Ruins Expedition(?) (2)
Ruins Expedition(?) (2)
After descending the seemingly endless stairs, we emerged into an underground facility built from large, interlocking stones.
Fsst.
Right on cue, the torch Knight Hugo had been holding sputtered out.
Just as darkness threatened to swallow us again, Knight Hugo lit another torch. Where he had gotten it was a mystery.
Fwoosh!
As the torch flared to life, the passage, which had been growing dim, was illuminated once more.
"Where did you get that torch, anyway? And the ones we used while coming down the stairs?"
Hugo replied to Adria's question.
"Majorka Fortress, an important ruin from the Great War, lies within the territory, and there is no way the Duke's estate would simply leave it abandoned. Although no one lives here permanently, we inspect and maintain it regularly. These torches are kept here for those occasions."
At his explanation, Adria looked around in wonder.
The disappointment and anger she had been feeling seemed to have subsided somewhat by now.
If she hadn't simply been abandoned to die, there was no reason for her to remain angry.
Moreover, seeing a facility from the Great War with so many intact sections, rather than a completely collapsed ruin, seemed to have put her back in a good mood.
"Let's move. They'll keep pursuing us."
At Knight Hugo's words, the party stopped scanning their surroundings and started moving again.
"What was this place used for?"
This time, Bianca asked.
"This is the underground facility of Majorka Fortress. Since it was built during the golden age of the Old Empire, it's incredibly vast. It's in better shape than the surface, but much of it has collapsed, making it difficult to find our way."
Just as he said, there were places where the walls had collapsed and blocked the passages.
Although many areas had collapsed, far more of the underground facility remained intact than on the surface.
The walls and floors were built from large, interlocking stones.
Only the sound of our footsteps and the distant dripping of water echoed through the facility. Beyond the reach of the torchlight lay a gloomy darkness where we couldn't see an inch ahead.
'An underground facility in a ruin destroyed during the Great War... Are we pivoting to a dungeon crawl now?'
A hollow laugh escaped me at the absurd thought that had suddenly crossed my mind.
"Why are you laughing?"
Adria asked, looking at me. Oops, I guess I'd chuckled aloud.
"It's nothing. More importantly, could you tell us what's going on?"
Instead of answering her question, I asked the other two.
"Ah, right. I want to hear it too."
Adria immediately agreed with me.
Fortunately, neither Bianca nor Knight Hugo seemed inclined to delay their answers.
"Lady Adria, you are well aware that there are nobles who oppose Young Lord Simon's engagement."
Well, I didn't know that.
"Yeah. An envoy even came from the neighboring territory to protest. That's why we came to the Duke's territory, isn't it?"
"Yes. But it wasn't something that could be resolved simply by avoiding it..."
From the explanation that followed, it was clear I'd been well and truly dragged into a dangerous mess.
"So, you received intelligence that they planned to assassinate Lady Adria to prevent the alliance between the two families."
"And you intended to use this opportunity to track down the attackers, identify the enemies, and put pressure on them?"
In other words, this situation was the culmination of a massive political struggle involving the First Prince Faction's Gracia Dukedom, the Second Prince Faction's Hierro Marquisate, and even the Noble Faction.
A sigh escaped my lips.
Dealing with the Duke's estate's internal affairs was hard enough, and now there was a kingdom-wide political battle to contend with? At this rate, I wouldn't be surprised if a world war broke out.
And it wasn't as if their preparations had gone well.
"Judging by the current situation, it looks like the plan has failed."
At my words, Knight Hugo and Bianca were at a loss for words.
"That is..."
"It's because Young Lord Simon butted in."
Adria spoke up instead, sounding sullen.
My condolences to Brother Simon...
It seemed Brother Simon's love life was going to be incredibly rocky from now on.
"...There is that, but wasn't the number of enemies far greater than expected?"
Knight Hugo nodded with a serious expression.
"Yes. With numbers like that, it can hardly be called a mere ambush. It will be difficult for them to cover up the aftermath, so what on earth are they thinking...?"
Though I now understood the gist of what had happened, with everything having gone so wrong, it was hard to take everything I'd learned at face value.
"Then where are we going now? Is there somewhere to hide down here?"
At Adria's question, Knight Hugo shook his head.
"The cave-ins have made things more complicated, but there isn't really anywhere to hide. We might buy some time, but it will be difficult to evade them indefinitely."
After that, Knight Hugo suddenly brought up a bit of history.
"The Battle of Majorka Fortress during the Great War began with the fortress surrounded by demons."
Was it a story she liked? Adria eagerly picked up the thread of Knight Hugo's explanation.
"I know that story too. The heroes came to the rescue, broke the siege from the outside, and turned the tide of battle. That marked the beginning of the counteroffensive in the Great War, when we had been constantly pushed back."
"Yes, that's correct. But it is not publicly known how the heroes and the reinforcements learned that the fortress was under siege."
"Ah... Right. There wasn't a hero with clairvoyance or precognition back then, was there?"
"No, there wasn't. The news didn't come through some ability; someone broke through the siege to deliver it."
The conversation between Adria and Knight Hugo flowed incredibly naturally.
'This is like a guide explaining the history of a ruin to a tourist.'
While it was hardly an appropriate conversation to have while fleeing from enemies, Knight Hugo's words piqued all of our curiosity.
"They broke through the siege alone? Was there a hero in the fortress?"
"No. He slipped through the siege without fighting a single battle."
Knight Hugo lowered his raised finger and pointed toward the ground.
"He escaped through a secret passage beneath the fortress."
A secret passage? There was such a thing here?
"Then are we heading there right now?"
Adria's voice brightened as she asked.
"Yes. We're heading to where the secret passage is."
Both women were delighted, but I had doubts about his explanation.
"But if there was such a secret passage, everyone could have just escaped through it when they were besieged."
"Ah, that's true. They could have left a few behind or deceived them with decoys."
Adria looked at me, impressed, but Bianca stared at Knight Hugo with a serious expression.
"Unfortunately, they couldn't do that. You'll understand once we arrive."
Seriously, he never stopped keeping us on our toes.
The relaxed atmosphere tightened once more, and the party continued through the underground passage, our faces tense.
Unfortunately, the underground beneath the fortress was nothing like the dungeons in the novels or movies from my past life.
There were no traps, and no monsters appeared. Only small, rat-like beasts scurried away at the sight of the light.
We wound through the passages, passed through a breached wall, and arrived at the deepest part of the facility.
The deeper we went, the more the artificial feel of our surroundings faded.
The neat stone walls gave way to natural rock faces. Wooden beams supporting the ceiling appeared here and there, and eventually, the passage became a cave of natural stone.
Before long, the cave came to an end.
A massive rock blocked the way ahead, leaving us nowhere else to go.
The rock was covered in cracks and fractures. In front of it lay scattered pickaxes, shovels, and tools I had never seen before.
Knight Hugo led us to the front of the rock.
Bianca stared intently at it and asked,
"It's just a rock? Don't tell me this is the secret passage?"
Could it be a rock that opens with 'Open Sesame'!
When I placed my hand on the rock and muttered quietly, the entire party stared at me.
Tsk, I guess that wasn't it?
"Yes. Although I called it a secret passage, in reality, it's a rocky cave—or, more accurately, a crevice between the rocks. The underground expansion of the fortress was halted here by solid rock. They left it alone because there was no need to expand any farther, but it was here that they discovered a way to slip outside."
He brought the torch closer to the rock. As it moved, the shadows shifted, revealing a crack in the rock near the corner.
Bianca approached the crack and stopped in front of it.
"So that's what you meant earlier."
Her words were incredibly calm.
Looking at the crack between the rocks, I understood what he meant, too.
It was impossible for all the fortress's soldiers to escape through there.
No, would even one or two people be able to?
The crack in the rock was far too narrow for an adult to pass through.
Bianca looked at Adria and me and said,
"It should be possible for the two of you."
Her voice sounded relieved.
Adria examined the crack too, then suddenly yelled,
"No! I'm not running away! If we fight together, we can win. Yes. If we just hold out a little longer, the Duke will lead his soldiers here."
Adria shouted as she looked at Bianca, but Bianca didn't look back at her.
Instead, she bowed her head toward me.
"I leave Lady Adria in your hands."
I stared at Bianca, her head bowed, then asked Knight Hugo,
"Did you plan this from the moment you sent Brother Simon away?"
"Yes. Young Lord Simon is quite large for his age, after all. It would be difficult for him to pass through here."
That was also why he'd brought me along: I was the only youngster who could protect Adria at the very end.
Sigh, he really was an incredibly stubborn, old-fashioned man.
A knight who had sought out his own death without making a single excuse, all to carry out his orders and save others.
I stared blankly at the knight.
He was massively built, with a fierce-looking face.
His tone and actions made him the very epitome of a stuffy knight who blindly pledged loyalty to his master.
But appearances weren't everything.
Or perhaps I'd been looking down on the people of this world, thinking them fools, all this time.
"I will tell the Duke everything you have done. And... I, too, will remember you, no... matter... what."
"Haha, it is an honor that you would remember me, Young Lord."
A smile appeared on his fierce face.
He didn't understand the true meaning behind my words, of course.
Bianca eventually persuaded Adria as well.
It was hard for me to comprehend, but after hearing the words 'noble duty,' Adria decided to follow her advice.
Hugo spoke as he stroked a small crest engraved next to the crack.
Perhaps because everything had been laid bare, his voice sounded relaxed.
"According to the tales passed down around the fortress, the one who escaped to request aid was one of the heroes. Well, it's just one of those common legends."
The crest looked familiar. Where had I seen it before?
"But who knows? Perhaps you or Lady Adria might grow up to become someone like that hero, Young Lord."
It seemed he was trying in his own way to lighten the mood. Yet the atmosphere remained heavy.
With an awkward expression, he pointed to the crack in the wall.
"Now, please leave. You must absolutely not stop halfway or turn back. The enemy might use fire attacks or special abilities."
Bianca added,
"Hurry. We don't know when they'll burst in."
At her words, Adria bit her lip.
"You mustn't just die!"
"Of course not. I'll do my absolute best to survive as well."
Once the decision was made, there was no time to waste.
I grabbed Adria's arm and squeezed myself into the crack.
Even I couldn't walk straight ahead.
Still, perhaps because I was small, I could easily move through the gap once I turned sideways. Adria seemed to get her chest caught, but she began forcing her way forward, moving her limbs to squeeze through.
The young boy and girl disappeared into the crack.
Bianca let out a sigh.
"They're gone. They'll arrive safely, right?"
"There is no way to know."
"My goodness, with a personality like that, it's a wonder you rose to a position where you were responsible for such matters."
"I am grateful to the Duke for that."
"What a shame. If I had known sooner, I would have subtly dropped a handkerchief or something."
"Hmm. That is indeed a bit of a shame."
The two let out a chuckle.
Their conversation was like the final banter before charging into enemy lines.
The two gripped their swords once more.
Although they had told Adria they would try to survive, neither of them had any intention of doing so.
They had to move as far away from this place as possible to confuse the enemy.
"Shall we go now?"
"Yes. At least my end is with a dashing knight."
"My thoughts exactly."
The two began to run in the opposite direction.
The torch Knight Hugo held grew smaller and smaller, and soon, faint screams and shouts could be heard.
The clash of swords continued for a while. Then the light disappeared from view.