If she could handle it, taking out the threat would be best.

  The living conditions here weren’t worth fighting over for other third-ranks, so in theory, if she claimed it successfully, she’d get the lasting stability she wanted.

  If she couldn’t…

  Well, turning back to check the other two spots wouldn’t hurt.

  ………………

  “So, this is Tsukimidaira?”

  Pandora—no, “Ember”—stood at the edge of the district, murmuring to herself.

  Her gaze fell on the street before her, looking especially still and eerie under the red moonlight.

  Maybe her timing was just right. The moonlight itself was strange. That huge crimson eye with long lashes hung high, blinking down at the ruins below. It didn’t cast the pure white light she remembered from her past life, but a chilling, scarlet glow.

  Under that light, the street had a uniquely haunting beauty.

  It wasn’t hard to imagine how pretty this place must’ve been in its original state, under such unique moonlight.

  But even now, with zombies in charge, humanity gone, and the city ruined, it was still beautiful. And it had gained an extra, weird, creepy kind of beauty.

  It was the huge, gently swaying sea of black and red flowers blooming under the moonlight.

  —Poppies.

  Their black centers, lit by the moon, looked like pitch-black eyeballs. Silently, wordlessly, watching every… “person” who entered Tsukimidaira.

  “My Lady, be careful.”

  Elsa’s cool voice spoke directly in the deepest part of Pandora’s mind, carrying unusual weight.

  Pandora gave a slight nod.

  Clearly, these eerie poppies, blooming only here, weren’t normal. She’d walked through so many other parts of the Ruined City and never seen this flower. But the moment she stepped into Tsukimidaira, these stunning, full-bloom poppies covered practically every corner of the whole block.

  Within arm’s reach alone, she counted over a dozen. The roadsides and yards in the distance were packed tight, impossible to count by sight.

  “My Lady, this place… feels very dangerous.”

  “That broker might’ve been exactly right. Should we leave and check somewhere else…”

  Elsa’s suggestion echoed in her mind again, her tone clearly holding a protector’s caution and wariness.

  But “Ember” stood silently at the border for a moment longer.

  She still… took a step forward into Tsukimidaira.

  “Not necessary. We go.”

  “Yes, My Lady.”

  Once her Lady gave the command, the loyal maid held no further doubt. She had only one job now—protect her Lady, and perfectly fulfill her Lady’s every wish, no matter what.

  ………………

  Had to admit,

  this sea of black and red poppies under the scarlet moonlight, while clearly giving off a harmful vibe, had a mesmerizing, breathtaking magic in its weird beauty.

  It was just that this beauty also carried something indescribably off.

  From the very moment she stepped onto Tsukimidaira’s main street, Pandora kept feeling—that someone was watching her.

  The source of that gaze was crystal clear.

  It came from the standalone house at the very center of Tsukimidaira. On its second floor was a huge floor-to-ceiling window, but the window was completely blocked by curtains thick enough to shut out all light.

  Yet, Pandora felt that from behind those curtains, a gaze was cautiously, curiously observing her every move…

  Was her perception just too sharp?

  Pandora shook her head slightly. She couldn’t be sure her current senses were correct.

  The air in Tsukimidaira felt different from outside. Since entering, her head had felt foggy, like it was dunked in warm, thick liquid. Her thoughts moved half a beat slower.

  In this state, her perceptions obviously couldn’t just be taken as “true.”

  Only by reaching that place, or getting much closer, could she confirm if someone was really watching.

  Just then,

  “My Lady!”

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  Elsa’s urgent voice, filled with unprecedented sharpness, cut through the deepest part of her mind!

  Pandora’s heart jumped. Her body reacted before her thoughts could!

  She spun to look.

  A dark, blurry shadow flashed and vanished in the yard of the house next door!

  But when she looked hard, that yard was empty. Nothing but poppies swaying in the wind…

  Pandora instinctively tightened her grip on the Sword of Elsa.

  The next moment, a distinct vibration came through the ground under her feet!

  Realizing it was wrong, Pandora relied on pure instinct to dodge fast to the side!

  BOOM—!!!

  A grotesquely thick “root-dragon,” made of countless twisted plant roots, burst violently from the exact spot where she’d just been standing!

  Each swing of the root-dragon whipped up powerful gusts.

  Seeing the attack miss, it didn’t stick around. It pulled back underground just as fast.

  All that was left was a seemingly bottomless hole, the dirt at the edges still crumbling in, showing just how terrifying the force had been.

  “Should we retreat?” a vague murmur seemed to drift on the wind. The voice sounded like her own inner thought, but also like Elsa’s…

  “Elsa?”

  “Here, my Lady! Watch your left!”

  A clear, steady voice answered in Pandora’s mind.

  Pandora moved instantly, rolling and dodging again!

  BOOM—!

  The root-dragon erupted from underground once more, with the same terrifying force.

  But this time, before it could fully pull back, Pandora spun fast. The Sword of Elsa in her hand carved a sharp crimson arc as she slashed sideways hard!

  Yet…

  She felt her sword hit something incredibly tough, but slippery and shapeless.

  The underground roots reacted with shocking speed.

  Judging by the feel through the sword, her attack clearly hadn’t hit anything vital!

  The ground shook hard again.

  Pandora’s thoughts raced.

  “To the house at the center of Tsukimidaira! Now!”

  “Understood!”

  Elsa answered at once.

  A surge of warm, powerful feeling flowed steadily from the sword’s hilt into her body, clearing the foggy sluggishness from her mind.

  Pandora didn’t hesitate.

  She darted onto the wide, straight road leading to the center. The mysterious root attacks followed close behind, clinging like shadows.

  And as she moved down this broad avenue, only a few steps in—

  Swish!

  The “root-dragon” erupted again!

  This time, it didn’t wait under her feet. It burst up directly ahead, right in her path!

  Without her combat instincts—honed to something inhuman in the “Red Moon Nightmare”—her reaction speed wouldn’t have been enough. That strike would have landed clean.

  At the same time, the surrounding black-red poppy buds, which had been quietly swaying, now all let out a rattling hiss like snake tails!

  The sound seemed to hit biological instinct directly, like humanity’s deep fear of spiders, the deep ocean, or ghosts. It stirred the most primal, genetic terror.

  Pandora forced down the tingling scalp and rising goosebumps. She tried slashing at nearby flowers with the Sword of Elsa, only to watch the blade cut through an insubstantial illusion with no effect.

  She picked up her pace, advancing swiftly toward her target building.

  Clearly, whether it was the cunning roots or this eerie flower sea, their behavior had one purpose—to drive her away.

  Yet that also meant…

  her choice was right!

  Just then, Pandora sensed something. She looked up sharply, her half-scorched, half-alluring face casting a cold stare at the always-closed floor-to-ceiling window—a stare loaded with killing intent and piercing mental force!

  The watcher behind the window seemed completely unprepared for this incredible “counterattack.” With just that look, they were viciously pierced by the second-rank Wizard’s psychic power held in her gaze.

  The persistent feeling of being watched that had surrounded her finally… vanished.

  But unlike what she’d imagined, the flower sea and the roots showed no special reaction.

  Could it be…

  the watcher wasn’t the key?

  Then why did both the root attacks and the flowers' reactions grow stronger the closer she got to that room?

  Doubt rose in Pandora’s mind. And the best way to solve doubt was to test it herself.

  She didn’t stop. She sped up.

  “Ember” now moved like a phantom gliding through night. Elsa’s precise perception as an alchemical construct combined perfectly with her own terrifying combat instincts, forged through countless bloody battles in the “Red Moon Nightmare.”

  This storm of root attacks, which would be near-certain death for any ordinary second-rank apprentice, posed almost no real threat to her.

  She could always, an instant before the roots burst through—through the slightest cracks in the ground, through the most unnatural dust flow in the air—predict the attack’s intent, then dodge with elegant precision.

  Just like this—

  The ground slightly ahead and to the right cracked a tiny bit!

  The corner of Pandora’s eye, blocking the eerie interference from the black-red poppy sea, caught this deadly sign exactly.

  Immediately, her body stepped diagonally left without the slightest warning.

  The thick “root-dragon,” carrying a howling gust, erupted from the exact spot she’d just left, brushing past her body without leaving even a speck of dirt.

  But…

  Thud!

  A dull impact sounded.

  “Ember's” previously elegant forward momentum turned from graceful to clumsy in an instant. Her advancing body jolted hard, even forcing her to hop back a step!

  She looked down.

  The ground where she’d just stood had, unnoticed, exploded into a new pit. And the “root-dragon” hadn’t attacked from the front, but from under her feet, at a tricky angle, targeting her very footing!

  “Elsa,” Pandora’s voice held a hint of provoked competitiveness, “seems the enemy… is learning too?”

  Though her words mocked, she quickly adjusted her stance, shedding the earlier clumsiness.

  So the enemy could learn? So what?

  Was she afraid?

  At worst… they’d see who learned faster!

  She certainly didn’t believe her learning ability would lose to a brainless plant!

  Rumble, rumble, rumble!

  As if answering her challenge, the ground’s tremors intensified again! Several root-dragons erupted at once from different spots!

  Yet Pandora’s figure had long since vanished from the place…

  ………………

  Just as she predicted, the opponent’s learning speed couldn’t match her adaptability, let alone keep up with her superhuman physical reactions.

  But this underground enemy was no pushover either.

  As the distance between her and the central house gradually closed, shrinking to just tens of meters, the root attacks went completely wild!

  Behind “Ember,” hardly a patch of ground stayed intact. Craters of varying depths dotted the earth densely; someone who didn’t know might think this ground had been plowed over by dozens of artillery batteries.

  Yet… when Pandora finally stood before the poppy-vine-covered villa, these frantic, desperate attacks suddenly stopped.

  The calm felt like nothing had ever happened.

  Pandora deliberately paused to breathe.

  The roots showed no reaction.

  She even looked at the house before her, completely draped in black-red poppies, with only a door visible. Above the house, the nearly full, slightly uneven crimson sphere of the moon cast its cold, scarlet light as always.

  Everything seemed to have returned to “normal.” Even that watching gaze never returned.

  “What’s this… scared now?”

  She wondered aloud, puzzled.

  But whatever the case, the truth was about to show itself.

  Pandora pushed open the heavy wooden door and looked inside.

  It was a small courtyard.

  In the courtyard’s center bloomed a single… enormous, almost canopy-sized poppy.

  It swayed gently under the moonlight, its enchanting, hypnotic beauty so captivating it could put one in a trance, making them want to offer themselves willingly, to become rich soil feeding the roots of such perfection.