Chapter 17
Chapter 17: The Master's Vanguard
Hephaestus Dungeon Hospital.
For a hospital to function in a world where healers exist, there must be a prerequisite—that critically injured patients can emerge from dungeons whose wounds cannot be fully treated by a healer's healing skills alone.
Most of those who suffer grave injuries are mid-tier adventurers who have grown complacent, believing themselves accustomed to the dungeon.
Newbies die before they ever get seriously hurt, and the top-tier adventurers treated as aces of the dungeon rarely find themselves gravely wounded at all.
The more scars accumulate on their bodies, the less likely they are to suffer major injuries.
Which is why the secret ward of Hephaestus Hospital—the four patients on the uppermost floor—were an exceedingly exceptional case. Where exactly they'd been injured, and by whom, was a matter of unprecedented public interest.
Floor 82 conquerors.
The world's strongest party.
A gap of over 15 floors between them and the second-ranked party.
The world was stunned by the news that Thunder Strike—that legendary name—had been hospitalized with catastrophic injuries.
Yet the hospital had firmly shut its doors, refusing all visitors, and the fact that even an imperial prince had been turned away only amplified the shock and curiosity further.
But nothing in this world is truly impossible.
There was one person who had been permitted a visit—on the condition of absolute secrecy—a visit even the imperial prince had been denied.
A woman with jet-black hair that fell past her calves, sharp eyes, and a monocle.
Possessing a figure that bordered on perfection, she was dressed in black mourning clothes.
The first profession that came to mind would have been a necromancer—
And as if to prove it, her expression was ice-cold and ruthless.
Yet there was no way a mere necromancer would dare hurl such abuse before the pinnacle party of the vanguard.
"Pathetic idiots. Trash that got wiped out doing nothing on a mere floor 82. You worthless parasites."
"……"
At words so deeply insulting, Thunder Strike—bedridden and wrapped head to toe in casts—could only flinch and tremble. Not a single rebuttal came.
Understandably so.
The woman before them was a true powerhouse—one who had reached Transcendence at an age no one could determine.
A figure of authority beyond comparison with Thunder Strike, who hadn't even stepped into Transcendence.
"So after all that support and all that swaggering around inside dungeons, you get wiped on floor 82? And against that harlot of all people? Ha ha…. Am I listening to a joke right now? What do you think, Milé? This is a joke, isn't it?"
"……"
The young girl serving as her personal secretary beside her simply bowed her head.
If I side with Master here, Thunder Strike dies with a hundred percent certainty.
But if I take Thunder Strike's side, Master kills me. Neither option is on the table.
All I can do now is pray this storm passes with as few casualties as possible.
"Um…."
"Shut your mouth. You already died to that harlot—how does a corpse dare speak? Do you know why I came dressed in mourning? Because you're all dead. I came to pay my respects before your corpses."
"……"
Ollina, who had tried to say something, fell silent on the spot. The woman's cold Killing Intent dropped the temperature of the room by another degree. One more word and we actually die. Lepus, the rogue who was peerless in detecting Killing Intent, couldn't help but tremble.
The name of the woman who held the power of life and death in that room was Lidia Grand Mage.
An 8th Circle archmage who commanded time and space. A witch who had lost all sense of time. The Mage Tower Lord.
A monster among monsters who had every right to use the word Grand Mage as her own surname to prove who she was.
Under a torrent of Killing Intent as if standing before a forest of blades, the only one who managed to open her mouth was Holy Warrior Sia.
"Our party…. was incomplete."
Had she begun with the wrong words, Lidia's time magic would have accelerated only Sia's heart before halting it—aging it to a stop—but mercifully, that did not happen.
As Lidia tilted her head as if urging her to continue, Sia steadied her breath and went on.
"Grand Mage. When we encountered that wanton woman…. Demociela…. our party was incomplete. There was no mage in our party. Yujin wasn't with us."
"And?"
"In the end…. against Demociela's terrible assault, we had no mage to intercept all the miscellaneous attacks and area-wide offensives…. How could we possibly have won…. We have grievances of our own!"
Sia's lament continued from there. She recounted every hardship they had endured since Yujin's departure, and after a long string of grievances finally came to an end, she felt a measure of relief when Lidia fell into thought—at least we won't die right this moment.
"I've heard you out. But there's something that bothers me."
"What part…?"
"So then, you had Yujin handling: front-line defense, rear-line defense, area magic, Lockpicking substitution, scouting, pathfinding, analyze magic, trap jamming, enchantment—and on top of all that, cooking, cleaning, laundry, and counseling. Is that a fair assessment?"
"……"
At those words, all four members of Thunder Strike sealed their lips.
"And then—with full mutual consent you approved his departure from the party—you walked into a Boss Room without a mage, got wiped out, and you're blaming my disciple for it?
Not using a Return Stone immediately, not finding a replacement mage—just walking straight into the Boss Room and getting annihilated, and now you're pointing fingers at Yujin?"
"T-that's…."
"How dare you. How dare you. The most lovable, adorable, charming, fascinating person in this entire world—someone I want to torment every single day yet give just as much love—my one and only personal disciple, Yujin…. you lot, you of all people…!!"
Crack.
Something in the ward warped.
Few realized that the sound was a wooden dresser—one sturdy enough to last several centuries—rapidly aging under the acceleration of time, before finally crumbling to dust.
There was no door to flee through even if one could escape the space.
No living creature could escape the flow of time.
A Grand Mage's domain that none could resist. The witch who wielded the magic of time and space intended to kill everyone present.
And that included Milé, the personal secretary and disciple standing right beside her.
"M-Master! Please listen to me!"
"Milé, dear. It's all right. I won't kill you. Step inside, will you?"
Lidia opened the hem of her robe. Inside was the Master's research laboratory—step in there and your sense of time and space would be twisted, but at least you wouldn't die—yet the face of her disciple Milé, who knew full well that the internal time would advance roughly 15 years before you could exit, turned ashen.
From within, she could almost hear the screams of seniors who had been sealed inside for committing trivial mistakes against their Master.
She had to think of something—anything.
Because she wanted to live! And 15 years of lab confinement was absolutely not happening!
"Master! senior Yujin is safe for the time being!"
"Oh…?"
"A-and senior Yujin wasn't the one defeated by Demociela—Thunder Strike was. S-so nothing has actually harmed senior Yujin. Master!"
The words Milé blurted out were precisely what her Master most wanted to hear—and they were the right answer.
"That's…. true. Come to think of it…."
"R-right? So let's leave Thunder Strike be for now. T-there's no reason for us to care about them anymore, is there? They're just a party that got beaten by a harlot…. one that can no longer have any influence over senior Yujin whatsoever."
"Milé…. you're right. Ahem. Come to think of it, my dear Yujin wasn't the one that harlot beat. Hehe. My darling Yujin would never be beaten by someone like that. Isn't that right?"
Only then did Lidia's fury seem to subside, and in an instant, the crushing pressure that had blanketed the entire room vanished.
As Lidia broke into a bright smile and began expounding on just how adorable Yujin was, Milé let the words go in one ear and out the other, turning her gaze to Thunder Strike.
I'm sorry for saying such terrible things. It wasn't my intention. Milé's eyes conveyed this, and Sia, Ollina, and Lepus returned their gratitude with a look of their own. Well, at least we survived!
Milé somehow managed to usher Lidia out of the ward, quietly patting herself on the back. Having served a Master as mercurial as a boiling pot, emerging without a single casualty was an achievement worthy of praise.
In front of the hospital.
Under normal circumstances, Lidia would have folded space and been back at the Tower in a single step—but she stood still, and spoke to Milé.
"Milé."
"Yes, Master."
"I didn't kill Thunder Strike as you asked. So now you'll have to grant your Master one request, won't you?"
"P-pardon? I never made such a request…."
"Oh my. Weren't you steering the conversation toward Yujin to imply that you didn't want them killed?"
"……"
She already saw through me!
"So. I'll make just one request as your Master. You understand, don't you?"
"W-whatever you say, Master…."
"Bring Yujin to me."
"……"
How on earth….
Does she even know where he's hiding…?
And to capture him, we'd have to come to blows….
Yujin was a Grand Mage on the cusp of the 7th Circle. Given her own circle, there was no way it would go in her favor.
"Milé?"
"M-Master? I specialize in research, and right now the medicine research commissioned by the Empire…."
"I see. The medicine research comes first."
"Y-yes…. There's a relationship of trust with the Empire involved…."
"Yes, trust is important. But what do we do?"
"Pardon?"
"If you can't bring Yujin to me, even your gentle Master might get angry."
So saying, Lidia lightly brushed the hem of her robe.
“Master! Please let me out! I swear I will never touch your pudding again! 15 years in the space-time lab just for eating one pudding is too much!”
“I can't tell up from down! Aaaaaah! How much time has passed? Who am I! Where am I?!”
“Master. I have spent 12 years in here. Three more years. You'll let me out in three more years, right?! I'm begging you!”
The screams of 'seniors sealed inside for committing trivial mistakes' drifted out from within.
In other words….
If she didn't bring Yujin back, she too would be thrown into the lab. That was what it meant.
"Understood. On the honor of the Mage Tower, I will bring Senior back without fail."
"Hehe. Now that's my disciple. So then, where do you think Yujin might have gone?"
"Senior would obviously head for a dungeon of some kind…. I'll start searching with the dungeon cities as my center. I'll also trace the accounts, and if that doesn't work, I'll need to track the funds—like whether he's been buying peculiar magic tools or something."
"Brilliant."
Even with her Master's praise, she wanted to cry.
But she couldn't cry.
Because if she didn't get moving right this moment, the lab awaited.
.
.
.
.
Demeter Academy.
A countryside academy where master and disciples conquer dungeons together, and with the rewards earned, cook and eat good food…. That was what it was supposed to be.
"Everyone. It's mealtime."
"Yes, Master."
"Alright. Time to eat…."
"……"
Yuna and Silen, somehow lacking in energy.
I had nothing to say to that. Because I was probably making the exact same expression.
"What's today's menu?"
"Sujebi and grilled chicken."
"I'll eat well."
"……"
Yuna's voice, a half-step flatter than usual, and Silen with a slightly crumpled expression.
Understandably so—because the same menu had appeared for the past week.
There was a reason for this.
Even though the Demeter Grand Dungeon was a terrain-shifting dungeon, floors 3 and 4 had both been wasteland maps, which had tangled up our movement route.
But if floors 2, 3, and 4 were all wasteland, preserving ingredients became a problem.
Chicken obtained on the spot that could spoil at any moment.
Even beef sourced on floor 1—a grassland—brought anxiety about whether it would go bad by the time it was carried all the way to floor 4.
Salting it required a fair bit of salt money, and dried jerky wasn't something that could be made in a day or two.
In the end, we had to figure out the fastest ways to cook chicken and beef before they spoiled.
The easiest was simply to boil or grill it. I told the two of them this was all that would be coming out for a while, and they accepted it.
And that had been going on for a week.
It was unavoidable that their expressions had grown subtly stiff.
Just be grateful for food at all.
Yuna put it in her mouth, chewed, and mechanically swallowed it down.
Silen…. muttered "a rogue doesn't need to eat much anyway" and after taking only a little, let out a sigh as a palate cleanser.
At this rate, party morale was going to have a problem.
"Can't be helped, I suppose. I'll need to procure that."
"That? What are you referring to?"
"A freezer made from an ice crystal magic stone."
It had an impressively powerful-sounding name, but the effect was simple.
It froze whatever was placed inside at around minus 20 degrees.
"With that, even ingredients on the verge of spoiling can be preserved. We'd be able to eat tonight's Chogye-tang even on floor 4."
"For real?!"
At those words, Yuna's and Silen's eyes lit up.
"The problem is it's quite heavy to carry around."
The ingredients were heavy enough, but the weight of the freezer itself was no joke.
I was wondering how to manage it, when Yuna thrust her hand straight up.
"I'll carry it."
"What?"
"As a swordswoman, and as a warrior, I'll handle it. I can do it."
"But it's genuinely heavy. Really…."
"I want to eat something more varied…. Master…."
At Yuna's tiny sob, I couldn't bring myself to continue.
What can I say?
I suppose I'll really look into getting a freezer.
It's quite expensive, but there probably aren't many of them on the market—and how many people other than me would be buying such a peculiar magic tool, anyway?
It's not like I'd get caught by Master or anything.