53. Calamity Star
53. Calamity Star
"...Eurasia Espirot?"
"Oh... Princess Silina...? Weren't you on your way back to the academy earlier?"
After passing through more than ten rooms and entering the seventeenth, Eurasia came face-to-face with Silina, whom she'd thought had returned to the academy, and the people accompanying her.
"...I came back because I had something to take care of."
Unable to say she'd come back because she urgently needed a restroom, Silina made a vague excuse and glanced at Eurasia's sword, soaked in Monster blood.
Then her gaze traveled upward, to a sweat-drenched nape and a face that looked somewhat haggard.
"I see... But, um... well... I'm sorry to have to say this, but... uh..."
Eurasia hemmed and hawed, taking her time choosing her words.
Her eyes were round, her expression gentle. There was no hostility in her gaze, and a light smile that put people at ease lingered at her lips.
Looking at Eurasia like that, Silina recalled the aura she'd had the moment she crossed into this direction.
A gait honed to a razor's edge.
Blue eyes that seemed tinged with a fiendish light.
A cold, detached expression utterly devoid of emotion, and killing intent so thick it stung the skin.
And the sword that had been about to swing mechanically the instant she saw a living creature. The blue Sword Energy coiled around that blade.
Even Silina, who had seen countless types of people, felt chills at the sight of Eurasia like that.
But what about now?
If she had ears and a tail, they'd be wagging adorably. Never mind the sword—she gave off a pitiful, innocent impression, as if she might scream the moment she saw a Monster.
Could you really call that the same person?
Were all of Eustetia's knights like that?
Her presence had been enough to make even the seasoned Imperial Knight Order knight guarding Silina's side look shabby by comparison.
Had all that grinning and laughing up until now been an act? She couldn't know, but one thing was certain: Eurasia bore no hostility toward her.
Having finished that thought, Silina let out a small sigh and spoke.
"It's fine, so speak comfortably."
"Oh, um... Then, well... I'm afraid the direction Your Highness came from seems to be wrong...!"
"Was the room you were in blocked off behind you?"
"...Yes. The room I was in only had a path leading in this direction."
"Is that so...?"
Silina frowned slightly and checked the time on a pocket watch from inside her coat.
"How many have you passed through so far?"
Roughly thirty minutes had passed.
At this rate, at the very least, about five rooms like us—
"I've passed through a total of seventeen rooms to get here."
"...What?"
"Eep... Seventeen... I passed through, ma'am...!"
A hollow sigh escaped Silina's lips.
Even Untra, who had maintained a blank expression at Silina's side, couldn't suppress a groan.
"...We've done five. There were roughly five Monsters per room."
"Oh... The rooms I passed through had... at least thirty each."
Having encountered only a fairly small number of Monsters so far, it was an unbelievable figure.
But looking at the flesh stuck to the sword she carried and the blood still dripping from it, she believed it even though she didn't want to.
"You... weren't just ordinarily strong, were you?"
"Ah, um, ehehe... Thank you."
Even so, seeing Eurasia reach this point without a single wound, Silina genuinely thought she was remarkable.
In less than thirty minutes, alone, she had fought her way through seventeen rooms—subjugating nearly a hundred Monsters in the process.
Even Untra, the knight assigned as her personal guard, couldn't match that speed.
Was it because she kept such a strong knight at her side that Eliarnes's personality had turned so utterly insufferable?
Probably.
Having roughly wrapped up that thought, Silina nodded and spoke to Eurasia.
"Want to rest a bit before we go?"
"I'm fine to depart right away."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes."
Eurasia nodded, her gaze directed at the exhausted people standing behind Silina.
"...All right. Then let's depart immediately."
"I'll take the lead."
Eurasia swung her sword, shaking off the flesh and blood stuck to the blade, and stepped in front of Silina.
Beneath her tied-up hair, a slender nape was faintly visible. Her shoulders were thin, her frame slight.
But looking at Eurasia's back, Silina somehow let out a sigh of relief.
*****
Silence—the magic that erases sound.
Oculus—the magic that conceals one's form.
But Stella's Circle was only the 3rd Circle.
Those at a higher Realm than that could break the magic in an instant. So Stella pulled her hood down low and slipped outside the academy.
And I'd made absolutely sure to tell Stella not to come out, no matter what, because I would bring Eurasia back.
I hadn't just said it, either.
I'd bound her arms and legs with Magic-Power-suppressing restraints and tossed her onto the bed.
I'd tied Pina up right alongside her.
With the current chaos, the snake bastards targeting Stella might run rampant, so she was better off staying in the relatively safe academy.
[The incident broke out at a moment when the Dean and Vice Dean were both away.]
An utterly predictable statement.
It meant there was an insider.
"Have you identified the insider?"
[...You judge quickly for a student. We haven't found the insider yet.]
Incompetent.
Clicking her tongue, she quickened her pace.
[It's been 28 minutes and 32 seconds since the Labyrinth appeared. We can't determine the number of civilians, but the number of academy students is five. Among them are Miss Eurasia and Her Highness Silina, the Second Princess.]
The situation wasn't good.
Special-class or not, judging by the amount of Demonic Energy dissolved in the air—
Ordinary humans trapped inside the Labyrinth would be poisoned by Demonic Energy and die if they remained for more than two hours.
Someone like Eurasia, four hours.
Silina, three hours at best.
It would take another thirty minutes from now just to reach the place where the Labyrinth had appeared.
That would leave me roughly sixty minutes.
Within that time, I had to enter the Labyrinth and find its end.
Still, one fortunate thing was that, being a hastily constructed Labyrinth, there wouldn't be many Monsters inside.
And there would be paths to dig in from the outside.
Hastily constructed Labyrinths had many holes through which one could burrow from outside to inside.
I could get in.
But civilian casualties—I couldn't guarantee there'd be none.
No, it would be fine.
The person inside was Eurasia, the one I trusted most right now. So it would be fine.
"Has the Imperial Palace Knight Order finished deploying?"
[Five Royal Guards. Twenty Imperial Palace knights. The rest have been assigned to guard Her Highness Fabiana, the First Princess, His Highness Ferando, the Second Prince, and the Imperial Palace itself.]
Royal Guard.
If Eustetia had Nameless, then the Imperial Palace had the Royal Guard.
Of course, they weren't on the same level.
They were far below Nameless.
The captain leading the Royal Guard was said to be Tier 7, so even making the comparison was almost embarrassing.
And that captain would be at the Imperial Palace.
At best, Royal Guards of Tier 5 or Tier 6 would have been deployed.
For protecting civilians while breaking through a Labyrinth, it wasn't excessive. If anything, it was appropriate.
Abnormally appropriate.
Appropriate, despite the fact that they'd deployed forces without even assessing the Labyrinth's level.
As if they'd known in advance.
So the immediate visible objective was Silina's death?
The moles weren't only in the academy.
The country's gone mad.
[Hold on, would you lend me your shoulder?]
I furrowed my brow and glared at the crow.
[I'll share my vision with you.]
"All of a sudden?"
[You're planning to sneak in, aren't you?]
"How did you know?"
[Because there's no way you didn't notice, after hearing my answer just now, that there's an insider in the Imperial Palace too.]
"...A student says she's going in alone, and her homeroom professor doesn't stop her but eggs her on?"
[In the current situation, the only person I can trust is Miss Eliarnes.]
The fact that I was the only human a Black Wizard claimed to trust made me feel absolutely wretched.
Still, for now, I brushed my hair aside and offered my shoulder. Right now, saving Eurasia took priority over my feelings.
[Thank you.]
Soon, from the crow perched on my shoulder, a single image flowed into my mind.
A view of the Imperial Capital as if seen from the sky.
At its center was what had been the Arant Museum.
A pitch-black semicircle enveloped the Arant Museum, and around it stood Imperial Knight Order knights in golden armor and Royal Guards in platinum uniforms.
In that view, I searched for a way to sneak inside.
My steps didn't stop. If anything, I moved faster than before.
[And what I'm going to show you now is the Labyrinth's internal structure. Hmm... Normally this would be adults-only viewing, but given the situation, I have no choice but to show you.]
The moment Adelia finished speaking, the image of a corpse with its belly split open and entrails spilling out appeared.
The skinless limbs were twisted grotesquely, and its midsection was contorted into a circle.
The entrails filling the inside of that circle formed a spiral, and the center, where the core should have been, was empty.
[The paths aren't tangled. It's a structure where a total of 32 rooms wrap around a wide central cavity in a spiral. The part that would be the Labyrinth Core is completely empty, but even so, the core will be at the center.]
Just as Adelia said.
Unlike a true Labyrinth, which was tangled and interwoven, there existed only a single path leading forward.
If a strong person accustomed to Labyrinths were trapped in a place like that, they'd laugh with delight—but not anyone else.
Having only one path made it more dangerous.
Because there was no way to turn back or go around anything; you had to face it all.
On top of that, there were ordinary residents of the Imperial Capital inside.
Breaking through the Labyrinth while protecting them would clearly be a pain even for me.
Weighing all those factors one by one, Labyrinth's tastes were definitely absent from this.
Thinking about it that way, it was strange again.
Labyrinth regarded Labyrinths as works of art.
Even when it wasn't us, she was a mad bitch who did her utmost when it came to trapping ordinary humans.
There was no way a mad bitch like that would leave a Labyrinth this shoddy alone.
If a Demonized Human or Black Wizard who had received her Authority used it, she would surely know.
And right now, we were in a state of Armistice due to the Demon King's Seal.
Yet she was just watching the current situation?
Had she actually gone senile over the past 400 years?
Or maybe she wanted to break the Armistice.
Well, no matter how hard I thought about it now, there was no way to know. I'd have to go inside and meet the bastard who made this Labyrinth to learn anything.
I stopped walking and steadied my breathing.
[Now then, the way to enter the Labyrinth—]
Immediately after, I grabbed the crow perched on my shoulder with both hands.
[...Huh? Miss Eliarnes?]
"Make sure you find the insider."
[Good heavens...]
Crunch—
I crushed it with all my strength.
There was no need to show her what I was about to do.
I shook off the traces of Black Magic left on my hand and pulled my hood down low.
At the same moment.
Flash.
A flare shot up into the sky.
And then.
"Eliarnes."
A hearty voice rang out.
"Ugh..."
I sighed deeply despite myself and turned around.
Platinum hair with deep waves cascading down, fierce platinum eyes gleaming.
"...What brings you to such a dangerous place, Princess Fabiana?"
Fabiana de Hermann was standing there.