For something as intangible as time to have real meaning, it needs something to measure itself against.
You have to actually see raindrops fall from a gray sky into the mud to know that the fall lasts only an instant. You have to actually hear winter snow snap a dead branch under its weight to know that the burden of accumulation lasts a season.
But for Shane, buried deep beneath the darkness and silence of the underworld, none of those reference points existed.
He had no idea how much time had passed.
In that near-frozen chaos, the only thing he could sense was that, at the edges of his consciousness, there were gradually a few extremely faint "sounds."
At first, it was only the vaguest whisper of wind, muffled and distant, as though heard through thick layers of water.
Sometimes, mixed into it, there was the soft rustling of rain pattering against the earth.
Later on, very occasionally, he seemed to hear fragments of human voices—broken, indistinct, impossible to make out clearly.
"…Why does this feel like I'm actually dead, lying under a grave and listening to people mourn me?"
Even in sleep, Shane found the state of things more than a little unpleasant.
Back when he was still above ground, hadn't he made it very clear that he was only going to "sleep here for a while"?
Had those idiots not listened to a single word he said?
Clinging to that inexplicable obsession, Shane began gathering his scattered mind in the endless dark.
At last, as his drifting consciousness slowly began to come together, he caught his first complete sentence.
"Brother Shane… if you can still hear me down there, then please… come out and beat me half to death!"
"…"
That voice sounded familiar. And someone who would call him "Brother" with that kind of crying tone…
Who was it?
Shane's mind, left idle for who knew how long, was still stiff enough that he couldn't match the voice to a face right away.
"Elfman! What are you doing sneaking over here again?"
Before he could figure it out, another voice rang out:
"If I'd known you were going to be like this, I never should've let old man Roubaul tell you about this place!"
"If you really want someone to beat you up that badly, why not just come to your sister and let me do it?"
That crisp female voice was impossible to mistake for anyone but the white-haired delinquent girl who always wore a fierce face, yet cared about her family more than anyone.
Outside the pit, Elfman didn't argue back. If anything, his voice grew lower and more remorseful.
"I'm only saying this one last time, Elfman. Lift your head."
Mira cut him off sharply.
"It was absolutely your fault to secretly take Lisanna with you to receive the Beast Soul. But! Death always leaves traces behind!"
"As long as we haven't seen Lisanna's body with our own eyes, I absolutely will not allow you to say she's dead!"
"It's already been nearly a year since that day. You need to wipe away those useless tears and pull yourself together!"
"But, sis, I remember it clearly. I was the one who lost control and injured Lisanna…" Elfman's voice was full of pain.
"Maybe… maybe the Beast Soul I absorbed already ate her—"
Bang!
A dull, extremely loud impact rang out, so forceful that even the earth around Shane shook with it.
"If you're going to be this stubborn…"
Mira said coldly,
"Then dig that bastard Shane out for me!"
"With his awful personality, if you begged him to kill you, he'd probably just find it troublesome and agree!"
"…"
Buried underground, Shane felt himself going a little crazy—not because of Mira's shameless slander against his character.
But because after a brief silence, he could actually hear extremely energetic digging sounds above him.
"You've got to be kidding…"
Shane was stunned.
The soil burying him here had been personally blessed by Ereshkigal's divine underworld power.
Unless the curse of Ankhseram on him had been completely erased, they could dig through the center of the earth and still never find him.
And yet—
"Huh? Sis, why… is the dirt down here so soft?" Elfman, who had been digging with all his strength using one arm, suddenly stopped and muttered in surprise.
Mira, who had only been standing by to let her brother vent, frowned and crouched down to inspect the pit more closely.
A flicker of surprise also passed through her beautiful eyes.
"This really is strange… The way the dirt's been churned up looks like some enormous monster was thrashing and struggling underground."
Mira rubbed her chin thoughtfully.
"But only Shane should be buried here, right? So could it be… he was uncomfortable sleeping down there and started throwing a waking-up tantrum?"
"Yeah, now that I think about it, that really does sound like something he'd do."
"Exactly!" Elfman nodded heavily, fully convinced, and then started digging even harder.
Listening to the siblings seriously spout nonsense above him, Shane was completely speechless.
Still, he could clearly feel that as Elfman kept digging, the layer of earth burying him was growing thinner and the sounds of digging were getting closer and closer.
"Looks like the effect of the curse really has been wiped out completely."
The instant that thought crossed his mind—
Rustle—
The last layer of dirt above him was thrown aside, and Shane felt a beam of blinding sunlight strike his face—painfully bright, yet carrying a warmth he hadn't felt in far too long.
He frowned instinctively and slowly opened his eyes.
What greeted him was the blue sky he had not seen in ages.
And standing at the edge of the pit, backlit by the sun and looking down at him from above, was a white-haired girl.
It had clearly been a long time since he'd seen Mira. She had grown taller, and her once-youthful figure had now filled out into dramatic curves.
But her white hair was still tied into a high ponytail with that same black ribbon, carrying the same familiar boldness as ever.
"Yo, Mira. Elfman too. Long time no see."
Shane lay sprawled flat at the bottom of the muddy pit without the slightest dignity, grinning lazily.
"You idiot…"
Looking at the man in the pit—who seemed like he'd just woken up from an absurdly long afternoon nap—Mira pressed her lips together, her eyes slightly red.
"You really thought you could just hide underground and slack off for that long?"
She took a deep breath, then, just like the day Shane had invited her into the guild under the sunlight, she held out her hand toward him.
"Then… I guess I'll be in your care again from now on," Shane said with a smile, taking her hand and pulling himself up out of the pit.
But before he could brush the dirt off himself and toss out a couple of his usual jokes—
Swish—
Behind him came a heavy sound, as if something enormous had suddenly torn itself free from the ground!
Shane turned instinctively.
And there, to his shock, he saw a massive tail radiating an unmistakable dragon's aura lash violently across the earth!
But just as he focused to see it clearly, the dragon's tail vanished like a mirage in the sunlight.
"…"
The easy relief of finally seeing daylight again vanished without a trace.
The corner of Shane's mouth twitched stiffly.