From Beneath the Rubble
I was in the middle of carrying Seong Sua on my back, making good time toward Ye-riel, when a calm voice drifted up from behind me, soft as a whisper.
“…Thank you.”
“Hm?”
Seo Jieun looked up at me, posture demure, and offered her gratitude.
It came out of nowhere, but I figured it had something to do with what had just happened.
The problem was, I couldn’t tell exactly what she was thanking me for.
Saving her life? Helping with the magic seizure? Not telling Ye-riel about it…?
Or maybe she’s just thanking me for being ridiculously cool?
[….]
What? It’s possible. People thank you for being cool.
[….]
Hello? Say something?
I must have looked lost in thought, because Seo Jieun let out a small laugh and spoke again.
“I’m grateful for everything. Everything that happened today.”
“Even the knuckle to the head?”
“Pfft…. No. That one actually hurt.”
The quiet, oppressive atmosphere that had hung over us lightened, just a little.
We weren’t exactly in a place where we could laugh and joke freely, but there was no need to stay drowning in gloom either.
As we started walking again, Seo Jieun asked,
“Earlier… was that magic something Instructor Sung Suho cast?”
“Half right.”
“…I see.”
Her expression brightened a shade, and the questions kept coming.
“How did you do it? Was it some kind of nullification?”
“Mm… close, but honestly, it’s not something I can tell you.”
“….”
A flicker of disappointment crossed her face.
“More accurately, it’s not that I won’t tell you—it’s that it isn’t something that can be taught.”
“Ah….”
I’d phrased it carefully, but she seemed to understand well enough.
Truth was, magic in this world barely had a system at all compared to Shutra.
In Shutra, magic had settled into something academic—if you had the mana, you could learn it through effort. This world, on the other hand, was a league reserved for the gifted.
And that meant even the people who used it often had no idea how they’d learned it, so teaching it properly was nearly impossible.
On top of that, the dismantling technique I’d used was especially hard for her to pick up.
You needed magic circles.
The basic theory of magic circles? Seong Sua or Seo Jieun could learn that with enough work.
The problem was actually casting them….
I’d only been able to start because of a bracelet from Shutra that let me activate magic-circle casting.
But that item hadn’t been developed in this world, and I couldn’t just manufacture one and hand it over.
[If you were affiliated with the ship it would be possible, but matter from an outside world… especially something that would cause major upheaval in this one… trying to create it here would consume an astronomical amount of Enel.]
Aye aye.
Information courtesy of the CEO herself.
If both worlds already had materials that produced similar performance, you could make them for a comparable Enel cost.
But trying to create something like that magic-circle bracelet in a world with nothing even close to it? The Enel cost would be massive.
Man… that hero bastard even got filming gems to use on Viola, didn’t he? Must’ve burned through a fortune in Enel back then.
Not that it ended well for him….
Seo Jieun circled back and thanked me again.
“If it weren’t for you, Instructor, I would have died there. Thank you. Truly.”
“…If you’re that grateful, mind if I ask a favor?”
“?”
“Uh….”
I asked her the thing I’d been meaning to figure out for a while.
“What kind of gifts do women like?”
“….”
It was a completely tone-deaf question given the situation, but Seo Jieun heard me out and immediately sank into thought.
Then the twenty questions began.
How long have you known her? Is she a coworker? Does she like accessories? Does she prefer meaningful gifts? And so on….
And finally….
“How much does she like you?”
“Quite a bit?”
“….”
I carefully avoided saying anything too precise about the affection level.
If I got too specific while fishing for gift ideas, she might start piecing together who it was, and then I’d be the one in trouble.
Seo Jieun closed her eyes, walking beside me, and after a long moment of consideration offered one suggestion.
“How about a music box?”
“Ahh….”
It was perfect.
Considering how recently I’d met Cho Seohyun, it felt like a solid choice.
Not too expensive, worked as a nice decorative piece, and carried just enough meaning as a gift from someone she had feelings for….
[It does seem like a fitting gift.]
Great. Now for the design….
I was about to ask the important question about the design when—
“—__——__….”
“…Shit.”
The sound had come from a distance, but it was so loud it reverberated through the cave walls right where we stood.
And from the sound of running, it was heading our way.
[The voice is different from the other entities. It’s that one.]
Worst-case scenario.
We still hadn’t reached Ye-riel. Seong Sua was unconscious. And I was protecting Seo Jieun on top of that.
But in the middle of that worst-case scenario, one problem suddenly solved itself.
“Instructor Sung Suho, put me down.”
“Hm?”
“Huh?”
Seong Sua suddenly woke, slid off my back, and started talking.
“We need to run. Now.”
“Uh… when did you wake up?”
“J-just now. The noise woke me. Hurry.”
The bloodless pallor was gone from Seong Sua’s face; the clear, refined look she usually wore had returned.
Even if her hair was a mess and her undergarments were showing more than usual….
The three of us broke into a run in the direction we estimated Ye-riel was coming from.
“_—__———….”
It was getting closer.
At least this thing, unlike the other monsters we’d faced so far, wasn’t charging on all fours, so it was relatively slow.
The problem was that the people running away weren’t exactly physical powerhouses either.
…This isn’t going to work.
I muttered over the comms, stopped dead, and turned around.
When I suddenly halted, Seong Sua and Seo Jieun froze with startled faces and started talking over each other in a panic.
“Instructor Sung Suho! What are you doing? Hurry!”
“Instructor!”
“…Keep going. I’ll buy as much time as I can.”
I wasn’t saying it to look cool.
If we kept running like this, the only ending waiting for us was getting caught.
Seong Sua grabbed my shoulder like she meant to drag me along and shouted,
“What are you talking about right now?! We have to run!”
“…Instructor Seong Sua, if we keep going like this, we will get caught. Guaranteed.”
“Th-then we all go together!”
“…Right now, Instructor Seong Sua, and Cadet Seo Jieun—you’re both just going to get in my way.”
“B-but still….”
“Instructor Seong Sua, think about our position. Think about the cadet standing right next to you.”
Seong Sua bit her lip and wavered, torn.
She’d already suffered mana exhaustion; she couldn’t use magic. And Seo Jieun was still at risk of another magic seizure.
Right now, the only one who could actually fight was me.
From Seong Sua’s perspective, abandoning a colleague was unthinkable—but the safety of the student beside her mattered just as much.
She squeezed her eyes shut, faced the reality of it, grabbed Seo Jieun’s arm, and started running.
“…I’ll trust you.”
“I-Instructor!”
“When I find Ye-riel, I’ll bring her back for sure!”
I was relieved.
It wasn’t that Seong Sua was abandoning me—she trusted me enough, and she’d read the situation correctly.
Given the skill I’d shown before, she was willing to believe in me.
I watched the two of them disappear, then nocked an ordinary arrow and loosed it at the cave wall.
Thwang—
Without a magic circle, the arrow bounced off the stone with a metallic ring that echoed down the tunnel and carried far.
“—__—!!”
“It reacted.”
I’d been worried it might chase the sound of the two of them running and lose me, but it locked onto the arrow noise and came my way instead.
In the distance it veered, came into view, and charged straight at me.
Its cloak was already half-burned into rags, and the hole I’d punched through its shoulder earlier was still there.
I nocked a superconductor arrow and said,
“Let’s try one shot first.”
Fwaaaang!
I aimed for the side it couldn’t use properly, but it rolled sideways and dodged.
…So it can dodge, too.
[The arrow that pierced it earlier and Instructor Seong Sua’s magic seem to have taken their toll.]
Just as Armonia said, the overwhelming presence I’d felt when I first saw it was gone. It looked exhausted now.
Even that single dodge left it rolling to the side, panting, watching me warily.
But while it stayed on guard, it kept glancing around.
What? Looking for Seong Sua?
Parts of the cloak had burned away enough that I could make out some of its expression.
Until now the monsters had just howled and charged like zombies. This one was different.
It still had something close to a human face.
It was watching me carefully while constantly searching for someone.
And that behavior right now… was an opening.
…Shoot.
Stage-one arrows had already proven useless.
Even exhausted, there was no guarantee it wouldn’t snatch the next one out of the air and come at me.
Armonia, have Rena on standby.
[It would be better to send Miss Rena now….]
No. Last resort only.
Against the other monsters we’d seen, fine—but something that used magic would be a nightmare for Rena to handle.
I nocked another arrow and focused everything I had on it.
So far, nothing had survived a stage-two shot.
But you never know how the world works.
The environment and the opponent were completely different from anything I’d faced before.
The cave could collapse. In the worst case, it might block or dodge the attack entirely.
“—__—!!!!”
It let out a roar that dwarfed every previous howl, charged me, and started casting.
If I was going to face a monster like this…
There’s no other answer for a bastard like this!
I shouted over the comms and released the string.
Rrrrrumble….
“Hm?”
Ye-riel, mid-flight, felt the dungeon shake violently and paused for a moment.
She scanned the surroundings, muttered to herself, and flew on.
“Thought it was a gimmick. Still… this is the right direction, isn’t it?”
Ye-riel was moving as fast as she could in the direction Sung Suho had given her.
Worried she might overshoot them, she even called out names at intervals.
After flying like that for a little over ten minutes, she finally found the two of them.
“Lady Ye-riel!”
“Are you all right?”
Ye-riel let out a breath of relief at the sight of them and immediately started checking on their condition.
But at the same time, something felt off.
“…Where’s the other one?”
“He’s holding it off alone! We have to go now!”
Seong Sua summarized everything as fast as she could and made it clear that Sung Suho was in danger.
Ye-riel didn’t waste a second on hesitation. She lifted both of them into the air and said,
“It’s more dangerous here. You’re better off coming with me.”
“Yes!”
With the two of them in tow, Ye-riel raced back toward the place where they’d left Sung Suho.
The distance the pair had run took less than three minutes to cover.
“Th-this is….”
The moment they arrived, Seong Sua’s eyes went hollow and she sank to the ground where she stood.
The spot where Sung Suho had been was simply gone—the dungeon floor itself had collapsed.
Calling it a space was generous. It was a blocked path, nothing more and nothing less.
Looking at Seong Sua slumped there, Ye-riel thought carefully.
…Is he really buried under this rubble?
A flood of thoughts poured through Ye-riel’s mind.
And every one of them came back to responsibility.
We should head back. Getting these two out takes priority over recovering a body.
It was a cold, almost cruel calculation, but Ye-riel decided the safety of the two survivors came first.
She approached Seong Sua and Seo Jieun, who were staring blankly at the pile of stone, and said,
“We should go back for now. We’ll send a search team later and—”
“…You go first.”
Seong Sua stepped toward the rubble, tears falling as she spoke.
“I… I’ll keep looking somehow….”
“Seong Sua….”
The calm, gentle demeanor she usually showed was long gone.
Her eyes held despair and a kind of madness as she began clawing at the smaller stones with her bare hands.
“Stop….”
Ye-riel murmured it with a pained look—and that was when someone spoke from behind her.
“Instructor Seong Sua, please stop.”
“Hm?”
“Huh?”
Ye-riel and Seo Jieun spun around, on guard, and found the owner of the voice.
Out of the darkness, Sung Suho emerged in tattered clothes and managed to speak.
“Instructor Seong Sua… you’ll hurt your fingers like that.”