༺ First Ordeal (2) ༻
“…You expected me to believe that?”
Such words came out of Lucia’s mouth, her face was decorated with a deep frown.
“I’ll repeat my question again. So, Yuria, you’re trying to enter the Selection Exam? And the reason for that is because you want to observe the selection process closely with a friend of yours?”
“Yes, Unnie.”
“Are you telling me you have a friend? Rather, are you telling me that Lady Tristan herself is your friend?”
“…”
“Stop joking around! You’d think I’d just believe that?”
“…C-Can you be a little more gentle when you’re hitting me…?”
Of course, it was a bit of a stretch for Yuria to call Lady Tristan her friend.
It was to the point that Lucia wondered if she was the same younger sister she knew.
Yuria’s heart tingled.
“…Honestly, what I’ve told you was just a secondary reason…”
She sighed before continuing her words.
“The real reason is because of Mr. Dowd, Unnie…”
After hearing that sentence, Lucia, who had been folding her arms, looking at her sister with a sullen look, lost control of her expression.
“…Because of Mr. Dowd?”
“Yes. According to the Student Council President, Mr. Dowd is definitely going to get swept into something during the selection process.”
“…”
Lucia bit her lip slightly and turned to look at Eleanor.
The other person was staring intently in the direction of the artificial dungeon that the Hero Candidates had just jumped into.
As if she could feel that there was something wrong inside.
“…Is there any evidence?”
“The Student Council President was the one who said it, there’s no way she’d do it for no reason…also…”
There wasn’t any further information provided, but…
If it was evidence, then there was extremely convincing evidence right here.
“It’s Mr. Dowd we’re talking about…it’s a given that he’ll get attacked by a woman in some place again…”
“…”
“You know it too, right, Unnie…? When it comes to women, he—”
“…Yes, yes, that’s a very convincing point, but still…”
Lucia spoke, placing her hand on her waist.
“…If an outsider were to participate in the selection recklessly, chaos would—”
“Unnie, let me go.”
Yuria cut off Lucia’s words.
Her tone was firm, and so was her will, completely unlike what she was usually like. Seeing this made Lucia unable to bring herself to rebuke her.
“I don’t want to go through what happened last time again.”
“Yuria.”
“…What if something happens to him…?”
“…”
A certain scene came to her mind.
Back when that idiot continued to worry about her and Yuria, even though he himself was dying…
And she could still remember how useless she was back then, unable to do anything but watch him…
The guilt she felt at that time still clung to Lucia’s heart like sticky soot.
Just as Yuria said, there was no limit to how weak she was to the circumstances of that man’s ‘well-being’.
“Please, Unnie. Let me go in.”
“…”
“I won’t cause any trouble. Please…”
“…Uggggggghhh…”
Letting out a frustrated groan while scratching her hair, Lucia eventually replied in a deflated voice.
“…I can’t let you enter the dungeon, but I’ll try to arrange it so you can get as close as possible to it.”
“You’re the best, Unnie!”
Seeing Yuria give her a thumbs up, Lucia sighed with a sense of self-loathing.
“By the way, what have you been looking at since a while ago?”
“…”
Despite her sister asking that question, Yuria remained completely still.
During their conversation, Yuria’s gaze was completely fixed on Dowd’s photo that was given by Eleanor.
To be more precise, she was gawking at his face.
“…Because I was thinking, ‘So that’s how Mr. Dowd looks like’.”
“Mm?”
“I mean, he always covered his face in front of me.”
Lucia tilted her head.
‘Huh? She’s right…he did that…’
‘Whenever Yuria is around, he always wears a mask…’
“Did he ever tell you why he goes around like that?”
“…No… He never talked to me about it…”
After saying that, Yuria paused for a moment before continuing.
“Come to think of it… He must have always taken it off whenever I’m not around, right…?”
“Maybe…?”
‘It would be strange if he kept wearing it.’
As Lucia was pondering this, Yuria murmured again in a low voice.
“I’m a bit sad.”
And then…
“[I also want to see his face directly.]”
As soon as such a sentence flowed out…
Lucia instinctively took a step back in spite of herself.
‘…Just now…’
‘Something’ was mixed in Yuria’s voice.
Something sinister enough to momentarily send shivers down her entire body.
“What’s wrong? Is there something nearby?”
The person in question didn’t even seem to realize she had let such a thing flow out and was just looking around, puzzled.
Seeing that, Lucia took a deep breath and rubbed her chest.
“…N-No. It’s nothing.”
‘Am I mistaken?’
‘I thought I felt something, but… Yuria is acting like her usual self…’
“…”
‘But, just now… It’s definitely—’
“Anyway, I’ll leave it to you, Unnie!”
Before Lucia could even finish her thoughts, Yuria was already running towards where Eleanor was.
Unaware of Lucia’s worried gaze behind her, Yuria soon stood near Eleanor, tip-toeing slightly to peek at her expression.
“I’ve got permission, President! We can’t get inside the course directly, but as if it’s only the vicinity—”
Yuria abruptly stopped her sentence.
Because it was clear that Eleanor didn’t seem to hear her words at all.
“What are you looking at so intently, President?”
“…”
But, her question was only met with silence, as if Eleanor hadn’t noticed that she approached her.
Her gaze was locked somewhere, as if captivated by something. Previously, she had been looking toward the direction of the dungeon, but at one point, she shifted her gaze elsewhere.
And so, Yuria followed Eleanor’s gaze.
Though the selection was underway and the vicinity was packed with spectators…
Her gaze…
Was fixed on ‘someone’ in the middle of the crowd.
And Yuria, fairly confident in her own eyesight, quickly followed to see who exactly was there at the end of Eleanor’s gaze.
There was a bodyguard with a huge sword behind their back, and in front of such a figure, stood a woman.
Her body, including her face, was almost entirely wrapped up so it was hard to tell who she was, but the contours of her body and various other aspects made it clear that she was a woman.
Though she was quickly obscured by the crowd…
“…Your Majesty?”
Such words spilled out of Eleanor’s mouth in a daze.
“…Sorry?”
Yuria, too, responded in a dazed voice.
‘Your Majesty’…
There was only one person that could be addressed in that way.
The current Empress of the Empire, Cecilia the 11th.
One of the two most powerful figures of the Empire, along with Chancellor Sullivan.
It had been said that she was participating in this selection as the ‘host’.
However, if it was the Empress, shouldn’t she be sitting in the best facility and waiting under tight security?
There shouldn’t be a need for her to be in the middle of such a crowd, though…?
“Are you sure you weren’t just seeing things…?”
At Yuria’s question, Eleanor clamped her mouth shut.
“…No, it is nothing. There is no way that is the case.”
It was as if she was trying to deny what she had just seen.
“Um…?”
“It’s nothing.”
Eleanor said in a brusque voice. She readjusted the position of her sword.
“…”
However, the ‘ripple’ inside her heart was still ongoing.
What she had ‘felt’ just a moment ago was still vividly etched inside her very nerves.
‘…I felt it.’
Though it was only for a very brief moment…
Within that crowd…
She could feel that someone who looked exactly like the Empress she knew…
Carried something ‘identical’ to what she harbored within her body.
To be more precise, she could smell ‘it’.
Because ‘it’ had the same scent.
“…”
She shook her head in denial.
The Empress, along with Beatrix, was one of the few people she could completely trust.
And now she was having such absurd thoughts towards someone whom she had known for years? They had been close ever since the other person was merely an Imperial Princess.
“…Let us go. It is a waste of time to dwell on such absurd notions.”
Eleanor spoke, feigning her composure.
All while desperately reassuring herself that her assumption was completely wrong.
“…Won’t we be late if we don’t hurry up and go, Teach?”
“No. This pace is just right.”
I ignored Iliya’s urging from the side and continued to walk slowly through the dark tunnel.
At a veritably yawning pace.
“…Hmph…”
Iliya breathed out of her nose, as if to express her discontent, but instead of arguing further, she just matched my pace.
“Well, there’s always a reason why you’re doing something like this…”
It seemed her dissatisfaction had piled up to a fairly considerable degree. After all, she even started pouting her lips.
But regardless of whatever she did, my walking speed remained the same. Slow, like an elderly taking a leisurely walk in a dungeon.
[…What are you even trying to do?]
At the sound of Caliban’s voice, I glanced at Soul Linker.
‘What?’
[What’s with this snail’s pace?]
‘Don’t forget our objective, Caliban.’
I replied in a serious tone.
Just as what he was trying to say, other candidates must be grinding their teeth, trying to advance as quickly as possible. That was how one would get a high score in the ordeal, after all.
That was why, I understood their impatience, but…
‘Our goal is to piss off the other punks by taking shitty actions.’
[…]
‘After all, Iliya needs to be strengthened.’
Caliban closed his mouth as if to express his incredulity.
Either way, the Hero Candidate was not me, but Iliya. It was Iliya who needed to stand out in this entire selection process, not me.
And to utilize that, we needed to proceed through this dungeon slowly.
‘The other candidates can’t just easily break through anyway. Everything is going according to plan.’
Though I had explored a mock dungeon with Iliya before, compared to this one, that one was merely a joke.
Compared to other contents of the game, this artificial dungeon section was one of the toughest sections. Even a sweat like me needed to be careful, as a single misstep could easily inflate the clear time by several folds.
The ‘combat difficulty’ wasn’t so high that it touched the sky, but it was the sheer number of crazy gimmicks, as if someone had condensed all of mankind’s malice into them, that made it so challenging.
When recalling how I navigated through the dungeon in the game, it still pissed me off. After all, it was a bundle of various malicious traps and shitty mazes that made me wonder if they were even made by the same motherfucker. It was the perfect content for raising one’s blood pressure.
Traps capable of killing you in one hit in areas without a single iota of light, beasts ambushing you from all directions, limited visibility, and treacherous terrains that could cause your death just from a single misstep.
Of course, I understood that the ‘Hero’ Selection should be as challenging as its namesake, but even for a game, putting students through such a level of difficulty seemed beyond any sane level of comprehension. That was how hell-like it was.
Especially since…
The final boss that appeared in the ‘deepest part’ was the very epitome of such malice.
I could guarantee one thing; it was useless to rush ahead. They had to defeat that boss to clear the dungeon anyway, and without the right ‘conditions’, none of the candidates would be able to achieve that.
And in that regard…
My current actions were crucial to such progress.
“…Teach?”
“Mm.”
“What are you doing right now…?”
“Resting.”
“…”
Iliya looked at me in utter disbelief, but instead of responding, I simply sat down on the ground.
“There’s someone we need to meet here.”
“…What?”
Now even Iliya was following her brother’s footsteps, responding with an incredulous voice.
She spoke from the perspective of someone who needed to break through the dungeon as quickly as possible. Though I could practically hear the unspoken curses, asking me what the fuck I was doing…
“You haven’t met any of the other Hero Candidates yet, Right?”
“…Well, I guess…so? But what about that…?”
Even in the original game, Hero Candidates were strictly prohibited from exchanging information with each other before entering the ‘ordeal’.
This was done to limit them from sharing information with each other as much as possible, thus aiming for true equity. Given the significant advantages tied to the position of a Hero, it prevented potential underhanded deals and mutual acts of sabotage against a specific person.
But still, under normal circumstances, the candidates would at least get to see each other and experience various events during the opening ceremony. It wasn’t like now, where they didn’t even know who the others were.
“Let’s try meeting one of them.”
In that regard…
“Each and every one of the Hero Candidates are quite interesting, you see.”
There was someone Iliya needed to be ‘introduced’ to.
With that, I checked the time while sitting on the ground.
My slow pace up until now was all about matching the right time.
Let’s see.
Considering her ‘behavior pattern’, that punk should be passing by around—
“WAAAAAAAAH-!”
—Right on time.
I smiled at the scream coming from behind us.
“What is up with this dungeon?! I’ve already died six times-!”
The voice was boisterous enough to echo throughout the entire dungeon.
In fact, enough to even make Iliya turn around with a reluctant expression.
“…Already did what six times?”
Of course, it seemed like she found the contents itself utterly absurd, though.
I stood up with a chuckle.
“Right on time, huh.”
“…Do the two of you know each other?”
“Yep.”
I continued with a smirk.
“She’s your little sister.”
“…Excuse me?”
Of course, not in a biological sense.
It’s more of a ‘nickname’ given by users.
Lana Rei Delvium.
The top student of the 1st-Years at the ‘Great Temple’, the academy of the Holy Land.
The protagonist of the DLC, ‘Holy Land Crusade’, a Side Story of Savior Rising.
One of the strongest ‘tankers’ in this worldview.
One of the indispensable pieces needed to clear this dungeon.
And…
‘Here comes the prey. Welcome~’
‘Scapegoat’ No. 1 of the dogshit behavior I would relentlessly display.
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