Isn’t the airspace above this territory supposed to be inaccessible to beings hostile to Haniel?

As he was thinking this, Regan suddenly remembered what Haniel had mentioned in passing recently and narrowed his eyes.

“I have a bird friend I get along with here.”

A bird.

Indeed, she had mentioned a bird friend.

Judging by how it was circling threateningly but not coming any closer, it didn’t seem to have hostile intentions.

Regan was convinced that this “bird” was the friend Haniel had mentioned and lowered his weapons.

But he didn’t like it. Grr. Regan gritted his teeth, his mood thoroughly disturbed.

“That’s… a male.”

Even from a distance, he could tell from the pheromones and body scent carried by the wind.

Just as Nasir had been very displeased when smelling Regan’s scent on Haniel, Regan felt the same.

He too strongly smelled the possessive scent from Nasir flying in the air, declaring Haniel as his own.

It was enough to make him nauseous.

He wanted to pierce its heart right then and there, but doing so would earn Haniel’s hatred.

It seemed that his mate had been lonely in this forest and had given small pieces of her heart to too many beings.

Whoosh! At that moment, Nasir, who had been threatening circling in the sky, dropped something to Regan.

Clang. The object that fell precariously close to his feet was none other than a sword.

It was clearly thrown with the mindset that it wouldn’t matter if it hit Regan’s head, making Regan glare fiercely at Nasir before picking up what the bird had dropped.

And when he examined the sword, his face could only harden.

“…Sol, all the way here…”

Engraved on the pommel at the end of the hilt was the emblem of the sun. The mark of his homeland, Soleil.

The moment Regan saw that sword, he realized that those hunting him as a “traitor” had reached this area.

Sol, the king of Soleil, who always seemed to expect only Regan’s corpse.

Those pursuing Regan would have reported that he was as good as dead, but Sol hadn’t given up—he wanted to confirm the kill.

Anxious that the hunting dog he had pushed off a cliff might come back alive to bite its master…

“Hah.”

A twisted smile appeared at the corner of Regan’s mouth.

Although he had known Sol’s intentions for a long time, the aggressive approach from their side actually made him feel lighter.

How could he not be pleased when they were offering to remove his leash first?

Now he felt he could tear out that throat without hesitation.

Regan, grinding the corner of his mouth, raised his head to look at Nasir in the air.

‘The reason this flying beast is showing me this… if it has any sense, it means I should get lost.’

You are a threat.

There’s a pack of jackals looking for you in the forest, so you’re dangerous to both this territory and Haniel.

By throwing the weapon of Regan’s pursuit team in front of him, that bird was clearly saying this.

But Regan was thinking differently.

‘I need to tell Haniel about this.’

The danger in the forest was no longer Regan’s simple concern.

Not just the Rifts, but trackers from his homeland Soleil as well.

And if those trackers were desperate enough to search for him by cutting through this deadly forest, there was no need to even mention it.

Originally, the more one knew such truths, the more deeply involved they became, so he had wanted to keep Haniel in the dark as much as possible…

The muscles in Regan’s tightly clenched jaw bulged.

‘In this situation, being ignorant would be more dangerous.’

Although he didn’t think she would let him stay after knowing his detailed circumstances… this wasn’t optional.

So Regan urgently set out to find Haniel, who would be somewhere in the territory.

Fields, the logging area within the territory, farms, the cabin…

But he couldn’t find Haniel anywhere within the territory.

She had already left for the forest.

Regan’s heart had been beating wildly since the moment he realized this.

A strange anxiety, as if his brain was shrinking, seized him the moment he looked toward the inner forest.

Was this how dragons with prophetic powers felt? His male instinct was screaming that Haniel was in danger.

‘No.’

Not her… not now!

Regan transformed into his beast form and dashed like a flying tiger.

Running madly in the direction his instinct told him his mate would be.

And at the end of that path, he rescued Haniel from danger.

⋆˚🐾˖°⋆˚🐾˖°⋆˚🐾˖°

Regan’s instinct did not lie.

He found his mate, Haniel, deep in the forest just in time and saved her from a ferocious beast.

He had fulfilled his duty as a mate, as Haniel’s only male.

But even such a rescue from a life-or-death moment couldn’t prevent the worst-case scenario he had feared from becoming reality.

The bear would have been better.

They had fallen into a “Rift.”

“What? Hahaha… that’s absurd. We’ve just fallen into a hole, right?”

Haniel shrugged and waved her hands dismissively after hearing Regan’s words.

But the man’s gaze as he looked at her contained not a trace of humor, causing Haniel’s smile to slowly cool like overly salty broth…

Very salty indeed.

‘No, this really makes no sense. The ground collapsing was serious, but… a Rift? I didn’t feel anything.’

She tilted her head back to look up at where she and Regan had been standing just moments ago.

“Look. There’s the hole we fell through… uh…”

Haniel froze blankly with her finger still pointing upward.

Where the ground had collapsed. There should have been a hole above their heads where they had fallen through… but there wasn’t one.

She had thought they had rolled into a small sinkhole, having fallen just enough to lightly bruise her bottom.

The ceiling that should have been right above them was at a dizzyingly high place, and instead of a hole, there was only solid rock resembling a cave wall.

Sensing that something was seriously wrong, Haniel took out a torch from her inventory with trembling hands and illuminated the ceiling and surroundings.

“This… this can’t be…”

Everything her gaze touched was a long tunnel without a single tree.

‘Where are we?’

Haniel’s jaw nearly touched the floor, completely stunned by what she heard.

She now realized that this place where she and Regan had fallen wasn’t a simple sinkhole but somewhere completely different… namely, it might be a “Rift.”

There was a reason Regan had shown such dismay.

“Is, is this even possible…”

Haniel’s eyes, now as wide as saucers, thoroughly scanned every corner reached by the torch’s light.

It was big. Enormously big.