Chapter 41

Chapter 41. Dungeon Raid (1)

After Alex and the female mercenary departed, Juan sat on the rim of the well and looked around.

An empty, abandoned village, swallowed by the forest. Thanks to the Great War and the monsters left behind afterward, villages like this were all too common.

That was why, after the Great War, people had begun living closer together, and even as they gathered, powerless commoners had no choice but to rely on the strength of nobles and knights.

"Well, they say that before the Great War, nobles ruled over commoners without any power at all. Maybe this is still better than that."

If struggling commoners or paupers heard him say such a thing, they might grab him by the collar, but Juan did not have much dissatisfaction with the current system.

The duke who ruled the territory was an excellent man, and the heir, Lord Simon, though still young, was growing up well without any bad rumors attached to his name.

Thanks to the duke, the territory was safer and more peaceful than most others, and a soldier’s wages were enough to live on.

Lately things had become difficult because of his mother’s sudden illness, but thanks to Young Master Alex, there was no longer anything to worry about.

No, rather, the people around him had become even more worried.

Once he started going around with Alex, the illegitimate young master, at Alex’s direction, his comrades and friends worried that he had latched onto the wrong person.

Their reason was simple: no matter how capable or likable he might be, the illegitimate son of a noble house never met a good end.

His mother, now restored to health, had also worried about him, but unlike the others, she had not opposed his decision.

"If someone has helped you, repaying that help is simply what a person ought to do. Keep helping him until you feel you have repaid enough."

He felt the same way his mother did.

He had no intention of currying favor with an illegitimate son the way others feared.

Of course, Young Master Alex was clever and mature far beyond his years, and even the skill Juan had glimpsed from the corner of his eye was greater than that of most knights.

Even so, trying to attach himself to such a young boy in hopes of rising in the world was not the kind of thing Juan would do.

He was only helping him, just as his mother said, to repay a kindness.

"Perhaps I can think about entrusting myself to him once he’s grown a little more."

Of course, before that, trouble might befall Alex, and Juan himself might be swept up in it as well.

But that was a risk he could more than bear.

In the worst case, he too might die.

'Was a life to be repaid with a life?'

He remembered the words the knights had thrown around boldly in taverns.

While he was passing the time in that leisurely way—

Saaaaah.

The atmosphere around him changed.

He rose to his feet and stared toward one side of the forest.

Footsteps were coming from the direction of the fortress.

Clank. Clank.

It was the sound of metal feet striking the ground.

The footsteps drew closer, and then a knight clad in plate armor emerged from the woods.

A heavily armored knight, covered from head to toe in plate armor.

A long spear and a greatsword were strapped to his back, while a battle axe and a war hammer hung at his waist.

To enter a forest like this wearing such armor was something no ordinary knight would ever even think of doing.

The moment Juan saw the knight, his expression hardened.

The armor the knight wore was exquisitely made, but it was completely different from the armor worn by the territorial knights.

Moreover, nowhere upon it was there any emblem showing his affiliation.

A knight concealing his affiliation. Such a man would never come for a good reason.

Clank. Clank. Step.

The knight stopped in front of Juan.

As the man stood before him, Juan’s body stiffened, and cold sweat poured down the back of his neck.

'Is this the knights’ killing intent I’ve only heard about?'

Juan was instantly overwhelmed by the technique used by knights and nobles, who released mana to make others freeze in place.

Fortunately, however, he could still move his mouth.

"I am Juan, a soldier of Duke Gresia. What business do you have in the duke’s forest?"

Though he could not bow his head, he spoke in as polite a tone as possible, asserting that he was one of the duke’s soldiers and that this was the duke’s land.

"So the soldiers of this territory have some backbone."

A heavy middle-aged man’s voice came from within the armor.

Even from the voice alone, he sounded like a proper knight. And not just any knight, but one with long experience.

At least it did not seem as though he meant to draw his weapon at once, and Juan felt the faintest bit relieved.

"It seems the mercenary I’m looking for came here. Do you know where she went?"

But that relief vanished the moment the knight uttered his next words.

"A mercenary? There was no one here when I arrived. I’m alone here."

The knight did not listen to Juan’s answer. He surveyed the surroundings, then looked straight at the well.

"Hm. So she went down into the well. Unfortunately, I’ve already let her slip away several times, so I don’t have the time to play along with your lie."

At the knight’s words, Juan let out a sigh.

He had not expected the moment to stake his life to arrive so quickly.

This was like trying to fend off an iron club with a tree branch.

Even so, he could not beg for his life here.

'Would this be enough to count as repaying it with my life?'

It was regrettable only because it would be such a futile struggle.

"Hup!"

Juan drew in a breath and let out a shout.

It was a method for breaking free of killing intent that he had picked up from listening to knights.

Fortunately, perhaps because it had not been applied too strongly, his body moved again.

Juan drew his sword.

Seeing that, the knight grasped the hammer hanging at his waist.

"If you’d simply stayed frozen, this would have been more comfortable...."

Hearing the knight’s regretful words, Juan charged forward.

Whoom.

He swung his sword at the knight with all his strength, but the blade was stopped by the knight’s gauntleted hand.

The next instant, he saw the hammer flying toward him.

Wooooom!

Juan closed his eyes.

---

Splash. Splash.

After a brief shock swept over my body, I realized I had sunk deep into water.

I had known there was water below because of the rocks that fell ahead of us, so I had not been worried as I dropped, but the water seemed deeper than I had expected.

A pool of water beneath a tomb at the bottom of a well.

Even after experiencing it directly, it was so absurd it left me speechless.

On top of that, this damned sword was so heavy that no matter how desperately I flailed my arms and legs, my body refused to rise to the surface.

I could always abandon the sword and swim up, but there was no way I could lose it in a place like this.

Just as I was thrashing about, a small hand caught me by the nape of the neck.

It was the female mercenary, the Firebird Hunter.

Grabbing me by the back of the neck, she swam upward. Once she put her strength into it, the two of us rose quickly.

Pah!

Once I broke the surface, I was able to get out of the pool with her help.

As I panted from exhaustion, a bright light caught my eye.

It was the light from the lamp hanging at her waist.

She had kept hold of the lamp even while falling.

Even after going into the water, the lamp was still shedding light.

Come to think of it, that lamp was why she had been able to find me underwater as well.

"Huff, huff, that’s an amazing lamp. A waterproof lamp, of all things."

At my words, she tapped the lamp hanging from her waist.

"Whew. When you work as a mercenary, you never know what sort of situation you’ll run into, so I paid an alchemist a great deal of money for it."

Even after living in this world for ten years, I still could not understand its technology.

It was a world stumbling around like the Middle Ages, yet they had waterproof lamps.

This is absurdly advanced technology!

On top of that, I found it hard to believe her when she said she bought it because of mercenary work.

It must have been for searching for her ancestor’s ruins instead.

In any case, thanks to the light of the still-functional lamp, I could finally see that the pool was far larger than I had expected.

At least the size of a small reservoir.

Luckily we had fallen near the edge. If we had not, I might have tired myself out swimming and eventually been forced to abandon the sword.

"If the altar was going to collapse, you really should have told me beforehand."

At my words, she made an awkward face.

"I didn’t know either. I was only told that a passage leading downward would open."

The two of us looked up.

In the middle of the jagged ceiling was a huge hole. It looked more than ten meters wide, and its far end could not be seen.

The tomb we had fallen from must have been up there, but the lamp’s light did not reach that far.

If what she said was true, then that hole had originally been sealed.

'It must simply be too old.'

Just as cracks had formed in the wall wide enough for a person to pass through, the passage beneath the altar had failed to withstand the passage of time as well.

"Do we have to climb back up there?"

Even as I said it, I shook my head inwardly.

The place we needed to reach was the hole in the ceiling above the reservoir.

Apart from the reservoir, this underground space was not all that vast, but climbing the wall and hanging there long enough to make it to that opening seemed impossible.

And once we reached it, we would still have to climb upward for quite some time.

There was no way we could do it without climbing gear.

Faced with such a ridiculous situation, the thought of killing myself crossed my mind, but—

"Damn it, then I’d just fall right back down again!"

The message was still hanging before my eyes.

Good grief. Even dying would not help anymore.

If I made a mistake, I might end up repeating time forever down here underground.

That could not be allowed. I had to get out before I died.

At that moment, she, who had been looking at me with concern after I suddenly shouted, spoke up.

"While we were falling, I saw a number of caves opening in the walls. That must be what caused the hole we fell through too."

It seemed that, thanks to her lamp, she had been able to look around even while falling.

"They looked just like those caves over there. Wouldn’t those caves be connected to the caves inside the hole in the ceiling?"

She pointed to the walls around us.

The walls of the underground cavern that held the reservoir were riddled with holes.

Some were little caves barely wide enough for one person to squeeze through, while others were large enough for two people to walk through with their arms spread.

Hearing her say that, I was finally able to breathe easier.

As expected, the world was not simply telling me to die.

I stood up at once. Now that I had a target, I had to move.

First, I took off my outer garments and wrung out the water. If I was going to move, I needed to make my body lighter.

Seeing me do so, she removed her cloak as well.

Beneath it, she wore leather armor fitted closely to her body.

Her figure in that leather armor was nothing like the impression given by her androgynous face. If rough mercenaries saw her, they would probably whistle and chase after her.

Only then did I understand why she insisted on keeping the cloak on.

When she channeled mana into it and shook out her cloak, the water on it dried almost immediately.

So that was possible?

I tried copying her and channeling mana into my own outer garments.

As expected, it was not easy.

"Give it here. That isn’t a simple technique."

Seeing me fumbling, she dried my outer garments herself.

It was an incredibly useful way to use mana. Before we parted, I would definitely have to learn it.

Thanks to her, my clothes were dry and pleasant again, and after putting them back on, I picked up my sword.

"Then which cave should we take?"

"Well."

At my question, she made a troubled expression as well.

"Hm. Since we need one that’s easy to move through, let’s go with the largest one."

After a brief moment of thought, she chose a cave after looking at my sword.

If I had not brought the sword, my small body would have let me pass through even the smallest of the tunnels. The more time passed, the more keenly I realized I had brought the wrong weapon.

Just as we were about to start toward the largest cave, a thought suddenly occurred to me.

"These caves can’t have formed naturally, can they? This doesn’t look like a limestone region or a volcanic zone...."

"Ah.... Don’t tell me...?"

If they had not formed naturally, then there had to be something that made them.

If we were lucky, whatever it was might have died out long ago.

Skrrrrrrrrr.

Judging by the sound coming from deep within the tunnels, however, it seemed luck was not on our side.

The sound grew louder, and shapes emerged from the darkness inside the caves.

They were creatures I had never seen before, larger than horses, with glowing red eyes.

At my side, I heard her tense voice.

"To think monsters still remain at a depth like this...."

I had wondered, but as expected, they were monsters.