Chapter 10
Chapter 10: Sink Into It, You Moth That Craves the Light!
And so, over the next twenty minutes, Lilu hop-stepped back and forth at the entrance of the Boss Room, steadily whittling down the numbers of the Undead army. Although each time the door closed the Undead army replenished somewhat, their replenishment rate was far slower than the rate at which they were being reduced. After Lilu successfully completed her seventh run, the room finally held nothing but a pile of shattered bones.
"It looks like the first phase has been exploited past," Lilu wiped her brow, "next comes the second phase — the Boss will undergo new changes, and it seems the Bug Exploit won't work anymore. Everyone, I'm terribly sorry — I've done all I can."
"Don't worry about it," Doniel said with a genial smile, "Lady Holy Maiden has already helped enormously! Those several thousand Bone Soldiers were each individually formidable — though we are stronger than them individually, our numbers are far too few. If we had tried to grind through them head-on, we'd likely have been buried alive by sheer volume. Whatever the Boss looks like in the next phase, the most dangerous hurdle has already been cleared."
"Right," Lilu nodded, "I'll try one more time. If nothing has changed, we'll go ahead and formally pull the Boss."
"Ohh!"
The adventurers cracked their knuckles and rolled their necks in anticipation. Lilu stood before the great door, this time with Maria channeling Magic Power to open it. Of the few people in the party with Magic Power to spare, Hero Fred was the most powerful — his could not be wasted — so the task of opening the door ultimately fell to Maria. Lilu had long sensed the malice radiating from this woman, but she never imagined she would actually dare do anything. But Lilu, having grown up on Earth, had been sheltered far too well by the society around her — she simply could not conceive of the depths to which a person's venom could reach.
Amid a deep, rumbling groan, the great door opened once more. Lilu looked at the chamber full of shattered bones, drew a deep breath, and stepped inside again. Just as the door began to close, Lilu saw that nothing inside the room had changed, and was about to step back out — when a savage kick landed squarely on her rear end. A tremendous force hurled Lilu forward. She stumbled and crashed to the ground, and by the time she scrambled back to her feet, the door had already closed to nothing more than a narrow sliver.
Ah. It's over.
A chill ran through Lilu's heart. She knew she was finished. Even with the Undying Body, being killed over and over again — she would eventually lose her mind. Ahhhh, no, please no — I don't want to be left here like this. She stretched out her little hand toward the stunned adventurers, hoping someone would pull her free — but unfortunately, not a single person was willing to rush inside.
Ahh…… of course. To them I'm nothing but a stranger. No one is coming to save me.
A single tear rolled down Lilu's cheek. The outstretched little hand fell back down without strength. She sniffled with an air of quiet resignation, hoping only that it wouldn't hurt too much when she died. But just as despair swallowed her whole, a strong and steady hand closed around her little one — Hero Fred had come charging in.
"Fred…… you—"
Boom! Before the words could leave her lips, the door sealed shut completely.
"Fred, damn it!"
Outside the Boss Room, Aernis drove her fist into the door — but it didn't budge so much as a hair. She pounded the golden door with her fists over and over, until blood seeped from her knuckles!
"Who did this!" Her eyes had gone bloodshot as she swept her gaze across everyone present. "Who the hell did this!"
Then Doniel shoved Maria to the ground. She had completely dropped her act now, and broke into wicked, unrestrained laughter.
"Hahaha — and what if it was me?" Her eyes blazed open wide, that delicate face twisted beyond recognition by jealousy. "I am the daughter of the Count — do you lot of mud-stompers dare lay a hand on me? Don't forget — so-called adventurers are nothing but the dregs of society, the homeless rabble. You were only ever sent down into dungeons to die because people found you too inconvenient to have around! Do creatures like you honestly think you can stand against the nobility? Hahahahaha — don't make me laugh."
She patted the dust from her robes and rose back to her feet, speaking with supreme arrogance.
"This incident shall be treated as the little girl slipping and falling on her own, with the poor Hero losing his life while trying to save her." She pressed a few fake tears from her eyes. "That is what you will say when you return. Am I understood? Between a dead Hero and Holy Maiden, and a very much alive daughter of a Count, I trust I don't need to remind any of you how to weigh that choice. Hahaha — ahahahahaha!"
Aernis moved to draw her sword, but Roger grabbed her arm. Doniel shook his head as well. Aernis's veins bulged with barely contained fury — but strong as she was, she was not strong enough to make enemies of everyone here. She had no choice but to swallow it down for now, and find a way to get word out.
Even so, Aernis knew deep down that this matter would most likely be buried under the Count's pressure in the end. Between a living daughter of a Count and a dead Holy Maiden and Hero, anyone with a clear head could calculate where the maximum benefit lay.
All the world rushes about for profit, all the world clamors and scrambles for gain — and sometimes even human lives became nothing more than weights upon the scale.
A single person's strength was simply too feeble.
Then, abruptly, Aernis felt a gaze drift toward her from the void. She turned toward the girl sitting in the corner — the one with almost no presence to speak of. She was the true legitimate daughter of the Duke's household, and yet because she had ended up with the Farmer Class, every single person had cast her aside. Right now, she was staring fixedly at the Boss Room's great door, those blue-green eyes looking as though they were about to shoot flames.
***
Meanwhile, inside the Boss Room.
Fred's hand was warm and filled with strength. Lilu felt as though her heart might melt entirely. She lifted her face to look at Fred, her palm-sized little face streaked all over with the tracks of dried tears. Fred reached out a finger and gently wiped the tears from her cheek — then suddenly leaned in and kissed her.
Lilu's eyes flew wide open at the kiss, her startled, frightened gaze softening gradually until it was something else entirely. She felt the desire rising within her own body — if they hadn't been standing in a Boss Room, she wished Fred would push her down right now, roughly strip away every last piece of her clothing, and take her completely.
"It's here — that must be the Boss."
Fred's voice was smooth and steady, not a trace of pre-battle tension in it. Lilu came back to her senses from the daze. She turned her head — and saw a portal of the dead open at the center of the Boss Room. A black warhorse carried a knight clad in black armor through it, leaving frost-sealed hoofprints in its wake with every step. The knight held a battle-halberd in its right hand, and cradled its own severed head in its left. Beneath the face-guard of the helmet, two pale-blue ghostfires burned.
"The Headless Knight!" Fred's expression turned grave. "Lilu — stay behind me and support me!"
"Got it!"
Lilu tightened her grip on the Tin Staff, her heart filled to the brim with the will to fight. Fred's influence had swept over her, and the self-abandonment of moments ago vanished without a trace. That was right — this was what a Hero was. He was like a beam of light, bringing hope to those drowning in darkness. Even knowing full well that the road ahead was like a moth flying into a flame, those souls who craved that light would never stop moving toward it. Even if the path of chasing hope was paved with corpses, there would always be more who came rushing after, one after another, to pursue that light.
In that moment, Lilu felt as though she too had become one of those moths bewitched by the Hero's light — yet she felt not a single shred of regret. Because she, like those fools drawn in by hope, had long since been pulled under and could no longer find her way back. Perhaps it had begun from the moment she had reached out and taken that hand in the Goblin Forest — she had already sunk, sunk deep into this false and fragile hope.