushed the frozen spring, and the elves ended up falling into the Spring after losing their balance.

“Save me!”

“No! This is too deep!”

Although the spring seemed shallow, it was a trap. The spring was actually quite deep, and inside was a whirlpool that sucked all who entered.

“Andrew! The heart!”

From my shout, Andrew ran to the altar after snapping out of staring at the disappearing elves.

“No! The heart is mine!”

Bonnie, who was still here, reached out his hand to grab the heart. From the distance, it looked as if Bonnie would get it first, so I decided to step in.

Kwang!

I threw my body to push Bonnie out of the altar. I was worried that my body weight wouldn’t be enough to push Bonnie, but because he had only focused on getting ready to run fast, his body was not balanced. He shook then fell under the staircase.

“I got it!”

At that moment Andrew held up the heart inside the casket. It was a blue gem that had cold air coming out of it.

“Aris! There is more stuff inside!”

And under her heart was the item that I was looking for.

“Yes! As it should be!”

Underneath was the last weapon that Jarrod in the novel gains, and the weapon that I currently needed.

“A dagger? You came here for this dagger?”

Andrew was taken back that the item that I was looking for was a small dagger.

“What do you mean, ‘this dagger’? This is a one-of-a-kind.”

When I held up the dagger, I could see Bonnie with a crazy face looking at me.

“You damned bunny!”

Bonnie cursed at me, but I remained calm. 

“I was worried that you wouldn’t listen to me and sell me off as a slave. Thanks, Bonnie. Because of you, I was able to get what I wanted.”

As I teased Bonnie, Bonnie started to climb up the altar as if he was ready to kill me.

“Andrew! Run away with Arje and Mary!”

Andrew flinched.

“What about you?”

I smiled at his question.

“I have been wanting to have a sword battle with this guy, I can’t run here.”

This was the pride of a swordsman, so I didn’t want to show him the aftermath.

“Fine. Whatever it is, hurry!”

Andrew got down from the altar, and I grabbed the dagger with a serious face that I hadn’t made in a while.

“Swordsman Aris Wafers, I….”

As soon as I started the introduction to battle, I dodged Bonnie’s early attack with the dagger.

“Hmph! Do you really think that you can block my longsword with that tiny dagger?”

Bonnie laughed at me . That was understandable, since my hands holding the dagger were shaking, and from the amount of sheer difference in strengths, my head will be shattered.   

“Yeah. I don’t think so.”  

But I acted relaxed.

“But on your end.”

“What?”

Bonnie didn’t need to understand my words.

Kwazzzzzkk!

Bonnie’s sword started to crack.

“What the?”

Bonnie  immediately detached his sword, but it was too late. The sword that Bonnie was holding shattered into pieces. The power of this dagger was that it was the strongest dagger that had the ability to freeze the opponent’s sword, and one that I needed  for parrying.

Stab!

When I pierced the dagger in and out of Bonnie’s chest, Bonnie rolled to the floor.

Kwang!

And a rock fell to where he fell and made a hole. At this point, Bonnie would get sucked into the spring and die.

Tap!

But what a tenacious guy, Bonnie started to budge with his one hand holding the staircase.

“Please help me! I will do anything!”

Bonnie started to act pathetically. The cool Bonnie from earlier was nowhere to be found.

“By the way, Bonnie. Do you remember what you said earlier?”

Bonnie didn’t seem to be in the mood for a conversation.

“Earlier, you said that a pirate can make do without a hand, right?”

I had no intentions to forgive Bonnie. He had grabbed my ears many times and caused me pain. He should pay for it.

“Woah…wait.”

Bonnie’s face turned pale, as if he understood what I meant.

Stab!

I stabbed Bonnie’s hand with the dagger.

“Ahhhhhh!”

Bonnie lost grasp of the stairs and fell into the water. His scream drowned away as he sank into the the water.

“Next is…”

I had to get out of this place. Others had already gotten out through the hole that Arje had made. I should go through there, too. 

“Hiya!”

I stepped onto the floating ice pieces on the spring, and hopped onto the next and the one afterwards to get out of the spring.

Krrrrrrooom!

The temple was about to collapse completely. A human would have thought that it was too late and given up. However, I was a bunny.

“Ahhhhhhhh!”

I ran at a speed that even I thought was fast, and managed to escape safely before the temple completely collapsed.

“She made it!”

With Mary’s exclamation, the other pirates cheered.

“Aris!”

Arje hugged me tight as she cried.

“You have no idea how worried I was!”

Arje started to bawl her eyes out and cried. Then she seemed to be uncomfortable and even pulled off her mask that she always wore.

“Hmm?”

Mary and the others were in shock after seeing her face.

“It’s Lady Arberaj!”

“No way!”

Mary’s crew all kneeled after finding out her identity, but Arje was too emotional to notice. 

“Oh, she was actually pretty.”

Andrew was the only one who didn’t kneel as if he didn’t care about status, but he still seemed to be surprised at Arberaj’s beauty.

“I’m fine. You can let go of me now.”

But Arje took a while before she released me. 

“Cough.”

Arje wore the mask again after calming down, but she let go of it after realizing that it wouldn’t make a difference anymore.

“Sorry about making a scene.”

When Arje made an awkward face, the crew of Mary shook their heads firmly. 

“It’s no biggie, your highness!”

“We are honored to serve you!”

The pirates were quite polite. Almost to the point where you would think that they were in the navy, not pirates.

“Let us take you, royal highness. We no longer have business on this island!”

The crew of Mary started to take Arje back to the ship with respect. Arje seemed to be a little uncomfortable, but she didn’t seem to mind it too much. She followed them back to the ship.

“Good job out there, Andrew.”

I walked up to Andrew, who was observing the heart of the queen thoroughly. 

“You like it, don’t you? Although it’s only the heart, it’s still your mom.”

Andrew smiled back at me and placed the heart into his shirt.

“Stop the act now.”

But Andrew seemed off.

“Huh? I don’t have any more secrets that I’m hiding.”

And I had fooled Bonnie and his crew, not Andrew. 

“Really, you can stop now.”

Andrew scratched his head then looked at me with sparkling eyes.

“Mother.”

I looked around, thinking that the Ice Queen had reincarnated. Still, I didn’t see or hear anything. Andrew was looking right at me.

“Me?”

When I pointed at myself in shock, Andrew nodded.

“Yes, mother. Please return to your true form.”

….Why had I become Andrew’s mom?