The Prince and the Princess (3)
The princess seemed to think that even with so many people, the prince might still find a way to harm them. After all, he was known for being relentlessly persistent.
“Given how tenacious his personality is, I suppose it’s possible.”
Gulp—!
“Y-You mean the entire subjugation force?”
“If he’s determined to find a way, he’s the kind of man who could pull it off. So everyone, stay alert.”
“Y-Yes, understood.”
“The prince is starting to pay attention to us.”
We couldn’t even talk much. If the prince took offense, it wouldn’t just affect the princess—it could bring trouble down on the soldiers who had spoken with us too. If it were only my own problem, that would be one thing, but what about those poor soldiers who couldn’t possibly resist if the prince decided to retaliate? All we could do was tread carefully on their behalf.
This consideration must have touched the soldiers deeply, because their eyes shone with heartfelt gratitude.
“Should we at least greet His Highness the Prince?”
“He’d probably die of joy if we did.”
When Princess Reciel said “die of joy,” she clearly didn’t mean it in a positive way. Right now, even a simple greeting would likely be taken as a provocation. Even I thought it would be best to just move on.
“I’d love to see that crumpled face of his again, but I suppose I’ll have to hold back. It’s too pitiful watching how the soldiers keep glancing at us.”
If Princess Canaby had been well, those soldiers would have been under her command.
“It seems best to endure it this time.”
“Normally I’d want to scratch at him while I still can.”
Despite her regret, the fact that she refrained from any provocative actions showed she truly had no intention of picking a fight.
“There will be another chance later.”
“Do you think they’ll even be able to find the remnants we left behind?”
“Who knows. Without Sister Melody here, discovering it won’t be easy.”
After we had left, the mechanism had naturally returned to its original position. I had assumed Sister Melody had destroyed the device to let us inside, but that wasn’t the case. It had regenerated over time, and when we emerged, a new wall had formed. The realization left me utterly dumbfounded.
“Well, they don’t have a priest like us. Heh!”
Princess Reciel placed her hand on my shoulder.
“Bringing Priest Arthur along was the best decision I’ve made. Thank you for coming with me.”
At first I had been intrigued by this small, young girl who spoke in such an unusual manner. Now she seemed to have grown up in the blink of an eye. It felt like watching a niece I never had suddenly appear all grown up.
“I always pray that blessings fill Your Highness’s path ahead.”
“I hope the potion we obtained this time holds the answer. Since we did a good deed today, maybe the Sun God will look favorably upon it? Of course, it wasn’t me—it was the priest who did the work.”
Throughout our passage, the prince never once looked back at our group. Leaving behind their heavy, storm-before-the-calm silence, we quickened our pace along the path. The back of my neck prickled, but I knew we had to hurry and put distance between us.
“Whew, now that we’re out of his sight, I feel like I can breathe again.”
“Just leave them be. They won’t be having a good time anyway.”
“Now that I think about it, we don’t know what will happen to them if they keep following that path, do we?”
“I once overheard the priest mention it briefly. There’s a high chance of traps left by heretics.”
If they avoided the path the heretics had created and continued along the existing route, we had no idea what the outcome would be. From what we could guess, it probably wouldn’t be pleasant.
“I’m worried that prince might end up getting all those innocent people killed.”
“After the priest went through so much trouble to heal them, if they get hurt again…”
Once Prince Loras’s subjugation force was completely out of sight, everyone began discussing their unfortunate situation. The realization that their grueling journey was far from over brought a wave of pity. Of course, while they worried, no one offered to give advice. If they had wanted to, they would have done so earlier. Even if the soldiers heard it, they would only feel uneasy. The prince was unlikely to change his mind, and they couldn’t disobey his orders anyway.
“Enough about other people’s business. Let’s talk about ours. Leader, where are we heading now?”
Soon enough, the labyrinth’s terrain would shift and a path leading outside would appear. Until then, we had to endure inside the labyrinth, so we needed our next destination.
“First, we’ll leave the Ice Castle. There’s nothing more to gain by staying here.”
“Ooh.”
It must have been welcome news, because everyone’s faces brightened.
“And I plan to create a suitable place where we can all stay and rest until it’s time to leave. Her Highness has already agreed.”
“Would resting nearby be unwise?”
“We’ll see once we get out, but with so many people entering the castle, it doesn’t seem like a good choice. As you all know, we’re carrying quite a lot of luggage, aren’t we?”
If we had just come out of the castle but appeared to be carrying an unusually large amount of baggage…
“Since our numbers are small, anyone who doesn’t know better might get greedy and want to mess with us.”
“Good grief, is having a small group really that easy to look down on? On the contrary, carrying so much luggage with few people means we’re highly capable. Anyone who thinks about it for even a moment would realize that.”
“They commit crimes because they can’t think that far ahead, don’t they?”
With no more reason to fight, everyone chatted with much lighter hearts as we walked along.
“Besides, our luggage is so bulky that even if we try to hide it, we can’t cover everything. Once we descend, won’t we draw a lot of attention?”
“Ugh, just thinking about it makes the back of my head tingle.”
Because everyone had greedily taken as much as they could, their packs were far heavier than when they had first entered. If an attack came, it would be fatal. Fighting monsters was one thing, but fighting people was an entirely different matter.
“We hit the jackpot on the fourth floor. There must be even bigger treasures on the fifth, right?”
“I actually think the fifth floor will be nothing but chaff. The fact that the heretics made their den in this castle means they’ve already taken everything worth taking.”
“Gasp!”
“If new monsters have settled in the castle over the past three hundred years, their bodies might be valuable, but beyond that, there probably isn’t much merit. Our luggage is likely worth more than their corpses.”
It was only natural that fully processed equipment would be far more expensive than raw materials. As we descended the path we had come up…
“Please stop for a moment!! We need to make a decision here.”
The guide brought our group to a halt.
“We need to decide whether to take the staircase path we already passed or choose a path we’ve never taken before.”
The location where we had chosen a different route from the prince had reappeared.
“Priest, do you sense anything right now?”
“Me?”
“Hey, you shouldn’t say that to someone who just exhausted himself and can barely walk.”
“Still, just in case…”
“Unfortunately, I don’t sense anything. It would be nice if I could figure out the easier path, though.”
After achieving our original goal, the mysterious intuition no longer reacted. Perhaps the Sun God had urged me forward because He knew about the holy relic. Now that the relic was inside my hand, the intuition would not activate again.
“Going back up those stairs is basically asking to die. Let’s just take the other path.”
“As long as it doesn’t lead to the fifth floor.”
“Going up to the fifth floor might actually make it easier to find the way out. Many paths seem to lead toward the fifth floor. Instead of wandering aimlessly, heading straight there and searching from that level could be simpler.”
It was a reasonable point.
“But the state of the prince’s subjugation force after visiting the fifth floor…”
Having just seen them, no one in the party welcomed the idea of ascending to the fifth floor. Princess Reciel added words that only heightened everyone’s concern.
“Knowing the prince as I do, he must have failed to conquer the fifth floor. If he had succeeded, he wouldn’t have come back.”
He had claimed he returned to inspect everything thoroughly, but she was certain that had been an excuse.
“If he had succeeded, the way he looked at me would have been different. He had no composure. He looked impatient and anxious. That’s why he fell for my provocation so easily.”
As much as she disliked Prince Loras, Princess Reciel seemed to know a great deal about him.
“Therefore, ascending to the fifth floor seems dangerous. Let’s take another path.”
After listening to Princess Reciel, the leader made his decision. Between the path the prince’s group had taken, the path we had come from, and the final unknown path whose destination was unclear, he chose the one with no known objective.
“The traces are so flashy there’s no need to search. Just a short distance in and the ground is littered with monster remains.”
The guide identified which path the prince had taken without spending much time. Hoping the mysterious untouched path would lead downward, the entire party began to move.
“We really are lucky.”
Choosing a path that did not lead to the fifth floor had been an excellent decision. We could tell we had descended from the fourth floor to the third.
“There are people nearby. It looks like they’re in the middle of a fight.”
“Ignore them and descend as quickly as possible.”
“Yes.”
Once we escaped the fourth floor—whose geography we couldn’t accurately map—and reached the third, the guides were able to orient themselves much faster. This was partly because they had a reference map, but also because there were so many people around that monsters had become rare. With no need to prepare for monster attacks, simply walking quickly posed no problem. It had taken quite a while to climb to the fourth floor, but descending took only a few hours. The moment we arrived at the first-floor lobby, my heart felt as light as if I had returned home after a long journey.
“At first this place definitely felt rather beautiful, but now it just feels like pretty garbage.”
I, too, was starting to grow sick of the Ice Castle. Even after leaving it, we would still be inside the labyrinth, so the world outside would be covered in snow. Just thinking about it made me desperately want to return to the temple.