Ice Castle Fourth Floor (3): Guided by Intuition
We advanced across the fourth floor of the Ice Castle until we reached a fork in the path, yet we never crossed the prince’s subjugation force. Whether that counted as luck or whether their rapid progress was an ill omen, I still couldn’t decide.
And when the branching passage finally appeared—
“Of all places, there’s no map here. How inconvenient.”
We had no choice but to stop, unable to settle on a direction. The lack of a map was genuinely troublesome. No one could say with confidence which route would lead us to the fragment of the remote-island map we were hunting for.
Gradually, every gaze in the party converged on a single point.
“??”
I had assumed the eyes would turn to the leader and Princess Reciel, but they didn’t.
“Priest.”
“Don’t you have some kind of feeling?”
“Like maybe we should head that way…”
“If anything comes to you, please speak up without hesitation!”
“Exactly. No one here knows the way anyway, so it would be best if the priest decided.”
The person they wanted to choose the path was none other than me.
“Isn’t this the sort of thing the guides usually handle?”
Why me, of all people… Yet even the guides were turning to me with the request.
“We can investigate every factor and pick the higher-probability route, but no one can truly know which direction any given path will take. In a place where the layout itself has been heavily altered, our expertise is even less useful.”
Thinking back to the staircase we had seen upon reaching the fourth floor and the height of the passage we had climbed, the castle’s exterior as viewed from outside simply didn’t add up. So I could understand why the guides found choosing a path so difficult.
Besides—
“The truth is… I’ve been feeling strangely drawn to the left passage for a while now.”
Once the feeling was there, I couldn’t very well ignore it.
“Though I can’t guarantee it’s correct.”
“Oh, don’t worry about that at all! Leave the rest to me. Left path it is!”
The guide’s face brightened the moment I spoke. He immediately began a thorough survey of the left route, no doubt intending to gather evidence that would justify my choice.
Some time later—
“We’re taking the left path!!!”
It seemed the guide had successfully convinced the entire party to follow the direction I had picked. He had told me not to feel burdened, but how could I not? Even now, moving along the left passage, I kept worrying whether this was truly the right way.
Yet the moment we stepped onto it, I realized my concern had been needless.
This feels right.
Though I had never set foot here before, I somehow knew instinctively where to go. The uncanny sensation filled me with certainty.
“There were traces near the entrance that worried me, but they break off midway. It looks like they turned back after confirming this far.”
Once everyone was convinced the prince’s party had not come this way, their expressions brightened at once. Having experienced it once, I knew all too well that running into a hostile group inside the labyrinth was never pleasant.
“Monsters may appear from here on, so everyone stay alert.”
The leader normally treated his teammates with courtesy, but once combat began his speech grew curt. In urgent situations, polite orders could cause fatal delays; that was likely why. The fact that he had switched to short sentences also signaled a high probability of monsters nearby.
I readied my buffs while scanning the area with wide eyes. Amid the chaos I had briefly forgotten, but we needed to keep it in mind.
“If the icicles we saw on the fourth floor are any indication, the creatures here won’t be pushovers.”
This was the domain of the monster that had turned people into those very icicles. It was miraculous that our ancestors’ bodies from three hundred years ago had remained undamaged, but I was deeply curious about the creature capable of such preservation.
Thud!
“Huh? Uwaaagh!”
The man at the front suddenly collapsed in an empty space. It was no mere stumble; he had been attacked. The instant he fell, something invisible yanked him straight upward toward the ceiling.
“Cut it!”
One of the party members kicked off the ground, leaped, and severed the transparent strand dragging the fallen man by the ankle.
“Urk!”
The victim dropped, and the person waiting below caught him safely.
“Whew, that scared the life out of me. I nearly died.”
“What did you trip on?”
“I don’t know. It just happened out of nowhere. I did feel something catch my foot, though.”
“Check the floor carefully!”
At the leader’s command, Melody gripped my shoulder.
“Please do not move.”
“Understood.”
The warning meant traps were laid out; if I tripped and fell it would cause serious trouble, so caution was necessary.
“It’s a thread! Found one here!”
The guide who had swiftly located the trap called out to the leader.
“Completely invisible and extremely thin. Touching it triggers the trap. The thread itself doesn’t look especially durable, but once you’re hauled up there’s probably a follow-up trap designed to make escape impossible.”
“There can’t be threads only on the floor.”
“Correct. I suspect a dense web of invisible strands covers the entire area.”
“Solution?”
“Hmm… let’s try burning them first.”
The guide explained that if fire worked, we could advance while swinging torches. He brought one over and held the flame near the invisible thread.
“So it’s not an ordinary thread after all?”
Surprisingly, the strand resisted the torch for a moment before melting smoothly into water.
“Still, it can’t withstand fire!”
“Looks like everyone needs a torch.”
It would be cumbersome, but safety left us no choice. We each took one and swung them about as we advanced step by step.
“Trap found here.”
“Another one over here!”
The deeper we went, the more frequently we discovered traps.
“At this rate it feels less like a dungeon and more like an outright threat telling us to stay out.”
“They must have laid these traps because this place is important.”
“Good thing we asked the priest after all.”
“Everyone, stay focused.”
“Yes.”
No one had said it outright, but the sheer number of traps let us guess at the nature of the monster we would face.
“They’re here!”
Chzzz! Chzzzzzt!
Perhaps because we had been clearing traps as we moved, the monsters had finally noticed us. The sound of their approaching footsteps was anything but ordinary.
Just as I expected.
A creature that stored its prey instead of eating it immediately, spinning threads to create traps.
“Spiders!”
“Whoa, they’re as big as a person’s waist? Monster or not, that’s…”
Tap-tap-tap-tap—
The skittering of countless legs made the approaching horde sound particularly horrifying.
“They’re prettier than I expected?”
The killing intent and malice they radiated were repulsive, but their snow-white fur and multiple eyes that glittered like rubies were surprisingly beautiful. The words slipped out before I could stop them. Melody answered immediately.
“The eyes look expensive.”
“Be careful not to damage the eyes while fighting!”
At Melody’s words the leader promptly shouted to the party.
“She’s right. We need money as well as combat. Haha!”
Despite the considerable number of spiders, everyone raised their weapons without fear.
“Watch the ceiling and walls!”
Using the threads they had preset everywhere, the spiders clung to walls, ceilings, and every conceivable surface as they charged.
“Archers first!”
At the leader’s command I created flaming arrows and loosed them at the spiders. The oil-fed flames refused to die and spread rapidly.
A spider fired a thread from the ceiling.
“Argh! It’s freezing me!”
The instant the strand wrapped around him, his body began freezing at terrifying speed.
“Anyone with frostbite, over here!”
Knowing from experience that this was no ordinary cold but a curse caused by poison, I shouted quickly when I saw someone about to press a torch against their own body to burn the thread off. I couldn’t stand by and watch perfectly healthy flesh get scorched.
That teammate had been hit across his entire body by the ceiling-spat thread, so it was unavoidable. The others had fought more carefully, so their conditions weren’t yet life-threatening.
“This is a frost curse. The thread itself isn’t the main issue.”
The thread was cold, of course, but the real problem was the spider venom ejected along with it.
“Once I neutralize the poison you should feel better.”
“Ugh…”
His bluish lips told me the toxin had spread almost instantly. When I touched his skin it was so cold it felt like ice.
I hurriedly channeled Divine Power and began detoxification.
“Haa~”
The change in the man’s complexion confirmed the treatment was working.
“Here, a heating-stone pouch! Rub it on yourself.”
Someone handed over a pouch filled with warming stones. Since we carried similar items in our pockets like portable hot packs, it wasn’t unfamiliar. I took out my own pouch as well and tucked it against his chest.
Although the detoxification had stopped his temperature from dropping further, restoring lost body heat would take time.
“Ugh… Priest.”
“Are you all right? Sensation won’t return immediately. Just endure a little longer; it will get better. Don’t panic—breathe slowly.”
“Hoo… Haa…”
“How do you feel?”
“Please… tell the others. Watch… the ceiling.”
“I will.”
Worried his comrades might suffer the same fate, the man spoke and then closed his eyes tightly.
“Rest easy. The others are handling the spider monsters well.”
It wasn’t mere comfort; they truly were dispatching the creatures with impressive skill. The two mages in particular were outstanding. They scattered fist-sized flame orbs—far smaller and more controlled than the ones I had seen before—and incinerated the spiders.
The monsters were utterly helpless against the barrage.
“It’s not so bad, is it? I got scared for nothing.”