Echoes of Hollow

After climbing the invisible stairs, the endless doors passed before their eyes, and being pulled by Alyia, Samantha barely realized how far they had walked until she glanced back for a moment. Sighing deeply, she stopped walking.

'This feels a bit uncomfortable. She’s trying so hard to please me that it becomes awkward, but... since she’s Hye’s girlfriend... is that a good thing? It means she cares, not just about their relationship but maybe about what I think too, and surely, she’s doing all of this because she knows what I think of hunters.'

Noticing Samantha’s sudden stop, Alyia turned with a bit of hesitation. Her eyes briefly met Hye’s, clearly seeking some kind of help, but he responded with silence, unsure of what to do or say.

"Eh... sorry for being so rude, I shouldn’t have dragged you through the house like that..."

With a slight narrowing of her eyes and a visibly more forced smile, her embarrassment became evident. But gently taking her hand, Samantha smiled.

'The only one who can make him feel something so strongly that he becomes visibly impatient, embarrassed, and worried... If she knew how grateful I am for that, she wouldn’t care about trying to please me like this.'

"Don’t worry, it’s not that. We still have somewhere to go, and I have to get back to work, so... we won’t have time to do this now. We were just supposed to meet the person Lady Pyrdesh mentioned, but... thinking that person would be my nephew’s girlfriend... I must admit, I was quite surprised."

With the naturalness returning to her smile, Alyia felt lighter and more confident. Knowing she hadn’t ruined everything in just a few minutes was truly a relief, even eliciting a small, discreet sigh.

Her eyes wandered, and noticing the brief exchange of glances between the two in front of her, Samantha smiled after letting out a soft sigh.

'Looks like the scolding will have to wait...'

"Well, if you’re not busy, would you like to come with us to—"

"Of course, just give me a second, please!"

Releasing Samantha’s hands, Alyia sprinted toward the wall nearby, disappearing completely as she passed through it as if her body had become intangible.

'Was that... a skill or..?'

Samantha smiled as she took a step toward the wall Alyia had crossed and raised a hand to touch it.

"Is she... always like this?"

"Energetic, yes. But those abilities I don’t—"

"Ready, shall we?"

With the sudden appearance of a white portal beside her, Samantha’s eyes widened. But, unlike what she expected, Alyia reappeared already having changed clothes, grabbing her arm and preventing her from touching the wall without even realizing it. Together, they headed toward the exit. Just as Alyia had appeared, the portal disappeared abruptly before their eyes.

"So, that really was—"

"Oh, that? Don’t worry, it’s nothing, I just find it more practical to move around that way."

With a slight narrowing of her eyes, Alyia raised a hand to the back of her head and smiled.

"No need to worry, no monsters will come out of there or anything like that. It’s really just a means of transportation I prefer to use."

'Prefers to use... she’s saying she creates portals at will, yet acts as if it’s something simple and irrelevant... That’s...'

Samantha’s eyes wandered again, this time settling on Alyia’s cheerful and smiling face—a person who clearly didn’t fit into the mundane world, despite not being well-known, as one would expect from someone in her family.

'If it were Lady Pyrdesh doing something like that, or maybe Lior, it would be understandable. But her...? Even though I knew there was a sixth person in this family, we’ve never met, and I’d never heard any major news about her. How is someone like her not widely known throughout the world..?'

"Hey, we’re leaving!" Alyia shouted.

"What?! Wait...!" Pyrdesh tried to call after them but wasn’t heard.

Alyia hurried toward the door, taking Samantha with her and giving her no chance to say any goodbyes. Hye followed shortly behind, turning and, in a seemingly dry manner, said his farewell.

"See you later."

"Oh, yes... see you..."

"Give me the controller," Lior said, trying to wrestle it from the child beside him in an apparent tug-of-war. "Now... it's my... turn!"

"No...! You’ve gone twice already! It’s still my turn to play..."

"The video game is mine...!"

"But—"

"Aaahh! Both of you, stop it, enough already!"

Sighing, Pyrdesh leaned back into the soft, cozy armchair and, closing her eyes, tried to ignore the sounds of the two continuing to bicker beside her. But then Alyia’s voice returned once again:

"And we’re taking Tom with us!"

"What?!" Pyrdesh rushed to the door, only to see them walking near the stairs already. "Hey! Unlike you, I still have to go to work!"

The space before her shimmered, and when everything returned to normal, she knew none of them had heard a single word she said.