Chapter 132
Chapter: 132
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>Translator: penny
>Chapter: 132
>Chapter Title: Labyrinth (1)
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Ricardo threw on his overcoat and hurried out of the mansion.
He had no time to spare now.
"Young master? The gathering is still in full swing—where are you going?"
The old butler who spotted him came running in alarm, but Ricardo didn't even glance back as he replied.
"Something urgent came up. I'll be stepping out for a bit."
"Pardon? But what about the guests...?"
"Ask my brother Domenico to wrap things up appropriately!"
"That's..."
The flustered butler opened and closed his mouth, but Ricardo had no time to dawdle. His mind was so urgent that he nearly cursed out loud without realizing it.
Damn you, Sigurd Sigurson!
No matter how provocatively threatening Prince Mores had been, how was he supposed to handle suddenly pulling off something this massive and leaving Ricardo behind?
He didn't even have time to grab travel money. How long would it take for the Holy Emperor to notice the anomaly and reach here?
'First, get a carriage and flee the capital as fast as possible. Then head to the nearest Hayden Bank in the morning to withdraw cash!'
Ricardo quickened his pace toward the back gate. There, the Scarfino family carriage he had arrived in from the main house would be waiting, ready to depart at any moment.
'Once I'm out of the capital, the Holy Emperor's surveillance will loosen up. Through Asain to Carthage? No, better yet, one of the deep rural estates in Anatolia...'
That was when it happened.
Someone suddenly grabbed him by the scruff of the neck from behind and slammed him hard to the ground.
"......!"
Whoosh—his body lifted into the air, and with the weight bearing down from above, Ricardo crashed back-first onto the floor.
Boom!
"Urk!"
Without any proper falling technique, the impact sent a sharp pain through him as if his spine had shattered. As he swallowed a groan amid the stinging pain, he felt someone seize his collar. Squinting, he looked up.
The one who had pinned him to the ground was a holy knight.
A tall woman in the dark gray uniform of the Saint Terbakia Knight Order. Raven-black hair cascaded over her pale face like a crow's feathers.
"...Exorcist?"
Where had an exorcist come from so suddenly?
As he looked up at her in confusion, the woman smirked chillingly, lifting one corner of her mouth.
And then.
[Come now, speak.]
A voice rang in his head, gender ambiguous, burrowing into his mind.
[Where did that one send my son?]
"Y-You...!"
The night had already darkened.
In the woman's eyes flickered a cool silver glow, brighter than the moon in the sky.
* * *
Seongjin had never been one to believe in superstitions.
That was why he couldn't understand his fellow hunters who freaked out over accidentally stepping on a coin before battle or divined the success of operations based on their underwear color that day.
Take one of his college juniors who was a hunter, for example.
The guy had this habit of staring at monsters with his left eye right before combat to feel satisfied—even though his left eye was weaker than his right!
How irrational and superstitious was that conditioned behavior he couldn't shake off?
-Hey, you idiot! How the hell does using your bad eye help you kill monsters?
Seongjin never hesitated to smack the back of his head hard whenever he did it.
'Looking back now, maybe I was the one being too narrow-minded...'
Lying on the damp floor, Seongjin thought that for a moment.
At this point, maybe it was fair to believe he had a jinx: attending social gatherings always brought disaster.
Yes, something like "The Curse of Social Gatherings" would fit perfectly.
[Seongjin, you okay?]
'...Yeah.'
At the Demon King's voice, Seongjin blinked and pushed himself up. Since he could feel his limbs properly, it didn't seem like his soul had been flung somewhere like before.
He stroked the handle of the Nutcracker at his waist once, then slowly looked around.
'Where the hell is this?'
Seongjin was in a dark corridor-like space.
A wide passage that could fit four grown men side by side, but so pitch-black it was hard to tell where it led.
The floor was damp stone, slick with moisture, and the walls were smooth masonry. There seemed to be some carvings, but the extreme darkness and thick moss made it impossible to make out.
-I am the Dream Demon King.
After Ricardo's sudden attitude shift and those words.
He'd been swept up by a swarm of blue butterflies from somewhere and whooshed away to this mess. Thinking of where he'd been, the only place he could have fallen was the banquet hall below—but.
'...No way this is the banquet hall.'
[It might be an entirely different world, Seongjin. I can feel the laws of a massive constructed realm dominating this place.]
The Demon King said cautiously.
Well, considering Dileria's butterflies were dimension-traveling monsters, it wasn't impossible that being swept up had flung Seongjin to another world.
Either way, one thing was certain.
'Sigurd Sigurson, you coward...!'
He didn't know what trick he'd pulled, but the moment he sensed the situation turning against him, he'd hurled Seongjin somewhere and bolted!
[Why couldn't you control your temper and provoke him? You should've slipped away and told your father, or sweet-talked him for info.]
The Demon King scolded, but Seongjin shook his head.
'You think he'd have let me go easily? He'd already set up that barrier.'
That was probably the reason for the unease Seongjin had felt multiple times during their conversation.
'The second he realized I wasn't the old Mores, he was preparing for this. You think a guy like that would spill info just because I asked nicely?'
[...Fair point, but.]
On top of that, Seongjin had been feeling something odd for a while.
-The previous Oracle met a terribly lonely and miserable end. And this generation's Oracle was fated for the same.
The moment he heard that, something surged up inside him inexplicably. Blaming everything on that guy, he suddenly wanted to punch him so bad his fist clenched on its own.
What the hell had come over him then?
Seongjin scratched his head, puzzled for a moment.
[Anyway, what now? If this really is another world, we might not be able to get back to Delcros.]
'Hmm...'
Who knew. Honestly, he wasn't too worried.
He'd scout around for an exit, and if worst came to worst, summon the Holy Emperor.
The guy had chased Seongjin all the way to Sigurd's 34th District and even the distant dimensional border. He'd find him this time too, right?
Sure, he'd probably get a knuckle sandwich for it.
'Let's head one way for now.'
Deciding that, Seongjin drew the Nutcracker and carved a large X into the stone wall.
Scraaaape. Stone dust flew as a faint groove formed.
'Good. This is the starting point.'
Then Seongjin glanced left and right down the corridor, pondering his direction. Both sides were shrouded in thick darkness, hard to gauge.
'...Right.'
Call it intuition, but he faintly sensed a human presence far down the right corridor.
Without hesitation, he added a small arrow next to the X indicating the direction. Then he turned and trudged toward the presence.
'......'
For a while after, the Demon King and Seongjin walked in silence, lost in their thoughts.
They'd been caught off guard by the sudden drop into this weird place, but their conversation with the dimension storyteller had yielded quite a bit of info. Time to sort it.
First, about the Oracle.
Assuming the storyteller was telling the truth, Mores was likely the next Oracle with prophetic powers. So who was the current one? Obvious.
The Kornsiim clan, skilled in soul manipulation, with the whole family being channelers.
And the secret organization Arenza, run by the surviving few.
Wouldn't it be weirder if the Holy Emperor—who wandered as a soul and directly led Arenza—had no ties to them?
-He remains hale. He has merely sealed his prophecies and chosen utter silence.
Yeah. Come to think of it, the Holy Emperor always clammed up on sensitive topics.
No one else fit the storyteller's words so perfectly.
'Putting that aside...'
What was that line?
-In this halted world, you alone were the one and only friend who could understand me.
What did "this halted world" even mean?
Seongjin paused, noticing something odd.
'Huh? What's this?'
[What? What's wrong?]
'......'
Seongjin narrowed his eyes and examined one stone wall closely. Faint in the darkness, but there was a square-ish gap on the corridor wall.
A rectangular indentation about the size of a person, almost like a doorframe.
Approaching for a better look, he absentmindedly touched the wall. Suddenly, a sharp window popped up before his eyes.
〚The c□nditions to open this □ are not met.〛
'......!'
Seongjin gasped and stepped back.
What the—?
'Hey! Demon King, did you see that? Some text floating in the air—what is this?'
Hm. The Demon King hummed thoughtfully.
[Looks like this really is a constructed realm, Seongjin. Those guidance messages are a common feature there.]
'...Guidance message?'
[Yeah. Worlds governed by rigid laws often display messages like this. In extreme cases, they even quantify stats like abilities, health, fatigue, down to the smallest details.]
'Whoa...'
When Seongjin tentatively touched the gap again, the broken text reappeared.
〚The c□nditions to open this □ are not met.〛
Whoa, this feels just like a game.
Amused, Seongjin toyed with it, pressing and pulling his hand from the wall, when the Demon King spoke gravely.
[This isn't the time to be amused. The problem is that the message is completely corrupted, Seongjin.]
'Huh? So what?'
[Properly constructed realms operate under extremely stable, standardized laws. Broken guidance messages like this aren't common.]
Then, in a low voice, the Demon King continued.
[There are only two cases for this. One: this is a dead world, no longer maintained or repaired. Two: it's surplus space, never integrated into any world and abandoned.]
...Surplus space?
[Yeah. I've heard rumors. Somewhere in the dimensional rifts, fragments of old, useless constructed realms gather—like a massive cosmic junkyard.]
Seongjin frowned slightly.
Junkyard? Didn't sound too appealing.
[A place made by constructed realm laws but shattered, so unbound by them. Once you're in, it's a nightmare to escape.]
'......'
[Or in other words, a "labyrinth."]
Right then.
'Hey, hold up!'
Seongjin tensed, sharpening his senses.
Tap tap tap. Something—or someone—unknown was racing toward them at high speed. The same faint presence he'd sensed at first.
And as it drew closer, that presence grew clearer...
'Huh? Feels kinda familiar?'
Shing.
As Seongjin reflexively drew the Nutcracker, a figure emerged from the dark corridor ahead. A fairly sturdy-built young man.
He halted, sword pointed at Seongjin. But upon seeing him, he flinched in surprise, lowered his blade, and said,
"...Your Highness?"
Seongjin blinked.
Wait, what the hell was Orden doing here?