156. Tell Me Your Wish (11)
156. Tell Me Your Wish (11)
As expected of the world's greatest healer.
I marveled at the burn marks that had vanished without a trace.
"Yohan... Did you really have to put yourself in so much danger?"
"Yeah, yeah!"
"Sometimes risking your life is what keeps you safe."
"Still, when you do something that reckless, I can't help but worry..."
"Sorry."
Not once during the fight against the Twin-Head Ogre had I thought I might die. It was nothing more than a test projection, and at worst, getting hit would just knock me out.
Still, making Karina worry wasn't a good thing, so I apologized to her. Karina heard my apology, then let out a sigh and spoke.
"Please don't do that again. If you do, I won't heal you next time, all right?"
"I'll be sure to remember that."
I backed down before Karina's warning. I could not promise I'd obey it 100%, but I knew the value of my own body. I had charged in this time only because Karina provided reliable insurance.
Without Karina, I would have chosen a safer method.
For example, I could have doused only its head, extinguished the flames, and then driven in my shovel.
...Actually, would that have been more dangerous?
I stood and loosened up with some simple calisthenics. Lying on the bare floor for so long had left my body stiff. The exhausted party watched me stretch and tilted their heads.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm loosening up. When your body stiffens, stretching like this reduces the strain on your muscles when you move again."
I didn't know the precise benefits, but that was roughly how I remembered it. Lewis, who had been sitting on the floor, seemed impressed and sprang up to imitate my movements.
"Like this?"
"Yeah."
"I actually feel my body loosening up!"
"I wanna do it too!"
It was good that the stretching helped... but when the girls began glancing around and joining us, I could not help feeling strange.
The sight of people with brightly colored hair performing Korean military calisthenics was so bizarre that it bordered on grotesque.
-----------------
"So it's the second floor now—"
"Viola, how much reagent do you have left?"
"About half? Tch. I need a non-consumable way to attack. There is a limit to how many reagents I can carry."
"Even so, its firepower is near the upper end of Fourth-Class Magic. I still think it's powerful!"
"Shuri, it still is not quite at the level of magic. Maybe I should change the mixture to increase its power, or shift my research toward potions..."
"Viola, why not strengthen the explosion while using smaller bottles? Even the equivalent of Fourth-Class Magic would be useful to an explorer."
"Th-that's true..."
"You think so?"
Ignoring the party's chatter, I opened the door to the stairs leading down to the second floor. It offered no resistance and exposed a pitch-black interior.
"Enough chatter. Let's head down."
The party hurriedly prepared and began descending toward the second floor. This time, however, one thing was different.
"Karina. Sorry, but I think I'll have to hold you for a moment."
"Huh?"
"Sorry, but I do not think we can get the wheelchair down those stairs. Millia, fold it and carry it."
"It can fold up?"
"Yes."
What kind of wheelchair these days did not fold? I carefully lifted Karina into my arms.
"Um... Yohan, this is a little embarrassing..."
"Sorry, but there's no other way."
I could not exactly ask one of the others to carry her. Lewis had been out of the question from the start.
"Th-then please take care of me..."
I couldn't tell what expression Karina wore behind her veil, but at the very least, her body in my arms felt a little warm.
Karina shifted to settle herself, pressing something soft and yielding against my chest. Perhaps it was my imagination, but a fresh floral fragrance seemed to reach me even in the room filled with the stench of burning.
I deliberately kept my eyes from dropping and addressed the party members staring at me.
"You go first."
"Ah, okay."
We began descending the stairs to the second floor.
Fortunately, the way down to the second floor wasn't very long, so it didn't take us long to arrive in a large hall brimming with brilliant illumination.
"It looks like a ballroom."
"What kind of fucking bastards are waiting for us here..."
"Viola, it would be better not to use such language."
"Ah, sorry."
"I-it feels ominous..."
As Elisa had said, the broad, spotless hall carried a subtle air of foreboding. It was so clean that it almost seemed certain something would leap out.
"Yohan, um... Could you put me down?"
"Ah, sorry."
"No, you do not need to apologize. I-it couldn't be helped..."
"Millia. Unfold the wheelchair."
"...wanted to carry her... Okay!"
She seemed to have muttered something, but it hardly mattered.
I seated Karina in the wheelchair Millia unfolded and fastened the safety belt. Karina held a hand over her chest and repeatedly took deep breaths.
"Are you all right?"
"...Ah, yes. Yes. I'm fine. L-let's go, quickly."
If she was fine, then so be it.
We moved deeper into the hall. The enormous chandelier made the place seem peaceful, but a closer look revealed a faint mist seeping up from somewhere.
"What is this place for?"
"A Twin-Head Ogre appeared on the first floor, so it wouldn't be strange if something even worse emerged here..."
"C-can we even win?"
[Contractor, they're completely terrified.]
They had every reason to be frightened. A Twin-Head Ogre was an immensely powerful and rare monster that an explorer might never see in an entire lifetime. Yet one had suddenly appeared as the gatekeeper of the Secret Archive's first floor.
Had that first-principal bastard developed dementia in his final years?
He could not have complained about being cursed like that. A Twin-Head Ogre was simply too much. An ogre, of all things.
Without me, this party would certainly have been wiped out.
Perhaps third-years could have managed it, but first-year rookies would have struggled even against an ordinary ogre.
In terms of pure skill, they could defeat second-years, but...
"Karina and Millia, withdraw toward the second-floor entrance. The rest of us will enter alone again."
"Okay! Don't push it this time either! I'll get mad if you do!"
Leaving Millia's angry voice behind, we headed toward the center of the hall. Nothing changed until we reached it.
Up to this point, everything matched the original game.
I turned to the rookies, who were anxiously scanning their surroundings.
[Contractor, mana is gathering—]
"...Exactly as I expected."
The flow of mana near the distant exit was gradually intensifying. It was so overwhelming that even someone as ignorant of magic as me could sense it.
I drew my shovel as I watched the second-floor gatekeeper gradually take shape near the exit.
"Everyone, prepare for battle."
At my order, everyone readied their weapons in perfect unison.
"We intercept the moment the gatekeeper appears."
"The second-floor gatekeeper appears immediately? What in the world is coming...?"
"Viola, don't worry too much. Whatever it is, it won't be stronger than a Twin-Head Ogre."
No matter how great a Wizard the first principal had been, he could not have possessed enough mana to churn out creatures like that one after another. I tightened my grip on the shovel as the monster became half-formed.
"Huh."
Physical force hadn't worked, so now it was magic?
A golem made from countless books.
Of all the bosses that could appear on the second floor, we'd drawn the one that would be the biggest pain in the ass for our party.
One glance at the golem's form suggested it could use magic, and I instinctively realized it would be even more troublesome than the ogre.
"A golem made of books...?"
"It looks weaker than the ogre, though...?"
Its body was half the size of the ogre's and made from books, so it didn't look especially powerful. But it was another of Andras's petty tricks—no, arrangements—and not an opponent to underestimate.
It undoubtedly possessed abilities designed to torment the students who entered.
"Do not lower your guard. Lewis, be ready to intercept it at any moment."
"Understood."
"Wizard group, prepare defensive magic."
"Yes!"
If I remembered correctly, its first attack pattern was a barrage of area-of-effect magic.
After enduring the opening attack, Lewis, Viola, and I would rush in and draw its attention. The Wizards would steadily damage its barrier, and once it broke, they would destroy the golem with high-powered magic.
A textbook strategy.
In the game, the tank absorbed all the damage while the physical attacker wore down the barrier, then the Wizard destroyed the exposed golem. In reality, we had no tank, so we had to adapt.
The battle was about to begin.
[Contractor, something's weird. I feel one more source of mana—]
"What?"
The moment I heard Rue, my instincts screamed a warning.
Something more dangerous had appeared.
"Y-Yohan! Th-the golem is collapsing!"
"Everyone, be ready to flee if necessary. We don't know what will emerge—"
...What?
"Meow."
What the hell were you?
You were supposed to appear on the third floor.
"...It's a cat."
A deflated sigh came from behind me.
We fell silent at the sight of a cat in a pointed hat sitting atop the collapsed golem and licking a front paw.
"Meow."
Andras's familiar, Kiki, regarded us with apparent boredom.