Zeke's Betrayal
As we moved along with Zeke who had joined us, the corpses of Big Spiders began appearing one by one along the cave path. ‘…Did a fight break out?’ Blood was splattered everywhere, as if the person who fought them had struggled quite a bit. From then on, Hedi seemed even more alert, constantly scanning our surroundings. We kept walking like that until a large figure lying on the ground came into view. A massive body gripping a long greatsword, collapsed on the floor. Whether he died mid-battle or not, he was sprawled among the Big Spiders. That familiar silhouette and greatsword—I knew exactly who it was.
*
I spoke to Zeke while staying on guard. “…What happened here?”
“……”
A brief silence. Zeke stared intently at Victor’s corpse. Then…
“Th-this… what is this…?”
His voice trembled with shock as he approached the body.
“What on earth happened…?! Vi-Victor! Open your eyes for a moment!”
“……?”
What…? Wasn’t that one beat too late? Zeke kept shaking Victor’s already lifeless body. Did he really not know? He had guided us this way, so I assumed he knew…
“You didn’t know…?”
“Of course not! This is the first time I’m seeing this too!”
Zeke snapped angrily.
“There’s only one path leading to where we came from. Are you saying you didn’t see this?”
“It wasn’t there! When I first got lost, Victor wasn’t lying here like this!”
“……”
Something felt off. A battle breaking out and causing this disaster in such a short time? I glanced sideways at Victor’s and the Big Spiders’ corpses. …The blood had darkened slightly to black. If it had been completely black, I would have pressed harder, but this was ambiguous. Did that really mean he had nothing to do with this disaster?
“Victor… I won’t let your death be in vain…. I’ll report this labyrinth to the Adventurer’s Guild and uncover the truth for sure! Khuk…!”
Zeke hoisted Victor’s body onto his back.
“Let’s go, kid! If we keep going this way, we’ll reach the magic stone with the teleportation spell! We need to leave before it’s too late!”
“…We still haven’t found Monaka, have we?”
“We need to get help from the Adventurer’s Guild and search safely! If we die here too, there’ll be no one left to report this labyrinth!! Do you want even more victims?!”
“……”
It was a reasonable argument, but hearing it after seeing this scene made it impossible not to suspect him. …If only I had solid evidence, I would have pressed further. I glanced at Hedi for a moment.
“……”
She looked filthy, her appearance a complete mess as if she had been through a coal mine. She also seemed exhausted, her body trembling. If I got into an argument with Zeke in this state, Hedi would definitely be in danger.
…No choice.
“What are you doing?! Let’s go, kid!”
Zeke, already annoyed, had moved far ahead.
“…Let’s go.”
Hedi placed her hand on my shoulder and urged me forward. I nodded once and followed Zeke with her. The suspicion toward him kept weighing on my mind the entire way.
*
“This is the place! There was a magic stone attached to this wall!”
We soon arrived at the spot Zeke mentioned. The narrow passage was thick with darkness, making the path ahead and surrounding terrain harder to see than elsewhere.
“It should be around here…!”
Zeke groped along the wall as he advanced. Then, after a moment—
“…! Here it is! You just need to pour magic power into it, kid!”
Zeke spoke excitedly, as if he had found the teleportation magic stone. Sure enough, a magic stone was attached to the wall where he pointed.
‘Hmm…’
It was definitely a teleportation magic stone. Hedi stayed on guard, watching for traps or monsters. I approached the stone.
‘…Doesn’t seem like there’s a trap spell on it. If there was magic, it would have a faint glow. Should I just activate it like this…?’
The moment I reached out toward the seemingly normal magic stone—
‘…….’
Zeke’s words suddenly flashed through my mind. Activating it right away felt unsettling. Then Zeke shouted at my hesitation.
“Hurry up and pour magic power into it, kid! We need to get out of this damn place fast!”
“……”
Ah, it really felt off. I had to activate the stone, but his desperation bothered me even more. Usually people get desperate to escape when trapped in a labyrinth like this. But after seeing the previous disaster…
“What are you doing?! If you keep hesitating and monsters show up, we’re done for! Pour the magic power already! Don’t tell me… you can’t even handle magic power, kid?!”
“Hey, old man.”
“……?”
As Zeke kept fuming, Hedi, who had been waiting behind, approached him with a frown.
“Even though you couldn’t have escaped alone without him, why are you throwing such a fit?”
“No… so to escape quickly, we just need to pour the magic power…!”
“He probably has his reasons. Do you think he’s doing this because he doesn’t want to escape? Just wait.”
“…Khuk.”
Wow. Zeke bit down hard, looking frustrated, unable to say anything. Refreshing. As expected, the heroine who delivers the satisfying moments in the story. The most reliable when she’s on your side…. So this is the charm that makes people choose the heroine route. I didn’t feel it while playing the game, but experiencing it in reality, I finally understood. Well, the current me isn’t the protagonist Kain, so it’s an unrelated story now.
“Enough, Uncle. I’m going to activate the magic stone now, so step aside. And keep watch around with him.”
“…Understood.”
Zeke stepped back. Since nothing seemed immediately wrong, I decided to activate it first and think later. It felt unsettling, but Zeke was right too. If I delayed any longer, who knew what might happen. This was an unidentified labyrinth. I placed my hand on the magic stone.
-Uuuung….
The magic stone reacted. It seemed to respond only to those with magic power. I immediately poured magic power through my fingertips. Then, at that moment—
-Thump!
““……!””
A massive magic circle suddenly appeared beneath our feet. A large, ominously bright red circle inscribed with geometric spells. It was similar to the one that had teleported us here. As soon as it activated, the ground began to shake violently.
-Drrrrrrrr.
The surroundings filled with bright red light. If I moved wrong, it looked like everything was stained with blood. The entire labyrinth rumbled as if struck by an earthquake.
“Haha, it worked! It worked! Now we can escape this tedious place…!”
Zeke shouted with fanatical eyes, seemingly moved. It was still too early to let our guard down. Last time, rocks had fallen and killed Andrei.
“Be careful—rocks might fall! Keep your balance so you can dodge anytime!”
Both of them nodded at my words.
-Uuuung!
The magic circle shone brilliantly once more. The light was large enough to engulf the three of us and the entire space. By the time the vibrations stopped, the space we stood in had already changed.
“Success…?”
Warm sunlight covered my body. The surroundings had brightened so suddenly that I squinted against the pain as I looked around. There was the sky. The ceiling was no longer made of rock piles and stalactites. There was no darkness either. It was the outside world under a clear daytime sky.
“We teleported safely.”
From afar, Hedi came running. She must have been teleported to slightly different coordinates. What a relief. She made it out safely too.
“Huh…?”
But something was wrong. Hedi’s expression as she ran toward us was unusual. As if… she was warning me of something.
“…hind!”
She shouted something while running.
“…Behind!”
……!
-Kaang!
Metal clashed and sparks flew before my face.
“Khuk… Damn!”
…If it weren’t for Hedi, I would have been hit. Zeke had ambushed me from behind, trying to stab me with his sword.
“This damn kid!!”
Having failed his ambush, Zeke swung his sword again in quick succession. I parried once more and struck back one beat faster before he could react.
-Chaaak!
“Kraaaaaaaaah!”
Zeke’s arm flew through the air. I had severed it. Red blood splattered everywhere. To make sure, I quickly approached the man who had collapsed to the ground.
“Wa-wait…!”
He raised his remaining palm and spoke desperately.
“Mi-mistake…! I lost my mind for a moment! Please spare me just this once!”
Bullshit. Losing your mind and trying to stab someone? Claiming diminished responsibility?
Just then, Hedi, who had been running from behind, reached us and placed her hand on my shoulder. She looked between Zeke and me before speaking.
“Let’s report this to the Knight Order. He can’t hold a sword anymore, so he won’t be able to do anything else.”
“…Hmm.”
It still felt too unsettling. I hesitated. Leaving a potential criminal who tried to kill someone…
At that moment—
-Flash!
Kwa-kwang!
““……?!””
A burning pain suddenly erupted from my back. It hurt tremendously, as if something had exploded. A ringing filled my ears along with extreme dizziness.
“That damn brat… Andrei’s giving me a chance for revenge from the afterlife…!”
Before losing consciousness, I saw Zeke holding something with his remaining arm. A magic scroll. I hadn’t expected him to have hidden something like that. Saved for when his life was in danger…?
“As expected… you can’t be forgiven…!”
In an instant, blood pressure surged to my head. Adrenaline flooded my system and the pain vanished. I forced my struggling body forward and approached Zeke again.
“Wh-what…?! Even after taking that hit…,”
-Chaaak!
“Kraaaaaaaaah-!”
I severed Zeke’s remaining arm as well. I could have cut his neck, but with how heavily he was already bleeding, one more wound would make him die painfully from blood loss. I didn’t want to grant him a quick death.
“Ugh….”
That was it. At least my mind stayed intact. I was bleeding heavily too. After that, dizziness and shaking vision made everything blur. The accumulated fatigue crashed over me all at once. My body tilted backward and collapsed.
“Huk! …Hey! …Come to your senses…!”
Hedi ran toward my fallen body. Her face filled my vision. Hedi’s face…? No, it didn’t seem right. It overlapped with something else.
…….
Little sister…? They say your life flashes before your eyes at the moment of death. I didn’t expect my little sister to be the first thing that came to mind. I placed my hand on her face. My beloved little sister. She flinched and reacted. Cute…. How long had it been since I last saw her face? I desperately forced my voice out.
“…Hemi.”
“……?!”
Her bewildered expression was my last memory.
***
It was a hospital room. The moment I opened my eyes in surprise and sat up, that was the sight before me. There was nothing around. No special decorations or objects, only the soft bedsheets wrapping my body. How did I end up here? My memories were hazy.
‘That damn brat….’
“……”
I remembered. I had been hit by a magic scroll containing flame magic. While finishing that thought, the door creaked open and someone entered.
“……?!”
It was Hedi.
“What—you!! You woke up?!”
“Yeah…”
She set down a tray on the nearby table and rushed over in a fuss.
“Your body?! Are you okay?!”
“……”
I tried moving my bandaged arms and legs, but nothing felt wrong. Had someone used healing magic?
“Seems fine.”
“……”
Hedi stared at me with a sad expression. Why was she making that face? Ah. Maybe she was still bothered about me getting hit by the magic back then.
“Really, I’m fine.”
I smiled slightly to reassure her. After all, I had survived. And looking at it, she seemed to have covered all the hospital fees too…. That was enough. Hedi reluctantly gave a weak smile. Then she asked,
“…Want some fruit?”
“Sure. I’m hungry anyway… By the way, how long was I unconscious?”
“Two days.”
“Wow.”
She took something from the tray she had brought earlier and placed it in front of me….
Up to here, everything was fine. Exactly up to here. But the next action she took left me unable to hide my bewildered expression.
“……?”
“……”
Her silence only deepened my confusion. What kind of situation was this? Was this her original character? A sense of discrepancy mixed with bewilderment.
“…Not eating?”
“Uh, uh…”
Her hand trembled. I just stared at it quietly.
…She was trying to feed me the fruit.