The Final Chamber
BOOOOM—!!!
"Wh-what was that…?"
"Ambush?! Get up!!"
X and Circe bolted upright at the sudden impact. While X was still clawing his way out of sleep, Circe had already finished preparing for combat and was scanning their surroundings.
There was nothing there. The warning magic she'd set up hadn't triggered either. And yet the impact had made its presence unmistakably known.
BOOOOM—!!!
"What in the world…. X! Do you know what's going on?"
"No, I have no idea what this is! I already used up all my bombs!"
"Bombs?! So yesterday's explosion was you!"
BOOOOM—!!!
The unidentified impacts rolled through the ruins at regular intervals, booming from every direction at once.
"Don't tell me Leon's smashing through the walls?"
"Leon doesn't have that kind of power yet!"
They tried to trace the source, but the direction of the sound and its volume kept changing. The ruins themselves were still shifting, after all.
While Circe struggled to make sense of the chaos of information, X made a decision and stuck to it.
"Circe, we need to move. Right now. If it isn't Leon, then it's obviously a third party. Whoever they are, they're planning to bring the Ancient Ruins down if that's what it takes to claim the final reward."
"You think we can get there before that monster does?"
"As far as I know, your clear speed is the fastest in the world. We've already made it to three-digit rooms, haven't we? An hour at most."
"D-don't butter me up! You think that's going to make me happy?"
BOOOOM—!!!
"Though we should probably pray that thing doesn't arrive within the hour."
X and Circe hurriedly packed their things. Thanks to Circe's magic, it took less than five minutes.
"Could you teach me that later?!"
"If you have time to joke, run!"
The moment they finished packing, the two of them took off. Circe took the lead, hunting for rooms with the smallest numbers and throwing the doors open. Finding the next room after entering one took less than five seconds.
They had been running for five minutes when Circe's feet began to slow.
"Hah— hah…."
"What's wrong?!"
"I-I'm out of stamina…. I-I'm a mage, you know…."
"Then I'll carry you! Just tell me which way to go!"
"What?! Eep…."
X slung their packs across his chest and hoisted Circe onto his back. She found herself draped over him before she could protest, startled and mortified. She had never imagined she'd be piggybacked by a student who was, mentally, still a child. Of course, X's soul was older than hers.
"Circe, which way?!"
"Y-you really…! Left!"
"Hold on tight! I'm going to run!"
X reinforced his legs with aura, building up the power in his stride. Reaching wherever Circe pointed took no more than five seconds.
"Left! Straight! Right…. That's left!"
"This is more chaotic than I expected!"
Managing his aura, following her directions—it was enough to drive anyone insane. And above all else, they had to stay ahead of whoever was causing those impacts. In a situation like this, there was no hiding the fact that he was using aura.
"You can use aura, can't you?! Right!"
"I have no idea what you're talking about!"
"The rumor that you used aura and mana together—is that true?! Left!"
"Would you believe me if I said no?!"
"Like hell I would! Straight!"
The numbers on the rooms fell by the second. Three-digit figures became two-digit ones. Here and there, even single-digit numbers began to appear.
We're almost there…!
That was when a new problem presented itself.
WREEEEEEE—!!
An earsplitting alarm tore through the entire Ancient Ruins. The torches in every room shifted to a red so intense it hurt to look at. At the same time, an unidentified voice echoed from every direction.
Circe frowned at the sound and muttered under her breath.
"Ancient language…?"
It wasn't anything like the Empire's common tongue. Strangely enough, the meaning of it was perfectly interpreted for X.
Structural damage exceeding 10% detected.
Intruder exclusion and restoration procedures: ACTIVATED
A chilling countdown had begun.
"Circe, we have a problem."
"Now what?!"
"They say they'll start excluding intruders in five minutes."
"Y-you can interpret ancient language too?!"
"I only just found out myself…!"
What the intruder-exclusion procedure actually entailed became clear soon enough.
Vmmmmm— thud, thud, thud!
Geometric structures burst from the walls of the room. The structures twisted and reshaped themselves, assembling into form. Once the transformation was complete, there was no mistaking what they were.
"…I must say, those are some strapping golems."
Golems so massive they touched the ceiling just by standing. And twenty of them had been generated in this room in the span of a breath. A frontal fight would turn the two of them into mincemeat—that much was certain.
But if they're golems, Circe can disable them…!
That was when Circe made a despairing declaration.
"There's something wrong with them! I can't interfere with their mana!"
"Interference blocking…!"
It wasn't actually that strange. The Ancient Ruins had always thoroughly blocked the flow of mana. Of course the security golems would have interference blocking.
"We're making a run for it…!"
X took off at once. Time was short, but the end was close. The golems were still just standing there, unmoving. They would attack the moment the countdown hit zero—that much was obvious.
"How much time is left?!"
"Less than a hundred seconds!"
With thirty seconds remaining, the golems' eyes flooded with red. They had already turned their heads, locking onto X and Circe. A childlike gaze, burning with red-tinged hostility, fixed on X in particular.
"If they're security golems, they should only be attacking actual intruders…!"
"…I did smash a few walls, to be fair."
"You— YOU—!!!"
And then, with five seconds left—
"Room 1, straight ahead!!"
Circe pointed forward. Room 1—their final destination—was right there.
"Hold on tight…!!"
The instant they grabbed hold of each other, he detonated the aura in his legs. A single leap carried them across the remaining distance in a heartbeat.
WHOOOOSH—!!
Twenty house-sized masses of stone moved as one. The golems charged in to crush X flat.
GROOOOOH—!!!
The golem standing beside the door ahead of them raised both hands high. It predicted their landing point and brought those hands crashing down. Circe threw up a barrier in a hurry, having seen the attack coming—but it was nowhere near enough to bear that crushing weight.
The golem's hands fell with catastrophic force.
KRAAAANG—!!!
Enough destructive power to shatter even the floor of the ruins. A wretched spray of dust.
"…That was close."
There was nothing beneath the strike. X and Circe had already made it into Room 1.
Circe stared blankly for a moment before snapping back to herself.
"Watch the perimeter! There might be security golems in here too…!"
"I already looked. We're safe here."
The place was silent and dark. No red warning lights flickered. No screaming alarm clawed at their ears. There was no threat of any kind in this room. A space that seemed to stretch on and on unfolded ahead of them, and at regular intervals, soft torches glowed just enough to light the way.
This was the final destination—the place where the reward could be claimed.
"W-we made it…."
Only after that fact sank in did Circe start shaking X, celebrating with her whole body.
"We made it! Ahahaha!!"
"I'm glad you're happy."
He set her down along with their packs, but her excitement still hadn't settled. She kept talking.
"It's been so long since I've had something like this! I finally feel like I've actually accomplished something! Do you know how much I wanted an adventure like this in my past life?!"
"Huh? Didn't you spend your whole past life doing nothing but adventuring?"
There had been nothing in the lore about the reincarnated heroes' previous lives. The original novel had mentioned it a few times along the way, but those details had never actually been fleshed out.
Circe let out an irritated sigh as she dredged up the past.
"Adventure? Don't make me laugh. There's nothing romantic about trudging through fallen kingdoms and the Demon Realm looking like beggars. Do you have any idea what it's like when eating monsters is just a normal Tuesday, because there's nothing else?"
"Ah. That's… yeah."
"And on top of that, Leon's personality meant we were picking fights every single day, Scarlet kept getting caught stealing, Johannes would donate our emergency funds, and Artemis would wander off picking up arrows and get herself lost!"
Circe's lament went on for some time. In the original novel, she had been the brains of the hero party and the voice of reason, so of course she'd been under constant stress. The fact that she'd been so high-strung after reincarnating that people had taken to calling her a raging bitch was, in a way, only natural.
So her past life was the same, huh…. Oh, right.
Something he needed to check occurred to him at just the right moment.
"I heard a rumor recently that Leon hit a girl in his class. What was that about?"
Leon had never done anything like that in the original. He'd caused accidents constantly, but hitting a girl had never been one of them. When X had first heard the rumor, he'd dismissed it as more malicious gossip among nobles. His own rumors were far stranger, after all.
At the question, Circe's face darkened all at once.
"It's not a rumor. I stepped away for a moment, and Leon hit a noble young lady from his class. With his fist."
"What? That's impossible. The Leon I know would never…"
"The Leon I know would. Everyone's got the wrong idea. Leon is absolutely not as good-natured as people think."
X knew that too. Leon's personality was upright, honest, and rigid. In other words, he had no flexibility and no social skills. He would never compromise, even when he should have.
A fine hero. An insufferable human being.
That personality had caused no shortage of problems and incidents, but they had gradually improved with time. Even so, there had been lines he never crossed. If the rumor was true, that was a different story.
"Can you tell me exactly what happened?"
Circe explained, sighing the whole way through. After hearing everything, X's brow furrowed.
"He's been restless lately, you said…. Why…?"
"The reason's obvious. He got chosen as the Hero all over again, and if he doesn't do something his whole body itches. That's why I brought those kids here."
"…Ah!"
He'd found the root cause of what Leon had done.
Don't tell me it's because I wiped out the conflict with Sword Rang…?!
If that was the case, it had been a serious mistake. The reason Leon's personality had never caused this kind of problem in the original was that he hadn't had the bandwidth to care about petty things. But X had gone and resolved the incidents Leon was supposed to go through. That personality had festered, and the rumored incident was the boil bursting.
The thought sent a spike of anxiety through him.
"…Lola will be all right, won't she?"
Even if Lola was with Leon, he couldn't help worrying that personality would become a problem. Leon's personality was a problem—and so was Lola's.
Leon is a comeuppance-path protagonist.
Leon's personality had been tailored to the trends of the time. Man or woman, if they got on his nerves, "teaching them a lesson" was just what you did. That was the era.
And Lola's got more of a temper than you'd think….
When Roxwell had threatened the students at the start of the term, the only one who talked back was Lola. The one who set off explosion magic the moment things went even slightly wrong? Also Lola.
"Mm…. I don't know that kid's personality that well, but…."
Circe thought hard, then let the words out, worried.
"I already warned him once, so it should be fine…. Probably…."
"Probably…."
"Frey's right there next to them, too…. It should be okay…."
"You mean the Hidden Saintess…."
"So you know about that…."
With the anxiety closing in, they both fell silent.
BOOOM….
In the awkward silence, only the unidentified impacts kept echoing.
"Hey."
Circe was the one who spoke first. She made a serious decision and lifted her head. She steeled herself and looked X straight in the eye. Then she made a proposal he had never imagined coming.