Chapter 234

Chapter 234. Can I Return Alive?

Outside the inner castle, after Ferda disappeared at Gokma’s hands, Gokma also vanished without a trace.
Three had been assigned as escorts, but it could well be said that all three had failed.
It couldn’t be helped.
In matters involving magic, all they could do was take the hit in his place, and they didn’t even have time for that; it was that overwhelming.
They suffered what was inevitable to suffer.
That was the only way to think about it.
But Ruri couldn’t think that way.
“I failed.”
Her mindset when joining this operation was exactly one thing.
To send Ferda home safely.
To ensure that Valdrova wouldn’t even notice and could smile and converse again; that was her job.
But that crumbled in a far too empty manner.
“Am I… incapable of protecting a single person on my own?”
A wave of self-loathing washed over her.
It soon became a swamp trying to drag Ruri down.
“Don’t blame yourself.”
Jed, who was beside her, spoke.
“If it’s him, he’ll definitely be fine.”
“I don’t do things like blaming myself.”
Ruri glared at Jed and Arwen as if they were being brazen.
“I’m not the only one who failed, yet you all are terribly calm.”
“I am also worried. Sir Consillus is the same.”
“Don’t call him Sir Consillus… no, let’s focus on rescuing Regent Ferda first.”
Ferda was dragged away by invitation magic.
But no one thought Ferda would be dead.
He was a man who had entered the jaws of a dragon several times and come out unscathed.
At the very least, he wasn’t someone who would die in such an empty way without even time to be saved.
“Since you said he received an invitation to the castle, he must have entered the inner castle, and for that, we will also have to enter the inner castle.”
“We don’t know what he will do, so we have to find him as quickly as possible.”
Ruri tensed her wings and continued.
“I will enter first and find Ferda-nim. If I adjust to your pace, it might be too late.”
“Those eyeballs will be inside… will you be alright?”
Arwen, having already experienced it, couldn’t help but feel fear in that moment.
Relatively more experienced, but even for Ruri, that sensation was as vivid as the events of yesterday.
It was a nightmare she never wanted to experience again.
“It doesn’t matter.”
At that moment, inside the nightmare, even that fear was meaningless.
Arwen realized that she was impatient and tried to persuade her again.
“Moving together with us to search for Ferda-nim would be the best…”
With a swoosh, Ruri’s body shot out like an arrow and went deep into the inner castle.
Jed and Arwen stared blankly for a moment, then said this.
“Let’s move as well. Relatively slowly.”
Feeling like a turtle facing a hare even when running at full speed, they entered the inner castle.
The moment they entered the inner castle, silence settled in.
It shouldn’t have been silent.
The allied forces and the imperial troops had already flooded the inner castle like a tide, so where had all those people gone?
“If we set foot here…”
“Something will 100% happen.”
The support mage had already been kidnapped, and their strongest combat power had entered the inner castle alone.
These were bad conditions for two knights to intervene.
But Arwen’s chest harbored chivalry, so he could not back down.
“Shall we try to manage somehow for now?”
Jed took a deep breath and opened his eyes.
His pupils began to shine with a red light, and the moment the fluctuating space touched Jed’s eyes, it scattered.
The infinite space that had unfolded before Arwen’s eyes returned to the shape of an ordinary inner castle.
“So the Red Eye Tribe is this terrifying.”
It hadn’t been long since Arwen discovered Jed’s secret.
Until he himself revealed that he was from the Red Eye Tribe, Arwen thought he was just a guy with good skills.
No, even the moment he revealed it, Arwen didn’t believe him.
“He was spouting nonsense about sleeping with a Sword Master, then he reveals he’s from the Red Eye Tribe… who would believe that?”
This is Jed’s fault.
No matter how unexpected a person is, they should be so in an appropriate manner.
“It’s not ordinary.”
Jed, who was lighting the way, spoke.
“What do you mean?”
“Even though I’m desperately eliminating magic, all I can do is barely open our path. So this is what it feels like to enter the domain of a dark mage?”
Even as he broke into a cold sweat, a smile formed on his face.
“If we just get the direction right, we might be able to rescue the Regent first.”
“That’s a relief.”
But it’s unsettling. We’ve entered a space like this, is it really okay for things to go so smoothly?
As if to prove the concern wasn’t unfounded, an anomaly arrived.
The ground rumbled violently!
The ground that had definitely been solid when they stepped on it collapsed under Arwen and Jed’s center.
Jed jumped the moment he felt gravity on the soles of his feet, escaping that range.
“Ugh!”
“Arwen?!”
But Arwen, relatively heavier and clumsier, could not escape.
Arwen fell downward.
With a dull thud.
The height was about one floor level, and Arwen’s figure was visible.
“Damn it…”
Adrenaline spiked.
Arwen quickly stood up and wielded his sword.
From the dense darkness before him, creepy breathing sounds were heard.
They were monsters.
Grrr—!
Krrk!
It wasn’t just one or two.
Just the breathing sounds exceeded 30.
To make matters worse, the collapsed ground was returning to its original position.
What collapsed was one of this castle’s traps.
Seeing the only exit closing, Ludmilla’s face appeared in Arwen’s mind.
There was no need to deeply understand why.
He felt his own death.
“Jed!”
Arwen, engulfed in a swamp of death, shouted.
“Find Regent Ferda!”
Shadows closing in around him charged at Arwen simultaneously with his shout.
Arwen thought.
“How many of these bastards can I take with me as companions to the afterlife?”
“Kieeek!”
Three flew toward Arwen simultaneously.
He was an experienced knight from the Far East.
He concentrated all his aura on the tip of his sword, forging it into a sharp shape that could cut even steel.
Slash!
He managed to strike down two, but he couldn’t block his now defenseless back.
Unlike what he thought, that an extreme pain would invade him, he felt no impact.
Because something that fell from the hole pierced that monster’s head.
Arwen turned his head.
There was Jed.
Crossing gazes as if dumbfounded, Jed shrugged his shoulders.
“Well, it turned out like this.”
Arwen sighed.
Unlike the sigh exhaled from his mouth, hope sprang up on Arwen’s face.
“Just don’t die.”
“Ha, worry about yourself.”
Arwen gripped his longsword tightly, and Jed readjusted the grip on his dagger.
With the vision cleared, even more became visible.
The estimate of 30 was incorrect.
At least double that.
They thought.
Can we really return alive from here?

Allied nations’ side.
The moment the barrier fell, they entered through the western gate of the inner castle.
The first to enter was, as expected, King Hudret.
He faced the threat first and was properly fulfilling the role of vanguard.
But that didn’t last long.
When the rear grew quiet, he looked back—and the allied kingdom’s army that had been following him had completely disappeared.
It didn’t look like an intention to harm Hudret; the support troops that were supposed to come were not visible at all.
The mage’s domain had swallowed them in secret.
“Mage, how is the observation going?”
“That is still… it is difficult to grasp the terrain properly.”
The mage moving behind Hudret hesitated.
At that, the aide next to him frowned.
“What is so difficult that you are wasting time like this?”
“I’m sorry. I also want to figure it out quickly, but it’s not working as expected…”
King Hudret glared at the aide who, instead, was making things difficult.
“Were you a mage?”
“Yes?”
“I asked if you were a mage.”
“T-that couldn’t be.”
“Then shut your mouth. Unless you want your tongue cut out.”
The mage scouting the terrain was an expert with adventurer experience.
Since the inner castle would definitely do something, King Hudret brought him as a countermeasure.
Even such an expert could not overcome this situation; rather, they had to rely on him more.
At the same time, the aide’s feelings were understandable.
Right now, nothing was visible ahead, nothing behind, and monsters could appear anywhere, at any time.
And if someone died, a powerful undead monster would be born from that corpse; impatience was inevitable.
“Just tell us roughly what you’ve found. Do we move, or not?”
“Yes. We are definitely walking in some space. However, it is likely a space intricately woven with distortion magic.”
“How do we escape a place like this?”
“Destroy the magical tool maintaining the power source of the magic, or kill the caster. Those are the only ways.”
“Can you do those two things right now?”
“A mana possessor capable of expanding to this degree… we would probably die first.”
“Honest.”
King Hudret exhaled with interest and said.
“Entering was of our own free will, but leaving is not. There was a reason they let us in so easily. Did King Hinkel have a plan?”
Then what to do?
He was pondering for a moment.
The scout mage focused, then started and trembled.
“Something is approaching.”
“Damn monsters coming endlessly without getting tired.”
“T-that’s… they are not monsters! They seem to be people!”
Even if they are people, something feels off.
King Hudret ordered.
“Battle stations for now.”
Shortly after, someone caught King Hudret’s eye.
Upon seeing that figure, he sheathed his sword and approached.
“To see the Reverse Hero on the battlefield, Count Rooster.”
Oldin Rooster.
He was a man covered in scars, befitting the nickname of Reverse Hero.
“To meet you here, King Hudret.”
“Indeed. Did you get lost too?”
“It seems so. To think I would run into you first by mistake.”
Count Rooster thought for a moment, then spoke again.
“By chance, have you seen the Second Prince?”
“Second Prince? Ureas? An imperial person would know better, why ask me?”
“Word spread that an imperial soldier last saw Ureas on this side. Following that direction led me to meet you.”
“That soldier must be mistaken. Uncertain information is worse than none, tsk.”
“Or could it be that we are going around in circles in this land? Anyway, thank you.”
“Nothing to thank me for. Aren’t we both going around in circles the same way?”
King Hudret smiled and extended his hand to Count Rooster.
“What will you do? Joining us this time would be a good judgment, wouldn’t it?”
A subtle request for cooperation.
But Count Rooster looked at his hand and said this.
“There is no need to make an offer you don’t feel. From the beginning, we moved as an independent unit even within the imperial army, and that is more comfortable. Above all, King Hudret has things he must do, doesn’t he?”
“Of course. I will take it as a polite refusal.”
“Then.”
Count Rooster turned his army and moved somewhere else.
King Hudret watched that retreating figure, then spoke.
“But Count Rooster.”
“Yes.”
Count Rooster’s footsteps stopped.
“When did you start to appreciate the Second Prince so much? When I first saw Count Rooster, I thought it wouldn’t be strange if you killed the Second Prince at any moment.”
“…..”
“Was that a delusion of mine?”
Count Rooster silently looked at King Hudret.
The royal guards pointed their swords forward.
As veterans, they knew instantly that what Count Rooster emitted was murderous intent.
He spoke.
“A soldier’s duty is to dedicate himself to his country.”
King Hudret put on a relaxed expression, then smiled.
“It’s none of my business. I hope you find him.”
“Thank you.”
Rooster led his subordinates again and moved somewhere.
His silhouette disappeared into the darkness, and as they vanished one by one, it became as quiet as a mouse again.
“This damn darkness is the problem, after all.”
King Hudret changed the subject.
“There is no choice. It seems I will have to use that.”
“Here?”
His subordinates reacted to the word ‘that’.
“His Holiness the Pope said to only use it during a decisive battle.”
“That was the time when it is most effective. But if he had anticipated a situation like this, he would have told us to use it immediately.”
“If you don’t use it at the decisive moment, that magic could be stolen by others.”
“So they would act like imbeciles who can’t tell shit from urine?”
Hudret laughed and took something out of his pocket.
It was a golden box similar in size to a necklace case, with the Order’s emblem engraved in the center.
Its shape was unmistakably that of a dragon, and officially, only one group worshipped dragons.
Aspect of Faith and Light.
Golden Dragon, Odograsado.
Hudret opened the contents inside.
The moment the box opened, a golden light poured out, its intensity enough to return color to everything nearby.
What created that light was a scale.
It was a scale containing the blessing of Odograsado.
A sacred relic that not even Pope Odograsado could use was in his hand.
“Honestly, I was dying to see how great this power is.”
King Hudret gripped the scale tightly.
At that moment, a golden light exploded.