Return (1)
Return (1)
Katrin ran over and embraced the Princess.
The Princess hugged Katrin back, overjoyed.
People began streaming in behind Katrin.
Many were injured, and many were nowhere to be seen. In fact, hardly anyone seemed unscathed.
Those who entered stared at the empty interior in shock, their faces contorted.
"This makes no sense! This can't be!"
Following close behind, the Count confirmed there was nothing inside and froze, utterly dumbfounded.
Casting aside all noble decorum, he ran around the plaza like a madman.
He pounded on the walls and swept his hands across the floor.
But both the walls and the floor were nothing more than ordinary stone.
Finally, he rushed to the center of the plaza and tapped and groped at the orb, but it was just a sphere made of glass.
In the end, he slammed the orb onto the ground, then rushed toward me.
"You bastard! You entered first! Didn't you steal everything?!"
Spittle flew from his mouth as he screamed, his face contorted and his hands trembling violently.
Was it because his family's long-cherished ambition had dissolved into thin air?
Anyone could see he was so agitated that he had lost his mind.
Yet even in his madness, he directed his rage at me rather than the Princess, suggesting his aristocratic instinct for self-preservation was still working.
I immediately shook my head.
"I didn't!"
"It's strange enough that you're even alive, so how do I know you didn't secretly pocket them?!"
He had to know. I wasn't carrying a large backpack, and it was obvious at a glance that I couldn't have hidden anything away.
I did possess a relic pouch, but the Count had no idea I had one.
The others, who had been looking around with exhausted expressions, all turned toward me as the Count shouted.
It was a ridiculous accusation, but with the Count insisting so fiercely, it felt as though a nonexistent crime was about to be pinned on me.
'I have the relic pouch, so it's not like I can just turn my pockets inside out to show them.'
As I stood there flustered, the Princess stepped up beside me and addressed the Count.
"I entered together with Young Lord Alex. Are you implying that I took them secretly? It is just as the Young Lord said. It was in this exact state, and we took nothing."
To be honest, I had taken something, but since it wasn't a relic or jewels, I decided to play dumb.
"Ah... That's not... I apologize."
Only then did the Count seem to come to his senses.
Doubting me was equivalent to doubting the Princess.
Even if he truly suspected me, it was impossible to say so directly to the Princess.
Thanks to the Princess speaking up, the commotion was finally brought under control.
The senior knight and the representative of the noble officers came over to congratulate the Princess on her safe return.
The knights of the Royal Knights also expressed their gratitude to the Princess, if only with their eyes.
Many of them had seen her fall into the trap while trying to rescue the injured knights.
"I suppose the remaining issue is that the abilities she kept hidden all this time have been exposed."
Katrin came over to my side and sighed as she watched the Princess talking with the senior knights.
Now that the joy of the Princess's safe return had passed, Katrin had returned to the grim reality.
In order to save the injured knights, the Princess had drawn upon all of her abilities.
She had used not only her maternal line's ability, 'Mana Materialization,' but also 'Mana Resonance,' which was said to be possessed only by the King and the two princes.
Though it was hard to notice her using invisible mana to knock down monsters, many people had witnessed her entire body glowing faintly.
A royal body glowing with mana naturally brought one thing to mind: 'Mana Resonance.'
On top of that, her skill was far too exceptional for a ten-year-old girl.
Everything she had kept hidden until now had been completely laid bare.
Now that things had come to this, there was no way the two princes would leave the Princess alone.
'Could the noble officer who dropped the two of us have made his move after seeing the Princess's abilities back then?'
Just in case, I looked around for that officer, but he was nowhere to be seen.
'Did he die?'
If he was dead, there was no need to worry about him. I spoke to Katrin, who was lost in thought.
"Aren't you... going to scold the Princess?"
The only people who could scold the Princess for something like this were the Queen and Katrin.
But Katrin shook her head.
"How could I scold her? She stepped forward on her own to protect injured knights. If anything, I should praise her, not scold her."
Like aunt, like niece.
Then again, since Katrin had taught her to act that way, the Princess's actions in that situation were only natural.
Although I had benefited greatly from Katrin's righteous nature, having the person I was supposed to guard act like that was exhausting in its own right.
"For now, let's just be glad that Aisha is safe."
Katrin lightly patted my shoulder.
"Thank you for protecting Aisha."
"It was what we agreed on from the beginning."
At my words, Katrin flashed a bright smile.
"I knew I had a good eye for people."
"Just make sure to reward me well when I graduate."
I preferred a solid reward to words of gratitude.
I had no intention of getting emotionally attached for no reason, only to be saddled with trouble even after graduation.
After all, the contract was strictly limited to my time at the academy. Once I graduated, I intended to run away without looking back.
"By the way, how did you get here faster than us?"
"Aren't you going to ask how we survived?"
"You and I escaped a far more terrifying dungeon together. Would an even older version of you die in a trap like this?"
Katrin didn't know it, but the number of times I had died in that dungeon...
Whenever I heard things like this, I felt it was unfair that I was the only one who had regressed.
"When you and Aisha fell into the trap, everyone said you were probably dead, but I believed both of you were alive."
For someone who claimed to believe it, she had held Aisha and thoroughly checked her for injuries earlier.
I answered her initial question as truthfully as possible.
As for the map, I explained it just as I had to the Princess.
"It was truly amazing! If not for Young Lord Alex, we would have been wandering the maze forever. He found traps, warned us before monsters popped out..."
Having finished her conversation with the senior knights, the Princess came over and joined the conversation about me.
Perhaps because we had grown a bit closer during our time in the maze, the Princess enthusiastically told Katrin everything that had happened there, even though I was standing right beside them.
Most of her story consisted of praise for me.
Thanks to that, my worries only deepened.
After listening to my account, Katrin also told the Princess and me how they had made it here.
It seemed that when the Princess and I fell, many of the injured knights in the rear had perished.
Because the defensive line at the rear had been breached, several noble officers were also among the casualties.
It seemed these survivors had only made it because Katrin had fought desperately to hold the line.
Unlike before, the way the knights and noble officers looked at Katrin had changed.
'Though there's hardly any change in how they view me.'
The perception of me as merely the Princess's guard seemed firmly fixed, so people didn't pay much attention to me.
Honestly, I preferred it this way.
Fortunately, not many monsters appeared after that, and although there were more injuries, no further deaths occurred on their way here.
"It wasn't a total washout. Along the way, we found weapon and armor storehouses, and there were even some leftover gems and artifact-grade items."
They might have arrived a little earlier, but it seemed that searching for usable weapons and relics along the way had cost them extra time.
"That's why I ended up arriving first."
If they hadn't searched for relics, we might have been the ones arriving late.
"Those relics must have all gone into the relic bags, then."
"Half went into the relic bags, half into subspace. The two princes split them half and half."
It wasn't a total bust, so why was I about to get blamed earlier?
"Then why was the Count so furious?"
"Perhaps he had something specific he was looking for? To be honest, the items they found along the way weren't all that impressive. Hardly anything will end up in the Count's hands."
What on earth was the Count searching for?
Judging by how he checked the orb at the very end, it didn't seem as though he knew about the Ego either.
While Katrin, the Princess, and I discussed what had happened, the others thoroughly searched the interior.
They found nothing, naturally. Unable to leave empty-handed, they detached the unresponsive orb and shoved it into a relic bag.
"We will conclude the ruins exploration here."
Upon hearing that the place where the Princess and I had fallen was nothing more than a complex maze, the senior knight decided to end the exploration here.
The noble officers agreed, and the Count raised no objections either.
Having realized this place was empty, Count Chaipree seemed to lose all interest in the ruins.
He was deep in thought about something else, and we decided to spend the night in this plaza before heading back.
That night was remarkably quiet, save for the groans of the wounded.
Monsters could not enter this place, and when everyone woke up the next morning, their physical condition had improved.
Those without deep wounds were able to fight well enough thanks to potions, and even those with severe injuries had little difficulty moving.
But barely half as many people were setting out now as had entered the ruins.
The Royal Knights and the noble officers alike had suffered significant losses, and since no proper relics had been found, everyone's expressions were dark.
We passed through the iron door and climbed the stairs that led up along the side.
After climbing for quite a while, we came to a long passage stretching ahead.
It was the floor where the Princess and I had plummeted.
Rooms lined both sides of the corridor directly ahead of the stairs.
These were the storerooms where weapons and artifacts had been found.
"There were weapon storerooms, a mess hall, and even living quarters. They speculated it might have been a military base of the Old Empire."
"Is it normal to fill a military base with traps and mazes?"
"Well, that certainly is strange. I suppose I can understand why the Count was so furious."
Katrin glanced at the Count, who was walking ahead with long strides, and shook her head.
Then again, if I hadn't heard about the 'Hero Management System,' I would have thought the same thing.
The excessive traps and mazes in these ruins were undoubtedly there to protect the orb—no, the Ego.
The quarters were likely where the soldiers guarding the Ego had stayed.
In the end, I became the sole keeper of the truth, while the royal expedition party returned badly wounded, with no meaningful results to show for it.
Exiting the ruins was surprisingly easy.
All the traps had been disarmed on the way in, and the monsters seemed to have suffered heavy losses as well, judging by how few approached us.
Everyone walked at a steady, somewhat relaxed pace, and before half a day had passed, we had almost reached the exit.
Just as the passage leading upward came into view, the Count, who had been leading the group at the front, turned around.
Placing his hand against the wall, he spoke to everyone.
"Though I could not fulfill my family's long-cherished ambition, I must secure our family's future with my own hands."
Gathering his mana, he offered a quiet apology to everyone.
Boom!
The passage began to collapse.