Chapter 100

Chapter 100. Entering the Ruin (2)

Before long, we learned why there had been a corpse lying at the entrance.

Thwack!

A hammer suddenly shot out from inside the wall and sent the knight at the front flying.

His armor caved in, and it seemed the arm he had used to block the hammer had broken.

“It is a trap! Injury!”

The knight following behind shouted loudly, and the senior knight gave an order.

“Change the vanguard!”

If it had been an ordinary person, he would not even have been able to react and would have died on the spot.

However, the knight who had blocked the hammer stepped back while holding one arm at the senior knight’s words.

After fixing his broken arm to his armor, he drank the potion he had, and the knight behind him immediately filled his empty position.

An injured person had appeared, but our speed did not decrease.

“Ordinary people truly would not be able to block or avoid that.”

It was a trap an ordinary person would have found impossible to react to.

Just as Katrine had said, it seemed difficult for adventurers or mercenaries to move inside a ruin.

The traps continued after that as well.

The ground suddenly collapsed, and the ceiling came down. Poison gas sprayed from the walls, and arrows shot from the floor.

However, the group overcame those traps and continued forward.

A falling knight was lifted up with telekinesis, and the sinking ceiling was endured with brute strength.

A person who inhaled poison gas was detoxified, and the arrows were blocked with shields.

In the process, injured people appeared, but the wounded were made to drink potions and follow from behind.

The number of wounded increased because of the repeated traps, but the more the traps continued, the greater the people’s expectations became.

The fact that there were many traps meant there had to be an important relic here.

It was certainly different from the ruin in our territory. The underground facility beneath the ruins in the territory had stopped functioning and merely gathered dust.

Seeing all the traps operate like this, relics had to remain here as well.

We continued advancing like that until, at some point, the group came to a complete stop.

A forked path had appeared before them.

The senior knight looked around at the noble officers and the count, then turned his head and looked at the princess.

“Princess, you should make the decision.”

At the senior knight’s words, a hollow laugh escaped me.

They had made decisions however they pleased until now, yet suddenly they handed over the right to decide.

No matter how young the princess was, those were not words one should say to royalty. Naturally, it was not something the senior knight had decided alone.

‘Do not tell me this is what they meant by hardship?’

Just as the princess had said, her life was not in danger.

However, it was truly a nasty prank.

Perhaps because they had been given some sort of hint, everyone looked at the princess with great interest.

Grit.

Katrine ground her teeth, and the princess calmly answered.

“Does that mean I will be making decisions from now on as well?”

Oh! That was an excellent counter-question to such a ridiculous request.

At the princess’s words, the senior knight was left speechless.

“Ah, that is……”

His eyes shook, and in the end, he apologized to the princess.

“……I apologize. Please consider my words unsaid.”

The princess accepted his apology.

It was a brief exchange, but I could feel that everyone’s eyes had changed as they looked at the princess.

‘Should I be pleased about this……?’

It was an excellent answer, but now it would be difficult to hide how remarkable the princess was.

Was this what they meant when they said that an awl in a pouch would stick out no matter how much one tried to hide it?

After discussing with the count, the senior knight chose one path and moved forward.

It seemed we had taken the wrong path.

After walking a little, the passage was in ruins.

The traps had broken and were exposed, and the passage walls had collapsed here and there.

On top of that, I could sense a foul stench and polluted mana. They were traces left by monsters.

I thought perhaps we should turn back, but it seemed the senior knight intended to keep going.

‘Was he upset because the princess bested him?’

If so, that would be a truly foolish thought, but since I could not know his true intentions, I instead told Katrine and the princess to be careful.

“A monster may appear.”

The princess looked puzzled, but Katrine immediately understood.

The princess and Katrine moved toward the inside of the group, and I stayed at the rear and examined the surroundings.

“Are you the guard chosen by the princess?”

One knight who was walking at the rear because of an injured arm spoke to me.

I disliked the way he spoke while looking me up and down, but since he was not wrong, I nodded.

“I suppose she chose a young one because it is the academy. I wonder whether you will be useful.”

It seemed he had not seen me fight because he had been blocking monsters from the front.

“You would not be a commoner, and since you are the princess’s guard, you must not be from a famous noble house either, right?”

It was a famous ducal house, but since I was an illegitimate son, it was highly likely to be worse than an obscure house.

“Tsk, tsk. It may not have been your own decision, but you chose the wrong line.”

The knight clicked his tongue quietly as he looked down at me, whose body had not yet fully grown.

It felt unpleasant, but the warning was more serious than I had expected.

Was he not merely telling me to be careful, but speaking of a danger right before my eyes?

“Among those under the princes, there are nobles with extreme thoughts. It is difficult for them to touch another prince, but they think the princess is acceptable.”

If I had not misheard, what he had just said sounded like something of a confession.

“I am one of them.”

As expected, it was a confession.

With his uninjured hand, he drew the sword at his waist.

At that, I shouted.

“Everyone, be careful! Monsters!”

“What! Monsters?”

The knight who had raised his sword looked at me with a bewildered face, but that was the last image of him.

Crunch.

That was because a giant maggot that burst through the wall swallowed him.

“Monsters!”

“They are coming out of the walls!”

“Multiple monsters ahead!”

“They have appeared behind us too!”

Giant maggots surged in from every direction.

They came down from the front, blocking the entire passage, and maggots also crawled quickly from the rear we had passed through.

The knight order hurriedly raised their shields, and from behind the knight order, fireballs and various attacks poured onto the monsters charging at us.

As expected of the royal knight order and the kingdom army’s noble officers.

The dozens of monsters that had suddenly appeared could no longer advance and died one after another.

The monsters pushing in from the front were blocked like that, but the problem was the monsters at the rear.

At the rear of the group, there were only injured knights and me, an academy student.

Thwack!

I swung the greatsword and blocked the monsters swarming toward us.

When I swung the greatsword, a giant maggot split in half.

The knight that had not yet been fully digested spilled out, and a monster I had never seen before also burst out along with gastric fluid.

However, I had no time to care about what came out of its stomach.

Beside me, the injured knights died one after another.

From behind, ranged attacks from the noble officers flew in, and I also cut down the monsters without hiding my ability, but there were too many monsters for me to handle alone.

“Support the rear!”

I shouted while looking back, but seeing them fighting at the front, it looked difficult for support to come quickly.

Slice!

At that moment, there were people who helped.

Katrine stood beside me and raised her shield.

With her personality, there was no way she could stay back.

Beside the shield, a translucent barrier spread wide, and the charging maggots crashed into the barrier and stopped.

After that, a haze rippled over Katrine’s sword, and she cut down the stopped maggots one after another.

However, the two of us alone could not block all the monsters rushing in.

Among the injured knights, those who were still alive were blocking the remaining monsters.

“Block them!”

“Kraaaagh!”

Whether they had lined up under a prince or had other thoughts, the royal knights were fulfilling their duty by throwing their bodies at the monsters.

And seeing that, one more person moved.

“I cannot leave them to die.”

Unable to endure it, the princess ran out.

“Aisha!”

Katrine shouted in surprise, but the princess ignored Katrine’s cry and charged at the monsters.

Flash!

Her sword swung, and a monster was cut apart.

Crackle.

Sparks burst from her sword, and the monsters were electrocuted and rolled across the ground.

The knights, who had been saved just before death, looked at the princess in shock.

Standing in front of the monsters, the princess’s entire body was flowing with radiance.

‘Hide it? As if. She learned from Katrine, so there is no way she could hold back. It is ruined. Completely ruined.’

I sighed while blocking the monsters.

We had worked so hard to hide it, yet it had all been exposed.

She was a splendid princess who had saved the knights’ lives, but at this rate, it seemed difficult for her to survive against the princes.

Thud!

However, this was not the time to worry about that.

Because of the monsters swarming in, traps that had not yet activated began to operate.

Walls descended, and the floor fell away.

The formation that had been forcibly blocking both sides fell apart in an instant.

And one trap activated directly beneath the princess.

Clunk.

The floor collapsed, and the princess fell down along with the monsters.

“Kyaak!”

The princess screamed in surprise, and I launched myself toward her.

Grab!

I managed to catch the princess before it was too late.

I immediately kicked off the falling monsters and soared upward.

Fortunately, we had not fallen far. From this height, I could escape easily.

Thud!

However, at the final moment, I collided with something in midair.

I looked up in surprise, but there was nothing but empty air, let alone a ceiling.

And beyond the trap, I saw a noble officer stretching his hand toward us.

He was a noble I knew. The noble who used telekinesis and had saved the knight who had fallen into the first trap.

He was smiling as he looked at me.

Seeing him, I understood what I had collided with.

It was an invisible wall created by his telekinesis.

‘So there was not only one.’

Seeing the other knights throw themselves at the monsters had made me relax too much.

I had no choice but to fall back down.

The wall was far away, and there were no monsters to serve as footholds.

“Aisha!”

The princess and I fell downward while hearing Katrine’s scream.

---

Thud.

A short while later, the princess and I were able to land on the ground.

Fortunately, we did not die.

I had been holding the princess, and even if a ten-year-old weighed a lot, it was only so much.

The impact was great, but I was able to withstand it.

‘Did the princess faint?’

Fortunately, her breathing was stable.

I laid the princess down and looked around.

There was no light, but when I infused mana into my eyes, I could see fairly far.

‘Are we still inside the ruin?’

Unlike the dungeon I had explored with Katrine, this place bore traces of human hands.

Corridors made of stone walls. Those corridors stretched endlessly in every direction.

No matter how I looked at it, it was clearly a maze.

“It is one disaster after another.”

I let out a sigh and looked around.

The princess had fainted too, so there was no one watching.

I took the pouch from inside my clothes.

Because there had constantly been people nearby, I had not been able to check it.

To be honest, it had not seemed particularly useful either.

However, now that we seemed to have entered a strange maze, I had to find even a small hint.

I opened the pouch and took out the map.

“Huh?”

The map was shining brightly, and all the parts that had been sparsely erased were filled in.