Chapter 29
Chapter 29
Sea Princess (1)
The aide was now determined to devote himself entirely to finding the vice-commander. It was because the Knight Order had secured their objective in the exploration.
I casually asked a question. Was there any method to determine the vice-commander’s location in such a complex space as a labyrinth?
Was it really acceptable to move around with the burden that was the princess without something like that?
"The presence of the vice-commander and the other knights is essential for dungeon progression."
"Especially the vice-commander. I've received a lot of help from her myself, so I'm equally worried."
The aide smiled faintly. Seeing someone he respected being appreciated and worried over by others brought an unexpected sense of psychological satisfaction.
In any case, it was hard for me to pretend indifference after receiving the vice-commander’s kindness. More than anything, there was no harm in becoming close with someone of that level of strength.
"The possibility that the deep-sea creature knows about this on its head is..."
"Almost none. There's a high chance they’re just wandering around without encountering anything to begin with."
That’s precisely why we were hesitant. Just because someone sets out to find her doesn't mean they’ll succeed; there's a real chance of missing each other.
Even if we were obsessed with the vice-commander’s safety, there wasn’t much we could do right now without any means of pinpointing her location.
"Giieek."
"Got it."
Sadly, the princess was devouring my rations. I had brought along some portable dried jerky just in case. Right now, it was all disappearing into the princess’s mouth.
Because of her dental structure, she didn’t chew and swallow so much as rip and gulp, so the eating speed was intense.
"Communication isn’t working. That sea magic..."
As expected, communication magic was impossible. The aide looked weary. It wasn’t as if there was anything he could actually do, but it seemed he couldn't help but worry.
After giving him a reassuring pat, I carefully laid the princess down as she finally began to fall asleep.
"Can't you do something like a prophecy?"
It was a joke from the aide, who had plopped down beside me. He seemed to have chosen rest, thinking there was no need to calculate potential gains right now.
I gave a small chuckle at his words.
"If I could do prophecy, I wouldn’t still be at the Academy."
"True enough."
The Holy Scripture wasn’t omnipotent, but it was a kind of authority that possessed powerful supernatural abilities. A device that made the fanciful idea of prophecy not entirely absurd.
"Goddess, do you happen to know where Vice-Commander Sheila is?"
I summoned the Holy Scripture. The soft glow startled the princess awake with a jolt. She blankly stared at the scripture, likely seeing it for the first time in her life.
I brought my mouth close to the scripture and asked in a playful tone. The aide snickered in response.
"Oh."
"Oh."
"Giieek."
I was used to the Holy Scripture disappearing suddenly, so that part didn’t surprise me. But the fact that it was now pointing in a certain direction like a ‘<’ symbol was something entirely different.
Assuming it was just coincidence, I grabbed the scripture. Then it vanished again, only to reappear elsewhere—pointing in the exact same direction.
The scripture, opened halfway, held a steady 30-degree angle and persistently indicated a single direction.
“Should we get going?”
“It’s the Holy Scripture, so there should be no problem.”
“The Goddess is all-knowing and almighty.”
With some lip-service praise for Anaye, I got up from my seat. I hoped that Anaye truly intended to find the vice-commander.
I had neither a reason nor excuse to refuse. If we already knew the direction and didn’t have to wander aimlessly, I would rather be the one to go looking.
***
“Hm.”
Sheila rose to her feet with difficulty. It felt like waking up the day after being soaked in the rain all day. The sticky sea magic weighed down on her body.
As soon as she got up, she checked her condition and scanned her surroundings. Darkness with no visible corners. The light from a ceiling lantern was faint.
‘We got scattered.’
There was no sign of the Imperial Knight Order nearby. They had all been separated. It seemed the magic placed on the shrine had activated.
Sheila recalled the wave-like burst of magic that had struck the group just before she lost consciousness.
“That was dangerous.”
There was no way to know how long she’d been unconscious. But the fact remained—she had been completely defenseless with no guard in place.
Just being alive was something to be thankful for. She pulled out a canteen, took a drink of water, and stood up.
“Student Davide…”
He had declared with his own mouth that he would participate in the expedition. Even if something unfortunate happened, the blame couldn't fall solely on the Imperial Knight Order.
But he was a talent far too valuable to be lost just like that. Above all, it had been explicitly stated that his safety was to be guaranteed as the highest priority.
“I’ll have to regroup.”
The top priority was regrouping. There was a reason they had come into the shrine, but the safety of the Imperial Knight Order was equally important.
Since they had already entered, it would be more beneficial in every way to reorganize and proceed together. Sheila produced a light source to brighten her surroundings.
She intended to search thoroughly, not knowing where danger might come from.
‘No need to rush.’
She knew the capabilities of the Imperial Knight Order well. Even if they couldn’t clear the shrine alone, they were more than capable of protecting themselves.
Even Davide, the one she worried about most, wasn’t to be underestimated. Sheila recalled the memory from that time.
“Lightning…”
A forest filled with the scent of grass. She had fallen clumsily to the ground, and in front of her stood a boy with a broad back. His sea-colored hair fluttered as a book appeared in his left hand.
Elegant particles gathered gracefully like a beautiful dance, forming the Holy Scripture. As the boy’s right hand brushed across the opened pages, what emerged within was a massive judgment.
Shining with a hue that was somewhere between blue and violet, the formless light gathered into the shape of a sword.
When the sword of lightning, shrouded in a holy veil, finally struck the Guardian’s body, Sheila couldn’t close her eyes.
He was someone who wielded that. He must have not only the qualifications but also the corresponding ability. In fact, when she had faced him directly after summoning him, he had been different.
His way of speaking, his awareness of the situation, and the confidence that didn’t waver even in front of Ethan, the Knight Commander, or herself, the Vice-Commander. He was nothing like the rumors that painted him as just another academic.
“There was something he was hiding.”
Normally, she wouldn’t have paid this much attention. But due to the mission she’d been assigned, her gaze had lingered on him—there were many things that didn’t quite add up.
He did have a violent temperament. His actions thus far made that clear. But the change had been too drastic. Too much had changed from the moment he was excommunicated.
He obtained the Holy Scripture, established a new order, and even played an active role in a raid. It all felt too orchestrated, like a rigged game.
“Duhein is a headache.”
If it were anyone else, there wouldn’t be much meaning in such speculation. But if that person bore the name Duhein, it was a different matter.
The greatest enemy of the Imperial Family. There may be foreign kingdoms aiming for the nation from the outside, and corrupt noble trash gnawing away at it from the inside.
But aside from those, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that the Duhein family caused the most trouble for the royal family.
“Hm?”
Still, he was pleasant enough to look at with that decent appearance, and unexpectedly sharp and quick. That made him somewhat appealing. Either way, until the order was officially revoked, she had no choice but to stay involved with him.
Thinking of Davide like that as she moved forward, Sheila suddenly felt something prick at her finely honed senses.
“A crea…ture?”
She raised the magical sword in her left hand and the staff in her right. A battle stance ready for anything. Her eyes, enhanced with magic, quickly caught sight of an abnormality some distance away.
Its shape was bizarre. Not human, but not quite like any beast she could think of either.
What it resembled most closely was the corpse of the creature Bereninche had slain during the raid incident. Unnatural. Artificial.
“A type of sea creature?”
Sheila immediately thrust her magic sword. Upon its master’s command, the blade savagely absorbed the surrounding mana.
Even the thick, sticky sea magic was greedily devoured and stored within. Then, with a simple thrust, the stored energy erupted outward.
The beam of light extended and struck the target directly. While it wasn’t too fast to avoid, its wide area of effect filling the corridor ensured a guaranteed hit.
The mana's aftershock sharply dropped the surrounding temperature. An icy tunnel formed in an instant. Approaching cautiously, Sheila looked at the creature now frozen solid.
A fish with the teeth of a wolf. Sheila lacked the words to describe it any further.
Sea magic wasn’t particularly friendly to the human body. It brought a suffocating pressure and wasn’t easily absorbed. But it wasn’t entirely uncooperative either.
If given a path, it would follow it without resistance. Because of that, magic manifested a little more powerfully than expected.
Sheila observed the grotesque scene she had created, then jabbed her staff at the frozen form. With that weak stab, the frost statue shattered completely.
‘Easy.’
If things remained at this level, it wouldn’t be bad. There didn’t seem to be much danger to worry about. The problem was whether they could meet up or not.
Sheila pulled something out of her pack. A thin piece of metal. Sharpened to the point it could be mistaken for a throwing weapon, it held a strange energy.
Along with it, she brought out an artifact. A palm-sized disc. It looked like an oversized ring, and it had a string attached for wearing around the neck.
“I didn’t want to use this, but…”
The artifact was designed to detect lingering traces of energy on any object placed within the circle.
Sheila placed the metal fragment inside. It was a piece she had picked up when she went weapon shopping with Davide.
She hadn’t stolen it or anything; it had simply broken off when the interlocking metal pieces shifted to form a claw shape.
The trembling metal fragment immediately pointed in a direction.
“Ugh. So cold.”
Sheila shivered once, then started walking. First, she would find Davide. The rest—such as which direction to go—could be decided afterward.
It seemed best to search for the one she was most concerned about first. There was no hesitation in Sheila’s steps.
“Achoo!”
Roughly three hours had passed since she began wandering the shrine. If she included the time she had been unconscious, it had been around four to five hours.
During that time, Sheila had not stopped moving even once. She had encountered twenty-seven sea creatures in total.
Though they had all fallen in a single blow, many of them had emitted a foul, fishy stench. Whether it was due to the tainted air or something else, every time she used magic, she sneezed.
Only then did Sheila take her first break. Thanks to the magic sword, she had been able to handle sea magic with relative ease, so her condition wasn’t bad.
Still, after walking so much, her body felt stiff. She wanted to rest properly, but doing so without a guard was too dangerous.
She was just starting to feel a bit fatigued.
“It’s been ages since I submitted that complaint.”
She chewed on a high-calorie protein bar from her supplies and curled her lip. Tasting food during war or combat was foolish.
Still, she’d submitted a complaint on the grounds of "human dignity" or whatever. Not that anything had changed. She scowled at the bar’s overwhelming, violent sweetness.
“Hm?”
Some things could only be felt when leaning against a wall.
The chill rising from the floor. The damp moss on the wall. Even the subtle vibrations in the air.
Sheila sprang to her feet. The vibrations were rhythmic. She had a hunch it might be some kind of signal, and her heart began to race.
She ran toward the growing tremors. The metal fragment mounted in the artifact pointed in the same direction.
“Found it.”
Beyond a flash of magical light, she reached a massive chamber. In the center stood a gigantic statue of a man.
The tremors were coming from the opposite side of where Sheila had entered. From some entrance, an endless stream of foul-smelling, fish-reeking monsters was pouring in.
Standing in their path was a boy, his entire body wrapped in lightning. Each punch he threw sent bolts of electricity lashing out.
The monsters struck by it flailed uncontrollably, and in that moment, the claw on his right hand moved.
The long blade extending only from the middle finger wasn’t practical in design, but for the act of stabbing, it was brutally effective.
A perfect blow that pierced through the brain without fail. Standing firm in front of the door, Davide was drilling holes through the brains of every creature that came his way.
“Oh! Vice-Commander!”
Behind him, sitting casually on the statue, was the aide. He waved at her with a bright smile. Sheila pressed her fingers firmly against her temple.
It was the unmistakable sight of a corrupt noble exploiting labor. Sheila's gaze shifted and landed on an unfamiliar creature in the aide’s arms.
Every time Davide unleashed a wave of lightning, the creature—an unusually small whale—threw its fins in the air and cheered in delight.
“Break time.”
Sheila decided she needed a proper environment to grasp the situation. With a snap of her fingers, her magic sword roared.
Moments later, a sharp surge of magic blasted outward and froze over the entrance Davide had been facing. A massive wall of ice erupted from the ground, completely sealing the opening.
“……Would you care to explain?”
Only then did Davide’s eyes turn to Sheila. He looked more thrilled than surprised. With a bright smile she'd never seen before, Davide wiped the sweat trickling down his jaw with his chin.
“I was defending.”
“Defending?”
“Oh, I was trying to rescue someone and accidentally triggered… something.”
An unbelievably cheerful answer. Sheila glanced sideways at the aide. He offered an awkward smile.
These men… They definitely messed something up.