CHAPTER 8 - LORD OF THE OLD CASTLE
1
Running through the corridors of the underground dungeon were Ange and her party, led by Creare.
Creare flashes a blue lens to determine the shortest route to the treasure’s location.
[This way!]
Creare chose a detour course with many turns, but this helped them avoid unnecessary battles.
When Ange glanced behind her, she saw that Noel, who had been running for some time, was struggling a great deal.
Although her rehabilitation has been completed, she has not fully recovered her physical strength.
In addition, she was inevitably inferior in physical strength compared to Ange and other nobles of the kingdom.
Ange, who has been trained since she was a child, has different physical strengths to begin with.
And the problem is Livia.
“I-I can’t do it anymore.”
Her breathing was more erratic and she seemed to be in more pain than Noel.
Ange slowed down and began walking.
(The two of them cannot take much more of this, huh)
If it were just herself, she could still run, but the other two were at their limits.
“Break time. Creare, is there somewhere we can rest?”
When Ange suggested they take a break, Livia and Noel stumbled over to the wall and leaned against it.
Creare, who was watching the situation, says in a tedious manner.
[We’ll be fine here. There are no enemies nearby and no traps. But we’ve lost so much time, we’ll have to recalculate our route again. And, aside from Noel-chan, doesn’t Livia-chan seem to have too little stamina?]
Regulating her disordered breathing, Livia makes excuses with a pained look on her face.
“I-I’m an indoor ―― person.”
If she wanted to, she could concentrate for hours on her studies, but running around outside was not something she was very good at.
Ange puts her hand on her forehead and chuckles in a troubled way.
“That’s why I told you to work out. Physical fitness is basic.”
Noel, who is sweating, argues with Ange, who says that this level is normal.
“I was physically active in the Republic, too, but people in the Kingdom are strange.
We have already run many kilometers and you don’t look tired at all.” If this was just a run, Noel and Livia could have run more.
But now they wore armor for protection and had weapons.
Adding the tools needed for dungeon exploration, it becomes quite heavy.
From Noel’s point of view, it was hard to believe that Ange, who had run many kilometers with weights on her back, did not look tired.
In front of the two of them, who are out of breath and struggling, Ange wonders.
“If you are tired at this level, you can’t be an adventurer.”
“It’s absolutely ridiculous!”
As soon as the two of them are breathing calmly, Ange begins to walk and move on.
What began there was three of them complaining about Leon.
Ange was smiling, but angry about the hidden passageway.
“He’s a truly troubling guy. He goes out of his way to pretend to play fair, but he himself is determined to win. We were all fooled.”
Livia was similarly angry, but for different reasons.
“Thanks to that, we were able to go deeper. Then we were told there was a hidden passageway and we had to go back the way we came.”
Livia, who was not good at exercising, was not happy about being forced to run for nothing.
Noel, like Livia, resents being made to run, but more than that, he complains about Leon’s attitude.
“In the beginning, he had the attitude of a fair fight, didn’t he?! What’s more, what about us?!”
Creare, happily watching the three making noise, happily joins the conversation.
[Master doesn’t cut corners, even when it comes to his fiance es.] Ange hears that and smiles gently.
“I underestimated how serious he was.”
Perhaps wondering about Ange, Creare asks her.
[You look happy. How can you smile? We were deceived, you know.]
“Because he really competed with us seriously.”
The hidden passageway thing just didn’t satisfy them, but Ange also understood that it was a way to win the game.
And she was happy that Leon was serious about competing with them.
“I always felt sheltered and treated gently, as if I were a princess.”
[You didn’t like that, right.]
“I don’t know? I was happy about it. But just looking at the important moments makes me doubt if I am really needed. ――In fact, sometimes I think Leon would have lived more peacefully without me”
Livia, following behind, scolds the faint-hearted Ange.
“That’s not true! Ange is holding on too much. The only reason Leon-san can’t live in peace is――”
Knowing the reasons why Leon could not live in peace, Livia was hesitant to speak her words to the end.
When they fall silent, the silence continues, and Noel, unable to bear it, speaks up to continue.
“Well, because he’s meddlesome. Thanks to that, I was saved, too.” Leon cannot live peacefully because he is meddlesome.
If he had ignored them and acted with his own personal safety in mind, he would not be a hero today.
But if he had done that, he would have been with three people. No, he would not have been able to get to know many more people.
Ange reveals her true feelings.
“I don’t want to get in his way. I just want him to be happy, but my presence gets him into unnecessary conflicts.”
One of the reasons why Ange does not want to involve Leon in the conflict is that he has made it clear that he does not want to get involved.
The other is because Leon is mentally cornered.
Noel looks at Livia.
“――He hasn’t reduced his dosage, has he?”
Livia gives a small nod and looks at Creare.
“It hasn’t changed since he came back from his study abroad. Are-chan, isn’t that right?”
But Creare did not answer.
[Master has ordered me to stop answering that question.]
Unlike her previous joking attitude, her words now seemed straightforward.
The master of Creare is Leon, and when push comes to shove, it is Leon who has priority.
The three of them walked in silence for a while, led by Creare, and must have entered a hidden passageway at some point.
The sounds of battle can be heard from Julius and his group, who seem to have entered first.
Ange holds the rifle in her hand.
“I want to avoid friendly fire. You guys, don’t attack in haste.”
Since they were moving through dimly lit corridors, there was a danger of friendly fire if they used guns.
When Livia and Noel nodded, the blue lens of Creare flashed.
[――There’s a route to the inner area without making contact. Follow me]
The three follow Creare as she moves ahead.
Occasionally, men’s screams can be heard mixed in with the sounds of battle.
Sometimes there are voices that say, “I’ll never forgive those guys!”.
When Ange and her party continued on, they found a passageway closed to the ice.
Livia approaches the ice.
“Is this some kind of a mechanism? Is there a treasure up ahead?”
Livia is concerned about the blocked passageway, but Creare tells her to ignore it. [Ah, you’re wrong. Jilk just blocked it off, so don’t worry about it and let’s move on.] When Jilk’s name was mentioned, Noel tilted her head.
“Jilk-san did? Why did he block it?”
To Noel, who was wondering, Ange had a cold face because she had a guess.
“He must have thought there was treasure there anyway, so he closed it off. He’s a coward scumbag, that’s why.” Livia agrees with her.
“He hasn’t changed since the first year, has he.” Noel follows two of them as they go ahead.
“Indeed, he’s a bit of a coward, but is he really that coward?”
When asked, Livia recounts Jilk’s misdeeds with a blank look on her face.
“He’s the kind of guy who would secretly plant a bomb in his opponent’s armor in a duel. There are many others, such as not meeting the woman he had broken off an engagement with.”
“Jilk-san, he is worse than I thought”
Noel has also seen Jilk in the Republic, which annoys Marie.
But it was even more unscrupulous than she thought, so she was surprised about it.
Ange also speaks of Jilk’s evaluation with a blank expression.
“All five of them are problem boys, but I’m sure that he is one piece of trash who is no laughing matter.”
And so, as soon as the topic of Jilk is over, the three come to the suspicious door.
But the door was open, allowing them to peek inside.
The underground dungeon was supposed to be dimly lit, but that room was the only one that glittered with gold.
The golden room itself is where the treasure was found, but the three were more surprised than pleased.
Ange shouts.
“Leon ?!”
When the three of them and Creare ran into the room, they found Leon fighting an enemy that appeared to be an undead monster.
An undead monster with a head like an animal skull and wearing black robes.
Big and long for its body, each hand was golden in color.
There is no lower body and it is floating in the air.
It would be about three meters in size.
It was flying around a very large room.
Leon noticed the arrival of Ange and her party and had a subtle, indescribable look on his face.
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