A Desperate Gamble in the Dark
“Aigoo, my head…”
I don’t know how many hours I’d been unconscious, but I sat up, clutching my throbbing skull. In any normal case, falling from that height should have turned my body into a bloody pulp. But thanks to Marine displaying some quick thinking and deploying a barrier right before impact, I had survived.
“Ugh.”
Still, the impact hadn’t been completely nullified. Blood trickled from the corner of my mouth. It felt like my internal organs had been thoroughly shaken up. Fortunately, the internal bleeding didn’t seem severe enough to produce massive amounts of blood, but I doubted I could hold on for very long.
Even at the fastest, rescue will probably take several hours…
I had no medical knowledge, but I was certain that if I just sat here waiting for help, I’d be dead long before any rescue team arrived.
I wonder if Marine is okay.
Marine was still unconscious with her eyes closed. Since even someone as frail as me had survived, there was no way Marine—who was far physically stronger—had died. Still, I was worried about the extent of her injuries.
Her legs had better be fine…
“Ugh.”
I barely managed to hold back another surge of blood threatening to come up.
“My lady. My lady.”
I grabbed Marine’s shoulders and shook her. Thankfully, there were no visible external wounds. “My lady, please wake up…”
No matter how hard I shook her, Marine wouldn’t wake. A sudden wave of dread hit me—what if she’s actually dead?
“Please… please…”
Enduring the stabbing pain that felt like needles piercing my insides, I called out to her desperately.
“Mmm…”
“My lady!”
Had my earnest plea reached her? Marine slowly began to open her eyes. I let out a sigh of relief.
“Where… are we?”
Marine looked around with wide eyes.
“Ah…”
She must have remembered the final moments, because her expression hardened.
“Yes, it seems we’ve fallen into a secret ruin.”
Even though I had predicted an accident would happen, I couldn’t help resenting my past self for letting my guard down at the very end. At least I’d swallowed my embarrassment and made us wear matching rings. If I hadn’t had the ring, I would already be dead.
When I get out of here alive, I’ll have to thank the Magic Tower Master…
It was possible this entire incident had been caused by some cliché tied to the ring, but regardless, that ring had saved both our lives. Expressing gratitude was only natural. Assuming, of course, that I actually made it out alive.
“S… sorry… It’s my fault for pressing something weird…”
Tears welled up in Marine’s eyes and her voice trembled. I gently stroked her hair.
“My lady, now isn’t the time for self-blame. Shouldn’t escaping come first?”
I wiped her tear- and snot-streaked face with a handkerchief. Marine clenched her fists as if making a firm resolution.
“I will definitely protect Hendel!”
“Thank you.”
True to her Sword Master bloodline, even at the young age of eight, Marine possessed incredible martial talent. The knight commander had declared that in her current state, she could defeat most active-duty knights. Still, I couldn’t get my hopes up too high. No matter how much of a genius she was, she was only eight years old. Overcoming the physical limitations of an eight-year-old body was incredibly difficult. She couldn’t even manifest sword aura—the foundation of knighthood—because her mana core was still too small.
Having firmly resolved to protect me, Marine picked up a random stick from the ground, gripped it tightly, and took the lead with a determined look in her eyes.
“Hendel, just follow me.”
I nodded silently. If I spoke and ended up coughing up blood, it would only worry her more, so I decided to keep my words to a minimum.
Thankfully, this underground ruin didn’t have the branching paths typical of most ruins that forced you to make choices. There was only one path forward, so we didn’t have to worry about getting lost. The problem was that the interior was pitch black. Ideally, we should have adapted our eyes to the darkness without using mana, but this place was an absolute void with not a single ray of light.
I secretly coughed up blood where Marine couldn’t see, then chanted a spell.
“Light.”
It was a first-circle light spell. My proficiency wasn’t very high yet, so the brightness was weak, but it was still enough to illuminate the narrow passage.
“What the…”
As the light revealed the passage, countless human skeletons littered the ground. Their empty eye sockets seemed to warn that we would soon share the same fate. I swallowed hard and glanced at Marine.
“…”
Marine’s expression looked queasy, but fortunately she didn’t seem too shaken by it.
Crunch. Crunch.
As we walked, the endless trail of bones showed just how ancient this ruin truly was.
“Ugh.”
“Hendel, are you okay?”
“I… I’m fine… The skeletons are just making my stomach a little upset.”
With internal bleeding already present, moving around without any emergency treatment was making the cycles of blood surging up from within me come faster and faster.
I can’t hold on any longer.
I had been conserving my mana in case we ran into enemies and I needed to use magic, but my body was reaching its limit. With no other choice, I closed my eyes and moved my mana exactly as I’d read in the books.
Mages could perform miracles normally impossible for a short time by forcing their mana into a rampage, even at the risk of destroying their own mana circuits. I began forcing my mana into overdrive while walking so Marine wouldn’t notice anything strange.
“Huu…”
The mana rampaged wildly through my body, bringing an unprecedented wave of agony. Cold sweat poured down my face as I bit down on my sleeve to stop myself from groaning.
This secret technique was normally only possible for mages who had surpassed a certain level of mana manipulation, but deep down I was confident I could do it. During the successor classes while learning magic, I had realized that while I had no talent for the sword like Marine, I possessed considerable talent for magic.
There were three crucial elements for a mage: mana capacity, imagination, and concentration. I possessed all three. My absolute mana volume was unmatched by anyone my age. My imagination overflowed thanks to the experiences from my time on Earth. And my concentration surpassed that of ordinary people, even by my own assessment.
The damaged organs are the small intestine and spleen, I think.
It was a miracle my heart was still intact. Sweating profusely, I guided the flows of mana. Following my will, the mana sluggishly moved and began wrapping around the bleeding areas.
“Ugh…”
The immense pain from the mana covering the wounds made me cry out involuntarily, but fortunately Marine was too focused on watching our surroundings to notice. My mana continued to sluggishly move and cling tightly to the injured areas.
“Huu…”
Once the complicated procedure was complete, I let out a sigh of relief. With this measure, I should be able to hold on for another two hours or so. Even if I made it out alive, repairing my damaged mana circuits wouldn’t be easy in a short time.
“This is…”
About thirty minutes after entering, the same door with the mural we had seen earlier appeared.
“Should I do it like before?”
Marine looked at me with an anxious face. She probably knew there was no other way now that we’d come this far, but the memory of what happened last time made her seek my permission anyway. I gave a small nod.
“Then I’ll open it?”
Marine swallowed hard and placed her hand on the magic circle.
The ancient mechanism awakens once more.
⟨ RUIN ACTIVATION ⟩
Rumble rumble rumble.
The moment Marine placed her hand on the magic circle like before, the entire ruin began to shake violently.
“Uwek…”
My concentration broke for a split second from the shaking, and I vomited blood.
“Huh…? Hendel, what’s wrong?”
Marine froze in shock at the sight of me coughing up blood.
“I’m really okay.”
“Liar!”
Marine rushed over with a deathly pale face, her hands trembling violently as panic set in. “We need… we need help…”
It hurt like hell, but if I lost my composure here, Marine would be in even greater danger.
“Hic… Hendel, don’t dieee…”
Now Marine was crying openly, tears streaming down her face. Even as my consciousness began to fade, I fought to stay lucid and placed a hand on her shoulder.
“My lady… My lady, you must stay calm…”
I tried to speak as calmly as possible, but perhaps because of the blood loss, my words came out slurred.
“Hwaaaang…”
“My lady… I… I really hope you survive.”
Half-instinctively, I transferred my mana to Marine through the ring and even handed the ring itself over to her. If I lost consciousness like this, there was probably no chance I would ever wake up again. I grabbed both of Marine’s hands as she continued to cry and left my final words.
“My lady… please be happy… It was fun… spending time with you.”
“Hwaaaang…”
Isn’t this a pretty cool way to die?