The man in the cap’s suggestion was a sensible one, and everyone agreed without protest. They spread out and began searching for soldiers nearby.

There was a soldier to be found roughly every ten meters throughout the castle.

If you didn’t spot one, a bit of hacking and digging at the nearby vines would turn one up.

One person noticed a soldier’s armor and grew interested. Not content with just taking the sword, he also thought about stripping the armor off for himself.

Presumably reasoning that an extra layer of protection could do something against the thorns.

The trouble was that the soldiers were embedded in the vines, and removing the armor wasn’t easy.

A stocky, fair-skinned man gripped the soldier’s arm and pulled hard, trying to wrench off the arm guard. The soldier’s body rocked and swayed under the force — and then the head lolled to the side and landed squarely on the stocky man’s hand.

He recoiled in shock!

“Hey!… Everyone get over here!” he called out frantically. “These soldiers — I think they’re alive!”

“Alive too? That can’t be…”

“Are you sure you’re not mistaken?”

“His breath hit my hand! I couldn’t be wrong!” Being doubted made the stocky man indignant. “If you don’t believe me, go try it yourself!”

The group exchanged glances. No one was willing to try it — even something as simple as holding a finger under the soldier’s nose felt like too much. Before, when they assumed they were dealing with corpses, it hadn’t bothered them. Now that they knew they might be dealing with living people, no one dared to be too casual about it.

The stocky man gave a disdainful snort. “Seems your nerve isn’t all that impressive either.”

A hand suddenly reached past the group and held itself beneath the soldier’s nose.

Everyone froze.

The hand belonged to none other than their opponent: Tan Xiao.

Tan Xiao withdrew his hand and marveled aloud, “Wow. He’s really alive. This guy is still breathing!”

Everyone: “…”

After two seconds, someone muttered in a low voice: “Is he simple? … Not even afraid the soldier might wake up and bite him.”

“If he bit me I’d cut him. Not exactly complicated, is it?” Tan Xiao said freely. “I’ll say it — you people, are you even up to the task? Opponents who are this easily rattled aren’t really worthy of going up against me. Understood?”

The person who had spoken was too flustered to reply and said nothing more.

The man in the cap frowned and swept a glance over Tan Xiao, then turned his attention back to more pressing matters. He thought it over, then said in a low voice: “Since this soldier is alive, the other soldiers are almost certainly alive too. Either way — something is very wrong with this place. Everyone here is being kept trapped alive in the vines for some reason. Be careful while you’re searching for the sword.”

He looked around, his frown deepening. “Where’s the curly-haired one now? He was just here.”

The group had only just come together — no one had even learned each other’s names yet.

“Over there!” The group’s only young woman pointed it out. “Behind that column — looks like he’s resting.”

“Resting?” Something didn’t sit right with the man in the cap. He remembered that Curly had been scratched by one of the thorns.

He walked in that direction. The others followed.

Tan Xiao went too, of course.

Behind the column was a stone staircase. Curly was sitting on the steps, propped up on a sword with both hands, head nodding forward — dozing off.

The man in the cap’s heart lurched. Without thinking, he kicked out hard.

The sword flew out of Curly’s hands. He lurched forward as his upper body lost its support. He startled awake with a gasp, and found himself looking up at the man in the cap and the rest of the group, completely confused.

“What were you doing?!” the man in the cap demanded. “Falling asleep at a time like this?!”

“I fell asleep?” Curly was just as shocked. “I… I suddenly felt very drowsy, I don’t know how…”

As he was speaking, he let out a yawn.

When he finished, the awareness of his own situation was already settling over him uneasily.

“How could I have fallen asleep…” He forced himself to stand, pinching himself hard. “Damn it. I can’t let myself go under in a place like this!”