Taming The Villainesses

(EP-316.1) Destined Rivals #2

316 – The Twins Are Destined Rivals #2

Mirna asked me a favor.

She wanted me to explain everything to her younger sister, Narmi, on her behalf. Essentially, she was entrusting this task to me.

━It’s just that, it’s hard for me to say it….

I wasn’t entirely sure, but it seemed Mirna found it difficult to tell Narmi the truth.

I know better than anyone how hard it was to honestly confess the secrets and lies that you’ve been hiding. Just any ordinary courage wouldn’t be enough.

Because I fully understood Mirna’s feelings, and because the conflict between the sisters was my fault to begin with, I gladly accepted her request.

That’s why I’d planned this journey with Narmi. Through adventures and dungeons, I knew from experience with Stella how much closer we could become.

However, with the imps and Stella coming along, I hadn’t found the right time or opportunity and was growing anxious.

And now, to top it all off, we’d fallen into a dungeon trap and even lost our way, which only heightened my anxiety.

“There’s another fork ahead! What should we do? It looks like the map is completely useless now!”

Narmi trembled as she looked at the two paths that appeared in front of us. Fortunately, she didn’t seem discouraged.

“It’s kind of exciting!”

I see.

What might have been a tense crisis was apparently an exciting new thrill for Narmi.

Everyone seemed a bit too relaxed.

Then Stella spoke up.

“Then, should we split into two teams to search for the right path? Since both Theo-kun and Marmar-yang have a way to stay in contact, it’s best if they lead separate groups.” 𝘙

Splitting up to search for the path.

It was a risky suggestion, but I trusted that Stella, with her extensive dungeon exploration experience, wouldn’t have proposed it lightly.

So Marmar and I, who could stay in contact with each other, split up. And the imps followed Marmar.

“I don’t feel comfortable with just the imps going. I’ll go with them.”

To lead the imps, Stella, the most experienced and dependable among us, volunteered to be the teacher. Well, perhaps ‘teacher’ isn’t the right word—she was a professor after all.

That left just Narmi and me as a pair.

━Kyuiing.

Right, there’s Yingying too.

“Theo, you’re skilled, so you should be able to handle this, right?”

I nodded to Stella’s question.

Though it wasn’t intentional, this was a rare opportunity to be alone with Narmi. I guess I wasn’t completely unlucky after all.

“Alright, we’ll take this path then. Theo-kun and Narmi-yang, you two take that one.”

“Okay, contact us right away if anything happens.”

With that, we chose our separate paths at the fork and went on our way. Once Stella and the imps were out of sight, Narmi and I headed deeper into the dark cave.

The path was narrow.

So narrow that we had to hunch down to squeeze through. But Narmi, leading the way, was energetic.

“Hehe, I feel like an explorer.”

Her brightness was a relief.

The real challenge came next.

“Ah, Theo, there’s a flooded area here. We might need to dive a bit to get through—can you do it? My sister told me you can’t swim.”

A flooded section?

Just as Narmi said, a pool of luminous water blocked our way down the passage. To move forward, we had no choice but to dive through the submerged part.

I had learned to swim from Stella in the valley beyond the wall a while ago. But now that I’m actually putting it to use, I’m a little nervous.

“I’ll go first!”

Splash-!

Narmi plunged into the water, disappearing beneath the surface. I waited, a bit on edge, until finally, Narmi emerged again.

“There’s a path on the other side!”

“Then, I guess I’ll have to dive too.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll follow you to make sure nothing happens!”

Reassured by Narmi’s words, I took a deep breath and entered the water. As I struggled to open my eyes, I saw bright glowing crystals from quite deep under my feet.

Was that why the water seemed to be shining?

But without much time to admire it, I focused on moving my arms and legs. As I felt myself moving forward, I felt a strange sense of accomplishment.

Bubble, bubble.

Slowly, I was starting to feel the limits of holding my breath. Although my lung capacity wasn’t small, it was probably because I wasn’t used to swimming underwater.

So before I drowned, I quickly surfaced to find air.

“Puah!”

I’d only swum a dozen meters at most, but as it was my first time diving and swimming underwater, my heart was racing.

Splash, splash.

I pulled myself out of the water, taking a moment to catch my breath.

“I’ve finally conquered my weakness… water.”

The pride in my newfound ability didn’t last long, though, as I looked back, hoping Narmi emerged safely. She should be following behind, right?

At that moment—

Paah-.

With a splash, Narmi emerged from the water, soaked. Her adventurer’s clothes clung to her, and her damp hair stuck to her forehead, but her beauty remained unchanged.

“See, I told you there was a path!”

“You were right.”

“I think this is the right way. I have a knack for these kinds of things.”

* * *

Our exploration of the cave continued.

We navigated several narrow, dark passages and had to dive through flooded sections of the cave a few times, but it wasn’t particularly challenging.

Eventually, we stumbled upon a strange passage.

It was covered in crystals like clusters of pomegranate seeds. It was very strange and suspicious, but there was no other way forward.

“Alright, I’ll go first!”