21. Special Entrance Exam
21. Special Entrance Exam
After trembling under her hood for a while, the girl soon pulled herself up.
"...Thanks."
I didn't expect her to thank me right away. She's got better manners than I thought.
Just as I was wearing a satisfied smile at the sight of the thoroughly dispirited girl.
"But hey, don't you know using an Artifact is cheating?"
The poor girl said, her face still terrified, but her voice sharp and barbed.
I took back what I'd just thought.
As expected, this girl really has no damn manners.
"What Artifact?"
"Just now, that arrow. There's no way you caught it with your bare hands. You used an Artifact, didn't you?"
"Why the hell would I use something like that?"
"Don't lie. If you tell the truth now, I'll keep it a secret."
"Forget the secret. I'm telling you I don't have one. Here, look. Do I? Do I?"
I rolled up my long sleeve and bared my pale, soft skin.
Then I tugged down the collar of my top and exposed the back of my neck too.
"Do I? Huh? What, want me to strip all the way and show you?"
"That's... you don't have to go that far. Then, then how the hell did you catch that arrow? With your bare hands, no less...?"
"What's the point of telling a scrub like you? You wouldn't understand it anyway. Just wasting my breath."
"Hey! Stop calling me a scrub! I'm not a scrub, okay?! You just saw!"
"You mean almost dying?"
"Yipe!"
The poor girl swung her staff again.
I lightly ducked my head to avoid it, then gave her side a little poke.
"Eek!"
"If you've got your energy back, let's get going."
"...Where to?"
"To hunt the Basilisk."
"After just seeing those Monsters, you can still say that?"
Even as she said that, she still followed me.
Of course, it was probably because she was terrified, but she also seemed to know that in the Labyrinth you must never get separated.
"Yeah. I need to catch it as fast as possible. I'm in a hurry."
"...In a hurry for what?"
"Bathroom. The brownies were so dry earlier that I think I drank too much milk. Hngh... I used to be good at holding it in, but lately it's been really hard."
"What...? Then why don't you just take care of it here..."
"Say something that makes sense. Even I wouldn't just let loose anywhere when everyone's watching from outside."
"What are you even talking about...? Do you still think this is a fake Labyrinth—?"
"Forget it, let's hurry. We only need about five minutes."
I walked on without hesitation.
There was no need to scan the surroundings.
There were no Monsters from here on.
Monsters, if nothing else, are creatures that feel fear best.
Thus, when a Monster stronger than them is nearby, they instinctively avoid the area.
This was exactly that situation.
The deeper we walked, the thicker the Demonic Energy and unease emanating from a Monster became.
A stillness where only our breathing could be heard.
If I listened closely.
"Hey, hey... that cry just now..."
I could hear the very faint cry of a Monster.
"Right. We're almost there."
"W-wait. Wait a sec... I said wait...!"
The poor girl's small yelp stopped me in my tracks.
"Now what?"
"What do you mean, 'now what'? No, are you seriously planning to hunt it alone?"
"What, you're gonna help me?"
"Well, that's a given... First, wait."
The poor girl rummaged inside her hood and pulled out a small notebook and pen.
As the notebook's pages fluttered open, the first pages were densely packed with notes on various Monsters' traits and weaknesses.
A moment later, on a blank page she found, the girl drew a tiny, cute diagram—scritch scratch.
"I don't know the layout of the room where the Basilisk is staying. But our positions will be like this, and like this. Right?"
"You're pretty good at drawing."
"I know. But right now, focus on my explanation, not the drawing. Hoo... First, we start by—"
After letting a faint tremor escape with her sigh, the poor girl calmly continued her explanation.
The poor girl knew the Basilisk's characteristics in detail: how to avoid its petrifying Evil Eye and how to dodge the fire shot from its tail and maw. She had all of it memorized.
It wasn't knowledge from some half-assed book, but methods that sounded like they came from actual working adventurers or knights.
"—so it'll go like this, which means your role is important."
When the explanation ended, the girl looked at me with doubtful eyes.
"...Did you get all that?"
"Yeah. I got it all. But you're really going to help?"
"Why do you keep asking something so obvious?"
"I mean, you're shaking like a leaf but saying you'll help, so I don't get it."
"Don't talk nonsense. I never shook."
The poor girl believed this place was the real Labyrinth. That meant she believed that if she died here, she would really die.
And yet she followed me, and even said she would help me catch the Basilisk.
I figured she followed me because she knew getting separated in the Labyrinth was dangerous.
As for helping subjugate the Basilisk, it was because she was afraid I might die, or because she thought she owed me for saving her life. Or if it wasn't either of those...
—Kaloso. Why do you save even pieces of shit like them? That bastard, that one. Don't you remember the bastard sitting in the middle? He's the one who backstabbed us three times.
—Hahaha! Ronan, does saving a person's life require a reason? If you truly need one, I shall give it.
—The world right now, you see, is a truly terrible one. Monsters kill people, Demons kill people, and people kill people.
—Yet in such an insane world, people save people. Since the world has become like this, I am merely acting the same way. There is no great reason.
Because a person saving another person doesn't need a reason.
Fucking Kaloso.
I clicked my tongue inwardly and looked at the poor girl.
Did she resemble him?
She didn't.
Her hair, eyes, personality, Mana.
But she did.
Her silent casting, the way she recited incantations, the shape of her magic.
There's no way.
That bastard who sided with the Demon King came all the way to the Imperial Capital and started a bloodline? That's absurd.
Using magic similar to Kaloso's was common even back then.
His magic was so extraordinary that plenty of people watched it, learned it, and imitated it.
So the poor girl's magic was just an extension of that. It has to be.
I shook off the useless thoughts and snorted.
"Yeah. Good for you."
"That's right. I'm a genius who reached the 3rd Circle at the youngest age ever."
With a "Hmph!" the poor girl walked ahead. Then she stopped in her tracks.
"...Aren't you coming?"
She glared at me with uneasy eyes.
*****
The Basilisk.
The Monster called the king of snakes is a mid-grade Monster by birth.
The ancestor of the Basilisk was a familiar created by Ankanius of Envy, the 2nd Legion Commander of Ge Vihenum.
That familiar bred and produced offspring, and the Monsters known as Basilisks were created.
Whether they inherited that familiar's ability or not, Basilisks are born with demonic eyes.
In addition, they also possess high intelligence and the Authority to control reptilian Monsters.
A long body that had to be at least five meters. A massive maw that could easily swallow a carriage. Fangs soaked in venom showing between. Blade-like scales, and claws jutting between them. And reptilian eyes stained green.
That Basilisk was now in the room next to us.
"Hic..."
The way it hissed and flicked its tongue was pretty cute, but the poor girl didn't seem to think so.
"Hic..."
As soon as she saw the Basilisk's silhouette, she started hiccuping.
"You think you can cast magic like that? You're not gonna hiccup and shoot me by mistake, are you?"
"If that—hic—if that happens, it was on purpose."
She was shaking like a leaf, but still didn't hold back what she wanted to say.
"So when the hell are we starting?"
"Just five minutes, no. Hic... just one minute."
The poor girl, her hands cold and bloodless, gripped her staff tight and puffed out her cheeks, holding her breath.
"Don't you have a spell that stops hiccups?"
Shake shake—
"Useless."
Whoosh—the girl's staff swung at me.
I slipped aside just like before.
"Eek?!"
This time I pinched her side.
"You... did you just hit me?!"
"No, I pinched you."
"Don't lie! It hurts this much! You hit me!"
"But your hiccups stopped, didn't they?"
"...Huh?"
The poor girl, who had been rubbing her side as if it hurt like hell, confirmed her hiccups really had stopped and glared at me.
"So annoying..."
I just grinned and stood up.
"You need to work out. Even a Wizard needs basic stamina. What are you gonna do with flesh that soft? Monsters'll be glad you won't get caught in their teeth."
"What are you... why do you talk so crudely? And your expressions are vulgar too. You've got a nasty habit with your hands. What the hell are you?"
The poor girl also got up, chewing on her lips.
"Don't overdo it. Just do enough, just enough. If you collapse from Mana exhaustion, it'll be more annoying."
"Shut up."
With that, we fell silent, because the Basilisk's cries could be heard just beyond the next passage.
"...Get ready."
The poor girl's soft whisper. Purple Mana rippled in response.
The poor girl would strike first.
The first step of the plan was to slam a powerful spell into the Basilisk, which still hadn't noticed us and remained motionless.
The girl's lips moved. She recited an incantation. It was a choice to conserve Mana in a situation where anything could happen.
Three circles rotated furiously.
Light converged at the tip of her staff. With a sharp crackle-crackle, a dazzling spear took shape.
It shot forward.
And then.
Fshh—
It vanished right in front of the Basilisk.
"Well, would you look at that? That's not magic, that's a parlor trick. What, was your dream to be a stage magician?"
"...Huh? No, huh? It was definitely perfect?!"
The poor girl's dumb voice echoed through the Labyrinth.
At the same time.
[GGGGGGGRRRRRRRRRRrrrrrr―!!]
The Basilisk, flames smoldering in its maw, came charging at us.