Chapter 196 - Decision

Meanwhile, the Flint Expedition was in a state of emergency as they worked to rescue Ferda.

They could not leisurely search the room with the magical tools or anything like that.

As the expedition's captain, Erica returned to the entrance they had made their base and directed the other adventurers.

"Did you find anything?"

The adventurers answered her question.

"The left side seems to have been used as dormitories, so there was nothing of note."

"We did find quite a few magical tools on the right side, but they were unrelated items..."

The right and left sides had both been a bust.

All that remained was the front group she had led.

"Damn it, why did they have to get caught in a trap like that of all things..."

"What can we do..."

It was not as though they could curse them for being careless.

After all, things like this were common when living as an adventurer, and even the experienced adventurers had pulled back first.

She tried to find some clue with the Eastern characters she had hastily learned, but all she found were useless things.

All she had learned was that the study they had entered was called the Room of Nourishment, and the room beneath it was called the Yin-Yang Room.

'Just from the names, it sounds like a room used for training...'

But the problem was why such a training room had closed by itself.

Surely Ferda would not recklessly place a restriction on himself in this mad place, saying he was going to train?

"... No, is that possible?"

Because he was such an extraordinary human, she thought perhaps he really might.

In any case, Erica only hoped they could rescue him safely.

"Captain Eri!"

Adventurers came running from the front in a fluster.

"I think we found it!"

Her heart lurched.

She suppressed her expectations as much as possible and calmly examined what they had brought.

But what appeared from the very first page was a floor plan.

And it was a floor plan of this Gyeonghui Palace.

"Where did you find this?!"

"It seems we entered the palace lord's room, and when we started opening every book in there at random, this book came out!"

"He was the palace lord who had to oversee everything, so of course it would have been there."

A map was an adventurer's eyes, and this was like clairvoyance that could see through everything.

Erica roughly flipped through the book and searched for content on the Room of Nourishment and the Yin-Yang Room.

"Here it is. Since ancient times, Gyeonghui Palace borrowed the power known as love, and in order to cultivate that love, it placed great importance on nurturing emotions in the Room of Nourishment."

"They used love to perform magic?"

"What is this, a hero play for children? Is that even possible?"

"Why not? People with Red Circles rotate their Circles with emotions, don't they?"

"It's always the ones who only half-know things who talk like that, tsk tsk."

"Cut the side chatter. I'm going to interpret this."

Erica shut down those who were about to argue and continued interpreting.

"At times, even when a man and woman have feelings for one another, they cannot easily... blah blah, an act that goes against the spirit of the first palace lord of Gyeonghui Palace. Establishment of the Yin-Yang Room... Oh, I think I found it."

"What does it say we have to do?"

"It says it will automatically open again within 12 hours."

"12 hours?"

"Then isn't that cutting it close, within the safe range?"

"Considering the time it takes to return, yes, but let's read a little more... Ah, there's more. A way to get out faster is... huh?"

Erica frowned.

"Wait, this word... Is this not how it's interpreted?"

"What is it?"

"So this is... right..."

Erica pressed her fingers to her brow and grimaced.

She interpreted it over and over again, but the meaning was clear.

"... They can't leave unless they share affection?"

"What?"

An uncomfortable silence passed.

"If it says affection..."

"I think it means... that?"

What kind of affection would adults share?

Everyone knew, but no one mentioned it.

"Wait..."

That embarrassment lasted only a moment.

"Then, for them to safely get out of that room, that armor knight and Regent Ferda have to..."

"Make... love?"

Armor standing about two meters tall, and Ferda, a relatively slender man.

The image would not come to mind.

"So... to share that love, they would have to—"

"Ahem!"

"Quiet!"

No, when they tried to picture it, only something horrifying and filthy came to mind.

But there was something even more painful.

Someone had to tell them this fact.

Just as their bonds as comrades-in-arms were beginning to deepen.

A brutal battle of reading the room began among them.

In that situation, Erica calmly pointed to one person.

"... Mr. Rize?"

"Yes, Captain?"

"How about you deliver the message, Mr. Rize?"

"M-Me??"

"If you could go and tell them that if they share affection with each other... um... quickly and get it over with, it will be fine..."

"Th-That, no, that is... M-Me????"

Erica calmly told him what needed to be done, and Rize repeated the same words with both hands clasped tightly.

He was not comfortable with the fact that he had to say such a thing when Ferda had a partner.

And in this situation, no one was comfortable with it.

"Huh?"

Virgil, who had been looking around, discovered something and spoke up.

"T-That... That's the armor knight!"

"... What?"

"That can't be."

Everyone looked as though they could not believe it.

If they had broken the door to escape, the entire building should surely have shaken.

Because they were at a depth where they could have been buried alive if things went wrong, even in a cornered situation, there was no way Ferda would have allowed such a reckless act.

Then who was the armor knight coming over there?

But soon, everyone could confirm what the archer had seen.

Just as he had said, the armor knight was coming out.

The armor knight was carrying the exhausted Ferda on her back and walking toward them while carrying the books he had gathered wrapped in a cloth bundle.

Perhaps the armor knight had seen them too, because she raised her hand awkwardly in greeting.

The two's return did not lead to relief, but to a shudder.

"Mmm..."

Ferda woke on the armor knight's back.

The armor on her back was uncomfortable, but he could not ask to be put down right away.

'My body won't move properly...'

The exhaustion filling his whole body gave Ferda no choice.

What a rotten body.

Ferda carefully checked the state of his body.

In his dantian, he could clearly feel a heavy sensation he had not been able to feel before.

'The Shadow Circle is at the second stage.'

It was something made not by Ferda's will, but by another's.

It tried to erode Ferda.

It was a situation where he should have had no choice but to die, but that was not necessarily the case.

'I've reached the 5th Circle.'

It was the stage called Master Mage, a realm that ordinary talents could not reach even through blood-soaked effort.

'I completed two Circles in a single day...'

It was so absurd that no one would believe it.

Even if he spoke to his past self who had reached the 8th Circle, that self would ask how such a thing was possible.

Of course, Ferda's answer was already decided.

'Eleanor.'

Though she was only an illusion, with her help, Ferda had been able to push away that Shadow Circle.

Ferda quietly kept his eyes open while being carried on her back.

Erica, who had been walking in step beside them, glanced at Ferda and was startled.

"Oh? You're awake?"

"Yes."

She wore an extremely troubled expression.

"Captain Eri, did you rescue us?"

"..."

"Captain Eri?"

"Yes?"

"I asked if you rescued us."

After hearing that, Erica cautiously looked around and asked him this.

"Do you perhaps not know what happened?"

"I don't. I was not in my right mind."

"When we tried to rescue you... it seemed the armor knight found some method."

"Surely she didn't break a wall or anything—"

"It was not that."

"Is that so?"

"She did break something..."

"?"

"It's nothing."

Erica shut her mouth.

Her face was heavy, like someone who had suffered an attack from Trauma.

'Why are they acting like that?'

He could not understand it at all.

When he turned his head and met the eyes of the others, their reactions were similar to hers.

Some looked at him with pity.

Some looked at him as if they had witnessed a being of terror.

And some seemed not to know much, but in any case, looked relieved that he was all right.

Looking at those eyes, Ferda became certain of one thing.

'It seems they went through a rough journey while I was unconscious.'

Ferda decided to think of it that way and moved on to another topic.

"When will we arrive?"

"We can arrive if we go for just one more hour. The exploration time... might end at 22 hours..."

Erica's words trailed off.

The armor knight's steps stopped, and the others' steps stopped after hers.

Ferda turned his head and looked at Erica.

She gave a stop sign with a hand signal.

"What is it?"

Her eyes were fixed on one place.

She was a woman who always kept her guard up in the Land of Demons, but now it was different.

She looked as though she had discovered a true formidable enemy.

"Put me down for a moment."

Nod.

The armor knight put him down, and Ferda carefully stood on both feet.

He had no strength, but he could barely stand.

He could see what Erica was looking at.

And he understood why she wore that expression.

"You are..."

A black robe that suited this black and gray land.

White skin that seemed to shine all the more because of it.

That contrasting appearance led to a sense of dissonance, and that dissonance led to wariness.

'Gokma.'

He had been one of Godwin's seven baleful stars and the last remaining Noblesse-class Demon.

"It is a pleasure to meet you. Members of the expedition, and Captain Eri. We have met before, have we not?"

"... We have."

Erica had not forgotten the humiliation she had suffered at his hands.

Furthermore, the fact that he deliberately said that despite knowing she was an Iorga spawn irritated her even more.

Excitement was poison to a mage.

She asked calmly.

"Why are you here?"

"Why am I here, you ask? What is so strange about a Demon being in the Land of Demons?"

He let out an unpleasant laugh and took one step forward.

"What the hell are you? Piss off right now."

When the combative Jonathan Sina lifted his axe and tried to step forward, Erica blocked his path.

Her eyes said this.

Not now.

Gokma applauded that action.

"An excellent choice. I had no desire to see blood separately either. I want to applaud you all in your exhaustion, not become a new trial for you."

"Then disappear quietly."

"I would like to, but first, I want to hear your impressions. What did you think? Of my work."

Work.

Everyone could tell what that work was.

"Was Trauma yours?"

"Trauma... That is a decent name. Naming things has never been my style, you see. Thanks to you, I have gained a good name. I shall call it Trauma from now on."

Erica frowned.

"It was nothing but a crude trick. Did you think you could accomplish something with that?"

"I will be able to. You all possess a 'wonderful' mental strength capable of overcoming any trial, but what do you think ordinary humans will be like?"

"Other humans..."

She knew what kind of illusion Trauma brought.

It made one suffer from the thing they regretted most.

And if exposed to it for a long time, that pain led to salvation.

That act was not simply to make people suffer.

'There is another purpose.'

He already knew they would go to Gyeonghui Palace, and he had laid Trauma along the route they could take.

If he had intended to fight, he could have waited at Gyeonghui Palace.

'But he did not.'

For what reason?

The Land of Demons was the Demons' last homeland.

It should have been the instinct of dragon spawns to be unable to tolerate seeing those who would defile that homeland.

Demons were unusual individuals, but he was one of the dragon spawns, so that instinct should remain in him.

He had a clear purpose, enough that he did not care about defiling his own home.

"Well, judging by your expressions, it seems Trauma turned out to be a truly wonderful work. Though it appears it will need a little more refinement."

Gokma sneered, and the adventurers protested by readying themselves for battle.

"Then I shall see you again later."

Gokma took one step back and drew a vertical line.

Along his finger, space split open, and dizzying colors shimmered like heat haze within it.

Gokma threw his body into it.

"Ah, right."

Just as he was about to step forward, he turned back as though he had forgotten something.

"This is a small gift."

He spread space wide with his fingers.

It was a size on a completely different level from the space he had created to leave.

The rift looked to be at least eight meters long.

RUMBLE...

However, as if even that space were insufficient, the thing thrashed, tore through space, and burst out.

Of course it was insufficient.

It was an enormous demonic creature that stood a full ten meters tall.

ROOOOAAAR!!

A roar that spread a shockwave.

That roar engraved despair into the cells of their bodies.

"C-Captain Eri...!"

"What should we do...!"

Because they had stayed up all night and run to finish in a single day, their bodies and minds were exhausted.

Because it was a despairing moment, they needed her judgment.

'Just when I thought it would end smoothly...'

Erica had to make a decision.

If she revealed her identity and fought, she would surely be able to take down that demonic creature.

Her double life would be over, but everyone would survive.

Just as she was about to make her decision, someone stood in front of them.

"Armor knight?"

A huge man in ordinary-looking armor.

Now, when everyone, including herself, could not take even one step, he strode forward confidently.

The person inside that armor had seen that demonic creature more than anyone else.

So she was not afraid.

What she feared was losing the people precious to her.

'I must not hesitate here.'

Because it was something no one else could handle, she had to handle it herself.

Valdrova made her decision.

She quietly clenched her fist.

CRUNCH...

The gauntlet that nothing had ever been able to pierce screamed as though it would shatter at any moment.

'Without hesitation...'

She would sweep it away in one blow.

It was just as that fist was turning toward the enormous demonic creature.

RUMBLE...

What broke Valdrova's concentration was the sudden sound of thunder.

The Land of Demons was a land where everything was dead.

Thunder should have been impossible.

Chunks of information too difficult to process rammed themselves into Erica's head.

Before she could understand everything, her instincts screamed.

"Everyone, get down!"

At Erica's instruction, everyone crouched down.

At the same time, something enormous fell in front of the enormous demonic creature.

CRACKLE!!!

A massive lightning strike that turned the world white for an instant.

BOOOOM!!!

And a great wave created by a tremendous weight slamming down.

The bodies of those who had fallen flat rose about two meters into the air.

"Cough, cough..."

"Is everyone all right?"

The aftermath had been large, but no one had lost their life.

"What was that lightning?"

"Could the armor knight possibly have this kind of ability...?"

But Valdrova, the armor knight, merely stood there as if she had no idea either.

Her power came from her fists, not from falling out of the sky.

'This lightning is...'

Valdrova felt a sense of familiarity.

Having lived for so long, she knew it well.

There was only one being who could bring down lightning of this scale and sweep everything away.

They lifted their eyes and looked at the place where the enormous demonic creature had been.

In the place where grayish-brown dust scattered, a silhouette of similar size had taken its place.

It revealed itself with a hearty laugh.

—Hahahaha!! Where do you think a small fry like that is crawling around!?

It was the Thunder Dragon, Storeus.