Chapter 92 — Decision (3)
Chapter 92 — Decision (3)
As soon as they entered a few meters into the cave, a strong smell of excrement hit them. The sound of footsteps had already vanished from her light frame.
"...A black bear."
Rauka examined the tracks and droppings and stepped farther inside. The cave sloped deeper, downward.
They continued walking inward, heading down.
What Detection picked up in the distance were two small presences and one large presence.
Roan hesitated.
The cave was so narrow that he could touch both walls with his arms outstretched, so he could not draw Fiora.
So the only thing Roan could do for Rauka was warn her.
"Be careful. There are several of them deeper inside."
"Yeah."
Mana began to gather in Rauka's hand.
It gave off no light, but Roan could feel the undulating force. Long and pointed, like a spear. It was meant to kill whatever might leap out at them.
He could feel the mana being sucked into the walls, but the force Rauka was channeling was more than sufficient to overcome it.
And around the time the shape became visible to the naked eye, a tremor was felt from the ground.
Rauka, who had not yet thrown her spear, suddenly unleashed a flash of light.
"...!"
Roan, who had been straining to see ahead even with narrowed eyes, shouted like a thunderclap.
"Aina! Demon beast!"
The narrow cave, just wide enough for two people to pass through, was instantly thrown into chaos.
Rauka fired her mana spear toward the center of the tremor at the same moment she unleashed the flash.
If this had been an ordinary cave bear hunt, it would have succeeded without difficulty.
But what was inside was not a bear.
It was a worm-type demon beast, the Cave Worm, which moves through caves and mines, camouflaging its body against the hard stone floor as it hunts small demon beasts and wild animals.
Cunningly, the demon beast had taken two cubs hostage and was waiting for the mother bear.
Rauka's spear shot and the Cave Worm's charge toward her were nearly simultaneous.
But to a worm that lived on and under the ground, the flash of light meant nothing.
From the inner cavern, much wider than the passage, the Cave Worm hurled the two cubs it had been holding against the wall and lunged.
Though she twisted her body quickly, Rauka's mana spear struck the Cave Worm in the flank.
Feeling pain, the Cave Worm emitted a silent vibration of fury.
The narrow cave walls rumbled and shook.
Its roar finished, the Cave Worm's teeth came rushing at Rauka.
The Cave Worm's body nearly filled the narrow cave. With no proper place to dodge, Rauka hesitated for a brief moment.
In that instant, it was Roan who pulled her body close. He wrapped his arm around her shoulder and lowered himself.
The Cave Worm's jaws barely grazed past both their bodies. Rauka, her brow deeply furrowed, gathered mana again in that interval.
"Damn it!!"
What launched from the forest elf's hand in that moment was an explosive sphere.
Even in the passing instant, the forest elf's agility was enough to push the sphere into the Cave Worm's mouth.
But very unfortunately,
explosion magic is not a spell suited for use in an enclosed space.
With a tremendous blast, the cave shook.
"...!"
Rauka, unable even to scream, watched as mounds of dirt and stone came crashing down. At that moment, Roan gritted his teeth and raised one arm.
What spread out from his arm was,
a semicircle of softly glowing star clusters.
The Star Cloud Shield deployed.
Through months of not-inconsiderable training, the shield had grown far larger than it had been at first.
The cluster of star clouds enclosed their huddled bodies like a semicircular igloo.
Roan held Rauka tightly, crouching with his head bowed low. More precisely, he had no room to lift his head.
He could feel through the shield the tremendous pressure crashing down and bouncing off.
The Star Cloud Shield was translucent, so he could have looked beyond it if he tried, but Roan could not bring himself to do so.
How much time passed while he could think of nothing, only concentrating his strength? At last, the movement of the falling stone and dirt stopped.
"... Aina."
Roan softly called the forest elf's name and carefully raised his head to look beyond the shield.
No more movement could be felt.
Unexpectedly, there was a space about three to four meters in radius. The grain of the cave wall, as if carved, had collapsed from both sides like pillars and was supporting the ceiling.
What Roan had held off with his shield were the remaining broken stone fragments and rocks.
The space above Roan's shield was empty, and a broad stone pillar above it was protecting the space they occupied like a tent.
They had been lucky.
There was no other way to put it.
"...Your Majesty. I'm... I'm all right."
Roan slowly dismissed the shield. Rauka, who had been pinned beneath him, looked around.
"...Heaven-sent luck."
"Mm."
"Are you all right, Your Majesty?"
"Yeah."
Rauka wiped her dirt-covered face once. The expression revealed beneath was fear.
"...How long will these pillars hold...?"
"It will be fine. If I don't return, they'll start searching soon."
Roan looked at the gaps between the pillars.
Right before they entered the cave, there had been sunlight.
Though the forest made it dark even without the light, he wondered if finding a crack leading outside might provide a clue for escape.
But he could not find one with the naked eye.
Once Rauka calmed down a little, they would search for a crack again and fire a spell through it if needed.
Roan organized his thoughts and sat on the ground.
Seeing Roan's movement, Rauka also plopped down beside him. It was a movement as if she had lost all her energy at once.
"...I'm sorry."
The words Rauka finally spoke after a long silence were an apology. As if asking what she meant, Roan turned to look at her.
"I always end up causing accidents like this."
"It was a narrow space, and I could not draw my sword either. You responded as necessary."
"But an explosion? That was stupid."
"If explosion magic was what you were familiar with, it could not be helped."
Roan tried somehow to lessen Rauka's self-reproach. Whether he succeeded or failed was unclear, but Rauka fell silent again.
Just in case, Roan used Detection again, but Detection was different from a bat's ultrasonic waves.
It could keenly pick up the presence of moving life forms, but grasping the cave's structure was impossible.
If there had been even insects, they might have led the way out, but it was midwinter. There were no living creatures.
Around the time Roan was looking at the cub carcasses in the stone gap and wondering whether they could substitute for food, Rauka spoke.
"This was why I was driven out."
"Hm?"
"There was never a stupid forest elf who used explosion magic."
"...Ah."
Thinking about it, it made sense.
Forest elves were a race that protected the forest, including the Dark Forest.
They mainly used water and wind magic to minimize damage to the forest.
"Do you normally not learn elemental magic related to fire?"
"Yeah. I learned it from a human."
"Why...?"
"I thought maybe it'd be okay if I didn't live as a forest elf anymore."
Roan frowned slightly.
"...Had you made up your mind to live among humans entirely?"
"Yeah. For a while."
Rauka said that and looked around. She gathered some twigs fallen on the cave floor and produced a small flame.
Smoke began to rise.
Because it was just small twigs and leaves, they could not expect warmth from the fire, but it was enough to discern the flow of air.
Rauka looked in the direction the smoke had disappeared.
"Looks like there's a place that's open to the outside."
Roan focused, sharpening his eyesight, and looked in that direction.
There wasn't enough light to determine the hole's shape or size.
"What if we shot a spell through there?"
"Ah, there's a method like that. I still have enough mana, so it should be fine."
Rauka sent up a small Light sphere. Following the smoke, the Light bobbed gently upward, continuing to float toward the narrow ceiling that was a good four or five meters high at least.
The sphere, which had squeezed up through the crack nearly ten meters long, disappeared.
"It might not be as deep as we thought."
"Right. Digging through the stone from inside would be too much for us... But I'll keep the Light floating so someone outside can find us. It might be easier to spot once it's night."
Rauka spoke in a bright voice and fixed the Light sphere to the cave ceiling.
Thanks to that, the cave interior grew faintly brighter.
Perhaps feeling a little better, Rauka laughed self-deprecatingly and opened up about her inner thoughts.
"In the end, just because I could do things like explosion magic, I was shunned as a devil and driven out. I told myself to give up on a normal forest elf life."
Rauka pulled her cloak closer, perhaps beginning to feel a chill.
"But even so, coming here brought back a lot of old memories. Why do I still miss them?"
"...It's natural to miss your family. Aina."
At Roan's words, Rauka's eyes went round.
Because it was an un-demon-like remark.
"How could you easily detach your heart from those you grew attached to since childhood?"
"...That's unexpected."
"Because I have people like that too."
"Even you, Your Majesty?"
Rauka looked at Roan with a surprised expression.
Roan's voice sounded a little lonely. He was thinking of the family he had in his original reality.
"Mm... Even ones who are completely useless... Or even those who hate me."
The firelight shone on Roan's eyelashes as he closed his eyes slightly.
His already long lashes looked even longer because of the shadows, making his wistful expression dramatic. Rauka was staring blankly at his face as if entranced.
"When something difficult happens, you think of them without realizing it. When you're sick, or when you're lonely. What can you do? That's what people are."
Roan's laugh was a little bitter.
"We're creatures who can't live alone. That's what I think."
"...Even me, a forest elf?"
"If you're a creature who feels longing, isn't everyone like that?"
Roan looked at the dying flames.
"In the end, you have to be with someone."
"..."
Rauka was chewing over Roan's words with a complicated expression.
Forest elves wander the forest alone their whole lives.
If they had a life partner, they would travel the continent's forests together, but Rauka had never had that chance.
In the end, she,
she who could not endure the solitude that a forest elf ought to accept.
Was she already disqualified as a forest elf?
Rauka looked up at the cave ceiling uneasily, the question rising in her mind.
The fire died down, and Roan once again layered the Blessing of the Stars to cast a warming spell.
It was the last warming spell he could activate with his mana. The mana was being steadily sucked away by the crystal and dwindling, and in Roan's case, with his limited mana reserves, he was already nearing empty.
Fortunately, the crystal in this mine did not affect holy power.
But the spells he knew how to use with holy power were only three: Starlight, Blessing of the Stars, and Star Cloud Shield.
If I'd known this would happen, I should have learned this and that from Helen. I would have to remember when we got back.
"Aina. Are you all right?"
With a slightly regretful feeling, Roan asked after Rauka's condition; she had become visibly more haggard than at the start.
"How is your mana?"
"I can still hold out for about half."
Rauka's voice as she said that seemed to feign confidence.
About twenty hours had passed since they'd been trapped in the cave.
Anxiety crept quietly into Roan's mind.
Before coming to the forest, he had relayed this location to the Lord of the West Blood Territory.
If the emperor had not returned in twenty hours,
there would have been more than enough time to begin a search.
However, even with Light and Starlight active, he could hardly sense any sign of people.
'What could be going on?'
There might even be a clash with the forest elves.
But knowing the Lord of the West Blood Territory's character, he would come here even if it meant waging war against them.
'There must be a reason. They'll come soon.'
"What time... is it now?"
"About twenty hours have passed. It's morning now."
"...How do you know?"
"Let's just say I can tell."
He could not say that the long-term quest clock was still ticking. Rauka chuckled softly.
"Your Majesty has so many secrets."
"Because I'm the emperor."
"So it's been almost a day..."
Rauka's voice faded.
She had been sparing her words to hide her anxiety.
"...Not knowing night from day..."
She swallowed her words.
The word she could not finish was 'scary'.
Through Attentive Hearing, Roan fully sensed her fear. And so he wanted to encourage her somehow.
With the Blessing of the Stars cast on himself, Roan summoned Starlight.
A warmer and more radiant light than usual rose from Roan's hand and drifted toward Rauka.
Rauka, catching his light in her hands, smiled. It was the first smile she had shown since being trapped here.
"Your Majesty's magic is truly beautiful."
Sitting with both knees drawn up, Rauka stared at the Starlight cupped in her hands.
"Warm and gentle. Like divine magic."
As she gazed at the Starlight, Rauka's pupils suddenly widened.
"...Huh?"
Seeing Rauka's expression, Roan looked around and soon realized what she had seen that startled her.
"...This is."
At least one worry was gone.
It seemed they no longer had to worry about not finding the crystal or not being able to mine it.