Chapter 212 - Discarded Pawns (1)

A man shouted into the silence.

“W-what do you mean we can't all go together?!”

His voice betrayed his fear that he might be abandoned by this cushy party.

“Let me explain.”

Deputy Commander Versil continued calmly.

“According to our Scout, Noark explorers are stationed in every passage connected to the Dark Region. They're preventing anyone from getting in or out.”

A force incomparably larger than anything we had encountered so far was stationed ahead.

At that, another man shouted.

“... So you're saying that from here on, breaking through will inevitably require sacrifices!”

The true meaning behind her statement that we couldn't all go together.

I had interpreted it much the same way.

But...

“In a sense, perhaps.”

The moment I heard that murmur, somehow both bitter and meaningful—

THUMP!

My heart began to pound ominously.

Deputy Commander Versil continued without wasting any time, dispensing with excuses and getting straight to the point.

“We're going to use mass teleportation magic.”

Mass Teleport.

An advanced specialized spell usable only by mages of grade four or higher from certain schools.

Now I understood why she'd said we couldn't all go together.

“...”

A silence even deeper than the one following her initial announcement weighed down on the gathering.

“B-Bjorn? If we teleport, can't we get there without fighting, nyah? Then why does everyone look so...”

The reason was simple.

“... Mass teleportation can only transport twenty people at most.”

As Raven, our resident mage, explained, Mass Teleport could carry a maximum of twenty people. There were thirty-five of us.

Which meant...

'Fifteen.'

Put simply, three whole teams would be abandoned, with the central safe zone right before our eyes.

“I-if you were going to abandon us at the end like this, why did you ask us to join forces?!”

Someone shouted in anger.

But Versil merely offered a brief apology, her expression unchanged.

“I'm sorry about that. We didn't know things would turn out this way either.”

Her voice was gentle, yet left no room for argument.

I quietly sighed.

There was no point trying to persuade someone like her. Whatever we said, she probably wouldn't change her decision.

“So how are you going to pick the fifteen who get left behind?”

Versil gave me an odd look at my question.

Apparently, a barbarian who remained calm even in this situation was unusual.

“Each team will draw lots.”

“Everyone except your team?”

“No. One other team will be exempt as well.”

As she spoke, Versil looked toward the team that had fought and cleared the way directly behind hers throughout the journey.

“My apologies. I've known the deputy commander for a long time.”

Their leader expressed his regrets without a trace of surprise, as though he had already known.

Right. So they'd arranged this beforehand.

Nothing strange about it. They were from a major clan too, after all.

Still...

'Fuck.'

A sudden headache hit me.

Only two teleport tickets remained, against three tickets to be left behind.

If we drew lots, we were now more likely to be abandoned.

Was it because everyone understood that?

“Take us with you.”

The expressions of all the remaining teams changed, turning utterly desperate.

“We'll pay five million... no, ten million Stones per person.”

Some offered money.

“We're a team under the Blue Barrier Clan. If you take us with you, our master will surely reward you handsomely...”

Some promised future rewards through their connections.

“W-we don't belong to a clan yet. And we happen to be all women. We operate on the fifth floor now, but we used to work on the sixth. I heard the La Ler Clan is recruiting after its recent losses...”

Some put themselves on the bargaining table.

Not a single person willingly stepped forward to draw lots.

Of course they didn't.

No one wanted to stake their one and only life on luck.

“Jandel.”

Mister Bear called to me gravely.

He probably meant that we should do something too.

But for now, I watched. I figured we could wait to see what Versil Gouland decided before making an offer.

“I'm sorry. Whatever the circumstances, I don't think it would be right to do things that way.”

“Th-then you mean...!”

“Yes. The remaining places will be decided fairly by drawing lots. Please understand my decision.”

With the sole exception of the team she'd already made a promise to, Versil stuck to the rules she'd laid out.

“Versil Gouland, deputy commander of the La Ler Clan. She's exactly as I'd heard.”

Raven murmured as though admiring her lofty principles, but I couldn't share the sentiment.

'She just didn't hear an offer tempting enough.'

If she were truly fair and impartial, she wouldn't have exempted that other team in the first place. Especially when it was obvious what awaited those left behind.

'Anyway, so it comes down to drawing lots...'

I wasn't sure if that was a good thing.

It wasn't as though I'd ever won one of these.

“We don't have much time, so let's begin.”

Versil prepared a pouch containing five stones, and the drawing was ready.

The rules were extremely simple. The two white stones were winners. Draw one of the three black stones, and you would be abandoned without exception.

“Which team would like to go first?”

“I will.”

The first to step forward was the team that had offered ten million Stones per person.

“To think my fate rests on some damned stone.”

A dwarf warrior in lavish equipment nervously reached into the pouch.

And...

“Ha, hahaha... I did it!!”

He succeeded on the first try.

Laughter blossomed among the dwarf's team, while the faces of the others darkened.

“Come over here. Now, who's next?”

Amid that contrast of joy and despair, no team stepped forward.

Only one winning ticket remained. The other three were tickets to hell.

“Mr. Jandel, we need to wait. Statistically, drawing now gives you a higher chance of picking a white stone.”

A twenty-five percent chance of winning.

A seventy-five percent chance of losing.

But as always, probabilities were meaningless.

“Whew. We'll just go first.”

As everyone hesitated, watching one another, one team stepped forward.

The all-female team.

“Aaaaaah!!!”

They drew the last white stone.

“...”

Goddamn it.

* * *

“That settles everything, then.”

Just two draws had determined the fates of all five teams. The remaining three hadn't even had a chance to entrust their fate to luck.

“Aaaaaaaah!!”

What had I been doing while that women's team drew the white stone?

Trying to decide which of Misha, Aynar, and Raven to have draw for us.

I genuinely hadn't expected it to end after just two draws.

'Does this even make sense?'

Just as that thought occurred to me, Versil conspicuously upended the pouch, spilling three black stones onto the ground.

As if to prove there had been no cheating.

“Everyone, gather round. We'll cast the spell as soon as preparations are complete.”

At Versil's words, the chosen ones quickly gathered together.

That was when it happened.

“W-wait!”

From one of the three teams left reeling, Lantern Jaw, the leader of Erwin's team, hurried toward them.

“P-please take us too! Please, we'll do anything!”

A groveling plea.

But she wasn't the sort of woman it would work on.

“All the places are already filled.”

At Versil's emotionless reply, Lantern Jaw redirected his pleas.

“Give me your place, and I'll pay ten million Stones! No, twenty million!”

Buying a place with money...

Now this was downright ugly.

He hadn't mentioned his teammates once. Didn't that mean he wanted to save himself, even if no one else survived?

“...”

Daria, his own teammate, frowned at him as though looking at a bug, but Lantern Jaw didn't stop.

Not content to call out from a distance, he approached them one by one, asking if they would accept his deal. Every last one turned him away.

“I-is there really no one?”

Would you do it, idiot?

It wasn't about the money. Selling their place meant being separated from their companions.

“If you're finished, would you step aside?”

“...”

At Versil's curt words, Lantern Jaw turned around listlessly and returned to his teammates.

That ended the little incident.

Versil's mage was drawing a magic circle on the ground to cast Mass Teleport.

“Bjorn...”

“We'll talk later.”

Leaving Misha's call unanswered, I approached the deputy commander.

“Versil Gouland.”

“Yes? What is it?”

Her voice was courteous, but otherwise devoid of emotion.

Neither sympathy nor curiosity.

Well, perhaps she thought I was going to grovel like Lantern Jaw.

I gave a faint chuckle and asked a question.

“Why did you put us in the middle of the formation, where it was safest?”

Versil tilted her head.

But perhaps she wasn't particularly interested in why I was asking. She simply gave me the answer I wanted.

“We drew lots. To make it fair.”

Right. Everything that bastard had said was bullshit.

As I'd suspected, Lantern Jaw wasn't the reason we'd been placed in the middle.

'Okay, so he's a sneaky little bastard. Confirmed.'

Like it or not, we'd be working with the three abandoned teams from now on. How I should treat Lantern Jaw was becoming clearer.

“Is that your only question?”

“No, one more.”

“Go ahead.”

“You said they're stationed in the passages, right? I'd like more details. What's their deployment like, and how strong are they?”

“... Are you planning to break through on your own?”

What, did she think we'd just die here?

“If necessary.”

Meeting these people had merely made the journey here easier for a while. That had been my destination from the start.

Nothing had changed.

“So, your answer?”

At my urging, Versil paused and stared at me.

“... You really are just like the rumors. All right. Jenia?”

“Yes, Deputy Commander.”

“Go tell him everything he wants to know.”

“Yes.”

Versil sent over her team's Scout, and I listened as the woman gave me a general rundown of the surrounding area.

Had about five minutes passed?

“Jenia, come here.”

All preparations for the spell were complete. Deputy Commander Versil looked at us and left with just one final remark.

“I hope you won't hold this against us.”

From now on, we'd have to make our way through this on our own.

Well, that was hardly anything new.

* * *

“... They really left.”

With more than half our number gone, the space they left behind felt all the greater.

But that only made me focus harder on one thing.

What did I need to do now?

Well, it certainly wasn't waste precious time dwelling on my dismay.

“Mr. Jandel, what will you do now?”

“Give me a moment to think.”

There were two options.

Break through the route Versil had abandoned and head for our original destination in the center.

Or turn back and look elsewhere.

The latter wasn't a bad option either.

'We can hold out if we stay on the outskirts.'

War was raging in the center, while Noark's strongest fighters blocked the routes at the outermost edge.

The outskirts, in contrast, would have relatively few people. They covered a wide area too. If we kept out of sight and avoided others, we ought to be able to hold out somehow.

But...

'We won't know how things are unfolding.'

That was the biggest drawback.

In this chaos, circumstances changed by the second. If we just hid, we wouldn't be able to gather information about how the situation was developing.

And besides...

'The Floor lord appears on the third day.'

We couldn't defeat the first-floor Floor lord by ourselves. If it was summoned while we were hunkering down, we'd definitely be wiped out.

“First, we'll have to assess our strength.”

“What?”

“Could everyone gather round?”

I held off on making a decision and gathered the other two teams who shared our predicament.

Then I got straight to the point.

“Take turns telling me your explorer rank, the Essences you've absorbed, and your specialties.”

“You want us to reveal all our cards?”

“Does that matter right now? Given the situation, we need to work together.”

“You talk as though you're already in charge.”

Lantern Jaw scowled at my suggestion.

Though not to the same extent, the others didn't look pleased that I was naturally speaking like their leader either.

What a pain.

“Does it matter who's in charge? What kind of fucking idiot worries about that at a time like this?”

“... Wh-what? What the hell are you—”

“If it matters that much to you, let's pick a leader first. What, shall we vote?”

I smoothly steered the discussion toward a vote.

After all, Erwin was here.

With her vote from another team, I figured there was no way I could lose.

But things took a slightly unexpected turn.

“I don't think we need to go as far as holding a vote.”

“...?”

“If we did vote, our team would vote for you.”

It was the leader of the remaining team.

“Together with your own team, that's already ten votes. No need to waste time, is there?”

Huh. So this was how it was going to go?

Honestly, I was a little taken aback.

Apparently Lantern Jaw felt the same, because he kindly asked why before I could.

“... What are you talking about? You want a barbarian as our leader? Are you out of your mind?”

“For one thing, I have no talent for leading people.”

“Then obviously, instead of the barbarian, you should choose—”

“Between the two of you, I find him far more reliable.”

I thought I understood his reasoning.

He probably considered me better than Lantern Jaw, who had tried to abandon his team to save his own skin.

Though, as it turned out, he had another reason too.

“Above all, while everyone else was busy denying reality, this man was the only one asking that woman for information.”

... This was a little embarrassing.

“Your name?”

“Takellan Arbenon.”

“I'm Bjorn, son of Jandel.”

After exchanging those perfunctory introductions with Takellan, I returned to the original subject.

“Anyway, that's settled. Now, take turns telling me your explorer rank, the Essences you've absorbed, and your specialties. I need to know before deciding what we should—”

“Hold on. Who said anything was settled?”

Ha. This bastard just wouldn't quit.

“Got a problem?”

“Of course I—”

“Then fuck off. Our two teams can travel together without you.”

Unwilling to waste any more time, I cut him off and spoke firmly.

“... Damn it.”

Lantern Jaw merely clenched his fists in frustration and stayed beside us.

Well, where else could he go right now?

I chuckled and told him,

“Interrupt me or disobey my orders one more time, and you're done. Understood?”

“...”

“Answer me.”

“... Understood.”

Okay, that settled the pecking order.

After that, I quickly finished what I'd originally set out to do: finding out everyone's role and Essences.

'Hmm. This is a little iffy.'

Even with a rough idea of our strength, my dilemma only deepened.

I still wasn't convinced, I suppose.

So I made one additional check.

“Let's introduce ourselves. We need to be able to call each other in an emergency.”

With that excuse, I heard every person's name, one by one.

Honestly, remembering them all would be difficult...

'Still, there's no Hans.'

Fortunately, there wasn't a Hans among them.

That was a fairly positive sign.

It meant our chances had improved a little, whatever decision we ultimately made.

“What do we do now?”

At Raven's question, fourteen pairs of eyes turned toward me.

It was time to make a decision.

I pushed aside my doubts about my choice and spoke.

“We're heading to the safe zone.”

“What do you think our chances are?”

I answered Takellan's question with nothing more than a sour smile.

We had just seen how meaningless probabilities could be...

But one thing was certain.

Even if we succeeded, not everyone would survive.

'Will about half of us die?'

To reach the place others had crossed into with a single easy spell, we would have to risk our lives.