Chapter 28
Chapter 28: The Villainess’s First Move (2)
The dungeon expedition that began with the goal of teaching Hyacinth about Demeter proceeded more smoothly than expected.
Neither Yuna nor Silen acted condescending. It was better to teach practical, combat-oriented skills in the field than to waste time being condescending.
On top of that, Hyacinth was an excellent student. She absorbed everything as fast as she learned it, and her ability to apply it in practice was just as quick.
The Grass Cow was hunted by slashing it with Wind Blade, and the Rocket Chicken could be taken down simply by letting the wind blow at it from the side, throwing its trajectory off course.
Challenging the Floor 1 and Floor 2 bosses again allowed them to work on coordination, and the three of them slowly began to acknowledge each other.
"Floors 2 through 4 are all in the same zone with the same boss. Let's head straight to Floor 5."
"Agreed. Oh—everyone's packed snacks, right? We're going on a forced march with no meal breaks along the way!"
"The peach cookie? I've got it."
Everyone agreed with Yuna's words, and Silen and Hyacinth gathered up their drop items.
Past Floor 2 and on to Floor 3—they hunted Rocket Chickens the same way, then entered the boss room.
A boss that has been cleared once can be refought if desired. Since the point of today was to work on coordination, they hit the rematch option in the Floor 3 boss room as well.
The opponent would surely be the Golden Rocket Chicken, they assumed.
And so, the moment they stepped into the boss room—
The air changed.
With a single breath, a metallic, blood-like odor clung to the lungs and refused to let go. She had never experienced it before, but she knew it in theory.
This was not the aura emitted by monsters. These were beings that saw humans as nothing more than prey. This was the aura of Demons—creatures incapable of coexistence.
She had heard of it in theory, but experiencing it was another matter entirely.
"Silen. Take a stance as if you're protecting Hyacinth. Hyacinth. Do not step forward under any circumstances."
"……."
"W-what… what's happening?!"
"It's probably—no, it's definitely a Demon."
"Why is a Demon appearing here?!"
Hyacinth's face went pale.
A Demon encounter on the very first day of dungeon diving—how horrifying a reality that must be.
Of course, since Hyacinth had experience clearing the Rudra Dungeon, she wasn't a complete novice, but encountering a Demon was an entirely different matter. Everyone's faces turned ashen; everyone's breath came in gasps.
Absolute beginners must never encounter them. They see humans as toys. If you've met one, it's already over. And so on—stories about Demons had been passed down like ghost stories. Like legends.
"Get it together. Hyacinth!"
"I-I know, but…. A-a Demon. We're going to be devoured. We're going to die."
"No. We won't die. I am the Student Council President of Demeter Academy, and I will not let anyone from this academy die."
Looking at Yuna's smile brimming with confidence, Hyacinth's despair came to a halt.
Not because she was reassured by that girl's unfounded confidence.
It was because Yuna Linforce had tried to put her at ease—even while her hands were trembling, even while her legs were shaking.
What made Hyacinth stand back up was her pride.
If something like this happened at Rudra Academy—could she do what Yuna was doing?
Hyacinth shook her head. A wry laugh even escaped her.
Ha. As if. Her own legs were already trembling, she was already falling apart—did she really think that just swapping out Rudra for a different position would let her comfort someone else?
That made her angry. She was deeply, furiously resentful.
She had never once thought she had lost to Yuna as a Student Council President—even if she'd lost in a fight—yet here she was in this pathetic state.
"I'm… fine, too. I was just shaken for a moment."
"R-right."
Hyacinth rose to her feet, took several long, deep breaths, and fixed her gaze on the enormous black mass before her.
"Alright. The brief youth drama is over, isn't it? Let's get ready to fight, then."
At those words from Silen, Yuna and Hyacinth both started to say something—then nodded instead.
It was common sense not to chatter in front of the enemy.
The formation had Yuna in front, Silen stepping back to the side in a ready position to intercept at any moment, and Hyacinth standing directly behind Yuna.
The monster that had been forming out of darkness revealed its true shape, and Yuna and Silen's faces twisted in horror.
A massive club. Leather garments covering from the waist down past the knees. Two horns. Grey skin. Its sheer size easily surpassed double Yuna's height.
"An Ogre…. I've seen one in books before…."
"I really… wish I'd only ever seen it in books…."
Yuna and Silen's words were laced with despair—but…
GROOOAAARR!!
There was no stopping the brutal reality as it came charging at them.
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.
.
.
Yujin ran with full force toward the Demeter Dungeon. He had already burst through over a hundred scrolls.
It was purely a matter of overloading the mana inscribed on the scrolls and using it as propulsion. At his shoulders, beneath his feet, at his waist—he strapped them on and became a human thruster, sprinting in a frenzy. He ran at a speed where air resistance made his skin sting.
As a mage and not a warrior, this was the only way to generate the kind of acceleration that could, even momentarily, keep pace with a Superhuman.
Crack…. Creak….
He activated magic internally to reinforce his body, then overloaded the scrolls made from Milé's mana and used them as boosters as he ran. His entire body screamed for mercy, but he tuned it out.
—Yujin. Even though you have good stamina, that method is a bit much. If you crash into something at that speed, you'll get seriously hurt, you know? That aside—the sight of you throwing yourself forward like that and overloading at full tilt is cool. Adorable.
For the record, he had also brought the paper that insane woman was sealed in. Because there was no knowing what she might do.
Cluck—cluck—CLUCK!!
At the incredible speed he was moving, a Rocket Chicken, aggravated and drawn to him, came rushing to cut him off—and he punched it squarely in the face. Bang—its body burst apart. This was no time to deal with that sort of trash.
—Cool…. That's an incredibly fast chicken, and you punched it head-on!
He frowned at the letter paper floating alongside him, its text surfacing as it flew.
And so, in one sprint, all the way to the Floor 3 boss room.
And when he arrived before the boss room—
He grimaced at the sight of a wall of flames burning black.
He reached his hand toward it and felt nothing at all.
This was not real fire—it was a barrier.
A wall that forbade intrusion by anyone other than the party that had already entered the boss room.
He had come running without thinking, too urgently to reason it through, but now that he did—this wall was absolutely impassable.
—Really now. You knew it couldn't be done, yet weren't you a little too reckless? Worried your chicks would die?
"Yuna! Silen! Hyacinth! Can you hear me?! If you can, answer!!"
He shouted loudly toward the wall, and from beyond it came a voice laden with static noise.
"…Jin…! It's Hya…cinth…!"
That was Hyacinth's voice.
—Oh my. The voice gets through? That's unexpected. Hmm.
Wind Spirit Masters are sensitive to all manner of flows. Perhaps a tense Hyacinth had extended her detection skill all the way beyond the wall.
"Tell me the situation! What monster appeared?!"
"Hard… to… hear…."
The static was overwhelming.
Communicating in sentences was impossible.
—Well. The fact that they managed any communication at all is a miracle. Hmm. But ultimately, nothing can be done.
"……."
The Dream Demon's voice, dripping with mockery.
He took a step back and sank into thought.
First, he cleared every crisis from his mind.
He could not afford to panic when a problem was thrown at him. For now, he would think only of solutions.
Communicating using Hyacinth's spirit energy was impossible. Even with his own true magic, he could not shatter that wall. He considered hurling Wind Magic at full power against the black wall, but if that had been possible, history would have recorded that transcendent spirit masters had already tried it.
—They're the disciples you raised. I'm sure they can grow up to be strong. Mm. Believe in them. Okay?
The letter paper had been updating constantly since a moment ago.
Since a moment ago, Demociela had been watching him.
It hit him in an instant.
Watching? How? By what means? Unless the letter paper had eyes, it was impossible. He grabbed the letter paper with his hand.
—Kyaah! A rough first time is something I hate—no, love!
He pressed his finger to the text and traced it backward. A single slender thread pulled free and stretched downward—toward the 50th floor of the dungeon, where Demociela likely resided.
There was no need to go all the way there right now.
All he needed was to analyze the method by which this creature had been watching him.
In an instant, he deconstructed and analyzed Demociela's dark energy in reverse order.
If dark energy has passed through a place, sense is shared regardless of conditions. The first sense is sight.—that was the formula he could discern.
Next, he converted the dark energy into mana and wove it onto a scroll.
How to describe this—it was an impossible method. The magic of Demons and the magic of humans could not be the same. The difficulty might even exceed that of trying to cook with water what ought to be cooked with oil.
But he could do it.
He was a human who had come from beyond the rules of this world. In this world, he was not merely human—he was a character wrapped in every manner of advantage.
If all the mana in this world loved him, then this much was the bare minimum of what he had to be capable of.
—…….
He converted the dark energy into mana, then wrote it out again onto the scroll. Anyone who carried his mana could share his field of vision.
The scroll was complete. Range: approximately 300 meters. Target: one who possessed the same mana as himself. Effect: shared sight and speech.
It was improvised, so it could only target a single person.
And there was only one such person.
He drew in a breath, and called out to her in the largest voice he had ever used in his life.
"Silen! Eat the cookie!!"
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.
.
.
"Haah…. Hah…."
Silen assessed the situation and grimaced.
Her limbs were intact, but she had no idea how much longer she could hold out—and above all, the fact that she herself was unharmed meant Yuna was in danger. The shield was already dented, the armor was in no better shape, and blood was running from her right shoulder.
A tank stakes their life to protect the mage. She knew that was the role they each had taken on, but this situation was too wretched.
If she made a mistake on top of all this, things would spiral to the worst possible outcome. As a result, her attacks had become increasingly passive.
GROOOAAARR!!
The Ogre swung its club. Yuna barely deflected it with the shield in her left hand. The earth caved in from a single blow, and the shockwave alone sent her body flying.
Silen thrust in during that opening, but the effect was negligible. All she had managed was to graze the hide and draw a little blood.
The problem with their party. It was a lack of offensive power. Hyacinth, paralyzed with fear, was unable to produce anything near her proper output; Yuna was simultaneously playing the role of an agility-type swordsman and a tank; and she herself was nothing more than a Rogue.
Even so, it was too soon to despair. She had to find a way somehow. She had to find one, but… how?
“Silen…! Cookie… eat…!!”
"Mister?!"
When she heard a voice that had no business being heard, Silen was startled—but she immediately focused on its content.
Eat the cookie?
Before she could even parse the intent, her hand had already moved—she grabbed the peach cookie from her pocket, put it in her mouth, chewed, and swallowed.
An exquisite sweetness spread through her mouth, and a sense of fullness filled her body.
But that was all. Her stamina had recovered, but it did not mean some overwhelming surge of power had flooded in alongside it.
"I ate it, but…. What am I supposed to do now?!"
“Damn. Thank you. It connected…!”
The voice resonating in her head—brusque but kind, the voice she had heard more than even her parents' lately.
Relief washed over her, but questions surged right alongside it.
"Mister?! What's going on?!"
“I've established a temporary mana pathway. I'll explain later. Anyway—right now I can speak with you, and I'm sharing your field of vision. That's all you need to understand.”
"Y-yeah…. Got it."
“An Ogre. A lack of offensive power, just as I thought. Yuna's at her limit. Hyacinth is shaking. I have the full picture.”
"W-what do I do? What should I do?!"
“First, calm down.”
"How am I supposed to calm down…?! It's not like you can come in here and fight it yourself!"
“That's right. But it's fine. The mere fact that I'm with you is enough.”
"MIster…?"
That voice was so utterly tranquil that even Silen found herself misled for a moment.
“I was the main order-giver of the dungeon humanity has pushed deepest into. If you carry out my instructions precisely, you will absolutely make it out alive. Don't worry, Silen. This old man is surprisingly quite capable.”
Even a joke woven into those words—
Yet they were filled with boundless confidence.
“Now then. Let's take down an Ogre of that caliber in one go, and the three of you come out safely so we can enjoy a meal together. I'll prepare the finest spread I can possibly make.”
"Right…. We beat this, and we go eat."
The trembling in her hands stopped, and her legs felt light.
Yujin was with her.
That alone was more than enough to laugh in the face of despair and go sprinting straight toward hope.