Salvation
Salvation
Watching the forest undulate beneath the wave of monsters, Aisha recalled the time she had first begun hiding her true self.
That day, too, overjoyed after receiving praise from her personal tutor—who was renowned as a sage—she had rushed to her mother, the Queen.
As she ran down the hallway and approached her mother's reception room, she realized from the sight of the maids that something strange was going on.
Both the maid standing guard outside the reception room and the head maid who always attended her mother were standing far from the room, gazing at it with worried faces.
Aisha approached the head maid and asked.
"Has His Majesty arrived?"
The head maid shook her head.
Come to think of it, ever since the King's health had deteriorated, he had rarely visited her mother's quarters.
Then who could it be?
The head maid told her who the Queen's guest was.
"The Second Prince has arrived."
"Ah, has Second Brother arrived?"
At the news that the Second Prince had come, she immediately ran toward the reception room.
Her eldest brother, the Crown Prince, was a frightening person who was difficult to approach, but unlike him, her second brother was extremely kind.
The Second Prince listened attentively to whatever she said, offering her plenty of advice and praise. He was Aisha's favorite person after her mother, her aunt, and the King.
Thrilled at the thought of telling her favorite Second Brother about the praise she had received that day, the Princess didn't notice the head maid gesturing to her in alarm.
Because the head maid also had to stay far away from the reception room, she couldn't stop the Princess from running up to the door.
Just as the Princess was about to open the door to the reception room, she heard the Queen's voice from inside.
"Please, spare Aisha."
Her mother's voice was laden with tears.
The Princess couldn't understand. She had clearly heard that her second brother had arrived, hadn't she?
Thud.
"I am on my knees like this. Aisha is merely a little girl. Once she comes of age, I will marry her off to a distant kingdom, so please, I beg you, leave Aisha alone."
She couldn't comprehend it, but it was undoubtedly her mother's voice.
Then perhaps the one inside the room with her mother wasn't her brother, but a demon.
Overcoming her fear, the Princess tried to open the door again.
Just then, another voice echoed out.
"Kneeling will not solve anything. If Father weren't ill, Mother Queen would never be kneeling like this."
It wasn't a demon. It was her second brother's voice.
The Princess couldn't open the door.
"This all happened because Aisha is far too clever. Listen closely. Voices are saying that Aisha should become the ruler instead of us two princes."
The Second Prince's voice was exceptionally soft. The voice he had used to praise the Princess had been just as soft.
"Everyone knows Brother is a fool, but I don't see why I should be lumped in with him."
He grumbled to the Queen in that tone, then added,
"Aisha's awakening is not far off. If Aisha awakens properly, Father might get strange ideas before he dies. That would be troublesome."
He was saying terrifying things.
"Well, it's not like I'm going to do anything right this second. You don't need to worry so much. There are still two years left until her awakening."
Having heard this much, the Princess released the doorknob and slowly walked back toward the head maid.
It was an unbelievable conversation, a situation far too difficult for a young child to grasp.
But Aisha was far too intelligent for her age.
The maids couldn't hear the conversation from where they stood, and the Princess waited beside the head maid for the Second Prince to come out.
From that day forth, the bright and cheerful Princess was no more.
The rumors of the clever Princess also vanished, replaced only by occasional whispers among the maids about a quiet, somewhat mature Princess.
Along with the surge of monsters, it felt as though the frightening memories of that day were returning to the Princess.
She had trained hard, and during the 'field learning', she had fought monsters before.
She had been scared then, too, but she managed to endure it because Katrin was there.
Right now, Katrin was far away near the river.
It was a location where Katrin would have difficulty helping even if Aisha were in danger.
They said it was to prepare an escape route in case the students were put in danger.
Having become terrified in an instant, it was hard for the Princess to even recall such reasons.
The Princess looked around for someone she could lean on.
The handsome third-year senior who served as the team leader was staring straight ahead with an excited expression.
There were students who were terrified like her, while the rest were extremely tense.
She wasn't the only one who was afraid, but that offered little comfort.
And then there was one person who appeared completely at ease.
"Young Lord Alex, aren't you scared?"
Princess Aisha forced herself to speak and ask him.
Then the Princess found salvation in the hand another person placed on her shoulder.
After Young Lord Alex placed his hand on her shoulder, her fear vanished.
The terror dissipated, and her mind settled.
Judging by the sensation of mana flowing into her, it seemed to be thanks to the mana.
Yet to the Princess, it was a miracle.
For the first time since that day, the Princess was able to escape the terror of that memory.
And on that day, the boy who saved her astonished everyone, becoming the fourth person the Princess liked most in the world.
The activation of the 'Mana Cultivation Technique' was far more incredible than I had anticipated.
Though I couldn't maintain the feeling of time slowing down for long because of the excessive mana consumption, even my base abilities seemed to have become more than twice as strong overall.
Even without drawing on my other abilities, I couldn't help but stand out.
As I cut down monsters, protected the Princess, and maintained the formation, every student who attended the 'practical class' learned who the illegitimate son of the Gracia Dukedom was.
And I came to understand why the Gracia Dukedom was regarded as one of the premier noble houses in the Kingdom.
Thus, the practical class spanning several days ended without a single casualty, after producing an unexpected star.
Meanwhile, at that exact same time, the Count was bursting with fury as he looked at the empty underground plaza.
"It's gone. There's nothing here."
Just as he said, there was absolutely nothing in this underground plaza.
There were no objects hanging on the walls, nor anything lying on the floor.
Let alone relics, not even a piece of rusty furniture could be seen.
The only thing resembling a decoration was a pedestal in the center of the plaza.
Of course, the top of the pedestal was also completely empty.
Beholding the empty interior, the Count fell into despair.
He had sacrificed his own child to reclaim the map and signet ring, yet the ruins he had reached by following the map were absurdly bare.
"This cannot be. The will of our ancestors, the desire of our family—it cannot end like this!"
The Count was now far more deeply disappointed than he had been when Alex saw him before Alex died.
When the Count had entered with the Royal Knights, he had already given up to some extent on finding relics in the ruins.
Back then, he had been disappointed because there were no proper relics, but unlike that time, he had now brought his house's order of knights with his expectations running high.
With a half-dazed expression, the Count looked behind him.
Standing behind him were knights reduced to looking like beggars.
Though more than thirty knights had set out together, only six stood behind him now.
The missing knights had all perished on the way there.
Although some knights had died on the path from the teleportation point to the ruins, the place where the most knights had died was the ruin-riddled wasteland itself.
When he had come with the Royal Knights, they had possessed enough force to crush the nests of monsters in the ruins, and Alex had been able to breach the nests alone.
But the Count's order of knights, who were not as strong as the Royal Knights, couldn't help but lose many knights while fighting the monsters.
On top of that, inside the underground ruins, the remaining knights met their deaths at the hands of the maggot monsters, leaving only six injured knights in the end.
"The other storerooms contained nothing but trash too, and some of the traps were broken! Someone definitely got here first and took them!"
The knights didn't agree with the Count's muttering, but they lacked even the energy to speak up.
"Could it be... that bastard illegitimate son came here first?"
There was no evidence, nor was the idea logical.
Still, having lost his child, with his knighthood ruined once again just like fifty years ago, and with no relics for him to take, he was simply unable to think rationally.
"When I return, I must interrogate him properly. There was definitely something strange when we talked before."
When he had talked to that illegitimate son at the Academy, he hadn't thought anything was strange, but now the Count found every single thing suspicious.
"The Gracia family would never care about a mere illegitimate son. If I kidnap and torture him, I'll be able to find out something."
Though he was making an extreme decision in his agitated state, the Count vowed not to change his mind even after returning.
He intended to side with the Grand Prince anyway. Since the Duke of Gracia would never side with the Grand Prince, it wouldn't matter much even if his relationship with the Duke soured.
"But before that, I must check the places I haven't visited yet."
He had not yet explored the entire interior of the ruins.
The Count spoke to the remaining knights.
"Everyone, drink your remaining potions. We will check the remaining area and then return. The remaining sector is deep underground, so there shouldn't even be any monsters. Let's inspect it as quickly as possible and head back."
Even if they drank their potions, returning safely with so few people would be no easy task.
And yet, to explore the ruins even further...
The knights couldn't understand, but as the Count's knights, they had no choice but to obey his orders.
The Count checked the map.
The back of the papyrus.
The upper portion of the interior map showed the upper level of the ruins he had already passed through, while the lower portion showed an underground level he had not yet set foot in.
"Is it a labyrinth...? Still, since most of the labyrinth is depicted, I won't get lost."
Although the map was torn in a few small spots, making a few locations in the labyrinth impossible to verify, this much was enough to navigate through.
Thinking this, as soon as the knights had drunk their potions and were able to move to some degree, the Count headed toward the underground labyrinth that the Princess and Alex had previously traversed.
<The crisis situation has ended. A new 'Save Point' has been set.>
While heading back toward the pillar of light after the practical class ended, I saw the message window.
Come to think of it, it was at the exact same time as when I died.
'The crisis has ended, huh? Could it be... the issue with the Count was resolved?'
There were times when the message didn't appear even after the time of my death had passed.
In those cases, it was because the danger still remained.
Just in case, I had made a tiny scratch on the map this time as well.
It was a mark I had left because I thought the Count might enter the underground labyrinth to search for relics.
I thought that if we were lucky, he would wander around the labyrinth for quite a long time. And if we were even luckier, he might not be able to return until after we left.
And my luck turned out to be far better than I thought.
The Count and his order of knights failed to return from the ruins even long after we had made our return.
Forever.