Haruto woke to the sound of Belial chewing something.
He opened one eye.
The black goat was sitting a few meters away, happily munching on a dry shrub that looked only slightly more edible than the sand around it.
Haruto stared.
"...is that food?"
Belial swallowed.
"IT IS IF YOU LOWER YOUR STANDARDS."
Haruto closed his eye again.
"Fair."
The goat continued chewing.
The sound was somehow annoying enough to make sleeping impossible.
After another minute, Haruto finally sat up.
The stone settlement looked different in the daylight.
Or whatever passed for daylight in this world.
The shadows were shorter now.
The walls looked older.
Less mysterious.
More abandoned.
Which somehow made them more interesting.
Last night, he had only seen shapes.
Now he could see details.
The stones weren't uniform.
Some were darker than others.
Some had cracked.
Some looked like they had been replaced entirely.
People had maintained this place.
Not once.
Repeatedly.
For a long time.
Haruto stood and stretched.
His back immediately protested.
"Ow."
Belial glanced over.
"YOU'RE TOO YOUNG TO MAKE OLD MAN SOUNDS."
"I DIED ONCE."
"THAT DOESN'T COUNT."
"It absolutely counts."
They argued for a while.
Not because either cared.
Just because there wasn't much else to do.
Eventually, Haruto wandered away from the old fire pit.
The settlement wasn't large, but it was bigger than he had first thought.
The further he explored, the more signs of life he found.
A row of stones arranged too neatly to be natural.
A section of wall reinforced with different rock.
A flat area where people might have gathered.
Nothing impressive.
Nothing legendary.
Just evidence that someone had once called this place home.
He stopped beside one of the walls.
At first glance, it looked ordinary.
Then he noticed shallow scratches near the bottom.
Dozens of them.
Short vertical lines grouped together.
Five.
Then another five.
Then another.
Haruto crouched.
"...huh."
Belial wandered over.
"What?"
"Tally marks."
The goat stared blankly.
Haruto pointed.
"Someone was counting."
Belial looked.
Then looked again.
"...that's incredibly boring."
"Exactly."
Haruto smiled.
That was what made it interesting.
Nobody carved tally marks for future generations.
Nobody recorded days because they expected to become famous.
People counted because they were waiting.
Or surviving.
Or trying not to lose track of time.
The marks felt more human than any monument ever could.
He stood and continued walking.
As he moved through the settlement, a picture slowly began forming in his head.
This wasn't a camp.
It wasn't a temporary shelter.
Whoever built this place had expected to stay.
The walls were too deliberate.
The paths too worn.
Even the old fire pit sat in the center like a gathering place.
Someone had lived here.
Maybe many people.
For years.
Maybe longer.
The realization lingered in his thoughts as he walked between two large stone formations.
Then he stopped.
Something felt wrong.
Not dangerous.
Wrong.
He looked around.
The walls.
The paths.
The open spaces.
Then his eyes narrowed.
"...Belial."
The goat looked up.
"WHAT?"
Haruto pointed toward the center of the settlement.
"...where did they get water?"
Silence.
Belial blinked.
Then blinked again.
Haruto kept looking around.
The question seemed obvious now.
People could survive heat.
They could build walls.
They could gather food somehow.
But water?
This place sat in the middle of an endless desert.
A settlement couldn't exist without water.
Belial slowly lowered its shrub.
"...I don't know."
Haruto nodded.
Neither did he.
But now that he'd noticed the problem, he couldn't stop thinking about it.
He began walking again.
More carefully this time.
Looking not at the walls—
but between them.
Searching.
The answer had to be somewhere.
A settlement wasn't magic.
People needed water.
The same way they needed food.
The same way they needed shelter.
The same way they needed hope.
A few minutes later, he found it.
Or rather—
he nearly fell into it.
The ground suddenly disappeared beneath his next step.
Haruto jerked backward.
Sand scattered.
His heartbeat spiked.
For one brief second, he thought he'd found a sinkhole.
Then he looked down.
And froze.
A circular stone structure sat half-buried beneath drifting sand.
Its rim barely rose above the ground.
Old.
Weathered.
Almost hidden.
But unmistakable.
A well.
Belial arrived moments later.
The goat looked down.
Then looked at Haruto.
Then looked down again.
Neither spoke.
The well shouldn't exist.
Yet there it was.
Haruto slowly approached.
The stonework was ancient but sturdy.
The inner wall disappeared into darkness.
He couldn't see the bottom.
For a while, neither moved.
Then Haruto picked up a pebble.
Belial immediately sighed.
"...you're going to throw that, aren't you?"
"Probably."
"Of course you are."
The pebble vanished into darkness.
One second passed.
Then another.
And another.
Haruto frowned.
The well felt deeper than it should have been.
Then—
faintly—
a sound echoed upward.
A small splash.
Both of them froze.
Haruto looked down again.
Belial looked down too.
"...there's water."
"THERE'S WATER."
"...that's what I said."
"THERE SHOULD NOT BE WATER."
Haruto couldn't argue with that.
Because Belial was right.
The well changed everything.
Suddenly the walls made sense.
The paths made sense.
The fire pit made sense.
Even the hidden message.
Continue.
This wasn't a place where people had survived.
This was a place where people had lived.
Maybe laughed.
Maybe argued.
Maybe dreamed about tomorrow.
The thought settled heavily in his chest.
Haruto rested a hand against the stone rim.
Cool.
Solid.
Real.
For the first time since arriving in this world, he found evidence that people hadn't merely endured it.
They had tried to build a future here.
And for some reason—
that felt far more mysterious than any ruin.