Chapter 196

Chapter 196: Decision

Decision
Chapter 196. Resolution

Meanwhile, the Flint Expedition was in a state of emergency to rescue Ferda.
They could not search the room with magic tools leisurely.
As the expedition leader, Erica returned to the entrance hall they were using as a base and gave orders to the other adventurers.
— Did you find anything?
The adventurers answered her question.
— The left side seems to have been used as a bedroom, so there was nothing remarkable.
— We found quite a few magic tools on the right side, but they seem to be unrelated items…
Both the right side and the left side were a complete failure.
The only thing remaining was the front path that she had led.
— Damn it, why did they have to fall into a trap like that…?
— What can be done…?
It was not something they could even criticize as reckless.
Living as adventurers, these kinds of things were common, and even veteran adventurers had fled.
They tried to find some clue using the eastern script they had hastily learned, but all were useless.
The only thing they had discovered was that the study they went to was called Boyangsil, and the room leading down from it was called Eumyangsil.
“Just by the names, they sound like training rooms…”
Yet the problem was why such a training room would close on its own.
Surely Ferda would not arbitrarily set a restriction in this preposterous place just because he wanted to train?
— …No, is it possible?
Given that he was such an extravagant human being, the thought that perhaps he would crossed her mind.
In any case, Erica only hoped they could rescue him safely.
— Captain Eri!
Adventurers came running from the front, making a fuss.
— We found it!
Her heart fluttered.
She suppressed her expectations as much as she could and calmly examined what they brought.
Yet what was visible from the first page was a blueprint.
And it was a blueprint of this Gyeonghui Palace, to top it off.
— Where did you find this?!
— It seems they entered the Palace Lord’s room, and when they randomly opened books there, this one came out!
— Since the Palace Lord had to oversee everything, naturally it would be in that place.
A map is the eyes of adventurers, and this is like clairvoyance that sees everything.
Erica roughly flipped through the book, searching for content regarding Boyangsil and Eumyangsil.
— Here it is. Since ancient times, Gyeonghui Palace borrowed the power of love, and considered it important to cultivate emotions in Boyangsil to nurture that love.
— Magic through love?
— This isn’t a children’s hero show, does that really work?
— Why? People with Red Circles operate their circles with emotions, don’t they?
— It is always the half-baked know-it-alls who talk like that, tsk tsk.
— Cut the local broadcasts. I need to interpret.
Postponing those who were trying to argue, Erica continued interpreting.
— Sometimes, despite men and women having feelings for each other, they cannot easily… blah blah, acts contrary to the spirit of the first Lord of Gyeonghui Palace. Opening of Eumyangsil… oh, I found it.
— What do we have to do?
— It says it opens automatically again in 12 hours.
— 12 hours?
— Then, considering the safety margin, that is a very tight deadline, isn’t it?
— Considering the return time, that is true, but let me read more… ah, there is more. A way to get out faster… huh?
Erica frowned.
— Wait, this word… is that how it is interpreted?
— Why do you ask?
— So this… is correct, but…
Erica pressed her forehead, grimacing.
She re-interpreted it several times, but the meaning was clear.
— …If they do not share affection, they cannot leave?
— Huh?
An awkward silence circulated.
— If it is affection…
— That seems… correct?
What kind of affection would adults share?
Everyone knew, but no one mentioned it.
— Wait a minute…
That embarrassment was momentary.
— Then, to leave that room safely, the Armored Knight and Regent Ferda…
— Have to… share love?
An armor 2 meters tall and the relatively slender man, Ferda.
The image does not form.
— So… to share that love…
— Ahem!
— Silence!
No, even trying to imagine it, only terrible and dirty things came to mind.
Yet there was something even more painful.
The fact that someone had to tell them this.
Just when their camaraderie was deepening.
They began a fierce game of chicken.
In that situation, Erica calmly designated one person.
— …Rize-ssi?
— Yes, Captain?
— How about you deliver the message?
— M-me???
— You go and tell them to just hurry up and share affection… that… and return…
— N-no, that… m-me, me????
Erica calmly told him what to do, and Rize clasped his hands, repeating what she had said.
He did not want to say that to Ferda, who had a partner.
And this situation that no one desired.
— Huh?
Virgil, who had been looking around, spotted something and made a sound.
— T-that… is the Armored Knight!
— …What?
— That cannot be?
Everyone seemed unable to believe it.
If they had attempted to escape by tearing down the door, the entire building should have shaken.
At a depth where they could be buried alive, even cornered, Ferda would not have allowed such recklessness.
Then who is the Armored Knight coming out from there?
Yet soon everyone was able to confirm what the archer had seen.
Just as he said, the Armored Knight was walking out.
The Armored Knight carried the exhausted Ferda on her back, holding the books he had gathered wrapped in a cloth, walking toward them.
The Armored Knight seemed to see them too, awkwardly raising a hand in greeting.
Their return brought not relief, but a chill.
— Mmm…
Ferda woke up on the back of the Armored Knight.
The armor on her back was uncomfortable, but he could not ask to be put down at that moment.
“My body will not move properly…”
A feeling of exhaustion throughout his whole body left Ferda no choice.
What a rotten body.
Ferda carefully checked his body’s condition.
In his danjeon, he could clearly feel a heavy sensation he had never experienced before.
“Shadow Circle, 2nd stage.”
Something created not by Ferda’s will, but by an external force.
It was trying to consume Ferda.
It was a situation where he had no choice but to die, yet it was not necessarily so.
“I have reached the 5th Circle.”
The stage called Master Mage, a realm that ordinary talents cannot reach even with blood-sweating effort.
“Completed two circles in a single day…”
It is absurd enough that no one would believe it.
Even speaking to Ferda himself, who had reached the 8th Circle, he would ask how it is possible.
Of course, Ferda’s answer is fixed.
“Eleanor.”
Although it was only an illusion, with her help, Ferda was able to push back that Shadow Circle.
Ferda lay on the back, quietly opening his eyes.
Erica, walking at the same pace, looked at Ferda and was startled.
— Oh? Are you awake?
— Yes.
She had a very worried expression.
— Captain Eri, did you rescue us?
— …
— Captain Eri?
— Yes?
— I asked if you rescued us.
Hearing those words, Erica looked around carefully and asked this:
— By any chance, do you not know what happened either?
— I do not know. I was unconscious.
— When we tried to rescue you… the Armored Knight seemed to have found a way.
— Don’t tell me she broke a wall or something…
— That was not what happened.
— Is that so?
— She did break something, but…
— ?
— It is nothing.
Erica closed her mouth.
She had a heavy face like someone struck by the Trauma attack.
Why are they all like this?
He could not understand it at all.
Turning his head to make eye contact with the others, he noticed they had similar reactions.
Some with compassionate eyes.
Others with eyes as if they had witnessed a horrifying existence.
And some who did not know, but seemed to think: “whatever, it’s fine as long as you’re fine.”
Seeing those eyes, Ferda was convinced of one thing.
“It seems I went through a difficult journey while I was unconscious.”
Ferda decided to think that way and moved to another topic.
— When do we arrive?
— One more hour and we will arrive. The adventure time… might end in 22 hours…
Erica’s words faded away.
The footsteps of the Armored Knight stopped, and the footsteps of the others followed.
Ferda turned his head to look at Erica.
She made a stop sign with her hand.
— What is going on?
Her eyes were fixed on one point.
She was a woman who never lowered her guard in the Demonic Land, but now it was different.
It was the gaze of someone who had encountered a truly formidable enemy.
— Put me down for a moment.
Nod.
The Armored Knight set him down, and Ferda carefully stood up.
He had no strength, but he could barely manage to stand.
He could see what Erica was looking at.
And he understood why she made that expression.
— You are…
A black robe that suited this black and gray land.
Because of that, the white skin seemed to shine even more.
That contrasting appearance generated a sense of strangeness, and that strangeness led to caution.
“Gokma.”
One of the Seven Scars of Godwin, the last remaining Noble-class demon.
— A pleasure to meet you. Members of the expedition, and Captain Eri. We know each other, right?
— …That is correct.
Erica had not forgotten the humiliation she had suffered at his hands.
Moreover, the fact that he deliberately spoke that way, knowing she was an Iorga Spawn, irritated her even more.
Agitation is poison to a mage.
She asked calmly.
— Why are you here?
— Why am I here? What is strange about a demon being in the Demonic Land?
He let out an unpleasant laugh and took a step forward.
— Who the hell are you? Get lost right now!
As the belligerent Jonathan Sina attempted to step forward with his axe raised, Erica blocked his path.
Her eyes said this:
— Not now.
Gokma applauded that action.
— Excellent choice. I did not want to see blood separately either. I want to applaud you exhausted people, not become a new trial.
— Then, will you leave quietly?
— I would like to, but first I want to hear your opinion. How was it? My work.
Work.
Everyone could deduce what that work was.
— Trauma belongs to you?
— Trauma… that is a good name. Naming things is not really my style. Thanks to you, I got a good name. Let us call it Trauma from now on.
Erica frowned.
— It was a piece of low-quality garbage. Did you think you could do something with that?
— It will work. You possess “excellent” mental strength to overcome any trial, but what about ordinary humans?
— Other humans…
She knew what kind of illusions Trauma induced.
It makes them suffer through their greatest regret.
And with prolonged exposure, that pain leads to salvation.
That act is not merely about making people suffer.
“There is a separate intention.”
He already knew they would go to Gyeonghui Palace, and placed Trauma in the path they might take.
If he wanted to fight, he could have waited in Gyeonghui Palace.
“Yet he did not.”
For what reason?
The Demonic Land is the last homeland of the demons.
Seeing those who tried to desecrate that homeland, it would be the instinct of Dragon Spawns not to tolerate it.
He may be a special individual among demons, but he was one of the Dragon Spawns, so that instinct should remain.
There is a clear purpose, clear enough that desecrating the homeland does not matter.
— Judging by your expressions, Trauma seems to have become a fairly excellent work. Although it needs a bit more supplementation.
Gokma sneered, and the adventurers protested in combat stances.
— Let us meet again later.
Gokma stepped back and drew a vertical line.
Following his finger, space opened with dizzying colors that shimmered like a mirage.
Gokma threw himself inside.
— Ah, right.
He turned around as if he had forgotten something, just as he was about to move forward.
— This is a small gift.
He greatly expanded the space with his finger.
A completely different scale from the space he had created to leave.
The length alone seemed to exceed 8 meters, an enormous fissure.
Kugugeung—.
Yet as if even that space was not enough, the object struggled, tearing space apart and forcing its way out.
No wonder it was not enough.
It was a colossal monster, 10 meters tall.
Kwoooooo!!
A roar that propagated shockwaves.
That roar etched despair into the cells of the body.
— C-Captain Eri…!
— What do we do…?!
Having spent the whole night awake and rushed to finish in one day, their minds and bodies were exhausted.
In this desperate moment, her judgment was needed.
“I thought it would end without problems…”
Erica had to make a decision.
If she revealed her identity and fought, she could definitely catch that monster.
Her double life would end, but everyone would survive.
Just as she was about to make that decision, someone stepped in front of them.
— Armored Knight?
A large man in common-looking armor.
At that moment, when no one, including herself, could take a single step, he stepped forward boldly.
The person inside that armor had seen that monster more than anyone.
So she is not afraid.
If there is anything to fear, it is losing precious people.
“I must not hesitate here.”
Since it is something no one else can handle, she must take care of it personally.
Valdrova makes her decision.
She silently clenched her fist.
Kwaddeudeuk…
The gauntlet that nothing could pierce creaked as if it would shatter at any moment.
“Without hesitating…”
She would sweep it away in a single strike.
Just as that fist was aimed at the colossal monster.
Kureureung—.
What broke Valdrova’s concentration was sudden thunder.
The Demonic Land is a dead land where everything has perished.
It is impossible for thunder to strike.
Piles of information too difficult to process were forced into Erica’s head.
Before she could understand it all, her instinct screamed.
— Everyone, duck!
At Erica’s order, everyone ducked.
At the same time, something gigantic fell in front of the colossal monster.
Pajijijik!!!
A massive lightning strike that instantly turned the world white.
Kuuuung!!!
And an enormous shockwave created by a heavy downward impact.
The bodies of those crouching floated about 2 meters.
— Cough, cough…
— Is everyone alright?
The aftermath was great, but no one died.
— What was that lightning?
— Don’t tell me the Armored Knight has such an ability…?
Yet the Armored Knight, Valdrova, only remained standing there with a bewildered expression.
Her power comes from her fists, not the sky.
“This lightning is…”
Valdrova felt a sense of déjà vu.
Having lived a long time, she knew it well.
The only person who can make lightning fall like that and sweep everything away is only one.
They looked up toward where the colossal monster was.
In that place where gray-brown dust swirled, a silhouette of similar size had taken its place.
He revealed himself with a loud laugh.
— Kuhahahahat!! Where does a small fry think it is crawling?!
It was the War Dragon, Storeus.