The First Step
Elbridge arrived at the forest with his companions.
“This is the forest.”
Marcus wore a slightly surprised expression.
“I’ve passed through this forest quite a few times, yet I never knew a Great Demon’s seal was hidden here…”
Rombel scanned the surroundings like a man inspecting a building site.
“Surprisingly plain-looking place. So, where do we go from here?”
Elbridge shrugged.
“I’m not entirely sure myself.”
“You’re not sure? Weren’t you sealed here for two hundred years?”
“I was sealed for two hundred years, yes. But underground, in a stone chamber where barely a sliver of light reached. How would I know the exact location?”
“You must have come out of the chamber and found your way somehow.”
“I was already half out of my mind at the time. I wandered through a forest I’d never seen before without any sense of direction. It would be stranger if I actually remembered the path.”
Rombel made a sour face. Just from that expression, Elbridge could guess what he was thinking.
‘This is exhausting. Can’t we just head back to Soleneon?’
Of course, that wasn’t an option.
The silver lining was that, unlike the directionless Rombel, Marcus was a pragmatic and experienced mercenary.
“Let’s take it step by step. Sir Elbridge, is there anyone who might know the location of that stone chamber?”
“There probably were people… but none who would still be alive today. Even back then, very few knew the exact spot.”
“That’s unexpected. I assumed anyone who mattered would have known.”
“There was an important principle when sealing away demons. The fewer people who knew the seal’s location, the better.”
“Why’s that?”
The answer came not from Elbridge, but from Rombel.
“Because there were plenty of lunatics trying to break the seals.”
“What? Who would do that?”
“Quite a few. Demon worshippers, for one. Then there were those who hated or envied the holy knights who fought demons… and if I recall, there was even one fool who claimed demons were simply another form of the gods and therefore should be released.”
“Isn’t that last one technically true? It sounds a bit suspicious…”
At Marcus’s earnest reaction, Rombel snorted.
“When so many people throw crap at a wall, eventually something sticks. And even if part of it touches on truth, what does it matter? The solution they offered was completely rotten.”
“Well, that’s true enough.”
“Now that I think about it, there were also idiots who believed the old tales that demons would reward anyone who freed them, only to get themselves killed. Anyway, the world is wide and fools are as numerous as the stars in the sky.”
Elbridge, who had been listening quietly, let out a small chuckle.
He was a little surprised at himself.
Back then, those people had filled him with nothing but disgust and hatred. Yet looking back now, they somehow felt like fond memories. Time has a way of romanticizing even the most ridiculous parts of the past.
Marcus turned to Rombel.
“Couldn’t the various orders have kept the seals themselves? That seems far safer.”
“Didn’t you see what happened in the South when the orders started fighting among themselves? Some lunatic with his eyes rolled back triggered a Stampede.”
“Ah… yes, I did see that.”
The holy knight of the Shadowed Assembly, unable to contain his rage, had unleashed a Stampede.
Similar incidents could happen anytime.
“In any case, since there’s no one left to ask about the chamber’s location, we’ll have to find it ourselves.”
“Is that even possible? It may not be as vast as the Great Forest, but it’s still no small woodland.”
Rombel sounded rather skeptical. Marcus, however, paid him no mind and asked Elbridge,
“Any clues we can use? Anything at all.”
“Hmm…”
“Actually, it might be better to start from the beginning. There’s something I’ve been curious about. Sir Elbridge, why did you enter the seal in the first place? Both in the South this time and at the Central Magic Tower before. I’ve never heard of a holy knight being sealed together with a demon.”
“There were several mages responsible for sealing the Great Demon, but they all died fighting it. Mages tend to be rather slow. Look away for a second and they’re dead.”
“…You make it sound like a chick getting bitten to death by a badger.”
Rombel, who had been listening, let out a snort of laughter. Marcus’s comparison wasn’t elegant, but it was oddly accurate. And rather original.
“Anyway, without any mages left, the Great Demon’s core had grown dangerously unstable, on the verge of breaking free. We had to complete the seal immediately, even if it was an improvised solution.”
Elbridge’s explanation flowed without hesitation.
He had reflected on those events so many times that he no longer needed to search his memory.
“The expedition leader called for volunteers. Many brave holy knights stepped forward. I was one of them… and in the end, the leader chose me.”
“Because you were the strongest?”
Elbridge shook his head.
“I may seem special now, but at the time there were many holy knights stronger than me.”
When Marcus glanced at Rombel, the dwarf scowled.
“Don’t look at me like that. It’s not like there were that many. Holy knights on the so-called Paladin level were rare, maybe one or two per mid-sized combat order at best. There were far fewer who clearly surpassed him. And I wasn’t half bad myself, even by the standards of that era.”
“Who said anything?”
“Marcus, I’m not so dense that I can’t read the suspicious look in your eyes.”
Both Marcus and Rombel turned to Elbridge at the same time.
They were demanding an objective assessment.
“Although Rombel belonged to a non-combat order, he was stronger than most holy knights from combat orders. He could make up for the lack of divine authority through sheer talent.”
“Hmm.”
Apparently displeased by Marcus’s lukewarm reaction, Rombel raised his voice slightly.
“Be more specific. This bastard thinks I was some small fry.”
More specific, then.
Elbridge thought for a moment before answering.
“Seventy-five points.”
It was a vague number, but one that somehow felt about right.
Marcus nodded, but Rombel still seemed unsatisfied.
“I’m not asking for eighty, but seventy-five feels a bit low, doesn’t it? Objectively speaking, seventy-eight or seventy-nine would be more appropriate…”
Elbridge ignored Rombel’s request for a reevaluation.
“In any case, once I volunteered to become the core of the seal, the other holy knights completed the ritual. My memory cut off for a moment… and when I woke up, I was in an underground stone chamber. That’s all there is to it.”
He had simply listed his memories. There was no information about the location.
But Marcus continued piecing things together from the limited details.
“This forest is completely ordinary. It’s not a place many people pass through, and there aren’t any large cities nearby… Do you understand what that means?”
“It’s not a likely spot for an underground stone chamber.”
“Exactly. Which means the chamber was almost certainly built specifically to house the seal.”
Rombel frowned.
“And how does that help us?”
“It means if we look at the surroundings from the perspective of whoever built the chamber, the answer will reveal itself.”
Marcus stepped off the forest path.
“A secret chamber meant to hold a seal wouldn’t be placed somewhere easily accessible to strangers. They would have chosen a location people rarely visit.”
He pointed toward the deepest part of the forest.
“The innermost area would be ideal… but carrying materials that far in would be difficult.”
“Materials?”
“It’s called a stone chamber. Of course it would need materials. No sane person would carve an entire chamber out of solid bedrock. If I were a laborer, I’d avoid going that deep no matter what excuse I had to make.”
“Laborer?”
Marcus clicked his tongue.
“Holy knights wouldn’t have picked up shovels and built the chamber themselves. If I were a holy knight and someone told me to dig it myself, I’d come up with every excuse in the book. Something like, ‘If we do a sloppy job and the chamber collapses, the seal might break…’ In the end, they’d have to hire workers.”
He was right.
But one thing still bothered Elbridge. How had they silenced those workers?
It would be nice if they had used trustworthy men who could keep their mouths shut, but there was always the possibility that harsher methods had been employed.
…It’s not something I can do anything about now.
Marcus continued walking and talking.
“There are streams on this side and that side, so it can’t be there. Streams make the ground soft. If heavy rain causes flooding, it could be a problem… For the same reason, a spot slightly higher than the surrounding area would be preferable. Hills drain water well.”
Rombel looked somewhat disgruntled. It seemed his pride was stung by the fact that a human like Marcus knew more about this than he did. But architecture had never been Rombel’s specialty.
Of course, it wasn’t Marcus’s specialty either… yet the mercenary possessed all sorts of miscellaneous knowledge.
“But it definitely wouldn’t be too high up. It would be too noticeable, and they couldn’t risk people seeing them work. That narrows the likely locations down to a few spots… Sir Elbridge, is there anything you remember about the scenery you saw when you first emerged from the chamber?”
Elbridge searched his memory.
He wasn’t particularly knowledgeable about the names of trees or plants. But there was one tree even he couldn’t fail to recognize.
A tree with bark as white as snow, unlike any other.
“Birch.”
That day, Elbridge had prayed to the Goddess in front of a birch tree. He was certain of it.
“Birch trees, huh? That should be enough to find it. Let’s take a look.”
Marcus led Elbridge and Rombel through various parts of the forest.
A place far from any paths people used, yet not too deep in the woods. Slightly elevated compared to the surroundings. And with birch trees present…
They wandered for quite some time.
Eventually, Marcus stomped the ground with his heel and grinned.
“Here it is.”
Elbridge tapped the ground as well.
Unlike the soft soil found elsewhere in the forest, this spot gave off a distinctly different sensation.
And right in front of them stood a pure white birch tree.
“Let’s see… The entrance should be somewhere around here.”
“…Bushes. There were bushes all around.”
Marcus and Elbridge drew their swords and began clearing away the surrounding undergrowth.
Sure enough, a hidden staircase appeared between the bushes.
Marcus stroked his chin.
“This is easier to find than I expected. Anyone with sharp eyes and a bit of effort could locate it.”
“Most people wouldn’t have as many clues as we do.”
“Well, that’s true, but still…”
The three of them descended into the dusty underground chamber.
The stone chamber wasn’t large. About the size of a small stable that could hold two horses.
“You stayed here quietly for two hundred years?”
“It was worse than that. I was trapped inside a tiny cube.”
“What did you even do all that time?”
“Nothing.”
Though he tried to appear calm, Elbridge felt an almost unbearable sense of suffocation.
His breathing grew shallow and rapid, while his heart pounded violently as if it would burst.
The chamber’s walls seemed to close in from all sides. Cold sweat ran down his spine.
Elbridge took a deep breath and told himself,
‘It’s an illusion. My senses are deceiving me.’
He closed his eyes and breathed several times. The feeling eased slightly.
It was still oppressively stifling, but… manageable.
Marcus pointed at the far wall, where intricate patterns were carved with precision.
“Is this the seal?”
Elbridge shook his head.
“Not exactly. This cube is the seal. The patterns on the wall are circuits meant to stabilize it.”
In the center of the pattern, a translucent cubic cube protruded slightly from the wall.
It was roughly the size of a person’s upper body.
Elbridge ran his hand over the cube.
It was cool and solid. He had endured two hundred years sealed inside this small object.
He stared at the translucent cube.
And then he noticed something strange.
“Hup!”
Grabbing the slightly protruding part of the cube, Elbridge pulled with all his strength, yanking it free from the wall.
A small amount of stone dust and dirt trickled down.
The three of them discovered a small but clear crack on the inner side of the cube—the side that had been embedded in the wall.
“This is…”
It looked as though someone had placed a sharp chisel against the surface and struck it with a hammer.
But that wasn’t the most important part.
Beyond the wall that should have been packed with dirt and stone, there was an empty space.
Rombel muttered,
“Someone dug a tunnel in from the other side. They broke the seal from behind so they wouldn’t be detected.”
Nicesas’s guess had been correct.
There was indeed someone who had broken the seal.