Ending Maker Chapter 83
Ending Maker Chapter 83
Chapter 28 — The Returned
Yuder and Cordelia entered one of the empty rooms near the entrance, searched the surroundings thoroughly, and then settled into a corner.
It was behind a fallen stone pillar, so it was not immediately visible from the room's entrance—a reasonably concealed spot.
"Should we wake him now?"
At the quiet question, Yuder nodded, and Cordelia immediately placed her hand on the unconscious Kaplan's forehead.
"Awake."
"Urgh!"
The moment the wake spell activated, Kaplan's eyes snapped open and he gasped in a single breath.
"Hah! Wh-where is this?! The snake? The monster?!"
"Yuder and I took care of it. So calm down. It's safe here."
When Cordelia smiled gently and spoke in a soft tone, Kaplan swallowed dryly and nodded.
"Are you feeling a bit calmer?"
"Yes, calm. Hoo, I'm all right."
Kaplan, his face slightly flushed, nodded, and Yuder, who had been watching quietly, cut in.
"Ahem, Sir Kaplan."
"Yuder. No, Sir Yuder."
"You can just call me Yuder."
"Then, Yuder."
Kaplan was fidgeting for some reason.
Yuder wondered if he was embarrassed because he had fallen for Cordelia's beauty, which transcended race—but that was only Yuder's personal opinion. It seemed there was something else going on.
"Sir Kaplan?"
When Cordelia tilted her head and asked as well, Kaplan clenched his fists, took several breaths, and then made up his mind.
As if confessing a wrongdoing, he prostrated himself flat on the spot and spoke.
"It's all my fault."
They had encountered a powerful monster as soon as they went underground.
Moreover, Kaplan himself had discovered the route underground.
Cordelia only said with a smile that they had caught it, but it clearly could not have been easy.
Perhaps a life-or-death battle had unfolded.
"I'm truly sorry. Truly, truly sorry."
It was because of Kaplan himself.
Because wherever Kaplan went, these things always happened.
As he apologized desperately, Kaplan thought:
What if even Cordelia and Yuder came to dislike him?
No matter how angelically kind the two of them were, in the end they were still people.
'Maybe it would be better to part ways here.'
Because if he heard Cordelia say she no longer wanted to travel with him, or that it really was his fault, he did not think he could bear it.
'Let's part ways.'
Let's move separately.
That would be better.
That would be the right thing to do.
So—
"It's all right. It's not your fault, Sir Kaplan."
Kaplan flinched. He could not help but flinch.
Cordelia's voice was the same as before. No, it had become even kinder than before.
"But..."
"Cordelia is right."
Yuder helped Kaplan to his feet and looked him straight in the eyes.
Eyes that were terrified and withdrawn.
Yet at the same time, eyes like a child's that could not give up hope for the kindness shown to him.
'So that's how it is.'
Yuder could understand now.
The Kaplan who appeared midway through Hero Legend 2 was always smiling, but he never opened his heart to anyone.
It was possible to follow him around like a stalker, but making him a companion was impossible.
Because he had been hurt again and again.
Because he had closed off his heart, not wanting to be hurt anymore.
A man who always wore a bright, false smile even though he was hollowed out inside.
But not yet.
Right now, Kaplan's future could still be changed.
'Of course... it might be unnecessary meddling.'
But even so.
'And one more thing.'
Yuder glanced back at Cordelia. Her gaze toward Kaplan was filled with gloom.
So he had to say it.
For Cordelia's sake as well, he had to protect Kaplan's heart.
"Sir Kaplan, are you a god?"
"Huh?"
"Literally, a god."
"That... like a calamity god..."
"Not that kind. A real god. Or someone with godlike power."
At Yuder's serious question, Kaplan shook his head.
"No."
"Right, Kaplan is just an ordinary dwarf. No, well, he's special in that he holds a tenured professorship at the Imperial Academy at such a young age... but still, he's just one dwarf."
It was by no means a disparaging remark.
It was a statement of fact.
"He's not a god. Luck can be good or bad, but that's all. Does Sir Kaplan create monsters? Does he create and summon monsters that did not exist? No, he doesn't. That's impossible. Because Sir Kaplan is not a god, just a single dwarf. He simply encountered monsters that were already there."
Kaplan bit his lip. A faint smile appeared on Yuder's face.
"It's not your fault, Sir Kaplan. Calling it your fault would actually be arrogant. What are you, anyway? You're just a dwarf with moist, charming eyes."
At Yuder's words, Kaplan's eyes grew red.
It was nothing special, but Yuder had said the words that no one had ever said to him, the words he had so desperately wanted to hear.
"So don't apologize anymore. Understood?"
"Under... understood."
Kaplan, still sniffling as he answered, finally began to cry, and Yuder patted his shoulder before turning toward Cordelia.
'Well done.'
Cordelia raised her thumb and beamed, and Yuder was satisfied. He patted Kaplan's shoulder once more and smiled faintly.
Protecting Cordelia's smile was one thing, but he also felt something inside himself being fulfilled.
'A complete happy ending.'
The best ending—one where everyone was happy.
Yuder smiled again at the thought that suddenly came to him and waited for Kaplan's tears to stop.
And about ten minutes later.
"Are you all right now?"
"I'm all right. That was embarrassing."
"It's fine, between us."
Cordelia smiled playfully as she spoke. Kaplan's cheeks flushed again and he grew flustered, and Yuder cut in once more.
"Ahem, anyway, Sir Kaplan."
"Yes, Yuder."
"We intend to continue exploring."
Yuder and Cordelia had still not found a single clue about Lena.
Leaving Endymion like this was absolutely out of the question.
But Kaplan was different.
"This is already the second time we've encountered a monster from Hell in Endymion. There may be who knows how many more monsters prowling Endymion."
It was an extremely dangerous place.
At Yuder's explanation, Kaplan swallowed dryly and nodded. He roughly understood what Yuder was getting at.
'Let's go back.'
Because he would be nothing but dead weight if he stayed with them.
"Under..."
"So from here on, this is a selfish request from us. Sir Kaplan, would you continue the exploration with us?"
"Huh?"
"It's exactly as I said. Cordelia and I are affiliated with the Academy, but we still have many shortcomings. If a veteran archaeologist like Sir Kaplan joins us, it would be a great help."
He was not saying this merely with the Kaplan effect in mind.
Endymion was a region that had not even appeared in a cinematic in Hero Legend 2.
Even for rotten fossils like Yuder and Cordelia, the exploration was bound to present all kinds of difficulties.
Even Yuder, who had experienced all sorts of things, knew little about archaeology or ruin exploration.
But Kaplan was different.
Kaplan's archaeological knowledge and exploration experience would surely be a great help.
"May we ask this of you?"
"Please."
When Cordelia added the final word, Kaplan immediately nodded.
Because even though an accident had already occurred once, this was the first time he had ever been asked to continue exploring together.
'No, it's not just that.'
He wanted to be of help to Yuder and Cordelia.
For the sake of these two people who were like angels descended upon the earth, he felt he could do anything.
"I may not be much, but I'll come with you. I'll do my best to help."
As Kaplan's eyes burned with motivation, Yuder was satisfied, and Cordelia let out a sigh of relief.
'Thank goodness he didn't lose his motivation.'
'Right.'
She really was kind, one way or another.
After thinking about Cordelia again, Yuder returned to the matter at hand.
"First, I'm thinking of going a bit deeper inside. This place isn't marked on the map of Endymion we obtained, but judging by the scale, I think it's probably connected roughly like this."
As Yuder unfolded the map and spoke, Kaplan nodded with a very serious expression, and Cordelia stepped back and began keeping watch on the surroundings.
Thinking was Yuder's job, after all.
And indeed, Yuder was thinking about several things at once.
One of them was the origin of the Hell monsters that had begun appearing in Endymion's underground.
'The most likely possibility is demon summoning.'
More than a thousand years had already passed since Endymion's destruction.
It was hard to imagine that the demons who had destroyed Endymion in the past still remained.
'If it's summoning, then it must be the Devil's Eye.'
The only demon worshipper group operating in the Wild Lands was the Devil's Eye.
But if that was the case, there was something a little strange.
Why would they summon demons in Endymion?
Wouldn't it be better to summon them at their main base or in the lands of the wild gods they were attacking?
Demon summoning required considerable sacrifices, and sacrifices did not just sprout from the ground.
In the grand scheme, they were ultimately a scarce resource.
'The only thing I can think of is Endymion's unique nature.'
It was the land where an Infernal Lord had once descended. Perhaps it was a land that offered advantages for demon summoning.
'The Devil's Hand, the newly summoned demons, Lena.'
Lena had died at Bladebeak Canyon, not Endymion, after exhausting her strength.
Could it be that she had fought a great battle against the Devil's Eye and demons in Endymion's underground?
That as a result, she had wiped out the demons of Endymion but suffered grave injuries herself and ultimately lost her life.
It was a fairly plausible hypothesis, but in the end it was only a hypothesis.
To confirm the truth, they had to move.
"Let's start heading out again soon."
They had finished discussing the rough route, and they had rested enough in the meantime.
"Go go go."
"I will take the lead."
Cordelia and Kaplan each spoke as they rose from their spots, and Yuder nodded.
Although Kaplan had fainted in every battle, he was still a man who had weathered countless crises one way or another.
He could easily move quietly and carefully.
And so, another thirty-odd minutes passed.
Yuder praised himself for deciding to go with Kaplan.
Because Kaplan had discovered a secret passage hidden in a dead end.
"This way."
Since it was a secret door used by slender elves, it was a bit of a squeeze for Kaplan's beer-barrel build, but not so much that he could not pass through.
"Looks like a real secret passage. Like a theater."
Cordelia whispered into Yuder's ear and pointed at their feet.
About seven meters below, there was a floor, and the spot where the party now stood was above a ceiling riddled with holes.
The floor was made of stone, but as Cordelia said, it was reminiscent of scaffolding hanging from a theater ceiling.
'I'll keep going.'
It was the moment Kaplan, conveying his intent with hand signals instead of words, took another step forward.
'Paralyze! Silent!'
Cordelia quickly reached toward Kaplan and cast a spell, while Yuder held his breath and focused on his hearing.
Footsteps could be heard.
Thanks to the blessing of the earth, Yuder and Cordelia had become more sensitive to things happening on the ground than before.
'Monsters.'
There were far more than one or two. Counting both the Lactos and Najarus, about a dozen monsters were moving together.
It was a number beyond imagination.
Moreover, seeing magical lights lit here and there, it was highly likely that they had been using this path for a long time already.
'Let's wait.'
They had to wait for them to pass. Even strengthened as they were, Yuder and Cordelia could not handle that many.
At Yuder's glance, Cordelia nodded.
Kaplan could not move because he was paralyzed, but thanks to that, he was able to stay perfectly still.
They would keep their presence hidden like this.
And wait for them to pass—
"The ceiling!"
The moment one Najarus shouted sharply, the Lactos swung their whips all at once.
It was directly beneath their feet, so there was no time to react.
CRASH—!
The ceiling collapsed.
Yuder hastily grabbed Kaplan and threw himself through the air, and Cordelia cast a Fly spell.
With the Lactos' whips lashing both ahead of and behind them, going back the way they had come was impossible.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Debris fell and crashed into the floor.
Thanks to that, several of the Najarus and Lactos lost focus while dodging the falling rocks, and Yuder and Cordelia exploited that opening.
"Run!"
A head-on fight was out of the question.
The moment his feet touched the floor, Yuder ran like the wind, and Cordelia, after stacking Haste spells, chanted spells in rapid succession.
"Grease!"
"Freeze!"
"Earth Wall!"
She made the floor slippery.
With Freeze, she froze the air to create a thin wall of ice, and she made the floor surge upward to block the path.
But all of it was only a stopgap.
The Lactos avoided the greased area with low-altitude flight, then hurled themselves forward and shattered the ice wall and the risen floor.
"Keep going!"
But it was not without effect.
To widen the distance even a little, Cordelia kept casting spells. Yuder ran while carrying Kaplan and checked their surroundings.
'This is a place on the map!'
He remembered it.
So he could plot a route.
"Earth Wall! Earth Wall!"
By even using the echoes of the spell, four layers of stone barriers sprang up in an instant.
Yuder recalled the escape route—more precisely, the route to shake off their pursuers.
It was a fork in the road that split in two, so they had to choose carefully here.
But it was exactly at that moment.
[This way!]
A sharp voice rang in his head.
It was a Message spell.
Who was it?
Where was it coming from?
"That way!"
Cordelia located it instinctively.
Yuder turned his gaze, and at that moment, a stone barrier far larger than Cordelia's surged up from the floor.
CRASH!
The stone barrier, surging up with terrifying force, collided with the ceiling.
Immediately after, clouds that had rolled in from somewhere covered the area around the stone barrier.
[Hurry!]
Another Message spell.
"This way!"
Cordelia ran, and Yuder erased the map from his mind.
Cordelia's beast-like intuition was one thing, but she was a mage. Her ability to sense and grasp magic was far superior to Yuder's.
CRASH—!
A thunderous roar erupted behind them. At the same time, the shrieks of the monsters could be heard.
They had to hurry.
Yuder looked straight ahead, and Cordelia grabbed his shoulder and pulled. She threw herself toward the side wall as she did.
WHOOSH—!
It was not a thunderous roar.
Instead of colliding with the wall, Yuder and Cordelia passed through it and crashed into the floor.
"Oof!"
Kaplan, who had landed on his stomach, let out a breathless sound, and Yuder, who had succeeded at the last moment in shielding Cordelia—more precisely, in pulling her into his arms and lifting her on top of himself to protect her—let out a sigh of relief.
Then Cordelia, still on Yuder's chest, suddenly lifted her head and gasped. She hurriedly pushed herself upright.
Why.
No, he could tell.
So Yuder, with Cordelia still on his chest, tilted his head back and looked at the same place she was looking.
The reason Cordelia had swallowed her breath.
The person who had made her face light up and her cheeks flush.
"Lena."
A blonde woman with a gray hood pulled down to the top of her head stood before their eyes.