105. Finals Are... Out of Service (7)
105. Finals Are... Out of Service (7)
'No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no...'
She couldn't understand a single thing.
Frozen by the terror that had devoured her whole body, Laperinne could do nothing except be dragged toward the pyre where her comrade had just been burned alive.
'I didn't want to die...'
She didn't want to die.
But before her lay Brown, a fellow party member and priest, burning alive, while grotesque creatures sat around the pyre and prayed. Laperinne sensed that she would soon share Brown's fate.
'I didn't want to die.'
You can't run away.
Someone whispered. Laperinne wanted to cover her ears against the voice in her mind, but with both arms restrained, all she could do was struggle. As death drew nearer and breathed against her ear, she felt her lower body grow damp.
She felt no shame, though.
Before she could even feel such a secondary emotion, the growing heat against her skin warned her that death was imminent.
"P-please..."
The smell of burning flesh filled her nose. Laperinne instinctively held her breath, desperate to deny the future approaching her. It was a meaningless struggle, but she wanted to live. Her tears had already dried up, yet still—
'Please, anyone... save me...'
Countless names flickered through her mind like a panorama.
The vassals of House Nereid. Her father. The Escort Knights who had protected her. And... the party members who had fallen into the rift with her.
"!&@*!#(!"
A sense of weightlessness washed over her along with the shriek. The fire drew closer. Laperinne squeezed her eyes shut ahead of the hideous pain to come, turning away from the end she had never wanted.
'...It wasn't hot.'
The blue-haired girl opened her eyes at the sensation of flesh pressing against flesh. Her cautiously opened eyes went round with shock at the utterly unexpected figure who had appeared, and her mouth fell open.
"Wh-wh-wh-who... are you?"
"Questions later. We need to run!"
Sif ran at full speed while carrying Laperinne, who was heavier than she'd expected. Yohan, her employer, had ordered her to take Laperinne as far away as possible.
She had her doubts about how he'd deal with those monsters, but Sif shelved that thought for now. The number of grotesque creatures coming to seize her wasn't just one or two.
"Ugh, what the hell did this island do for things like these to pop out? Ah, what's the word, where are the others?"
"...I-I don't know... We were caught in the r-rift, and only Brown and I..."
"That corpse burning over there is Brown, right?"
Laperinne managed a weak nod. Wearing a complicated expression, Sif set her down atop a nearby ruin overlooking the pyre. She figured they'd run far enough.
Yohan's appearance in front of the pyre had drawn every single grotesque creature's attention. Sif swiveled her head around, checking for any that had followed them, then sighed. Carrying Laperinne and continuing to flee with her own physical capabilities was nearly impossible.
She was only a cat beastkin with somewhat better physical abilities than a human.
"That person..."
"My employer. He told me to take you and hide, so I got out of there, but what the hell is he trying to—"
Before Sif could finish complaining, a deafening explosion washed over them. Startled, Laperinne and Sif clapped their hands over their ears and stared toward the source.
The grotesque creatures were on fire. Flames that had leapt onto their bodies roasted them golden-brown and sent them writhing and twisting. But fire that had already caught wasn't easy to put out. Watching the pyre and its surroundings burn, Sif clicked her tongue.
'Now I understood why he'd told me to run.'
If she had stayed nearby, she'd have been caught in the blast and danced the final tap dance of her life alongside the creatures. Relieved that she had avoided such a cheerful fate, Sif addressed Laperinne, who had collapsed to the ground.
"Can you stand?"
Her tone was rude, but Laperinne paid it no mind. What she'd just endured was far too shocking to care about something like that. Laperinne tore her gaze from the pyre, thick with the stench of burning flesh, and looked up at Sif.
"Y-yes..."
It was unpleasant and soggy. Only after Laperinne staggered to her feet did she notice that fact. She hadn't been aware of it with death bearing down on her, but the revolting sensation of her skirt and underwear being soaked through couldn't be ignored.
Naturally, her face flushed red. Sif, unconcerned, watched Yohan walk out of the sea of flames.
Having turned every grotesque creature into firewood, Yohan brushed the dirt and ash from his shoulder.
"I'll have to build it thicker next time."
Wiping out the monsters by detonating every pre-mixed gunpowder compound he'd prepared in advance had been effective, but even after burrowing into a wall with a Skill, he hadn't been able to block all the noise and shock. The impact had been greater than he'd anticipated.
'Still, the performance wasn't bad. I'd been a little uneasy when I bought gunpowder that had been secretly diverted to the black market, but this output made it worth researching.'
In a situation like this, relying on the Craft Skill alone couldn't make up for insufficient firepower. The Craft Skill depended heavily on nearby materials and couldn't use anything he was unable to process himself.
As he approached, satisfied enough with the decent results, Sif waved a hand and shouted.
"Yohan! What now?"
"First, we head back to camp!"
Yohan regarded the lone surviving heroine with a complicated expression.
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"This place..."
"This is our camp. You won't be attacked as long as you stay inside, so rest easy."
"Um, is there somewhere I might wash..."
"No."
How could a place like this have one? It looked convincing, but there was no way it included conveniences like a washroom. I already had enough work ahead of me just installing a way to draw groundwater.
"Sif, lend her some clothes. She'll feel uncomfortable staying in those."
"Will the sizes even fit?"
"If nothing works, just cover yourself with my clothes."
I'd brought plenty, so lending one set wouldn't be an issue. I looked away from Sif, who was rummaging through the backpack, and toward Laperinne, who was still trembling.
"Laperinne."
"How do you know my name..."
"It would be difficult not to recognize the heiress of House Nereid."
"Is, is that so..."
Laperinne's voice was terribly hoarse. That was only natural after all the crying, screaming, and shouting. I set a canteen before her and continued questioning her.
"I have a lot to ask. Did the entire party enter the rift?"
"Y-yes. We were all swept up together... and brought to this island..."
"Besides the one who burned, where is everyone else? Dead?"
"I don't know... The only one who fell together with me... was Brown..."
Brown? The priest, then.
"So you don't know where the other party members are."
As if it was too difficult for her to speak any more, Laperinne just nodded in reply.
I'd have to revise the objective. If the entire Lewis party was inside the rift, searching for the party members came first. I'd bombed the grotesque creature habitat to the north, so their numbers would be thinned for a while. I had to sweep the surrounding area aside from the north and round up as many survivors as possible.
"Laperinne. While you're here, I expect you to follow my instructions."
"Y-yes..."
A noble heiress was unlikely to go back on her word. I pulled binoculars from my backpack, stood, and climbed to the roof of the camp building. I'd deliberately made it three stories tall, so the roof gave me a clear view over a considerable distance.
At the edge of my vision, the blue horizon glittered in the sunlight. I had been fighting grotesque creatures only moments earlier, so looking out at the sea from safety felt strange. What kind of place was this island, that a hell comparable to the uninhabited island where I had lived was unfolding here?
"...Since we're inside a Dimensional Rift, this would also be inside a dungeon..."
A dungeon on this scale... Perhaps we had not entered a dungeon at all, but had been warped to an island outside one. I couldn't rule that out. A cave that practically screamed dungeon stood in the island's center. Dense trees blocked the view from camp, but if anything important was here, the cave was the only obvious candidate.
...For now, I decided to ignore the cave.
The immediate priority was circling the island and searching for Lewis's party.
"Nothing parti—"
Hardly had I lowered the binoculars when a faint explosion reached me.
It wasn't as loud as when I'd scattered gunpowder around the pyre and caused the massive blast, but it was a big enough sound. I urgently turned my head toward where the sound had come from, and there, to the south, I could see a faint trail of smoke rising.
"The next destination's decided."
South, huh.
I went straight back down to the second floor where Sif and Laperinne were resting and said,
"Sif, get ready. I heard an explosion to the south, so we're heading there."
"Wh-what about me..."
"You rest here. You won't be attacked as long as you stay inside."
So much to do.
With my shovel slung over my shoulder as always, I vaulted over the second-floor railing.