Entering the Ruins (1)
Entering the Ruins (1)
We arrived at a ruin that looked as though it might once have been a majestic castle.
It had long since lost its original form, collapsed completely, and become overgrown with trees and vines.
It gave off a vibe similar to the ruins near our domain—the very ones where I had once died.
The ruins near our domain weren't swallowed up by trees and vines, so they weren't nearly this unrecognizable.
In front of the ruins, the expedition force found itself caught in another major battle.
That was because monsters had made their nest inside the ruins.
Perhaps by pure coincidence, the nesting monsters were the same species as the lizard monsters from which Ride had found his pouch.
They looked like lizards with feathers attached to their tails. Unlike the ones we'd encountered before, though, these had blue feathers.
When we'd been searching for the pouch, dealing with that monster nest had seemed completely impossible. This time, things were different.
Instead of fireballs, these monsters spewed torrents of water from their mouths. But time and again, the knights' shields and the defense barriers deployed by the noble officers blocked them.
Katrin also used her ability to create a massive shield to protect the students.
With the water jets—powerful enough to pierce armor—blocked, the expedition force steadily brought down the swarming monsters one by one.
Having rested sufficiently along the way, the Royal Knights and noble officers displayed the same formidable prowess as before, while the Academy students, seasoned by real combat, fought far more adeptly than they had at the start.
After felling monster after monster and finally slaying the largest of them all, we were able to claim the nest for ourselves.
Unfortunately, aside from broken eggs, there was nothing useful inside.
Since we hadn't come here to hunt monsters anyway, we used our abilities to burn all the monster carcasses to ashes.
After thoroughly clearing out the nest, we took up positions in front of the entrance leading underground.
Count Chaipree stood before the underground entrance, lost in thought for a long time.
Whether he'd reached the ruins—his family's cherished ambition for centuries—so easily, or lamented handing them over to someone else, I couldn't know his true feelings as an outsider.
'Still, we got here way too easily.'
Crossing the continent to reach this place without the Academy's teleportation magic circle would normally have been extremely difficult.
Without the backing of royal power, such as the Royal Knights, crossing the sealing boundary would have been difficult as well.
Even so, it was hard to understand why they hadn't tried again after the accident fifty years ago, when they already knew the ruins' approximate location.
'Is a map really that important?'
The front showed a map to help locate the ruins, but since we'd already found them, it shouldn't have much meaning anymore.
Yet the map on the back, showing the ruins' interior, had large portions erased and wasn't particularly complex, so it didn't seem all that useful either.
Once things had been somewhat tidied up, a Senior Knight of the Royal Knights called out to the students.
The exhausted students gathered around, and he shouted in a booming voice:
"Attention, everyone!"
"I extend my heartfelt gratitude to the students of the Carlos Royal Academy who followed us all the way here without falling behind. The Royal Knights and the Kingdom's Officer Corps will remember the names of everyone who took part in this."
The noble officer standing beside the Senior Knight nodded vigorously at his words.
It meant that, upon graduation, they would receive bonus points or priority consideration when joining the order of knights or enlisting as officers.
"The underground ruins we're about to enter are extremely dangerous. You students will maintain camp here, keep monsters from entering, and support those who go into the ruins."
When he said that, the students let out a collective sigh.
Truth be told, everyone had expected something like this.
Since they'd secured the promise that their names would be remembered, they'd achieved their goal. Even if they couldn't enter the ruins, they could still brag about taking part in the expedition, so few people complained.
"Only the dead are to be pitied."
Besides, Balea was pretty much the only one who could actually say that out loud.
That night, the expedition force set up camp once more in front of the ruins.
Once again, the Headmaster opened the box to create a safe zone, and everyone enjoyed a feast as food poured from artifact bags and subspace storage.
Regrettably, that was the end of our break.
Though the sun had set, unlike yesterday, people were moving about busily.
The Royal Knights and noble officers prepared for the expedition into the ruins alongside Count Chaipree, while the students were put to hard labor.
The Headmaster explained why.
Gathering the students, he gestured toward the box glowing with surging light.
"This artifact that repels monsters is truly magnificent, but that doesn't mean it's completely flawless."
Well, after seeing it in action all this time, I'd figured something so amazing was bound to have a drawback.
"As you know, this artifact cannot be used while moving."
That much was obvious. If we could use it while moving, there was no way we would've gone through all that suffering to get here.
"It also cannot be used continuously beyond a certain length of time. You could say it requires a recharging period."
So that was why we couldn't stay until night during the field trip, and why the artifact was only used while we slept at night.
"If we use it at night, it cannot be used during the day. In that case, we will have to face the monsters ourselves."
That was clearly why they'd told the students to guard the entrance.
They claimed they were leaving us behind for our safety, but it turned out we were just meat shields while they explored the ruins.
The students' and professors' expressions grew even grimmer than before, but there was no alternative.
We began gathering stones, wood, and vines from the ruins to construct a rampart centered around the underground entrance.
Since a crowd of ability users with physical capabilities several times stronger than ordinary people were working, the job progressed rapidly.
The barricades rose high, and traps and obstacles were set up in short order.
The area around the ruins' entrance gradually transformed into something worthy of being called a "makeshift fortress."
After we'd been working for quite some time, a raised voice echoed from behind us.
"What do you mean by that?"
It was Katrin's voice.
Turning around in surprise, I saw Katrin shouting at the senior officer.
Count Chaipree and the highest-ranking noble officer stood there with Katrin, the Princess, and the senior officer.
They must have put up a soundproof barrier right away, because her voice was no longer audible. Even in the dark, though, her enraged expression was plain to see.
A moment later, their conversation seemingly concluded, and Katrin and the Princess returned to the students' campsite.
Katrin called out to me while I was working.
I tossed aside the stone I was carrying and walked over to the Princess and Katrin.
As I approached, Katrin spoke with a grave expression.
"We have a problem."
"Is the Princess included in the group going down?"
At my response, Katrin and the Princess stared at me in surprise.
"How did you know that?"
It wasn't particularly difficult to figure out.
"If Katrin is getting angry with the Princess by her side, I figured that was the only plausible cause."
"Fair point."
At my words, the Princess and Katrin agreed blankly.
But could they really just force the Princess to take part in a ruins expedition?
"Can you not decline?"
The Princess shook her head.
"I cannot. They cited the rule that a member of the royal family must inspect royal events. Since the Royal Knights moved under the Crown Prince's orders, it fits custom—and because the order came directly from the Crown Prince, refusing is difficult."
"A custom that completely ignores the Princess's gender and age, of course."
The Crown Prince's directive and royal custom, huh?
I hadn't expected to witness royal power struggles with my own eyes this early.
Surely she hadn't been their target from the very beginning?
"Could there be some sinister scheme at play?"
"I don't think so. If my oldest brother orchestrated this, he probably just wants to make me suffer a bit."
The Princess shook her head at my words.
But this time, it was hard to take her words at face value.
"Beasts burn to death in the fireballs launched by dragons. The Crown Prince might call it 'hardship,' but we can't know whether it will end with mere hardship for us."
Katrin felt the same way.
"I threw a fit, but there was no way out. Instead, two of us are going along."
There was no mistaking who those two were.
"Katrin and me, then."
"Yeah. Please."
"I beg of you."
The Princess placed a hand over her heart and bowed her head deeply.
It was a sincere gesture, one royalty rarely offered out of pride. No matter how you looked at it, it wasn't a bow befitting a ten-year-old princess.
Since I was already rumored to belong to the Princess's faction, and had to protect her while attending the Academy, I'd intended to go with her from the start.
Besides, when the Princess pleaded like that, I genuinely wanted to help her.
Looking at the Princess, I realized once more:
Had I not remembered my past life and lived this life again, I would have become a knight who served her faithfully from the bottom of his heart.
'If the two princes know her well, they must fear her that much.'
The next morning.
Most of the students and teachers, along with a portion of the Royal Knights, remained at the expedition force's outpost by the ruins' entrance.
As I prepared to head down into the underground ruins, the remaining students looked at me with deep envy.
"Those aren't looks of envy; they're full of anger and jealousy."
Balea gave me a reality check as she saw me off.
She really didn't need to hit me with facts like that.
I spoke to her in turn.
"Take care of yourself, and if trouble breaks out, hide as best you can. Though I'm sure you'd do that even without me telling you."
Seeing how things were shaping up, neither going inside nor staying behind seemed particularly safe.
"This is a first. Worrying about me, I mean. I'll make sure to survive, just as Young Lord Alex says."
Honestly, rather than worrying about her well-being, I just hoped she'd survive long enough to fill me in on what happened if things hit the fan—but I decided to keep those thoughts to myself.
"We are moving out immediately."
After saying goodbye to Balea, Bria, and a few students, and waving at Manuel, who watched from a distance, I headed for the underground ruins alongside the Princess and Katrin.
A group of about thirty people—around ten Royal Knights, ten noble officers, Count Chaipree, and our party—began descending underground together.
The wide passage, spacious enough for four or five people to walk side by side, sloped gently downward.
As we descended deeper, the light from the entrance grew faint, but that posed little problem.
Everyone was an ability user who could see reasonably well in the dark, and a few light-type ability users floated light sources above the group.
After walking down for a long while, the sloping corridor leveled out.
"We have no information from this point forward."
After checking a skeleton leaning against the wall, Count Chaipree stepped back.
Having apparently arranged this beforehand, the Royal Knights stepped to the front.
Fortunately, those of us at the very rear didn't need to change positions.
The group set off once more.
Seeing the Royal Knights step forward, the Princess asked in a low voice:
"I heard there are adventurers and mercenaries who search for ruins. Shouldn't those kinds of people be taking the lead?"
"That skeleton over there is one of those mercenaries."
Katrin pointed at the skeleton slumped against the wall.
"Finding the location of ruins is something unawakened mercenaries or adventurers can do. But exploring the inside of a ruin is next to impossible for ordinary people who know nothing of mana and possess no abilities."
Katrin gestured to the corpse left behind and explained, "That is the result."