Encounter (1)
Encounter (1)
Idle thoughts did drift through my mind. Could this device truly heal only wounds? If someone afflicted with an incurable disease were brought near it, would it cure that illness as well?
...... Worthless thoughts like that crossed my mind, but one thing bothered me more than anything else.
I could accept that this device lacked a shop function or a forge function. If it sold goods, who would collect the money? And even if it could upgrade a weapon, the process would take anywhere from a few hours to several days at minimum, and no one could simply stand here motionless waiting for it.
There was, however, another matter that nagged at me considerably more.
In the game, recovery devices installed at intervals throughout the dungeon also served as waypoints to prevent players from getting lost. Although the game was usually designed so that simply continuing forward led to the destination, there were still plenty of players who wandered endlessly through the more labyrinthine dungeons of the later stages.
That was why this waypoint system had been introduced, based on the most recent setting in the series.
Recovery devices began in an inactive state and only activated once the player approached them.
Once activated, they remained lit and operational until the dungeon was cleared.
The mere fact that a recovery device was glowing signaled: "This path has already been traveled."
Honestly, I was not sure anyone could lose their way badly enough to wander a dungeon when the game so generously provided a minimap.
Was this another detail that had changed now that the game had become reality? Could I assume that this recovery device had been running continuously for thousands of years?
If that was not the case...
Then it meant someone had already passed through here.
I looked at the door leading into the boss room.
It was a massive stone door designed to open from the center.
In the original story, it had never been locked. It had been programmed to open automatically when the player approached within a certain range. The game never explained the principle behind it.
Probably magic.
"Are you ready?"
I turned around as I spoke.
Claire, who had been inspecting the dungeon interior with fascination, and Alice and Leo, who had been studying the recovery device intently, all looked at me.
The same went for Bella, who had been leaning against the ruin wall as if entirely uninterested. At some point, she must have returned the Divine Treasure she had been holding to her bag. Light from the Divine Treasure leaked continuously from the bag, but the glow pouring from the recovery device was so intense that it hardly showed.
"This appears to be the innermost chamber. If the ancients who built these ruins wished to protect them—"
"...... Beyond that door, there is certainly a very powerful security mechanism... or a guardian."
Alice remarked, casting another glance at the recovery device.
I nodded.
Whether someone had passed through and reactivated it or it had simply kept running since time immemorial, one fact remained unchanged: its durability was so immense that it could still function flawlessly after an unfathomable span of years.
Nor was it only this device. The condition in which these ruins had been preserved, and the fact that the perception-inhibiting spell laid over them still operated—
It was proof. Proof that a civilization incomparably more powerful than ours had existed long before the Empire.
Seeing me check the condition of my firearm once more, the other three examined their own weapons as well. All three used swords, but their styles differed. Alice wielded a greatsword with a blade broad enough to serve as a shield, while Leo's and Claire's weapons were thinner and sized so they could be wielded in one hand.
Even though both practiced the Grace school of swordsmanship, Leo and Claire differed in how they deployed sword energy. If one had to categorize, Leo's approach was direct, while Claire's leaned somewhat toward the tricky side.
Still, the fact remained that all three fought with blades.
...... One might have argued that I ought to enter last, but considering the shotgun I carried, that did not necessarily follow. It was not the type of magic that could be precisely controlled, and if I fired from the rear, the three of them could get caught in the blast.
Bella's swordsmanship was completely different from the others'. It was still a sword, but judged purely by engagement distance, it approximated mid-range combat. Entrusting the rear to Bella would pose no great problem.
Well. If something went wrong, I could simply rewind time.
"Are you all ready?"
When I asked, everyone nodded. I watched all three grip their swords firmly with both hands, then slowly approached the door.
And the moment I placed my hand upon it—
"Oh."
A soft exclamation came from behind me.
From where my hand touched, light spread outward. It ran in geometric lines resembling circuitry on a computer board, but it did not travel far before vanishing an instant later.
Still, that brief illumination made one thing certain. It was performing a function.
Before long, the door groaned lowly and scraped against the ground as it slid open sideways.
A faint vibration traveled through the floor, and a little sand sifted from the ceiling. Just as I wondered whether the chamber might collapse, the door slammed fully open with a deep boom.
And beyond it, brightly lit, I saw the interior.
Having encountered slimes throughout our passage through the dungeon, I had assumed the boss beyond would undoubtedly also be a slime.
That assumption was, in a sense, correct. The floor was wet and sticky, covered in something that looked much like the melted remains of the slime Lena had fought earlier.
Yes. Remains.
"......A person?"
Inside that chamber, where the floor was soaked and tacky, a person stood.
No, to be precise, people stood there.
"Huh. Well."
Bella murmured.
"...... Father......?"
The voice that came after was Alice's.
"...... Father? Alice's father?"
I heard Claire's startled voice, and—
"Then that means......."
I heard Leo mutter in astonishment.
"Hm."
At the deepest point of the dungeon, facing off against another person, stood a man whose head rose more than a full span above my own and whose shoulders were broad. Even here, his gleaming golden hair remained immaculately groomed, parted neatly to either side.
He had not shaved his beard entirely clean, yet the way it followed his jawline, closely trimmed, gave an impression of scrupulous neatness.
His appearance seemed somewhat youthful, but not in a way that felt frivolous. Rather, his blue eyes, which gave away nothing of his thoughts, rested so coolly that he radiated the air of a deeply serious man.
"I went to some trouble to surprise my daughters, but as it happens, these uninvited guests mean I cannot even give them a proper welcome."
Even faced with an enemy bearing such an unsettling presence, the Emperor spoke with deliberate cheer.
"Y-Y-Y-Your... M-M-Maj......"
Leo made the same sound over and over like a phonograph stuck on a scratched record, before—
"Your Majesty?!"
A reaction that would surely have drawn a reprimand for insolence had it occurred at the imperial palace.
However, His Imperial Majesty carried himself as though such concerns were utterly beneath him.
"A child of House Grace. This is the first time I have seen your face in person."
The Emperor's manner as he spoke was, in fact, almost disarmingly casual.
Light seeped from within his crimson coat, which meant he had evidently brought the Empire's Divine Treasure as well.
"...... You left the enemies intentionally, Your Majesty."
"Had I left signs that I had passed, you would not have been so splendidly surprised."
The Emperor laughed, as if he could read from my expression that I had been taken aback.
"......."
"We can exchange pleasantries shortly."
At the Emperor's words, I heard Leo's breath catch. Truly, being born a noble was never simply a matter of ease.
Well. Being born into a properly established noble house was still far better than bearing a tenuous, intermediate bloodline.
Even as such idle thoughts ran through my head, I leveled my shotgun, its chamber loaded, directly at the opponent.
The figure the Emperor confronted...... I could not determine her age. But judging by her build, she did not seem male. Unless she had deliberately dressed as a woman, this person was unmistakably female.
A white mask with nothing painted on it, pierced only by two black eyeholes. A black hood that descended from behind the mask.
The hood extended into the robe that draped below it. At a glance, it resembled the garb worn by that famous lightsaber-wielding knightly order from the space opera franchise, though the hem was heavily frayed.
The line from her shoulders down to her pelvis was slender. The chest, even beneath the robe, projected forward enough that one look left no doubt she was a woman.
The opponent neither made a sound of breathing nor moved at all. She simply stood there in silence.
One hand held a sword. Like the one the Emperor gripped, and like the blade Alice wielded with both hands, it was a long double-edged sword. With chips missing here and there, it appeared to be considerably aged.
"......."
Looking at someone who showed no agitation even before the Emperor of the Empire, I wondered.
Who was she?