Midterm Exams (7)
The instant my mace came crashing down on Adri's face, the countless objects that had been drifting through the manor crashed to the floor all around us.
I'd watched this pattern play out roughly four times now, so it was about time for her to go down.
Half expecting a sneak attack, I kept my shield raised and stayed on guard, but Adri never reappeared.
Instead, all that revealed itself was a door leading out of the dungeon and a table laden with rewards.
So that's it for Phase 2, huh.
Walking out that door would mean the dungeon was cleared, but I still hadn't saved Adri yet.
In other words, there were still a few more things left to do.
'That took way longer than I expected.'
'Clearing the place room by room like that, of course it dragged on.'
'If I could've skipped the monsters the way you do in a normal dungeon, it wouldn't have taken nearly this long.'
'At this point the question isn't whether I'll get any sleep before the exam — it's whether I'll even make it into the exam hall before it starts.'
I had no idea exactly how much time had passed, but I really hoped there'd at least be enough to wash up back at the dormitory.
'More or less.'
Even if I couldn't endure it, my skill would force me to endure it anyway.
There was no collapsing even if I wanted to.
Then again, honestly, I probably could have handled this much even without the skill.
I'd been put through training just like this until I was sick of it back at House Aln.
The things Forsell ordered me to do were brutal, sure, but nothing he made me do was ever pointless.
I passed back through the dungeon entrance and headed for the same place I'd gone the last time I cleared this manor's dungeon.
The iron door there had been locked tight, but when I slid in the key Vishy had given me, it swung open without the slightest resistance.
Almost done now. Let's wrap this up quick and go get some rest.
I was born into a family of necromancers. When I was little, I didn't know there was anything unusual about that.
My mother used it. My father did too.
When every single member of your household practiced necromancy, how was a little girl toddling around on unsteady legs supposed to know it was strange?
The first time I learned necromancy and showed what I could do, Mother and Father were overjoyed.
They said I had talent. That I was a prodigy who would bring honor to our family.
They held me in their arms and smiled at me.
And so, to make my mother and father happy, I studied necromancy all the harder.
Normally this would be the story of a girl who learned what she was only after her tale was told to the world — but sadly, I never got the chance to realize what I was while I was still alive.
Before I could ever understand it, the knights of the Church of the Main God came and burned our family to the ground.
I was young then. Not understanding anything that was happening, I was locked in the basement by my parents' hands.
With the promise that they would come save me when it was all over.
I believed those words and nothing more, and simply waited for my mother and father.
Life in the basement itself was not hard.
There was water.
There was food.
Apart from being unable to leave and having to stay there all alone, nothing about surviving was a problem.
It was lonely, but I held it in and bore it.
Clinging to the hope of rescue.
Studying my necromancy, dreaming that my parents would rejoice at the grown woman I would one day become.
One day.
Two days.
A week.
A month.
There was no twist.
The child born into a family of necromancers died alone in that family of necromancers.
That was the whole of the story.
Creeeak.
At the sound from beyond the door, Adri opened her eyes.
Huh? But I was just—
Adri shot upright.
What surfaced in her mind was the face of the demon brat who had been hunting her.
The one who dodged every attack Adri threw at her with almost insulting ease.
The one who grinned like nothing had happened even after being hit by a curse.
The one who provoked her with that insufferable smirk.
And then, without a flicker of hesitation, crushed her skull.
That monster.
Here? Is she coming here?
What do I do?
Where am I supposed to run?
Wait — would running even mean anything?
That monster would chase me to the ends of the earth no matter where I went.
What the hell is that girl, anyway?
Adri hated that tiny brat. Despised her.
But more than that, she feared her.
She was terrified of a monster that shattered everything she understood about the world.
As she trembled at the voice steadily growing louder outside, it suddenly struck Adri that she had seen that face somewhere before.
'Here.'
Wait.
I knew that monster?
How?
She's not one of our family.
She's the exact opposite of everything a necromancer stands for.
How could I possibly know someone like—
In her confusion, tearing at her own hair, Adri suddenly noticed the ribbon adorning it.
This was definitely—
'This is what you were looking for, right? Take it.'
...
And then she remembered.
Everything that had happened after she became a spirit.
Wandering the ruined manor all alone, with no idea why.
How, starved for company, she had searched for someone to play with — and how everyone who saw her ran screaming.
Then, one day, Vishy appeared and spoke to her.
The girl who destroyed the dungeon that haunted this manor, and gave her a ribbon as a gift.
BANG. At the sound of the door bursting open, Adri lifted her head — and found the brat standing there with a mace resting on her shoulder, smiling without a care in the world.
"Lucy..."
That was what Vishy had called her, wasn't it? That girl.
Had she never expected her own name to be spoken aloud?
The girl's eyes narrowed slightly, then the corners of her mouth curled upward.
"Heh heh. Amazing. I figured an old ghost hag would've gone senile ages ago."
"Who are you calling a hag?"
Adri scrunched her brow, clearly displeased with the title.
It was a familiar sight.
A grumbling, foul-tempered girl.
And yet, for all that, a necromancer of such extraordinary skill that she'd taught players the craft — an NPC.
Adri.
I'd always known I'd run into her eventually, but I never thought it would be this soon.
Should I thank our cheapskate evil god for this, or what?
'You remember everything now?'
"You remember it all now, lonely hag?"
"I told you, who are you calling a hag, you damned brat?"
I could tell she was furious about the age thing, but if we're strictly counting the years, you are a grandmother, aren't you?
Even my past life's age plus my current one doesn't add up to more than yours, so you're plenty old enough to earn the title.
And, well, you know.
No matter how much you gripe, it's out of my hands.
What am I supposed to do when the Mesugaki Skill insists on calling you a hag?
'We should go. Vishy is waiting for you.'
"Quit whining and let's go, hag. Time to go see your granddaughter."
"I keep telling you— Ugh. ...Ha. Now I get why Vishy can't stand you."
From the way Adri sighed and grumbled that, it sounded like she'd vented plenty of things behind my back at the manor that she couldn't say to my face.
Then again, hardly anyone had suffered on my behalf as much as Vishy had, so a little gossip was only fair.
"Hey. Brat."
'What?'
"What, you say. Lonely hag."
"Everything that happened in here today is a secret from Vishy. Especially anything about me."
On the surface it was a baffling request, but I understood exactly why Adri was making it.
This woman puts on an act in front of Vishy.
To be precise, before becoming the dungeon's wedge she had no memories of her living days, so she'd acted entirely innocent — and even now, with all her memories returned, she still wanted to play the innocent girl in front of Vishy.
Because she genuinely thought of Vishy as her friend.
'Understood.'
"Fine, fine. When a hag is shaking in her boots begging like that, I can grant at least that much."
"When did I ever— Argh!..."
Watching Adri mime pounding on her chest, apparently frustrated beyond words at dealing with me, I couldn't help thinking it was a blessing she was a ghost.
If she'd still had a body, at her age her blood pressure would've blown for certain.
With our short conversation wrapped up, I led Adri out of the room.
The Adri of before had been this dungeon's boss — but not anymore.
Having reclaimed every memory from the time after her death, she was nothing more than a grumbler who treasured the one friend she had.
So all that was left was to walk out of the dungeon, hand Adri over to Vishy, and this whole affair would be done.
Then I could go take my exams.
I was letting Adri's grumbling about why she of all people was a hag go in one ear and out the other when we reached the main entrance —
- Ding.
The chime rang in my ears.
There was no need to wonder who it was.
After all, there was only one being alive who lived to screw me over at the exact moment I felt most at ease.
[Agra is staring you down.]
Hello there, you cheapskate evil god.
I've been waiting for you to show up.
I was wondering why my stalker — the one who watched me clear dungeons near the Academy day after day after day — had suddenly gone quiet. Turns out you were just saving yourself for the finale, huh?
Seriously. Chief God or evil god, there isn't a single proper deity among them.
Ah, my mistake. Armadi actually did her job this time, so she gets an exemption.
Force of habit. It slipped out before I could stop myself.
Then again, evil gods really are nothing but pure trash, every last one of them.
No sooner had the message materialized before me than the exit and the reward table vanished without a trace — and from the manor's main entrance emerged spectral knights clad in armor.
They were nothing like the knights who had first blocked my way.
The bloodstained figures standing before me now were on an entirely different tier from the manor's guards.
The way they gripped their weapons.
The way they formed their ranks.
The glare with which they fixed their eyes on me.
Not a single element was lacking. These were men whose skill had earned the right to be called veterans.
Knights of the Church of the Main God — veterans bound to the Evil God as specters
"So these are the shitty knights of the Church of the Main God, huh~"
These are the people from the Church of the Main God who attacked this family?
No wonder they didn't so much as flinch at the divinity flowing through my mace.
- A child who wields the power of God. Step aside, specters.
- Necromancers are a blight that must be erased from this world.
- Refuse to yield, and we shall brand you a heretic.
A heretic? Me?
Such preposterous nonsense came pouring out that I couldn't help laughing.
If I — the Apostle of Armadi herself — am a heretic, then who on this continent does the Church of the Main God have that isn't?
Whatever I do, I reflect the will of God far more faithfully than anything coming out of your mouths.
"What was that~?♡ Pathetic little knights~♡ Mob mobs who've never once heard the voice of God, and you're calling me a heretic~?♡ How daring of you~♡"
The words were out of my mouth, but I didn't have any real conviction that I could bring them down.
They weren't an unknowable monster like the Alchemist I'd faced before — but they weren't pushovers either.
In a one-on-one, I'd grit my teeth and give it a shot. Against that number? Impossible.
Knights trained to fight as a unit are not merely a crowd.
They are a nightmare — many bodies moving as one.
I had watched what happened when knights banded together during my training days at House Aln, so I knew that truth better than anyone.
If they set their minds to it, hunting down one girl like me would be nothing more than a chore.
Even with the favorable matchup on my side... this was too much.
And yet.
Hmm.
I can't back down, can I?
I went through all that hellish grinding all night long — and now I'm supposed to walk away empty-handed and admit defeat?
Sorry, but there is no way that's happening?
I'm a sneaky, petty, shameless human being, and I have absolutely zero intention of taking a one-sided loss and slinking off!
The moment I made my decision and shifted my grip on the mace, the objects that had turned the manor into a disaster zone began floating up into the air, one by one.
"Oh? I figured you'd run, but you've got more spine than I expected, brat. I'll give you credit for that."
At Adri's voice from behind me, all I could do was stare blankly at her face.
It wasn't strange, not really.
Adri was still this dungeon's wedge.
There was nothing wrong with her retaining the full power she'd held as its boss.
Nothing wrong at all.
Except that in the game, this had never once happened.
A variable.
Ever since I'd entered this world, variables had threatened me at every turn.
Variables that screwed me over at every possible opportunity.
And now, for the very first time, one of those variables was trying to help me.
"What are you staring at, you insolent brat?"
'You're the one who got beaten by me, and yet you have so much to say.'
"Big talk from a pathetic old hag who lost to me. Is it the age? Looking ugly suits you."
Now that's the appropriate response.