The Threshold's First Night
The first floor.
"Yes! I got it! I got it crystal clear!"
"Huh? Well, go ahead and introduce yourself."
"Me? I'm Ned. My rank is Regular... my position is vanguard... my age is..."
"Stop there."
What if left alone, it would spill out the whole three sizes.
I get why he wants to live. But if that's the case, he shouldn't have picked a fight from the very beginning.
"You guys among the newbie hunters, any half-elf?"
"Huh? N-No, there wasn't!"
"Really? Lying's boring."
"I-I really wasn't!"
It really wasn't, apparently.
Good.
With Leaf's skill level, wouldn't these guys have been caught easily?
And this quartet of newbie hunters were all Regular-rank, but their leader was at least the minimum for Senior.
They must have noticed Mea as a demonologist and tried to ambush her, but even an ambush couldn't easily take down a Senior.
"Alright. Got it. Then..."
"Just a moment."
My attention shifted from the prepared magic arrow to Mea, who had walked up beside me.
Mea squatted down right there and locked eyes with the inspector.
"I thought it was strange. You don't look like ordinary newbie hunters."
"Y-Yes...?"
"The supplies you carry are way too good for newbie hunters."
Mmm.
Mea took a spoonful of the soup I made and slurped it up.
"Newbie hunters couldn't even afford this level of supplies. You were heading out on an expedition, right?"
As expected, a veteran.
Nedd's eyes shook violently with Mea's questioning.
A secret he hadn't even said while facing death.
Even if he had fallen to the level of a newbie hunter, a corner of his heart still held the explorer's mind that cherished mystery and the unknown.
"Tell me."
"...Then you'll let us live?"
"Well..."
Mea didn't seem to have any intention of letting them live at all.
A life for a life.
The conclusion of those who couldn't follow the Abyss's unwritten law and gave out half-hearted sympathy was mostly bad.
The unwritten law was a rule carved into flesh.
"In exchange, I'll release your souls."
"...Huh."
A transaction possible only for a demonologist.
Although only an extremely few demonologists could arbitrarily control others' souls, what did they know?
The class of demonologists was already the smallest, and all sorts of rumors clung to it.
If a holy mage said such a thing, I might think it impossible in my head, but my heart would still feel fear.
The guy had to accept the condition, but he was buried deep in the conflict between uncertain fear and the gamble of survival.
"If you're trustworthy enough after hearing, I won't kill you."
"...Really?"
"I'll hand you over to the guard unit. If you're lucky, I'll save your lives."
Although execution is almost confirmed, if I plead desperately that I was only a minor, it might end with me becoming a slave.
I deliberately averted my gaze from the look Mea was giving me and kept staring only at Ned.
In a kind of good-cop-bad-cop operation, Ned eventually chose the good-cop's words.
"...A while ago. By chance, I acquired one piece of information. There's an uncharted relic."
Magic scholars speculate that the Abyss's structure is an inverted cone.
In other words, the first floor is the widest, and it narrows as you go deeper.
More than a hundred years had passed since the Abyss appeared, yet the Abyss still held many unexplored lands.
The first floor was no different.
Explorers had gone on adventures for new discoveries beyond verified routes, but the map of the first floor was still incomplete.
So, there was no lack of credibility in the claim of an uncharted relic.
Ned spilled out how they had obtained the information and where the estimated location was.
It wasn't particularly impressive information.
The hole-pocked information only roughly estimated the area and couldn't pinpoint the exact location, and it didn't even predict what kind of relic or monsters would be there.
But it was certain that it existed.
Ned said confidently.
"Later, we'll get information from the other side too. At the base, I can even tell you where we got the information."
I separated Ned and had the other three confirm their statements again, but everyone said the same thing.
It wasn't Ned's pre-made nonsense...
"What are you going to do?"
Mea asked bluntly.
She probably still didn't like that I had stopped her from immediately disposing of them.
Several elements were missing from her question, but the meaning was clear enough.
"May I decide?"
"Originally the leader would decide, but this case is special."
Uncharted relics.
A lifelong aspiration that even dying explorers wouldn't give up on.
"It seems worthwhile to check."
Mea nodded obediently.
Although I'm an intern, it's still the first floor.
With Mea, a Senior-rank explorer, joining, we could overcome almost any crisis.
"In exchange, the base comes first. The slightest suspicion, and you're gone."
"I understand."
The first night I spent in the Abyss was with four uninvited guests.
§
After cleaning up the dinner (for the former newbie hunters, present hostages, and future corpses or slaves), Mea and I discussed how to spend the night.
It was more like a briefing from Mea than an actual discussion.
"Watch duty is mine. You sleep."
"Alone? Even so, that seems a bit..."
I was the one who had created this situation.
Mea had wanted to kill the four right away and leave.
I had insisted on interrogating them and taking them to the base.
So, watching them was my role, not Mea's.
"I'll take the watch duty. Mea should sleep."
Honestly, even if those four rose up in rebellion at once, we'd win for sure now.
It was already over since I had infused Leraje's power.
A bit ambiguous about the holy mage, but I could just use Blink if needed.
"...No. You sleep."
"I'm fine with it. If I take the watch duty, my face won't be saved."
"I don't sleep anyway. So don't worry and sleep. When you first come to the Abyss, you often have trouble managing fatigue because the air outside is different."
"Because my body's so tough."
If I went like this, you'd fall asleep, no, you'd keep tugging the rope.
"How about taking turns?"
"Got it. But I'll take the first watch."
"Suit yourself."
Mea set her watch times and personally cast an alarm magic spell.
One of the five basic magic spells.
It was structured to sound a loud alarm if a certain condition was met.
After placing the alarm on the cage they had made themselves, Mea let out a satisfied "Hmph" and returned to her place.
Then, she created light with a glow magic spell in the temporary shelter, took out her notebook, and began writing something diligently.
"Are you writing an explorer record?"
"...Similar."
"Can I see it?"
"There won't be any fun in it."
"But isn't studying supposed to be fun?"
I handed Mea's notebook over to her over my shoulder.
Since Mea was so petite, without even needing to stick her head out, the notebook was fully visible just by sitting behind her.
The content of the notebook was, as she had said, simple.
When, where, with whom, what, how, and why.
The record of extracted six principles had started from the moment I met Mea today.
"Very meticulous. Do explorer records usually get written like this?"
"At the training center..."
"When I learned there, it wasn't to this extent. Theory and practice often differ a lot, that's why I'm asking."
"...I don't know either. I have no memory of seeing anyone else write it."
Mea wrote in a calligraphic font that looked somewhat like cursive, character by character.
After finishing all the records, Mea closed the notebook with a thud and only glanced up at me.
"It's done. Sleep now."
"Wake me on time."
Well, I had also prepared the alarm magic, so I'd wake up on my own.
§
"...Didn't wake me."
"I did. Once."
"You even removed the alarm magic."
"...I don't know."
It was a stubbornness that could be called strong-willed or a sense of mission.
In the end, Mea took the watch duty alone.
She even dismantled the alarm magic I had installed so I couldn't wake up.
"Thank you. But don't do that again next time. Do you know how shocked I was when I woke up and found the alarm magic dismantled?"
"...I don't know."
Anyway, next time I'll just take the first watch myself.
Mea walked forward with a silent tetetete step, speeding up.
How long had we walked?
Between lunch and dinner, we were somewhere.
We were facing a village.
The center of development for the first floor of the Abyss.
The only base camp directly managed from Res Limen.
The main base.
It was literally another city.
Half the size of Res Limen.
But it wasn't because the main base was small; it was because Res Limen was so enormously vast.
Standing before the main base, with its proper walls, Mea said to the four newbie hunters tied like rope.
"When you enter the base, you'll go straight to the guard unit. Before that, the source of the information."
"...There's an informant named Valen. He's called Hand Shadow."
"Hand Shadow Valen. I remember."
Or else die.
If already dead, steal the soul; if a slave, take the life.
Mea must have sounded that way to everyone.
We entered the main base as is and headed straight to the guard unit.
§
Main base.
Guard unit.
There was a particularly noisy place there.
"No! I mean! We were ambushed! Captain, you know Ned, right? Ned. Huh? We did hand over newbie hunters before, but have we ever committed a crime? Haven't we sold moonstones and once skimmed taxes? You know, right?"
"Yes! We were sleeping when attacked! But blaming us for newbie hunters...?"
"Here, look at this! It's because of the devil's poisonous curse!"
"Those who sell their souls to demons. How can we believe what these guys say?"
The voices came right in front of us.
The four newbie hunters were pouring out their grievances to their familiar captain.
Ha, these brats have forgotten their manners.
Repaying the grace of saving their lives with a slap?
[It's unforgivable even if I want to forgive it.]
[Kill them.]
Yes, yes, devil-nim.
I'm not the kind of contractor who says "I'll kill them" and is scolded for it.
'I have to pay back properly.'
So, how do I deal with these guys.
Without using force, logically refute their claims and add deception?
2 vs 4.
The other side included a holy mage, who is the demonologist's natural counter.
And on top of that, I was a temporary explorer I hadn't even been given an apprentice seal.
Of course, they wouldn't have been in a more rational position than just trying to capture newbie hunters.
'The problem is that these guys and the guard captain seem to have some kind of acquaintance.'
I could just release them here and kidnap them separately for proper education later.
Pretend to agree and then ambush them from behind.
If I used Blink, what would those guys do to stop me?
A plan was forming in my mind, with countless ways to torment the guys under the demon consultation and had passed through verification as one complete plan.
But the plan wasn't used.
A faster and surer way had come here by foot.
"Roman? What brings you here?"
A refreshing voice full of the kind of happiness anyone could feel.
Among the people who could welcome me like this, if there's someone I'd meet in the guard unit, there's only one.
"Ah, Fiona-sensei."
Come on, Grand Duchess.
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