Chapter 20

Chapter 20. Exploring the Ruins(?) (2)

When we finished descending the stairs that had seemed as though they would go on forever, a vast underground facility built from fitted stone blocks spread out before us.

Hiss.

At that very moment, the torch Sir Ugo had been carrying finally burned itself out.

For an instant it seemed the passage would fall back into darkness, but Sir Ugo lit another torch-holder from somewhere.

Whoosh!

As the torch flared to life, the passage that had been about to darken became bright once more.

"When we were coming down the stairs as well, and now again with that torch-where did it come from?"

At Adria’s question, Ugo answered,

"There is no way the ducal house would simply leave Mallorca Fortress unattended when it is such an important ruin from the Great War within the territory. No one is stationed here constantly, but it is inspected and maintained regularly. Those torches are used for that purpose."

At his words, Adria looked around in fascination.

It seemed that the disappointment and anger she had been feeling had now subsided to some degree.

As long as they had not simply abandoned her to die, there was no reason for her to remain angry forever.

And perhaps seeing not merely a ruin reduced to rubble, but an actual surviving facility from the Great War, had lifted her spirits again.

"We should move. They will continue pursuing us."

At Sir Ugo’s words, the group, who had been surveying the surroundings, began moving again.

"What was this place used for?"

This time it was Bianca who asked.

"It is part of the underground facilities of Mallorca Fortress. It was a fortress built during the height of the Old Empire, so its underground structures are enormous. Less than the surface, perhaps, but much of it has collapsed by now, which makes finding one’s way difficult."

Just as he said, there were places where walls had collapsed and the passage had been blocked.

There were many collapsed sections, but unlike the surface, far more of the underground facility remained intact.

The walls and floors were made of large, tightly fitted stones.

The only sounds were our footsteps and the distant dripping of water, and beyond the reach of the torchlight stretched a gloomy darkness where one could not see an inch ahead.

'An underground facility beneath a ruined site that collapsed during the Great War... So now this is turning into a dungeon story?'

The absurd thought that suddenly came to mind made me let out a dry laugh.

"Why are you laughing?"

Adria looked at my face as she asked. Damn. It seemed the laugh had escaped me without my noticing.

"It is nothing. More importantly, could you now tell us what exactly is going on?"

Instead of answering her question, I threw one of my own at the other two.

"Ah, right. I want to hear it too."

Adria agreed with my words at once.

Fortunately, neither Bianca nor Sir Ugo seemed inclined to postpone the explanation any longer.

"I assume Lady Adria already knows that there are nobles who oppose Young Master Simon’s engagement."

I had not known.

"Mm. Envoys even came from the neighboring territory to protest. That is why I came to the duke’s territory in the first place."

"Yes. But this was not something that would end simply by avoiding it..."

Listening to the explanation that followed, it became clear that I had truly been swept into something dangerous.

"So you received intelligence that they intended to kill Lady Adria in order to prevent an alliance between the two houses."

"And you intended to use this opportunity to trace the people behind the attack, confirm who the real enemies were, and then pressure those identified enemies?"

It was a story in which the resulting chaos had been caused by a large-scale political struggle involving the ducal house of Gresia, aligned with the First Prince, the marquess’s house of Hierro, aligned with the Second Prince, and on top of that the noble faction as well.

A sigh escaped me naturally.

The affairs inside the ducal house were already troublesome enough, and now there was political conflict within the kingdom as well. At this rate, I half wondered whether a world war might break out.

Worse still, the preparations had not even gone well.

"Judging by the present situation, the plan appears to have failed."

At my words, Sir Ugo and Bianca were both unable to find a reply.

"That is..."

"That is because Young Master Simon interfered."

Instead, Adria said it in a sullen voice.

Comfort Brother Simon...

His romantic prospects were looking exceedingly difficult from here on.

"...That is part of it, but were there not also far more enemies than expected?"

Sir Ugo nodded with a grave expression.

"Yes. With numbers like that, it is difficult to see this as a mere attack. It will be hard enough to smooth over what happens afterward, so I cannot imagine what they are thinking..."

I had come to understand, to some extent, what was happening, but with everything already having gone wrong, it was difficult to believe the whole account without reservation.

"Then where are we going now? Is there somewhere to hide down here?"

At Adria’s question, Sir Ugo shook his head.

"Many sections have collapsed, so the place has become complicated, but there is nowhere here truly suitable for hiding. We may be able to buy time, but it will be difficult to keep evading them forever."

Then, quite suddenly, Sir Ugo began speaking of history.

"The Battle of Mallorca Fortress during the Great War began with the fortress being surrounded by the demon race."

Was it a story she liked? Adria immediately took up Sir Ugo’s words.

"I know that story too. The Heroes came to the rescue, shattered the encirclement from the outside, and reversed the tide of battle, turning it into the starting point of the counteroffensive in a war that had been going badly all along."

"Yes. That is correct. However, it has never been clearly known how the Heroes and the reinforcements learned that the fortress had been surrounded."

"Ah... that is true. There was not perhaps a Hero with clairvoyance or a foresight ability back then, was there?"

"No. It was not an ability. Someone broke through the encirclement and carried the news out."

The exchange between Adria and Sir Ugo flowed remarkably naturally.

'This feels like a guide explaining the history of a ruin to a traveler.'

It did not quite suit a conversation held while fleeing from enemies, but Sir Ugo’s words had made all of us curious.

"Did someone break through the encirclement alone? Was there a Hero inside the fortress?"

"No. He escaped the encirclement without fighting a single battle."

Sir Ugo lowered the finger that had been pointing upward and directed it below.

"He escaped through a secret passage in the underground section of the fortress."

A secret passage? There was something like that here?

"Then is that where we are going now?"

Adria’s voice brightened as she asked.

"Yes. We are heading to where that secret passage is."

Both women were delighted, but Sir Ugo’s explanation raised a question in my mind.

"But if there was a secret passage like that, then when they were surrounded, would it not have been enough for everyone to escape through it?"

"Ah, that is true. They could even have left only a few behind, or used scarecrows or something to deceive the enemy."

Adria looked at me as though I were terribly impressive, but Bianca only stared at Sir Ugo with a grave expression.

"Unfortunately, they could not do that. You will understand once we arrive."

He truly was the sort of person who kept everyone swinging between relief and tension.

Thanks to that, the atmosphere that had relaxed briefly tightened all over again, and the group continued onward through the underground passage with anxious expressions.

Unfortunately, the underground of the fortress was nothing like the dungeons from novels or films in my previous life.

There were no traps, and no monsters appeared. Only small beasts resembling rats fled at the sight of the light.

We wound through the passages, passed through a wall riddled with holes, and eventually reached the deepest part of the facility.

The farther inward we went, the more the surroundings lost their artificial feel.

The neatly arranged stone walls grew fewer, and natural rock faces became more common. At intervals, wooden support beams holding up the ceiling came into view, and before long it had become a cave formed of natural stone.

At last, the cave came to an end.

A rock wall blocked the way ahead, leaving nowhere further to go.

The rock was covered in marks where it had cracked and broken, and in front of it lay scattered pickaxes, shovels, and tools I had never seen before.

Sir Ugo led us to the rock face.

Bianca glared at it and asked,

"It is just a rock. Surely this is not supposed to be the secret passage?"

Could it be one of those rocks that opened if you said, "Open sesame"?

When I placed my hand on the rock and muttered softly, everyone in the group turned to look at me.

Tch. So that was not it either?

"Yes. I called it a secret passage, but in truth it would be more accurate to say it is a rock cave-or rather, a gap that opened between the rocks. They kept expanding the underground section of the fortress until they reached a place blocked by rock. There was no need to expand any further, so they left it as it was. It was there that they discovered a way out."

He brought the torch closer to the rock. As the torch moved, the shadows shifted, and a split between the rocks appeared near one edge.

Bianca walked over to the crack and stopped in front of it.

"So that was what you meant earlier."

Her voice was remarkably calm.

Seeing the crack that had appeared between the rocks, I too understood what she meant.

There was no way all the soldiers of the fortress could have escaped through that.

No, would even one or two have managed?

The gap between the rocks was far too narrow for an adult to pass through.

Bianca looked at Adria and me and said,

"You two should be able to make it."

Her voice sounded almost relieved.

Adria checked the crack as well, then suddenly shouted,

"No! I am not going to run away! If we fight together, we can win. Yes. If we hold out just a little longer, the duke will come with soldiers."

Adria shouted as she looked at Bianca, but Bianca did not look back at her.

Instead, she bowed her head to me.

"Please take care of Lady Adria."

I looked at Bianca, her head bowed, then asked Sir Ugo,

"Had you intended this from the moment you sent Brother Simon away?"

"Yes. Young Master Simon is large for his age. He would have difficulty passing through here."

The reason he had brought me along was because, in the end, the only person who could still protect Adria was another child.

Hah. He really was an unbending man.

A knight who, without excuses, had chosen a place to die with his own feet so he could carry out his orders and save others.

I stared fixedly at him.

A large frame, a rugged face.

In speech and in action alike, he was the very image of an old-fashioned knight blindly loyal to his lord.

But once again, appearances were not everything.

No, perhaps I had been the one looking down on the people of this world as fools all this time.

"I will tell the duke everything you have done. And... no matter what happens, I will remember you."

"Haha. It is an honor that you would remember me, Young Master."

A smile rose on his rugged face.

Naturally, he did not understand what I truly meant.

In the end, Bianca persuaded Adria as well.

I could not quite understand it, but once Bianca spoke of a noble’s duty, Adria agreed to follow her words.

Ugo brushed his hand across the small emblem carved beside the crack.

Perhaps because he had heard everything, his voice sounded gentler now.

"According to the tales passed down around the fortress, the one who escaped and sought help was one of the Heroes. Well, it is only one of the common legends."

It was a symbol I had seen somewhere before. Where had I seen it?

"But who knows? Perhaps one day, when you are grown, Young Master, or Lady Adria, you may become someone like such a Hero."

It seemed he meant it as an attempt to lighten the mood in his own way. But the atmosphere remained dark all the same.

Wearing an awkward expression, he pointed at the crack in the wall.

"You must leave now. Under no circumstances are you to stop partway through or come back. The enemy may use fire, or some special ability."

Bianca added,

"Hurry. We do not know when they will come."

At her words, Adria bit her lip.

"Do not just die."

"As if I would. I will do everything I can to survive."

Now that the decision had been made, there was no time to delay.

I grabbed Adria by the arm and pushed my body into the crack.

I could not walk through it head-on either.

Still, perhaps because my body was small, once I turned sideways I was able to move between the rocks without much trouble.

Adria seemed to catch at the chest, but she began forcing herself forward by moving her arms and legs.

---

The young boy and girl disappeared into the gap between the rocks.

Bianca let out a sigh.

"They have gone. They will make it safely, will they not?"

"That, I cannot say."

"Oh dear. With a disposition like that, it is a wonder you rose to a position of responsibility in a matter like this."

"In that regard, I am grateful to the duke."

"That is unfortunate. Had I known sooner, I might at least have dropped a handkerchief for them."

"Hm. That is indeed a pity."

The two of them smiled faintly.

The exchange they had just had was like a final bit of idle conversation before charging into enemy lines.

Then both of them gripped their swords again.

They had told Adria that they would do all they could to survive, but neither of them had any intention of doing as they said.

They needed to move as far away from this place as possible and throw the enemy into confusion.

"Shall we go now?"

"Yes. At the end, it seems I am with a splendid knight."

"I was thinking the same thing."

The two of them began running in the opposite direction.

The light of the torch Sir Ugo carried grew steadily smaller, and before long, faint screams and shouts could be heard.

The sound of clashing swords continued for a while.

Then the light was seen no more.