Thanks to Luu, Allen had calmed down a little.

He slowly stood and glared up at the gaping hole in the ceiling above.

“How about it, Luu? Is Charlotte up there?”

{…She’s not.}

Luu shook her head slowly. It wasn’t unexpected.

Allen recalled the large shadow he had seen just before falling underground.

He pressed a hand to his forehead and groaned.

“Then that means… she was kidnapped, right?”

{…Yeah.}

Luu nodded again, this time with a pained expression.

A heavy silence fell between them.

Allen clenched his fists so tightly his fingertips tingled then exhaled deeply, letting the tension go.

He could always reflect deeply anytime. What he had to do now was save Charlotte. He changed his thoughts and stroked his chin.

“First, we need to get out of here. Will you help me?”

{Of course. It’s for Mama.}

“Good. But who the hell is behind this? The Kingdom of Niels? Or maybe some bounty hunters…”

Still, Allen hadn’t sensed a thing.

Whoever it was, they were incredibly skilled there was no doubt about that.

And then there was the magic problem. Spells wouldn’t activate here. True, there were known techniques that could suppress magic within a defined area, but those required a lot of prep work. It wasn’t something that just happened.

(Tch… they really went all out.)

The enemy had probably been waiting for an opportunity for a while.

The Noble Dragon from earlier was clearly a decoy.

As Allen muttered to himself, Luu tilted her head curiously.

{You’re surprisingly calm. I thought you’d be more of a mess.}

“Well, I know Charlotte’s still safe.”

{…Huh?}

“I mean, she’s been going out more lately, so I added a special enchantment to her usual hair ornament, a safety precaution.”

In other words, it acted like a marker.

It let Allen know roughly how far she was and whether she was in mortal danger.

According to it, Charlotte wasn’t too far away and wasn’t hurt. She was still safe for now.

When he explained that, Luu didn’t look impressed instead, she gave him a look like he was a rat crawling out of a sewer.

{Don’t go near Mama for a while.}

“Why not!?”

{Shut up. Creepy.}

She even kicked sand at him with her hind leg.

Allen felt like he’d just been scolded by a teenage daughter… even though he hadn’t even confessed yet.

Luu let out a weary sigh after shaking her head.

{Still, if that’s true, then we don’t have to panic. I think I know what the enemy wants.}

“…What do you mean?”

{I know who did it.}

“What…!?”

Allen’s voice echoed in the darkness.

Luu cleared her throat with a somber look on her face and continued.

{You know the zoo where Luu was saved before?}

“Huh…? Oh. Yeah. What about it?”

{The one who kidnapped Mama is from that place—-}

“Wait.”

Allen held up a finger to his lips, cutting Luu off.

She immediately fell silent.

While the two of them remained silent… from the darkness where the light of the magic stone could not reach, they heard several footsteps and the sound of something being dragged.

“Something’s coming…”

{This smell…}

And then, they appeared.

“Grrrrr…”

It was a dragon with pale green scales.

An adult Noble Dragon, no less than ten meters in length.

And there were dozens of them, surrounding Allen and Luu.

“Well, no wonder magic aren’t working now.”

{Is this really the time to be impressed…?}

Allen clapped his hands in realization, while Luu gave him a cold stare.