16. O Sole Mio (6)
16. O Sole Mio (6)
- 1 -
Mariana Leonis wanted to leave the city immediately, but both of them knew that was impossible.
Even if Leonis handled finding the dungeon's exact location, they still needed to reinforce their combat strength for the battle that would take place inside.
The adventurers they had already assembled were, at best, specialists in searching for dungeons and people.
For actual fighting power, they needed to hire other adventurers or mercenaries.
At the very least, they would need someone to guard the rear guard, such as Sonia, in addition to Maria and Daniel, who would be the ones going into combat.
"Here is your pay. Thank you all for your hard work."
"Thank you, Lady Maria."
"Good luck, Lady Maria...! I'm sure you'll find your younger siblings!"
"Thank you, Velvet."
And thanks to that, I had a few days' time as well.
My purpose in coming to a human city had been to gather enemy intelligence, but just as important was confirming the information about the surrounding area.
To that end, when everyone was asleep and passage inside the city was forbidden, I slipped out of the inn where Maria's party was staying and stepped into the night sky.
"The night is a bit cool."
It was summer, or a season as hot as summer.
Still, as I stood atop the city wall where the patrol was asleep, looking down at the city, a pleasant dry breeze blew.
I hadn't expected this, since a river was nearby.
Being around people who showed me goodwill but weren't particularly friendly, then slipping out alone, felt indescribably good.
'I can see everything clearly.'
The darkness of this world's cities was incomparably deeper than Earth's, but that didn't matter to me.
Just as vampires had the power of blood and emotion, and dream demons had the power of dreams and souls, the necromancy of a necromancer also held the power of shadows.
Day and night held no meaning for my movements.
'That's where they are.'
"Let's go."
- Dalkak.
The walls of the fortress city were high, so their shadows were deep and thick.
After dropping down from the wall, I stepped one by one on the white skull hands that rose up from the shadows, landing safely on the ground.
"Hiiik...!"
An unlucky person's shrill scream rang out.
"Tsk."
"I-I saw nothing...!"
"That's right. Now you will see nothing."
Kwajik!
For occasions like this, I had emptied out my inventory from my room beforehand.
The skeleton, once a bandit and now loyal to me, dragged the corpse into the shadows, loading it into my inventory.
I could toss it somewhere suitable later, or if I couldn't, just 'summon' it as is.
"It's tall."
The lord's inner castle was situated close to the eastern side of the outer wall, and it had been built taller than the outer wall, perhaps for the sake of giving commands.
Since it would also need to receive sunlight, the lord's living quarters or council chambers would be at the highest part of the castle, I guessed. So I immediately moved to find the shadows of the inner castle.
"Alright, go in."
Then I sent my summoned creatures, each a dirty gray hand bone with a crystal eye embedded in the back of the hand—'The Necromancer's Eyes'—into the castle.
No gaze or presence was felt. If anyone outside had witnessed this, alarm bells would have already rung. Dozens of grotesque insect-like things were crawling into the castle.
Moreover, this castle had no defenses whatsoever against a dungeon lord's mana.
It was understandable, since dungeon lords who broke out to the surface were extremely rare throughout history. But from the perspective of someone on edge, it was like a gaping hole in a net.
"More disappointing than I thought."
Thanks to that, it didn't take long before the results of my actions were in my hands.
I left no trace.
There had been only one unfortunate victim, the homeless man I'd seen near the wall. The fact that the poor soul had ever existed would soon be forgotten.
However, the outcome was more meager than expected.
"Neither the locations of nearby villages nor the habitats of monsters are properly recorded..."
All I could see were the positions of mountains, rivers, forests, and cities.
The 'military map' was a miserable thing, recording only terrain and city positions at best.
I had known that medieval maps were bound to be crude, but since this was a world with magic, I had been a little hopeful.
"Ah. Mages."
It suddenly occurred to me that mages might actually possess more detailed maps.
I thought about it for a moment.
The lord's castle had no defenses against mana, but would the mage guild be the same?
Of course, the conclusion was that I wouldn't know until I tried.
And as luck would have it, the city's main forces were currently away, subjugating that senior dungeon lord. Even if it wasn't the 'Truth-Groping Eye' guild, this was a moment when their headquarters could be expected to have significantly fewer people.
'It's worth a shot.'
With that in mind, I looked at the second map I'd obtained from the castle.
It was more detailed than the first map that recorded the area's terrain: a rough map of the inside and outside of the fortress itself.
The inn where Maria's party and I were staying was in the southern part inside the outer wall, and the 'Truth-Groping Eye' mage guild was also nearby.
The lord's castle was to the east.
And along the northern and western outer walls, there were three more mage guilds in total.
Probably positioned to provide an immediate response should anything happen to the walls.
To my eyes, that route looked just like a walking path.
'Perfect for a quick round before heading back.'
Leaving behind that private impression, I started moving.
Fortunately, the night's worth of movement proved worthwhile.
- 2 -
After the first day was spent resting, Daniel returned the next morning, late in the morning.
Our traveling speed was slow, so it would not have been strange if he had arrived at the same time as us.
"You worked hard."
"Miss Maria. Am I a little late?"
"No, you came right on time. We can rest today and leave tomorrow."
"Really? That's a relief. I couldn't locate the dungeon, but I've secured the suspected location. We can bring the new mage and confirm it."
"Well done. That'll make things much faster."
Maria, Leonis, and Daniel. The three of them moved quickly.
They pressured the adventurer guilds and mercenary guilds within the city to confirm the remaining forces, while at the same time securing several fighters by offering a sizable reward.
A large-scale request means a big job with a big reward, and because so many people would be moving, the survival rate was also relatively high.
Many people had already left to carry out the large-scale city request to subdue the rampaging dungeon, and the odds were high that those who remained would follow later, so additional spending was unavoidable.
"Still, we were able to secure a few, thankfully."
"Though they aren't exactly reliable..."
Although there wasn't a single one of 'advanced' rank, and they could only recruit two full-fledged adventurers and two apprentices.
Two vanguards and two rear guards.
"Oh-ho. Lady Mage. So we meet again."
Among them was a familiar face.
A half-baked full adventurer who was perceptive yet couldn't hide his self-respect—the western continent tracker, Gyeonghan.
It seemed the others had already taken a battlefield request and left. Should I call it a relief that I wouldn't meet any more familiar faces?
The fact that only this one, the person Maria rated the worst, remained and was hired again meant that the city really had that few people.
"Mr. Gyeonghan. We meet again."
"I couldn't forget the taste of the jerky you gave me, Lady Mage."
"Ah, this?"
"Phew. After this, I won't be able to stomach any other jerky."
"That's nice to hear."
He was still the same fellow who knew how to flatter.
"Mr. Gyeonghan. I'll be counting on you this time."
"Lady Maria! Naturally!"
He was the type whose face would crumple the moment anyone treated him even a little poorly.
I caught the distorted look on Gyeonghan's face as he turned away from Maria.
He had a face that looked like it would definitely cause trouble.
Dagak-dagak...
After that, from the morning of the third day, the journey to the dungeon proceeded much faster than before.
We had gotten a wagon.
The distance was too short to justify the cost of traveling by wagon, but the anxious Leonis had generously spent his wealth as a mage.
Unlike before, where a group of novices and Maria's party had to combine movement with searching, this time they only needed to move quickly.
'... I'd heard about it, but it's uncomfortable.'
Even so, they hadn't been able to get a high-end wagon, so it was quite uncomfortable.
I had a demon's body and the others were all trained, so it didn't matter—either our recovery rates were high or we simply had no issues. But for the physically weak Sonia, it was enough to make her face pale and her stomach turn.
"Sonia. Are you okay?"
"I'm fine... No problem."
Maria had strongly urged her several times to rest in the city, but Sonia wouldn't listen at all, which frustrated Maria.
It must have been puzzling, since Sonia had supposedly followed her well when she was young—no, even just a year ago.
"..."
I shook my head at Maria, who was looking at me.
Meaning that I, too, had tried to persuade her several times, but she hadn't listened. This was no lie.
Indeed, I had tried to persuade her and she had refused.
[... Do you understand?]
[Yes, Teacher.]
It was just that I had spoken to her a few times beforehand.
That for Sonia, the incident that shook her life had to reach a conclusion somehow, and that conclusion had to be seen with her own eyes and finished by her own hands as much as possible.
That otherwise, it would be hard for her to move forward.
That kind of talk.
"My friends... I will..."
"Sonia..."
Thanks to that, Sonia's stubbornness now was unquestionably 'her own.' Just because the wind blows doesn't mean the ship will always follow it.
There was some regrettable headwind from Maria, but in the end, it was Sonia holding the helm.
I watched their exchange for a while, then felt an approaching presence and turned my head in that direction.
The power of the core.
It was the momentum of something I could call my other half.
'Seems like a good change of pace, too.'
Over the past few days, I had experienced the atmosphere of this world by seeing a place where people lived. The development was a little slow and the culture quite different, but still, it felt like traveling in a foreign country with good public order.
Returning home after such a pleasant journey always feels good.
And I felt the same way now.
'I want to see her soon. Eve.'
The image of her, like a big dog waiting for me, painted itself before my eyes.
The Eve in my imagination was a beauty, but her hair color always varied because I didn't yet know it. Since her eyes were blue, at least those were consistent in that range.
"... Pfft."
Somehow, the image of her sitting like a dog and wagging her tail came to mind, and I quietly laughed so others wouldn't notice.
It wasn't a thought fitting right before battle, but that couldn't stop my imagination.
- 3 -
At the same time, inside Rita's dungeon.
'... She's coming.'
Even as a mere scrap of a skeleton that couldn't approach the dungeon core, let alone its vicinity, Evangeline could feel the approaching presence of her master.
Cheolkeok.
Seureureuk.
- Dalkak.
As she rose from her seat, wearing Jack's breastplate, two blue glints began to stir in the darkness.
Dozens of soldiers, each gripping an axe, a hammer, or some other weapon fit for a bandit, rose in unison.
Their very appearances differed slightly.
From minor differences in build to major ones in their race during life.
- Tak!
Chak!
But despite that lack of uniformity, the movements of the skeletons as they assembled possessed a certain discipline.
It was a movement hard to imagine from ordinary skeletons who had undergone no class-ups, calling to mind rather the image of skeleton soldiers.
Seureureung!
When Evangeline raised her sword, the skeletons raised their own weapons once in the air, then began to march.
A little more than a week.
That was the time it had taken Evangeline, even without Rita's command, to learn to direct the dim-witted skeletons like an army.
『Genius Commander - When commanding more than fifty soldiers, the main stats of the commander and the soldiers increase. This is proportional to the number of soldiers.』
On the status window she could not see but dimly sensed, the 'blue' trait that had blossomed while Rita was away was shining.
That this was the result of training her movements while leading subordinates who had been stupid in life and even stupider after death, driven by the sole determination to show a splendid sight to her returning master, and that it had brought back something from the future as well as the past in another form—this was something even she herself did not know.
If Rita came to know, she would have no choice but to smile. Whether it was an empty laugh or a smile of genuine joy.
Anyway.
- Tak.
In the shadows at the dungeon's entrance, the swordsman's eyes blazed blue as she clenched her sword tightly.
Before Evangeline and her master, battle was approaching.
