Ancient City (6)
"There's absolutely no way we're turning back like this!"
Every gaze snapped toward the boy who had suddenly shouted.
Several of those who had been wearing expressions of quiet relief—thinking, we're finally going home—went rigid the moment they heard Freddy's words.
"Why?"
"We have to take revenge. Running away like this would be a disgrace to every knight here."
"Roy. You're still young, so you don't understand yet. There are plenty of things in this world that will cannot overcome alone. What if whatever is waiting for us in there is something no human can handle? Forget revenge—we'd just die like dogs. Unlike you, I'm responsible for the lives of everyone here."
The knights who had listened to Freddy's words slowly closed their eyes.
The grief of having to leave fallen comrades behind. The crushing helplessness against a power so overwhelming they could not even dare attempt vengeance. Their hearts were a tangled mess of every emotion in between.
Meanwhile, the excavation team members, the dispatched priests, and the supply unit all nodded along. The second son of the lord had not said a single wrong thing. They could not afford to die like dogs here. From what they had heard, the monster seemed to stay put without moving. Charging into that death trap would only be asking for trouble.
Freddy, reading the room, added further weight to his argument.
"It could be like poking a hornet's nest. If we go and bother something that's sitting quietly in one place, and it decides to climb up to the surface? Roy. Can you take responsibility for that?"
"...But going back like this? We've struggled so hard to get this far. What about compensation for the past few days of hardship?"
"That's just how it is. Instead, on the way back we'll finally collect the treasures we've been holding off on. We can go into the buildings and scrape up every ancient relic and gold bar we find. No one else has ever come this deep, so everything in the area should still be sitting right where it was. Recovering just that much means this expedition won't have been a complete loss even if we leave immediately."
Roy shook his head hard.
"I refuse. I didn't come here for money. If it comes to it, I'll stay behind alone."
"Roy!"
Was it simple stubbornness?
Roy did not want to turn back like this. Precious lives had been lost because of him. If he returned in this state, the regret would haunt him forever. On top of that, coming all this way only to leave without performing the experiment he had planned was something he absolutely could not accept.
He had already known the creature would be powerful the moment he felt the density of its mana. But it was still only one creature—still only a monster. Unless a dragon had coiled itself right in the middle of the mana vein, he refused to turn tail and flee without even knowing what the thing was. That was something he would rather die than do.
Noah came all the way here too. He won't want to leave empty-handed either.
Roy spoke with iron resolve.
"I'm sorry, but I am not your subordinate, Sir Freddy. I will remain here of my own will. You need not feel any sense of responsibility for me."
"You little—!"
"If you're worried about Chloe, take her with you on the way back. If Anna and Jack choose to follow as well, I won't stop them. But I cannot leave like this."
"......"
Freddy's face twisted with frustration. The others shook their heads in weary disbelief. They were all thinking the same thing.
Stubborn mule.
In truth, Roy knew it perfectly well. He did not want to be this pigheaded; he wanted to persuade them. He wanted them to join him and help bring the monster down. The conversation had simply taken a strange turn. The group had split into two camps—those who wanted revenge and those who valued their lives enough to retreat. Not a single person had yet sided with Roy. He had to turn their hearts around.
That said, he did not need to convince everyone. Just one person. If he could move Freddy's heart, that would be enough.
"Commander, you look as though you've already decided to return. Does that mean the meeting is over? Didn't you say we should assess the situation first?"
"I don't want to go back like this either. But there's no other choice. Assess the situation? If we could do it without taking any damage, maybe. But we don't even know what that thing is. I can't send my men into a death trap just to gather information!"
"You don't have to send anyone. I'll go in alone and come back out."
"What?"
"If I identify what the creature is and then come up with a solid plan to take it down for certain, will you help me?"
"How do you plan to do that by yourself?"
"I have a rather remarkable spirit bonded to me. Confirming the monster's identity and returning won't be difficult."
"......"
"You're worried that if I go, I might provoke it into a rampage. So I'll circle around its territory and enter from a different direction. If I have to flee, I'll flee that way as well. I will absolutely not let it come anywhere near this place."
Sighs broke out here and there.
"He's throwing his life away."
"Whether it's youthful recklessness or just not knowing any better because he's so young..."
"Aagh! He's not even from our territory, so I can't even yell at him properly. This is so frustrating I could die."
Everyone assumed Roy was simply being stubborn. Yet the feelings underneath were more complicated. Though their time together had been short, they had shared life-or-death danger and grown fond of the boy. They did not want to stand by and watch him walk off to die. They could not freely step forward to help him, nor could they find a way to stop him, and that left them deeply frustrated.
But the words Roy spoke next forced them all to concede.
"I have amulets. And not just one or two of them."
"...!?"
Eyes widened all around.
"Amulets?"
"How much was one of those amulets found among the relics going for again? And he has more than one?"
"At least five hundred gold coins each, easy. For a single one."
People scanned Roy from head to toe, as if trying to figure out where he could possibly have hidden them. Ignoring the stares, the boy spoke again.
"So will you trust me and wait? I am confident I will not die. If I learn what the creature is, what will you do then?"
Freddy rubbed his chin in thought for a moment before answering.
"If you not only identify the creature but also bring back a plan that I and every knight here can nod to, then I will join you."
In other words, he was entrusting the reconnaissance of the monster to Roy. Roy's lightly clenched fist tightened with sudden strength.
"Then I'll leave right away. If I don't return for a while, you may go home without me. No—please do so."
"That's for me to decide. Just come back in one piece."
"Yes, sir! Then..."
Roy moved immediately. He had no intention of wasting time.
If I get there and the thing turns out to be nothing special... I could just take it down alone, right? Then of course all the spoils would be mine.
Roy was already planning how he might defeat the creature by himself—assuming, of course, that it proved possible.
"Hoo..."
He took one deep breath.
"Let's go!"
His eyes had already turned a pure gold. Together with Noah, Roy set out toward the center of the mana vein.
I still can't feel it yet...
He could not sense the monster's mana. He would have to find it first before he could figure out whether it fired flashes of light or arrows.
"Noah, can you tell where it is?"
"Hmm... Not yet, I'm afraid."
Noah scanned every direction as well, but all that met their eyes were ancient buildings and their ruins.
"Let's head farther toward the center for now. Be careful. They said the attacks can start without warning."
"Understood."
Each step was painfully slow. That single step might be the difference between safety and being hit by the creature's attack. Tense and watchful, they advanced through every direction.
A sea of mana so dense it nearly choked them. Could the creature be hiding its form within this very mana?
"...!"
Noah's ears suddenly pricked up.
"Did you find something?"
"Hmm... Something feels strange. It isn't alive, and yet..."
"What?"
"But it's moving. Coming closer this way. Wh-wait! Be careful!"
Roy poured every scrap of his concentration into the moment.
Then it happened.
Flash!
"Uwaaah!"
KRA-BOOM! Clatter-clatter-clatter...
Debris from a collapsed building spun through the air behind him.
"Wh-what in the..."
All he had seen was a flash of light right in front of his eyes. He had rolled sideways at the last possible instant and barely escaped.
"What was that just now?"
"It's not over yet! Watch out!"
Roy fixed his eyes on the direction the flash had come from and prepared to roll again. Another light flared, and once more he barely managed to throw himself clear.
KRA-KOOM!
He looked back at the building the flash had struck. This time it had not collapsed; instead, a hole far larger than a human head had been punched clean through the wall.
"What the hell... is that!?"
"Mana."
"Mana? That was mana?"
"Yes. More precisely, it seems to be firing compressed mana the way one would fire an arrow. Strangely enough, though, I can't sense any living being's mana."
"What? Then what is it?"
Roy was ready to go mad with frustration. He could not simply charge forward either. A single one of those flashes had torn a knight's arm clean off; another person had died with his entire head erased. And that was not all. On the way here they had seen countless monsters riddled with holes—had they too fallen victim to those same flashes?
"Is it a corpse or a skeleton or something? Whatever it is, is it blasting mana out like a cannon? No—how much of the stuff does it even have left to keep firing like that?"
It made his blood boil for no good reason. Here he was killing himself just to increase his own mana reserves, and this thing was casually compressing mana and shooting it?
Roy clenched his teeth and spun his mind into overdrive.
Pure mana bullets, then? In that case I should be able to knock them aside with mana of my own.
He drew his sword at once and activated Aura Blade.
If this works, I can fight it...
Roy intended to deflect the flashes with his blade.
"Don't push yourself too hard. You'll get hurt."
"There's no other way. If I'd known it would be like this, I would have reinforced a shield before coming."
There were shields among the supply wagons. He had also brought intermediate mana solution, so with enough time he could craft one quickly. But right now that was impossible. It was already too late. If he retreated without even learning the creature's identity, Freddy would order an immediate return.
"You stay hidden for now. Don't get hit for no reason."
"Understood. Be careful, all right?"
"Yeah. I'll call you when I need you."
Noah vanished from sight. At the same instant, another flash of light blazed forth.